Samsara Paradise: Dream Weaver of Connections.

After Su Xiao successfully dealt with Joseph, the morale of the Guards was boosted, and they charged into the courtyard of Chief Judge Elvi like a hot knife through butter.

"Did you find anything?" Su Xiao turned his head slightly and signaled Bubu Wang to look for the trace of Chief Judge Elvi to prevent this guy from escaping through the secret passage.

Bubu barked and then disappeared from everyone's sight.

As for Am, with a deafening roar, Am charged directly towards the wall of the courtyard.

There is a gate right next to it, but Am has a special liking for the wall. I don't know why it likes to break through the wall so much.

Eminem's huge body was like a heavy chariot, and at the moment it was about to hit the wall, it burst out with amazing power.

There was a loud bang, and the wall collapsed under Am's impact, raising a cloud of dust.

"That old man Rowan Harvey couldn't wait any longer and was ready to run away. He is now packing up at home. After he finished packing, the old man sat in front of the table, looking like he was waiting for something." Su Xiao quickly approached Lin Yi and his eyes fell on the tablet in Lin Yi's hand. He saw that Rowan Harvey didn't pack too many things and only brought a few of his most frequently used items with him.

Since he is planning to run away, Rowan Harvey will no longer need any of the items here.

"Rowan Harvey is too conspicuous. I'm afraid this guy will do something to divert our attention tomorrow. Otherwise, it won't be so easy for him to run away." Lin Yi frowned slightly and said thoughtfully.

Ever since playing Pi Pang's puzzle game, Lin Yi gradually began to understand some criminal psychology.

After he put himself into the role of Rowan Harvey, he found that if he wanted to escape, the best way was to leave quietly when no one else was paying attention to him.

"The old king will hold a banquet tomorrow to entertain all the ministers and the crown prince."

"It looks like something is going to happen at the banquet tomorrow. I'm taking twenty of your guards with me."

"Yeah." Su Xiao nodded. The number of these guards really didn't have much impact on him.

Even if Su Xiao was the only one here, he had the confidence to lead Am to kill his way through the entire courtyard.

The role of the Royal Guards is mainly to represent the will of the old king, and at the same time, they also serve as a spy to keep an eye on Su Xiao to prevent him from knowing things that he should not know. The previous high priest was a lesson learned.

Lin Yi selected twenty guards and took Hicks out of Chief Judge Elvy's courtyard.

"Go back and tell him that there is a risk of Rowan Harvey defecting. Ask him to send me more people."

After hearing Lin Yi's words, the guards assigned by Lin Yi knelt on one knee to show that they had obeyed his orders, then stood up and ran towards the palace.

About twenty minutes later, Lin Yi and a dozen guards arrived near Rowan Harvey's residence.

Rowan Harvey's mansion is located near the royal palace, and the surrounding mansions are all inhabited by officials who are very important to the kingdom.

Here, killing a person randomly is likely to have a huge impact on the political stance of the entire kingdom.

Lin Yi was fully aware of the interests involved and did not dare to act on his own.

After all, Rowan Harvey hasn't really run away yet, he's just shown the intention to run away.

If he acted on his own, it would most likely alert Rowan Harvey and cause the Undead behind him to disappear.

Soon, the soldiers that Lin Yi had sent out before appeared near Lin Yi with three hundred guards.

At the same time, the soldier also brought a secret letter from the old king.

Lin Yi took the secret letter, which contained only a very simple sentence.

"If Rowan Harvey leaves the royal city tonight, he will be killed without mercy."

The old king did not fall asleep. After taking the powder made by Lin Yi, he was shocked to find that his sleep time was getting shorter and shorter.

This was by no means a good sign. Clearly, the old king's body was evolving in an inhuman direction.

When the old king learned the news brought by Lin Yi, he was not shocked.

He had expected this, but he had not been able to find any evidence against Rowan Harvey before.

Since the other party has revealed his tricks this time, the old king doesn't mind getting rid of him, but the old king still wants to use Rowan Harvey to fish, so he didn't order Lin Yi to take action immediately.

He was eager to see how rampant the power behind Rowan Harvey could be.

Can they successfully send Rowan Harvey out while they are already aware of it?

