knife

Chapter 316 Killing in the Street

One of the guards was extremely alert. As soon as the laughter started, he stepped forward and blocked Li Tai's path, gripping his sword tightly with both hands and staring intently at his approaching opponent.

He wore a long, dark yellow robe, his hair was casually tied into a bun with a black cloth ribbon, and a wooden hairpin was inserted in the bun. There was a conspicuous mole on his left cheek with three black hairs growing from it.

A heavy slash came down.

The guard truly unleashed his full power with this strike. Despite being only at the seventh rank of the Profound Origin Realm, the power of this strike was at least that of an eighth-rank cultivator.

Human potential is always unleashed in the most dangerous situations.

But this is still far from enough for the attackers.

With a flick of his finger, the steel knife shattered silently into countless fragments, and with another wave of his hand, these fragments became embedded in his body.

The guard looked at the old man who had landed in front of him with disbelief in his eyes, and then fell to the ground with a thud.

With his last ounce of strength, he spread his arms wide and embraced the person's legs.

"Your Highness, run!"

Li Tai turned around and sped towards the city gate. He himself had the cultivation of the eighth rank of Xuan Yuan, but after seeing the newcomer defeat his guard in one move, his courage to fight to the death immediately vanished without a trace.

This is not an enemy he can handle.

"I am Li Tai, the Crown Prince of Qin!" he roared with all his might as he lunged forward, "Save me, the Marquis of Ten Thousand Households!"

This was a major thoroughfare, bustling with pedestrians, yet they all stared in disbelief at this scene.

The title of Marquis of Ten Thousand Households is indeed tempting, but one must be alive to enjoy it.

After watching the murderer slaughter a tall, strong man wielding a knife as easily as killing a chicken, the crowd was stunned for a moment before letting out a shout and scattering in all directions.

The other guard did not escape.

Instead, he rushed to the killer and, without hesitation, drew his sword and struck.

He was of similar cultivation level to the deceased, and knew that taking this step would mean certain death, but due to his sense of responsibility, he had no choice but to bravely face death, just to buy Li Tai a little bit of time to escape.

Without pausing, the assassin swept past him, casually shoving his head aside. The brave guard's head spun 180 degrees around his neck, his wide eyes watching as the assassin in the dark yellow robes swept away like a wisp of smoke towards the fleeing Crown Prince.

Just look at the speed difference between the two, and the guard's last thought was nothing but despair.

They paid the price with their lives, but they couldn't stop the perpetrators for even a fraction of a second.

Li Tai's eyes blurred for a moment, then he stopped abruptly. The old man in the dark yellow robe was already standing in front of him, walking towards him with a smile, his hands behind his back.

"I've seen you before, I've seen you before!" Looking at this face, a familiar face suddenly popped into Li Tai's mind.

The old man nodded: "Indeed, I have seen him. I've come today to see the Crown Prince off. The Crown Prince and His Majesty will travel one after the other, so he won't be lonely!"

"Why? Why would Wei Zhengdao want to kill me?" Li Tai shouted frantically, losing all control. After recognizing the person who had come, he had lost all desire to resist. "He couldn't possibly kill me."

Faced with a master of innate cultivation, all he, a mere eighth-grade Xuan Yuan cultivator, could do was die.

The old man chuckled, but did not answer Li Tai's question. He then spread his sleeves and placed a palm on Li Tai's chest.

Unlike the previous two guards who died tragically, Li Tai appeared to be unaffected by this palm strike. His eyes lost all color, and he slowly sat down. A moment later, blood began to seep from his seven orifices.

After killing three people on the main road, the old man looked around. Although he still looked all smiles, he appeared to those around him like a demon from hell. He let out a shout and ran even further away.

Amidst hearty laughter, the old man leaped to his feet and galloped off towards Chang'an City.

After an unknown amount of time, a troop of soldiers finally arrived from the direction of Chang'an City. Upon seeing Crown Prince Li Tai and two guards lying on the ground, the leading officer turned pale.

At the Wei residence, Wei Zhengdao was engrossed in reviewing a mountain of official documents.

Since the emperor was besieged and killed within the imperial city, he never went to the official hall in the imperial city to conduct business again, but instead held meetings directly at home.

Even though he was the subject of much discussion, he didn't bother to explain.

The imperial city is now a battlefield. Thinking of the hundreds and thousands of soldiers who died there that day, and the emperor who died a gruesome death, Wei Zhengdao never wanted to set foot in that place again.

Li Anmin died without ever having a complete body.

Finally, what was poured into the coffin was a large mound of meat paste that Master Yiming had to scoop up with a shovel.

The day Li Anmin died was not the end. The soldiers, blinded by rage, finally went berserk. If Wei Yi hadn't made prior arrangements and deployed enough manpower on the perimeter to forcibly suppress the enemy with crossbows, everyone inside the imperial city would probably have been wiped out by those crazed soldiers.

"Father!" Wei Yi, carrying his helmet, rushed into the study like a gust of wind. This rash action displeased Wei Zhengdao.

