Chapter 901 : Assassination (7)
In between gasps of breaths, he heard Jun Wu Xie's words. The man could do nothing but lie on the ground motionless. Nobody would be able to fully understand how he was feeling at that moment, as everything that Jun Wu Xie said was true!
He had merely fallen onto the ground and the unimaginable pain had already made him feel like dying.
No one bothered with he did after that, and no one had asked him a single question either.
Jun Wu Xie and her companions carried on just as they had on any other day, sitting at the table to enjoy their sumptuous breakfast. The waiter who had been overly startled by the past night's events was jittery as he served up the dishes, his eyes only looking dead straight ahead, not daring to once look at the man who was lying flat upon the ground, completely motionless, just like a corpse.
As the man lay upon the ground not moving in the slightest, his limbs were fast becoming numb. It wasn't that he did not want to move, but it was because with the most minute of movement he made, it would bring him the most excruciating pain that tore him apart.
The torment, caused him to be unable to do anything but lie unmoving on the ground. But the cold floor itself was also wrecking endless torment on his nerves. The floor might just be slightly chilly, but he was feeling like he had been thrown mercilessly into a freezing lake in winter. His body that was touching the floor was feeling the bone biting chill, making him feel like he would freeze to death lying there.
While he lay there in helpless torture, Jun Wu Xie and her companions sat at the side, chatting merrily, enjoying their scrumptious meal.
Comparing the two situations at hand side by side, his circumstances were made all the more unbearable.
He wasn't afraid of killing himself. Although a cut across the neck might be a horrible death, but it would at least be quick. Now that he could not even see an end to this terrifying torture, which was a fate even worse than dying, it invariably pushed him into the pits of despair, unable to pull himself out from it.
"I'll talk..... I'll tell you everything....." The man's trembling voice finally rang out.
Qiao Chu and the others immediately raised their heads to look at Jun Wu Xie.
It had been barely just an hour, and the man was already willing to confess?
A man who wasn't even afraid to die, a man who would rather bite his own tongue to kill himself in order to keep the secret had succumbed under a single elixir from Jun Wu Xie? Even when she had not done a single thing more against him but had merely let him lie on the ground without even probing him with a single question? Just one elixir and the man had volunteered to confess?
The looks her several companions were giving her were filled with curiosity. They wanted so much to know just how horrifying the effects of the elixir that Jun Wu Xie had given the man could be, that it could break such a highly determined and resolute man to such a pitiable state in just less than an hour's time.
Jun Wu Xie slowly put down her bowl and chopsticks, her eyes turning to look at Ye Sha.
Ye Sha immediately picked the man up.
That one quick action, elicited a bout of heart rending screams from the man, the horrifying sounds, immediately causing the faces of the innkeeper and the waiter on the first floor to immediately turn pale.
"It's the Prime Minister..... The Prime Minister was the one who ordered us to come kill you." The man took a long while to recuperate, before saying in a trembling voice.
"Prime Minister?" Jun Wu Xie asked with an eyebrow raised.
"Ay? The Fire Country's Prime Minister, isn't he..... isn't he....." Qiao Chu seemed to have suddenly remembered something, as he winked at Jun Wu Xie repeatedly, trying very hard to hint at something.
Jun Wu Xie's eyes swept past Qiao Chu, completely ignoring him.
"Why does he want to kill me?" Jun Wu Xie asked.
"I really do not know the reason. I am only in charge of getting rid of people whom the Prime Minister wants eradicated. As to the reason behind it, I had never dared to ask, and the Prime Minister would not tell it to me." The man answered.
Jun Wu Xie nodded. She knew the man was not lying. Having gotten her answer, she nodded again at Ye Sha and Ye Sha immediately broke the man's neck without even blinking.
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Chapter 902 : Ring (1)
As the last breath left his body, the man's face actually showed a faint smile of relief. Compared to death, Jun Wu Xie's elixir was one that made living more unbearable.
