CHAPTER 2034: CHAPTER 1653: TRUE IDENTITY FULLY EXPOSED (DOUBLE-LENGTH)

"Sir, sir!"

After making up his mind, Su Ran jogged towards Lu Yue’s residence. When he arrived at the door, he pushed it open without even knocking, only to find that the old beggar wasn’t inside.

"Huh?"

Su Ran was quite surprised. The old beggar hadn’t left the house in a long time, but now he was nowhere to be seen. You’ve got to be kidding, disappearing at the critical moment. How could this happen?

"Strange, where did he go?"

Su Ran circled around the house before stepping out and strolling around the village until he finally spotted the old beggar.

At this moment, the old beggar was busy helping the Lava Tribe chief and others build houses. The tribe members were each assigned tasks, assisting the old beggar, creating vegetable gardens, and bustling about with enthusiasm, not even noticing Su Ran’s arrival.

"Sir, put down the work you have at hand for a moment; I have something to ask you."

"Eh? Lord, since when are you here? What a rare guest!"

With just that one sentence from Su Ran, the old beggar, chief, and five or six tribe members gathered around, waiting for Su Ran to give orders.

In this situation, Su Ran felt somewhat at a loss, as if he were a leader enjoying welcoming attention. This feeling of being surrounded was somewhat unsettling. After a moment’s thought, he stated in a serious tone: "Comrades, you’ve worked hard."

"Serving the people!"

"...."

Su Ran nearly dropped his jaw in shock. These NPCs even knew such secret phrases, were they played by real people? After coughing a few times to steady his emotions, he said, "You guys carry on with your work, don’t let me hold up the progress. I just want to have a word with the old sir."

"Sigh, I thought the lord would offer us some warmth, wasted expectation!"

"Come on, don’t be naïve. The lord is busy; it’s unlikely he’ll worry about our affairs, let’s be diligent and do our work!"

The tribe members turned away in disappointment, chattering loudly as they left, all of which reached Su Ran’s ears. Whether it was done intentionally or not, the chief felt quite awkward and quickly explained to Su Ran: "My lord, don’t take it to heart; they were just joking. Even if you don’t provide warmth, we wouldn’t mind."

"Uh, elder, you’re overthinking it. The tribe members are right. Since they’ve worked so hard, as the lord, how can I not express some appreciation,"

With the chief’s insistence, Su Ran couldn’t play dumb, so he took out a handful of gold coins and handed them to the chief. "Elder, these gold coins are for your hard work..."

"Thank you!"

Before Su Ran finished his sentence, the chief, afraid he would change his mind, quickly took the coins, hurriedly leading the tribe members away from the scene.

"...."

Su Ran felt deceived, but even so, he had no temper. After all, they were his own people...

"My lord, what about mine?"

The old beggar shamelessly asked, revealing his big yellow teeth, "I’m not really interested in gold coins, just give me some Underworld Coins."

"Sir, you’re a sensible person."

Su Ran said meaningfully, pulling out three Underworld Coins and handing them over. Today was his day of losing wealth, he had already accepted it.

"Hehe, they’re new here and don’t know that the currency circulating in the village is Underworld Coins. Gold coins aren’t really useful, Underworld Coins are more practical."

The old beggar quickly tucked the Underworld Coins away, curiously asking, "My lord, do you have something?"

"Indeed, there is something I’d like to trouble you with. Take a look at this."

With that, Su Ran took out the tile but didn’t elaborate. The shrewd merchant had said that the old beggar recognized this tile, and this shouldn’t be wrong.

"This is..."

Upon seeing the tile, the old beggar was moved, his expression turned somewhat serious, "My lord, could you let me examine this tile closely?"

"Take it, no need to be polite with me!"

Su Ran handed over the tile directly, without any hesitation.

"It really is it!"

The old beggar was a bit uncertain, flipping it back and forth and even biting it to confirm the tile’s identity, exclaiming, "My lord, you truly are fortunate to obtain even a piece of the Ancestral Tile. Unfortunately, it’s just a fragment. Were it a complete Ancestral Tile, Skeleton Village would surely undergo a remarkable transformation!"

"That impactful?"

Su Ran never expected this tile to have such a prestigious name, asking repeatedly, "Sir, what is this Ancestral Tile, I’ve never heard of it..."

"My lord, you might not know, but since ancient times, there’s been a Heaven-reaching Ancient City on the God-Demon Continent, which even gods and demons dare not disturb. We call it the Ancestral City!"

The old beggar didn’t intend to conceal anything, sharing all that he knew, "Inside the Ancestral City are countless treasures, even a single brick or tile is extremely rare. Unfortunately, the Ancestral City did not withstand the apocalypse’s catastrophe and vanished into history’s long river. I only knew all this through ancient books."

"Sir, you’ve never been to the Ancestral City, how do you know this is a tile from there?"

Su Ran found it eerie as the tile looked no different from ordinary ones. Was there some identification method?

"Identifying it isn’t hard; the Imperial City once used an Ancestral Tile, which was built by my hand."