Chapter 330: Pulling Them Out One By One (5,000 Words)
Outside the gate of the imperial prison, in an alley made of gray-black bricks and stones.
The setting sun shines through the eaves of the building and falls on Zhao Duan's face, making him look like a god.
However, the two women in prison uniforms only felt cold, and Qingniao's eyes were filled with deep fear.
She knew the Thousand-Faced God very well, so she knew even more clearly how terrifying the methods of someone who could make him bow down like this must be.
Zhao Duan deeply agreed with this. After the Thousand-Faced God was arrested and imprisoned, he refused to yield despite all kinds of torture.
Don't get me wrong, this doesn't mean that this person has a firm belief, but that he is simply cold-blooded and unruly.
Zhao Duan ignored it at first, until he recently planned to wipe out the Kuangfu Society, and then he remembered this defeated general.
Even though he mastered the fireworks that could burn souls, it still took him several days to make Thousand Faces kneel down.
Unfortunately, after this person was arrested, the Kuangfu Society cut off many of his contact information and failed to dig out more valuable information.
This time when he went out, in order to prevent accidents, the jailer Zhou, who was in charge of the imperial prison, drove a copper nail that could restrain his power deep into Qianmian's dantian.
Only then did he dare to hand over this vicious wolf to Zhao Duan to command.
…
Yun Xi slowly lowered her hand, letting one side of her face swell up from the beating. The girl puffed out her proud chest and sneered with a very stubborn look:
"You can make him surrender, but you can't defeat me!"
She was ready to die bravely.
Haha, if I burn you, you will know the pain... Zhao Duan complained in his heart, but he knew very well that punishment is not omnipotent.
Besides, he had other plans for Yunxi.
He needed this girl to truly be of use to him, rather than being like Qianmian, who might bite back at any time.
Therefore, suppression by force alone is meaningless.
He needed to break her down mentally.
However, he did not expect this stubborn girl to help with the big crackdown tonight. In fact, pulling them out was just a matter of convenience, or in other words, it was a "killing two birds with one stone" move.
"I have no interest in forcing you to surrender. I brought you out here just to open your eyes and see the truth." Zhao Duan mocked.
"Don't you firmly believe that Your Majesty murdered his brother and father, that the Xuanmen coup was instigated by Your Majesty, and that the Second Prince Jianwen was persecuted? The purpose of the Kuangfu Society you belong to is to uphold justice in the world, right?"
Yun Xi raised her head, looking at him without dodging or avoiding his gaze, and said pointedly:
"Isn't it? You, the false emperor's lackey, still want to fabricate the truth, make up facts, and deceive the world?"
Qingniao turned his head away, unable to bear to see Yunxi, a passionate patriot who was full of justice and had been thoroughly brainwashed, having his faith shattered.
Zhao Duan looked at Qianmian with a smile: "Do you believe it?"
The Thousand-Faced God laughed and said, "That old dog Zhuang Xiaocheng's ability to deceive people is indeed amazing. The younger the person, the easier it is for him to believe it."
"Shut up!" Yun Xi cursed, "How dare you, a traitor, insult the Grand Master!"
In the girl's opinion, since Qianmian had become a traitor, naturally, not a single word he said could be trusted.
Zhao Duan smiled and ignored Yun Xi. He took out the confiscated disguise mask from his arms, threw it to the Thousand Faces God, and said:
"We've got you out so you can redeem yourself from your crimes. Do you know what to do?"
The Thousand-Faced God held the mask "Jiuyi" in his hand, his smile cruel and cold:
"Don't worry, sir. I'll do my best."
After a pause, he said worriedly, "However, the idiots in the Kuangfu Society are extremely tight-lipped. Even if we catch them, I'm afraid it will be difficult to make them speak."
Zhao Duan said calmly, "So, we are still missing one person for the arrest tonight."
who?
When everyone was puzzled, suddenly, they heard a sound of breaking air above their heads.
In the west, a large sun sank halfway into the ground, and above the continuous buildings of the capital, a black silhouette was gradually approaching.
The figure was extremely fast, and every step it took made it look bigger.
Not long after, a short and fat young man wearing a wrinkled priest robe embroidered with gold edges and with a huge bamboo tube tied to his back with a hemp rope landed on the ground.
The cloth shoes stepped slowly on the stone road, and the wind pressure blew up a circle of light dust.
"Haha, Brother Zhao, I'm a step late. Don't blame me."
Gongshu Tianyuan smiled warmly on his fat face, "I haven't seen you for a long time. If you hadn't sent someone to pass on the news, I wouldn't have known you had returned to the capital."
