newbobooks Chapter 442 The Southern Secret Assassins Infiltrate Tianqi, but Xiaotang Master Blocks Their Path!
Chapter 442 The Southern Secret Assassins Infiltrate Tianqi, but Xiaotang Master Blocks Their Path!
Outside the door, Li Xinyue's expression changed drastically upon hearing this. These were utterly disrespectful words, and she wanted to dissuade them but didn't know what to say.
Ye Xiaoying stood behind Xiao Ruofeng, his face ashen and his fists clenched.
Xiao Ruofeng was silent for a moment, then suddenly said, "Second Senior Brother, do you still remember when we brothers secretly went to the Diaolou Xiaozhu to drink back in the Jixia Academy?"
I remember you saying back then that when we got old, we wanted to find a beautiful place with clear waters and lush mountains, build a few thatched cottages, and live together as neighbors, drinking wine every day and practicing martial arts and discussing swordsmanship every night..."
The room fell silent.
Xiao Ruofeng continued, "I said—okay, once the world is at peace, I will resign from all official positions and titles, and wander the world with you."
You laughed at me then, saying I was a prince and had no choice in my own life. I said, "Princes are human too; they also have their own desires."
"And now?" Lei Mengsha's voice came through the crack in the door, laced with sarcasm.
"Now you are the Grand General Protector of the Nation, in command of all the armies in the land, just one step away from that position—yet you gave it up to someone else! Xiao Ruofeng, what exactly are you after?"
"What am I after?" Xiao Ruofeng smiled bitterly. "I hope that one day I can fulfill my promise from back then. I hope that after the world is at peace, I can truly be a江湖人 (jianghu person, a person of the martial arts world) with you all."
He took a deep breath: "Second Brother, open the door! Let me in, we can talk this out."
There was another long silence.
Finally, with a creak, the door opened.
Lei Mengsha stood at the door, unshaven, with sunken eyes, and reeking of alcohol.
He was still holding half a jar of wine in his hand. He stared at Xiao Ruofeng for a long time, then suddenly tilted his head back and poured the rest of the wine down his throat.
The wine jar fell to the ground and shattered into several pieces.
"Seventh Brother," Lei Mengsha's voice was hoarse, "what you just said, is it true?"
“Every word comes from the heart.” Xiao Ruofeng stared straight at Lei Mengsha.
“Alright.” Lei Mengsha nodded, but her eyes reddened. “I’ll trust you one last time. Once the southwest is pacified and the world is at peace—remember what I said today.”
"must!"
At this moment, Li Xinyue could no longer hold back and stepped forward to grab Lei Mengsha's ear:
"You damn fool! Haven't you had enough to drink? Get up here and take a shower and change your clothes! The stench is unbearable!"
"Ouch! Madam, be gentle! Be gentle!" Lei Mengsha grimaced, his previous dejected air instantly dissipating, and he reverted to being the henpecked Lei Mengsha he always was.
Xiao Ruofeng and Ye Xiaoying exchanged a smile.
Li Xinyue dragged Lei Mengsha towards the backyard, cursing as she went.
Seeing that Lei Mengsha was out of danger, Xiao Ruofeng was about to leave when a small head peeked out from around the corner of the room.
She was a twelve-year-old girl with her hair in two buns, wearing a dark blue jacket, and with big, bright eyes.
"Hanyi?" Xiao Ruofeng recognized her as Li Hanyi, the daughter of Lei Mengsha and Li Xinyue.
The little girl walked up to Xiao Ruofeng, looked up at him, and spoke in a childish but clear voice:
"Uncle Qi, Daddy isn't just angry with you!"
Xiao Ruofeng was taken aback, then squatted down to be at her eye level: "Then what is he still angry about?"
“Father is angry with himself,” Li Hanyi said earnestly.
"He's angry because he can't see through you, angry because he can't help you, angry because he's willing but powerless to persuade you to become emperor!"
Xiao Ruofeng was startled.
