Facing public enemy number one, Zheng Ya made a brief plan, but before it could be implemented, he sensed that Earl Dai, accompanied by two lackeys, disguised as wealthy merchants, entering the Linjiang Tower area.
Lord Dai, a man in his late thirties, had been an official for many years and had developed an imposing presence. Dressed in a gold robe and jade belt, with a large belly, he twirled his Buddhist prayer beads with an air of refinement, yet his wealth and official demeanor clashed, creating an incongruous and incongruous effect.
Two lackeys, disguised as a butler and a waiter, hurriedly greeted Earl Dai when he was about ten meters away from the main entrance of Linjiang Tower. With Earl Dai giving a slight nod of approval, the waiter ran into the main entrance to contact the manager of Linjiang Tower to book a room.
When powerful and wealthy people travel and stay at hotels, they usually inform their servants in advance to contact the hotel manager. Officials and gentry often have their stewards send servants to reserve rooms in advance, in order to demonstrate their noble and prestigious status.
Having Count Dai and his two companions pretend to be wealthy merchants staying at an inn is a bit of an overreaction.
It's more like a small-time rich businessman showing off by staying at a hotel.
This made Zheng Ya sneer. If Linjiang Tower hadn't already been incorporated into the conglomerate's property and hadn't refused to receive dignitaries on a regular basis, while openly and secretly using Xie Ming's name to scare away most of the powerful spies who tried to spy on Linjiang Tower, and also deterred dignitaries from visiting, then Earl Dai and his two companions would probably have been captured alive as soon as they arrived at Linjiang Tower.
It should be noted that Linjiang Tower was once Zheng Ya's lodging place. The Seventh Prince and Prince Rong caused a great disturbance when they visited the tower, and it had long been listed as a dangerous building by Emperor Chengping and was under close surveillance.
Furthermore, Emperor Chengping and the Donglin Army were locked in a standoff, and were frequently provoked, occasionally leading to small-scale wars. The Linjiang Tower, located on the banks of the Qiantang River, became a place where the powerful and wealthy stayed to display their status and could easily retreat in case of adversity, making it a highly contested location.
Even though Zheng Ya secretly ordered the display of Xie Ming's name to create confusion, scare away a large number of forces, and drive away most of the spies, Emperor Chengping and other individual forces also planted spies around Linjiang Tower.
However, they were afraid of Xie Ming's reputation and dared not cause trouble at Linjiang Tower.
This inadvertently allowed Count Dai and his two companions to take advantage of the situation, but their appearance had already been noticed by those with ulterior motives, who then sent messages to their respective masters via carrier pigeon.
Zheng Ya felt that Earl Dai was playing with fire. What gave him such confidence?
Who gave him the guts?
Liu Yuan couldn't stand it any longer. He put down his monocular telescope, leaned closer to Zheng Ya, and said, "Master, the Dai family are all ingrates. They dare to use your connections to plot for the imperial seal. Should I send someone..."
He slashed the neck with a hand chop, intending to kill.
Zheng Ya glanced at him, not pointing out that he still held a grudge against his family for being persecuted by Prince Rong, which stemmed from an ingrate within his own ranks. She shook her head and denied it, saying, "I understand your grudge-holding mentality."
But I'm telling you, you cannot interfere with the actions of either the Dai or Xie families. I don't need to explain why, do I?
"Whatever Master decides, this old servant will obey with my life!" Liu Yuan finally came to his senses, used his internal energy to suppress the hatred in his heart, and reluctantly agreed.
The master is content to remain in a precarious position, waiting for an opportunity to watch the show and reap the benefits.
It's clearly not in line with the style of young people.
In the past, Liu Yuan would not have understood, but after the changes in the situation, the open and covert revenge against Prince Rong had almost no effect, so he was relieved.
Is Prince Rong really that difficult to deal with?
Moreover, getting involved in the world's fierce competition for the imperial seal, coupled with Zheng Ya's sensitive identity, would make him a target of public criticism if he were to get involved, resulting in more harm than good.