The news is so delayed, yet you are still quite proud... Those who know you will understand that you spend all day in Tianshi Mansion inventing things, while those who don't will think that you are isolated from the world... Zhao Duan sighed and smiled brightly:
"Thank you, Brother Gongshu, for your help in the battle tonight. I have no way to repay you."
Gongshu Tianyuan squeezed his chubby body into the carriage, which was immediately full. He said with a smile:
"It's too awkward to say that between you and me."
He rolled his eyes and looked at the two beautiful female prisoners in prison uniforms, and said in surprise: "Other people have beautiful women in their mansions, but Brother Zhao has his own beautiful woman in prison. Amazing! I admire you!"
The two women turned their heads away silently, keeping their distance from this fat otaku.
"Ahem, it's getting late, let's go. We still have many people to kill tonight, and we can't waste this auspicious day."
Zhao Duan gave the order with a smile, unfolding a document in his hand. It was a rebel of the Kuangfu Society that Lihuatang had recently targeted.
The position is not high, and is at the periphery and bottom of the entire intelligence system.
At this moment, Qian Kerou and others should have set out to secretly control the situation.
Zhao Duan still remembered the surprise of his subordinates when he planned to close the net: "Sir, we have only caught this one small pawn, how can we pull out the entire branch?"
His answer at the time was just four words: follow the clues and find the melon.
The rebels hidden among millions of people are like needles in the sea, piercing the flesh of the court and causing dull pain.
What he has to do tonight is to pull out these needles one by one.
The driver, a man wearing a bamboo hat, shook the reins violently:
"Yes, sir!"
…
…
The setting sun sank into the ground, and the capital city welcomed another night.
For the vast majority of common people, they were not aware of the storm stirred up by the evil master of the state in the upper class, nor were they aware of the actions of King Zhao Yan tonight.
Golden House is the name of a bookstore in the capital, which means that there is a golden house in the book.
However, due to its remote location, the business was not very good. The neighbors all knew that the bookstore owner was a poor scholar who sat in the shop all day long flipping through those tattered books.
When business is good, I can sell a few books. When business is bad, I can only sell a few sheets of rice paper and brushes all day long.
The current poverty situation forms a striking contrast with the name "Huang Jinrong".
When night fell, Huang Jinrong closed the shop, picked up his vegetable basket, and went to the nearby market to buy some wilted vegetables that were sold cheaply when the stalls were closing.
After walking around and coming back, they hung a "Closed" sign outside the shop, and cooked some simple dishes in the kitchen at the back, which they ate with some steamed buns.
Huang Jinrong was about forty years old, lived alone, had no family, was taciturn, and was considered a loner by outsiders.
However, few people know his true identity, that he is one of the spies of the Kuangfu Society in the capital.
As a middle-level manager, Huang Jinrong has several subordinates and superiors above him. As for which level of the entire intelligence network he is in, he himself is not clear.
Huang Jinrong only knew that this isolated intelligence network was created by Taifu Zhuang Xiaocheng.
However, compared to the time when the Grand Tutor was in charge, the entire organization has been constantly suppressed in the past six months, and the news from his superiors from time to time makes him sometimes surprised and sometimes worried.
"Bang, bang, bang..."
Under the cover of darkness, Huang Jinrong was eating dinner in silence when he suddenly heard a knock on the door of the shop.
He frowned, stood up and walked out, shouting, "It's closed, go somewhere else."
"Bang, bang, bang..."
The knocking on the door became more urgent.
Huang Jinrong's eyes became tense. He walked to the table, grabbed the dagger hidden in the rice bag, and carefully walked to the side of the door. He heard an anxious voice coming from outside: "Jinying, it's me!"
Huang Jinrong was stunned when he heard the familiar voice. He looked through the crack in the door and saw a familiar round face.
He hurriedly opened the door and let the latter in. Then he looked around and closed the door when he saw that there was no one there.
"Why are you here?" Huang Jinrong looked at his subordinates with an ugly expression.
According to the rules set by Zhuang Xiaocheng, informants are prohibited from meeting unless it is urgent.
The round-faced young man looked anxious. He pulled him into the candlelit room in the backyard, closed the door, and said anxiously:
"Something happened! I got the latest information, Ballast is dead!"
"What?" Huang Jinrong was shocked.
The round-faced young man said:
"Baolushi took the initiative to find Zhao Duan, the White Horse Prisoner, today and died there. I heard that the people in the Imperial Court suspected that Ballasthi was already dead when he went there, and was manipulated by... the Imperial Master... The Imperial Master is back!
