As long as their own people are safe, anyone else dying is a blessing in their eyes.
“Zhuang Xiu, Master, Zhuang Xiu died last night!”
“Poisoned again?”
“No, this time it was a blade wound. A unique scale from a Western Qiang war armor was left at the scene.”
“So it was Feng Wuyang’s doing?”
“Hehe, that’s how it looks on the surface.”
In other words, there was something else going on beneath it all.
“Master, Feng Wuyang has a younger brother, and Zhuang Xiu has a nephew. So now, Zhuang Huaqing has already taken a group of men to the Western Qiang camp to demand an accounting.”
“That scale… was it really from Feng Wuyang?” Even if he wanted to kill Zhuang Xiu, he wouldn’t do it himself, would he?
The ancestors once said a gentleman does not stand where danger looms. Even if Zhuang Xiu were weakened by dehydration, with all his layers of protection, killing him would still be difficult. A man in power like Feng Wuhuan wouldn’t need to personally act, and the one framing him must have realized that.
“Of course it wasn’t from his golden scale armor. That scale came from one of Feng Wuyang’s trusted subordinates.”
“So the attackers really were from Western Qiang?”
“Feng Wuyang has an even worse temper than Feng Wuhuan and holds grudges. You see, Feng Wuhuan scolded him during the march for slowing them down, and Feng Wuyang felt publicly humiliated. Once he had the chance, he couldn’t resist taking revenge.
Yesterday, Zhuang Xiu’s accusation nearly succeeded, and he publicly exposed Feng Wuyang’s ‘attempt to murder’ his own clan elder. When Feng Wuyang returns to the Feng family, he’ll face severe punishment. His grudge against Zhuang Xiu runs deeper than a ten-year-old ghost’s resentment, and vengeance wouldn’t even wait until morning.
That very night, he sent his own men to sneak over.”
Yue Fuguang frowned at the system’s mention of a ten-year-old ghost. The system’s database was full of metaphors—why did it have to bring up ghosts? Had it forgotten that this world actually had real ghosts and the Court of Hell?
And some things were more persistent than even Cao Cao’s name.
“They didn’t succeed?” Otherwise, Feng Wuyang wouldn’t just be a scapegoat. That man was useless if he couldn’t even kill someone properly.
“Someone else killed him first. By the time his team struggled to sneak into Zhuang Xiu’s tent, the body wasn’t even cold yet.
What’s more, just as they were about to retreat, the Northern Li army discovered them. Their entire squad of twelve was trapped inside Zhuang Xiu’s tent.
If Feng Wuyang hadn’t sent people on a desperate rescue mission to win loyalty, none of them would have escaped.”
“With all that evidence, they’d be guilty even without the scale, right? Also, Little Zhu, didn’t they administer poison earlier? How did they still have strength to fight?”
“Master, some people ate more, some ate less—symptoms varied in severity. Still, over ninety-five percent of them were incapacitated. Otherwise, how could twelve men sneak into a seven-thousand-strong camp and have any survivors? It was because too many soldiers couldn’t move!
Also, Feng Wuyang’s assassins were all disguised. To leave no traces, they carried back the bodies of the three who died.
For the Northern Li side, without physical evidence, even if they knew who did it, they couldn’t force Western Qiang to admit guilt!”
“So, who actually killed Zhuang Xiu? Don’t tell me it was He Ming again!”
For some reason, Yue Fuguang felt this was very likely.
“He Ming had wanted to act, but he only arrived a little before the Northern Li assassination team. At that point, Zhuang Xiu was still barely alive, so He Ming waited until he was completely dead. He left behind the scale fragment he had snatched during the day’s scuffle as a planted clue.
He was also the one who deliberately raised the alarm when the Northern Li men were discovered.
Master, you’ll never guess—it was Bei Ye’s people who killed Zhuang Xiu. Not Bei Yue. It was Bei Ye’s team, the ones who love assassination the most.”
This was such a mess.
“System, does this mean our sowing of discord worked? The brothers Bei Yue and Bei Ye have both begun to target the Emperor and his Eighth Prince’s forces.”
From the current situation, this retaliation had already reached the point of disregarding national interests—good news for her.
“You’re right, Host. Not only have they planted their own people in the military, but in the imperial court as well, they’re counterattacking against the hidden forces of the Emperor and the Eighth Prince.
Lately, it isn’t just Northern Li. Over in Western Qiang, Xi Yuanshan and Xi Ling have also been orchestrating moves remotely, openly and covertly targeting Xi Xiang.
The other sons of Xi Yan have only recently caught on, thanks to the ‘suggestions’ from those two, and they’re slowly beginning to see Xi Xiang’s ambitions and schemes.
In fact, Xi Xiang can no longer play the pig to eat the tiger or quietly grow rich. The more chaotic they become, the better it is for our mission.”
“System, haven’t Bei Yue and the others returned to their country yet?” It was almost the end of April, nearly May. If they delayed any longer, they might as well not go back and just stay to attend Emperor Mingxi’s birthday celebration.
“Bei Yue doesn’t dare to return. You said the ‘bone-dissolving poison’ is in the hands of the imperial family. His people are still searching, and until he finds out who wants to harm him, he definitely won’t go back.
Besides, since he learned that you have an antidote here for all poisons, he’s even less willing to leave until he gets it.”
Given how Bei Ji is treating him now, once Bei Yue goes back, he’ll rarely have another chance to be sent to Dayan. Bei Yue knows this well.
“As for Bei Ye, without Bei Yue shielding him, going back means he’d be stuck as a pawn. Now that he’s certain his father only sees him as a tool, with no real father-son bond, Bei Ye is even more unhinged than Bei Yue, the true victim.
His revenge against the Emperor and that precious Eighth Prince just keeps getting more creative.”
Since the system became aware of some of the task worlds it had been in, it had noticed that this particular world seemed to use poison to deal with enemies more than any other.
Scheming and plotting took too long to kill people; poison and assassination were far faster solutions to getting rid of troublemakers.
Sometimes the system wondered: was this why ploys and strategies in this world weren’t as developed as in its host’s homeland? Even the Thirty-Six Stratagems didn’t exist here.
Compared to stratagems, poison and assassination were more straightforward—it’s just a shame they lacked elegance and narrative appeal.
“Xi Yuanshan doesn’t want to go back and face a father who treats him like a fighting insect or a consort bloated with ambition.
Xi Ling doesn’t want to return and face his origins—he’s probably guessed he might not be Xi Yan’s biological son. He’s terrified Xi Yan knows much more and fears he’ll be secretly executed by the imperial family on his return.”
The system ticked off each person’s reasons for not going back.
“As for Gan Tang, her excuse is even simpler. She stays in Dayan on orders from Gan Sheng, awaiting her marriage.
Though the marriage alliance between the two countries hasn’t been finalized, Southern Yue’s candidate is definitely Gan Tang.
On Dayan’s side, the Fifth Prince firmly refuses, but Emperor Mingxi seems quite happy trying to set him up with your Fourth Sister.”
Hmph, Yue Fuguang’s face darkened slightly, but she said nothing.
She believed that until she returned to the manor, her grandfather would never agree to this engagement. And the old emperor was savvy enough not to force the Yu family. So there was no need to rush.