Jiangshan Fengwuzhi

Chapter 27 Execution
A duck is circling in the sky.

It is slightly larger than a pheasant, with a bird's body and a human face, but its nose and mouth are still in the shape of a pointed beak. Only its eyes are sharp, with a murderous look in them.

In the bushes below it, the yellow tiger was crawling, holding a wooden spear in his hand, his eyes fixed on the sky.

This was the strategy that Gu Jingnian and he made. To deal with Liu Heng, they had to eliminate his helpers one by one without alerting those silver-armored guards.

Finally, the figure hovering in the air began to descend and search near the stream.

Huang Hu saw the right opportunity and attacked suddenly.

"Whoosh!"

A sharp arrow hit the duck first. It let out a terrible cry and was pierced by the javelin as it fell.

Seeing this, Huang Hu immediately ran towards where Gu Jingnian was.

"Sir, someone shot an arrow and alerted the snake."

Gu Jingnian had seen from a high place who shot the arrow and said, "One of your people."

"Our people?" Huang Hu was stunned and didn't react at all.

"You forgot again? You are a captain of the Kaiping Division."

"Sir, what should we do?"

"Don't call me Young Master anymore. When we are in front of others, we have to appear unfamiliar."

"Can……"

"Remember, keep your secret, otherwise there are countless people who will use you as medicine."

Before Huang Hu could figure out what this meant, the sound of horse hooves could be heard among the woods.

Not only the Kaiping Division came, but also the Imperial Army, and they quickly searched the forest.

Gu Jingnian looked through the bushes and saw Lu Yanning leading a group of knights walking along the stream, calling his name.

The shouts echoed in the valley, and one could hear the worry in them.

Only then did Gu Jingnian stand up from the bushes.

"Brother-in-law."

Lu Yanning turned around, took a long breath, and said, "I'm glad you're okay, otherwise I don't know how your sister would blame me..."

Halfway through his words, his eyes fell on Huang Hu. He paused for a moment and said to his soldiers calmly, "Keep searching and make sure to find Liu Heng."

"Yes."

After everyone else left, Lu Yanning walked towards Huang Hu and said, "It was dark in the hall at the time, so I couldn't see clearly, but you?"

"Me what?" Huang Hu played dumb.

"It's him." Gu Jingnian whispered, "Please keep this a secret, brother-in-law."

Lu Yanning murmured, "No wonder Cui Hao said at the time that he still had hope. It seems that the problem came from you."

"Yes, please General Lu, please keep it a secret for me." Huang Hu tried not to look at Gu Jingnian and said, "Otherwise, I don't know how others will look at me."

"I don't have to tell you." Lu Yanning said, "But your two colleagues also know about this. According to rumors in the capital, Pei Nian is notorious for not recognizing his relatives."

"Don't worry, General Lu. I will report the matter to the police."

Huang Hu was usually arrogant, and after saying this, he held his head high, without even looking at Jingnian, and strode towards the direction where the duck had fallen, still yelling.

"That was a beast shot down by my Kaiping Division. Who dares to claim credit for it?!"

He resumed his former domineering behavior, and no one could imagine that such a domineering man would privately obey the orders of a young man who had just started out.

Lu Yanning looked at Huang Hu's figure, frowned, and said to Gu Jingnian: "Don't worry, I will clear my father-in-law's grievances."

"Are you sure, brother-in-law?"

"Of course." Lu Yanning said, "It's not easy to mobilize the imperial army temporarily, so I found the Third Prince, and he came in person. All the witnesses and evidence related to Wanchun Palace have been controlled."

Gu Jingnian asked, "Where is Liu Heng?"

As he was speaking, a horseman came up and reported to Lu Yanning, "General, we found Liu Heng."

--------

The charred corpses infested with leeches were turned over one by one. Yu Gui staggered through them, and everything he saw was unrecognizable.

He sighed and murmured, "They say that death is the greatest thing, but I'm afraid I can't clean it up for you..."

"Old You!"

There was a shout in his ear, but Yugui didn't turn around, but fell into deep thought.

He felt that he was getting old and was easily sad. He had endured the deaths of so many of his companions in the past, but now he began to have auditory hallucinations.

"Old You!"

Someone patted his shoulder hard, and Yougui turned around and saw Huang Hu.

He raised his eyelids and paused for a moment.

"I've called you several times." Huang Hu said, "Why didn't you answer?"

Yugui said, "I thought I heard it wrong."

"Your hearing is bad. It's dull. Look, I'm not dead."

"Yes, you are not dead."

"Aren't you surprised?"

"I'm surprised." Yugui said in a daze: "I'm surprised, why are you not dead?"

"Haven't you heard of it? Full of life."

Yugui didn't react immediately.

Huang Hu said: "Vipers are also dragons. They gave birth to dragons, and gave life to Huang Hu. Hahahaha."

Yugui didn't think it was funny, he just felt speechless.

"I don't understand what happened, but it was like giving birth to a baby. I was able to survive after I removed it." Huang Hu lowered his voice and said, "But you have to keep this a secret for me. If others knew about it, they would think I was a monster."

"Don't worry." Yougui said, "It's just that the person investigating the case, you know, she has always been impartial and selfless."

"I have a plan. Come closer and listen. In a moment, you just need to tell the police..."

