Qin Shi Ambitious

Page 13

"After confirming that Xu Qiu's son was dead, send the military to seal off the area."

"Understood!" Jueying was about to leave when Yanchunjun suddenly called out to him, "Has the Crown Prince made any moves lately?"

He knelt down again and, based on the information reported by his subordinates, cautiously said, "Not for the time being. His Highness the Crown Prince has been dealing with the political affairs accumulated from last year these days, and it seems that he has calmly accepted the matter of preparing to go to Qin."

"Accept? Hmph!" Lord Yanchun took the wine cup brought by the half-naked maid and gently swirled it:

“My nephew has never been one to behave himself! Investigate him and see what tricks he’s up to!”

...

"The Gonggongtang caravan has left the Yan Kingdom?"

Yan Dan was practicing swordsmanship in the garden of his residence. As the crown prince of a country, he had to be proficient in a little bit of everything.

"Yes," the most loyal chief guard of the Crown Prince's residence replied with a fist and palm salute. "Some accidents happened in Huangsha Valley, but they made it through safely."

"That's good." After saying this, Yan Dan continued to concentrate on her sword dance and didn't say anything more.

The head guard looked conflicted and remained seated for a long time.

"Is there anything else?" Yan Dan asked in a deep voice.

"Your Highness!" The head guard knelt on one knee: "You will be traveling to Qin with the Qin envoy in a few days. Please take me with you!"

"Ugh"

Yan Dan sheathed his sword and stopped his sword dance. He walked up to the head guard and patted him on the shoulder.

"Yan Da, I know what you're thinking, but this time when we go to Qin, you and the elders of your household must stay in Ji City!"

"After I leave, you can continue to use my name to restrict Lord Yanchun's actions. Jicheng cannot be completely controlled by him!"

"Your Highness! Then you..." The head guard's eyes were red.

Yan Dan turned around and looked up at the gray sky:

"It's going to snow soon~"

"Although the State of Yan was harsh and cold, it was still a paradise of birdsong and fragrant flowers compared to the tyrannical Qin."

"I will definitely come back to see the pure white snowflakes of Yan Kingdom again!"

...

In the forests of Qingfeng Ridge, the assassins of the Luo Wang organization built a simple camp.

The masked leader, a top-ranking assassin, gathered the intelligence he had gathered and couldn't help but smile contemptuously:

"Ever since Prince Dan of Yan entrusted Xu Sheng to bring that item into the Chu Kingdom, the Luqiu Pavilion caravan has been our target."

"Unexpectedly, Gonggongtang has sent another request. This time, I can get double the money!"

"Furthermore, intelligence has come from spies in Lord Yanchun's household that Lord Yanchun covets the Xu family's wealth and also wants to eliminate this caravan as soon as possible."

"This mission had a high reward point value and was relatively easy; it was truly a godsend!"

------

Lu Wei and Zhou Wen were summoned to the vanguard caravan by Xu Sheng's disciple.

As soon as the two arrived, the corpses of four peasant disciples were neatly arranged on the open ground.

"How is this going?"

Zhou Wen squatted down, examining the wounds on the corpse, and his heart sank.

Lu Wei was not an expert in trace evidence, but he could tell that they had all been killed instantly by having their hearts pierced by longswords.

"These are the disciples who patrolled last night, and they were found here this morning..." Xu Sheng's face was grim: "This is a provocation against us!"

"The wounds on the four men were from the same type of longsword, but judging from the way they wielded the swords, there were two assassins."

"The technique was professional; it was done by a professional assassin group!"

Zhou Wen offered his judgment, and everyone present had their own thoughts.

"What could their purpose be? Aren't they worried about alerting the enemy with such actions...?"

Lu Wei turned to look around and said these words seemingly unintentionally. Then, he secretly observed the facial expressions of the other three people out of the corner of his eye.

Xu Sheng was upset, Zhou Wen seemed lost in thought, and Sang Lin was expressionless.

None of them are easy to deal with...

The matter was eventually dropped, and after calming everyone down, the caravan continued its journey.

The patrol team doubled in number the following nights, and the four supervisors took turns on night duty.

Despite these careful precautions, the second murder still occurred:

The bodies of four disciples were found neatly arranged, but this time they were discovered late at night. Holding torches, everyone was on high alert, watching their surroundings.

After examining the body, Zhou Wen shook his head and concluded: "The time of death was about fifteen minutes ago. The method used was the same as last time, but there were two new killers!"

This means there are at least four enemies.

Xu Sheng's face darkened completely. He had inspected the location of the discovery just half an hour ago. The other party's target was him!

"How do we ask for help from nearby farmhouses?"

Sang Lin stepped forward: "The messenger disciple has not yet returned."

"Increase the number of patrol teams to eight, and each person should wear a warning whistle around their neck!"

No further incidents occurred that night.

However, just three days later, another patrol was completely wiped out, and eight corpses were found neatly arranged...

Before the four caravan supervisors arrived, the disciples were in a huge commotion. Everyone was terrified, and no one knew if they would be the next target.

"Each operation is like a spider weaving a web; under the deliberately created atmosphere of terror, the enemy's objective is achieved."

Shan Yu Mu Ye stayed close by his side. Ever since the first incident, Lu Wei had forbidden his four younger brothers from participating in the patrol team.