I got the news, it's urgent, so I had no choice but to take the risk and come to you. What's going on?"
Huang Jinrong was in a trance for a moment, then suddenly fell into his chair and murmured:
"As expected, as expected..."
He said with an ugly face:
"I received news from my superiors tonight that the Imperial Master has returned and has contacted Ballast Stone and some high-ranking members. He also said that something is amiss, but the details are still unclear."
The round-faced young man cursed excitedly:
"Tell me the truth, is he dead or not? I heard that the Imperial Master sent a message to the court, forcing the false emperor to restore his reputation. He also said that the Second Prince's coup was not instigated by him at all, but was the Second Prince's own idea..."
Huang Jinrong was in a state of confusion. Upon hearing this, he warned in a deep voice:
"Shut up! Where did you hear that? I don't care what you think in your heart, but to the outside world, you must follow the Grand Tutor's rhetoric."
The round-faced young man said angrily:
"Is there anyone here? Who doesn't know that it was the Second Prince who was behind the coup? The Grand Tutor's rhetoric is just to fool those nerdy scholars. I wouldn't say anything nonsense.
Moreover, the one who is spreading rumors now is that demonic Taoist! And the ballast stone is dead! Does the Grand Tutor know about this? "
Huang Jinrong remained silent and said dejectedly:
"I don't have access to the higher-ups, so how would I know? Anyway, I didn't receive any news about the Imperial Master coming before. Maybe my rank isn't high enough!"
After complaining for a few words, he suddenly realized something was wrong. He raised his head and stared at the familiar member in front of him with a suspicious look:
"Wait, you're not in the right mood today... No! Who are you?!"
The round-faced young man had no expression on his face, his face was wriggling and twisting, and his height was growing rapidly, returning to the appearance of the Thousand-Faced God.
He sneered and said, "Lord Zhao said that those who surrender will not be killed."
Huang Jinrong's hair stood on end, and the dagger hidden in his sleeve flashed with cold light as it slashed towards the face of the Thousand-Faced God!
“Woo!”
The Thousand-Faced God, whose dantian was sealed by the Forbidden Magic Nail, rolled and dodged, and did not fight with him.
After Huang Jinrong stabbed out the dagger, Tuan Shen broke open the doors and windows and fled towards the back door of the bookstore!
"Haha." The Thousand-Faced God sneered and said nothing, counting silently: "One, two, three..."
There was a thud outside, and Huang Jinrong was beaten back like a sandbag. A captain in night clothes walked out of the darkness and captured him alive.
When a group of people, taking advantage of the night, passed through a secluded alley and arrived at the entrance of an alley under the moonlight.
The Thousand-Faced God groveled and said, "Sir, we have captured the person."
A corner of the dark clouds above head dispersed, and the moonlight soaked into the night like water. The wide curtains were lifted, revealing four people in the box.
Zhao Duan looked calm and composed, like a general commanding the central army.
Gongshu Tianyuan next to him looked at Yunxi opposite with a smile.
The girl in prison clothes held a metal morning glory in her hand. At this moment, a faint voice came from the morning glory:
"Sir, the person has been found."
Gongshu Tianyuan said with a smile:
"I've already told you, this charm is called the Two-Sound Flower. That god-like deity has one hidden on his body. If you take one, you'll be able to hear everything the other side is doing, yet you still refuse to believe it. I don't care about your other doubts, but the creations of this priest are always top-notch."
Yunxi turned a deaf ear to him, her expression dazed, like a puppet.
On that oval face with messy hair but still beautiful appearance, two lines of crystal tears flowed faintly from the eye sockets, and she murmured:
"No... Impossible... You are colluding to deceive me... and him... The coup d'état couldn't have been carried out by the Second Prince... The Grand Tutor wouldn't lie to me..."
Just now, she heard the entire conversation in the room.
The bluebird sighed softly.
Zhao Duan was too lazy to pay attention to Yunxi. He got off the carriage, lowered his eyes and looked at Huang Jinrong, who was kneeling on the ground and being held down by the Jinyi lieutenant with a knife. He smiled and said:
"Next, don't yell, don't shout. Just answer whatever I ask you. Got it?"
Qian Kerou raised her hand and took the cloth from the man's mouth. Huang Jinrong stared at Zhao Duan with bloodshot eyes:
"Zhao Gou, you will not die well!"
Zhao Duan sighed softly and shook his head, "It seems you don't want to live."
