Starting from the imperial palace guards, his clones spread all over the world.

Chapter 643 The Main Body Meets the Clone

Liang Jin slowly turned around, his gaze falling on Zhao Yiyi's small face, which was filled with struggle and pain.

He didn't answer immediately. His gaze went past Zhao Yiyi's thin shoulders and landed on the Zhao family members who were huddled together for warmth by the ruins not far away.
Exhausted and desperate, Zhao Xingzhi and his wife leaned against each other, while Zhao Yueqing and Wu Hua stood numbly by Zhao Yiqiu's side.

When Liang Jin's gaze swept over, everyone in the Zhao family instantly focused their attention on him.

His eyes were incredibly complex: there was anticipation for Zhao Yiyi to speak, trepidation about Liang Jin's reaction, unfathomable sadness, and a sense of humility and fear of having nowhere else to turn and having to place all his hopes on the whim of another.

Like a drowning person seeing the last floating straw.

Liang Jin already understood.

His original intention was only to maintain a relatively pure relationship with Zhao Yiyi, and he did not want to get too involved in her complicated family affairs, nor did he want this ordinary family to fall into unknown dangers because of him.

Therefore, he has always deliberately kept his distance, except for necessary polite contact.

However, last night's disaster, which swept through the entire city, was like a raging torrent that completely destroyed the Zhao family and inevitably brought them to their doorstep.

It seems there's no way to avoid it now.

really.

Zhao Yiyi said in a low voice, feeling very embarrassed:
"Brother Liang... my family... has nowhere to go now..."

“If it were anything else, I would never have come to ask you for help.”

"But...we really have no other choice..."

"Brother Liang, if possible... could you reserve a room for my family to stay in that house temporarily?"

As Zhao Yiyi spoke, tears welled up in her eyes.

She didn't want to put Liang Jin in a difficult position.

She especially didn't want Liang Jin to feel that her family would become a burden to him because she had followed him.

But she loved Liang Jin and her family.

This put her in a difficult position, making it hard for her to choose between the two options.

Liang Jin's voice was low and calm, revealing little emotion:
“There are indeed quite a few empty rooms in my house.”

He reached out, his fingertips calloused, and gently brushed away a speck of black ash from Zhao Yiyi's cheek.

"But... there's something I have to tell you."

"The girl you've been taking care of these past few days... her identity is extraordinary."

Liang Jin carefully chose his words, looking intently into Zhao Yiyi's eyes, trying to make her understand the weight of his words:

"She's involved in too many things, and the trouble is too great."

"Letting your family live under the same roof with her... I worry that those troubles will eventually entangle your parents and your sisters like a shadow."

"This... is not an exaggeration."

He had to make the potentially huge risks clear.

When Zhao Yiyi heard that Liang Jin did not directly refuse, a faint but stubborn flame of hope instantly ignited in her dim eyes.

She looked at Liang Jin urgently, almost pleadingly, her voice carrying a desperate sorrow:
"Brother Liang, we understand the trouble you're talking about."

"But...look at us now..."

She suddenly raised her hand, trembling as she pointed to the charred ruins that had buried all her family's hopes, to her eldest sister who was unconscious with blood-stained bandages wrapped around her back, to her parents' withered and desperate faces, and to the lingering fear in her second sister and her husband's eyes.

She took a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down:
"Brother Liang, what trouble are we afraid of?"

Liang Jin was slightly taken aback, then suddenly realized.

Yes!

For the Zhao family at this moment, any unknown troubles or future risks are as distant as clouds in the sky.

They lost all protection and were left naked and exposed to disaster and danger.

Survival depends on tonight!
Who knows if there will be any unrest tonight?

If chaos erupts again tonight, the Zhao family may find it difficult to survive.

I'm about to lose my life, what trouble do I care about?
It might even be right now!

Any place that can help them get through the night and save their lives is paradise!

