It was nearly morning judging from the hours that passed. The two still talked periodically after their conversation about intuition last night, and their mood improved. But they did not exchange a word in the last hour as Qian Lei wanted to give his grandfather some time to think.
Thus the room was completely devoid of any sounds whatsoever.
But then...
Qian Ying made an abrupt enthusiastic chuckle, "Heh! You know what? To hell with it! Letâs roll the dice! Suddenly, I am feeling lucky!"
"Oh no! Not that, donât say that. Dad told me you often told him the story of buying your arena, and apparently this was the phrase you said back then as well"
"You scallywag! I told you that it was a passion project! And whatâs wrong with my arena?"
"Where was your famed intuition when you made that decision?"
"You little rascal, I give you a..."
The lock of the door loudly unlocked, and the door swung open, as Wu Long entered, looking refreshed and in different clothes, suggesting he really went back to wherever he lived for the night instead of some smoky meeting room to plan and scheme.
This time there was clearly a little white fox on his shoulder, causing Qian Lei to exclaim, "I told you there was a fox! There it is!"
"Pipe down!", Zhao Xieren made a face saying âwhat are you, a madman?â, his tone more filled with concern for the young man than a reprimand, causing both the grandfather and grandson to show surprised looks.
"So, have you decided?", Wu Long asked.
"Yes, Iâll do it"
"Youâre sure? I told you, there wonât be a way back", Wu Long made a sincere tone.
"Yes, I also wanted to thank you for giving us this chance, and for sparing our lives, sincerely"
"Fufufu~, as expected... I told you, Old Man, not to question Wu Longâs judgement with your worries~", Fen Baihu turned to Zhao Xieren.
"Yes, I was the foolish one, Lady Fen Baihu", the latter lowered his head while inwardly screaming, âWhen did you tell me that?! I donât remember any such thing happening!â
"You made a good choice, friend! Truly a wise choice!", Kwon Qianhong who stood to the other side of Wu Long spoke with a wide grin, putting out a thumbs up.
His change in attitude toward them overnight caused both the grandfather and grandson to exchange bewildered glances.
"Heh, then we wonât be needing that", Wu Long raised his hand, a few complex patterns appearing above his fingers which he slightly moved, and the shackles on the old manâs arms and legs loudly opened, the complex patterns on the metallic spheres that glued his fingers to themselves stopped glowing, and the two spheres fell down to the floor.
Zhao Xieren couldnât help tensing up even though he knew this would happen.
Qian Ying also showed a surprised look, which instantly turned to a wry one, "It is a cruel final test... ehm... Valley Master"
"The nameâs Wu Long. And I had to see what youâll do", Wu Long chuckled, "Besides, you passed, didnât you?"
"I thank you for not putting my foolish grandchild through the same test"
"He wouldnât pass it", Wu Long nodded, "But not because of malice or bad intentions. He simply lacks experience. Youâll have to guide him well, now that your secret was revealed to him"
"Hmph, as if Grandpa is so wise... he didnât even believe me about the fox", Qian Lei turned his head away, mumbling with a sulking face, causing his grandfather to wryly smile.
"Should I call you...", Qian Ying turned between Zhao Xieren and Kwon Qianhong.
"Whichever suits you", Wu Long made a wry smile as Kwon Qianhong began energetically pointing to himself behind his back, to try and put Qian Ying into the "Boss" camp rather than the "Valley Master" camp.
"Ehm, so... what will my first assignment be?", the old man seemed to lean closer to the more sane-looking Zhao Xierenâs formal address, but decided to postpone making the decision altogether until he became more familiar with the organization and how things worked, "After all, I still need to work off the debt of our transgression"
"Silverleaf Trade Hall", Wu Long simply replied.
"Tâtheir Auction...", Qian Ying suddenly understood why Wu Long needed a thief in the first place, or rather confirmed his guesses. After all, he knew they were currently the main rival of the Soaring Feather Trading Company on this continent.