"Why is the Empress' lover after your life?" Qiao Chu asked looking at Jun Wu Xie. None of them have ever met the Prime Minister of the Fire Country but based on what Lei Chen had told them, they knew that the Fire Country's Prime Minister was in an illicit affair with the Empress and they had had a child who was the current Fourth Prince, Lei Fan.
Needless to say Jun Wu Xie had not ever met the Prime Minister, she had not even met the Empress herself. The closest link to them that she had had any interaction with was the Fourth Prince Lei Fan. So why was the Prime Minister suddenly seeking to take her life?
"Isn't the Fourth Prince's biological father coming after the wrong person? I still remember during the banquet last night, Lei Fan had been highly aggressive in trying to win you over and the only thing he had fell short of doing was to order you to submit yourself to him. Why is it that just after one night, his old man is sending assassins to kill you?" Qiao Chu was feeling more confused the more he thought about it.
"He wasn't going after the wrong person." Jun Wu Xie said calmly.
"No mistake?" Fan Zhuo asked, his eyebrow coming up. "You had left to go to the Imperial Garden with Lei Fan but when you returned, you appeared together with the Grand Adviser as Lei Fan had suddenly taken ill in the Imperial Garden. Seems like that had been all due to your efforts?"
Jun Wu Xie nodded. "I neutralized the Face Changing Technique used on him."
At that moment, the youths at the table were staring at Jun Wu Xie with wide incredulous eyes.
"Face Changing Technique? What does that mean?" Qiao Chu was getting a headache.
Fei Yan went on to explain: "Last night, I was just telling Little Xie that Lei Fan's countenance was rather strange. He was obviously the Empress' biological son but he instead looked almost exactly like the woman the Emperor held dear to his heart. I had thought that there was something more to it and I did not expect Little Xie to move so quickly that she was able to verify the truth of the matter the very same night."
"That explains everything." Fan Zhuo said with a laugh in spite of the circumstances. "Lei Fan must have realized that his real countenance had been seen through and although he had wanted to win you over to his side, but you had repeatedly rejected his advances. Moreover, you have been seen to be friendly to Lei Chen and in order to prevent you from revealing his secret to Lei Chen, he needed to have you silenced. The Prime Minister must have taken action tonight under the influence of both the Empress and Lei Fan."
Although Lei Chen knew Lei Fan's real identity, and thought that Lei Fan's looks was a matter that was rather strange, but he had not been able to discover the truth behind it and could only keep everything within himself.
Now that Jun Wu Xie had so easily neutralized Lei Fan's Face Changing Technique, then all they needed to do now was to drag Lei Fan to go before the Emperor and easily bring this mess up, and the Emperor's face would surely turn black as soot!
"It would seem that Lei Fan, the Empress and the Prime Minister will be going all out to take your life. After having failed today, they will still not spare your life in the days to come." Fan Zhuo said rubbing his chin, looking completely unworried for Jun Wu Xie.
Jun Wu Xie suddenly added: "The people who are out to get me will not only be those three people."
"What? Who else could it be?" Qiao Chu's eyes widened up once more. Jun Wu Xie had in one single night offended the Fire Country's Empress, the most favoured Prince of the Emperor, and the head of the court officials, the Prime Minister. Her ability to incite such hatred was already unparalleled and she was actually telling them that there were more people who wanted to take her down?
Jun Wu Xie raised up her hand and showed the ring on her finger to everyone before her.
"Did any of you notice that the Emperor had shown great interest in this ring of mine?"
Everyone nodded. The ring was brought out from the bottom of the Heaven's End cliff and Jun Wu Xie had also managed to unravel the mystery behind the method to temporarily bring up one's spirit power level from the scribblings the original owner of the ring had left behind in the stone dwelling.
It could be said that the ring held special and extraordinary meaning to Jun Wu Xie.
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Chapter 903 : Ring (2)
"Do you all still remember, within that stone dwelling, the words carved into the wall?" Jun Wu Xie asked, her eyes narrowed up.
Qiao Chu and the others immediately quieted their hearts and tried to recall. After awhile, Hua Yao was the first one to remember the subtle link the scribblings had mentioned and he suddenly raised up his head, his handsome eyes glinting with slight comprehension.
