knife

Chapter 181 Incompetent Fury

The massacre at Astu Manor shocked the Yuan Dynasty.

More than 2,100 people, including Astu, the Left Wise King of the Yuan Dynasty, were slaughtered overnight.

Even Astu's head was cut off.

After massacring the village, the murderer disappeared without a trace.

They weren't even bothering to do the bare minimum of setting the estate on fire to destroy any possible traces left behind.

His arrogant demeanor truly drew everyone's attention.

The Yuan emperor was furious!
An order was issued to thoroughly investigate the matter, with Yue Zuo, the Vice Minister of War and concurrently the Director of the Bureau of Military Affairs, in charge of the investigation.

Yue Zuo fell ill on the third day after receiving the order.

It wasn't feigning illness; I was genuinely sick. Of course, to a large extent, I was frightened into illness.

After inspecting the site, Yue Zuo had only one thought in his mind.
Ruined!
On the land of the Great Yuan, there were only a handful of people who could suddenly strike and kill the Left Wise King Astu, who had many guards.

But none of these individuals are people he can afford to offend.

If Emperor Yingzhuo were still healthy and could reign for several more decades, Yue Zuo would certainly have the courage to investigate the matter thoroughly. But now the emperor's health is deteriorating day by day, and even the old immortal of Changchun Valley has said that the emperor only has one year left to live.

How can you expect him to investigate at this point?
How dare you investigate?

What if we stir up a hornet's nest?

Ah, it's not a hornet's nest, it's very likely a real dragon's lair!

His Yue family is courting death!
After the initial anger subsided, the court officials calmed down and immediately understood the intricacies of the situation. The previously noisy and chaotic court quickly quieted down.

Anything involving the struggle for the throne of the Yuan Dynasty...

It can basically make all the hot-blooded guys incredibly calm.

Tiele lay in the spring sunshine, his face covered with a handkerchief, his hands gripping the armrests of the rocking chair. Although his face was not visible, the bulging veins on his hands betrayed his mood.

He had no doubt that Li Dachui would succeed.

This scoundrel is cunning, highly skilled in martial arts, and also proficient in poisons. With the intelligence I provided, killing Astu might be difficult, but it won't leave him helpless.

With tens of thousands of people from Dragonflame Valley as hostages, there's no need for Li Dachui not to find a way to complete the mission.

But he never expected that the other party would use such ruthless methods to complete the mission.

Behind this brutality lies the opponent's formidable strength.

What does it mean to be able to kill all two thousand people in the Astu Manor and then escape unscathed?
This means the other side has more people!
The massacre lasted all night, and not even a single messenger escaped.

Not a single warning message was sent.

Such strength sent a chill down Tiele's spine!
If such a force were to suddenly attack my manor, would I have any way to deal with it?
The answer is no.

Granny Duanmu could escape with him, but she had absolutely no chance of defeating her opponent.

Moreover, there are also experts mixed in with the opposing team.

This expert is undoubtedly Li Dachui.

It is suspected that a master of innate skill has intervened!

This preliminary result of the imperial investigation deeply stung the Tiele.

Zhou Zhi would never do such a thing. Could it be that Li Dachui has already reached the Innate Realm?
Thinking that he wasn't even a ninth-rank Xuan Yuan cultivator, Tiele felt his pride had been severely wounded.

Of course, the greater concern is vigilance.

I must be extra careful about my personal safety in the future.

Once assassinations begin, they will never stop; they will only escalate. Perhaps there will never be another assassination as horrific as the killing of Astu, but other methods will be even more difficult to guard against!
You can do what's right on the first day of the lunar month, but others can't do what's right on the fifteenth?

"Qunshu, how are the people who were responsible for providing intelligence and coordination to Li Dachui doing now?" From under the handkerchief came Tiele's buzzing voice.

I was really shocked when I received the news yesterday, and I caught a cold immediately. My nose is so stuffy and my nose is constantly running. I feel extremely uncomfortable. Gao Qunshu, with two big dark circles under his eyes, clearly the kind of person who hasn't slept for several nights, said in a low voice, "Your Highness, as soon as this news came, I gathered everyone who had been in contact with this matter together and cleaned them up! Not a single trace will be left outside. Even if Li Dachui wants to use this to threaten us, he has no evidence whatsoever."

There was a long silence.

Gao Qunshu bowed and turned to walk out.

"Tell that bastard I want to see him!" came Tiele's voice from behind.

Inside the imperial city, Jebe knelt on the ground, his face filled with rage. He pounded the ground with his fists and shouted, "Father, I didn't do it! It has nothing to do with me! I may look down on Astu, and I despise him for being beaten by Xiao Changche and becoming a laughingstock of our Great Yuan. I have even humiliated him to his face, but I have never had the thought of killing him!"

