"If she really had the skill to steal something out of Jin Bai's storage ring, taking the King of Bo's head directly wouldn't be a problem at all, so why bother framing someone?" He Lingchuan chuckled. "Whoever thought up framing someone is probably lacking in personal strength and had to rely on outside force."
He then added a caveat: "Of course, they might also be working as a gang; perhaps Consort Mei was only responsible for gathering intelligence."
All in all, Bo Kingdom posting a bounty at this juncture proved that Consort Mei was inextricably linked to the Bright Lantern Cup.
Good, good. For He Lingchuan, this was truly splendid news.
Dong Rui asked him again, "Do you think the King of Bo can catch Consort Mei?"
"When hunting down a fugitive, if you don't catch them within two or three days of the incident, the difficulty skyrockets after that. How much time has passed already?" He Lingchuan had plenty of experience solving cases. "Besides, Consort Mei was bound to be prepared. See how she fled a step ahead? Bo Kingdom's manhunt is probably doomed to fail."
He then asked A-Hao, "Now that Nangong Yan is dead, how have Xun City and the royal palace been reacting these past few days?"
"The royal court is in total chaos from top to bottom. I heard that nobody has even arranged patrols for Xun City these past few days. Military officers are already vying for the position of Grand Commander of the Feather Guard," A-Hao said. "Rumors are everywhere in the streets that the monarch offended a great empire to the west, and war and chaos will arrive soon!"
"People are in a panic?" Dong Rui shook his head. "Why do I feel like the folks in Xun City are actually quite happy?"
"They are happy! In private, everyone says it serves him right and gladdens the heart!" A-Hao didn't deny it. "When news of Chief Governor Nangong's death arrived, nobody believed it at first. Later, when word spread that the severed head was brought into the capital and presented to His Majesty, people in the city started secretly setting off firecrackers. One household would finish, and another would start—hundreds of strings were lit in total."
"They still had money to buy firecrackers?"
"They'd go borrow money if they had to," A-Hao grinned. "The price of meat in the markets even went up these past two days. The people of Xun City are eating meat, buying new clothes, beaming from ear to ear, full of energy in everything they do—normally, it's only like that during the New Year."
Dong Rui was between laughter and tears. "To them, Nangong Yan was even more terrifying than the disasters of war?"
"War and strife are everyday fare for us, but they only come every few years," A-Hao said earnestly. "Chief Governor Nangong was a different story. Even the little children here knew you'd rather offend the King than offend Chief Governor Nangong. If someone hadn't killed him, he would have hung over Xun City like a dark cloud forever.
"The household I was lodging with shut their doors and wept bitterly the day they heard the news. At first, I thought they were grieving, but later I realized they were crying tears of joy." He lowered his voice. "From what I know, everyone's grateful to whoever killed the Chief Governor. Some households have even set up statues and burned joss paper for him!"
Say what? Dong Rui clicked his tongue twice and said to He Lingchuan with a laugh, "Setting up statues and burning joss paper for a living person—doesn't that shorten your lifespan?"
He Lingchuan remained expressionless.
Seeing that the two had no further questions, A-Hao cautiously prompted, "Sir, what about me?"
"The street rumors aren't wrong this time; catastrophe looms over Bo Kingdom. You have two choices," He Lingchuan advised him. "If you want to stay safe and sound, head back to Julu Port, find a village far from the coast to lie low, and come out only after the turmoil here has ended.
"The second choice: fortune favors the bold. The skies are about to change here. If you throw your lot in with a powerful figure, your fortunes might rise with the tide, and your day in the sun could come soon. But from then on, you'll be joining factions and playing politics. If you back the wrong side, mind that your head doesn't roll. In other words, you'll be parting ways with peace and quiet for good."
When A-Hao heard the words "day in the sun," his eyes lit up.
Dong Rui asked him, "Which one do you choose?"
A-Hao thought seriously for a dozen breaths. Hardening his resolve, he stomped his foot. "I choose the second path! If I make it, I'll feast on meat and wine from then on; if I don't, the worst that can happen is a bowl-sized scar on my neck—still better than living like such a good-for-nothing!"
He pleaded with He Lingchuan, "Mr. He, which powerful figure do you think I should join?"
He Lingchuan looked at him for a long moment before asking, "Do you dare to set foot on a battlefield?"
A-Hao swallowed hard, a ruthless glint entering his eyes. "I dare!"
He had already killed someone just a few days ago. Wasn't going to a battlefield just killing people in a different place?
"You're a clever fellow." He Lingchuan smiled faintly. "Come with me. I'll find a place for you. Whether you end up a dragon or an earthworm will depend on you."
A-Hao was overjoyed and fell to his knees in homage. "Mr. He, from now on, you are the parent who gave me a second life!"
He Lingchuan sidestepped two paces. "No thanks. As far as I can tell, your parents don't meet good ends."
He gestured to Dong Rui, who tossed two medicinal pills to A-Hao. "This is the antidote for the gu poison."
A-Hao offered his thanks and swallowed them down.
Before long, rumbling and gurgling erupted from his belly. In a desperate rush to find the privy, he hastily excused himself from the two.
With this bowel movement, the gu poison was completely purged.
Meanwhile, Dong Rui looked at He Lingchuan, who stood lost in thought, and couldn't help asking, "What are you pondering?"
He Lingchuan casually pointed in the direction A-Hao had dashed off. "Look at this petty ruffian. Normally muddleheaded, living day to day just waiting to die. But give him one thing, and he pulls himself together instantly, even willing to gamble his very life."
"Huh? What thing?"
He Lingchuan smiled. "Give him a goal, give him a shred of hope, and he's like a changed man."
Turns out it worked not just in the Yangshan Archipelago, but here as well.
