Holding a lantern, guiding souls across, Lady Hou comes from the underworld.

After Yan Zhengchu finished explaining the matter, he was taken away by Wan Tingjun.

Zhao Wan threatened suicide and refused to leave, so Wu Kai had no choice but to give up.

Before leaving, however, he left two squads of Wan Ting Army soldiers to guard the manor, citing the reason of "protecting the princess's safety."

Yu Lang remembered Yan Zhengchu's words and couldn't wait to go out and see what was going on, but he was blocked by Wan Tingjun outside the door.

"Jiang Ting's intentions are too obvious; he clearly wants to imprison us here!"

Zhao Wan had never been treated like this before. Just as she was about to make a scene at the door, Yu Lang immediately advised her, "Princess, we are outnumbered and it is not advisable to confront them head-on. We must think of a way to find reinforcements..."

Now, the entire northern border is under Jiang Ting's control, and the Wan Ting Army runs rampant, with no one daring to confront them.

Unless, of course, there's an opportunity to bring in the Golden Feather Army...

But the Golden Feather Army's station is so far away, how can they be transferred without a military order?

Thinking of this, Yu Lang added, "We can't just sit here and wait to die. We need to go out and find an opportunity. At the very least, we need to talk to Lord Ren and Miss Xia first."

He then asked Zhao Wan, "Princess, does this manor have any other exits?"

Zhao Wan was unaware of the situation and could only look to Steward Sun.

Manager Sun's eyes darted around, and a moment later, he called over a tea farmer from behind.

Yu Lang was clearly puzzled.

"He can take you over from that tea plantation, it's just... a bit of a long way."

At this moment, Yu Lang didn't care about anything else and immediately followed the tea farmer.

"We have to go, no matter how far!"

To avoid being seen, the tea farmer handed him a straw hat, then crouched down and climbed over a vegetable garden.

Looking at the vegetable garden where snowmelt mixed with black mud, Yu Lang couldn't help but sigh.

By the time they crossed the vegetable garden, their boots were covered in mud.

However, this is only the beginning.

After passing through vegetable fields and then orchards, by the time we reached the tea plantation, not only our clothes and shoes were covered in grime, but even our faces were stained…

Yu Shaoqing never imagined that he would one day be so down and out.

It took more than an hour to get out of the tea mountain.

The tea farmer wiped the snow water from his face, pointed to a small path beside him, and said, "Sir, just follow this path, and you'll see Liangzhou City."

Looking around, Yu Lang realized there was still a long way to go. He sighed inwardly, but thanked him and gave him some money as a reward.

It was nearly 1:00 PM.

After descending the tea mountain, there wasn't a single person in sight on the road.

Yu Lang immediately quickened his pace and rushed to the east gate, only to find the gate tightly closed and the guards nowhere to be seen.

It seems that something has indeed happened in Liangzhou City.

Just as he was pondering how to enter the city to find Ren Fengjue, a carriage at the corner of the city caught his attention.

Because the carriage had lanterns that read "Wu Wang Mansion" hanging on it.

If he remembered correctly, that was the carriage that Ren Fengjue used before leaving.

Yu Lang was overjoyed and hurriedly approached the carriage. However, as soon as he lifted the curtain, a hand reached out from inside and chopped straight at his face.

This unexpected attack startled Yu Shaoqing.

Fortunately, he reacted quickly, tilting his head back to dodge, and the hand reached out and ripped off his straw hat.

"Who are you?"

Inside and outside the car, the two had already distanced themselves, but as they looked at each other, they both spoke at the same time.

Yu Lang took a step back and saw that the other person was a middle-aged man around forty years old with a gloomy look, who didn't seem easy to deal with. He immediately asked, "This carriage isn't yours, is it?"

Yuwen Ji also sized up Yu Lang and saw that although the young man was in a sorry state, he had an extraordinary temperament and seemed to be on par with the young master of the Ren family.

"Is this young master also from the Ministry of Justice?"

Upon hearing him mention the Ministry of Justice, Yu Lang felt relieved and immediately revealed his waist badge: "Yu Lang, Vice Minister of the Court of Judicial Review."

Yuwen Ji looked surprised, then handed over the jade token that Ren Fengjue had given him, saying, "I am here on the orders of 'this person' to invite someone."

Upon seeing Ren Fengjue's jade pendant, Yu Lang was overjoyed and immediately asked, "Where is Lord Ren?"

Yuwen Ji's expression darkened. "He's still in the city. He originally wanted me to go to King Wu's manor to invite a Taoist priest surnamed Yan, but..."

He left the city gate around dawn and, following the clues given by Ren Fengjue, quickly found King Wu's manor.

However, before they even got close, they saw a large number of Wan Tingjun's figures.

His intuition told him that this group was definitely up to no good!

Yu Lang could more or less guess why he hadn't been able to go to the manor, so he told him, "Something has happened at the manor, and Master Yan has been taken away. We need to go and meet up with Lord Ren as soon as possible and tell him about this."

Yuwen Ji pointed to the tightly closed city gate: "When I came out, the city gate was open, but now it's suddenly sealed off. I don't know what happened..."

Yu Lang then said, "The deputy general of Wan Ting Army said that there are dead bodies and people injured outside the city..."

"Another case of someone being injured by a dead body?"

Yuwen Ji was taken aback, and his expression turned strange.

Yu Lang instinctively felt that he knew something about this, so he asked, "You know about this?"

Yuwen Ji nodded first, then looked at the towering city wall beside him and asked, "How is Young Master Yu's lightness skill?"

Yu Lang understood what he meant, but vaguely replied, "So-so..."

Yuwen Ji pointed to a poplar tree by the wall and said, "In a little while, we can use this tree to try to enter the city."

"That's worth a try."

Seeing that the difficulty had decreased, Yu Lang was about to give it a try when Yuwen Ji stopped him, saying, "It's broad daylight, aren't you afraid of being mistaken for a thief and shot down?"

"That?"

"Wait until it gets dark..."

Yuwen Ji glanced at the sky, then pulled him along, "Come on, let's go sit in the car first, and I'll tell you the whole story."

Yu Lang was also tired, so he got into the carriage without saying a word.

Seeing that he was easygoing and approachable, Yuwen Ji felt a bit more favorably toward him and handed him a steamed bun.

"Let's fill our stomachs first."

Yu Lang's eyes lit up. He trusted him completely, thanked him, and then picked up the steamed bun and started eating.

While he was filling his stomach, Yuwen Ji told him directly about what happened in the Xuanjing Hall yesterday.

After hearing the whole story, Yu Lang took a while to process it.

He never expected that so many things would happen in just one day and one night.

"You mean, those corpses from the injuries are mostly related to Lianjiabao?"

Yuwen Ji dared not make a conclusion, and only said, "But when we went to Lianjiabao last night, we did not see any corpses."

Yu Lang was also puzzled, "This is too much of a coincidence; it's clearly someone manipulating things behind the scenes!"

As for who this person was, they exchanged a glance and already knew the answer in their hearts.

Yuwen Ji glanced at the sky and said, "Let's take it one step at a time."