Scourge Messenger

Chapter 92 He who steals a hook is punished, he who steals a kingdom becomes a king.
In the early hours of the morning, at the thieves' house.

"As you can see, Shang Xuanwen is not resting at home tonight, but is on duty at the Ministry of Personnel."

A stark contrast to her quiet, mushroom-like demeanor at noon, Shang Xinlei took control of the meeting the moment it began in the early morning, completely ignoring Yaoshi Yuan's trembling legs. She magnified the sand table's light and shadow with three fingers, making it clearer for everyone: "The practice of officials taking turns staying overnight at the Ministry of Personnel has existed since ancient times. Currently, Liang Kingdom has six prime ministers. In addition to Shang Xuanwen and two ministerial secretaries, there are three vice prime ministers who have been granted the title of Vice Chancellor. These six people take turns staying overnight, and the specific times are not scheduled but decided by the six of them. Therefore, we cannot determine whether Shang Xuanwen will be at home or on duty at the Ministry of Personnel three days from now."

The question should be raised as follows: "Since he's on duty today, he won't be on duty for the next five days, right?"

“The six ministers are all messengers and are not limited by physical strength,” Shang Xinlei said. “In addition, due to their busy official duties, the six ministers may not all be in Jiangnan City, and it is common for them to stay on duty for several consecutive days.”

"Therefore, we need to devise two invasion plans," the pharmacist said, attempting to regain control: "One is the merchants, and the other is the Ministry of Personnel."

"Wrong, there are three." Shang Xinlei held up three fingers: "And the Imperial Palace."

"It is a tradition of the Liang Kingdom for Hanlin scholars to serve in the inner court. They are responsible for reviewing memorials, drafting imperial edicts, and providing advice. Naturally, they also have to stay overnight. Although there is no set rule, if the six ministers learn important information at night, they will apply to enter the palace to meet the emperor. Afterwards, they will not leave the palace but simply stay overnight in the Wenyuan Pavilion of the inner court."

“We are very lucky. The merchants, the palace, and the Ministry of Works are located in the southwest, center, and northwest of Jiangnan City, respectively. Shangjiu Road and Xiajiu Road are right in the center of them, so it is convenient to go in any direction.”

"First, there's the business area, covering thirty acres. With the garden as the central axis, it can be divided into three sections: east, central, and west, with nearly a hundred rooms in total. Shang Xuanwen's study, bedroom, and training room are located in these three places. The best place to infiltrate is the western wall, where there are trees to climb, and it's very close to the bedroom. It only takes the time it takes to drink a cup of tea to reach the destination." Shang Xinlei explained in great detail, zooming in on the sand table's light and shadow as she spoke, as if she knew it all by heart.

"The Ministry of Personnel is located next to the palace. It is divided into the main hall and the six ministries and twenty-four departments, as well as the storehouses and staff quarters behind it. Shang Xuanwen is currently on duty in the main hall, which is located at the innermost part of the Ministry of Personnel. It is heavily guarded and patrolled, so it is not easy to invade from the front. But look here—" Shang Xinlei enlarged the sand table's light and shadow: "The officials often enter and exit through this side door. The guards are not strict. If you run fast enough from here, you can easily rush into the main hall before arousing alarms."

"Finally, there's the Imperial Palace, which is the most troublesome. The palace walls are high, and the only way to get in is to invade from the front. But once you get in, the palace guards inside are not that great. The place is too big, and the guards can't keep up with everything. Wenyuan Pavilion is here, right next to Jinhua Gate. You could say it's just a few steps from the entrance of the palace."

Everyone stared in shock as Shang Xinlei rattled off so much in one breath, without pausing at all. Yan Qing even wanted to ask her if she wanted a glass of water, but Shang Xinlei zoomed in again, focusing on Shang Xuanwen, who was on duty in the Ministry of Personnel: "Now that we've finished discussing the invasion plans for these three locations, let's talk about Shang Xuanwen himself."

"As far as I know, Shang Xuanwen has three third-tier tokens. The first is the rare defensive token, the Heart-Protecting Mirror, which has seven layers of defense and can withstand a lot of damage. Minor damage will only break through the first few layers of defense, and he can replenish them at any time as long as he has enough spiritual power. For example, this evening when he was assassinated, fell into a hole and was then ignited by dozens of cans of kerosene, he was still able to escape safely."

"The second is the rare attack token, the Wave-Breaking Sword."

At this point, Shang Xinlei looked at Ying Rushi, who tactfully picked up the conversation: "The Northern Warriors, the Southern Wavebreakers. The Wavebreaker Sword has two powers: one is that the damage increases with the number of attacks; the other is that it can cut through wind and waves, and any spiritual attack can be neutralized by the slash."

The pharmacist snorted coldly, disapproving of the scene of the Qi and Liang people praising each other.

“The third is the token of concealment, Ming Shiyin.” Shang Xinlei continued, “This token is very famous. It is said that Shang Xuanwen obtained it by accident when he was young and was exploring a secret realm, but no one knows exactly what it looks like. All that is known is that it makes Shang Xuanwen almost non-existent. Unless he speaks to him or touches him, he will hardly be able to find it even if he is standing right in front of him.”