If the forces behind Rowan Harvey could even do this, then the old king was determined to carry out a bloodbath on the entire upper class of the kingdom.

In addition to the "Iron Hand" that is as sharp as a blade, the Hyena Heslet, the commander of the kingdom's army who holds military power, and the consul Joe Valentine, who is in charge of managing most of the officials, will all be involved in this turbulent storm.

After all, if even Treasurer Rowan Harvey dared to commit treason, why wouldn't others do the same?

If the matter of Rowan Harvey cannot be properly resolved tonight, the old king would not mind taking a group of people with him before he dies.

He wanted to leave a clear political environment for the new emperor, even if it cost a huge price.

"Tsk, another fishing trick." Lin Yi looked at the contents of the note and instantly understood that the old king intended to use Rowan Harvey to lure out the power behind him.

In this case, let’s take a closer look at who is the mantis and who is the oriole.

At that moment, as Su Xiao began to vigorously clean up dissidents, the entire royal capital had become like a turbulent sea. It seemed calm on the surface, but in fact, there were turbulent currents underneath.

[Reminder: The hunter has completed the side quest: Cleansing, and has obtained 100000 Paradise Coins. ]

"It looks like Bai Ye has finished his work."

After hearing the reminder from Samsara Paradise, Lin Yi knew that Su Xiao’s work was done.

Because of the incident with Rowan Harvey, the old king urgently summoned Su Xiao, who had just completed the cleanup mission, to the palace.

The old king handed Su Xiao a longer list. Some of the officials on this list were originally planned to be cleaned up later, but now the situation has changed and they have to act in advance.

There are also some people on the list who are quite close to that old guy Rowan Harvey.

In order to avoid subsequent troubles, the old king decided to let Su Xiao get rid of all these people at once.

Su Xiao looked at the list of nearly a hundred people in his hand, and he understood clearly that this time the old king was obviously ready to take real action.

A large-scale cleanup operation thus began.

At about one o'clock in the morning that night, a total of 119 officials of all ranks were taken away from the royal capital.

Eighty-six of them were sentenced to death, nineteen were sentenced to life imprisonment, and the rest faced several years in prison.

The old king had carefully planned this purge long ago, so the entire power system was not greatly impacted.

That night, bodies were transported out of the capital one by one on horse-drawn carriages.

The streets were filled with a strong smell of blood, which was disgusting.

Those princes and princesses were completely unaware that before they arrived at the royal capital, the unstable factors here had already been dealt with swiftly by the old king.

The relationships of these officials who were dealt with within the kingdom were as intertwined as the intricate roots of a tree.

They all served as officials throughout their lives and experienced countless hardships.

Although those princes and princesses were very capable in their respective fields, they were no match for these wily men when it came to the struggle for power.

After all, the territory under their jurisdiction was too far away from the capital and out of their reach.

At this special moment, the danger level in the royal capital is no less than that on the front battlefield.

The evil in people's hearts is the most terrifying thing.

As for Rowan Harvey, he had already stood up and left the room.

He knew in his heart that since the kingdom had suddenly purged so many officials, someone would definitely be needed to search their homes, and at this time, no one was more suitable than him.

If the old king had not given the order at this time, Rowan Harvey would have been ready to run away.

Sure enough, after Rowan Harvey left the room, he immediately saw a knight on a red horse rushing to his mansion at lightning speed.

The knight was holding the old king's secret letter, and Rowan Harvey understood what the old king's orders were without even opening the letter.

Lin Yi followed Rowan Harvey from a distance to prevent the old man from suddenly disappearing.

That night, all the officials in the royal capital felt insecure.

When the "Iron Hand" knocks on their door, it means their death is approaching.

Therefore, all the officials in the royal capital could not sleep all night, their hearts filled with fear and anxiety.

They didn't know if they would be the next ones to be taken away, so they could only wait in agony in this long dark night.

……

The next morning, the sun rose in the sky, and it seemed that nothing had happened in the royal capital. Or rather, the civilians had no idea what had happened last night.

The princes and princesses closest to the royal capital will arrive there today.

At the gate of the royal capital, an extremely luxurious carriage slowly drove in.

The entire carriage is carefully crafted from metal, displaying a solemn and luxurious look with a black background and gold patterns.

