Chapter 218: Skeleton Black Market, Faking a Product (5k)

To buy this kind of thing and actually use his own account to pay instead of cash—truly the unique naivety of a student. So silly and clueless. He couldn’t be bothered to argue with him anyway; the kid was local, so they could sort it out later.

After letting the young man go, Wen Yan continued browsing the forum, pointing to the account that had posted the bounty.

"Senior Brother Qin, can this person be traced?"

"Should be possible. You should ask a professional."

Wen Yan always felt that something was off. As soon as he read the post’s content, he knew what the other party was looking for.It was definitely the Jade Pendant that had been taken from He Changfeng.

Knowing it was a Jade Pendant and that it was wrapped in a Yellow Talisman wasn’t actually too difficult; Zhang Laoxi’s standard procedure for collecting Ghosts had always been this set routine. He just felt that even if the people from Changfeng Group wanted it, they should have gone through the proper channels. It was just like today when the museum director invited him to dinner and mentioned that people from Yu State were looking for him, not Zhang Laoxi. He knew then it was highly probable—an eight-out-of-ten chance—that they were from Changfeng Group. That was the proper channel. Posting a bounty and hiring someone to steal it was just too low-level. And they were only confirming its presence, not asking for it to be stolen, which made the request even stranger.

However, after thinking it over carefully, if someone really accepted the bounty and found the item, they would most likely not just take a glance and snap a photo. The end result would almost certainly be the thief not leaving empty-handed; they’d take it along. Only that newbie Thief, who had clearly just become a Thief not long ago, still naively believed they were only asked to look, not to actually take it.

After some thought, Wen Yan called Feng Yao in the middle of the night. Waiting for the next day might be too late.

Feng Yao, who was still with Cai Qidong, was dozing off groggily when the phone jolted him awake. He answered immediately.

"Feng Yao speaking, what’s up?"

"I need a favor. I’m afraid tomorrow might be too late."

"Oh, Wen Yan," Feng Yao said, only then realizing whose call it was. He glanced to the side; Cai Qidong had also been woken up. "Go on..."

Wen Yan briefly explained the situation. Feng Yao immediately opened his laptop, launched a piece of software with practiced ease, found the black market forum, and located the post Wen Yan mentioned.

In less than three minutes, he got back to Wen Yan.

"The post was made in Virtue City. The cellphone belongs to an ordinary person; moreover, he lost his phone yesterday and plans to get a new SIM card tomorrow. The phone’s last known location... was near the West River. According to what he himself said to someone on his computer, the West River’s water level must have suddenly risen at that time, even creating waves. He was fishing on the shore then. Believing the upstream flood discharge was heavy, he rushed to leave, and his phone dropped into the water."

At this point, Feng Yao couldn’t help but chuckle. "This guy has some serious misunderstandings about modern technology."

"Many ordinary people can’t keep up with the pace of change," Wen Yan replied. "How can you expect something from the water to keep up?"

He didn’t even need to verify it; it was definitely something from the water. Did it think it could hide things just because it didn’t use its own phone, and the phone’s original owner was going to get a replacement SIM the next day?

"Can you pinpoint where that phone is now?"

"It can’t be located."

"Okay, thanks. Go back to sleep. Are you still in Virtue City? How about lunch tomorrow?"

"No, I’m already in Duanzhou. Got lots of stuff to deal with."

"Then never mind. You’re busy."

After hanging up, Wen Yan scratched his head.

Something from the water, also looking for He Changfeng? It made sense when he thought about it. He Changfeng used to be a Water God in the Duanzhou region, so there were some connections. But the other party’s methods were indeed a bit hard to take. They probably didn’t expect their bounty to be taken up by a greenhorn.

Wen Yan didn’t bother with them for the time being and went back to sleep.

The next morning, while having breakfast, he saw Zhang Laoxi returning home in his car.

"Old Xi, where did you go yesterday? You didn’t come back all night?"

"Had an old customer. Their house was haunted and the kids got scared, so I went to take a look."

"Did you handle it?"

"Yeah, small issue, easy to solve."

"We had a thief at our place yesterday," Wen Yan recounted the incident.

Zhang Laoxi scratched his head after hearing about it. "So someone actually fell for my poison? It was almost expired; I only put it on the door because of that."

"Can you make a Jade Pendant for me, wrapped in a Yellow Talisman? It’d be best if the Jade Pendant has some Yin Qi and some other kind of aura on it, enough to pass for the real thing."

"Making it look real on the outside is easy enough," Zhang Laoxi said. "But I can’t produce a real Ghost, let alone one that looks like He Changfeng."

"No problem, as long as it looks real."

"That’s easy."

Zhang Laoxi led Wen Yan into a room filled with all kinds of strange items. After some incomprehensible tinkering, he handed Wen Yan a Jade Pendant.

It was cold to the touch, its color tinged with grayish-black. Once wrapped in a Yellow Talisman, the chilling sensation instantly dissipated.

At first glance, it indeed looked just like the real thing.

"I can’t put a real Ghost in this," Zhang Laoxi explained. "It can only emit some resentful energy and some Yin Qi."

"I understand; this is just perfect." Wen Yan grinned, took the item, and walked out.

Back at home, he took out the cellphone confiscated from the young Thief, logged into the forum, and quickly replied beneath the bounty post:

"Found it. There’s such an item."

He also attached a photo only the original poster could see.

After waiting a while, the original poster sent him a private message.

"Did you take the item away?!"

"I took it. That safe was covered in many Yellow Talismans and was particularly hard to open. Once I got it open, I definitely had to take the contents."

"Thirty Gold Coins!"

"Settle the initial bounty first."

A few seconds later, Wen Yan saw a notification: the Gold Coins for the bounty had been credited to his account.

He continued to reply to the other party:

"Seeing as you’re so straightforward, let’s say one hundred Gold Coins. I’ll give you a 20% discount, making it eighty Gold Coins. We can trade today. You have ten seconds to consider."

Wen Yan sent his reply, then turned and started drafting a new post, attaching the photo from before.

"Anyone want this item? Fixed price, eighty Gold Coins."

After finishing the post, the ten seconds were up, and without hesitation, he clicked "Publish."