Chapter Eighteen: Malevolent Shadows and the Three Thousand Abyssal Treasures

Wang Cheng pulled the Zhang brothers back, but instead of retreating, he advanced. Above his head and on both shoulders, the fires of Fortune, Prosperity, and Longevity blazed fiercely.

The room felt as though a furnace had been lit; the air crackled with the harsh sizzle of ice meeting hot iron.

Though he had not yet reached the realm of “pure yang life fire that scorches evil spirits,” he now possessed at least enough power to resist ordinary malevolent entities.

The strange, metallic stench was swept away by the three fires, dissipating noticeably. The Zhang brothers narrowly escaped disaster, tumbling and crawling out of the main room.

Behind them, Rare Treasure had already provided Wang Cheng with intelligence on the evil spirit.

[Evil Spirit: “No Silver Here,” also known as Silver Guardian.

People know that tigers have Tiger Guardians, but few realize that hoards of silver often have Silver Guardians as well. Bandits, mountain guests, and ground tigers of the Mountain Walkers all possess this secret skill: when burying silver or other treasures, they would torture a living person mercilessly until he could neither live nor die, then ask, “Will you guard my silver?” The victim, unable to endure, would finally agree.

He would then be burned to ashes, sealed with the treasure in a jar, thus concealing the treasure’s radiance, protecting it from prying eyes, and killing thieves. As years pass, these Silver Guardians, tainted by the legend of ‘No Silver Here’ and the power of will, transform into evil spirits.

The stronger they were in life and the longer they’ve been buried, the more formidable they become.

Taboo: Anyone who obtains this silver and smells its metallic stench will convulse and faint. Only by offering greater wealth to lure the Silver Guardian away can one safely acquire the silver and treasure.]

It was the evil aura of the Silver Guardian that had masked the treasure’s radiance just now.

Without the Universal Sea Treasure Coin, Wang Cheng would never have found the hoard hidden by Xue Da.

In a single breath, a figure appeared before Wang Cheng—a dull, silver-grey shadow, mottled with bloody stains, whose chilling, foul aura seemed to freeze the very air.

Swish! Swish!

The Zhang brothers, having rolled out of the main room, did not flee. They nocked their arrows behind Wang Cheng and shot two in quick succession at the evil spirit.

But the arrows passed straight through, leaving the Silver Guardian unharmed.

This was Wang Cheng’s first true confrontation with an evil spirit since he sent off the royal boat, and the same for the Zhang brothers.

Panicked and disordered, they forgot that only divine officials or other evil spirits could fight such entities.

After their failed attack, they quickly reminded Wang Cheng,

“Chief, the elders say evil spirits crawl out from the thoughts of the masses—ordinary folk can’t harm them. We’d best retreat for now.”

Wang Cheng knew evil spirits better than they did; his father’s words echoed in his mind:

“This world is a mingling of yin and yang. Ghosts and lost souls are common, and most do little harm—at best, they confuse, obscure, or frighten. But evil spirits are entirely different. Just as every divine official corresponds to a particular solar term, every evil spirit is linked to a legend or folk custom in society. They are essentially natural phenomena, killing according to specific obsessions and rules. Ordinary people can only flee; only divine officials can confront them. Some higher-ranked officials can even subdue evil spirits, using one to control another.”

The Silver Guardian before him, artificially created and polluted by the legend of “No Silver Here,” was now utterly changed.

Whoever broke its obsession with “No Silver Here” would surely die!

A flash of silver darted out—a silver arm lashed at Wang Cheng. Though the blade of his ring-handled knife blocked it, the force nearly toppled him.

With his meager skills as a talisman novice, he was no match for this foe.

Rolling to the doorway, Wang Cheng found the Silver Guardian did not pursue him further.

Seeing this, Wang Cheng’s face brightened:

“There’s a way! This Silver Guardian must have come from a Mountain Walker official, acquired by Xue Da. It reacts mechanically, never leaving the treasure. Plus, I’ve seen its taboo—I can try something.”

Wang Cheng stomped his foot; the Ghost Communication token he’d taken from the Turtle Ghost was useless on land, but he had another card to play.

Outside the door, the Zhang brothers’ vision blurred.

