Jiuxi

Chapter 843 841 [Second in the World]

South of Hengjiang River, within the territory of Daozhou.

On the bank of Cloud Lake.

This place is not too far from the capital. If you go southeast through the southern part of Xinzhou, you will reach the northern suburbs of Yongjia. The whole journey is about 270 miles, and a knight can travel at full speed in just one day and one night.

In a manor somewhere by the lake, a middle-aged man with a gloomy temperament stood with his hands behind his back, and hanging at his waist was an extremely ordinary long sword worth only two or three taels of silver at most.

He looked at the rippling blue lake, an expression of indifference and loneliness on his fairly handsome face.

Standing next to him was a well-dressed man in his thirties. He said respectfully, "Mr. Yin, are you satisfied with this place?"

The middle-aged man's expression remained unchanged, and he said calmly, "When will I go to Yongjia?"

The man's name was Li Yunshan, and he was Li Jinshan's younger brother. He said calmly, "Sir, don't be anxious. Rest here for a few days to recuperate."

The middle-aged man turned his head and looked at him. Although he did not attack him deliberately, the cold sword intent in his eyes still made Li Yunshan's heart tremble.

At this moment, he personally felt the terrifying power of the sixth place on the Jianghu Martial Arts List.

The middle-aged man is naturally Leng Jian Yin Qianjue.

Three years ago, he was invited by Li Zongjian to cross the river and head south. He attacked and killed Lu Chen in the street in the capital, but was stopped by Yuchi Gui, who ranked eighth on the martial arts list.

Yin Qianjue was not Li Zongjian's subordinate. He only went south to take action because of the other party's sincerity. However, the moment Yuchi Gui appeared, Yin Qianjue knew that he would not succeed.

He knew very well that the ranking on the martial arts list was just a title, and Yuchi Gui's real strength could definitely be ranked among the top three in the martial arts world, so when he swung his Ten Years Sword and failed to hurt Yuchi Gui, he very wisely chose to leave.

However, Yuchi Gui seemed to be obsessed with him, and the two top masters started a chase and fight for half a year, their footprints spread all over Jiangnan, and finally even ran to the border of Jiangbei.

Li Yunshan saw the impatience of the master, so he said cautiously: "Sir, the time is not yet ripe, but please rest assured that we will definitely give you a chance to make a move."

Yin Qianjue responded indifferently.

Seeing that he was in a bad mood, Li Yunshan had no choice but to smile and leave.

Yin Qianjue took a few steps forward and looked at the extremely peaceful and quiet scenery in front of him. His eyes, which were mostly white and less black, showed a hint of restlessness.

The struggle that lasted for nearly half a year was a frustrating story that he did not want to recall.

Yuchi Gui's martial arts was clearly superior to his, and his sixteen free-hand fighting skills could naturally restrain his cold and fierce sword intent.

In the final battle, Yin Qianjue tried his best, but was still no match for Yuchi Gui's lingering breath. As a result, his sword was broken and he was forced to swear a blood oath.

That's why he changed into an ordinary long sword now.

Originally, Yin Qianjue planned to give up because he knew that he could not kill Yuchi Gui in a short period of time. Instead of being helpless and furious, he might as well continue to sharpen his sword skills.

But after three years, he found that his swordsmanship had been stagnant. It was at this time that he finally realized that he had a demon in his heart.

As long as Yuchi Gui and Lu Chen are alive, he will never make any progress.

So when someone from the south came to him and hoped that he would come out again, Yin Qianjue agreed without much thought.

He didn't care why the officials in the court were fighting, he didn't care whether the country of Da Qi was stable, and he didn't care about the life and death of the people of the world. As long as someone could help him kill those two people so that he could break his inner demons, he would not refuse.

As for why he didn't go find Yuchi Guilai for a fair fight, it was because Yin Qian didn't want to continue wasting time in vain. The moral code of the martial arts world was never within his consideration.

"I can't sleep unless you die."

Yin Qianjue held the ordinary long sword, muttering to himself with a vicious look in his eyes.

……

Although there was no strict curfew in place in the capital city after nightfall, it was exceptionally quiet and peaceful.

In a dark room somewhere in the Shangshu Mansion, a middle-aged man was sighing with a sad face, completely lacking his usual calm and composed demeanor.

Li Shizhi personally poured a cup of tea and placed it in front of him, smiling and saying, "Why did you come to this?"

The middle-aged man stood up and took the teacup, then sighed, "Brother, there are no outsiders here, I have to complain to you. The person standing behind Ning Bugui must be Duke Qin Lu Chen, otherwise how could he have the courage to be so presumptuous? Now he has the handle on our Fu family in his hand, doesn't it mean that Duke Qin knows about this? Although he hasn't forced me to do anything yet, if there is no means to counter it, he will drag the Fu family into the water sooner or later."

He is Fu Yangzi, the head of Fenglin Fu family.

"Don't be impatient."

Li Shizhi looked calm and said leisurely, "Ning Bugui is just a chess piece. He dare not act on his own without Lu Chen's approval. Moreover, his so-called evidence is just hearsay. Even if it is really exposed, it will not shake the foundation of your Fenglin Fu family."

Fu Yangzi's mood eased a little, and he asked tentatively: "Brother, what is the plan of that person in the palace now?"

Li Shizhi pondered and said, "Your Majesty is not as stupid as you think. He knows the importance of Lu Chen and the border troops. Not to mention that Xue Nanting and Xu Zuo are both very stubborn people and will definitely not agree with your Majesty's reckless behavior. According to our previous plan, the fire has been lit and is still in the stage of gathering momentum. The next step is that your Majesty will propose that Lu Chen's family stay in the capital, but I guess Lu Chen should have a premonition of this."

