Joy of Life: Me, the Second Prince? Summon Yuan Tiangang!

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"Your Highness? Which Your Highness?!" Leng Feng was shocked, and countless thoughts flashed through his mind.

"Dead people don't need to know that much."

As soon as Zhao Gao finished speaking, the six sword slaves behind him pounced on Leng Feng like six bolts of lightning.

True Steel, Water Cutting, Chaotic Gods, Demons, Soul Transformation, Soul Destroying.

Six famous swords, each with its own distinct and ultimate killing style, merged perfectly at this moment, forming an impenetrable net of death.

Leng Feng roared and swung his sword with all his might to meet the attack. He was a top expert from the Sixth Division, with his strength already at the peak of the eighth rank, only one step away from the ninth rank.

But under the combined attack of the six sword slaves, he couldn't even withstand a single move.

"Sizzle! Sizzle! Sizzle!"

The sounds of sharp blades piercing flesh rang out one after another.

Leng Feng's body froze instantly. His eyes widened, filled with disbelief and fear.

Six longswords were embedded in his body, piercing his limbs, abdomen, and heart. Blood gushed out like a fountain, instantly staining the ground red.

The six sword slaves drew their swords simultaneously, and Leng Feng's body crashed to the ground.

Zhao Gao slowly walked to Leng Feng's corpse, looking down at his unseeing eyes.

"His Highness said he wants to cut a piece of flesh from your bodies."

Zhao Gao sneered and pulled out a finely crafted dagger from his pocket.

A moment later.

Zhao Gao led the six sword slaves out of the underground chamber.

The entire Lonely Goose Manor had become a deathly silent hell. All 142 of the Detective Agency's secret agents and assassins were dead.

"Burn this place down," Zhao Gao coldly ordered.

"yes!"

Several assassins from the Luo Wang organization quickly poured kerosene into every corner of the manor.

Just as the fire was about to ignite, Zhao Gao suddenly stopped. He turned around, walked to the white wall of the main hall of the manor, and dipped his gloved fingers into the blood of a corpse next to him.

Then, he slowly drew a huge and ferocious blood-red spider on the wall.

Below the spider, he also left a line of shocking words:

"Where the net reaches, not a blade of grass grows. Old Dog Chen, how does this piece of meat taste?"

"ignition."

With Zhao Gao's command, raging flames shot into the sky, instantly engulfing the entire Lonely Goose Manor.

The firelight illuminated half the night sky, reflecting Zhao Gao's sinister and terrifying mask.

"Walk."

The assassins from Luo Wang disappeared into the boundless night as quickly as they had arrived, as if they had never been there at all.

……

……

The next morning.

The sky over Kyoto was overcast, as if it might rain at any moment.

The Forensic Institute, the Dean's Study.

Chen Pingping was still sitting in that wheelchair, his legs covered with a thick wool blanket. His face was even paler than yesterday, his eyes were sunken, and he looked as if he had aged ten years overnight.

The atmosphere in the study was extremely oppressive, and there was even a faint smell of blood in the air.

The shadow stood silently behind Chen Pingping, his entire body shrouded in a black robe, obscuring his face. However, his slightly trembling hands revealed that his heart was far from calm.

On Chen Pingping's desk was a wooden box wrapped in black cloth, with dark red bloodstains still seeping from the edges.

"Lone Goose Manor...142 men, all wiped out."

Chen Pingping's voice was terribly hoarse, and every word seemed to be squeezed out from between his teeth.

He slowly extended his withered fingers and lifted the wooden box wrapped in black cloth.

Inside the box was a bloody ear and a note rubbing taken from the wall, depicting a blood-red spider and the arrogant message.

That ear belonged to Leng Feng, the deputy director of the Sixth Division.

"The Net..."

Chen Pingping stared intently at the blood-red spider, his turbid eyes flashing with an unprecedentedly terrifying light.

He knew the Net would retaliate, but he never expected the retaliation to come so quickly, so ruthlessly, and so precisely!

Lone Goose Manor is one of the most closely guarded secrets of the Investigation Bureau, and very few people know how the Net managed to find it and uproot it in just a few hours!

This terrifying intelligence gathering and assassination ability has completely exceeded Chen Pingping's expectations.

Look at that ear.

Chen Pingping's fingers tapped lightly on the armrests of her wheelchair, making a "tap, tap" sound.

"Pass down the order: all personnel dispatched by the Forensic Science Institute shall immediately enter a state of silence. No one shall act without my command. All personnel from the Sixth Division shall return to the institute."

"Yes."

Chen Pingping leaned back in her chair, gazing intently at the gloomy sky outside the window.