Wu Long nodded, "They announced one to annoy and pester us, because we dared to challenge their authority on the continent. But so far they have not been very successful in diverting attention away from our auction. That, however, at this point in time is partially deliberate. They want us to drop our guards and relax thinking everything is going well. But they are planning to announce a main treasure and list of secondary treasures that would steal away our thunder. And they are going to do it days, maybe hours before the time of both auctions. The distance between the two cities is not that big, so the audience will have time to abandon our auction to attend theirs, while we would be caught with our pants down"
"Y-you want their main treasure?"
"No, I want all of them"
"A-All of-...?!?!", the old manâs eyes became round as he forgot how to breathe for a moment.
"Yes, and the timing has to be precise as well. I want to give them a taste of what they prepared for us, in other words, weâll need to steal hours before they plan to make an announcement, so they canât even prepare anything for their auction even if they donât call for a larger crowd", Wu Long nodded.
"Y-you may not know, but Theft Dao is not that simple... ", Qian Ying licked his lips in nervousness as he hurriedly spoke, "Iâm not saying I wonât do it. I want to... I truly do... I already decided to take your offer. And Iâm not backing out! B-but a successful theft is not just sneak in, grab, and escape, itâs an artform! It requires a lot of work, effort, planning, dedication, a lot of prior preparation!"
He didnât leave room to be interrupted as he hurried to explain, fearing his words would be misinterpreted as him being stubborn, "Skills aside, even equipment has to be prepared specifically... but even if I managed to do on a tight schedule... but it still involves time, and not a short time. The bigger and more complex the job is, the more time is required for preparations for it to be successful. I never planned a job so near home, so I didnât do legwork for the Silverleaf Trade Hall, I didnât case their protective measures... I had minimal time of preparation to come in here, and look where it landed me... The auction is in a week and you said it yourself that the timing is even a bit earlier... Thatâs just too short of a time...! B-bu-but I-Iâm not saying that I wonât do it! Iâll do it! I definitely will and will do my best! I-Iâm just afraid you wonât get the result that you..."
He continued to talk even when Wu Long raised his hand to try and insert a word to stop him, rather this caused him to try to speak even more rapidly and frantically.
Only when Wu Long took out a jade slip, and using a technique projected its contents did his words start to trail off as his eyes widened, reflecting glowing lines of Spiritual Qi appearing in the air in front of him.
What he saw were complex plans of buildings, detailed schemes of protective formations and arrays, routes of guard patrols with precise timing notes, locations of all traps and detailed notes on their trigger mechanisms and activation time, notes on movements of non-guard staff, the types of safes and vaults, their internal structure, and their protective measures.
Even the precise positions of targeted items with assigned priority values and notes on precise weight, dimensions and short descriptions for each were all neatly arranged.
But what shocked him the most was something only a professional thief of his level would look for, as he also saw diagrams showing the natural flows of Spiritual Qi and wind through the premises at different times of day, with intensity values and probabilities, detailed properties of Spiritual Qi and its composition at those times, weather prediction reports that affected both Qi and wind, deep and precise calculations and alignments of Feng Shui from a very profound perspective, and the flow of underground Qi with complementary details as well.
Qian Leiâs eyes were also drawn to this treasure trove of information, "Damn! Thatâs insane!"
Qian Ying wasnât in a state to hear him though, as he turned his bewildered gaze to Wu Long behind all the glowing lines and patterns, who smiled, "I personally did the reconnaissance on a lot of things, and had my people detail the rest. I obviously wonât be doing it for you in the future but since itâs an urgent job you get the pass for a bit of help"
Wu Long then took out a Spatial Ring, and threw it to Qian Ying, "I have also prepared a set of talismans, with spares for all types included in the set for emergencies, array disruption needles, small illusion array set complete with array disk and anchor points, vault lock decoding and picking Spiritual Treasures - although youâre free to use your own, Spiritual Stones containing Qi mimicking the frequency and aura of people with access to the vaults, and last but not least, some useful alchemy pills"
Qian Ying gulped as he looked up at Wu Long with wide eyes.
"So, you think you can do this one?", Wu Long smiled.
"Leave it to me", a confident look appeared in Qian Yingâs eyes.