The three returned to the Gu Residence.
Liu Yexi and a group of covert guards had already arrived in Linjiang City.
“We left in a hurry this time and didn’t bring the imperial decree. Deal with that Liu family head quickly, then request an imperial order to confiscate the household later.”
Liu Yexi gave the order coolly.
Because the Liu family was a merchant family, not an official one, they might not recognize Xuantian Bureau covert guards.
To prevent the Liu family servants from putting up unnecessary resistance, Liu Yexi chose to bring the covert guards directly into the Liu Residence and stop outside the room of the family head, Liu Wentian.
“Come in!”
Liu Yexi flicked her fair hand, and the covert guards burst through the door.
Inside the room.
Liu Wentian, who had been holding two concubines and drinking, suddenly woke up!
“Who’s there? How dare you break into my Liu Residence privately? Are you tired of living?”
As a rich merchant, and with all the shady things he did, he naturally had some readiness for assassination. He quickly shoved away the two concubines and grabbed the treasured blade from the rack behind him.
However, two rows of ghostlike covert guards then walked in silently and surrounded them.
Liu Wentian examined the auras of those black shadows, and his expression immediately turned ugly!
“They’re all at the Innate realm… Who are you people?!”
Because he feared assassination, Liu Wentian usually bought plenty of pills to pile his strength up, and his cultivation was also at the Postnatal realm. Ordinary assassins really could not do anything to him.
That was also why he had been able to draw his blade in self-defense after sensing an intruder just now.
However, after looking around a few times, Liu Wentian was completely panicked!
Any one of those black shadows could crush him!
“Someone! Somebody!”
Seeing that things were going badly, Liu Wentian immediately made the most correct choice.
However!
What answered him was not the light from the servants’ lamps, but a crisp and icy female voice.
“No need to shout, Liu family head. I just set up a barrier. Until this time tomorrow… no one will discover this place.”
Liu Yexi walked in with a smile, her fair fingers flicking the drawn soft sword. Its cold light blazed, and its ringing hum was sharp and clear!
“Peak of the Innate realm!”
Liu Wentian saw his own reflection in the soft sword, and in an instant all the hairs on his body stood on end!
He had always lived comfortably as a local tyrant, but at that moment he truly felt the threat of death!
Liu Yexi’s arrival gradually chilled the atmosphere in the room.
The two concubines shrank into the corner and did not dare make a sound, fearfully staring at this young woman of roughly their age as she approached with a sword.
“Who exactly are you people?!”
Liu Wentian’s eyes bulged wide, and his soul trembled. He truly could not understand how disaster could fall from the sky while a person was sitting safely at home!
A group of experts had suddenly come to kill him, and every single one of them was in the Innate realm!
When had he ever offended such a force?!
Liu Yexi’s steps drew closer and closer, but he still could not remember!
At last!
“Heroine, heroine! Let’s discuss this… Can you spare me? All the gold and silver treasures in the residence can be yours. I only want to live!”
Liu Wentian no longer planned to think it over. Kneel first, live first… that was what mattered!
The gap between the Innate realm and a third-rate hack like him who had been force-fed was truly as wide as heaven and earth. He did not even have the slightest desire to resist!
“You people are always asking for money every time you beg for mercy… How boring.”
Liu Yexi shook her head with a light laugh. Her beautiful eyes looked down at this aggrieved wretch, and the cold sword was pressed against his neck, glimmering with a blue sheen.
“But for the sake of you dropping your blade, I’ll let you die with a clear conscience.”
“Some time ago, did your Liu family intercept a batch of military grain?”
Intercept military grain?
The two concubines looked puzzled when they heard that. The Liu family itself was a famous grain merchant… how could it intercept military grain?
But…
A moment later, as Liu Wentian was racking his brain, his pupils suddenly contracted, as if he had remembered something!
“You… how do you know that?!”
“Wait! Wang Qiang knows… They just went to Langzhou City yesterday. Could it be… you’re people from that Gu grain store?!”
Liu Wentian finally managed to sort out his thoughts.
But then he shook his head, his face full of disbelief!
“Impossible. That Gu grain store was opened by some pretty boy, and the Gu family is nothing more than an ordinary family. How could it…”
He muttered in fear all the while.
Yet he did not notice Liu Yexi frowning in disgust at that moment.
The next instant.
Liu Wentian’s voice cut off abruptly, and his eyeballs suddenly bulged outward!
