Chapter 215: What Lies in the Secret Vault of the Hidden World Clan

Chapter 215: What Lies in the Secret Vault of the Hidden World Clan

“I think luxury goods are an incredibly effective tool for amassing wealth, whether it’s cars, watches, bags, or alcohol.”

Chen Xiyi walked through the manor of the Hidden World Clan. This seemed to be the area where the main lineage lived. Honestly, the level of luxury inside made him want to smash everything with a pickaxe and take it all away.

Even the mountain had been hollowed out, becoming an underground secret base.

Entering the secret vault of the manor, he found it stored not only documents but also various antiques, calligraphy, paintings, gold, and some precious medicinal herbs.

“Medicinal herbs don’t seem very useful to me. They should probably be categorized as materials or ingredients.”

The Home Game had no category for medicinal herbs, nor for recovery items. Food was essentially used to increase Satiety Level, while other status effects were essentially byproducts.

“I’ll take it all. Later, I can have the Hellish Demon Chef prepare some medicinal dishes for me.”

As the saying goes, a thief never leaves empty-handed. Since he was already here, he decided to lower his moral standards just a tiny bit—well, maybe a whole lot—and collect all these items.

Antiques and paintings could serve as decorations, gold was material, and medicinal herbs could be used as ingredients.

There were also various other things Chen Xiyi didn’t recognize, and he took them all.

By the time he finished collecting, more than half an hour had passed. One should not underestimate the collection of a Hidden World Clan; these items still held historical value. The true wealth of the Hidden World Clan, however, was their power and fixed assets.

Honestly, even the Ximen Family didn’t have the capability to create such a secret vault, yet this Hidden World Clan actually possessed one.

“Dongfang Aristocratic Family. Interesting.” Chen Xiyi flipped open the clan genealogy in the vault. This Hidden World Clan was surnamed Dongfang, and the first name listed was Dongfang Bai.

“This name sounds somewhat familiar.”

Chen Xiyi searched his memory for this name. Since it sounded familiar, he must have encountered or heard it before. Given his Primordial Spirit, it couldn’t be a false impression; it was just that he had too many memories and needed to sift through them.

“Found it. The winner of the twelfth God of Cookery Contest, trained in the Nine Suns school, specializing in knife skills. It was said that with a single cut, nine suns would rise. Those who looked directly would feel as if seeing a great sun—mild cases suffered eye strain, severe cases lost their sight.”

“Later, he became the head chef of the Nine Suns school, served as the Imperial Culinary Supervisor, and governed all chefs under heaven.”

“Basically, he was like the martial arts alliance leader, but for chefs.”

He continued reading down the list. He also recognized some of the later names; most had served as officials in various dynasties, but none were noteworthy chefs anymore. The so-called Nine Suns school gradually faded into obscurity.

By now, not a single recipe book could be found; even the legendary divine knife, the Three-legged Crow, had been lost.

“Interesting. One generation establishes it, and it’s passed down for ten thousand generations. The Hidden World Clan truly are the descendants of those chefs from back then.”

Chen Xiyi looked at the biographies in the secret vault. These biographies were covered in dust, clearly showing that these unfilial descendants had never bothered to maintain them.

Only the clan genealogy was relatively well-preserved, probably because newborns from the main lineage needed to be registered in it.

Of course, this only recorded the main lineage. Branch lines and side families would later be removed and entered into separate genealogies, unless they made significant contributions to the family, in which case they could be recorded in the main lineage’s genealogy.

In the past, this might have been important, but nowadays, it was not highly valued. Whether you registered or not was up to you.

The branch genealogies weren’t kept here; instead, they were stored in village temples in the towns. In recent years, the practice of distributing them had completely stopped, replaced by a reformed structure resembling a family conglomerate.

Chen Xiyi guessed that the four major families of Yanzhou were likely branch families spawned from this Dongfang Aristocratic Family.