The two were talking, and when they turned around, Pei Nian arrived.

Pei Nian stared at Huang Hu from a distance, not knowing what to think in his heart, but his face was still stern. He walked closer and said lightly: "Is he okay?" "Ji Shi, aren't you surprised?"

"Well, I'm not surprised. Go put on some clothes."

"Yes!"

Huang Hu clasped his fists, accepted the order, and strode away.

Pei Nian looked at his back and fell into deep thought until You Gui stepped forward to perform the ceremony.

"Investigation."

"What happened to him?"

"He said he was full of energy, but he just laughed at me." You Gui whispered, "But I am worried that he might have become Liu Heng's spy in Kaiping Division."

Pei Nian is principled and said, "There is no need to speculate without evidence."

"Yes." You Gui said, "According to my humble opinion, it is better not to make this public yet and wait and observe him for a while."

Pei Nian did not comment and said, "Continue searching."

At this moment, a subordinate came and reported: "We have found Liu Heng."

"Where?"

"Wang Jishi's men discovered them near the swamp on the other side of the mountain first, and His Majesty the Third Prince has sent troops to capture them..."

--------

When Pei Nian and his men arrived, Wang Qinghe was standing by the swamp, thinking about something with his head down, gently waving a folding fan in his hand, and his long hair fluttering slightly.

"What about people?"

Wang Qinghe turned around and glanced at the yellow tiger behind Pei Nian, and said, "I heard that this tiger was trapped in Wanchun Palace. How come it's okay?"

"Well, where's Liu Heng?"

"Is that Gu Jingnian?" Wang Qinghe put away his folding fan and pointed behind Pei Nian.

Pei Nian looked back and saw that Gu Jingnian was still safe and sound, so he just nodded lightly.

Over there, Gu Jingnian's gaze quickly shifted away from Pei Nian and looked at the soldiers surrounding the swamp, wondering what they were looking at.

When we got closer, we saw a pile of corpses, with burnt and broken armor outside. After they were taken out, we could vaguely make out that they were silver armor.

"What's going on?" Lu Yanning asked.

"The rebels formed a battle array and put up a desperate resistance. When they saw they were being defeated, they poured kerosene on themselves and set themselves on fire."

"Is Liu Heng among them?"

"The man in the mask and white robe? He was still there before we were surrounded, but someone jumped into the swamp when the fire started."

Gu Jingnian saw this and felt something was wrong. He said to Lu Yanning, "It looks like a plan to escape. There are three strange people around Liu Heng."

Lu Yanning understood and immediately ordered the soldiers to dig out the charred corpses.

A few wisps of smoke rose up again.

"Look!"

Soon someone cried out softly, and everyone stepped forward and looked. A half-burned corpse had been dug out. It had four arms, one of which had been chopped off in half.

Then, another corpse was carried out. Although it had been burned beyond recognition, one could still see a pair of huge hands that were different from those of an ordinary person.

"It was the man who fought with me."

Lu Yanning raised his hand and pointed, then asked Gu Jingnian, "Is the other one the Jade Man you saw?"

"Yes."

Gu Jingnian was just wondering how Pu Bo and Qin Er died when there was movement in the swamp.

"Find it out!"

A corpse was dragged out of the swamp by a fishing net. The white clothes on his body were completely soaked in mud, but the mask on his face was still tightly tied.

The mask was cut by the knife, and the crack directly connected to the wound on the neck, which was the same as the one Gu Jingnian had cut.

Lu Yanning stepped forward and lifted the mask, revealing a face marred by all kinds of horrific scars.

"Is there a coroner?"

"Have."

Suddenly, an old man among Pei Nian's subordinates raised his hand subconsciously. It was Su Changfu.

When everyone turned to look at him, Su Changfu remembered that he was now a miracle doctor.

But now that things had come to this, he had no choice but to go up and perform an autopsy.

After a skillful inspection, he quickly came to a preliminary conclusion.

"He's dead, less than two hours ago, the cause of death was suffocation due to mud blocking his mouth and nose. The skin on his face was ulcerated due to the hot oil, it must have been half a year..."

"Can you verify whether he is the imperial physician Liu Heng?"

Su Changfu replied: "This man must be an expert in medicine. He has thick calluses on his fingertips, probably from years of using silver needles."

As he spoke, he used his fingers to pry open the scars on the corpse's face.

"Besides... nothing else."

Wang Qinghe said, "In that case, find someone familiar with Liu Heng to identify the body, and the rest of you continue the search."

Such a big thing happened and everyone was busy.

Only Gu Jingnian had no official duties. He watched from the sidelines for a long time and then walked to Su Changfu inadvertently.

"Dr. Su."

"I don't dare, I don't dare...ah, is it Master Gu?"

"May I ask Divine Doctor Su, what did you just say?"

Su Changfu was very afraid of Gu Jingnian, so he dared not say anything. He bowed and said, "It was just a small matter. The wound on the corpse's face was just scratched. However, it was normal for him to be injured when he was surrounded and chased, so I didn't say anything."

Following these words, Gu Jingnian's eyes narrowed slightly.

Because he knew clearly that he was the one who cut Liu Heng's face yesterday. In other words, the person who died was most likely not Liu Heng.

(End of this chapter)