Chapter 62 Returning Home

Swallowing Ying Gou’s essential blood directly, Yang Sheng experienced a rather exhilarating sensation of enhanced power.

However, the purchase clearance granted by the Hong Kong Ghost Shadows world was far too low, at a mere 20%.

Yang Sheng analyzed that this was because the world had not been fully revealed, so even though he had completed the mission, it only unlocked this tiny fraction of purchasing authority.

Checking the items available with this clearance, most were charms, spells, and similar trinkets of little use to him.

Yang Sheng’s mastery of Mao Shan sorcery stood at 18%, which was mainly effective against dark and malevolent spirits, and was already sufficient for his current needs.

Since the heritage was incomplete to begin with, spending Reincarnation Points on it was not worthwhile.

After skimming through, Yang Sheng directly gave up on the idea, saving his Reincarnation Points for the next world to acquire other goods or trade with other reincarnators.

Fatty Wang had mentioned that the Heavens Reincarnation possessed its own trading system, which could be opened with a mere thought.

Yang Sheng opened the trading system and found a dense multitude of various messages.

Yet, upon closer inspection, not many of the items listed were actually useful.

After all, for most reincarnators, items that could enhance their cultivation were usually extremely precious, and few would be willing to sell them.

Even if someone chose to sell excess items, they preferred bartering over Reincarnation Points, directly trading for things that benefited them.

The heavy consumption and scarcity of resources meant that the Heavens Reincarnation trading system was not actually popular; instead, trading companies privately established by certain reincarnators were thriving.

They hoarded massive quantities of goods and controlled numerous channels, making transactions convenient whether through barter, Reincarnation Points, or even settling debts by executing specific tasks.

Thus, besides a mountain of useless junk in the trading system, Yang Sheng also saw quite a few nonsensical posts.

An entirely blank image with the caption: "Captured the Sixth Brother from the Calabash Brothers world, priced at 1,000 Reincarnation Points. May the entire family of anyone who lies about this perish!"

A large-eyed alien pickled in a jar of liquor: "An alien captured from the Xuan-class one hundred and thirty-eighth world, marinated for a full ninety-nine days. Great for tonifying the kidneys and strengthening male vigor, effective in a single cup! Priced at 8,888 Reincarnation Points."

A blurred mosaic that stirred wild imaginations: "Uncensored infantry version of Fairy Heng E, the Mistress of the Cold Moon Realm, Yan Bingyao! Priced at 10,000 Reincarnation Points."

However, before Yang Sheng could examine that last message closely, it vanished, and even the seller's avatar turned grey, its meaning unknown.

Exiting the trading system, Yang Sheng rested at a hotel for the night and then decided to return to his hometown in Liaoning for a visit.

Ever since his parents died in an accident five years ago, Yang Sheng had sold off the family property in his hometown and hadn't been back in five years.

Now that his deep enmity had finally been avenged, he could return to burn a stick of incense for his parents and tell them that his backbone had not been broken, and that he had finally secured justice for them.

The most pressing issue at hand, however, was figuring out a way to get some money.

Over the past five years, Yang Sheng had nearly exhausted all his savings; practicing martial arts was an extremely costly endeavor.

As the saying went, literature requires poverty while martial arts require wealth—if one couldn't even afford to eat meat, where would one get the strength to temper their tendons, bones, and flesh?

Yet, for the current Yang Sheng, acquiring some emergency funds was not difficult at all.

Among the purchase clearances for the Dragon City Hegemony tournament world were quite a few pieces of jewelry, watches, gold bars, and even US dollars and Hong Kong dollars.

Of course, the latter certainly could not be used, as the dates did not match.

The easiest items to liquidate among these were the gold bars, priced at 100 Reincarnation Points per kilogram, with a minimum purchase requirement of one kilogram, which made Yang Sheng feel a slight pang of regret.

Carrying the gold bars, Yang Sheng walked into the largest pawnshop in Hualong City.

"Do you buy gold bars?"

The pawnshop manager, wearing gold-rimmed glasses and looking refined, walked over and said, "Of course we do. Do you have the receipt and certificate?"

Yang Sheng shook his head and replied, "No."

"Without a receipt and certificate, the price might be somewhat lower."

"That's fine. Go ahead and inspect the goods."

The pawnshop manager fetched an elderly master craftsman. Yang Sheng casually pulled out a crumpled plastic bag and tossed it onto the table, inside which lay ten gold bars.

