Chapter 2802 Blood!
Fang Buyuan hurriedly walked into an alley with a team of Jinyiwei.
This alley was the place where Li Bushang had secretly contacted Tao Jianbai, as he had told him when they were handing over the task. As soon as they walked in, they saw that among the messy graffiti on the wall, there was a row of seemingly inconspicuous graffiti, but it was very familiar to them.
This is a secret communication code known only to those within the Imperial Guard.
It was engraved by Li Bushang, meaning that he had a task to assign and asked the "dark chess" to appear immediately and contact him.
"Dark chess pieces" are people sent by the Embroidered Uniform Guard to be planted within the Earthly Immortal Society.
That is Tao Jianbai.
It looked like this codeword had been carved for some time, but there was no corresponding graffiti around it.
A Jinyiwei said, "Sir, Tao Jianbai still hasn't responded."
Fang Buyuan frowned.
Even if the imperial concubine did not explain this matter, the Jinyiwei had already begun to feel nervous. Even though the emperor had previously instructed the secret chess piece to remain stable for the time being and not move rashly, necessary contact was still made. This was the first time that a secret chess piece had been out of contact for such a long time.
Fang Buyuan vaguely felt that something was wrong.
Another Jinyiwei said, "Sir, should we go back and report this matter to the Imperial Concubine and His Royal Highness the Prince of Wei?"
Fang Buyuan raised his hand: "Wait a moment."
"Um?"
Everyone looked at him.
Fang Buyuan looked up at the graffiti-covered wall and the narrow alley that was barely wide enough for one person to pass through. Above his head were the eaves of the houses on both sides. At either end of the alleyway, one led to an even wider alley. Outside on one side were bamboo racks set up by ordinary people to dry clothes and bedding, almost blocking out the sun.
What happens in here is hard to discover unless someone pays close attention.
He said, "Look carefully to see if there are any clues here."
"ah?"
Everyone was stunned.
In such a narrow alley, everything is clearly visible, so what else is there to check?
However, since Fang Buyuan gave the order, they could only investigate.
So, several people walked back and forth in the alley, bumping into each other. Fang Buyuan kept his hands behind his back, looking up at the graffiti on the wall, especially the one left by Li Bushang.
Suddenly, he seemed to see something.
Just as he was about to step forward, a Jinyiwei suddenly said, "Sir, come and see!"
Upon hearing this, Fang Buyuan and several other Jinyiwei hurried over and saw the Jinyiwei squatting in a corner of the alley, facing an inconspicuous tuft of grass in the corner.
Fang Buyuan asked, "What did you discover?"
The Jinyiwei pointed at the grass and said, "Please look, sir."
Fang Buyuan squatted down and took a closer look. He saw a brown-red, almost black spot on a leaf of the grass.
The Jinyiwei, who have been living on the edge of swords for years, are no strangers to this color.
He reached out and touched it, and found it had already clumped together. So he put his finger in his mouth and licked it, then dipped some saliva on it and rubbed the leaf. The brown-red spots immediately melted away on his finger.
Take a closer look.
It's blood!
He frowned and immediately looked around. Of course, if there were other bloodstains, they should be able to see them as soon as they came in. If something really happened here and someone deliberately concealed it, it could be easily cleaned up.
At this moment, he suddenly stood up, walked back to the wall, and looked at the secret code left by Li Bushang.
The people around him said, "Sir, have you discovered anything?"
Fang Buyuan pointed to a patch of wall beneath the code: "Look—"
When everyone looked, there was nothing there.
But upon closer inspection, I found something wrong.
It's not that there is nothing, but that piece of wall looks like it has been scraped with a knife, and is whiter than the surrounding walls.
A younger Jinyiwei suddenly gasped and said, "Could it be that Tao Jianbai has already seen Commander Li's codeword and is about to respond, but—"
The Jinyiwei next to him continued, "But he was stopped by someone."
Fang Buyuan frowned, looked at the dark red blood on his fingertips, and said, "Perhaps, it's not as simple as stopping it."
“…”
"Tao Jianbai is well aware of the difficulty of this mission. If the other party really wants to stop him, there is only one way to stop him."
The people around suddenly felt a chill.
Someone immediately asked: "So what do we do now——"
Fang Buyuan's anger sank as he turned and headed out of the alley. As he walked, he instructed the two Jinyiwei following closely behind him, "You two, go to the palace immediately and report this to His Highness and the Imperial Concubine. Everyone else, follow me to the empty house in the south of the city."
Everyone was shocked when they heard it.
A Jinyiwei hurriedly said, "Sir, that place is the only place we have discovered where the headmaster of the Earthly Immortal Association is located. Didn't we say before that we can't go there easily to avoid alerting the enemy?"
Fang Buyuan said as he walked, "We couldn't go there easily before because that place was discovered by Tao Jianbai. If we went there, it might cause him to reveal his identity."
“…”
"But now it's like this—"
He looked down at the blood on his fingertips and said in a deep voice, "Tao Jianbai has most likely been killed!"
When everyone heard this, their hearts sank.
In fact, people have made such speculations more than once since Tao Jianbai lost contact, but they would not easily believe it without finding evidence or a body.
However, the blood and the scraped-off wall seemed to prove that a fight had taken place in that place.
Tao Jianbai's loss of contact proved the result of the fight.
Fang Buyuan said, "If we don't go now, that spot will be ruined!"
Everyone immediately understood and said in unison: "Understood!"
So, they split into two groups, two of them rode their horses at full speed back to the palace, while Fang Buyuan led the rest of the people and quickly rushed to the south of the city.
When passing through the main gate of Nanyuan, I found that there were many people gathered here.
Faced with the closed city gates, these people kept making noise.
"Why close the city gates? It's nothing serious!"
"Someone in my family has an emergency, and I need to call a doctor. Please be flexible."
"If I don't collect the debt, that person will cheat again!"
"Sir, I need to go deliver medicine to that village. If I don't go, that family will die!"
Faced with the repeated pleas, the soldiers guarding the city turned a deaf ear.
He just said coldly: "This is the order of the court. If you don't get out of the way, don't blame us for being rude!"
After saying this, he pulled out a part of the knife at his waist. The cold light was so frightening that everyone retreated immediately.
Seeing this scene, Fang Buyuan frowned.
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