Fu Yangzi frowned slightly and said, "Is he really that sharp?"

Li Shizhi shook his head and said, "Because your majesty doesn't know that too much is as bad as too little. On the day of Lu Chen and Li Bingxue's wedding, your majesty only needed to come in person, encourage and praise them, and leave some rewards. But he was so arrogant that he made a golden armor. If it were you and me, Lu Chen, wouldn't you think it was unusual? There are some things I can't explain too clearly to your majesty, so he can't grasp the timing accurately. At this point, the court has few ways to control Lu Chen, and those are the only means. With Lu Chen's talent and wisdom, it's not too outrageous to guess this."

Fu Yangzi said slowly: "Even if he can guess it, it will be difficult to deal with it." "This is not the point."

Li Shizhi took a sip of tea and said calmly, "After all, this kind of thing is not a matter of the court's laws and regulations, so it is impossible to enforce it. If it could catch Lu Chen off guard, it might have had unexpected results. Now, at most, it's just a boring war of words. Compared to this matter, I'm more curious about whether he will let Ning Bugui find you."

"What do you mean, brother?"

"Lu Chen has become much more low-key since he went to Jinlin's old house to meet my father. At the same time, he has someone secretly planning to dig out the secrets of the Jiangnan nobles from you. This shows that he just wants to protect himself and return to the north, otherwise his actions would not be so simple."

"If he really returns to Jiangbei, it would be like a dragon entering the sea."

Fu Yangzi said with a little concern.

"So we must not alert the enemy."

Li Shizhi looked up at him and said sternly, "I know you are worried that the entire Fu family will be dragged down by them, but you must keep your composure at this time and not let Ning Bugui and Lu Chen behind him notice anything unusual. After you go back, if Ning Bugui comes to you again, no matter what he wants you to do, agree to it first and then procrastinate. I will be able to deal with it."

"Brother, since you said so, I will do as you say."

Although Fu Yangzi was a little uneasy, he finally agreed.

Li Shizhi personally saw him off, and after a while he went to the study in the inner house and asked someone to summon Li Jinshan.

"master."

Li Jinshan saluted respectfully.

Li Shizhi said slowly: "Send someone to find Shen Yi and ask him to investigate the connection between Lu Chen, Ning Bugui and the former Minister of Justice Gao Huan."

Li Jinshan replied, "Yes, sir."

"I have always felt that there was something else behind the assassination of the emperor in the imperial mausoleum. His Majesty at most arranged for Wen Changbao, who had no martial arts skills but only brute force, and the identities of the two assassins hidden among the royal craftsmen remain a mystery. Although their resumes are clear, it is not clear who was behind them. The case was fully investigated by Lu Chen, but in the end it was left unresolved. Now it seems that the appearance of Ning Bugui, the ruined Ning family of Changle, seems to answer my doubts."

At this point, Li Shizhi smiled slightly and asked Li Jinshan: "Have you arranged for the 1,000 people?"

"Yes, sir, there is nothing wrong with it."

"Go down."

"Yes."

After Li Jinshan left, Li Shizhi picked up the teacup, his eyes sparkling.

"You only tell everyone part of the story, so that no one will know your entire plan, let alone your true purpose."

A flat voice suddenly sounded in the room, and then a man in his forties appeared from the shadows, as if he had been hiding beside Li Shizhi, but no one could notice him.

Li Shizhi said calmly: "At least you know."

The man sat down opposite him and asked slowly, "Are you really confident that you can deal with Lu Chen? Don't forget that the 3,000 cavalry he brought are stationed outside the city."

Li Shizhi replied calmly: "The three thousand cavalry are indeed brave and invincible, but they cannot enter the capital, not to mention that there are 100,000 Beijing troops outside the city. Even if Lu Chen wants to kill people, how can he change his fate?"

"The 120,000 troops of Dingzhou are ready for battle. The troops of Beijing are no match for them."

"Mountains are high and rivers are long, so there is nothing to fear."

"Xiao Wangzhi is the Chief Military Minister, in charge of the Military Academy."

"Xiao Wangzhi has no soldiers, and is just a name without substance."

"Su Yunqing is in charge of the Textile Weaving Department and has thousands of elite spies."

"Su Yunqing is not Qin Zheng. We only need an imperial decree to seize his power."

The two of them spoke back and forth, with almost no thought.

The man was silent for a moment, then raised his eyebrows and said, "Lu Chen's father-in-law Lin Jie is ranked first on the Jianghu Martial Arts Ranking, and his wife Lin Xi is now ranked tenth on the Martial Arts Ranking, squeezing out Tingyun Spear Jiang Yangsheng. There is also Yuchi Gui, who is ranked eighth but is actually a top master who has the potential to be in the top three. In addition, the grassroots power they can gather, although they cannot shake the hundreds of thousands of troops inside and outside the capital, they are also a force that cannot be ignored. They do not have the ability to turn the court upside down, but if they just rescue Lu Chen or kill a few enemies they have identified, it may not be a difficult task."

Li Shizhi placed the teacup on the table, met the other party's calm gaze, and smiled: "Although your name is Cui Yu, I never think you are a superfluous person. With you here, as long as it is not that Lin Jie who comes in person, what do those grassroots heroes have to fear?"

Hearing the name from his mouth, the man suddenly smiled and said softly: "Brother, when you protected me behind you decades ago, did you predict that this day would come?"

"If I really had this ability to predict the future, why would I have to go through the trouble of planning for seventeen years?"

Li Shizhi's tone softened a bit, and he said softly: "At that time, I just subconsciously protected the poor brother in the clan, and I never thought that he would become the second best in the world."

Cui Yu was silent for a long time.

There is only one sentence left in the end.

"When this matter is over, you and I will owe each other nothing."

(End of this chapter)