They probably served as a front for the Dongfang Aristocratic Family.

“The secret vault is outdated. It’s just a simple storage room. With the changes of the era, it has become obsolete.”

Chen Xiyi sighed, then put the genealogy and all the books back in place.

He had memorized what he needed. Taking the books back would be pointless; it was better to leave them here as a memento for the other party.

“However, the Supernatural Ability Users weren’t created by them; they were recruited. But they were all dispatched to other places for garrison duties. This place is probably more like their ancestral home.”

Chen Xiyi explored the Dongfang Aristocratic Family’s grounds extensively. Apart from the gains from the secret vault, he didn’t find much else.

There seemed to be many bodyguards, and quite a few members of the Dongfang Aristocratic Family lived here, but the real core personnel were stationed in various parts of Yanzhou.

This was how they could better control the entire region’s situation. If the whole family indulged in extravagance and pleasure here, others wouldn’t simply obey them willingly.

To suppress all these different forces, one needed capability and capital. Otherwise, the outcome would be being divided and devoured by various powers. How could they possibly live so carefree otherwise?

The saying “virtue does not match the position” is universal. Without sufficient ability, one cannot fulfill the corresponding duties to gain adequate power.

If the Dongfang Aristocratic Family members were all good-for-nothing heirs who only knew how to eat, drink, and have fun, their fate would surely be the same as the Ximen Family’s.

The Dongfang Aristocratic Family could easily eliminate the Ximen Family and even force Black Eagle Security to replace their Yanzhou general manager. Their influence was undoubtedly substantial; otherwise, how could they accomplish these things?

“With the Ximen Family gone, the next flagship family will likely be chosen from among the remaining three families.”

Chen Xiyi leisurely left the secret vault of the Dongfang Aristocratic Family. On his way out, he knocked off a few luxury cars that looked good and stored them in his Inventory. He also picked and chose, taking quite a few other things before returning to his Underground Shelter.

“The other Hidden World Clans outside Yanzhou are a bit too far. Otherwise, I might have been able to find more items.”

After his extensive exploration, Chen Xiyi didn’t find any corresponding manufacturing techniques. Instead, from the data he obtained, he found awakening information, which further confirmed his belief that Supernatural Ability Users couldn’t be artificially created.

This awakening couldn’t be inherited; it was random. No one knew who would awaken or when it would happen.

So, relatively speaking, it depended on luck. However, most Supernatural Ability Users were conscripted by the authorities and then reassigned. The few who refused conscription were dealt with by the noble families—whether captured alive or otherwise—and the authorities didn’t interfere.

They were a rather unlucky bunch.

Fortunately, their numbers were quite small. Based on the network data Chen Xiyi infiltrated from various factions, there were at most a little over a hundred of these Supernatural Ability Users. They couldn’t stir up much trouble, as most were in an agency called the Paranormal Ability Department.

They were usually dispatched as tools for missions, somewhat like an alternative version of the War Tiger Squad.

Chen Xiyi also found many experimental data attempting to replicate Supernatural Ability Users, but with no success. Some people were still trying, but due to lack of progress, funding was scarce, and they were almost on the verge of shutting down.

From the data, Chen Xiyi also learned that in recent years, very few Supernatural Ability Users had emerged, unlike in the past when there were one or two occasionally.

“The emergence of Supernatural Ability Users can be traced back to the retainers of the chefs. As the supernatural abilities of the chef profession in this world declined, the Supernatural Ability Users declined along with it.”

“So, the effects brought by those miraculous foods also have hereditary properties?”

“But, they tend to be unstable or lack some stable hereditary factor?”

“And this factor is likely related to the decline of the chefs.”

This world was just too chaotic. There were chefs, Peach Blossom Luck possessors, immortal cultivators, martial artists, ghosts, Supernatural Ability Users, and so on—a real hodgepodge.

It kept Chen Xiyi too busy to spare attention for separate research.