Liu Yexi’s jade hand lightly tightened, and two crimson lines immediately filled the blood groove of that soft sword.
“Slandering Young Master and secretly intercepting military grain… that’s a crime punishable by extermination of the nine clans… Dying like this is already letting you off easy.”
Liu Yexi let out a cold laugh and cleanly sheathed her sword.
The head rolled to the ground, and the two concubines beside it could not help crying out in fear.
Liu Yexi gave a look, and one covert guard walked over to knock the two of them out directly.
“Take Liu Wentian’s body and file it directly with the Ministry of Justice. Don’t make things difficult for innocent people like the Liu family’s dependents; take them all away in two days and wait for the Ministry of Justice to judge the case.”
Liu Yexi was experienced and immediately gave the order.
“Yes, Lord!”
The group of covert guards responded respectfully.
Then Liu Yexi stepped out of the room, checked the barrier she had set up once more, and took to sword flight, streaking off toward Jizhou.
Prince Muyun, a fool hopelessly fixated on the Empress and clinging to her without letting go.
Because he held a hereditary princely title, the Empress usually could not strip him of it directly.
But now, with the national fortune in turmoil, he still dared to act as a shield for a grain merchant guilty of treason, and he even brought trouble onto Young Master Gu?
Wasn’t that the same as handing a knife straight to the Empress!
“Just break his legs and let him nurse his injuries in Jizhou for a few years.”
Liu Yexi still remembered the Empress’s offhand instruction…
…
2 double-hours later.
The group of covert guards had already cleaned up the place and left for the capital.
Linjiang City once again sank into the quiet of night.
At this time, a tall figure suddenly appeared above Linjiang City.
He wore night clothes and a face covering, with only a pair of bright, piercing starry eyes exposed. It was Gu Lan, who had slipped out after his wife fell asleep.
As for why it was so late…
There was nothing to be done. His wife had spent the day frightened and worried, so he could only soothe her properly at night, and it had dragged on far too long.
After looking around, Gu Lan finally found the Liu Residence.
However, with just a glance, he saw that this place was blurred and indistinct.
“A barrier?”
Gu Lan murmured in confusion and swept his hand through the air. The barrier Liu Yexi had set up vanished instantly, revealing the true scene inside.
Two girls had collapsed unconscious in the corner. The tables and chairs were arranged in an oddly neat fashion. Although the covert guards had already cleaned up, a faint smell of blood still lingered in the air.
“They’ve already been killed?”
“Damn, this guy really was evil to the core… He wanted to kill more than one person.”
Gu Lan was slightly stunned and sighed inwardly. He had originally wanted to help Old Yang vent his anger properly.
In the end, the Liu fellow himself was too useless to even hold out until I arrived!
However.
Since he had set aside his affectionate time with his wife to rush over here so late, he obviously could not come for nothing.
Gu Lan then went to the place in the Liu Residence where gold and silver treasures, medicinal materials, and magical artifacts were stored, and his eyes lit up at once!
The previous batch of people who came to kill Liu Wentian had actually only killed him and not confiscated the household!
Was it a revenge killing? What a waste… Gu Lan curved his lips upward, then slowly said:
“All the treasures in this place are in my System space.”
“All the spiritual medicines in this place are in my System space.”
“Everything here…”
…
While Gu Lan was frantically looting the Liu Residence’s treasures.
On the road he had come by, beside a towering old pagoda tree, two streaks of light flew over.
After the two landed, the radiance faded, revealing an old Daoist priest and a young Daoist priest, both wearing worn, shabby Daoist robes.
“Master, why did you wake your disciple up so late? And you still want me to rush all the way to such a faraway place.”
The young Daoist priest was full of complaints.
The old Daoist priest ignored him and simply stood with his hands behind his back, slowly looking toward the direction of Linjiang City, his face alight with joy. “Little Ren, do you remember the person Master once said could change your fate?”
“Soon, he will pass by here!”
“We have to seize this opportunity!”
“Uh, wasn’t the heavenly secrets you divined last time about that person on the shores of the East Sea?” the young Daoist priest asked, scratching his head in confusion.
“The two are not the same person.”
The old Daoist priest shook his head and added, “This person I still haven’t fully seen through. However, my qi-observing technique would not be wrong. We just have to follow heaven’s will!”
“All right.”
The young Daoist priest nodded obediently.
At this moment.
Gu Lan, while tallying his gains from this trip, was just leaving Linjiang City and taking sword flight toward this place…