"You are saying that the man who had been trapped at the bottom of the Heaven's End Cliff was linked to the Fire Country?"
Jun Wu Xie removed the ring from her finger and handed it over to Hua Yao and the others to inspect closely.
Hua Yao and his other companions quickly found the Chinese character for "Fire".
"I remember..... that the man had mentioned within those lines that he was the Emperor of a certain country. Don't tell me..... He was originally the Emperor of the Fire Country? Because he disappeared and that is why this current Emperor is on the throne?" Qiao Chu's eyes bulged once more. He had never once thought that the ring Jun Wu Xie had accidentally picked up at the bottom of the Heaven's End Cliff would be so intricately linked to the Fire Country.
"No. Calculating based on the time that would have passed, the time when that man had gone down to the bottom of the Heaven's End Cliff would be closer to a hundred years ago or not too far away from that, and the current Emperor's age does not match that period of time." Hua Yao said immediately, shaking his head in disagreement.
"Even if it was the previous Emperor who had passed on, the link to the present Fire Country is still there." Fan Zhuo quipped.
Fei Yan's eyes narrowed up like he was thinking hard about something. A few moments later, his suddenly flared open.
"I remember it now!"
Fei Yan's face suddenly looked highly excited as he looked at Jun Wu Xie to say happily: "I had looked into the Fire Country previously and I had also gained a certain understanding after hearing some things about the Fire Country's past generations of rulers. The Fire Country's first Emperor of this bloodline, who is the current Emperor's grandfather, was once not the ruler of the Fire Country. The Emperor of the Fire Country had originally been his elder brother, but that elder brother had suddenly disappeared one day. The Fire Country had been thrown into some years of tumult after that and the first Emperor of the current line had only chosen to ascend to the throne to stabilise the political courts and government of the country. Based on the timing of the occurrences, the man in that stone dwelling could very well be the elder brother of the first Emperor of the current line, the original Emperor who had suddenly gone missing!"
"With the way you put it, it does sound rather plausible. But that had happened so long ago, so what does it have to do with the present?" Fan Zhuo asked, turning his head that was supported by his hand to look at Jun Wu Xie.
Jun Wu Xie told them: "Last night, when I met the Grand Adviser in the Imperial Garden, we had initially only exchanged a few perfunctory words of greetings. But when Wen Yu saw the ring on my finger, he hinted that I should leave the Fire Country quickly. He said that if I remained here, unpleasant things might happen. I had initially thought that he was talking about the Prime Minister's assassination attempt, but after thinking through it carefully, I concluded that Lei Fan wants to kill me because I saw his real face, and not because of this ring. But what Wen Yu was talking about has definitely got something to do with the ring."
It was obvious, that the dangers Wen Yu had mentioned was not about Lei Fan.
"That sounds really strange. Even if the ring is linked to the a certain generation of Emperor of the Fire Country, what could the ring really represent? How can it be that the Emperor is suddenly trying to kill you just because of a old and inconspicuous ring? Doesn't that sound too strange to be true? Even if he want to take the ring back, he could have very well just asked you directly couldn't he?" Qiao Chu still did not understand what kind of dangers could a single ring like that bring.
"On that point, I still do not have a full picture. But Wen Yu's words couldn't have been entirely baseless. He must know something or has reason to be guessing at something, and that was why he gave me that reminder." Jun Wu Xie said as she put the ring back onto her finger. Although she now knew where the ring had originated from, but she still could not fathom why Wen Yu had told her to quickly leave the Fire Country.
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Chapter 904 : Imperial Guards Army (1)
Fei Yan thought about it for a long while but did not manage to link up the situation with any of the news that he had managed to gather. He had not been able to investigate into the Fire Country for that long a period and the information he had wasn't entirely complete. Having been able to have gained information about the Emperor who had gone missing before has already been a great feat.
As they continued to discuss, the skies had turned bright completely. The Imperial Capital was waking up and resuming to its usual hustle and bustle and when the Immortals' Loft's innkeeper asked Jun Wu Xie and the others whether they wanted to report the incident about the assassins to the Imperial Capital's Magistrate office, he was flatly rejected.
