After confirming that the people in the room had fainted, Song Mingyuan collected all of Song Mingyan's belongings into her Spatial Dimension, not even leaving her the bed.
In this manner, she visited the main courtyard where Song Panshan resided, Madam Xu's Lotus Fragrance Courtyard, and Song Wenjun's Everlasting Glory Courtyard.
When she found Song Panshan, he was in the midst of amorous activities in his concubine's courtyard.
At the critical moment, a sudden sensation of weightlessness struck, and the two naked figures crashed directly onto the cold, hard floor.
Song Panshan shivered from the cold and was scared limp on the spot.
"Wh…what's going on?"
He looked around in bewilderment. The previously warm and cozy room now consisted of nothing but four bare walls.
The concubine bore the brunt of the fall, nearly losing half her life from the impact. Before she could even let out a wail, she saw the state of the room.
Her face turned deathly pale: "M-m-master, i-i-is our m-mansion… could it be haunted?"
A sinister chill shot straight up from the soles of his feet. Song Panshan gulped nervously, cold sweat pouring down: "Wh…what ghost? How could there possibly be ghosts in this world…"
"A sk-sk-skull!!"
A skull dropped down and rolled round and round until it stopped right in front of Song Panshan, its two hollow eye sockets staring directly at him.
Song Panshan was so terrified he scrambled around on all fours with his bare butt in the air, his face completely contorted as if he had lost control of his bodily functions.
Just as his head was buzzing with fear and his legs were trembling uncontrollably, his forehead slammed into something with a loud thud.
He glanced at it—a spirit tablet was facing him directly!
Song Panshan couldn't handle this kind of shock. His eyes rolled back and he fainted.
The concubine had long since been screaming in terror. Seeing such a bizarre sight, all her strength seemed to drain away, and she was so frightened that her limbs stiffened and she couldn't move.
In the end, she simply knocked herself unconscious.
"I think I heard the Master and Concubine Liu screaming! Something's happened! Quick, follow me!"
"Disaster! Thieves! Catch the thieves!"
"Something terrible! Everything in the kitchen is gone!"
"It's over, it's over! The storehouse has been robbed—everything inside has been cleaned out!"
"The granary is empty too!"
"Damn it all, this is insane! The entire mansion is empty!"
"The Master has fainted! Madam, someone call the Madam quickly! The Madam has fainted too? Steward, where's the steward?"
The Grand Tutor's mansion was in complete chaos.
Meanwhile, the culprit had already slipped away, and as she ran, she didn't forget to toss out the disgusting items from her Spatial Dimension with disdain.
Spittoon—discard!
Chamber pot—discard!
Court robe? Discard!
Hat? Discard!
Underpants? Discard!
…
By the time Song Mingyuan emerged from the Grand Tutor's mansion, she had thrown out most of the revolting things in her Spatial Dimension.
When she had been collecting them, she had been grabbing blindly in the dark and shoved everything inside. She hadn't known what she'd taken until she looked—and what she saw gave her a shock.
How could there even be smelly socks and stinky shoes? Wouldn't putting those in there pollute the air? They had to go!
Lu Peifeng had been waiting for some time. Seeing Song Mingyuan come out, he emerged from the shadows.
"Where's Xing'er?" Seeing that he was alone, Song Mingyuan asked.
"At the mansion," Lu Peifeng said, giving her a once-over. Seeing she was unharmed, he averted his gaze. "She caught a chill. I've already arranged for a physician to see her."
With no lingering worries, Song Mingyuan said, "Alright, let's go then. On to the next location. We need to finish clearing everything before dawn. Just tell me which shops along the way we can collect, and let's move quickly—we should have enough time."
Lu Peifeng also understood the urgency of the situation. Without delay, he reached out and wrapped his arm around her waist.
"I'll take you."
Only when she was lifted into the air, cold wind whipping against her face, did Song Mingyuan realize that Lu Peifeng had been going easy on her when he brought her to the Grand Tutor's residence.
This speed rivaled her peak velocity—though that was without utilizing Spiritual Power, of course.
Still, given Lu Peifeng's aptitude, he wouldn't fare poorly even in the Cultivation World.
Wherever Lu Peifeng brought Song Mingyuan, she emptied the store into her Spatial Dimension—whatever he pointed at, she cleared.
By the time they reached the residence of Wang Mao, the Minister of Revenue, they had already ransacked half the capital.
Jewelry shops, herbal medicine stores, pawnshops, restaurants, teahouses, clothing boutiques, grain stores, breweries…
Anything under the name of a corrupt official couldn't escape being swept clean.