Pharmacist Yuan and Ying Rushi immediately became serious. Defense and attack were relatively easy to deal with, but they had no way to deal with this kind of concealed token for the time being. However, Pharmacist Yuan's mind worked quickly, and she asked, "Wait, didn't you just say that Shang Xuanwen was assassinated today? If Ming Shiyin is so powerful, how could he assassinate him?"

“I don’t know either, but I have two guesses,” Shang Xinlei said. “The first one is simple: the assassins had a token that enhanced their reconnaissance and saw through Shang Xuanwen’s invisibility. The second one is that they didn’t see through it, but simply ambushed Shang Xuanwen at the places where he would appear, created events to lure him closer, and then tried to ‘bump’ him out using a human wave tactic.”

Investigating the token was rather troublesome, but the later conjecture was quite valuable. Pharmacist Yuan and Ying Rushi's gazes towards Shang Xinlei subtly changed. Previously, they both thought Shang Xinlei was the weakest member of the Thieves' Family, but tonight, her intelligence gathering and reasoning abilities had qualified her to be their competitor.

“Shang Xuanwen definitely has more than just these three tokens. Rumors circulate in Jiangnan City that he most likely possesses an exceptionally powerful reconnaissance token,” Shang Xinlei said. “Many people say that Shang Xuanwen can read minds.” “Read minds…” Yaoshi Yuan pondered. “In other words, the tactics he devises during battle will most likely be detected. To deal with him, we must defeat him as quickly and decisively as possible.”

“I have some ideas on how to deal with invisibility,” Ying said. “If speaking will render our speech ineffective, then setting fire to the house is undoubtedly the simplest way. We should not arouse suspicion at first, but set fire to the bedroom or the main hall. As long as he has no suspicion, he will definitely call for help to put out the fire.”

Shang Xinlei strongly agreed with their approach and added, "The Heart-Protecting Mirror excels at handling prolonged battles. To break through it, it's best to unleash a massive burst of damage in a short period. Considering the possibility of being mind-read and dodged, at least two people should attack Shang Xuanwen from both sides, leaving him no room to dodge. Also, although Shang Xuanwen can become invisible, his guards cannot. He currently has a monk guarding him, and we can track him down by locking onto the monk."

Seeing their enthusiastic discussion, Yan Qing couldn't help but scratch his head. He even began to doubt whether his memory was wrong, whether it was possible that Chi She wasn't Shang Xinlei, or that Shang Xuanwen wasn't Shang Xinlei's father.

Otherwise, it's hard to explain why Shang Xinlei was so enthusiastic about offering advice and discussing with everyone how to deal with her own father. Her plan was so detailed, as if she had been plotting for a long time, just waiting for an opportunity like the thieves' family to come.

Or is it that Shang Xuanwen's words were not exaggerated at all, and that he really hated people so much that he would even want to kill his own daughter?

"Everyone!"

Shang Xinlei clapped her hands loudly, drawing everyone's attention back to her. "To be honest, after the last mission, I have complete confidence in your abilities. Plus, we have a full hour to spare this time, and the mission is scheduled for nighttime. I think this mission will be a piece of cake for us."

"Since that's the case, why don't we take this opportunity to gain some benefits?"

Shang Xinlei then magnified the sand table with three fingers, drawing everyone's attention to the area beneath the palace. It was then that Yan Qing discovered that a few meters below the center of the plaza in front of the Taichu Hall of the palace lay an underground palace.

"The Liang Kingdom's royal treasury." Shang Xinlei's voice was full of seductive charm: "No one expected that the Liang Kingdom's royal family would actually set up their treasury below the square in the very center of the palace. Due to the terrain, there are no guards above or below. At most, there is a team of guards patrolling every fifteen minutes, and they are extremely perfunctory. After all, they don't know that the Liang Kingdom's royal family's wealth is hidden right under their feet."

“We have a full hour. During that time, we can run rampant in Jiangnan City without any fear, while the people of Jiangnan City are unlikely to react or be on alert so quickly. Why should we limit ourselves to the mere Heaven-Slaying Sword? Isn't the royal treasury far more valuable to steal?”

“In fact, we don’t even need to find Shang Xuanwen. As long as we grasp his lifeline, we can make him obediently hand over the Heaven-Slaying Sword.”

As Shang Xinlei zoomed in and out, the sand table light and shadow was no longer the royal secret vault, but a palace in the royal palace. A young man was lying on the palace bed, surrounded by palace servants on night duty, with a level of security far exceeding that of other areas.

“He is…” Pharmacist Yuan’s pupils suddenly contracted.

"Emperor of Liang!" Shang Xinlei opened her arms wide, as if to embrace the whole world: "Think about it, as long as we capture the emperor and then retreat to the archway within the stipulated time, wouldn't we have whatever we want? Secret manuals, secret techniques, tokens—with the emperor in our hands, they'll have to give us whatever we want willingly, let alone a mere Heaven-Slaying Sword?"

"Those who steal hooks will be punished, and those who steal the country will be martyred."

Shang Xinlei stood up, bracing herself on the stone table, and looked around at everyone: "Take the Heaven-Reliance Sword, steal the secret treasury, hold the emperor hostage, and command the Liang Kingdom. This is my plan. Do you dare to come with me?"

(End of this chapter)