As for whether there are devils lurking in heaven, that's something to consider tomorrow.

Liang Jin sighed, reached out and gently patted Zhao Yiyi's cold cheek, a reassuring smile tinged with a hint of helplessness tugging at the corners of his lips:
"Since that's the case... then let's go."

He paused, his tone becoming clear and solemn:
"Apart from the separate courtyard where the shepherd girl lives, you may use any of the other rooms in the house!"

"Stay as long as you want."

The overwhelming joy instantly overwhelmed Zhao Yiyi's sadness and despair!
She could hardly believe her ears. She suddenly looked up, her swollen eyes flashing with disbelief before being overwhelmed by a torrent of tears.

"Really...really?!"

"Brother Liang! Thank you! Thank you!"

Overwhelmed with emotion, she was so excited that she couldn't speak coherently. Overwhelmed with joy, she couldn't help but rush forward and hug Liang Jin's arm tightly, pressing her tear-streaked cheek against his strong arm as if she had grasped the support of the whole world.

In just a moment, she quickly released her grip like a startled fawn, her cheeks flushing red, and she lowered her head shyly.

She then realized that her family was still alive.

But that heartfelt gratitude and joy shone like sunshine on her gloomy little face.

"Thank you, Brother Liang!"

She thanked him again solemnly, her voice much clearer this time.

After saying that, she immediately turned around and, like a nimble swallow, ran quickly to her family to bring them this wonderful news.

Upon learning the news, the Zhao family was naturally extremely grateful and moved to tears.

Zhao Xingzhi pulled his wife along, almost kneeling down before Liang Jin, but Liang Jin stopped him in time.

Without saying much, Liang Jin gave a few simple instructions and then personally led the exhausted survivors away from the scorched earth that bore their endless suffering, heading towards the house.

They didn't even bother to wash the soot off their bodies and faces, because people like them were everywhere in the capital these days.

When passing through Caishikou, a huge crowd blocked our way.

The crowd was in uproar, and people were indignant.

The crowd squeezed through to take a look and saw a high execution platform where several emaciated, ragged men were being forced to kneel on the ground by constables from the Six Doors.

Their mouths were stuffed with dirty rags, and they could only let out desperate groans. Their necks and wrists were torn and bleeding from rough hemp ropes, and their veins bulged. Their desperately twisting bodies revealed a kind of madness like that of trapped beasts.

His face was a mixture of snot, tears, and blood, and his bloodshot eyes bulged out, filled with fear and resentment.

"They are the villains who caused trouble last night!"

"They set the fire! They're the ones who killed them!"

"Today, we will behead them and display their heads to the public! To appease the people!"

The constables loudly announced the identities of the prisoners to the people.

Most of the people around were survivors or relatives of the victims of last night's disaster, and at this moment they seemed to have found an outlet for their anger.

Cries, curses, and spittle merged into a raging torrent.

Rotten vegetable leaves and hard stones rained down on the prisoners on the execution platform.

The executioner, expressionless, tossed down the execution order.

The executioner stepped forward; he was a burly man with bulging muscles on his bare right arm, and he raised his large, razor-sharp blade high, drawing a chilling arc in the air.

"Pfft!"

A dull, eerie cutting sound rang out!
Hot blood gushed out like a fountain, shooting several feet high in an instant, splashing onto the mottled wooden planks of the execution platform and onto the clothes of the onlookers in the front row.

Several heads rolled to the ground, their distorted expressions frozen in their final moments of terror. The headless cavities convulsed, spewing out the last vestiges of life.

The crowd was initially stunned into silence by the bloody scene, then erupted into a deafening, almost frenzied cheer:

"Good kill!"

"Karma! Karma!"

"Master Qingtian!"

……

The executioner kicked the corpse aside expressionlessly. Soon, some constables stepped forward and skillfully hooked the head with an iron hook, hanging it on a tall wooden pole next to the execution ground as a warning to others.