"Aren't those two things?" Dong Rui didn't share He Lingchuan's philosophical musings. "That second path you pointed out to him—mm, are you saying the skies are about to change completely here?"
"After Mou Kingdom teaches the King of Bo a lesson, do you think he can remain on the throne?" He Lingchuan smiled. "Once the army assembled by Mou Kingdom leaves, someone will inevitably fill the power vacuum left behind. Think about it: why is that rebel leader surnamed You so eager to cozy up to Mou Kingdom? Because he spotted the right opportunity."
That was why the second path he laid out for A-Hao held peril and opportunity in equal measure.
"The people here have very sharp noses. Never mind when the King of Bo falls—even now, various factions are stirring," He Lingchuan stood up. "That lad just mentioned the street rumors saying a great empire to the west is coming to seek revenge on the monarch."
Having partnered with He Lingchuan for so long, Dong Rui understood immediately when he singled out that sentence:
"Ah, right! How would common folk know what the monarch had done, or that Mou Kingdom was about to strike back at him? It's most likely being spread around by people with an agenda."
"The rebels in this kingdom really never end, no matter how many you kill."
...
Upon returning to the Xiaoyao Sect compound, He Lingchuan introduced A-Hao to the Bo rebels under Jin Bai.
The leader of these rebels was named You Enguang. Hearing that He Lingchuan was a special envoy from Mou Kingdom, and that He Lingchuan wanted to introduce a strapping lad to him, he accepted A-Hao on the spot. He patted his chest, declaring that he would protect the boy from now on and cultivate him well.
A-Hao showered He Lingchuan with endless gratitude before leaving with You Enguang.
He Lingchuan had only said a single line to him: "Take good care of yourself."
The soul-snatching mirror sighed emotionally. "With just a couple of sentences, you changed this lad's destiny."
He Lingchuan smiled. "In the end, doesn't it still depend on him?"
Before he could even drink two sips of hot water, Jin Bai handed him a parcel:
"A mountain villager delivered this yesterday, specifically requesting it be given to the Mou Kingdom special envoy."
"Oh?" He Lingchuan's curiosity was piqued at once. "A mountain villager?"
"The villager said someone paid him to run the errand."
"Let me see." He Lingchuan opened the parcel. Inside was a thick stack of papers.
Nearby, Dong Rui and the two monkeys all crowded around, their eyes fixed on it.
There was writing, along with hand-drawn maps.
Dong Rui picked up a sheet, glanced at it, and exclaimed in astonishment, "Hey, isn't this the architectural layout of the royal palace gates?!"
The paper was also annotated with several lines of small characters, detailing the shift times and numbers of the palace patrol guards, as well as the mechanisms and formations hidden behind the gates.
The sheet Jin Bai picked up was a detailed map of the royal palace, with even the privies marked out. At a glance, he spotted the palace guard barracks and the second prince of Bo Kingdom's sleeping quarters.
What was prominently marked, however, were the King of Bo's sleeping quarters and study!
The rest of the materials pertained to Xun City and the royal family.
For instance, the locations of Xun City's armory and public storehouses, the headcount of Xun City's patrol guards and city gate troops, their deployment, rotation schedules, and so forth.
Even the temperaments and personalities of certain generals and military commanders were clearly laid out!
By the time He Lingchuan finished skimming through the materials, he felt that the difficulty of assaulting the royal city had dropped by more than a couple of notches. Jin Bai slapped his thigh repeatedly. "Splendid! Talk about getting a pillow right when you're nodding off!"
What mattered most before a battle? Intelligence.
The rebels had exchanged intelligence with the Shadow Tooth Guard, but nothing nearly this comprehensive.
With such meticulous and detailed intelligence delivered by an anonymous party, their assault plan could be targeted with pinpoint precision.
Dong Rui remarked, "Hey, could this have been sent by her?"
He Lingchuan nodded. "Seven or eight out of ten."
How many people knew he was a Mou Kingdom special envoy? How many knew he was at the Xiaoyao Sect? And how many knew that Mou Kingdom was preparing to retaliate against the King of Bo and recover the Bright Lantern Cup?
Tallying it all up, only Consort Mei fit. This woman was truly something.
Where others saw detail in the intelligence, He Lingchuan saw sheer determination.
Jin Bai asked in bewilderment, "What riddles are you two talking in?"
He hadn't returned to Xun City and didn't know Consort Mei was wanted by the King of Bo.
"The person who delivered this intelligence is very likely the one who stole the Bright Lantern Cup." He Lingchuan pointed to the table covered in documents. "How much effort and time must it take to gather all this? Above all, how much risk was involved? Only someone harboring a deep, bitter grudge against the King of Bo would be willing to put in this kind of painstaking, grinding work."
Hatred was indeed the ultimate driving force. If you were merely working for someone else, good enough was usually where you stopped; it was hard to achieve perfection.
This kind of person felt familiar.
Back then, Xi Yunhe had used the alias Mai Xuewen, staying hidden under Cen Boqing for so many years just to expose the elixir of immortality case to the world and exact his revenge on National Preceptor Qingyang.
Funnily enough, Xi Yunhe had also handed the evidence of Cen Boqing's crimes directly into Envoy He Lingchuan's hands back then.
This time, He Lingchuan could vaguely sense the same hatred and forbearance from the person behind the scenes.
Even though he knew very little about Consort Mei.
The smile on Jin Bai's face vanished in an instant.
His enemy was still using him as a weapon, yet he couldn't afford to reject this information. The mission assigned by the Mou Emperor was the highest priority for this deputy commander of the Shadow Tooth Guard.
He had no choice but to accept it, and no choice but to use it.
Chapter 1131