Ye Sha had, with a great bonfire, burnt the corpses to nothing.
No matter what kind of secrets were hidden behind the ring, it was now a certain fact that Lei Fan and the Emperor were looking to have Jun Wu Xie killed. They might have failed this time round, but they were certain that another attempt was sure to come.
However, as everyone was still thinking about how they were going to deal with the matter in regards to Lei Fan, a team of soldiers fully decked out in heavy armour had come charging out into the main street of the Imperial Capital, making a line straight towards the Immortals' Loft.
"What is happening here?" Outside the Immortals' Loft, it was suddenly abuzz with activity. The group of them who had been talking within immediately detected the flurry of activity outside and Qiao Chu immediately zipped to the window, seeing that the entire Immortals' Loft had been heavily surrounded by a troop of soldiers.
"There are many soldiers down there and they have surrounded the entire place." Qiao Chu immediately turned and reported to his companions.
"Could it possibly be Lei Fan again who had sent these soldiers here?" Fei Yan asked with a frown on his face. He went over to the window to see and quickly realised that his guess had been wrong.
"It is not the Prime Minister's men. It's the Imperial Guard Army!"
"Imperial Guards?"
The Fire Country's Imperial Guard Army was led by the Commander of the Imperial Guards. The Commander of the Imperial Guards only took orders from the Emperor himself and from nobody else. It was obvious that this sudden activation of the Imperial Guards had nothing to do with the Prime Minister but it could only have been under the direct orders of the Emperor himself.
"Why would the Emperor sent the Imperial Guards here? Don't tell me the words of the Grand Adviser had really come true as he had predicted? That old Emperor was really coming after Little Xie because of a inconspicuous little ring?" Rong Ruo immediately stood up, her brows deeply furrowed, her face rather puzzled.
The speed that the Imperial Guards had arrived at had been really quick. Since the banquet ended, it had only been a matter of hours and the Emperor had already sent out the Imperial Guard Army. With such impatience obvious from the enemy, it was really difficult for any of them to look at the situation in an optimistic light.
With even the Imperial Guards mobilised, it had not only made Jun Wu Xie and her companions to raise their guard, it had also attracted a lot of attention from many people in the Imperial Capital. The Imperial Guards were responsible for the security and safety of the Imperial Palace and they seldom appeared in other places within the Imperial Capital. With such a grand display today, it made for a rare sight for all the people.
Lots of people had their curiosity highly piqued when the saw the Imperial Guard Army having been mobilised, and the crowd had followed behind the Imperial Guards all the way before they all discovered that the destination that the Imperial Guards had been heading towards was the Immortals' Loft!
When talking about the Immortals' Loft, it might just be a regular inn and restaurant normally. But at that moment, the Immortals' Loft was currently housing the ultimate winners of this year's Spirit Battle Tournament from the Zephyr Academy. The six participants from the Zephyr Academy had incredibly achieved the top six ranks of the entire Spirit Battle Tournament and they had won immeasurable repute and endless glory. But besides that, the Immortals' Loft had also been a place plagued with many unfortunate incidents.
It was not too long ago just before the final deciding matches for the top ten ranks were about to begin. The Imperial Capital's constabulary had at that time sent guards to come take Jun Xie away from the Immortals' Loft. Although the incident was finally proved to have been a misunderstanding, it had nevertheless still made many people feel rather uncomfortable about the place.
And now, the Fire Country's Imperial Guard Army had even come, and judging from the aggressive demeanor from the guards, they couldn't have come here for anything pleasant.
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Chapter 905 : Imperial Guards Army (2)
What was not known at that moment, was who within the Immortals' Loft had committed a crime, that even the Imperial Guard Army who was directly under the Emperor's throne was mobilised!
What was even more astonishing was that the leader for the team of Imperial Guards that had come was the Commander of the Imperial Guard Army himself, Yuan Biao!
With the appearance of Yuan Biao, it made everyone there realise, the severity of the matter on that day.