Those few heads, still warm and with wide-open, angry eyes, hung in the newly dawning sky, proclaiming the government's thunderous measures and attempting to soothe the terrified and broken heart of this ravaged city.

A strong smell of blood filled the air, and Zhao Yueqing couldn't help but gag. Zhao Xingzhi and his wife turned pale and closed their eyes tightly.

Zhao Yiyi subconsciously gripped Liang Jin's clothes, her knuckles turning white.

Liang Jin whispered:
"Let's go."

He led the still-shaken Zhao family members, silently bypassing the bloody execution ground, and continued on his way.

However, Zhao Yiyi soon realized that she was going in the wrong direction.

"Brother Liang..."

She whispered a reminder, tinged with doubt and unease:

"This isn't the way back to the house!"

She clearly saw Liang Jin leading them toward the majestic city gate.

Liang Jin didn't stop walking, his gaze sweeping across the somewhat empty main street ahead, his voice flat and emotionless:
"Just follow along, it's not a long detour."

His tone carried an unquestionable certainty.

Zhao Yiyi pursed her lips, swallowed her questions, and silently followed.

As we approached the main road connecting to the city gate, a dull and oppressive sound of horses' hooves and wheels rolling over the stone pavement grew louder from afar.

A convoy of trains was making its way into the city.

The convoy was quite large, with dozens of elite guards protecting several carriages covered in thick dust.
Whether it's the saddles of the horses, the leather armor of the guards, or the patterns on the carriage curtains, they all exude a strong exotic flavor, rugged and fierce, quite different from the refined and restrained style of the Great Qian Dynasty.

What's even more chilling is the invisible malevolent aura emanating from this group.

Their eyes were sharp as hawks', scanning the street with a cold indifference to life, like a pack of wolves licking blood from a blade in the wilderness. That was the aura forged only through countless trials of death and carnage.

In the capital city, which had just experienced a bloodbath and was still on high alert, this group of menacing outsiders was like torches in the dark, instantly attracting all wary eyes.

really.
At every street corner and alleyway, constables from the Six Doors, yamen runners from Shuntian Prefecture, and even patrolling squads of the Northern Imperial Guards all quickly gathered around, their hands on their sword hilts, their faces grim, ready to question and intercept them.

The atmosphere suddenly became tense.

However, when these officials saw the people leading the way at the front of the convoy, their expressions changed drastically!
The black pointed hat, the brown armor, and the narrow, long sword at his waist—he was clearly a spy from the Criminal Investigation Bureau!

And leading the way on horseback was actually a woman!
The woman was about thirty years old, with a tall and straight figure like a javelin, astride a magnificent black horse.

His facial features alone are extremely beautiful, but his exposed neck, the back of his hands, and even his handsome face are covered with several hideous scars of varying depths!
These scars, like coiled centipedes, completely ruined the beauty, but gave her a chilling, strange aura, a blend of iron will and weathered hardship.

She is not a delicate flower, but a drawn scimitar that has drunk blood!

His gaze swept across the area with a cold scrutiny, and no one dared to meet his eyes.

"It is...it is Lord Wang Huaishuang!"

"The Yama of the Investigation Bureau... Get out of here, get out of here!"

"Who dares to investigate the people she brought? Do they have a death wish?"

……

The officials who had gathered around turned pale instantly, as if scalded by boiling water. They lowered their heads and scrambled back to the side of the road, not daring to breathe.

The once bustling street fell into a stifling silence the moment the woman appeared and the menacing aura of the group behind her.

The people on the roadside were terrified and hurriedly backed away, crowding together to make way for this special convoy.

Liang Jin and the Zhao family stood in the crowded crowd by the roadside.

His gaze, as if drawn by a magnet, was firmly fixed on the exotic caravan.

Through the dusty, yet fierce-looking guards, he saw too many familiar faces.

No, to be precise, it was a face familiar to Liang Jin's doppelganger, Meng Xinghun!
Western Desert, Green Robe Tower!

