Infinite Professions from a Pearl Collector
Chapter 21 - 19: Flying Thief? Local Arch-Bandit

Chapter 21: Chapter 19: Flying Thief? Local Arch-Bandit

East City had always been the most prosperous part of the Capital City. Banks, silk shops, and other businesses lined the streets, each crimson-lacquered door hiding astonishing wealth.

Chen Ye’s target for today was one of them: Hengtong Bank.

The owner of Hengtong Bank was the Zhang Family, headed by the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue. Like the Lin Family, this Minister Zhang was a noble who had built his fortune by bleeding the common people dry. He was so greedy and cruel that the people of the Capital City privately called him "Zhang Baopi."

After the incident last night, Hengtong Bank’s security had clearly been strengthened. Not only were there guards at the entrance, but archers even patrolled back and forth on the rooftops.

Unfortunately, while these precautions could stop an ordinary Flying Thief, they couldn’t stop Chen Ye.

Relying on the powerful Professional Talent of a Nightwalker, Chen Ye swaggered right past the patrolling guards as if no one was there and went straight to the bank’s rear courtyard.

The vault door was extremely sturdy and secured with three peculiar locks from the Western Domain. An ordinary Flying Thief could only look on in despair.

But Chen Ye had no intention of picking the locks.

He circled around to the back of the vault, stood flat against the wall, and tapped his fingers lightly on the cold surface. He pressed his ear tightly against the wall, carefully discerning the internal structure.

A moment later, he finally found a weak spot. He then inserted his short dagger into a crack between the bricks and pried one out with a bit of force.

The rest was simple. Chen Ye repeated the process and soon created a hole large enough for a person to pass through.

Once inside the vault, he saw chests upon chests of copper coins shimmering with a tempting luster.

In the Great Zhao Dynasty, gold and silver were scarce and extremely expensive, so they were rarely seen on the market. Even a large bank like this one seldom kept any in reserve.

However, the copper coins stored here were still no small sum, as they were mostly high-denomination coins worth ten or a hundred, with some large ones even worth a thousand.

Faced with a fortune large enough to drive a person mad, Chen Ye remained completely unfazed.

He carried the chests of copper coins out of the vault, one by one, and silently transported them to a hidden location in the city he had chosen long ago.

The entire process was as smooth as flowing water; surprisingly, he didn’t alert anyone.

THUD.

Inside the gate of a dilapidated courtyard, a woman feeding her child a rice porridge so thin you could see your reflection in it was startled by the sudden sound.

She looked into the courtyard warily and saw a palm-sized cloth pouch lying quietly on the ground.

She hesitated for a long while, but her curiosity eventually won out, and she cautiously walked over to pick it up.

The pouch felt heavy in her hand.

When she opened it, the woman instantly covered her mouth.

Inside were dozens of large copper coins, each worth ten or a hundred—enough for her and her child to eat their fill for several months.

She immediately rushed out of the courtyard gate, wanting to find the benefactor who had given her the money.

But at that moment, on the empty street outside, there was nothing but the cold Moonlight.

The woman fell to her knees, kowtowing repeatedly to the empty air and muttering, "Thank you, Bodhisattva, thank you, Living Immortal..."

Similar scenes were playing out all over the city.

Many poor people struggling on the brink of life and death received this money that had fallen from the sky.

Someone who reacted quickly rushed out of their home just in time to see a black figure standing silently on a distant rooftop.

He was dressed all in black, his face obscured by a black cloth, his posture as straight and proud as a sword. Behind him hung a bright, full moon, its cold light tracing his solitary silhouette, making him seem like a deity descending to the world.

This image was deeply seared into the witness’s mind, leaving them profoundly shaken.

He wanted to chase after the figure to thank him, but in the blink of an eye, the silhouette on the rooftop vanished into thin air, as if it had never been there at all, leaving behind only the cold Moonlight.

「The next day, the sun was high in the sky.」

An employee of Hengtong Bank yawned as he opened the main doors, ready to start the day’s business. But when they went to check the vault as was their routine, everyone was dumbfounded.

