Chapter 3845 — The Tale of the Spirit Jade Card

With so many eyes fixed on him, unless there was something wrong with his head, this Lin Er could not possibly continue to flaunt himself about the marketplace. And if he did not willingly show his face, digging him out would be no easy matter at all!

Seeing this, Yu Jiang ventured cautiously, "Martial Uncle, this disciple does not know the particulars of this Lin Er's background, but from what this disciple has learned, he seems to be acquainted with Hong Zhong, the manager of the Hong Merchant Guild in the marketplace's inner street. We ought to be able to pry something useful out of that man's mouth."

"Oh? Are you certain, Martial Nephew? This lone cultivator actually knows the manager of the Hong Merchant Guild? Then he is indeed no simple figure!" Nan Tianguan was slightly taken aback.

Unlike that hotheaded fool Nan Tianyong, who had been in seclusion these past years, Nan Tianguan knew perfectly well just what weight the words "Hong Merchant Guild" carried. That was a true behemoth; even a mere branch manager on North Island was no ordinary personage.

That a petty lone cultivator like Lin Er could actually be acquainted with the manager of the Hong Merchant Guild—in the eyes of a connoisseur like Nan Tianguan, this news was even more astonishing than the fact that the man had slain Nan Tianyong with a single great killing move!

Yu Jiang nodded in confirmation. "This disciple does not know how deep the friendship between the two runs, but by this disciple's reckoning, Hong Zhong seems to have recently given this Lin Er a Spirit Jade Card."

This conjecture was the conclusion Yu Jiang had reached after turning the matter over and over in his mind. Though it was somewhat grasping at shadows, the man had a nimble brain, and he had indeed guessed the truth of the matter.

And the basis for this deduction lay in the timing of his three successive encounters with Wei Zhao on the inner street.

On days when the inner street was not open to the public, only two kinds of people could come and go there freely: first, disciples of the Tri-Pagoda Pavilion whose status and strength met with the marketplace's approval; and second, honored guests bearing Spirit Jade Cards.

Though Yu Jiang had buried himself in the Library Pavilion for these three years, he had always kept a thorough mental register of the notable personages of the Tri-Pagoda Pavilion. At least, by his recollection, there had never been a fresh face named Lin Er among them—otherwise, with his photographic memory, he would surely have recognized the man on the very first occasion.

Since it was not the first possibility, only the second remained. This Lin Er had originally had no Spirit Jade Card—but for some reason, after buying the Star Ink Stone from the Hong Merchant Guild last time, he had suddenly come to possess one.

And so, quite naturally, Yu Jiang had arrived at this conjecture: Hong Zhong had given Lin Er a Spirit Jade Card!

Strange as the notion seemed, he knew that Lin Er possessed such things as top-grade Foundation Establishment Barrier-Breaking Pills, and merchants have always delighted in hoarding rare goods to drive up their price. That Hong Zhong, thinking highly of Lin Er, should give him a Spirit Jade Card was hardly difficult to understand.

"A Spirit Jade Card? How interesting. Even a figure of the Third Brother's caliber was not qualified to obtain one. If this seat recalls correctly, some days ago the fellow even went out of his way to borrow the leader's Spirit Jade Card?" Nan Tianguan asked with a cold laugh.

"Indeed. A Spirit Jade Card permits one to bring an additional person into the inner street. Without this card, we would not have run into Lin Er this time either," Yu Jiang said with a nod.

"Hmph! A good-for-nothing who could not even scrape together a Spirit Jade Card—living on, he would only bring shame upon our Nan Clan. By the way, Martial Nephew, did you search the leader's Spirit Jade Card off his corpse? If the leader returns and finds his card missing, he will fly into a rage!" Nan Tianguan said with a frown.

Across the five great islands of the Heavenly Tier, the Spirit Jade Card was the foremost proof of a person's status and standing. Even the mightiest of experts prized it exceedingly—and the leader of their Three Heroes of the Nan Clan was no exception.

At these words, Yu Jiang's heart tightened at once. The Spirit Jade Card that Nan Tianyong had borrowed from the leader was at this very moment clutched in his own hand, together with the various other treasures he had gathered from Nan Tianyong's corpse.

He knew well enough that without the holder's own true qi, a Spirit Jade Card was useless even in one's grasp—not a single coin of it could be touched, for using the card required the input of true qi and verification through the merchant guilds' joint formation!

Yet Yu Jiang had never been able to resist its temptation! The owner of this Spirit Jade Card was none other than the leader of the Three Heroes of the Nan Clan, and the number of spirit jades within was enough to dazzle the eyes of any cultivator—Yu Jiang being no exception.

Word had long circulated in the marketplace that so long as one could find someone on the inside of a top-tier merchant guild or merchant alliance to cooperate, there was a way to withdraw every last spirit jade from another person's card all the same.

So even knowing full well that keeping this Spirit Jade Card on his person was risky, Yu Jiang could not bear to throw it away. The spirit jades within that single card alone were worth as much as all the treasures he had searched off Nan Tianyong's body. These were the very props for his future rise to glory—how could he possibly throw them away?

"To report to Martial Uncle: at the time, Lin Er's great killing move was simply too shocking, and many of my master's belongings were lost. Afterward, a great crowd of onlookers from the nearby marketplace was drawn over, and this disciple, having no time to spare, could only seize my master's remains and flee. As for Eldest Martial Uncle's Spirit Jade Card, this disciple knows not who picked it up in the confusion." Though panic churned in Yu Jiang's heart, his face betrayed nothing as he answered without batting an eye.

There was truth and falsehood mixed in these words, and even a shrewd man like Nan Tianguan would find it hard to judge their veracity on the spot—unless he had suspected Yu Jiang from the very beginning and searched his person or his cave dwelling outright.

Unfortunately for that, though Nan Tianguan and Nan Tianyong had never gotten along, he did harbor a certain appreciation for Nan Tianyong's disciple, Yu Jiang.

With Nan Tianguan's discerning eye, it was easy to see that this lad Yu Jiang, properly cultivated, was the stuff of which great men were made. But in the past, being another's disciple, he could not well meddle, nor had he any interest in meddling, and so had never granted him any boon or guidance.