Chapter 501: Remnants of the Second Branch |
Outside the Changping Relay Station, there were literati and scholars staging a sit-in on the street.
Inside the Changping Relay Station, Chen Ji sat in the main hall. His presence suppressed the surrounding candlelight, making it motionless. He laid the Whale Blade horizontally across his knees and rested his mind with his eyes closed, his breathing even.
All the Relay Station Officials and the Crown Prince were guarded and made to sit on the floor in the main hall, to prevent anyone from leaking information.
The only female guest, Princess Liyang, went up to the second floor. As for the rest, even if they wanted to go to the outhouse, they had to directly find a wooden bucket in the main hall to solve it; not even the Crown Prince was an exception.
It wasn't until the sound of a rooster's crow came from the backyard that 'Princess Liyang', wearing a white veiled hat, walked down the stairs and said to Chen Ji: "Is it time?"
Everyone turned to look at her, not knowing what she meant by 'time'.
Only Chen Ji opened his eyes to look at the color of the sky: "Barring any unexpected accidents, they should have already been sent away."
The Crown Prince silently watched Princess Liyang. The other party's face was concealed behind the white light gauze, making it impossible to see her identity clearly. And the 'sent away' that Chen Ji spoke of should refer to the real Princess Liyang and Yuan Cheng.
At this time, Princess Liyang asked: "What are the plans next? Return to the capital or continue forward?"
Princess Liyang nodded: "Alright, do as you say."
The Crown Prince said softly: "The Baron of Wuxiang County's mission is merely to cover the Jing Dynasty envoy's departure. Since you have already achieved your goal, why not return to the capital directly?"
Carrying the Whale Blade in his hand, Chen Ji looked back at the Crown Prince behind him: "Is Your Highness afraid of dying?"
The Crown Prince stood up and patted the dust off his archery uniform: "We are not afraid of dying. We merely do not wish to die a meaningless death."
Chen Ji walked outside, fundamentally paying no heed to this heir apparent's thoughts: "Your Highness only needs to follow me to leave. There is no need to talk so much. Duo Bao, go call Qi Zhenzhuo to lead the horses over. We are continuing north."
Duo Bao turned and went to the stables in the backyard.
A moment later, the Feather Forest Army arrived before the doors leading the horses. Last night, Qi Zhenzhuo had led men to keep watch in the stables; his body was currently still stuck with the straw laid in the stables.
He handed the reins to Chen Ji: "Master, someone spied on the stables last night, but we failed to catch them."
Chen Ji nodded: "I know."
Hanging the horn bow beside the saddle, he instructed Qi Zhenzhuo: "Later, Li Xuan will clear the path in front. You will bring up the rear..."
Before he finished speaking, 'Princess Liyang' was supporting 'Yuan Cheng' up onto the carriage. But they saw the Crown Prince suddenly move forward. Under everyone's watchful eyes, he lifted the other party's veiled hat and tossed it into the air.
Everyone abruptly turned their heads to look. The Crown Prince actually wanted to tear off 'Princess Liyang's' disguise in broad daylight before the public crowd, telling everyone that this Princess Liyang was fake.
However, the Crown Prince was stunned. He looked at the woman before him. If it wasn't Princess Liyang, who else could it be?
The Crown Prince had met Princess Liyang before. The eyebrows and eyes of the woman before him were exactly the same as Princess Liyang!
He fiercely looked toward Chen Ji, only to find Chen Ji looking calmly at himself.
The Crown Prince murmured: "How could it be? Why is Princess Liyang in the procession? Didn't she already leave?"
He reached out again to pluck off the black cloth on Yuan Cheng's head, but this time, Princess Liyang pinched his wrist: "Your Highness, enough is enough."
Looking at the Princess Liyang before him, the Crown Prince was hesitant and undecided for a time.
Meanwhile, in the crowd of the Changping Relay Station, several people distinctly left quietly.
Chen Ji led his horse before the Crown Prince: "Your Highness, mount your horse."
The Crown Prince took a deep breath: "The Baron of Wuxiang County has good methods. Deeply afraid that the assassins would not enter the trap, you actually borrowed Our hand to confirm Princess Liyang's identity."
Chen Ji said calmly: "Your Highness, did this humble subject force you?"
