In a chaotic and famine-stricken era, I picked up an empress to be my wife.

"Li Huaiyi, when exactly will you arrive?"

"Five days later!"

"Then do you know why Li Huaiyi came?"

"He's just putting on a show of comforting the people of various counties, but I think Li Huaiyi has suffered greatly in this battle against the Western Barbarians. He's probably trying to put pressure on the counties and exploit the people under various pretexts!"

"That's how it should be!"

Shen An was utterly disgusted by the methods of these corrupt officials, but for him, these two pieces of news were definitely good news!

If Li Huaiyi comes in person and Liu Wenyuan can kill him here, then as the head constable, he will only bear some responsibility.

This has a higher chance of success than Liu Wenyuan going to Li Huaiyi's territory to kill Li Huaiyi.

"So, are you ready to kill Li Huaiyi now, Magistrate Liu?" Shen An asked.

Liu Wenyuan's hair stood on end, and his breathing became heavier: "I...I'm ready. I've been constantly training my combat skills. Even without bows and crossbows, I can kill Li Huaiyi with my own strength!"

"Don't underestimate Li Huaiyi. Even though he came from a bandit background like Zhu Shigui, he earned his current position by leading troops and fighting battles."

"Ordinary people are no match for him!" Shen An warned.

"My lord, you don't need to underestimate me. Although I'm not good at fighting overall, I've been practicing the move of killing one person in three steps!" Liu Wenyuan replied.

This reminded Shen An of the nameless technique in the movie "Hero".

Indeed, some people practice only this one move.

But Shen An still wanted to test it out, so he took three steps back: "Just to be safe, try treating me as Li Huaiyi."

"My lord, I'm afraid I'll hurt you."

"You want to hurt me? You underestimate me." Shen An beckoned with his hand: "Come on, try it!"

Before he finished speaking, Liu Wenyuan gathered his strength and moved like a ghost to Shen An's side, directly attacking his lower body.

Shen An instinctively tried to block, but Liu Wenyuan's hand was already at his neck.

Shen Anxin was startled.

If Liu Wenyuan had been holding a knife, his neck would have been cut off right now.

Most importantly, Liu Wenyuan was fast enough within three steps that even he didn't have time to react.

"Liu Wenyuan, you're quite something! I really underestimated you before!" Shen An was still uneasy: "Try a few more times. If I'm prepared beforehand and you can still attack me, then I'll allow you to do so!"

"good!"

Next, Shen An prepared his defenses, and Liu Wenyuan attacked again.

They succeeded again!

Liu Wenyuan didn't have any special tricks; he just had one word: speed!

Within three steps, his speed far surpassed that of anyone Shen An had ever seen.

But after three steps, Liu Wenyuan seemed to wither away, his speed greatly reduced, and even an ordinary person could react, let alone Shen An.

"My lord, may I use it now?" Liu Wenyuan asked.

"It can be used as an alternative to kill Li Huaiyi. It's best to do it from a distance, and only choose to get close if that's not possible. After all, Li Huaiyi's strength is an unknown, and he must have other experts by his side," Shen An said.

"Brother, if Li Huaiyi comes, why don't we just wipe him out? That would be so satisfying!" Shen Xiaoqi, who was sitting to the side gnawing on a lamb leg, stood up angrily and said.

Back then, their parents were just ordinary people, but the entire village was forced by Li Huaiyi to work overtime to draw blood for him to concoct some kind of bullshit elixir, which literally drew their parents' blood to death.

Later, when the elixir failed to be made, Li Huaiyi did not seek trouble with the sorcerer or believe they were frauds. Instead, he thought it was a problem caused by the bloodshed in his village. All men under the age of 25 were demoted to slaves, and all men over the age of 25 were conscripted into the army as cannon fodder.

He sold young girls into prostitution, and he didn't spare old women either, reducing them to slavery as well.

Shen Xiaoqi remembered everything Li Huaiyi did. Even though Shen An had transmigrated, he still possessed the original owner's memories, and he felt the same way.

Upon learning that Li Huaiyi was coming, Shen An also considered killing Li Huaiyi at all costs.

However, Shen An calmed down: "Xiao Qi, if Li Huaiyi only has two or three people with him, we can take action directly. But Li Huaiyi has brought a lot of people, possibly more than a thousand..."