"Your Majesty, is this what you wanted to see?" Chen Pingping murmured to himself. "Go, prepare the carriage. I need to go to the palace to see His Majesty."

This power struggle between the prince, the Imperial Censorate, and even the emperor, was finally brought to a fever pitch by the fire that claimed more than a hundred lives.

Meanwhile, at this moment, in the Second Prince's residence...

Li Chengze slowly sat up from the large, soft canopy bed, the brocade quilt sliding down his strong chest.

He turned his head slightly and his gaze fell on the woman who was still fast asleep beside him.

Si Lili curled up in the corner of the blanket, her long, flowing black hair cascading over her fair, rounded shoulders. Her stunningly beautiful face still carried the lingering effects of pleasure and exhaustion.

A dried tear stain was faintly visible at the corner of her eye, whether from uncontrollable passion during the night's pleasure or from dreaming of her tragic and helpless past.

Li Chengze stretched out his slender fingers and gently brushed aside a stray strand of hair clinging to her cheek, his movements as tender as if he were handling a rare treasure. However, in his deep eyes, there was little intoxication from being immersed in tenderness, only a chilling clarity and coldness.

Li Chengze didn't wake her, but quietly lifted the covers and got out of bed.

He didn't call for any maids to serve him. Instead, he casually pulled on a loose, dark-colored casual robe, not even bothering to tighten the belt. The robe was half-open, revealing a large expanse of his muscular skin.

As usual, he was barefoot, his clean white feet stepping silently out of the west wing on the cool blue brick floor.

The morning air carried a chill, and the sky was covered with dark clouds, as if brewing a violent storm that would sweep across Kyoto.

Li Chengze took a deep breath of the cold air, which smelled of earth, and the smile on his lips gradually faded.

He walked through the winding corridors and went straight to the study.

Pushing open the heavy, carved wooden door, the study was dimly lit, with no lights on.

But the moment Li Chengze stepped across the threshold, he keenly sensed a faint smell of blood and an extremely cold killing intent in the room.

This killing intent wasn't directed at him, but rather at the deathly aura emanating from the newcomer, a scent that had seeped into their very bones from years of being immersed in mountains of corpses and seas of blood, and could no longer be completely concealed.

Li Chengze slammed the door shut, completely shutting out the gloomy atmosphere from the outside world.

He walked behind the large desk, skillfully squatted cross-legged on the armchair, casually picked up a jade paperweight from the table and toyed with it, then said indifferently, "Is the matter settled?"

The shadow in the corner of the study rippled like water, and then a tall and eerie figure slowly emerged.

"Reporting to Your Highness, everything went smoothly." Zhao Gao's voice was sharp and hoarse, carrying a chilling aura, like the sound of fingernails scraping against an iron plate. "Of the 142 people in Lonely Goose Manor, not a single one survived. Leng Feng, the deputy chief of the Sixth Division of the Investigation Bureau, has been killed by the Six Sword Slaves."

As he spoke, Zhao Gao took out a small object wrapped in oilcloth from his sleeve and respectfully placed it on Li Chengze's desk.

"This is Leng Feng's personal waist tag. As for his ear, I have already delivered it to Chen Pingping's desk along with the 'congratulatory gift' as Your Highness instructed."

Li Chengze didn't even glance at the blood-stained waist tag, but casually tossed the paperweight on the table, making a crisp clinking sound.

"One hundred and forty-two lives, plus a sixth-rank deputy director at the peak of the eighth grade. That old black dog Chen Pingping will probably be so heartbroken this time that he won't be able to eat for several days." Li Chengze's lips curled into a mocking smile, as if he could already see Chen Pingping's gloomy face.

Zhao Gao bowed slightly, his eyes behind the mask gleaming with a dark light: "Your Highness is a man of brilliant strategy. This time, the Luo Wang's thunderous strike not only severed one of Chen Pingping's tentacles, but also dealt a severe blow to the Jianchayuan. From this day forward, the name 'Luo Wang' will surely become a sharp sword hanging over the heads of the entire Daqing court."

However, upon hearing Zhao Gao's flattery, the smile on Li Chengze's face gradually disappeared.

His narrow, phoenix-shaped eyes narrowed slightly, revealing a chilling madness and ruthlessness.

"not enough."

Li Chengze uttered two words softly, his voice not loud, yet it echoed in the empty study.

Zhao Gao was slightly taken aback, then lowered his head: "Please enlighten me, Your Highness."

"The deaths of over a hundred people and the loss of a deputy director of the Sixth Division will certainly cause him pain. But this pain is not enough to cripple him, much less to instill fear in him."

