Chapter 51, The Hidden Chamber

Translator: StarReader

 

Su Chen explored the four walls. His extraordinary perception penetrated at least one or two feet into each wall, seeing clearly into their interiors.

 

To his astonishment, one of the walls contained a small hidden chamber. But how was he going to open it?

 

Su Chen’s perception spread along the inner surfaces of the walls, searching carefully in all directions.

 

He discovered a rotating mechanism behind the wall, connected by an iron chain to a fixed candleholder in the corner of the room.

 

“Ah, so the switch is here!” Su Chen whispered to himself, rushing over to the candleholder.

 

The ornate candleholder was covered in dust. It could be rotated, and when turned to a specific position, it would reveal the hidden chamber. The dust made it easy to leave fingerprints.

 

Su Chen carefully wrapped his hand in a cloth before grasping the candle stand. His extraordinary perception allowed him to tap into its inner workings.

 

He quickly understood its intricate mechanism—a complex helical structure resembling an armillary sphere, capable of rotating left and right. The device featured gears, axles, hooks, connecting rods, braking mechanisms, and locking devices, all part of a highly precise system that was nothing short of remarkable.

 

Each rotation had specific markings, and the candleholder could only be opened when turned to a particular mark. Even if an ordinary person knew it was a mechanism meant to open a hidden chamber, they would still be utterly clueless on how to proceed.

 

Since they had no idea how the mechanism was designed or how to operate it to open it, even making a wrong move could prevent them from succeeding.

 

Even for a skilled individual, without at least half an hour, it would be impossible to crack it.

 

But this posed no challenge to Su Chen.

 

Using his perception, he inspected the mechanism and discovered old traces left by previous movements. He manipulated the handle by turning it counterclockwise three-and-a-half increments, then clockwise one-and-a-half turns. With that, he pressed down on the candleholder.

 

“Click!”

 

The wall of the secret room silently opened up.

 

The exterior of this secret room appeared to be made of blue stone, but inside it was lined with a hard cast iron plate—something that couldn’t be forced open by brute strength from the outside.

 

Su Chen was overjoyed as he cautiously entered the secret room. The chamber wasn’t large, roughly spanning a few dozen square feet. After carefully inspecting it for any dangerous traps or mechanisms, he finally stepped inside.

 

The floor was lined with ten hefty bronze treasure boxes, some so full that their lids were left open. When Su Chen opened these chests, he was stunned. Each box was filled to the brim with gleaming gold ingots, dazzling jewels, and a colorful array of jade, agate, pearls, and night pearls. He tried lifting one of the heavier boxes, but it didn’t budge, even with him exerting his full strength as a second-rate martial artist.

 

Each chest alone had to hold tens of thousands of gold taels. What did an entire room filled with ten chests of such treasures mean?

 

[Even the wealthy Five Major Groups of the Wu Region might not be this rich.]

 

“Wow, so much gold!” Su Chen swallowed hard, his head spinning. He’d never seen anything like this. The unimaginable amount of treasure left him speechless, eyes wide with disbelief.

 

His whole life had been spent dealing with small change, copper coins at best. The most he’d ever carried was a few silver taels, not even a single ingot of gold. But here, in these ten chests, just one piece of gold weighing ten taels would have been more than he’d ever seen in his entire life.

 

Each chest also contained a thick ledger. Su Chen thought they must be Qinghe Taoist and Ding Shisan’s share of the loot, so he eagerly picked one up to flip through it. What he found inside left him deeply disappointed. The ledgers meticulously recorded donations from pilgrims and devotees, converted into gold, silver, and jewels, stockpiled here.

 

“These… these massive riches—are they all donations from followers of the Han Mountain Daoist Temple?!”

 

Su Chen’s mind couldn’t process it all. However, the Han Mountain Daoist Temple had an overwhelming number of pilgrims and followers daily, with a constant stream of incense money flowing in. With few Daoists, they were undoubtedly rolling in wealth. If these treasure boxes contained gold and silver amassed by the temple over dozens or even hundreds of years, it wouldn’t be surprising. Su Chen picked up an ingot worth ten taels of gold, feeling its hefty weight in his hand.

 

The jewelry and coins were so heavy that even a small bag would weigh hundreds of kilograms. Each box held countless ingots—literally thousands of taels of gold. They were impossible to carry away. If he tried to stuff a bag into his pocket, he’d likely be caught before he could even leave the Han Mountain Daoist Temple.

 

Su Chen thought it over—the risks and dangers of sneaking into this place weren’t worth it for such treasures. He continued searching through the secret room, looking for something more valuable.

 

As he brushed against one wall, his perception seeping into it, he was astonished to find a tiny hidden cabinet within. The secret compartment was hidden perfectly, matching the color of the wall bricks, making it impossible to detect from the outside unless one individually checked each brick to hear the hollow echo.

