Chapter 231 Loyalty and Righteousness?
Xue Yao then spoke in a deep voice to Di Renjie and the other two about what had happened in the prison.
Originally, Xue Yao and Mr. Bu Ke had already discussed with Emperor Wu about how to take advantage of this time to make careful arrangements in Chang'an City and stage a trap to catch the dog in a jar.
They were able to seize the gates of the temple and the holy son within, thus severing the root of this scourge upon the Tang Dynasty in one fell swoop.
Aside from not taking into account the Temple Gate's madness, they never expected that the Temple Gate would actually come up with the idea of kidnapping children in the middle of the city.
Fortunately, Xue Yao and his team were well-prepared and managed to capture quite a few members of the Temple Gate. However, most of them were just brainwashed children who worked for the Temple Gate.
They knew very little about what happened inside the temple gates.
Those who helped out of greed for money, however, were intimidated by the methods of the Imperial Guards in the Heavenly Prison and revealed a lot about the Temple Gate.
Furthermore, they thought they had caught a small fish this time, a man nicknamed Black Dog who had been following the Holy Son for years.
Once captured and imprisoned, Xue Yao tried many tricks, but the black dog remained unmoved, which made people respect him as a true man.
Finally, Xue Yao lied and claimed to have captured their holy son, at which point the black dog's eyes widened and it hissed, "Impossible! I saw my lord escape!"
Xue Yao's expression remained unchanged, still that of an annoying, icy face. He threw a piece of red fabric, which looked like it had been torn from his clothes. The piece of fabric floated to the ground in front of the black dog, who was bound hand and foot and hung on the torture device.
"Impossible! Impossible!" The black dog stared at the red cloth, which was similar to the red robe the Holy Son had worn when he escaped tonight. The black dog shook his head vigorously. The dark red spots on the cloth were dried bloodstains.
Black Dog simply didn't believe that Xue Yao and his group could capture the Holy Son.
As the black dog shook its head, the iron chain around its neck rattled.
The fabric was real; it was indeed the Imperial Guard who had gone to great lengths to tear it off the Holy Son. However, they didn't even get a proper look at the Holy Son's face before being stopped by assassins from who-knows-where. They could only watch helplessly as the Holy Son was rescued and escaped from outside Chang'an.
When the Imperial Guards and the Golden Guards went to give chase, they saw the assassins leading the Holy Son into the mountains near the village outside Chang'an.
There are only a dozen or so of us. If we go into the mountains to hunt them down, who knows if it's an ambush?
So, unfortunately, the holy son escaped.
Xue Yao's original intention was simply to scare the black dog, hoping to break down his psychological defenses and get him to reveal more useful information about the Temple Gate and the Holy Son.
But this black dog, who was so tough just moments ago, is now like a puppy abandoned by its owner, suddenly losing all will to live, its eyes filled with disillusionment and fear mixed with the impossibility and the inability to accept it.
"What have you done to my husband? Where is he?"
Xue Yao, holding a bloodstained dagger, didn't even glance at the black dog. He turned around and said in a flippant tone, "Hmph, your dog master is quite tough. He's put in a lot of effort and he's still being stubborn."
After saying this, Xue Yao suddenly turned around, pressed the dagger against the black dog's neck, and smiled at the dog: "What? You little black dog, don't you want to see your master?"
"Pfft!" No one expected the black dog to deliberately throw its neck into the dagger. Blood spurted out after its carotid artery was cut, spraying hot blood all over Xue Yao's face.
Xue Yao was truly surprised that the black dog was so loyal, and that's why it committed suicide.
Xue Yao shared with everyone the information he had gathered from interrogating the black dog and the other members of the Temple Gate he had captured.
Silence spread through the side hall, with only the crisp sound of Emperor Wu peeling melon seeds ringing in their ears.
Wang Da Dang glanced at the situation and brought in a charcoal brazier from outside. Just as he was about to place the brazier next to Emperor Wu, Emperor Wu spoke up: "Don't put it here, it's too hot."
Wang Da Dang glanced at the three people opposite Emperor Wu, and finally placed the charcoal brazier at Mr. Bu Ke's feet.