"But right after he swore he would make you pay a terrible price, he died!" Yingzhuo's weak voice came from behind the tent. "Third brother thinks it was you. In Yandu, besides the garrison commanded by Astu, who else besides you could mobilize so many troops?"

Zhebie was speechless for a moment.

Yes, who else but myself?
It seems there really aren't any left!
"Moreover, at least a third of those who died at the scene died from blunt force trauma. Who else, besides your subordinates, would like this kind of weapon?"

Large beads of sweat dripped from Jebe's face and fell to the ground, soaking a large area of ​​the blue bricks in front of him.

"This is a frame-up, Father. If someone is capable of organizing an assassination on this scale, wouldn't it be easy for them to imitate the habits of my subordinates? I certainly haven't done it. I'd say that even if you killed me!"

From behind the tent came a long, resounding sigh.

"You go out!"

Jebe kowtowed heavily, got up, and left the main hall.

"Old friend, I'm sorry to have made you laugh!" Yingzhuo's voice was full of exhaustion. "I've been arrogant all my life, but I never thought that at this age, with my life nearing its end, I would have to face such a scene."

Sitting by the bed, Fu Qingzhu shook his head and said, "Since ancient times, there has been no kinship in the royal family. No matter how heroic you are, you can't escape this hurdle. Your three sons are all quite capable, which is a hidden danger in themselves. If you were still healthy, the three of them would naturally love each other, at least on the surface. But your current physical condition is a shock to them!"

"It seems I need to make up my mind to establish an heir sooner rather than later!" Yingzhuo said.

"So what?" Fu Qingzhu said, "Twenty-five or twenty-six years ago, Li Anze was the crown prince for so many years, and he still ended up with his head separated from his body. Which of your three sons will submit to whom? Unless you completely depose the other two while you're still alive, leaving only one!"

Yingzhuo's hands and feet trembled, and it took him a long time to say, "Even a tiger doesn't eat its own cubs!"

"You're not a tiger, you're a dragon!" Fu Qingzhu stood up. "I originally wanted to stay here with you a little longer, but it seems you still have a lot to do. My presence here would only be a hindrance. I'll refine another batch of pills to prolong your life, and then I'll be leaving. My old friend, when I said you had a year to live, it was based on the premise that you were at peace and could rest. But if you're this agitated every day, you could die at any moment!"

Yingzhuo nodded silently.

Fu Qingzhu stepped forward, removed the dense silver needles from his head, put them into the needle pouch, shook his head, sighed, and walked out the door.

Ordinary people have ordinary troubles, and emperors have imperial anxieties.
No one is truly carefree.

Unless you're an idiot!
Inside the residence of the Third Prince Aktun, everyone held their breath and walked on tiptoe. Before entering a room, they had to first observe the Third Prince's expression.

Today alone, three people in the manor have been killed on the spot by the enraged Third Prince.

Akdun was already somewhat weak in the army, and Astu, who supported him, was his biggest asset and a crucial tool for controlling Yandu. Although he had used Astu to place many people in the capital's garrison over the years, none of them had yet been able to truly shoulder any significant responsibility.

They're still stuck in the ranks of lower- to mid-level officers!
If someone other than their own person takes over the position, these people will likely remain in the ranks of lower-middle-class officers forever without any chance of advancement.

"Jebe, I'm going to kill you!" In a fit of rage, Akdun smashed another priceless piece of precious porcelain from the far south.

Based on the simplistic belief that whoever gains the most benefit is the murderer, Akton concluded that the boss was the one who did it.

With Astu dead, there are plenty of officers under the boss who have made great contributions in the north and could fill the position.

Moreover, he also knew that Jebe was plotting to seize the leadership of the second-in-command, Tiele, in Qingtongxia. If he succeeded, half of the Yuan military power would belong to Jebe, and then there would be no point in fighting for the crown prince position!
“Send someone to tell the second brother that I’m inviting him for drinks!” Akton said.

"Your Highness, will the Second Prince come?"

“He never came back before, but he’ll definitely come this time. If he doesn’t, we’ll just have to lie in bed and wait for the boss to come and slaughter us!” Akton roared.

While Yandu was in chaos, Li Dachui, the instigator, was also living a very busy life on the grasslands far away from Yandu.

As news of the Changchun Valley Immortal's free medical consultations on the grasslands spread, countless people rode horses and drove over. Every day, their camp was packed with people, and there was never a moment of peace from morning till night.

They were busy diagnosing patients, prescribing medicine, and performing surgeries.

The Yuan Dynasty officials and soldiers investigating the Astu Manor massacre passed by their camp many times, but never came in to disturb them. Instead, they would respectfully bow to them from afar.

(End of this chapter)