“Let’s put the others aside for now and focus on resolving the Peach Blossom Luck matter first.” Chen Xiyi still intended to proceed according to his own plan.

The chefs were done for. It seemed that due to the disappearance of the Black Jade Pot, the God of Cookery Contest had been postponed indefinitely. Unless the Black Jade Pot was found, it might remain postponed forever. Even if other chefs wanted to restart it, the noble families would likely seize the chance to crush them.

As for Supernatural Ability Users, in Chen Xiyi’s view, they were derivatives of the chefs, so naturally, they were also set aside.

Immortal cultivation and martial arts were closely related to Peach Blossom Luck. He discovered that to possess these two abilities, one needed two prerequisites: Peach Blossom Luck and a god-tier ability.

In other words, only those with harem-style protagonist traits had the qualification; others simply did not.

He had confirmed this: throughout Yanzhou, unless the person had a grandiose prefix like “Soldier King” or “Divine Doctor,” there were none.

“Maybe I can look for Ye Fan’s nine masters. The medical skills and immortal cultivation abilities he possesses were taught by them. Perhaps I can find some clues there.”

Chen Xiyi thought of Ye Fan at this point. Over these days, Ye Fan’s Favorability with him had dropped to 0.5 stars. Soon, it would probably hit rock bottom.

Ye Fan’s prefix hadn’t changed. Through network devices, Chen Xiyi had also discovered Ye Fan’s current situation.

Sure enough, he had become a live-in son-in-law type, but he was still the arrogant, face-slapping kind of protagonist. In just a few days, he had gotten involved with his sister-in-law. Then, during morning exercise, he saved an old man who had a heart attack. Naturally, this old man had an unusual status—he was a former top official in Yanzhou. And, coincidentally, this old man also had a youthful, beautiful, and flower-like granddaughter.

Later, using his fiancée’s resources, he helped some female university student solve some minor issues.

Basically, the number of beauties around him kept increasing, and he seemed to enjoy it endlessly every day.

Honestly, Chen Xiyi wondered how these people managed to roll around in piles of women every day without their abilities deteriorating. Was it just a case of “once proven, always proven”?

Chen Xiyi studied every day to ensure he transformed his potential into actual strength. If he slacked off for ten days or half a month, his mindset would definitely change.

“After I send Beauty No. 2 to Chu Ge, I’ll find a way to locate where Ye Fan’s nine masters are. Then, I’ll give Beauty No. 3 to him.”

For friends whose Favorability could drop, Chen Xiyi basically didn’t consider them real friends.

If your Favorability could drop, didn’t that mean you might screw me over later?

What he wanted were friends with stable, non-dropping Favorability. Even if their abilities were a bit lacking, Chen Xiyi wouldn’t mind.

Friends—what mattered was the depth of feeling. A gentleman’s friendship is as light as water. As long as they were 4-star or 5-star friends, Chen Xiyi would accept whatever they gave him.

“I’m trading a beauty for his masters. No matter how you think about it, Ye Fan is getting a good deal. A beauty brings pleasure, masters…”

“If his nine masters are also beauties, well, that could be pleasurable too.”

Chen Xiyi suddenly spotted this blind spot.

“But it’s fine. I don’t want his masters; I just want their memories. Trading memories for a beauty—even if Ye Fan’s nine masters are all beauties, I wouldn’t use them. The pleasure would still be his.”

Chen Xiyi thought it over. He felt he wasn’t lusting after anyone’s body. Thinking this way, Ye Fan was still the one profiting.

He was getting a beauty for free. Even though she was No. 3, not No. 1, given Chen Xiyi’s precarious 0.5-star friendship with him, he’d ensure to create a good-looking one for him, perfectly matching his preferences.

“Anyway, Ye Fan profited, and I suffered a huge loss—so much that I can only afford to take the bus now.” After weighing the values, Chen Xiyi felt he had lost out. But as a friend, losing a bit was okay. He was just that magnanimous.