"By the Emperor's decree, the disciple of the Zephyr Academy, Jun Xie, had at the state banquet last night, during the period he was away from the banquet, injured the Fourth Prince in the Imperial Garden, and the Imperial Guard Army has received orders to come here today to arrest the criminal to answer for his crime!"
Yuan Biao jumped off his horse to read out the Imperial Edict, its content drafted undoubtedly pointing out that Jun Xie had attempted to kill Lei Fan!
At that moment, the curious onlookers crowded around were all greatly astounded.
The Fourth Prince was the most favoured among all the princes and he had not only won the favour of the Emperor himself, he received in no small measure the protection of the Empress as well. It could be said that besides the fact that he was not holding the title of the Crown Prince, the Fourth Prince was among the four princes, the most favoured and the one most doted upon. Who would have thought that someone would be so audacious to harm the Fourth Prince, and the deed was even committed within the Imperial Palace itself no less!
A wave of chatter quickly swept over the people crowding around the place.
Qiao Chu stood beside the second floor window, hearing clearly every single word that Yuan Biao read out. His eyes bulged in outrage and disbelief at what he heard as he turned to look at Jun Wu Xie.
"Did you really strike at Lei Fan?"
Last night at the banquet, Jun Wu Xie had indeed stepped away from the banquet but that had been under the decree of the Emperor then. After they stepped out from the banquet, she had gone to the Imperial Garden with Lei Fan but had returned alone in the end. They had heard from Jun Wu Xie herself that she had neutralized Lei Fan's Face Changing Technique disguise which had left Lei Fan with no other choice but to run away. But the details of the incident had not been made known to them.
Jun Wu Xie rolled her eyes at Qiao Chu and said: "I made Little Black splash the medicine on him and I did not touch him a single time from the beginning till the end."
Although she needed to unravel the mystery weighing on her mind, she had however still been conscious of what could be done and which lines should not be crossed.
"The Emperor is falsely accusing you?" Qiao Chu's eyes were still wide with shock. Once again! It's happening again! How many times had it been! The stars in the Fire Country must really been grossly misaligned and in conflict with Jun Wu Xie's!
Jun Wu Xie said: "That decree contains both true and false facts within it and they had been well twisted to pin the crime onto me."
Everyone at the banquet last night were all aware that she had gone to the Imperial Garden with Lei Fan, and they also knew that Lei Fan had not returned when Jun Xie came back. Wen Yu had said at the banquet that Lei Fan had not been feeling well..... if they all pieced all the facts together and looked at it from a certain perspective, everything seemed to fit perfectly with what the Emperor had claimed.
"The person who read out the decree, is the Commander of the Imperial Guard Army?" Hua Yao asked as his eyes swept over Yuan Biao who was standing in front of the troop of soldiers.
"Yes." Fei Yan replied.
"He is the same man who had approached Zhao Xun previously. That day back in the alley, this is the same guy who had wanted to kill me when I impersonated myself as Zhao Xun." Hua Yao said, his eyes narrowing up dangerously. That face of Yuan Biao's, was one that he still remembered vividly.
"As expected, the incident that tried to throw Lei Chen into disrepute was indeed done by the Emperor." Fei Yan said with a cold laugh.
"As of now, the Emperor seems determined to bring Little Xie away. He had even mobilised the Imperial Guard Army. Looking at the way things stand, we might very well have to defy the Imperial Decree." Fan Zhuo said as the corners of his mouth curled up. "Based on the circumstances before us here, I can just see. The moment that Little Xie is captured and brought away by them today, they will just kill her off right after viciously without mercy. A single ring. Just what is the secret behind it that it can cause the Emperor of the Fire Country to be driven to take such drastic action?"
Fan Zhuo drew in a deep breath and turned to look at Jun Wu Xie: "Little Xie, you need to leave here immediately. Regardless of the reason that the Emperor is coming after you, you must not fall into their hands this time. It's highly different this time. They will not give you anything to prepare yourself. The moment you are caught, the only fate you will face can only be certain death."