That's right!

These were the elite Qingyi Tower warriors who had traveled all the way from the Western Desert to the capital to lend their assistance, at the invitation of the head of the Imperial Police Station!

The next moment, Liang Jin's gaze fell precisely on a seemingly ordinary green-canopied carriage in the middle of the caravan.

As if by telepathy, the moment his gaze fell upon the carriage, the window creaked open from the inside.

A face appeared in the window.

It was an extremely ordinary face.

He had no striking features, his facial features were unremarkable, and his skin was rough and dull from years of wind and sand.

If you throw someone into a crowd, it will be difficult to retrieve them from your memory in the blink of an eye.

However, the moment the car window opened, those incredibly ordinary-looking eyes, deep as an ancient well, instantly pierced through the bustling street and crowded people, precisely capturing Liang Jin standing by the roadside!
Eye to eye!

Time seemed to freeze at this moment.

An indescribable, illogical sense of strangeness instantly gripped Liang Jin's heart!
The feeling... was like standing in front of an incredibly clear mirror, but the reflection wasn't entirely yourself.

The person in the mirror shares the same origin and soul as him, possessing the deepest consciousness and memories, yet exists independently within another body, carrying a completely different experience and identity.

It is "me", but it is not entirely "me".

A subtle tremor ran through the depths of my soul, like two pebbles being thrown into a calm lake, causing ripples to interfere with and collide with each other.

This is an experience that mortals cannot comprehend even with the most vivid imaginations—one soul in two bodies, gazing into each other's eyes!

A tremendous sense of absurdity welled up in Liang Jin's heart.

The mere fact that two “selves” meet in the same space and time is enough to create such a strong, almost soul-tearing sense of unease.

If one day, all the scattered clones, along with the original body, were to gather together...

What a horrifying, chaotic, and unimaginable scene that would be!

The thought flashed through his mind for only a moment before he forcibly suppressed it.

Liang Jin looked away expressionlessly.

Almost at the same moment, the carriage window also snapped shut with a "click," effectively isolating the inside from the outside.

Without any words or communication, the two parties understood each other perfectly.

Now that Qingyi Tower has arrived, Liang Jin's clone has also arrived in the capital!
This undoubtedly adds a significant weight to the turbulent and dangerous vortex, increasing the power and confidence he controls several times over!
The convoy rumbled away, carrying an air of menace, and the streets resumed their normal flow.

Liang Jin didn't linger. Leading the silent and weary Zhao family, he quickened his pace and finally returned to the house that could temporarily shelter them from the wind and rain.

Back at the mansion, Liang Jin asked Zhao Yiyi to take care of settling his still-shaken family members, while he went to find Ji Fei, who was still dutifully guarding the front yard.

He told Ji Fei to go home and check on things immediately.

Even the Zhao family suffered a disaster; I wonder how the Ji family fared.

Ji Fei returned in just half an hour.

His family is fine.

After all, Yan Gui Lane was a slum in Beijing, so remote and impoverished that it had almost no value.

The government never cared about the lives of the people there, and even the wicked people who caused trouble didn't bother with such a remote and impoverished place.

This actually saved the people of Yan Gui Lane from disaster.

The courtyard became crowded and noisy due to the sudden influx of the Zhao family.

Empress Mu Congshuang, who usually lived a secluded life, surprisingly stepped out of her exquisite courtyard and stood in the shadows of the corridor, watching the group of uninvited guests who had suddenly intruded.

Her beautiful brows furrowed slightly, and her delicate face revealed her undisguised aversion to the strong smell of smoke, blood, and sweat emanating from the Zhao family.

It was an almost instinctive, pampered obsession with cleanliness.

She even subconsciously covered her mouth and nose with a silk handkerchief.

However, her eyes were filled with an irrepressible curiosity.

