Chapter 1233 - 388: Strange Iron Plate_3
Looking at the Six Beasts all dirty and disheveled, Mo Yan felt both amused and annoyed. She was about to send them off to bathe themselves when she was drawn to the object in Little Flower’s mouth, "What is this?"
Little Flower scurried up to Mo Yan, opened its mouth, and spat a metal piece into her hand. Its eyes were shining bright, clearly eager to know what treasure it had found.
Mo Yan examined the peculiarly shaped but finely crafted metal piece, barely the size of a palm, clueless about its purpose. However, when she flipped the piece over and saw the stamp on the back, her face suddenly changed color, and she quickly asked Mao Tuan, "Where did you get this from?"
The Court strictly controlled the production of salt and iron, particularly the mining of iron ore. Unauthorized mining was a serious crime punishable by the extermination of one’s entire family. Iron exported from the mines would be marked with an official stamp to prove that it had been acquired through "legitimate channels."
This oddly shaped metal piece bore an official stamp, proving its legitimate source, and despite being reforged, the stamp was still preserved alongside a strange mark—indicating that the metal was cast by the Court.
But now that the metal had appeared in the hands of someone with dubious intentions, the situation was no longer so simple.
Little Flower barked twice, and through Xue tuanzi’s translation, Mo Yan heard, "I picked it up in the forest behind the Imperial palace. Someone had dropped it."
The so-called forest was actually just a few small hills, about two miles away from the Imperial palace. The soil quality there was very good, and it was lush with trees and an assortment of rare herbs, serving as the Imperial Family’s royal garden. Many of the potted plants used within the palace were cultivated there.
Little Flower had grown up in Duke Wu’an’s Mansion and knew every nook and cranny of Jing City. Tonight, it led the other five Beasts to cleverly avoid the crowds and they roamed all over Jing City. Naturally, they did not miss out on the royal garden.
At the time, the Six Beasts split up. Little Flower encountered a person on its way. When that person saw Little Flower, they panicked and ran off, accidentally dropping the iron piece.