The vault had been completely emptied. Over ten chests of copper coins had vanished without a trace.

When the news spread, the entire Capital City was in an uproar.

At almost the same time, news also spread that hundreds of poor households in the city had received money.

What drove the nobles most insane was that the money had already been scattered among hundreds, even thousands, of households in varying amounts, making it completely impossible to track down.

And the common people who had benefited were more tight-lipped than anyone. Trying to recover the money was like finding a needle in a haystack.

This was no longer a matter of one or two families. It was a provocation against their entire class!

「The Lin Family.」

CRASH!

Lin Hong slammed the teacup in his hand onto the ground, his face ashen.

Across from him sat a middle-aged man in brocade robes with an equally dark expression. It was none other than the owner of Hengtong Bank, the so-called Zhang Baopi, Minister Zhang.

"This is too much! This is simply going too far!" Minister Zhang trembled with rage.

"Yesterday it was your Lin Family, today it’s my Zhang Family! Is this person going to rob every one of our Noble Families? And he even gave all the money to those mud-legged peasants! This is an absolute outrage!"

Lin Hong’s expression was even darker than his. "This matter must be thoroughly investigated. Otherwise, we’ll lose all respect."

"Exactly. I’ll go contact the others right now. We must root out this brat and bring him to justice!" Minister Zhang immediately agreed.

For a time, all the powerful and influential Noble Families in the Capital City united, using all their power and vowing to drag out this audacious Flying Thief.

Meanwhile, inside Hengtong Bank, Cheng Ming and Cheng Zhiwei had once again arrived at the crime scene.

After the grandfather and granddaughter finished investigating the scene, they fell into a long silence.

"To distribute money worth tens of thousands of taels to hundreds of households in a single night, all while avoiding detection..." Cheng Ming stroked his goatee, his brow deeply furrowed.

"Logically, this should be impossible for one person to accomplish, yet the scene truly only shows traces of a single individual. So what on earth is going on?"

According to Cheng Ming’s experience, among the Flying Thieves and master bandits of the Martial World, especially the itinerant ones, lone wolves were extremely rare.

After all, in an unfamiliar place, it was easy to fail without a local accomplice to provide support and guidance.

So, after learning that the bank had been robbed and the silver coins distributed overnight, he had thought that this time he would surely find more clues, perhaps even follow the trail to root out this Flying Thief.

But after arriving at the scene, the situation was not like that at all. All the clues proved that the perpetrator was still just one person.

’But is that really possible?’

Just then, Cheng Zhiwei suddenly looked up and offered a shocking deduction: "Grandfather, is it possible... we’ve been looking at this the wrong way?"

"Hm?"

"We’ve been assuming that this person is a Flying Thief from out of town, which is why he would need an accomplice to guide him. But what if he’s not an outsider at all?" Cheng Zhiwei’s voice wasn’t loud, but it sent a jolt through Cheng Ming.

"If he’s a native of the Capital City, familiar with all the streets and alleys, the locations of the wealthy households, and the whereabouts of the slums, then he wouldn’t need an accomplice at all."

"So this is very likely... a local master bandit!"

His granddaughter’s words exploded in Cheng Ming’s mind like a clap of thunder!

He had a sudden epiphany. Many points that he couldn’t figure out instantly became clear.

But then, an even deeper doubt surfaced in his mind.

"Is that... possible?" Cheng Ming muttered to himself.

One must understand, the Capital City was at the foot of the Emperor, and thus the Government Office’s control over the forces of the Martial World was extremely strict.

The Six Gates, the Arresting Department, the Military Patrol Stations, and other powers formed a vast net. How could a master bandit of this Level be hiding here without anyone knowing a thing?

But aside from this explanation, there seemed to be no more logical deduction.

After pondering for a long time, Cheng Ming slowly stood up, a trace of determination flashing in his eyes.

"Zhiwei, prepare the carriage. We’re going to see someone."

"Who?"

"From the Arresting Department, Zhao An."