Chapter 199: In the dead of night, a startling bird flies across the water
Inside the Dali Temple's torture chamber, a merchant and landowner was tied to a wooden frame, bloodied and somewhat unconscious. In other torture chambers, merchants and landowners were also being repeatedly beaten.
"Snap!" A whip with barbs hit the flesh and blood body hard, and blood gushed out of the wound.
The merchants and landlords screamed one after another, and some of them could not hold on and fainted.
Cheng Xunzhi sat in the reclining chair, his eyes and brows filled with icy coldness.
"Pouring water. The emperor has issued an order: if they don't tell the truth today, they will be beaten until they vomit."
Upon hearing this, the jailer picked up the bucket filled with salt water and poured it on the merchant and landlord.
A merchant landlord was instantly awakened by the salt water. Seeing the barbed whip with his flesh stained on it about to swing at him again, he said weakly, "I'll tell you, I'll tell you... I'll tell you everything, I'll tell you everything..."
As the words came out of his mouth one by one, Cheng Xunzhi's face became more and more terrifying.
Crown Prince Xiao Qingji...is so audacious and utterly despicable that he deserves death!!!
No wonder His Majesty reacted that way, but the Emperor spared his life and only deposed the Crown Prince. It seemed that Xiao Qingji still had some use. Otherwise, based on His Majesty's previous attitude, Xiao Qingji, as a Crown Prince, would have been killed ten times, which was not enough.
However, whether all the crimes committed by Xiao Qingji should be made public to the world...it still depends on the emperor's opinion.
"What did you say?!"
At nightfall, Shang Yuwan stared intently at the guest who had come with the news, feeling horrified.
"He actually..."
Did he personally take action against Xiao Qingji?
How is this possible?
Shang Yuwan thought for a moment and waved his hand to let the guest leave.
She turned around a few times, with doubts in her mind.
Why would Emperor Chengming personally take action against Xiao Qingji? It was so sudden. Was it Xiao Qingji or Xiao Tong who did something behind the scenes?
However, judging from the current situation, Xiao Qingji cannot die yet. After all, Xiao Tong is still hiding behind him, and Emperor Chengming will not easily let go of this ready-made hook.
Originally, as long as she entered Cheng Xunzhi's sight, and once the tax revenues from Snow Wolf Village were thoroughly investigated, Xiao Tong could be implicated, and the Shang family affair could be brought into the picture. But now, Emperor Chengming had taken action against Xiao Qingji, and Xiao Tong remained unharmed...
Shang Yuwan's heart suddenly shook.
Emperor Chengming is worried about those women in black?
Who are those people that could force Emperor Chengming to take action personally?
Shang Yuwan's brows knitted together. Could it be that those women in black had also been poisoned? But Lou Ke hadn't figured out what the poison was... Was it contagious? Would it turn someone into a senseless living dead? If Lang Jiang truly possessed such a skill, why was he so outmatched by Dayu?
"Well, I can't come up with anything by thinking about it here."
Shang Yuwan walked out of the house, avoiding the eyes inside and outside the princess's mansion, and went straight to Prince Qi's mansion.
At this time, Twelve was still practicing swordplay in the courtyard. Because Shang Yuwan was not at Prince Qi's residence, she had been so worried that she hadn't slept well for several nights.
It was a quiet night, the moon as cool as water. Twelve's dark blue suit was blown by the wind, clinging to her thin back. The long sword in her hand swung continuously, making clanging sounds.
Twelve leaped like a swift bird skimming the water, her toes tapping the ground lightly, her long black hair swirling in a beautiful arc as the momentum of the long sword swung. Her palm, gripping the sword, was already soaked with sweat, and beads of sweat on her forehead and cheeks shattered onto the ground, but she still refused to retreat.
She needs to become stronger, stronger!
As long as she becomes stronger, stronger than anyone else, she can protect Shang Yuwan's safety, and she can let Shang Yuwan rely on her when he is in pain!
She would never let Shang Yuwan bear everything alone!
Twelve gritted his teeth, his eyes red, and swung the knife fiercely, letting out a low roar from his throat.
"twelve!"
Twelve paused, thinking that he had gone too far in practicing sword skills and was hallucinating.
"twelve!"
Twelve's eyes were startled, the long sword in his hand gradually dropped, and he slowly turned around and looked in the direction of the sound.
Shang Yuwan ran towards Twelve with an anxious look on his face.
"What’s wrong with you?!"