Li Chengze's eyes became incredibly deep. "A wolf bitten will only become more ferocious and retaliate more fiercely. What I want is not to provoke him, but to break his spine, smash his fangs, so that he, the entire Censorate, and even all the powerful figures in the capital, will tremble from the very bones at the mere mention of the name 'The Net'!"

Upon hearing this, Zhao Gao's lips curled into a cruel smile beneath his mask. He most admired rulers who were ruthless and unscrupulous.

"Does Your Highness mean... to continue killing?"

"Good, keep killing! And kill even more, even more ruthlessly!"

"Does Your Highness mean... to continue killing?"

"Good, keep killing! And kill even more, even more ruthlessly!"

Li Chengze suddenly turned around, walked to a map of the Daqing territory hanging on the wall, and pointed heavily at the location of Kyoto.

"The First Division of the Censorate is responsible for supervising all officials; the Second Division is responsible for intelligence gathering; the Third Division is responsible for developing poisons and hidden weapons; the Fourth Division is responsible for surveillance outside the capital; the Fifth Division is responsible for the Black Riders; the Sixth Division is responsible for assassinations; the Seventh Division is responsible for interrogation; and the Eighth Division is responsible for reviewing books and publications."

Li Chengze rattled off the eight departments of the Investigation Bureau as if they were his own treasures, then sneered, "Lone Goose Manor is just an outer outpost of the Sixth Department. I want your Net to be fully operational over the next two weeks!"

"Have Yan Ri and Jing Ni lead the entire elite force of top-tier assassins. Don't touch the heavily guarded headquarters of the Forensic Bureau. Instead, focus on eliminating their spies, contact points, and supply depots outside Kyoto!"

"Kill all the spies in that unit responsible for monitoring the court officials!"

"Kill those messengers from the Second Division who are delivering intelligence!"

"Burn all the caravans transporting poisonous herbs and refined iron in those three locations, people and goods alike!"

Li Chengze's voice grew increasingly cold, as if he were pronouncing death sentences on countless people: "I will make the Censorate blind and deaf! I will ensure that Chen Pingping's decrees never leave that square, black building! I will let everyone know that once they've crossed the Luo Net, no one, in heaven or on earth, can protect them!"

Zhao Gao knelt on one knee, his voice brimming with barely suppressed bloodlust and excitement: "Your subordinate obeys! Wherever the net reaches, not a blade of grass will grow! Within half a month, your subordinate will make the Censorate flow with blood, and turn the sky over the capital completely blood-red!"

"very good."

Li Chengze nodded in satisfaction, the madness on his face gradually subsiding, and he regained his lazy and nonchalant demeanor. He walked back to his desk, picked up a grape from the fruit plate on the table, put it in his mouth, and chewed it slowly.

"This is just a warning to the Forensic Service. There's one more thing I need you to do."

Li Chengze swallowed the grape and looked north, towards the direction of Northern Qi.

"Your subordinate obeys."

"Go to the capital of Northern Qi," Li Chengze's voice softened. "Bring Si Lili's younger brother out."

Zhao Gao stood up and bowed slightly: "Your subordinate obeys."

……

Meanwhile, in the Imperial Study of the Daqing Palace.

Emperor Daqing, Emperor Qing.

He remained in the same posture, holding an extremely fine file in his hand, intently polishing a steel arrowhead.

"Sizzle—sizzle—sizzle—"

The monotonous sound of a file scraping against metal echoed in the empty imperial study, making one's teeth ache.

Chen Pingping sat quietly in his wheelchair, stopping about three zhang away from the desk.

His face was as pale as paper, his eyes were sunken, and the wool blanket covering his legs seemed unable to ward off the chill emanating from his body.

The eunuch Hou stood to the side with his head bowed, not daring to even breathe loudly, wishing he could minimize his presence.

"Lone Goose Manor is gone."

Chen Pingping's hoarse voice broke the monotonous rustling sounds in the imperial study. He didn't use any embellished words, but simply stated a cold, hard fact.

Emperor Qing did not stop what he was doing, nor did he even raise his head. It was as if he had not heard Chen Pingping's words at all. He continued to focus on polishing the arrow.

"One hundred and forty-two spies and assassins, all wiped out." Chen Pingping took a deep breath and continued, his voice filled with suppressed pain and anger. "Leng Feng, the deputy head of the Sixth Bureau, with the strength of a peak eighth-rank, was killed in one blow. The other party even cut off one of his ears and sent it, along with a provocative message, to this old servant's desk."

"Hiss—hiss—"

The friction sound paused.