Zheng Ya was only interested in watching the show and did not participate in the political struggles, yet he was also falsely accused of being a public enemy. Liu Yuan had no choice but to accept this, but he inevitably acted on his emotions.
Zheng Ya didn't want to say much about this, and waved for him to go down and arrange for the conglomerate to relocate.
Liu Yuan bowed and withdrew. Count Dai had already moved into Linjiang Tower and was in the guest room downstairs from the Xie family. He sent someone to make contact.
Dai Yuan, the waiter, went straight to the top floor and walked without hesitation to the door of the VIP room where the three Xie family members were staying. She raised her hand and knocked on the door with a rhythm of three long knocks followed by two short knocks.
You dare say there's no problem?
How did the Dai and Xie tribes get in touch?
It should be noted that the two tribes had never been in contact before, a fact Zheng Ya was certain of. However, the current situation between the two tribes was abnormal, clearly indicating that they had been maintaining contact all along.
This raises many questions.
The Xie family was placed under house arrest by Prince Rong's men to manage the business association. All the people handling the affairs were Prince Rong's confidants, which cut off the Xie family members from any opportunity to contact outsiders.
Although Xie Baochai single-handedly established the Baochai Plan, an organization dedicated to spying on the dynamics of powerful families across the land, it was essentially under the surveillance of Prince Rong.
Ironically, Xie Baochai was self-righteous and mistakenly believed that the organization she had established was unknown to outsiders, but it turned into a cat-and-mouse game for Prince Rong.
This means that Prince Rong would know the inside story of any message that the Xie family passed on to outsiders.
Did Prince Rong use this as a trap to entrap the authorities and plot to obtain the secret key to the imperial seal?
So how did the Dai and Xie tribes communicate?
Zheng Ya was puzzled. As he pondered, he sensed that Earl Dai, through Dai Yuan's connection, had gone to the rooftop with Xie Baochai to enjoy the night view. With a thought, he used his stealth ability to travel through space and spy on them.
Earl Dai and Xie Baochai cautiously searched the area around Linjiang Tower, unaware of outside surveillance. Little did they know that Zheng Ya had already secretly ordered the expulsion of spies planted by various forces in the vicinity, deliberately creating an opportunity for the Dai and Xie families to make contact.
Xie Baochai couldn't help but speak first: "Uncle, did the trip go smoothly?"
"You've grown so much, Uncle Dai doesn't even recognize you anymore, you've gotten old!" Earl Dai sighed, stroking his beard, trying to brush it off.
Yesterday, the Dai clan's elite troops were ambushed by Prince Rong's secret guards as soon as they landed, and more than half of the clan's elite forces were lost, leaving them too ashamed to mention it.
If Earl Dai hadn't led his team to escape the pursuit of Prince Rong's secret guards, and hadn't heard many rumors along the way, and if Zheng Ya hadn't snatched the key from the Xie family, Earl Dai wouldn't have made this trip.
While others were unaware of the key's importance, Count Dai knew it perfectly well.
The key is a precious treasure of the Immortal Dynasty, a magical artifact that is paired with the seal. Since the collapse of the Immortal Dynasty, the seal and key have been lost and have become the target of the Zheng imperial power. Subsequently, it has become a mission for the five major families to assist the Zheng imperial power in tracking down the whereabouts of the seal.
After five or six generations of effort, and the sacrifice of hundreds of thousands of elites, the secret of immortality was brought together by the efforts of the six clans. How could it be so easily exposed and stolen by outsiders?
Is that possible?
No, absolutely not!
The reasons can be seen from the Xie family's downfall and subsequent house arrest by Prince Rong, the indifference of the other four clans, and the fact that the Dai family became the target of attacks from all over the world, while the other families ignored them.
These five families, bound by a historical alliance, are still connected by blood; it's impossible for them to stand by and watch someone die.
The decision to stand by and watch someone die was merely a ploy to test the attitude of the five great families, a tactic used to feign fear of imperial power and expose their secrets.
At this moment, Zheng Ya seemed to be deep in thought. The five major families were secretly in contact, possibly using a code similar to Morse code to communicate and exchange messages and decisions in secret at any time.
This is interesting!
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