This little girl... she's only twelve years old, yet she sees things so clearly.
“Seventh Uncle,” Li Hanyi continued, “it’s not that my father didn’t want to go to the southwest with you. He was afraid, afraid that it wouldn’t be worth it, afraid that his blood would be shed in vain, afraid that he would break his promise to Mother, and afraid that you… afraid that you would become like those people in the palace.”
At this point, she reached out her small hand and tugged at Xiao Ruofeng's sleeve:
"Seventh Uncle, can you promise Hanyi that you will bring my father back alive when you go to war? My mother... my mother cries secretly every night. She is afraid... she is afraid that if my father goes to war with you, he will never come back... Hanyi is afraid too."
Xiao Ruofeng's throat tightened.
Looking at the bright and intelligent little girl before him, he recalled the children he had seen begging on the streets of Liangzhou during his travels, and the countless children in the world who had lost their families and were living in constant fear...
They should have grown up carefree under their parents' care, but because of this chaotic world, they learned about separation and worry at a young age.
"Hanyi," Xiao Ruofeng said solemnly, "Seventh Uncle promises you. I will definitely bring your father, Uncle Ye, and all the soldiers back alive."
Li Hanyi blinked, then suddenly smiled: "Let's pinky swear."
"Hook."
Two fingers, one big and one small, are hooked together. In the sunlight, Xiao Hanyi's smile is clean and bright.
……
At the same moment, in a private residence in Shangyuan Town, south of Tianqi City.
A man in black, wearing a bronze mask, stood by the window; he was none other than the Commandant of the Southern Imperial City Guard.
Behind him stood eighteen figures, varying in height and build, some resembling young men, others with white hair and beards, and still others a slender girl with frighteningly bright eyes.
However, what they had in common was that they wore the clothes of ordinary people from Beili, yet each of them had sharp eyes and a restrained aura.
"Did you all hear that?" The black-clad captain's voice was deep. "We infiltrated Tianqi City for three things—first, to find out the movements of Xiao Ruofeng's army; second, to investigate the strength of Tianqi City's defenses; and third, to create chaos if necessary to delay Beili's deployment of troops."
"Yes," the eighteen people replied in unison, their voices extremely low.
“Remember,” the black-clad captain turned, his eyes flashing coldly beneath his mask, “you are the most elite assassins of Nanjue. Success brings wealth and honor; failure brings your heads.”
"I swear to be loyal to you to the death!"
The eighteen people knelt on one knee and then disappeared into every corner of the city like ghosts.
The black-clad captain stood by the window, gazing north towards the imperial palace, a cold smile playing on his lips.
"Xiao Ruofeng... Baili Luochen... Fight, the fiercer the better. When you are both severely injured, that will be the time for Nan Jue to reap the benefits."
Outside the window, the sky was gradually darkening.
As the lights of Tianqi City gradually illuminated the city, this ancient capital appeared peaceful and serene in the twilight.
The Eighteen Warriors of the Southern Scripture entered Tianqi City in batches after nightfall.
The first group of five people disguised themselves as a caravan selling furs.
The carriage wheels rolled over the bluestone slabs of Zhuque Street, the carriage piled with tanned mink and fox furs, the fishy smell of the fur masking the murderous aura on their bodies—the result of years of assassination and espionage missions.
The leader was a middle-aged man with a weathered face and dark skin, named Wutuo, who claimed to be a fur merchant from the northern desert.
When he entered the city, the guards checked him. He bowed and handed over his travel permit, and casually stuffed a handful of loose silver into his hand: "Sir, you've worked hard. Buy yourself a bowl of wine."
The garrison commander weighed the silver in his hand and glanced at the travel permit—it bore the official seal of Youzhou Prefecture, and the date and name matched. He then lifted the carriage curtain to take a closer look; it was indeed leather goods.
The garrison commander raised an eyebrow and said, "Go in!"
"Thank you, Master Jun!"
The carriage slowly entered the city, and the slender young woman quietly lifted the bottom layer of leather goods, revealing short crossbows and poisoned daggers underneath.