"A thousand men, so what? The Western barbarians number in the thousands, and we weren't afraid!" Shen Xiaoqi retorted.

"We weren't afraid of the Western barbarians escaping, but could we be sure we'd killed all of Li Huaiyi's men? If even one of them ran back to report, Li Huaiyi's adopted sons and daughters would immediately send a large army."

Currently, we have too few troops around us to compare with their hundreds of thousands of soldiers.

If we had tens of thousands of men in a few months, then with our superior military defenses, we wouldn't be afraid of them. But not now!

Shen An walked up to Shen Xiaoqi, patted him on the shoulder and said, "We have other ways now to kill him. There's really no need to put ourselves in danger just to vent our anger."

Shen Xiaoqi took a big bite of mutton, nodded reluctantly, and then looked at Liu Wenyuan: "Magistrate Liu, if you can kill Li Huaiyi, I will build you a tomb after you die, and I will pay my respects to you on every festival!"

Liu Wenyuan burst into laughter: "Alright, with our Little Seven Divine Constable's words, I can die in peace!"

Upon hearing the words "Divine Detective," Shen Xiaoqi's mood immediately brightened: "Hahaha, then this Divine Detective will solve the case right now!"

"Magistrate Liu, you are now a magistrate. It's time to do your job as a magistrate and enjoy the feeling of having great power and being admired by thousands."

"That's true!"

Liu Wenyuan felt that he would most likely die in five days, so he naturally wanted to enjoy himself.

After parting ways with him, Shen An returned to her own residence.

Now, they use Ma Tianming's former home as their own residence, and Dugu Meng also lives there.

When Shen An informed Dugu Meng of Li Huaiyi's impending arrival, Dugu Meng clearly lost control of her emotions.

There was anger, pain, and tension.

"Are you hoping to find out from Li Huaiyi who ordered him to hunt you down by taking advantage of his visit?" Shen An asked.

Dugu Meng nodded heavily: "I need to figure all of this out."

"We'll see. I'm keeping Liu Wenyuan alive so that he can kill him and take full responsibility. I won't be there when Liu Wenyuan kills Li Huaiyi, otherwise even if Liu Wenyuan says he killed him himself, everyone present will be implicated."

But I would tell him that if he can control the situation and Li Huaiyi doesn't die immediately, then let him ask him.

"If the situation doesn't allow it, then I can't ask! Li Huaiyi's death is very important to me! There can be no mistakes!" Shen An replied truthfully.

Upon hearing this, Dugu Meng shook her head instead: "It doesn't matter if we don't find out the details. As long as there's a big commotion in the capital, I'll basically know who and Li Huaiyi are trying to kill me! The priority is still to eliminate Li Huaiyi. We can't let this matter risk failure because of my situation."

"Alright then. Li Huaiyi will be arriving in five days. I need to make some preparations; I can't let them suspect anything amiss in Qingyang County!"

"Um!"

Time quickly passed to the fifth day.

Around noon, led by Liu Wenyuan and Liao Bing, all the officials and most of the people of Qingyang County went out of the city to welcome Li Huaiyi.

Li Huaiyi's team soon came into their field of vision.

Li Huaiyi seemed to know that many people wanted to kill him, and his procession was large, numbering over three hundred people.

Of course, these three hundred men were not soldiers; their entourage was no less impressive than that of an emperor's procession.

Behind them, at least three thousand soldiers were protecting them.

Those who didn't know better would have thought they were there to attack the city.

Li Huaiyi rode in a carriage almost identical to the emperor's dragon palanquin, completely disregarding the rules of the Great Liang Dynasty.

He completely regarded himself as the local emperor of Yangnan Prefecture.

When his imperial carriage arrived at the city gate, he dismounted, supported by two beautiful women.

He is at least 1.9 meters tall, with broad shoulders and a powerful gait.

He was always accompanied by eight guards.

These guards, five men and three women, each possessed an extraordinary aura and must have been top-notch experts.

Liu Wenyuan and Shen An exchanged a glance. Shen An realized that he shouldn't rush things and should wait until they entered the city to find an opportunity!

"This humble official, leading all the people of the county, pays homage to Your Excellency the Military Governor!" Liu Wenyuan immediately stepped forward and bowed in respect.

Li Huaiyi ignored him, instead scanning everyone and asking in a hoarse voice, "Shen An, where is he?!"