The driver was a sharp-eyed knight, and the carriage was pulled by two black horses with a single horn on their heads, which was an extremely rare species.

The curtain of the carriage was lifted, and a handsome man in his 40s with a tuft of mustache on his chin leaned out of the carriage. He was the eldest prince mentioned by the old king.

"We've finally arrived at the capital." The eldest prince looked out at the scenery of the capital from afar, with a gentle smile on his face, giving people a feeling of being bathed in spring breeze.

"Your Highness, we have many opponents this time, and there are many people we need to win over."

An old man in the carriage spoke up. He was the eldest prince’s confidant.

"I do have many enemies, but I don't need to win over many people. The Kingdom's Treasurer Rowan Harvey, Governor Joe Valentine, and Legion Commander Heslet, as long as I get the support of these three, no one will be my opponent. The three of them are my father's right-hand men."

"What about the Iron Hand? If these three are your right-hand men, then the Iron Hand is almost your Majesty's agent."

The old man spoke, he really wanted to win over Su Xiao, the Iron Hand.

"Iron Hand? They are the judges, not someone we can win over. Their support is too fantastic, so I never considered it. He slaughtered the capital with blood last night. Chief Judge Elvi Anthony was once so glorious, but now he is just a corpse."

The eldest prince sat back in the carriage. He was the first heir of the old king to arrive in the capital, and he also had the "right to be immune from death" secretly granted by the old king, making him a hot favorite in this power struggle.

But he didn't know that Rowan Harvey, the person he was trying to win over, had already been targeted by Lin Yi and the old king.

If the eldest prince rashly rushed to win over Rowan Harvey at this time, it would undoubtedly be like lighting a light in the toilet - seeking death.

The old king is now extremely suspicious. Anyone who has any connection with Rowan Harvey has been included in the cleanup list.

At the same time, Su Xiao received another summons from the old king. In fact, all the middle and upper-level officials in the royal capital received summons.

The reason was that the first group of princes and princesses arrived.

There were a total of ten potential heirs to the throne who arrived at the capital this time, including six princes and four princesses.

Their arrival was like a stone thrown into a calm lake, instantly causing ripples in the capital.

All forces were secretly observing and speculating on the movements of these princes and princesses, as well as the old king's true intentions.

The old king had a total of forty-nine legitimate descendants, which was quite a large number.

As for illegitimate children, their number is even more difficult to count, after all, the old king has many women.

As long as his body can withstand it, having offspring is just a matter of chance.

Naturally, illegitimate children are not eligible to inherit the throne. Only the children born to queens are the legitimate children of the old king.

Of course, there is not only one queen. Each of these queens has a different background. Some are the daughters of powerful officials, while others are the daughters of wealthy businessmen.

The thirty-six queens together represent a huge network of power.

The center of the power network is the old king, surrounded by powerful ministers and wealthy businessmen, and it is these queens who connect the two.

They are an important part of the power structure, but they cannot have real power, or they should not have real power at all.

They just need to be a link, but once they have power, things will be bad.

A queen without real power basically just plays a bystander role in the struggle for power.

The new king's ascension to the throne actually has little impact on them, and the new king also needs their help to maintain the power and wealthy businessmen around him.

Royal power is like a spider web, its structure becomes more and more complex as it moves toward the outside.

The old king is the spider in the center of the web. He has to shake the web frequently to check for any damage and to see if there are any prey on the web.

Naturally, not all of the old king's forty-nine children would throw themselves into the fierce struggle for power.

Eighteen of them have already given up the fight for power. It's not that they don't have ambitions, but they were squeezed out in advance and lost the capital to compete. However, they will also rush to the royal capital this time.

Among the remaining thirty-one people, sixteen held the same attitude, which was: don't mess with me.

They will not voluntarily give up the struggle for rights, but they will not actively compete either.

If a prince or princess has an absolute advantage in the power struggle, they will support that side in the hope of obtaining an idle position with a high official title but no real power after the other side succeeds to the throne, which is commonly known as a prince.

These sixteen princes or princesses who are just there for show are relatively young. They know that they cannot compete with their older brothers, so they choose to give up temporarily.

But don't think these people are completely harmless, they are just harmless in most cases.