The Crown Prince said softly: "Those skilled in strategy attack the heart. The Baron of Wuxiang County clearly didn't do anything, merely utilizing the fear within Our heart to make Us fall for the trick. That's why We say, good methods. Now everyone believes that inside this carriage are the real Princess Liyang and Yuan Cheng. But We cannot figure it out: why is this Princess Liyang so similar?"
Chen Ji smiled and didn't answer this question: "Someone taught me: don't let people know your intents, otherwise your intents will become your weakness. Let's go, Your Highness. It's actually safer to leave Changping earlier."
With that, he vaulted onto his horse, leading the honor guard to set off toward the north of the city.
...
As Capital City's first garrison station to the north, Changping was naturally a place for traveling merchants to rest their feet. Capital City was expensive; many merchants unwilling to enter the capital and pay another tax would collectively sell their goods from the north here. Furs, cordyceps, Ginseng, deer antlers—as long as it could be found in the north, it could be seen here.
This was also why Madam Lu stayed in Changping to manage her business and was unwilling to enter the capital. From here, heading north led to Chongli Pass and the Jing Dynasty; heading west led to Guyuan and Datong; heading east led to Tanggu. It extended in all directions.
The honor guard passed through Anfu Ward. Wine shops stood in great numbers alongside the road, and the crowds were bustling.
Beside the rammed-earth road, merchants used wooden boards to prop up their stalls. Thick layers of furs were piled on the wooden boards, the merchants hawking their wares loudly.
Chen Ji rode his horse taking the lead at the very front of the honor guard, slowly turning his head to measure up his surroundings. The Crown Prince followed closely behind him, far away from the carriage.
Right at this moment, an oxcart blocked the middle of the road. Stretching his neck, the cart owner traded curses with someone: "Do you not have eyes? I was driving this oxcart passing through here. You didn't have eyes and crashed into me, yet you still blame me?!"
Behind Chen Ji, Li Xuan said softly: "What do we do..."
Before his voice fell, Chen Ji was seen neatly removing the horn bow from the saddle. Drawing the bow and nocking an arrow, the feathered arrow flew from the string like rushing thunder, heading straight for the cart owner's face.
Li Xuan was shocked in his heart. He hadn't expected that Chen Ji would launch a killing strike without asking anything: "You..."
The next moment, the cart owner on the oxcart underwent a great change in expression, throwing himself outside the cart. However, though he dodged the first arrow, he was shot in midair by Chen Ji's second arrow.
The arrow pierced straight through his chest cavity, knocking out a spray of blood mist in the air.
In this instant, the peddlers and merchants along the street covered their heads and scurried away like rats. There were also merchants reaching their hands underneath the wooden boards.
Chen Ji's hands didn't stop nocking arrows. Without asking for reason, he actually fired arrow after arrow. In the time of three breaths, he shot through another six people right on the street. There was no life-and-death struggle; the assassins hadn't even made their move yet. The moment Chen Ji saw them, it was a massacre.
The Crown Prince reminded: "Lord Chen, if you kill the wrong people, I fear you will suffer impeachment by the investigating censors."
"In these past few days, if there weren't a hundred impeaching me, there were eighty. Being deep in debt brings no pressure." Chen Ji said calmly: "Quiver."
Duo Bao tacitly understood, unfastening his own quiver and throwing it through the air.
However, right at this moment, a row of windows on the second floor of the wine shop beside the road burst open. A dense mass of figures stood inside the windows, drawing their bows and shooting arrows. Li Xuan's expression changed: "Take cover!"
No one had ever expected that in this capital environs, there would actually be people producing dozens of Stiff Bows to carry out an assassination. No one had thought either that someone in the capital environs could produce dozens of Stiff Bows.
It wasn't the Military Intelligence Division; the Military Intelligence Division would not be so reckless!
The next moment, three-tenths of the archers upstairs aimed and focused fire at the carriage, three-tenths aimed at Chen Ji, while the remainder fired indiscriminately to suppress the Feather Forest Army.
The Feather Forest Army simultaneously vaulted off their horses, using their warhorses to conceal their figures.
Stray arrows shot over.
Over twenty feathered arrows shot the carriage containing Princess Liyang and Yuan Cheng into a hedgehog. A muffled cry of pain came from inside, and then there was no more sound.