Her name is A-Yue, and she is the most skilled assassin among the eighteen assassins.
"Brother Wutuo, shall we go straight to the inn?"
"No rush." Wu Tuo squinted at the Imperial Guards patrolling the streets. "Let's take a walk around the city first and check the defenses."
The carriage moved slowly along the main street of the inner city. Wu Tuo sat on the carriage shaft, a pipe he had specially obtained dangling from his mouth, while his eyes squinted as he memorized the width of the streets, the height of the buildings on both sides, and the direction of the alleys throughout the city.
When passing the Ministry of War, he deliberately slowed down the carriage and glanced at the number of guards at the gate and the changing of the guard time.
"Two side gates on the west side, four at the main gate, shifts change every half incense stick's time," he whispered to the carriage. "Write that down."
Upon hearing the sound, A-Yue hid in the carriage and quickly wrote on the sheepskin with a charcoal pencil.
The second group of six people were disguised as laborers visiting relatives.
They carried their luggage on shoulder poles, wore patched coarse cloth clothes, and worn-out straw sandals on their feet.
The leader was a lame old man who claimed to be surnamed Zhang. He had brought his son and nephew to Tianqi to seek refuge with a distant cousin who ran a restaurant.
They were subjected to the most rigorous checks at the city gate.
The guards searched through each person's luggage, finding only tattered clothes, dry food, and steamed buns.
The lame old man smiled ingratiatingly and pulled a tattered cloth bag from his pocket, inside which were a few copper coins: "Sir, we are all refugees searching for our relatives, please be lenient!"
The guard glanced at the few copper coins covered in dirt and grease, and, feeling a pang of pity, ultimately waved his hand dismissively.
"Go in, but remember, Tianqi City has a strict curfew. Don't wander around at night, or you'll lose your life if you get caught by the patrolling cavalry!"
"Thank you, sir. I understand, I understand."
After entering the city, the six people did not go to the inn, but went straight to the slums in the west of the city.
It's a melting pot of all sorts of people, making it the perfect place to hide.
When they passed the Imperial Guard camp on the road, the lame old man deliberately tripped and fell in front of the camp gate, shattering the broken bowl in his carrying pole on the ground.
"Ouch! My bowl!"
Several guards came over to check. The old man lay on the ground, picking up the broken pieces while crying. But through his fingers, he counted the number of soldiers on duty inside the camp gate, the number of warhorses in the stable, and the location of the grain and fodder piles.
"It's just a broken bowl, hurry up and go!" a young guard urged impatiently, grabbing his riding whip to lash him out.
"Oh dear, sir, please don't lay a hand on me, I'll be going now..." The old man stood up shakily, picked up his tattered load, and limped away.
As he turned around, a cold smile appeared on his lips.
The third group of seven people were dressed as traveling scholars and their pageboys.
They wore blue robes and turbans, carried book boxes on their backs, and spoke in a refined, scholarly manner.
The leader was a handsome young man who used the alias Liu Wenyuan and claimed to be a student from Jiangnan who had come to Tianqi to visit friends and seek knowledge.
Upon entering the city, the guards, seeing their scholarly air and the fact that their travel permits were issued by Jinling Prefecture, didn't give them much trouble, only offering a word of advice:
"There are important matters in the city recently, so do not trespass on government offices or important areas."
"Students save it."
The seven people checked into a mid-range inn in the inner city. After nightfall, Liu Wenyuan opened the window and looked towards the palace in the distance.
Under the moonlight, the glazed tiles of the palace gleamed coldly, the palace walls stood tall, and the watchtowers were brightly lit.
"Make your move at midnight," he said softly.
The six "book boys" behind him nodded silently and took out night clothes, grappling hooks, and sleeping gas from the bottom of the book box.
At three quarters past midnight, the curfew gong sounded three times.
Tianqi City fell into slumber, with only the occasional sound of the night patrol guards breaking the silence.
……