Under the night sky, the evening breeze was cold and silent.
Throughout Chang'an City, the hustle and bustle of the city gradually stopped from the streets, then dispersed into the inner squares, and finally gradually returned to silence.
On the watchtower in the south of the city, Li Xuan watched calmly as countless lights gradually went out. Only a few people's lights were still burning.
Except for Pingkangfang, almost all the inner sanctuaries in the entire Chang'an City are falling asleep regularly.
Total darkness.
"Lamp oil in Chang'an is expensive, and the city is deep at night; the lamps are lonely, and the stars shine brightly at night."
Li Xuan sighed softly, looked up at the stars above her head, placed her hand on the Eight-sided Han Sword, turned her wrist slightly, and had an inexplicable killing intent in her eyes.
At this moment, there was a sound of footsteps underfoot.
Di Renjie quickly came up from below, wearing a black soap coat.
After coming up, Di Renjie solemnly raised his hands to Li Xuan and said, "Your Majesty, everything has been arranged in Jing'anfang. The Qianniu Guards are all lurking around, waiting for the prince's order to arrest people immediately."
Before Li Xuan could speak, Ming Chongyan, wearing a blue Taoist robe, walked out from the shadows behind him with a flick of his fly whisk.
Ming Chongyan glanced at Di Renjie in surprise, and then said calmly: "Di Si Cheng, you have misunderstood the King of Nanchang. For tonight, everything in Jing'anfang ends here. After Qianniu Guards squatted for two hours, All retreat.”
Di Renjie couldn't help but be stunned and asked in surprise: "Aren't you going to arrest Zhou Zhi tonight?"
"Why should we arrest him? Because he often comes in and out of Pingkangfang, and because he gives a lot of money to Qinxiangyuan every month?" Li Xuan shook his head slightly.
With a sigh, Li Xuan continued without looking back: "Brother Di, it's not enough. Just because we have everything now is not enough.
If you want to convict a disciple who is at the top of the fifth rank, you can't convict him of a serious crime just because the source of a large sum of money is unknown; and he is just a small character who has been caught, who is really controlling him behind the scenes. That person is the one we really want to catch. "
Zhou Zhi, the minister in charge of the matter, was among the last three people who were screened out and determined to be the one who really leaked the secret.
Qinxiangyuan is the most expensive brothel in Pingkangfang. Even Li Xuan is stunned by the money spent every time.
But Zhou Zhi, however, sent a large sum of money to Qinxiang Garden every month.
In a short period of time, they could not find out the source of the money. Although they knew it was related to the Tibetan people, without evidence, they could not convict a disciple who was on the fifth rank. Instead, they would alert the snake.
The other suspects are Cui Fan, a native of Zhongshu Province. Although he is also lavish, the Boling Cui family is not short of this little money.
Hu Zai, a member of the prince's family, spent a lot of money in Pingkangfang, but the money he spent was all given by the prince, and he was not spending it for himself.
As for what he was doing, Li Xuan didn't check, Di Renjie didn't check, and Ming Chongyan didn't check either.
…
The minister in charge of the affairs of the province is responsible for reviewing the sealing and refutation of imperial edicts and memorials. If there is any objection, he can directly correct and refute the imperial edicts and return them.
If the imperial edict issued by the emperor feels that there is something wrong or inappropriate, it can be sent back and asked for correction by the emperor, or it can be withdrawn directly.
On the fifth rank, he has a humble but powerful position, not inferior to the prime minister.
It is precisely because of this that all kinds of imperial edicts issued by the emperor, whether secret or not, may be recorded by them when passing through the province.
Di Renjie frowned and said in confusion: "If it involves a serious crime of leaking secrets, you can completely monitor the person first. Although it will not be tortured, a thorough investigation is still possible. The person behind this will be completely There’s a chance to find out.”
Leaker, a felony.
Laws of the Tang Dynasty - Laws of Professional Responsibilities: Anyone who leaks important matters that should be kept secret will be hanged. The big things are things like secretly planning an attack, arresting someone, and plotting a rebellion...