Of the four, only Mr. Bu Ke, who was in a wheelchair, seemed weak; he must be sensitive to the cold.
Xu Jingzhen recalled what Li Dalang had said at the Li family's house, and then glanced at Mr. Bu Ke.
Mr. Bu Ke had a good impression of this young man who had recently emerged from a prominent family and was now the first among the family's scions to pledge allegiance to Emperor Wu and support his reforms. So he smiled and put on a good-natured expression.
Xu Jingzhen thought for a moment, then lowered his head and respectfully recounted what had happened on the way to chase the Temple Gate, explaining how the Temple Gate insisted on forcibly abducting a young master from a merchant family who did business in Chang'an.
"There must be something fishy about this, but I wonder what's so special about the Xing family?"
Others might not know Xing Yu, but how could Xue Yao, who was in charge of the Records of Extraordinary People and had to report to Emperor Wu every quarter, not know who he was?
"Xing Yu!"
Xue Yao suddenly looked up at Emperor Wu, who also stopped eating melon seeds. After listening to Xue Yao mention Xing Yu, Emperor Wu thought for a moment before saying, "Is that the one you submitted to me last time?"
Xue Yao knew that Emperor Wu had remembered.
Xue Yao nodded, and at the same time, he quickly realized that the Temple Gate was not short of money, so why would they kidnap a merchant's son?
What is special about Xing Yu that would make the Temple Gate take notice?
The Records of Extraordinary People is something the Imperial Guard has always been in charge of.
Xue Yao only reported to Emperor Wu. Among the other people who knew about the Record of Extraordinary People, apart from the people in the Imperial Guard who were in charge of this matter, only Wang Da Dang, who had always served Emperor Wu, knew about it.
Thinking of this, Xue Yao looked at Emperor Wu again, and Emperor Wu looked back at him.
Wang Da Dang had been by Emperor Wu's side since before he came to power, and was an old servant of Emperor Wu when he became empress.
Wang Da Dang would never betray Emperor Wu!
The two looked at each other without speaking, but they both knew in their hearts that there were rats in the Imperial Guard!
Last time, because of the attack on Li San Niang on the street, Mr. Bu Ke found a lot of bad apples within the Bad Guys organization and dealt with many people, which can be considered a small blood transfusion for the Bad Guys.
However, after this reshuffle, the Bad Guys' defenses against outsiders have become much stronger.
Mr. Ke also increased his vigilance and added many internal regulations to better supervise each other and prevent the possibility of spies from other companies appearing within the organization.
This will also make those who want to betray the Tang Dynasty think twice about whether they are willing to abandon their families and even risk their lives to do such a treacherous thing.
At that time, Xue Yao had naturally heard about Mr. Bu Ke's operations within the Bad Guys. He himself wanted to conduct an internal investigation of the Imperial Guard, but he never had the time or opportunity to do so.
This time, Xing Yu was also targeted by the Temple Gate. They had already been eyeing Li San Niang before.
Both of them are recorded in the Records of Extraordinary People, but Xing Yu's level of surveillance is much higher than Li San Niang's.
Who has access to the information in the Record of Extraordinary People?
If there weren't rats inside, how could such confidential information have been leaked?
Xue Yao could only think that there was a traitor within his own guards, while Emperor Wu, in addition to this, also thought of Du Qinghui, who was far away in Jiangnan East Circuit.
Emperor Wu knew that Du Qinghui had always wanted to kill her so that he could take the throne himself.
Di Renjie, Xu Jingzhen, and Mr. Bu Ke, who hadn't said a word since arriving, watched Emperor Wu and Xue Yao's performance. They were all shrewd people; what didn't they understand?
This means that the Temple Gate had indeed been lying in ambush throughout the Tang Dynasty for quite some time, and they were even able to bribe the Imperial Guard, Emperor Wu's closest ally.
It seems that the Temple Gate is more powerful than everyone imagined.
At the same time, Emperor Wu also remembered the birthday gift that Du Qinghui had sent to her the day before – gunpowder.
Emperor Wu was pondering what Du Qinghui really wanted.
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