If a godsend opportunity arises, they may suddenly become the next king, but of course, the possibility of this is very slim.

When Su Xiao stepped into the banquet hall in the palace, he found that more than a hundred people had gathered there.

Don't underestimate these more than a hundred people. Any one of them can be a big shot.

If you don't have real power and huge wealth, you are not qualified to attend this luncheon.

There are many long square tables in the banquet hall, on which are displayed high-end wines, various rare fruits, and exquisite snacks.

The old king had not yet appeared, so the atmosphere in the banquet hall was very lively.

Among the many officials, there are also many famous businessmen.

Although they have a lot of wealth in their hands, their status in the banquet hall is not high.

The reason why the old king summoned these big businessmen was mainly to let them meet the princes or princesses. The meaning was very obvious, that is, to let them choose one of them to support.

The big businessmen who could catch the old king's eye were certainly not ordinary people, but in today's banquet hall, they became insignificant little characters.

As soon as Su Xiao walked into the banquet hall, many eyes were focused on him.

"Hey, this way."

A rough shout was suddenly heard. The person who dared to greet "Iron Hand" like this was definitely not a small character.

This person is none other than the kingdom’s army commander, Heslet, who holds the kingdom’s military power.

Heslett was dressed in black, with several criss-crossing scars on his face. Those scars were like marks carved by time, showing the vicissitudes and glory he had experienced.

There were two people sitting next to Heslet, one of whom was Lin Yi's target - the kingdom's financial officer Rowan Harvey.

Su Xiao had never seen the other person before. According to his guess, this person was most likely Governor Joe Valentine.

Su Xiao walked to the wooden table and sat down, with Rowan Harvey and three others sitting next to him.

This square table is closest to the old king's seat. Except for Su Xiao and four others, no one else is qualified to sit here, not even the princes or princesses.

As for Lin Yi, he was sitting at an inconspicuous table at the moment.

As the vice president of the Royal Capital Alchemy Academy, Lin Yi's position in the capital is one of low rank but high power.

Many officials would come to Lin Yi for help with problems big and small. At this time, Lin Yi was talking to several crown princes.

After all, according to his status, Lin Yi is the cousin of these crown princes and belongs to the same royal bloodline.

Under such circumstances, these crown princes also wanted to do their best to win over Lin Yi.

Even if you can't win him over, you must not offend him. Otherwise, just imagining an alchemy master as an enemy is enough to give you a headache.

"Iron Hand, you slipped away early yesterday, but I haven't had a good sleep yet."

The old man Rowan Harvey spoke, his face showing an unconcealable tiredness. It seemed that confiscating a house was not an easy job.

Bubuwang, who was in invisible state, looked at Rowan Harvey and couldn't help but admire his excellent acting skills.

If Su Xiao and Lin Yi had not already noticed Rowan Harvey's abnormality, it would be hard to imagine that the old man in front of them was actually a spy planted by the Undead.

"Killing is not easy either. I met Joseph Ke last night." Su Xiao showed a smile on his face.

Since the old guy Rowan Harvey has started to show off his acting skills, Su Xiao doesn't mind acting opposite him.

"Joseph Ko?"

The Kingdom Legion Commander, Heslet, spoke, and he obviously recognized Joseph Coe.

"Right now he……"

Although Heslett seemed to be asking casually, he actually wanted Joseph Coe to live.

"I killed him. If I'm not mistaken, he came to repay a favor."

"Is this so?"

Heslet sighed, with some regret in his eyes.

"Have a drink." Heslett picked up the wine glass and filled it so full that the wine almost overflowed the brim.

Rowan Harvey and Archon Joe Valentine also raised their metal wine glasses, and Su Xiao did the same.

Ding~
The crisp sound of clinking glasses rang out in the banquet hall, and the four of them drank the wine in their glasses.

This seemingly simple action is actually a silent attitude.

"Bai Ye, let's talk about something private. When you killed the high priest last night, did he say anything interesting? That guy is a charlatan."

Governor Joe Valentine spoke up. He was a thin middle-aged man who was in charge of most of the officials.

When Su Xiao heard Joe Valentine mention the high priest, he immediately turned his gaze to look at him.

Sure enough, none of these guys in front of me are easy to deal with. (End of this chapter)