For a moment, they glimpsed Wang Cheng’s shadow twisting, suddenly opening a pair of oily green eyes, with serpent-like patterns weaving across his body, swiftly forming a resplendent, sinister royal robe.

He seemed even more fearsome than the Silver Guardian itself, making them shiver involuntarily.

But when they looked again, the vision was gone.

Rubbing their eyes, they saw only the once-menacing Silver Guardian, now recoiling in terror, its five hollow features twisted, shivering and retreating as if seeing something unspeakably dreadful.

If not bound by the jar, it would have fled without a trace.

Only Wang Cheng himself knew—what they saw was no illusion.

He had just revealed his evil spirit shadow.

Scholar Wang Fugui died in the ritual of sending off the royal boat, becoming an evil spirit tied to that folk custom.

Wang Cheng bought his evil spirit fate, inheriting the same connection.

Crucially, Wang Cheng himself had participated in the ritual, second only to the Royal Lord as a core figure.

Thus, his evil spirit shadow became not [Scholar], but [Royal Scion, Inspector of Heaven]!

Obsessive killing intent—whoever opposes me will be taken aboard the boat and carried away.

To ordinary ghosts and evil spirits of the Eastern Sea, encountering him was little different from meeting the Ox-Head and Horse-Face—just his presence was enough to terrify them.

He then activated the [Dragon Breathing Technique], exhaling a deep breath at the evil spirit and inhaling sharply.

The Silver Guardian leapt willingly, following the breath into the coin hole of the [Universal Sea Treasure Coin], and fell into slumber once more.

Wang Cheng’s most valuable possession was that half-piece Mountain Ghost coin, the Universal Sea Treasure Coin—an artifact capable of trading fate, far outshining the treasures in the earth.

He smiled in satisfaction, reverting from evil spirit to human form.

Taking up the iron shovel, he dug a few more times and unearthed a dark jar.

Lifting the lid, he found, at the top, a layer of silver ingots stained with dried black-red patches—all shaped like small boats, marked as Grand Zhao Ingots, engraved with fifty, twenty, and ten tael denominations.

As the night breeze blew, the bloodstains and metallic stench vanished from the room.

Even Wang Cheng, once a wealthy scion, was astonished by the sight of so much money. The Zhang brothers, crowding closer, couldn’t help but gasp.

“Whoa! The fish overlord really made this much?”

Piece by piece they counted, finding beneath the silver a pile of heavy gold cakes, each bearing teeth marks, evidence of many hands.

Weighing one, it came to seven or eight taels each.

In the era of Grand Zhao’s Shaozhi reign, the exchange rate was about one tael of gold for eight taels of silver, and one tael of silver for a thousand copper coins.

Zhang Wen quickly tallied the sum, his excitement tinged with rage:

“Chief, this adds up to about 3,800 taels of silver—enough for a wealthy farmer to live two hundred years without spending a penny. Judging by the dried bloodstains, who knows how many merchants these fish overlords harmed on the Nine Rivers over the years to amass such wealth. Strange, though—they were ruthless, yet managed to save so much without squandering it on vice. What were they planning?”

Wang Cheng recalled Xue Da’s secret cultivation today, and a dawning realization came over him.

He continued searching, and beneath the gold and silver found two boxes.

One, a wooden casket, held two land deeds—the addresses matched this Green Willow Alley residence.

Property here, in this era and location, was worth little; at most, a few dozen taels of silver.

But the other box was dazzling—a sumptuous mother-of-pearl lacquered jewelry case.

Seeing it, the Zhang brothers became excited:

“Chief, that’s it! That’s the very box my father fished from the Eastern Sea years ago!”

Wang Cheng reached out and lifted it, immediately calling its name without needing the Universal Sea Treasure Coin:

“Purple Lacquered Mother-of-Pearl Goldfish Pattern Treasure Chest—just as I thought, it really is this treasure.”

He recognized it because such chests were legendary among Water Official circles.

It was said that every one of the Three Thousand Abyssal Treasures drifting from the depths of the ocean was always sealed in a purple lacquered, mother-of-pearl goldfish pattern chest.

No two boxes shared the exact same pattern.

So, regardless of the value of its contents, the box itself was—ninety-nine percent a rare marvel!