Shang continued watching the Treasury Master for several months.
It was mundane work, but it paid well.
Eventually, over two years passed.
And finally, something suspicious happened.
The Treasury Master left the Urbring Family every three months to travel to a couple of different gatherer families and exchange some wares. This was the very thing that happened the first time Shang had seen the Treasury Master.
Originally, when the Treasury Master left for his regularly scheduled roundtrip, Shang hadn't thought that anything suspicious would happen.
By now, he had been convinced that the Treasury Master was innocent.
Sure, he had once met with an unknown woman to have some fun, which was against the rule of meeting outsiders without informing an Enforcer, but it was just innocent fun. Shang knew that this was not nearly suspicious enough to actually conclude the mission.
The Treasury Master stopped near the first gatherer family, and the two Treasury Masters exchanged Space Rings.
After that, the two of them talked for a bit, which wasn't anything unusual.
It was just some conversation about the two families.
Some minutes later, the Treasury Master took out a Communication Crystal and informed the Treasury Master of the next family he was supposed to visit.
He told them that he was having a conversation right now and that he would arrive a couple of minutes late.
It was all very casual.
The two of them continued talking for about two more minutes before the Treasury Master left again.
A couple of minutes later, the Treasury Master reached the next family and exchanged Space Rings.
And then, another long conversation happened.
The Treasury Master took out his Communication Crystal again and called the Patriarch, telling him that he would be late.
This wasn't anything unusual. The Treasury Master enjoyed talking to the other Treasury Masters quite a bit.
Maybe this was why the Patriarch became suspicious.
After all, his Treasury Master always called him about being late. In a way, the Treasury Master was always kind of missing for a couple of minutes.
However, the other families always backed his claim that he was just talking to them.
The Treasury Master kept talking for a couple more minutes before leaving.
As always, the Treasury Master kept throwing the Sense Expansion Magic Circles everywhere while traveling, which was understandable. After all, he was carrying a lot of wealth with him.
Nothing unusual.
'Oh?'
Suddenly, the Treasury Master stopped and threw the Magic Circles toward his front.
And then, he took a sharp right.
'That's a new one,' Shang thought.
Usually, the Sense Expansion Magic Circle the Treasury Master had dropped on his way to the first family would have already stopped working since they would have already used up all their stored Mana, but this time, they were still active.
In fact, all of them were still active.
One line from the Urbring Family to the first family.
One line from the first family to the second family.
One line from the second family to the edge of the Urbring family.
'He made a triangle of Sense Expansion Magic Circle,' Shang thought. 'No one can enter this area without being noticed by him.'
'Additionally, since he keeps talking with so many other Treasury Masters for several minutes nearly every time, a short absence wouldn't even be noticed. On top of that, the other Treasury Masters would even back his claim up. He did talk to them, after all.'
'And the Patriarch probably can't show too openly that he is suspecting his own Treasury Master of hiding something. The other Treasury Masters might actually side with his Treasury Master, or they might directly contact the Enforcers, which might prompt an investigation.'
'If an Enforcer investigates the Urbring Family and finds out about his secret, the Patriarch and the leaders would be executed.'
There was a lot of scheming happening on both sides.
As always, Shang easily passed by the Sense Expansion Magic Circles and entered the gigantic triangle.
The Treasury Master flew faster than before, but Shang could still keep up with him. As long as he didn't use one Mana Step after the other, Shang had no trouble following.
Eventually, the Treasury Master reached a seemingly random place in the forest and closed his eyes.
Shang felt all the Sense Expansion Magic Circles in his surroundings "light up" one after the other.
The Treasury Master was making sure that no one was watching.
Then, he opened his eyes and began to cast a long Spell.
WHOOOM!
Suddenly, all the forest and ground below him for about a hundred meters brightly lit up.
SHING!
And vanished.
After the forest and ground vanished, a deep hole appeared. It looked like a crater, but it curved to the side after a couple hundred meters, essentially making it a cave.