Within the Feather Forest Army's formation, the warhorses neighed. Everyone hid beneath the horses' bellies, suppressed by the stray arrows into being incapable of lifting their heads.
Right as the over twenty feathered arrows focused their fire at Chen Ji, Chen Ji leapt up from his horseback carrying the Whale Blade. Stepping on the Eaves of the wine shop's first floor, he vaulted through a window.
His warhorse collapsed with a crash. The Crown Prince, who was closest to Chen Ji, was shot in the thigh by an arrow. With a muffled groan, he fell off his horse.
...
The snowy-bright Whale Blade flashed past within the window, causing the Arrow Rain from the window to pause.
Looking up, Li Xuan only saw that in the eastern windows, Chen Ji's figure was passing through one window after another, slaughtering his way from south to north.
He shouted loudly: "Send me up!"
Creating a stirrup with both hands, Duo Bao let Li Xuan step on his hands to leap up to the second floor. Disregarding the carriage, the remaining Feather Forest Army soldiers drew their swords and slaughtered their way into the wine shop.
Only the Crown Prince remained on the street, hugging his leg with his head full of sweat. No one gave him a second glance; he could only struggle by himself to shift his body toward the shadows beside the road.
But right at this moment, the shop signs hanging beside the road self-combusted without fire. Within the firelight, the shop signs revealed golden Talismans, churning out bursts of black smoke.
The black smoke hovered over the long street without dispersing, arranging itself into an Eight Trigrams shape in the Sky.
A black smokescreen fell down, shrouding the long street in pitch black. At the edges of the smokescreen, countless black hands reached out from the walls of smoke, as if trying to drag people into the walls and tear them apart.
Seeing this scene, Qi Zhenzhuo was instantly shocked in his heart.
This wasn't their first time seeing this smokescreen. The last time was back in the Eight Great Hutongs, when they were slaughtering those Stick Bearers from Harmony Guild and Lucky Auspices.
Qi Zhenzhuo looked at Duo Bao beside him: "It's the Remnants of the Second Branch of the Chen Family!"
During Chen Ji's infighting with the second branch, their Path-Seeking Stage Practitioners never revealed their faces. The Practitioner who had previously set up a talisman formation in the Eight Great Hutongs did not; the Chen Guang who had previously invited Chen Ji to the Altar of Mountains and Rivers to watch Chen Lizhi execute the second manager of the salt shop didn't either.
Following the assassination utilizing Five Rampant Spectral Soldiers, the dust eventually settled with Wang Daosheng capturing Chen Wenren and Chen Lizhi hanging himself. However, knowing his defeat was destined, Chen Lizhi had dispatched Practitioners early on to escort Chen Wende away.
Aunt Ping had once said that many Capital City officials and nobles had escaped by borrowing Changping's secret tunnels. Presumably, Chen Wende had relied precisely on the complex mining tunnels beneath Changping County to avoid being captured and brought to justice this entire time.
But Chen Wende hadn't chosen to leave; instead, he had hidden himself in Changping.
At this time, an ash-clothed figure wearing a Bamboo Hat dodged out from a corner. Paying no heed to the wall of smokescreen, nor bothering to manage the slaughter between the Feather Forest Army and the Chen Family's second branch's dead soldiers, he walked straight to the carriage.
Official Gui.
Arriving before the carriage, he pulled open the carriage curtain, wanting to confirm Princess Liyang and Yuan Cheng's life or death.
But he had only just pulled open the curtain when he saw a woman's palm pressing outward from behind the curtain, pressing straight against his chest.
Official Gui wanted to dodge, but the other party was a hair faster than him.
The palm imprinted upon Official Gui's chest. The clothes on his back shattered with a loud boom. Amidst the exploding fragments of cloth, a soul was actually blasted out of his body by this single palm strike.
The soul did not wear a Bamboo Hat. It was Official Gui's original appearance.
Looking at that soul, the person in the carriage sighed softly: "So it was you."
Official Gui flew backwards over three meters, rolling as he hit the ground.
Getting up, he used the back of his hand to wipe away the bloodstain at the corner of his mouth. An inexplicable look flashed past his eyes: "So you really didn't die..."
(End of this chapter)