[Vol. 1, Fragment XI: Ministry of Revenue ? Annual Vault Inspection]

  "National Treasury Vault: Unauthorized personnel strictly prohibited. If you hear gnawing sounds inside, absolutely do not open the door. That is the 'Deficit' eating the ledgers. Note: Three more rats that snuck in to steal oil starved to death this year. They couldn't even find a single grain of rice inside."

  — Ministry of Revenue ? Final Words of the Vault Keeper

  [Internal Note / Directorate of Astronomy] "Dragon Vein Dregs": Refers to the ash left behind after the empire's destiny has burned away. Usually found in the corners of the national treasury, its color resembling rust, its scent sweet and metallic like blood.

  The night at the Miscellaneous Division was sticky with a chill that clung to the skin like an un-washable film of grease.

  Xie Bi’an sat at the desk missing a leg, carefully using a small file to polish the freshly baked "Fire Essence." The thing was far too hot. Even after cooling for half an hour, it still radiated an astonishing amount of heat, scorching the desk with a sizzling tss-tss sound and sending up wisps of green smoke. Xianchan the golden cat lay beside it, blissfully inhaling the heat radiating from the Fire Essence, occasionally burping and spitting out a golden spark.

  "Five thousand taels."

  Xie Bi’an asked without lifting his head as he filed. "Commander Shen, what did the Prefectural Office say? Did you get the banknotes?"

  Shen Wu sat opposite him, carefully wiping his ring-pommel saber—which had its edge chipped at the kiln factory—by the candlelight. Hearing the question, his hand froze in mid-air, and his expression turned somewhat ugly.

  "I didn't get it."

  Shen Wu’s voice was dry. "The advisor at the Prefectural Office said five thousand taels is a massive sum. It requires the signature of the Minister of Revenue, and then it must go through the verification processes of the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Works... At the fastest, it will take three months."

  "Three months?"

  The file in Xie Bi’an’s hand abruptly stopped. He looked up, revealing a mocking, "just as I expected" smile.

  "By the time three months pass, the day lilies will be cold. The advisor probably also told you to go back and wait for news, and poured you a cup of tea while he was at it?"

  Shen Wu nodded.

  "A beautifully executed 'delay tactic.' The tea is to show you the door; the words are empty promises." Xie Bi’an sneered and tossed the file onto the table. "In other words, they plan to welch on this debt."

  He stood up, stretching his Liuli right hand, which still ached faintly.

  "Let's go, Commander Shen. To the Ministry of Revenue." He turned his head. "Same as before, Fatty watches the house. Anu, you're with me!"

  Xie Bi’an grabbed the Fire Essence and carefully tucked it into his robes. "Since they won't pay up, we'll go collect some 'interest.' It just so happens that the second material we need—'Dragon Vein Dregs'—is located in the underground vault of the Ministry of Revenue."

  The Department of State Affairs for the Ministry of Revenue was located in the southeastern corner of the Imperial Palace.

  Logically speaking, this place, which managed the wealth and grain of the entire empire, should have been a land of abundance, resplendent in gold and jade. But as the two men stood before the massive vermilion doors, all they felt was a heavy aura of twilight and decay.

  "What a heavy smell of mold." Xie Bi’an wrinkled his nose, raising his sleeve to cover his mouth in disgust. "This smell... it's like someone sealed a pile of wet cotton quilts in a jar and let them ferment for twenty years."

  The paint on the large doors had peeled off in massive flakes, revealing the rotting wood beneath. The stone lion at the entrance was missing a paw, and the broken stump was covered in thick moss, looking as if it had contracted a skin disease. Most eerily, it was far too quiet here. The only sound was the flapping of torn lanterns under the eaves as the wind blew past—whoosh, whoosh—sounding like invisible soul-summoning banners swaying in the dark.

  "Are there... still people working here?" Shen Wu frowned, his hand resting on his saber hilt.

  "Yes."