Several hundred shops were stripped bare in a single night.
Lu Peifeng's extraordinary martial arts, paired with Song Mingyuan's first-rate Stealth Technique, allowed them to move through the mansions of corrupt officials like they were entering empty rooms.
The two took whatever they wanted, leaving nothing but barren ground in their wake.
This directly resulted in the vast space of the Fanbao Pavilion being too full to hold everything, forcing them to store items elsewhere.
"There's still one place we haven't searched." Seeing the faint light of dawn on the horizon, Lu Peifeng said with his eyes slightly closed.
Even after a sleepless night, not a trace of fatigue showed on his face.
Song Mingyuan, in contrast, was already yawning and listless—a mortal body really couldn't endure this!
If not for her Soul Body being exceptionally robust, she wouldn't have been able to sustain such continuous, uninterrupted hauling into the Spatial Dimension.
Hearing Lu Peifeng's words, she instinctively said, "The national treasury?"
"No, the emperor's private treasury. The national treasury concerns tens of thousands of common people—we can't touch that."
The emperor was incompetent, but Northern Wei was his kingdom—the kingdom the Lu family had defended for generations, even at the cost of their lives.
Though Lu Peifeng no longer held any loyalty toward the emperor, he could never empty the national treasury.
If the treasury ran dry, where would disaster relief grain come from? Where would provisions and military equipment come from?
If Northern Wei's military strength weakened, the people of Northern Wei would soon face ruin and displacement—the last thing Lu Peifeng, or any member of the Lu family, wanted to see.
"Fine, let's make it quick."
Song Mingyuan didn't let him make a move—she simply jumped onto his back. "I'll doze off for a bit. Wake me when we get there."
With that, she pressed her head against Lu Peifeng's stiff back and closed her weary eyes.
She absolutely needed to undergo Marrow Cleansing soon!
Lu Peifeng had never been in such close contact with a woman before. He froze for a long moment, yet surprisingly didn't fling her off right away.
Instead, he hesitated, reaching a hand to support Song Mingyuan's rear, then thought better of it and switched to hooking under her knees instead.
Fine, just this once!
Song Mingyuan didn't think much of it. She only felt that the moment she closed her eyes and opened them again, Lu Peifeng was already in the imperial palace.
She lay draped over his shoulder, staring in dazed disbelief. "Can you Teleport?"
Lu Peifeng set her down and said expressionlessly, "Two quarters of an hour have already passed."
"…"
She felt like she'd only slept for a second.
The palace guards were far more vigilant than those at officials' residences. At this hour, with dawn just breaking, it was precisely when the imperial guards were changing shifts and their watch was lax.
Under Lu Peifeng's guidance, Song Mingyuan located the emperor's private treasury with almost no effort.
"Palace dining expenses have already increased from ten thousand taels per month last year to twenty thousand taels now. According to the late emperor's established system, the annual expenditure must not exceed two hundred forty thousand taels."
"There's only a month left until the end of the year, and the palace will surely hold grand banquets to celebrate. The inner treasury has already spent two hundred thirty thousand taels—if we exceed that amount, won't the whole realm criticize us for extravagance and waste? Alas, what are we to do!"
The two hid in the shadows, listening to the accounting official shake his head and sigh as he recorded the ledgers.
"His Majesty has grown more and more particular about his food these past two years—he won't touch anything but the finest delicacies, won't drink anything but the choicest wines. His expenditures on meals increase every year without restraint. It's truly distressing to witness."
The inner treasury was the emperor's personal coffers, collecting fiscal surpluses to indulge the sovereign's private desires.
Within it lay countless gold, silver, and jewels; silks, brocades, and embroideries; tribute items and assorted curios; rare treasures beyond measure.
Calling it a mountain of gold and jade, a heap of jewels, would not be an exaggeration.
That bastard emperor really knew how to live in luxury.
An ordinary family couldn't spend even five taels in a whole year, yet he alone spent two hundred forty thousand taels annually on food alone. No wonder everyone scrambled and fought to become emperor!
Song Mingyuan fully exercised her Telekinesis ability, leaving not a single thing for that bastard emperor—she took it all.
At this moment, inside the Golden Throne Hall.
A host of courtiers held their ceremonial tablets and shouted, "Long live His Majesty!"
Among them, seventeen or eighteen officials, including Song Panshan, wore grim, woebegone expressions, their cheers weak and listless.
Song Panshan, nose running, couldn't hold himself together the moment he laid eyes on the emperor. He dropped to his knees with a thud, weeping and wailing.
"Your Majesty! You must seek justice for your old minister!"