'That's a very expensive Isolation Barrier working together with a high-grade Illusion Magic Circle and an even better Cloaking Magic Circle. That's a lot of money just to hide the entrance to a cave.'
Shang quietly came closer.
The Treasury Master entered the cave.
Just as the Treasury Master passed by the entrance, Shang also entered just behind him.
The Treasury Master couldn't see Shang with his Spirit Sense, but for some reason, he felt nervous and watched.
In an instant, the Treasury Master turned around.
Nothing.
The Treasury Master saw the entire entrance now from within the cave, and there was just nothing.
But for some reason, he was still nervous and looked around.
He kept looking at everything with his Spirit Sense, but he also looked around with his eyes.
Something about the cave seemed different, but he couldn't tell what.
He was right.
There was something different about the cave.
The walls were slightly more illuminated than normal, but that was not something a normal person would notice, and since the Treasury Master relied on his Spirit Sense, he would be even less likely to notice it.
The Treasury Master didn't notice that the source of the slight illumination always came from a bit behind him.
Eventually, the Treasury Master turned to the entrance and cast another long Spell.
The Magic Circles activated again, hiding the entrance to the cave.
The Treasury Master turned and traveled deeper into the cave.
The deeper he got, the darker everything became.
He didn't see it, but behind him, a wall of pure blackness seemed to follow him.
The Treasury Master became more and more nervous the further he traveled.
He rubbed the sweaty back of his neck.
He felt like something was breathing down his neck.
The Treasury Master turned around several times out of nervousness, but there was nothing there.
Yet, even while turning around, he still felt like something was behind him.
After a while, he convinced himself that he was this nervous because he knew what would happen if anyone found out about his secret.
This was simply the nervousness of doing something he knew was forbidden.
Eventually, the Treasury Master reached a brightly lit room.
The room was only around twenty meters wide, but the wealth it contained was shocking.
Bones.
There were a lot of large bones in here, but not just any bones.
Those were the remains of a long-dead Beast Lord.
Of course, since there were only bones left, the "corpse" wasn't nearly as valuable as the entire corpse of a Beast Lord, but the bones alone were still worth quite a bit.
In total, the bones were probably worth around five Grade Seven Mana Crystals, which was a ridiculous sum of money.
When the Treasury Master saw the bones, he released a sigh.
Seeing them somewhat calmed him down.
After a while, the Treasury Master touched one of the bones and cast a long Spell.
The bone began to shine brightly, and a couple of seconds later, it vanished.
But now, something new was in the Treasury Master's hand.
It was a Grade Six Mana Crystal.
The Treasury Master was using a Spell to convert the Mana hidden in the bones to Mana Crystals.
Of course, such a Spell was wildly inefficient and wasted a ridiculous amount of the Mana.
The worth of the entire skeleton would drop from about five Grade Seven Mana Crystals to about a hundred Grade Six Mana Crystals.
The Treasury Master did the same thing for two more bones.
Just like that, he had earned three Grade Six Mana Crystals.
While natural resources could be tracked and found by the Enforcers, Mana Crystals were liquid currency, making it very difficult to track them.
And as a Treasury Master, he also knew how to properly hide his growing wealth.
After converting three bones in total, the Treasury Master turned around and walked towards the exit.
But he stopped.
He still felt nervous.
For some reason, he felt like his biggest treasure might have been stolen.
The Treasury Master looked at a random spot on the ground and walked over.
He cast several complex Spells, and eventually, a small part of the ground split apart.
A ton of Mana exploded out of that part, lighting up the cave.
The Treasury Mater carefully went to his knees and took hold of the thing inside the small compartment he had just unveiled.
It was the Beast Core of the Beast Lord that had died here.
It was extremely old, damaged, and had lost most of its Mana, but it was still worth more than the skeleton.
As the Treasury Master looked at the Beast Core in his hands, the cave around him shimmered in colorful light…
Revealing a white silhouette standing behind the Treasury Master.
