They all became female demons after being reborn.

Chapter 51, Second Key to Sun Lang's Treasure Vault

When Wu Cheng turned around, he happened to see the scene that amazed him.

It was as if streaks of white lines suddenly appeared and converged in his vision, and all the experts under Yuan Hao's command within those white lines seemed to freeze in place.

Qingque's voice appeared in front of these people, and then, with her back to them, she slowly inserted the thin sword in her hand back into the oil-paper umbrella.

At that very moment, the white lines vanished, and the numerous masters who had seemed frozen in time suddenly sprayed countless drops of blood that flew everywhere, like a blood-red landscape painting.

For some reason, an English song suddenly popped into Wu Cheng's mind.

When he came to his senses, Qingque appeared in front of him, nervously pulling him to check his body.

"Is Your Highness alright?"

"I'm fine." Wu Cheng said, both amused and exasperated. "I'm not a child, what could possibly happen to me?"

He pointed to Yuan Hao's lifeless body on the ground, his eyes wide open, "He won't take up much of my time."

Ugh, this has ruined the atmosphere.

Wu Cheng said, "Let's go, let's meet at the cellar."

"Um."

Qingque nodded slightly and followed closely behind him, once again transforming into the stern-faced maid in blue.

The two quickly left the backyard and headed to the cellar, encountering no obstacles along the way.

The entrance to the cellar was hidden behind a rockery in the back office of Luoyang Prefecture. Lifting the stone slab revealed a narrow staircase leading downwards, and a damp, musty smell wafted out.

Li Anchan stood at the entrance of the cellar, with several masked men in black standing respectfully beside her. However, almost all of these men in black were covered in blood, and there were dozens of corpses around them.

Li Anchan stood with her hands behind her back and smiled faintly, "It seems everything is going smoothly."

Wu Cheng nodded, then shifted his gaze to the cellar entrance. "This is the cellar?"

"Great, shall we go down and take a look?"

"Let's go."

Wu Cheng took the torch handed to him by a man in black and walked in front, followed closely by Qing Que holding an oil-paper umbrella, while Li Anchan followed at the back with an oil lamp in her hand.

At the bottom of the ladder was a cellar supported by thick wooden stakes. Just as the torch in his hand illuminated the cellar, Wu Cheng stopped in his tracks.

The cellar wasn't big, but it was crammed with more than a dozen children.

The oldest of these children was just over ten years old, while the youngest, huddled in the corner, looked to be only five or six years old.

They huddled on a pile of moldy straw, wearing ill-fitting rags. Some of the children weren't even dressed properly, just curled up naked.

The ground was wet, and it was hard to tell whether it was from a leaking cellar or children's excrement. The pungent, sour smell mixed with a musty odor made one's eyes sting.

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A little girl of seven or eight years old sat against the corner of the wall, holding an even smaller child who was not wearing clothes in her arms. The child's eyes were closed and his breathing was so light that it was almost inaudible.

Upon seeing the torches, the girl shrank back and squeezed in, then quietly covered the child's ears in her arms, before raising her blank eyes to stare stubbornly at Wu Cheng.

Wu Cheng pursed his lips, handed the torch to Qingque, then stepped forward, squatted down, and gently draped his outer robe over the little girl's body.

His robe was still too big for the little girl, so it dragged on the ground and got quite muddy, but the child still instinctively clenched the hem of the robe tightly, her knuckles turning white, as if this could bring her some sense of security.

Wu Cheng didn't say anything to comfort her. He just silently got up and looked back at Li Anchan.

His usually optimistic and carefree eyes revealed a rare hint of fierceness.

In the end, Li Anchan spoke first, "It's inconvenient for you to take these children with you. I will take them back to Dasheng. There are clothes and dry food on the carriage outside the North Gate, enough for me to take them all the way back."

Wu Cheng looked at her, but Li Anchan's androgynous and exquisite face remained calm, as if she had seen this kind of thing countless times before.

"Is your purpose in coming to Luoyang this time precisely because of these children?"

Li Anchan neither confirmed nor denied it, saying, "Maybe so."

That's exactly it.

Several of these children will become capable young generals in the future, causing her a lot of trouble when her army crossed the river.

However, she certainly wouldn't say it out loud: "They're doomed to die if they stay in Luoyang. Yuan Hao is dead, but his backer is still there. Things like this will continue to happen in the future. You can save them tonight, but you can't save them forever, nor can you save more of them."

"I can." Wu Cheng simply uttered two words.

He continued, "These children are in your hands, but if one day I find out they haven't been properly cared for... I will personally go to Beisheng Kingdom and kill you."

As soon as he said this, the masked men following behind Li Anchan stepped forward, their killing intent palpable.

Li Anchan waved for them to leave, then a smile appeared on her face. "Can you really do it?"

Wu Cheng's gaze swept over her wolf-tail braid, then over her handsome, sculpted face, then over her long, fair neck, then over her long, fair neck again...

"...able."

So what if I feel repressed? It's not a big deal!

Once he gets back, he'll train with Sister Qingque every day! He doesn't believe he can't suppress his immense repression once he gets used to it!

"Don't worry, that day will never come."

Li Anchan clearly felt his gaze, but she was actually in a great mood because of it, and even her eyes curved into a smile.

"Yuan Hao left some things in his secret room. Come with me."

She turned and left, the oil lamp in her hand casting a swaying, dim yellow light on the narrow stairs.

Wu Cheng glanced at the children who had been taken in by the men in black, and then followed them.

The secret room was located behind Yuan Hao's study. The mechanism to open it was a movable stone brick embedded in the wall behind the bookshelf.

Li Anchan had clearly already figured out the secret of this secret room. After opening the secret room, she skillfully lit the two oil lamps on the wall.

The moment the lights came on, Wu Cheng's pupils narrowed from the dazzling golden light that filled the room.

The secret room wasn't large, but it was packed full of things.

To the left were a dozen camphor wood chests, their lids open, revealing neatly stacked gold ingots and jewelry inside.

Jade thumb rings, pigeon-blood red gemstones, and thumb-sized pearls are scattered among the gold ingots, gleaming with a dazzling, warm luster under the lamplight.

On the right is a bookshelf filled with thread-bound books.

He picked up a book casually and immediately felt that its weight was off.

After opening it, he squinted again and saw that the pages of the Book of Documents, filled with dense text, were made of gold sheets pressed together.

"Just how much of the people's wealth has Yuan Hao plundered...?"

"Those are actually the least important," Li Anchan said, handing him a book. "This is what's important."

Wu Cheng took it and opened it. He saw that it was filled with names and official titles in neat small regular script, as well as the matters entrusted to them and the gifts they gave.

From high-ranking officials in Lin'an, the capital, to minor clerks in Luoyang, everything was meticulously recorded, from the amount of gold and silver to the origin of antiques and paintings, and even to which families the children were sent to.

"Good heavens... this roster is enough to drag down most of the imperial court."

This is the Da Yu version of the "Records of Officials' Conduct"!

But the "surprise" wasn't over yet.

Li Anchan then handed him a sandalwood box.

Wu Cheng was stunned. This box was exactly the same as the one in Shenjiazhuang!

He opened it and found a jade key inside that looked different from the others. The jade key was warm and slightly cool to the touch, just like the jade key in Shen Family Village that day.

This is one of the six keys to Sun Lang's treasure vault!

Beneath this jade stone lay a neatly folded sheepskin map. When unfolded, the back still bore a line of small characters, but unlike the eight characters on the back of the map of Shenjiazhuang, "When the six keys are united, the treasure will appear," this one contained a different sentence.

[No blood needed to open the gates, no moon needed to go!]