If it is leaked to the envoy of the Fan Kingdom, he will be given an additional rank. His wife and children have traveled two thousand miles.
"The serious crime of leaking secrets requires more verification. Even if we can persuade His Majesty to temporarily imprison the person, if nothing is found in the end, you and I will have to rebel; Your Majesty will not agree to not tell the truth at that time. Even the ministers will not agree."
Ming Chongyan shook his head slightly, then sighed and said: "Besides, the person behind the scenes is far hidden, clean and hard to catch. Who knows if he has other informants. When it comes to other secrets, we can't eliminate them all at once. , the consequences will be huge.”
Di Renjie frowned and asked, "Then what's the purpose of your arrangement tonight?"
"It's just a warning." Li Xuan shook her head slightly and said: "Tonight, there are at least ten people on the list. Outside the house, Qianniu Guards appeared. When someone asked, they said it was for protection, but what is the actual situation? I have something on my mind, especially after what we are going to do tonight.”
"Do we have anything else to do tonight?" Di Renjie's face suddenly became solemn, but his heart felt cloudy and foggy.
How does it feel that Li Xuan and Ming Chongyan have already made many arrangements in the short period of time he left.
Li Xuan put her hands behind her hands, turned to look towards the south of the city, and said calmly: "What we want to do tonight is to completely eradicate Master Shan Wuhui in Da Ci'en Temple, frame Duke Zhou, and almost kill me and Master Shi Yin. The mastermind behind this is also implicated.”
"Has the prince found them?" Di Renjie looked surprised.
It can almost be said that he was with Li Xuan today, and there were not many other actions he made. How could the mastermind behind it be caught out so quickly?
"It was the outstanding men of the Nanchang Prince's Mansion. The man moved around on the long street several times, but he was always stared at by the Nanchang Prince's people. Finally, they followed and found the last secret hiding place of the group of people." Ming Chongyan walked away. Go forward and look up at the location of Ande Fang to the south.
In Andefang, most of the houses' lights have been extinguished, but only a few still have their lights on.
Lamp oil in Chang'an is expensive, and ordinary people cannot afford to burn lamps until late at night for 365 days a year.
Cutting through the wall to steal the light is enough to illustrate how expensive the lamp oil is.
Although the city of Chang'an is filled with officials and businessmen, there are more ordinary people. Not to mention, Andefang is in the southernmost part of Chang'an, far away from the land of the rich and powerful.
Although that house does not appear to be conspicuous in the square, when viewed from the watchtower, it is as conspicuous as a firefly in the dark.
Even though Ming Chongyan only knew that he was in Ande Square, he had completely locked his position now.
Li Xuan took a gentle breath and said calmly: "Now that everything is ready, let's do it. The king's guard finally spread the specially made perfume on the man silently, and finally took it with him The hounds followed, and if something goes wrong, I won't be responsible."
Ming Chongyan smiled, and Li Xuan easily pulled out the hook he set. She was as cautious as ever!
"Well, let's do it over there." As soon as Ming Chongyan finished speaking, a man walked out of the dark shadows, all dressed in black.
The man walked directly to the torch hanging on the wall, took it down, and finally walked to the watchtower window and waved the torch in his hand vigorously into the distance.
In an instant, countless right-guard soldiers rushed out from all the streets around Andefang, completely separating the entire Andefang from other places.
Outside the square gate, the fully armed Qianniu Guards had already shouted open the square gate, and in a blink of an eye, they rushed towards the bookstore like a flood.
…
Seeing Qian Niuwei rushing into the bookstore and standing on the watchtower, Li Xuan looked sideways at Ming Chongyan and said, "Master, who do you think we will encounter this time?"
"The Chang'an branch of Wanxiang Pavilion has always been held concurrently by the deputy master Ming An. Over the years, Wanxiang Pavilion has been hiding very deep. It is difficult to catch their traces, especially after every time their stronghold is destroyed, they immediately have Use other methods to make a comeback, making it difficult for you to prevent it.”