“You must remain calm in the face of great events. What’s the panic?” Wei Zhengdao scolded. Wei Yi took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down, and looked at Wei Zhengdao, saying, “Father, Crown Prince Li Tai has returned.”

"They came back very quickly indeed. Wu De's men are quite fast!" Wei Zhengdao laughed.

"But Li Tai was just killed outside the East Gate!" Wei Yi tried his best to keep his voice calm and not tremble.

With a crash, Wei Zhengdao stood up, knocking over the chair behind him.

"What did you say? What did you say?" Wei Zhengdao roared, his hands gripping the table.

What does it mean to remain calm in the face of great events?

Even in the face of truly earth-shattering events, they still lose their composure and become distraught.

"Father doesn't know?" Wei Yi swallowed hard.

"What do I know? Why should I know?" After asking this question, Wei Zhengdao suddenly realized something: "What do you mean by that?"

Wei Yi said, "Father, I questioned the eyewitnesses at the scene. According to their descriptions, the perpetrator of the murder in the street should be Mr. Hong Zhanhong!"

"Bullshit!" Wei Zhengdao reached out and overturned everything on the table. "Mr. Hong has never stepped out of the mansion, so why would he go to kill Li Tai! Someone must be impersonating Mr. Hong."

Wei Yi said, "Father, perhaps a skillful disguise technique can change a person's appearance to resemble Mr. Hong. After all, Mr. Hong's appearance is very distinctive, and a terrified witness will not notice other details. However, martial arts cultivation cannot be faked."

At this point, Wei Yi's voice finally trembled: "My experts investigated the cause of death of His Highness the Crown Prince and his two guards. The perpetrator was a master of the Innate Realm."

Appearance can be faked, but martial arts skills cannot be impersonated.

However, Wei Zhengdao knew for certain that Hong Zhan had never left the mansion, let alone committed the crime outside the East City.

That can only mean one thing: a master of innate skill impersonated Hong Zhan and killed Li Tai in public. His purpose was obvious: to frame the Wei family.

The father and son exchanged a glance, their eyes filled with fear.

This time, even if they had mouths all over their bodies, they probably still wouldn't be able to explain themselves.

The emperor is dead, surrounded and killed in the palace. It was indeed they who gave the order. Now, the emperor's body has vanished without a trace.

The emperor's death may be kept secret for a while, but how can it be kept secret forever?
If Crown Prince Li Tai had returned and successfully ascended the throne, he would have been able to take charge of everything, and the emperor's death could have been overlooked.

But now even Li Tai is dead.

And it appears he died at the hands of Hong Zhan.

The Wei family's treasonous intentions were blatantly obvious.

Even Wei Zhengdao himself felt that this was the truth.

"The only thing we can do now is to choose one of the emperor's other sons to inherit the throne!" Wei Yi said.

"This is exactly the effect the murderers wanted to achieve!" Wei Zhengdao slumped down: "They framed us for killing the emperor and the crown prince, and then installed an easily manipulated puppet. Once the world forms this impression of our Wei clan, our demise will not be far off. What follows will naturally be a united attack!"

"It's nothing more than a fight!" Wei Yi revealed a fierce look.

"How capable is the Wei family that they can withstand an attack from all over the world?" Wei Zhengdao shook his head.

"We can't just sit there and wait for death!"

Wei Zhengdao leaned back in his chair and stared at Liang Zhu for a long while before saying, "This scheme was probably set up by Linghu Ye! It's truly ingenious. I concede defeat in this round."

"Father, what should we do next?"

After closing his eyes and pondering for a while, Wei Zhengdao finally asked, "Zhang Songlin has been in Sichuan for over a month now. How is the progress?"

"What else can we do? We're being played by the Ji Prince's Mansion and that Tang family all day long!" Wei Yi said with dissatisfaction.

"Next, the Wei family must do everything in its power to help Zhang Songlin, and at the same time tell him to speed up, otherwise if we are finished, he will be finished with us! At the very least, we must seize Jian Ge Road first. With Jian Ge Road, if things don't go well, we can retreat to Shu," Wei Zhengdao said sternly.

"Understood!" Wei Yi nodded. "But Father, if we push too hard, it will seem like we're in even greater need of a way out, and Zhang Songlin will raise the price on the spot."

"We must first ensure that we still have the right to negotiate!" Wei Zhengdao said coldly. "Just you wait and see. Once the news gets out, all the armies led by Linghu Ye will gather in Chang'an. Even the Kou family of Pengcheng will probably seize this opportunity to turn against us and join the camp against us. This is what they call 'when the wall falls, everyone pushes it down.'"

"Will the Black Ice Guard also turn against us?" Wei Yi asked.

“He Bing is possible, but Wu De is unlikely!” Wei Zhengdao pondered for a moment and said, “Wu De will only get more benefits if he joins forces with us. What we can give him, people like Linghu Ye will never give him.”

(End of this chapter)