  Xie Bi’an pushed open the unlocked doors in front of him. A sharp, prolonged creeeeak scraped against their eardrums. "It's just that they aren't much different from dead men."

  The main hall was dim.

  Behind dozens of desks sat dozens of Ministry of Revenue officials in their official robes.

  Shen Wu approached one of the officials, intending to ask a question, but the moment he clearly saw the man's face, a chill shot straight up his spine to the back of his head.

  The official's eyeballs were covered by a thick layer of white cataracts. His hand mechanically gripped a brush, mindlessly drawing circles on a ledger. Shen Wu looked around. All the dozens of officials in the hall were in the exact same state—they maintained their working postures, but there was not the slightest rise and fall in their chests.

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  "They were eaten by the 'ledgers'."

  Xie Bi’an casually picked up a ledger and flipped through it. It was densely packed with red numbers; every stroke looked as if it were bleeding.

  "The Great Wei national treasury has been in deficit for twenty years. These numbers are too big, too heavy. They crushed the breath out of them. Their souls have long been pinned beneath these red characters."

  Xie Bi’an tossed the ledger back. "Ignore these walking corpses. Where we need to go is underground."

  The two crossed the main hall to an artificial rockery in the backyard. Xie Bi’an expertly turned a hidden mechanism. Amidst a cacophony of grinding gears—clack-clack-clack—the rockery rumbled and split open, revealing a pitch-black tunnel leading underground.

  A blast of cold air, laced with the scent of rust, rushed into their faces.

  They waited outside for a few breaths before descending into the tunnel. The further down they went, the heavier the scent of rust became, now mixed with an indescribable, sour stench.

  Finally, they arrived before a massive bronze door. Xie Bi’an pushed it open. With a heavy, muffled boom, the thick echo reverberated layer by layer through the underground space.

  Shen Wu raised his fire striker, illuminating the area ahead.

  However, the moment the firelight flared, he froze.

  The colossal underground space was completely empty.

  There were no mountains of silver, no seas of gold. On the ground lay only a thick layer of dust and countless white slips of paper—all of them IOUs.

  "This..." Shen Wu’s voice trembled. "Where is the silver?"

  "Eaten."

  Xie Bi’an pointed to a corner of the wall.

  There lay the massive, bleached skeleton of a rat.

  The rat was grotesquely large, nearly the size of a cow, curled up in the corner. And in the space where its stomach would have been, it was stuffed full of those white IOUs.

  "That's the former 'Vault-Guarding Beast'." Xie Bi’an said faintly. "It used to survive by eating the grease and oil off the silver. Later, when the silver was gone, it could only eat the IOUs. In the end... it starved to death while dreaming of mountains of gold and seas of silver."

  "Then the 'Dragon Vein Dregs' you're looking for..."

  "Over there."

  Xie Bi’an pointed to the massive iron pillars supporting the domed ceiling.

  The originally pitch-black iron pillars were now covered at their bases by a thick layer of dark red rust. The rust looked extremely nauseating, resembling a layer of coagulated blood scabs, and it was even squirming slightly.

  "The national treasury is empty, the empire's destiny has scattered. The little residue that's left is all hanging on these pillars." Xie Bi’an pulled out a small trowel, his eyes shining. "This is good stuff. The absolute best accelerant."

  He walked over and was just about to scrape off a layer of the rust.

  Suddenly, the air in the entire underground vault stagnated violently.

  There was no wind in this place, yet countless slips of paper began to rub against each other, emitting a rustle... rustle... sound. The layer of dust on the ground suddenly boiled as countless white IOUs began to flutter without wind.

  "Pay back the money..."

  "This debt... how do we balance it..."

  "The deficit... can't be filled..."

  Countless fragmented, despairing whispers drilled into Shen Wu’s ear canals, sounding like thousands of creditors pressing against his scalp, demanding his life.

  Immediately after, the dancing IOUs violently converged, forming the massive outline of a beast made entirely of debt slips. Its eyes were two hollow black holes radiating a greedy green light, staring dead at the "Fire Essence" in Xie Bi’an’s robes.

