The dwarf did not immediately pick up the conversation. Instead, he first took the small bag, opened it, and looked inside at the small, clustered, dark green balls. After giving them a careful sniff, a sharp, pungent scent entered his nostrils, causing him to nod with satisfaction and tuck the bag into an inner pocket of his linen robe.
"The intelligence inside that recording bead is enough for you to fleece Viscount Jack and Count Ansel for a massive fortune and line your pockets until you're overflowing with grease. I didn't complain to you about having to hide in a cesspool just to capture this evidence, though I have to say, Madam Angela and that kept boy of hers certainly have unique tastes."
The dwarf involuntarily shook his head, as if recalling some unpleasant image.
"Didn't you just say it anyway? You really live up to your nickname of 'Mole'."
The middle-aged man looked at the dwarf with helpless resignation, but the dwarf's words were spot on. Based solely on the contents of that recording bead, he would make a killing. People in their line of work operated in the gray zone between the underworld and the righteous world; as long as there was money to be made, anything went.
Stepping out of the two-story shop, the dwarf glanced back at the five large characters spelling "Hutu Treasure House" on the signboard, which shone brilliantly under the sunlight. He turned his head and stepped into the crowd, disappearing into the throng the next moment like a clay ox entering the sea, leaving no trace of his whereabouts.
"That fellow is still as cautious as ever."
Up on the second floor of Hutu Treasure House, the middle-aged man opened the window and watched the dwarf leave, but in the blink of an eye, the other's figure had already vanished.
Amidst the stream of people, the dwarf who had been wearing a linen robe was gone. In a blind spot outside the view of Hutu Treasure House, a somewhat petite figure wearing greyish-black plain clothing had quietly appeared. He carried a small bundle on his back, and his short black hair looked clean and neat. His handsome young face radiated the joy of a bountiful harvest.
"I've finally gotten my hands on pepper, too. With this, the seasonings I need are basically all gathered together. Although I haven't figured out how to make miso or how white soy sauce is prepared, having these spices as a base means I'll have a way to put down roots even in a place like Shrek City where every inch of land is worth a fortune."
The boy shifted his figure and stepped out of the crowd, ascending a wall with fluttering, erratic movements. His Right Hand landed on the eaves and pushed off, his small frame effortlessly clearing a two-and-a-half-meter-high wall before landing lightly on the other side without attracting anyone's attention.
"Wanting to enter Shrek... with my current cultivation progress, perhaps it's barely enough. Even though I only have Innate Soul Power of rank one, it took me merely three years to cultivate to rank ten, which is even faster than the cultivation speed of some Soul Masters with rank two or three innate power. I suppose the reason my innate soul power level was so low is probably because I didn't have enough to eat before I was six years old... This must be what they call innate deficiency."
The boy was none other than Huo Yuhao. At this moment, his footsteps were light as he walked quickly toward a two-courtyard residence outside Xingluo City. As he walked, Huo Yuhao's figure actually began to turn transparent. Clearly, there were one or two people lingering nearby who kept casting covert glances in that direction, yet they utterly failed to see Huo Yuhao swaggering right past them.
Walking up to the front gate of this residence, a plaque hung in the center bearing the words "Fortune and Joy Fill the Gates," flanked by two stone tigers over two meters tall standing guard on either side. The ground was paved with blue bricks matched with recurrent patterns, the windows of the side rooms were edged with antique-style trim, and even the wall base used cloud-patterned floor tiles. Just by looking at it, one could tell that the owner of this residence was a person of immense wealth.
Although it was certainly inferior when compared to grand, palace-like mansions such as the White Tiger Duke's Mansion, and its area was worlds apart from the Duke's Mansion, even so, a residence like this was an abode that ordinary people could scarcely hope to enjoy even after a lifetime of struggle.
The original owner of this residence was a wealthy merchant in Xingluo City. The reason this merchant was able to own such a two-courtyard residence just outside the city was naturally not solely due to his own financial resources.
After all, this merchant was not even a baron of the lowest rank, and naturally had no qualification to use building materials of such specifications. His former identity had been that of a white-glove proxy for a Soul Saint powerhouse. That was why, despite having neither titles nor cultivation, he was able to own such a top-tier residence.
Unfortunately, even a backing as seemingly towering as a Soul Saint would be uprooted with overwhelming force when a storm struck. To prevent subsequent purges from sweeping him up, the merchant had no choice but to find someone to escort him out of Xingluo to take refuge.
For this kind of dirty work of smuggling someone away, the first person the merchant thought of was Huo Yuhao, who had previously handled quite a few commissions for him. Of course, in the intermediary's mouth, there was no such person as Huo Yuhao—there was only a natural dwarf, about one meter four in height, known as the "Mole."
Although, for Huo Yuhao, frontal combat (crossed out), assassinating important figures, and eavesdropping on intelligence were what ninjas were best at, he naturally wouldn't turn down such a lucrative business. After safely escorting the merchant out of Xingluo City, aside from obtaining a considerable financial reward, this two-courtyard residence was also promised by the merchant to be handed over to Huo Yuhao for his own disposal. After all, having lost his backing, the merchant had lost the qualification to return to Xingluo City, and being able to preserve his life was already a great misfortune.
"Hmph, go right ahead and keep watching from there. Thanks to you lot, I don't even need to spend money to hire guards and servants."
A smile appeared at the corners of Huo Yuhao's mouth as he raised his left arm. A tubular device closely fitted to his forearm appeared, entirely gray in color and seemingly cast from the most ordinary refined steel of rare metal. Inscribed upon it were two first-rank soul tool cores, whose effects appeared to be compressing and firing soul power, and increasing the torque of a certain metal component, respectively.
Huo Yuhao's soul power flowed into the soul tool on his left arm, and a rare metal warhead about the size of an adult's thumb was pushed out from the soul tool with a barely perceptible sound. Huo Yuhao gave his wrist a twist, and the metal warhead immediately shot out fiercely, accurately brushing past the ridge beast on the roof beam.
Huo Yuhao relaxed his previously twisted wrist, and the front end of the metal warhead suddenly burst open, turning into a metal claw with three fingers. The fired metal claw immediately began to retract, accurately hooking the ridge beast it had just brushed past.
Immediately afterward, Huo Yuhao gathered his breath and lifted his body, twisting his wrist in the opposite direction. A substantial pulling force instantly came from his arm, dragging Huo Yuhao into mid-air. Engaging his core muscles, his whole body flipped upside down with his toes facing the sky, and with a *whoosh*, he was pulled right up onto the roof beam.
Although this set of actions looked quite cumbersome, the time it actually consumed was only around one second. With both feet braced against the roof beam, Huo Yuhao exerted force with his left arm while his right arm pulled the steel cable, allowing him to stand upright on the eaves once again. With another flip of his wrist, the metal claw immediately transformed back into a metal warhead. Having lost the support of the ridge beast, the pulling force of the soul tool on his arm instantly retracted the warhead and steel cable back inside.