She was like a delicate doll who had never experienced the real world, observing this group of "lower-class people" struggling to survive in the mud and blood from a safe distance.

She listened as Zhao Yueqing whispered to Zhao Yiyi about the tragic scene of the Wu family's cloth shop being burned down the previous night and her husband's wailing; she listened as Zhao Xingzhi, with tears streaming down his face, lamented that his life's savings had vanished; and she listened as Wu Hua gritted his teeth and cursed the arsonists...

These stories, to her, were like tales from another world—cruel yet imbued with a strange, primal vitality.

The Zhao family also quickly noticed the woman who had a noble air, was dressed in extraordinary clothes, and was standing at a distance.

Although she covered her mouth and nose and acted aloof, her overall demeanor and unparalleled beauty instilled in them an instinctive sense of awe. Their words and actions were filled with a cautious respect, and they dared not make a sound or approach her.

Despite their predicament, they were still polite and understood that this woman must be someone of great importance.

Liang Jin did not disturb this delicate balance.

Alone, he came to the depths of the mansion, to the small backyard pond dotted with a few water lilies.

The pool was calm and still, reflecting the leaden-gray sky.

He stood quietly, as if waiting for something.

really.

A moment later, a familiar figure appeared silently, like a ghost, in the shadow of the artificial hill across the pond.

It was Zhao Bao, the third-in-command of the Criminal Investigation Bureau.

Zhao Bao's gaze swept over the faint sounds of noise coming from the front yard, his brow furrowing almost imperceptibly as he looked at Liang Jin with a hint of doubt:
"Brother Jin?"

He pointed towards the front yard:
"This is……?"

A helpless smile appeared on Liang Jin's face as he frankly said:

"The family of Yi."

"The fire last night destroyed our home and we almost lost our lives. We have nowhere to go, so we are temporarily staying here."

Upon hearing this, Zhao Bao's eyes flashed with understanding, and then he let out a meaningful "Oh—", drawing out the last syllable.

A mischievous "I knew it" look appeared on his face as he looked at Liang Jin with a half-smile, carrying a hint of teasing between brothers:
"Brother Jin, actually... I've wanted to ask this for a long time."

He took a few steps closer, lowered his voice, and his eyes swept over Liang Jin's face:

"There seems to be something... unusual between you and that Miss Zhao, doesn't there?"

He didn't finish his sentence, but his winking and rising tone conveyed his unspoken meaning perfectly.

Liang Jin met Zhao Bao's probing gaze with a calm expression, without flinching.

He hesitated for a moment, then nodded frankly:
"Yes. My relationship with her... is a little special."

Zhao Bao got a clear answer, and the mischievous smile on his face deepened. He nodded vigorously, but did not ask any further questions.

However, deep down, he secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

Since Liang Jin already has someone he loves and his own woman, then... wouldn't he be competing with me for Xiao Lian?

At least, Liang Jin would no longer be an "obstacle" on his path to pursuing Xiao Lian... This thought inexplicably eased his tense nerves.

"By the way, what exactly happened last night?"

Why are so many people suddenly causing trouble?

Liang Jin suddenly asked a question, his expression instantly turning serious.

He needs to know the deeper inside story.

Zhao Bao's arrival at this time must have meant he already had a general understanding of the situation.

The smile on Zhao Bao's face vanished instantly, as if covered by frost.

He seemed to be suddenly pulled back to the cruel reality, his eyes turning cold and sharp.

He cautiously sensed his surroundings, and only after confirming it was absolutely safe did he approach Liang Jin, his voice extremely low, filled with disbelief, anger, and chilling intent:

"Brother Jin, someone... has started to go crazy!"

His tone was resolute, each word seemingly squeezed out from between his teeth:
"They... have completely torn off all pretense of civility, disregarding the unspoken rules that have been maintained for decades in the halls of power!"

"The Grand Eunuch is furious about this, and I'm afraid there will be a bloodbath in the capital today!"

(End of this chapter)