The emergency drum was sounded only when an urgent crisis occurred.
Shi Yue’s expression sank instantly. “It seems something has already happened.”
Shi Yue and Pei Xuan vaulted back onto their horses and galloped toward the mountain villa at breakneck speed.
By the time Shi Yue and Pei Xuan arrived, the atmosphere between the two armies in the parade grounds was already intensely strained.
Li Heng, who had been in the woods just moments before, had somehow returned ahead of them and was currently kneeling before Emperor Yuanjia:
“Your Majesty! Thirty bows placed in the military armory by our forces have all gone missing without a trace! I beseech Your Majesty to thoroughly investigate!”
Across the parade grounds, the oppressive atmosphere was so heavy it felt as though it could condense into water.
Emperor Yuanjia sat squarely upon the temporarily erected high platform, his vermilion brush slamming fiercely down onto the writing desk as imperial wrath flared.
“Thirty bows! Li Heng, do you realize what the penalty is for losing military equipment?!”
Beads of sweat rolling down like rain, Li Heng immediately dropped flat to the ground on his knees. “This subject deserves a thousand deaths for his failure to guard them properly! But this matter is by no means an accident! A guard in my tent witnessed the capital’s frontier defense deputy general, Liu Yongqian, lingering outside the armory on multiple occasions with suspicious movements!”
The moment those words fell, Liu Yongqian jerked his head up, staring at Li Heng in utter disbelief.
With eyes blazing with fury, Liu Yongqian dropped to his knees as well. “I beseech Your Majesty to investigate! This humble subject is entirely innocent! Li Heng is framing me with malicious lies!”
Glowering at him, Li Heng snapped viciously, “You say I’m framing you? The equipment lost belongs to us, the Imperial Guards! What business do I have framing you? Am I supposed to have stolen my own things?”
The standard-issue weapons, armor, boots, and socks differed entirely between the Imperial Guards and the Frontier Defense Army.
Sticking his neck out stubbornly, Li Heng continued, “The armory is guarded jointly by the Imperial Guards and the Frontier Defense Army. Now that the bows have been stolen, Liu Yongqian is in such a rush to wash his hands of it! If those bows fall into the hands of the Yulong Hu people, can you bear the responsibility?”
Dayong’s weaponry was exquisitely crafted. If the Hu people managed to acquire them and study the manufacturing methods, the structural designs of the weapons would be leaked, making future frontier defense battles unimaginably difficult.
This single statement filled everyone present with stark dread. Dayong and Yulong had harbored deep grievances for generations, with friction along the borders occurring year-round. If things truly reached that point, the consequences would be unimaginable.
“Your Majesty! Li Heng is planting evidence and framing me!”
“Enough!” Emperor Yuanjia bellowed in a roar of fury. “Arguing is useless. I grant you two days to prove your innocence and recover the bows. If there are no results after two days, you are thrown into the imperial prison! And we will thoroughly investigate the Frontier Defense Army afterward.”
For a moment, Liu Yongqian turned deathly pale, yet he could only grit his teeth and accept the decree: “This subject, obeys.”
The previously harmonious hunting grounds were instantly overcast with gloomy clouds.
Taking in the entire farce, Shi Yue suppressed the emotions swirling in his chest. So this was what the stolen armory and the hay pile had meant all along.
“Come with me and take a look,” Shi Yue murmured quietly to Pei Xuan, taking advantage of the chaotic dispersal of the crowd in the parade grounds.
Pei Xuan lifted his gaze, a flash of comprehension crossing his eyes. “The hay pile?”
Shi Yue twitched his reins, and his mount obediently turned in a different direction. “Let’s go see what trickery is hidden there. Liu Yongqian is the deputy general guarding the capital for the frontier forces; if he falls, my father might be implicated.”
The two rode for a short distance, but horseback riding drew too much attention. Dismounting from their horses, Shi Yue and Pei Xuan tethered the mounts together and proceeded on foot toward the vicinity of the Imperial Guard encampment.
The Imperial Guard garrison was heavily fortified, with patrolling soldiers constantly wandering around the perimeter.
Fortunately, Pei Xuan’s superb martial arts allowed him to slip and dodge through the shadows, carrying Shi Yue along as dead weight without once being spotted by the Imperial Guards.
After circling the Imperial Guard tents several times, they discovered a half-man-high pile of dry hay situated at the very rear of the tents, shielded from view by several large locust trees in front. Without close inspection, it would have been exceedingly difficult to notice.
Crouching low, Shi Yue and Pei Xuan crept quietly over and found that the hay pile bore clear signs of having been rummaged through.
Poking around the hay pile with his fan, Shi Yue frowned. “It’s empty. Li Heng moved them ahead of time.”
Pei Xuan pointed toward the chaotic footprints scattered across the ground. “Look at the ground.”
Following the direction of his finger, Shi Yue saw numerous footprints pressed into the mud around the hay pile. Most of these prints featured square patterns, the standard square-patterned soles characteristic of Imperial Guard military boots.
“Not bad, quite clever,” Shi Yue praised. Although he had long known that Pei Xuan would rise to the rank of Left Chancellor in his past life, proving he was no fool, it was still impressive.
Pei Xuan: “…”
Shi Yue observed, “Li Heng’s story is full of loopholes. He claims the frontier forces approached, yet the surrounding ground is covered entirely in Imperial Guard footprints.”
These footprints extended all the way to the entrance of a specific tent.
Pei Xuan stated calmly, “That’s the tent of the Hu soldier.”
Glancing toward the distance where patrolling guards were about to approach, Shi Yue whispered, “We shouldn’t linger here. Let’s go hide over there first.”