  It was hungry. It smelled the scent of "Value."

  "It's a 'Deficit Ghost'!" Xie Bi’an’s expression changed, and he took a step back. "This thing is formed from the resentment of the national treasury's deficit; it's immune to weapon attacks! Shen Wu, don't chop!"

  But Shen Wu’s saber was already out. With a clear, resonant hum of steel, the blade-light cleaved the white monster cleanly in half.

  The result, naturally, was useless.

  The severed IOUs didn't even pause. Amidst a loud rustle-rustle of paper, they instantly re-adhered, turning into an uncuttable mass of white glue that lunged directly at Shen Wu.

  "Anu!"

  Xie Bi’an shouted loudly. "This thing fears fire! But you can't use ordinary fire; you have to burn it with the 'Aura of Wealth and Rank'!"

  "Aura of Wealth and Rank?" Shen Wu yelled in breakdown as he dodged miserably. "Where am I supposed to get the Aura of Wealth and Rank? I only earn a fixed dead salary!"

  "Idiot!"

  Xie Bi’an gritted his teeth and pulled out the "blank check" representing the cooperation between the Mirror Demon Division and the Directorate of Astronomy—the very piece of paper listing the materials, which he had originally intended to have the Ministry of Revenue reimburse.

  He bit the tip of his right index finger until it bled and rapidly wrote a number on it: "Ten Thousand Taels".

  "Anu, slap this on its forehead! That's the 'appropriation of funds' it wants to eat the most!"

  The silver cat, Anu, understood implicitly. She transformed into a swift streak of silver light, caught the paper in her mouth, and stepped lightly across the fluttering IOUs before her, precisely slapping the "Ten Thousand Taels" check squarely onto the Deficit Ghost's forehead.

  With a massive boom, the colossal Deficit Ghost instantly ceased its attack. Its body collapsed inward; like starving dogs fighting over scrap meat, all the IOUs surged frantically toward that "Ten Thousand Taels."

  "Now!"

  Xie Bi’an rushed to the iron pillar. The trowel in his hand scraped furiously, emitting an ear-piercing, screeching screee-screee of friction.

  He scraped off the layer of dark red "Dragon Vein Dregs" and stuffed it into a black pouch. The material was incredibly heavy in his hands; every gram felt like iron sand that had gorged itself on blood.

  "Enough! Retreat!"

  Xie Bi’an grabbed the pouch and turned to run.

  Behind them, the Deficit Ghost had finished devouring the blank check. Realizing it was a fake, it let out an even more furious roar—a deafening bellow of rage.

  Countless IOUs transformed into a white torrent, surging violently toward them.

  "Run!"

  The two men and one cat sprinted madly through the underground tunnel. The moment they burst out of the rockery, Xie Bi’an backhanded a talisman paper onto the mechanism. Amidst a thunderous rumble, the rockery violently slammed shut, securely blocking the white torrent underground.

  "Hah... hah..."

  Shen Wu collapsed onto the ground, panting heavily, the clothes on his back completely soaked through with sweat.

  "This is... the Ministry of Revenue?"

  He looked at the long saber in his hand. Although it hadn't hit a solid entity, the edge was already rolled. His eyes were blank. "It's more terrifying than a demon's lair."

  "A demon's lair eats people but spits out the bones."

  Xie Bi’an patted the black pouch in his hand, which contained the very last residue of the Great Wei Dynasty's "destiny."

  "This place eats people... and doesn't even leave the dregs."

  He stood up, looking at the eastern sky just beginning to turn the color of a fish's belly, a deep exhaustion seeping from his eyes.

  "Two down. Two to go."

  Xie Bi’an looked at Shen Wu, a bitter smile hooking the corner of his mouth.

  "Commander Shen, this next one is going to be even harder to deal with. We have to go find 'Mermaid Tears.' And this item... rumor has it, was taken by the most favored Imperial Noble Consort to be ground into pearl powder for her face masks."