The old craftsman examined the gold bars one by one, looking slightly surprised as he said, "They're all genuine, and these are gold bars issued by Citibank with engravings. They look like they're from the 1970s, yet they're so well-preserved and look brand new."

After the inspection, the old craftsman whispered a few words to the manager. The manager turned to Yang Sheng and said, "Sir, because these gold bars lack receipts and certificates, we can only offer three hundred thousand. Is that acceptable to you?"

Yang Sheng nodded indifferently and handed his bank card to the manager for the transfer.

Once the transaction was completed, Yang Sheng turned and left. The old craftsman chuckled and said, "Manager, we're not losing out on this deal.

This batch of gold bars issued by Citibank in the 1970s was usually collected by wealthy merchants on the grey market. They always made a habit of preparing large amounts of cash and gold bars to flee at a moment's notice, so very few ever circulated outside.

This item can easily be sold as an antique and holds great collectible value. If we buy it at the market price of ordinary gold bars, selling them individually will earn us at least three to four times the profit!"

Instead of answering, the manager frowned and muttered, "Why do I feel like this person looks somewhat familiar?"

"Which big shot could he be?"

The manager shook his head and suddenly said, "I remember!
Not long ago, the Lin family was wiped out. Prince Duan collected information on quite a few people who had grudges against the Lin family, telling us to memorize them one by one and report any news immediately.
This person looks suspiciously like one of them."

The old craftsman was surprised. "Hasn't Prince Duan been at odds with that old geezer from the Lin family for ages? Now that the Lin family has been exterminated, why is he hunting down the killer?
Besides, the Lin family made so many enemies—there must be eight thousand if there are ten thousand people who wanted them wiped out. How is anyone supposed to investigate this?"

The manager chuckled softly and said, "The thought processes of big shots are nothing like ours.
To them, since this mysterious person could wipe out the entire Lin family without a sound, they could naturally wipe out their entire clan as well.
If they don't find this fellow, how can they possibly sleep in peace?

Anyway, these matters aren't our concern.
Master Lin, watch the shop for a bit. I'm going to report this matter to Prince Duan.
No matter what, with this piece of news delivered, our bonuses for the year are guaranteed!"

Yang Sheng had no idea that this pawnshop was an asset of Hualong City's heavyweight figure, Prince Duan; naturally, even if he had known, he wouldn't have cared.

The extermination of the Lin family had been orchestrated by Fatty Wang, and all memories of Yang Sheng held by the people at the hotel had been completely erased, along with any evidentiary traces such as surveillance footage.

Yang Sheng was entirely innocent now; he hadn't even come close to the Grand Regal Hotel. No matter how much they suspected, the suspicion could never fall on him.

Taking a portion of the cash with him, Yang Sheng immediately bought a plane ticket and flew back to his hometown in Liaoning.

Yang Sheng's hometown was a village under a small county in a fifth-tier city in Liaoning. After getting off the plane, he had to take a train, switch to a long-distance bus, and then take an unlicensed taxi for a final stretch to arrive.

After two days of traveling back and forth, Yang Sheng finally returned to his hometown village.

Compared to the bustle of the outside metropolis, the village had not changed much over the past five years.

"Xiao Sheng? When did you get back? Why have you grown so tall? I almost didn't dare recognize you."

A middle-aged man with dark skin passed by Yang Sheng, looked him up and down for a few moments, and then spoke.

"Uncle Cai, it's me. I just got back to sweep the graves for my parents."

The village was so small that everyone knew about the tragedy that had befallen Yang Sheng's parents.

Uncle Cai patted Yang Sheng's shoulder and sighed, "You're still young. Whatever happened back then, try to let it go if you can.
Since you haven't been back in all these years, stay a few more days this time."

At this point, Uncle Cai seemed to remember something, and with a slightly unnatural expression, he added, "You haven't been back in so long; you should go see your second uncle first."

Along the way, Yang Sheng ran into several familiar villagers. After exchanging a few greetings, he couldn't shake the feeling that their demeanor was somewhat unnatural.

When he reached the center of the village and saw a brand-new two-story building erected on a plot of land, he finally understood why Uncle Cai had told him to visit his second uncle first.

This plot of land originally belonged to Yang Sheng's father.

Yang Sheng's father had come out of the countryside and, in order for Yang Sheng to attend school, had left the village to buy a house in the city.

Back then, Yang Sheng had sold the city property to fund his revenge, but the rural property was troublesome to transfer and worth very little, so Yang Sheng had simply left it alone and abandoned it there.

Yang Sheng stood in place for a long moment before turning and walking toward his second uncle's house.