With that, the two slipped behind a thick cluster of bushes and waited until the patrol had passed before darting out to the exterior of the Hu soldier’s tent.
“There are signs of it being disturbed here,” Shi Yue pointed to a patch of mud on the ground.
The color of that patch of mud was noticeably lighter than the surrounding soil.
Shi Yue had been willing to poke around the hay pile with his fan, but when it came to wet, dirty mud, he really didn’t want to touch it, it was simply too filthy.
Turning his head, he fixed an unblinking stare on Pei Xuan.
Pei Xuan: “?”
“Thank you, Guard Pei. I must trouble you to do the honors,” Shi Yue said with a ingratiating, flattering smile.
“Very well, you pampered little young master,” Pei Xuan scoffed with a dry chuckle. “This humble servant shall labor on your behalf.”
With a flick of his fingertips, Pei Xuan channeled a thread of invisible energy, causing the patch of mud to burst open with a muffled boom, exposing the gleaming, white-shimmering bows hidden beneath.
At that moment, Shi Yue couldn’t help feeling a tinge of envy toward demons. Why did they get to cheat using magic while humans had to rely on honest physical labor?
Raising an eyebrow, Pei Xuan remarked, “Li Heng certainly knows how to hide things.”
In a steady, emotionless tone, Shi Yue said, “Li Heng colluded with the Hu people specifically to frame the frontier forces, using this incident to create a stalemate between the pro-war and pro-peace factions.”
“Then what are you planning to do?” Pei Xuan asked.
This matter could not be exposed directly by Shi Yue himself, as doing so would draw the flames of war straight onto the Marquis of Stability’s estate. Therefore, if they wanted to prove innocence, Liu Yongqian had to uncover it himself.
Seemingly recalling something, Shi Yue flashed a sly, cunning smile. “Naturally, I’ll practice what I’ve learned.”
In the dead of night.
You’5nan Mountain Villa was dead silent, with everyone fast asleep, except for Liu Yongqian’s tent, which remained brightly lit as day.
Sitting at his desk with a deeply troubled expression, Liu Yongqian rubbed his temples. That day, despite leading his men in a thorough search around the armory, they hadn’t been able to find a single bow. With only a single day left out of the two-day deadline, if he failed to unearth evidence.
Liu Yongqian let out a heavy, despairing sigh. “Sigh.”
At that exact moment, an arrow whistled sharply through the air, piercing straight toward him. A sharp glint flashing in his eyes, Liu Yongqian reached out and snatched the arrow out of midair with a tight grip.
Coldly eyeing the uninvited arrow, he noticed a jaggedly torn strip of cloth bound to the shaft, the ink on it still fresh:
Bows are hidden in the soil behind the rearmost Imperial Guard tent. This plot is the result of collusion between Li Heng and the Hu people.
Eyes widening in shock, Liu Yongqian had no time to waste pondering who had sent the tip. He strode straight out of his tent and summoned his trusted guards: “Follow me to search for the military equipment and apprehend the criminals!”
At three quarters past the hour of Zi (midnight), chaos erupted across the Imperial Guard encampment.
With Pei Xuan’s assistance, Shi Yue was perched high atop a thick bough, offering a crystal-clear view of the entire spectacle unfolding in the Imperial Guard camp below.
However, since this was Shi Yue’s first time standing atop such a lofty tree branch, he glanced down at the empty space dangling beneath his feet and felt a ripple of apprehension.
The corners of Pei Xuan’s lips curled upward as he delivered another of his ruthlessly sarcastic remarks: “Don’t worry, a fall from this height won’t kill you, at worst, you’ll just end up paralyzed.”
Shooting him a glare, Shi Yue retorted, “I haven’t even settled accounts with you yet. By what right did you tear my robe without my permission?”
To deliver the message to Liu Yongqian, Pei Xuan hadn’t hesitated to utter a crisp “Rip!”, tearing a massive gash right down the front of Shi Yue’s brand-new robe.
This had been Shi Yue’s first time wearing that riding outfit, and watching it get ruined just like that had left him with a lingering ache in his heart…
Such a wasteful spendthrift.
“Your business isn’t my business; why shouldn’t I tear yours?” Blinking his phoenix-like eyes innocently, Pei Xuan replied with deadpan seriousness.
Realizing he could never win an argument against him, Shi Yue dropped the debate and focused his attention back on the commotion in the Imperial Guard camp.
Sure enough, a short while later, Liu Yongqian marched out with a contingent of personal guards, dragging a struggling Hu soldier out bound and trussed up like a zongzi.
It appeared that although Liu Yongqian knew Li Heng had colluded with the man, he chose not to expose the commander entirely.
He was a sensible man.
Pinning the entire blame squarely on a Hu soldier was the safest approach. After all, there was no direct evidence proving Li Heng’s collusion, and Li Heng had powerful backing above him. If they dug too deep and dragged high-ranking nobles into the mire, Liu Yongqian would end up sacrificing his own neck instead.
Struggling fiercely, the Hu soldier howled indignantly, “Liu Yongqian, how dare you treat me like this!”
Liu Yongqian delivered a vicious punch straight across the Hu soldier’s ugly face, snapping, “Ignorant wretch! How dare you frame your betters!”
“Go fuck your mother’s dog-farts! You keep pinning it on me, where’s your proof?!”
Watching the scene play out, Pei Xuan asked with an amused, half-smile expression, “Do you think he’ll betray Li Heng?”
Pondering for a moment, Shi Yue shook his head. “Probably not. Since he managed to sneak into the Imperial Guard ranks, he must be a trained shadow guard.”
Events unfolded precisely as Shi Yue had predicted.