Chapter 1098: I'll Deal with the Prince
That night, the moon shone brightly amidst scattered stars.
It was already the winter of the ninth year of Chongzhen's reign, and the weather was freezing.
The riverbanks were especially windy, and the biting cold made the common folk shiver uncontrollably.
The Gao Family Village logistics team swiftly unloaded a large quantity of cotton padded jackets from their boats, distributing one to each of the elderly, infirm, women, and children. Children without properly sized jackets were bundled up in adult ones, making them appear round and snug.
The refugees from Hubei were moved beyond words. "These are cotton padded jackets! Fine quality ones, too. Each piece costs five taels of silver, and this kind-hearted lord has given us so many! Hundreds of jackets, that's thousands of taels of silver!"
Zhu Cunji walked through the crowd and was immediately swarmed by the common folk, who hailed him as their great benefactor.
Zhu Cunji's old face flushed crimson with their shouts, his pride swelling immensely.
Zhu Yujian, however, gazed at the refugees with a face full of sorrow, a heavy, unpleasant feeling settling in his heart. Having a relative like the Prince of Chu made him feel utterly disgraced. This also led him to once again ponder the issues plaguing the Ming dynasty's imperial clan.
He circled the crowd twice. "Didn't the Heavenly Lord say he would deal with the Prince of Chu after dark so the people could enter the city? It's dark now; how will the Heavenly Lord accomplish this?"
Zhu Yujian didn't yet fully grasp the Heavenly Lord's capabilities, and he was genuinely curious how this avatar would manage to deal with the Prince of Chu.
Unable to resist, he followed closely behind Li Daoxuan.
Li Daoxuan stepped forward and headed towards Wuchang City.
Zhu Yujian trailed far behind.
They walked for a while until Wuchang City appeared before them. Night had fallen, but with bandits potentially arriving at any moment, the city walls were illuminated as brightly as day by countless torches, braziers, and oil lamps.
Soldiers garrisoned the ramparts, casting wary glances at their surroundings.
Zhu Yujian immediately dropped to the ground far away, not daring to advance further.
But Li Daoxuan continued his steady advance.
Zhu Yujian thought to himself, "Any further, and he'll be within bowshot! Walking straight towards the city wall like that, the garrison soldiers can't possibly miss him."
Sure enough, the defending soldiers on the city wall spotted Li Daoxuan. One of them bellowed, "Who goes there? State your intentions!"
Li Daoxuan couldn't be bothered to reply; he simply kept walking forward.
The defending soldier called out, "Halt, or we will loose arrows!"
Li Daoxuan continued to walk.
Walking directly towards a city in the dead of night without answering questions was tantamount to seeking death. The soldiers ceased their inquiries, drew their bows, notched arrows, aimed at Li Daoxuan, and let fly.
And indeed, the archer's skill was commendable. With a soft thud, the arrow struck Li Daoxuan squarely in the chest, embedding itself there, its fletching still quivering slightly.
Zhu Yujian gasped in alarm.
Yet Li Daoxuan showed no signs of stopping, pressing onward.
The defending soldier, equally startled, hastily drew another arrow and prepared to fire again.
"Thwack!"
Another arrow found its mark, but Li Daoxuan kept advancing.
The soldiers couldn't discern if he was wounded or not. They shouted, "That fellow is wearing heavy armor; the arrows can't pierce it!"
"Be careful!"
A large contingent of soldiers rushed to the ramparts. They held their bows ready, no longer firing, but watching Li Daoxuan below with grave expressions.
Li Daoxuan reached the opposite bank of the moat and, separated by the water, tilted his head back to gaze at the city wall. It was indeed quite tall...
He reached into his chest, unlatched a small hatch, and pulled out a reconnaissance Heavenly Lord unit – a palm-sized robot. Only its face resembled Li Daoxuan's; its body was entirely a metallic frame, strikingly similar to a small Decepticon from *Transformers*.
Had he performed such a feat in plain sight, it would have terrified anyone to death. Fortunately, the lights on the city wall weren't particularly bright. The soldiers could only make out that he seemed to be retrieving something, but they couldn't clearly see the opening in his chest. Otherwise, a panic-induced fatality might truly have occurred.
Li Daoxuan gripped the reconnaissance Heavenly Lord unit in his right hand, swung his arm in a wide arc, and flung it with all his might...
The tiny reconnaissance Heavenly Lord unit, like a stone, was hurled into the air. With a whoosh, it sailed over the heads of the defending soldiers, soared across the dark night sky, and landed inside the city.
The defending soldiers looked utterly bewildered. "What's he doing?"
"He threw a small object into the city."
"Couldn't see what it was, just a dark blur."
"By the sound of its landing, it wasn't large, perhaps a piece of iron?"
The soldiers murmured among themselves, and then some immediately scrambled down the city wall to search for the object.
However, no sooner had the reconnaissance Heavenly Lord unit landed inside the city than Li Daoxuan activated his "Co-sensing." The tiny avatar sprang up from the ground with a nimble flip, letting out a few wicked "hee-hee" chuckles before darting into the shadows of an alley and hiding behind a large rock.
The defending soldiers descended to search, but they couldn't find a trace of it.
By the time they returned to the city wall, the strange figure who had been standing across the moat had turned and departed, steadily moving further and further away until, within a short time, he vanished into the night.
The defending soldiers were utterly perplexed. "What in the world was he here for?"
Li Daoxuan returned to the camp, sat down cross-legged, and then his perspective instantly shifted, jumping to that of the reconnaissance Heavenly Lord unit.
The tiny reconnaissance Heavenly Lord unit crawled out from behind the rock, stretched its arms and legs, took a few deep, diligent breaths, then scanned its surroundings. It thought: *Where would the Prince of Chu's mansion be?*
*No need to ponder!*
*In our ancient cities, princely estates always face south, so heading north is the correct direction.*
The reconnaissance Heavenly Lord unit navigated through streets and alleys, and before long, it located the Prince of Chu's mansion.
Guards stood watch at the main entrance.
But Li Daoxuan didn't need to use the gate. He simply leaped into a small drainage ditch, wriggled his way through it into the mansion, and then squirmed out of a pond in the mansion's garden.
"Oh dear, got a bit wet. Wonder if I'll rust."
But never mind, it was a minor detail.
Li Daoxuan began to wander through the princely estate.
Finding the Prince's chambers wouldn't be difficult; one only needed to seek out the most lavish, grandest, and most distinguished dwelling in the back courtyard—
The Prince of Chu, Zhu Huakui, was already sixty-five years old, frail and decrepit, and his sleep quality was poor. It was the dead of night, yet he couldn't sleep a wink, still worrying about the bandits outside the city.
He feared hearing the sudden cries of battle, signalling that the bandits had entered the city, which would mean utter ruin.
Zhu Huakui called out towards the door, "Hey, is anyone there?"
Immediately, the guard captain's voice responded from the doorway, "Your Highness, your subordinate is here."
Zhu Huakui sighed, "Good, you're there. Guard the door diligently; do not let any spies infiltrate and harm this Prince."
The guard captain reassured him, "Rest assured, Your Highness, it's utterly impossible for any spy to—"
He couldn't finish his sentence. Before him, he saw a strange little metal figure approaching him. It was barely larger than a palm, with only its head resembling a person, bearing a tiny human face. Yet its body was made of iron, and as it moved, every bend in its metallic skeleton was starkly visible, making it terrifying to behold.
The guard captain's voice began to stammer, "Wh-what are you... what is that... thing?"
The little metal figure grinned, a sinister smile spreading across its tiny face. "I'm here to deal with the Prince."
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