Ming Chongyan sighed softly, looked at the fighting in the distance, and said softly: "In particular, Wanxiang Pavilion has always only interfered with intelligence, and rarely did such killings. If someone hadn't reported the leakage of intelligence, then they had stolen Tianda Da We don’t know the secrets.”
"In the past, the Wusheng Dao was responsible for killings, but now that the Wusheng Dao has been basically wiped out, Wanxiang Pavilion has to do it personally." Li Xuan looked calm and looked at the city in the distance. Gate Tower said: "It seems that the King of East China Sea is completely dead."
"Yes, he is completely dead." Ming Chongyan completely put an end to this matter.
According to the intelligence gathered by the secret guards from all aspects, internal strife seems to be taking place within Wusheng Dao.
It seems that someone is forcibly taking over the power of Wu Sheng Dao, and looking at that kind of behavior, it seems that there is some style of the Demon Cult.
If the King of East China Sea did not die, how could the devil dare to act?
Li Xuan's eyes dropped and fell on the roof on the south side of the bookstore, where a black shadow lurked.
Li Xuan turned to look at Ming Chongyan and asked in a low voice: "Master, why don't you take action? If you don't take action, that person will run away."
Ming Chongyan smiled faintly and said, "Hasn't the prince already made arrangements? Why do I need to intervene?"
Di Renjie stood on one side, breathing heavily.
These two guys were fighting each other, and they didn't seem tired at all, but rather enjoyed it. He couldn't help but start thinking about all the places he had missed before, and at the same time, he quickly remembered these experiences in his heart.
There was a "pop" sound and the candle sounded softly.
Di Renjie raised his head and looked around, and saw a figure on the roof of the south side of the bookstore silently climbing to the highest point of the roof. Opposite the alley on the south side, there was the Chang'an City Wall.
The reason why the bookstore was located on the south side of Ande Square was to make it most convenient to escape from Chang'an City after the accident.
…
In the blink of an eye, the black shadow jumped up and rushed towards the city wall.
He jumped three times and twice on the twelve-meter-high city wall, and he was about to jump onto the city wall.
Di Renjie keenly noticed that the stone walls of the city seemed to have been manipulated a long time ago, so he could go so smoothly.
However, just as the black shadow jumped onto the city wall, a calm voice suddenly sounded on the city wall: "Amitabha!"
The black shadow looked up, and a bronze palm as big as a banana had directly covered it.
Behind the palm is a middle-aged monk with a calm expression and angry eyes.
The Buddha also has the angry eyes of Vajra.
The things that Wanxiang Pavilion did at Daci'en Temple made people in the Buddhist sect extremely angry.
Since Xuanzang returned to the East after collecting Buddhist scriptures and translated and transmitted Buddhist scriptures, almost all Buddhist sects in China have come to Da Ci'en Temple to ask for help in learning Dharma.
The emperor even enshrined his mother, Queen Mingde, in the Daci'en Temple, which shows how valuable she is.
Over the years, Daci'en Temple has almost become the most sacred place for Buddhism in the Tang Dynasty.
Now, someone actually committed crimes in Da Ci'en Temple, causing harm and conspiracy. The news spread, and countless monks were filled with anger.
Li Xuan just sent a message about today's matter, and Daci'en Temple sent a senior elder who had practiced with Master Xuanzang to come.
With one palm strike, Yang Shou, the helmsman of Chang'an Branch of Wanxiang Pavilion, a cultivator in the Mysterious Embryo Realm, was slapped to the ground by a slap in the face.
It was also at this moment that countless crossbow arrows were shot out from both sides of the long street, hitting Yang Shou fiercely on the ground.
In the critical moment, Yang Shou slammed his palms on the ground, his whole body instantly flew up, and then he grabbed directly onto the city wall.
"Ah!" Yang Shou suddenly cried out in pain, and suddenly he saw a crossbow arrow piercing his left ankle.
Breaking Qi Arrow! Life-killing arrow!
(End of chapter)