"Brother Lu, are the enemies very strong?" Lu Yu asked softly. The four of them had spent a lot of time with the lower-level disciples and understood what the people below were thinking.

People's hearts had been restless for a long time, but the explosion was only at one point.

"The fact that the enemy would use such methods shows that they are not confident they can kill all of us. The fact that they only launch assassinations at night shows that their individual combat strength is inferior to Xu Sheng's."

Lu Wei gripped the fine iron sword in his hand:

"Of course, there is another possibility."

"They're just playing with us. Once they get tired of us, they'll deliver the final blow!"

Chapter 18 Discussion Methods

After finally managing to temporarily quell the unrest among the caravan disciples by leveraging the prestige of the young master of Luqiu Pavilion, Xu Sheng slammed his fist on the carriage during the subsequent high-level meeting:

"This cannot continue. The caravan must halt its advance and the enemy lurking in the shadows must be eliminated!"

"The disciples are currently very frustrated and in a state of panic, but compared to that, what I'm more curious about is..." Zhou Wen stared intently at Xu Sheng, showing no sign of considering himself a subordinate:

"Qi is our agricultural stronghold. As a merchant caravan from Yan, we should have disciples from nearby branches contacting us daily to minimize any potential misunderstandings and fulfill our responsibilities as hosts!"

"But why have I never seen these people even once? As the young master of Luqiu Pavilion, you should have realized something was wrong immediately, so why didn't you tell everyone!"

Following Zhou Wen's words, Lu Wei and Sang Lin looked at Xu Sheng, whose face was pale with embarrassment.

"I didn't inform them here..." Xu Sheng turned his head away. "The peasant disciples from Qi didn't know we were coming..."

"That's impossible!" Zhou Wen retorted loudly. "Even if you were stupid enough not to notify us, the caravan is so large, and we're taking the same trade route that the farmers have used for decades. The branch in charge here would naturally take the initiative to investigate!"

"You've clearly messed things up yourself! You need to tell us what secrets this caravan is hiding so we can find a way to resolve this..."

"Do you think I wanted this!" Xu Sheng also loudly stopped Zhou Wen from continuing, his eyes slightly red as he scanned the three of them.

"I'm nominally the commander-in-chief of this caravan, but I know nothing about it except Lu Wei. Do you, Zhou Wen and Sang Lin, know nothing about it either?!"

"?", Lu Wei remained silent at the mention of his own name. He could tell that all three of them had problems, but things seemed to be more complicated than he had imagined.

"Xia Kui, Yan Chun Jun, and Prince Dan have all slipped things in, as have you, Zhou Wen, representing the Gonggong Hall, and Sang Lin representing Prince Xi of Yan... We started from Ji City, and every faction knows when and where the caravan will appear, but they can't let anyone else know that they know!"

"I have to keep all the secrets from everyone, and at the same time, I have to worry about the life and death of the entire caravan. I seem to know a little about everything, but I dare not delve into anything!"

Xu Sheng is currently in a state of extreme madness, completely lacking the capable elegance he displayed when he first met Lu Wei.

This seemed to stir a sense of pity in Lu Wei and the other two. Zhou Wen patted Xu Sheng's shoulder and said in a much calmer tone, "I'm not forcing you. Right now, resolving the immediate conflict is the most important thing... Once we reach Chu, I will leave the caravan."

“Me too. Although we have different identities, we have the same goal. After arriving in Chu, I will also leave with that thing!” Sang Lin patted Xu Sheng’s other shoulder and made a promise together.

Lu Wei stood aside, watching this grand spectacle, and for a moment felt like an outsider.

"Alright!" Xu Sheng looked up again, his mood much better: "In that case, let's take care of the assassins in the shadows first. We've maintained our friendly relationship for so long, it's not impossible to maintain it for a while longer!"

"Brother Lu, I'm sorry I kept so much from you," Xu Sheng said sincerely as he approached Lu Wei. "If you don't want to be implicated, I can let you take your brothers back to Jicheng!"

"..." Seeing that the three of them were all staring at him at the same time, Lu Wei tensed up, but smiled and said, "Back in Jicheng, I said I would do my best to help you, and now I will certainly not break my promise!"

The sharp gazes in the air gradually dissipated, and Xu Sheng's face lit up with joy: "Great, let's work together!"

"First, we need to identify who the enemy is. Do either of you have any information on that?"

He turned around, his back to Lu Wei, and asked Zhou Wen and Sang Lin.

“It should be a net,” Sang Lin replied in a deep voice.

“A net that can penetrate anywhere in the world…” Zhou Wen read these eight words aloud, and after pondering them carefully, he said, “The assassins sent by the Net to deal with us, including those who are utterly ruthless and monstrous, are of the highest level and cannot exceed the level of the character ‘kill’.”

"How strong is someone at the 'Kill' level?"

The questioner is Mr. Xu.

"It's slightly worse than before I was injured."

The respondent is Zhou Wen.

"Then we have a fighting chance!" Xu Sheng rallied his spirits again: "Brother Zhou, how are you recovering?"

Brother Zhou?

Lu Wei's heart skipped a beat; he remembered those three words.

Zhou Wen? Zhou Zhang! Former head steward of the Gonggong Hall!