She grabbed Twelve's hand, which had been rubbed and bleeding since some time ago, and said with a look of distress, "I'm not in the house, and you're just taking care of yourself like this?"
Twelve was stunned for a moment and said, "I, I thought it was sweat..."
Shang Yuwan pursed her lips and said, "Then you shouldn't do this to yourself!"
She pulled Twelve into the house and took out a bottle of medicine from the cabinet to apply medicine to Twelve.
"Does it hurt?"
Twelve was completely devoid of the ferocity he had shown when practicing with the sword just now. He spread out his palms obediently and shook his head, "It doesn't hurt."
Shang Yuwan glanced at her.
Twelve: "...It hurts, it hurts."
"It's good that you still feel the pain." Shang Yuwan sighed and wrapped her with gauze, "If it hurts, don't practice so hard."
She had just sneaked into Prince Qi's mansion and thought that Twelve had gone crazy from practicing swordsmanship.
Twelve's eyes lit up slightly, and he asked her, "But is there something you want me to do?"
Now is the critical moment for the plan. If Shang Yuwan had nothing to do, she would not come to Prince Qi's Mansion, so as to avoid being caught in the act and being used by Xiao Qingji or Xiao Tong.
When it came to business, Shang Yuwan's expression turned serious.
"Do you know if there is a poison in Langjiang that can control living people and make the poisoned person feel no pain?"
Twelve was stunned for a moment, "Could this... be poison?"
When did the poison of Langjiang Kingdom become so magical?
Shang Yuwan thought for a moment and said, "Or maybe it's the poison of some venomous insect?"
She left Yanmen when she was young, and Dayu and Langjiang had not fought for many years. Most of her knowledge about Langjiang came from books, and she did not know what strange poisons were hidden behind the Langjiang Kingdom.
Twelve lowered his eyes and thought for a moment, then said, "I'll send a message and ask... ask General Zhao?"
Shang Yuwan looked at her and said, "If it's difficult for you, then there's no need to do it."
Although she promised Cui Xing to let Twelve talk to Zhao Qinglian for a few more words, she would never force Twelve if he was unwilling.
Twelve shook his head, "It's okay."
She had a very bad impression of Zhao Qinglian, but that didn't stop her from asking shamelessly.
Shang Yuwan had something for Twelve to do, and Twelve was so happy that he immediately wrote a letter and tied it to the leg of a carrier pigeon, then secretly released the pigeon.
In secret, Emperor Chengming's secret guards deliberately made some noise to attract the attention of all the spies near Prince Qi's Mansion, so that the white dove was not shot down.
The carrier pigeon was very fast, and Zhao Qinglian received the letter at dawn.
She knew at a glance that it was her sister's handwriting, but there was only one sentence on the letter.
[Is there a poison in Langjiang that can control living people, rendering them completely insensitive to pain and extremely obedient, chasing after their targets and then slicing off their heads before fleeing?]
Zhao Qinglian: “…”
I finally sent you a letter, but my dear sister couldn't even say a word of greeting... That's not right!
Zhao Qinglian's eyes suddenly widened.
Wasn't that alien race exterminated by Your Majesty? How could the alien's secret Gu beast technique appear in Dayu? And in Kyoto?!
Zhao Qinglian didn't have time to think. She packed herself up as quickly as possible, put the letter in her arms, and rode the horse at the gate of the general's mansion straight to the palace.
"Your Majesty! Something terrible has happened!"
The empress was having breakfast at this time. Zhao Qinglian rushed in anxiously and paused when she was about to put the porridge into her mouth.
"?"
The empress frowned slightly and put down the porridge in her hand. "You must be starving so early in the morning, aren't you?"
Why couldn't a palace servant inform him first? With such a reckless intrusion, the Empress could already imagine that there would be several memorials impeaching Zhao Qinglian.
Seeing Zhao Qinglian's strange expression, she waved her hand and asked all the palace people in the room to leave.
"Come on, there's no one else here. What's the rush? Your sister..."
"Alien!"
The empress's expression suddenly changed.
Zhao Qinglian tried hard to calm herself down, took out the letter from her arms, and handed it respectfully to the empress.
"Your Majesty, the secret technique of the alien Gu beast has appeared in Dayu, in Kyoto!"
The empress held the letter in her hand and read it carefully over and over again, and her mind flashed back to who was involved in the massacre of the alien race.
[Don't worry, Pepper. I will definitely guard this place well and won't let them take advantage of the situation.]
"Click." The empress gritted her teeth, hatred appearing in her eyes.
"Xiao, Tong!!!"
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