He turned around and said to Gongshu Tianyuan, "Thank you for your help."
"It's a small matter,"
Gongshu Tianyuan waved his hand, slowly got off the car, pulled off the big bamboo tube behind him, and pressed it to the ground with his fat hands with a "dong" sound.
In the curling white smoke, a strange and beautiful fox slowly crawled out of the bamboo tube and stared at Huang Jinrong.
Fox fairy!
Wild Fox God!
At the celebration banquet that day, Gongshu Tianyuan used a wild god to possess a body and forced the head of the secret service of Prince Jing's Mansion to speak, but the price was the target's death.
“Hehe——”
Huang Jinrong's cursing stopped instantly. His eyes were blank, as if he had been possessed by a fox spirit, and he answered every question.
Gongshu Tianyuan casually asked, "Who is your superior, how do you contact him, what are the passwords and other codes..."
In the carriage, Zhao Duan handed the interrogation to his men, took out a handkerchief and kindly handed it to Yunxi. Seeing that she seemed to be in a state of madness, he gave it to Qingniao:
"Wipe your tears, haha. It's okay if you don't want to believe it. The night is long, and there are still many people waiting in line for us, right?"
Yunxi trembled all over, without saying a word, but just pursed her lips very hard.
However, a crack has appeared in the faith in my heart.
The Thousand-Faced God rolled up his sleeves and stared at Huang Jinrong carefully, memorizing his appearance and preparing to disguise himself as him and trick him into coming online.
He smacked his lips and asked curiously, "Sir, why don't you just use that spiritual fire to burn this man, which would surely make him surrender, instead of going to all that trouble to ask the priest for help?"
Zhao Duan looked at him calmly, with a half-smile:
"If someone fears punishment, you ask him to say whatever he wants, but do you dare to believe what he says?"
The Thousand-Faced God shuddered, avoided his gaze, and lowered his head.
Zhao Duan patted his shoulder lightly, turned and entered the carriage, and said lightly:
"Follow the clues. Speed is of the essence. What we need to do is to use the fastest speed, before they react, to find the person through one node after another. There is no time to waste on torture and distinguishing truth from falsehood."
Bluebird suddenly mustered up the courage and said, "Will he die?"
Zhao Duan closed his eyes: "Who wouldn't die? He and you never showed mercy when killing people."
A moment later.
Huang Jinrong, whose valuable information had been drained away, fell to the ground and died with blood coming out of all his seven orifices, while the fox fairy who had swallowed a soul showed an unsatisfied look on his face.
Zhao Duan patted the cushion and said, "Let's go, next one."
"We have to hurry up and not let that demon get away."
…
…
Kong Hanlin returned home at dusk.
This skinny old man with white hair and a scruffy beard possesses the inherent arrogance of an upright official.
Even though he had been summoned to the palace in the early morning and knew clearly that the evil Taoist might come after him, he still did not hide or ask for help.
He didn't even disrupt the rhythm of the day.
After leaving the palace, he went to the Hanlin Academy to work as usual, proofreading several manuscripts, and then found several grammatical errors and ambiguities in the sage's semantics.
He called in the young Hanlin and criticized him, saying that the scholars of today were getting worse and worse and were not as good as his older generation.
"The world is going downhill!"
"How disgraceful!"
Then he sent the manuscript back for rewriting and slowly went to the yamen canteen to have lunch, which was still just tofu, pickles and rice.
He spent another afternoon hanging out, ignoring the other Hanlin scholars' vague whispers about him, and returned home as usual in the twilight.
Without telling his wife about these things, Kong Hanlin had dinner and soaked his feet, then went into the study to read books of sages.
As the night deepened, the howling wind made the window paper tremble slightly.
Before I knew it, the study door was pushed open and a figure walked in.
It was a woman, about thirty years old, with an ordinary appearance. She was not a member of the family and no one knew how she got in.
"Who are you? How dare you disturb me while I'm studying!" Kong Hanlin stood up and looked up, calm and fearless.
The woman with rough hands and feet did not answer, but just sat opposite him with a smile.
The pair of bloodshot eyes swept over the sage book on the table, which was several times thicker than before, and the rice paper spread out on the table with the words "The Master does not speak of strange things, supernatural powers, or chaos" written on it.
She smiled slightly:
"Mr. Kong, if you have no fear in your heart, why do you seek the protection of a saint?"
Kong Hanlin's beard trembled, his eyes slightly confused: "Demon!"
…
Typos should be corrected first and then replaced
(End of this chapter)
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