 

Su Chen hurriedly pulled out the secret compartment.

 

Inside the compartment, a blinding golden light flashed. He narrowed his eyes and raised his hand to shield them. When he looked again, he discovered that within the compartment lay a brilliant and golden jade slip filled with vibrant energy.

 

His expression shifted to one of astonishment as he carefully picked it up. Despite its relatively small size, the jade slip bundle felt unusually heavy in his hand, likely weighing at least five kilograms.

 

This set of jade slip books consisted of eighteen slips, each half a foot long and two inches wide. They were meticulously bound together with strands of expensive gold thread, forming what looked like an ancient scroll of jade slips.

 

Each individual jade slip was adorned with gilded edges and had a lustrous sheen, flawless in every way—a clear indication that they were crafted from the finest jade.

 

Su Chen was startled. He had never seen such a precious item before—a scroll made from top-tier jade, crafted into what appeared to be a book. But this jade slip scroll held no words on it whatsoever, and it was unclear what its purpose could be.

 

“Hmm, what is this jade slip supposed to be? It looks like a scroll, but there’s no title or indication of its use.”

 

Su Chen felt a pang of suspicion. The jade was undoubtedly of the finest quality, yet it wasn’t placed amidst the ten chests filled with precious gold and silver jewelry, along with beautiful jade pendants. Why would such an item require separate storage, as if it were something to be feared being discovered?

 

If a thief had stumbled upon this secret room, they’d likely be too busy looting the chests of gold ingots and jewels to even notice—much less care about—the strange jade slip scroll hidden in the wall panel.

 

It was clear that the value of the jade slips far exceeded the treasures in those ten chests.

 

Su Chen smiled to himself, running his tongue over his lips as he considered the possibilities. “Definitely a precious item—lightweight and easy to carry. I’ll take this back for a thorough examination… Daoist Qinghe will be frantic with worry for losing something like this, perhaps even driven to desperation. If that old fraud gets himself killed by anger, it would save me a lot of trouble! Haha, what a stroke of luck!”

 

He wrapped the jade slips in cloth and slipped them into his inner pocket, securing them carefully before closing the hidden cabinet. He then proceeded to search every corner of the secret room meticulously. To his disappointment, there were no letters or items indicating any collusion between Daoist Qinghe and Ding Shisan—nothing that would reveal their dealings.

 

As he prepared to leave the secret chamber, a sudden thought struck him like a lightning bolt. This venture into the Han Mountain Daoist Temple under the cover of night had been preceded by a visit to a brothel, where he had indulged in the sound of the zither, spending his last two silver taels on entertainment. That expenditure left him penniless, reduced to the status of a broke and destitute laborer.

 

But upon further reflection, this did not sit right with him. He should not have been the one footing that particular bill!

 

He visited the brothel, but it was all in the name of justice—eliminating evildoers for the commonfolk. Since this expense had been incurred because of Daoist Qinghe, it made sense to claim reimbursement from him. He figured Qinghe was a reasonable man who would understand that even heroes needed funds to do good deeds. So he promptly took a few golden ingots worth ten taels each from a treasure box—a convenient size for breaking into smaller denominations, unlike jewels, which were hard to liquidate. He didn’t take more than necessary.

 

It wasn’t out of concern for sparing Daoist Qinghe the trouble of reimbursing him; it was purely because carrying too much gold would weigh him down and make his movements sluggish. Plus, having multiple ingots in his clothing could easily clink against each other, especially at night, and startle the Daoists on duty inside the temple.

 

Satisfied with his decision, Su Chen left the secret room, intending to search the main room for anything he might have missed.

 

At that moment, the sound of an outhouse door opening and the clatter of wooden shoes could be heard from about forty meters away. Su Chen was startled. In the blink of an eye, half a tea time had passed, and if Daoist Qinghe returned from the outhouse any moment now, Su Chen would be caught.

 

“I’ll stop my investigation here for now. If Daoist Qinghe hasn’t noticed anything missing, I’ll come back to this treasure room in a few months.”

 

Su Chen immediately darted out of the secret room and carefully turned the candleholder to close it, making sure not to raise any suspicion that would alert Daoist Qinghe to someone having entered his quarters.

 

He leapt out of the window and fled swiftly toward the gates of Han Mountain Daoist Temple, heading straight for Gusu County City’s Mist Terrace.

 

Su Chen was unsure whether Daoist Qinghe would notice someone had intruded into his quarters. But if he did and flew into a rage, given that the old Daoist possessed first-rate martial arts skills and exceptional agility, he would undoubtedly give chase at breakneck speed.

 

Su Chen knew he had no time to waste. He had to make a swift exit and head straight for safety in Gusu County City’s Mist Terrace.