Chapter 37 : The Qin Family’s Old Servant
Chapter 37: The Qin Family’s Old Servant
Across the Cangbei River, the torches of the rebel army’s camp flickered like a sky full of stars.
The rebel sentry on watch suddenly widened his eyes and hurriedly blew the horn.
“Report—!”
The sentry stumbled and rolled into the central military tent. “The Prefectural City army across the river is making a move!”
The several rebel generals studying the sand table were not at all panicked upon hearing this.
The bearded general in the lead sneered. “So, they finally couldn’t hold back.”
He turned and ordered the messenger, “Pass down my command—infantry are to hold their positions, cavalry proceed as planned!”
Soon, tens of thousands of rebel cavalry receded like a tide into the darkness of northern Cangbei County, leaving behind only the orderly infantry formations, standing ready for battle.
Across the river, the coalition generals held their telescopes, looking at each other in confusion.
“What kind of trick are those bastards playing now?” Cheng Yaojin scratched his stubbly chin, looking puzzled.
At the same time, inside the Prince of Anxi’s residence—
Jiang Zhaoming rubbed his throbbing temples, preparing to leave the main hall.
Suddenly, the candle flames in the hall flickered violently as a cold, howling wind rose out of nowhere.
“Your Highness, beware!”
Before Gu Landa’s shrill warning even fell, Jiang Zhaoming saw her body fly backward like a kite with its string cut, a dagger glinting with a ghostly blue light embedded in her chest.
Jiang Zhaoming’s pupils contracted sharply.
The Thousand Mechanisms Gu on his body activated in an instant, transforming into a suit of shining silver armor that enveloped him completely.
He didn’t have time to think. With a roll, he dashed toward the rear of the hall.
“Assassins! Protect His Highness!”
The guards outside exploded into action.
Dozens of elite soldiers in heavy armor at the Blood Refining Realm charged into the hall, their surging vitality rapidly forming a small military formation.
Jiang Zhaoming took advantage of the chaos to hide within the formation, finally getting a chance to catch his breath.
“How is this possible…”
Cold sweat beaded on Jiang Zhaoming’s forehead, his heart filled with shock and dread.
How had the assassin entered the Prefectural City, and infiltrated the royal residence so smoothly?
He patrolled the entire city with the Fortune-Appraising Treasure Mirror every three days. If a Divine Power Realm expert had snuck in, there was no way they could have escaped his sight.
Unless… the intruder had entered the city within the past day and launched a direct assassination attempt at once.
The assassin, realizing the first strike had failed, had a flash of surprise in his cold, sinister eyes.
What astonished him even more was that the seemingly ordinary Gu Landa had blocked the fatal blow at the critical moment.
He snorted coldly, and his figure melted away like dissolving ice, turning into a swirl of shadow and vanishing in an instant.
“Boom!”
The next second, the main hall doors were blasted open as Guan Ning stormed in, wielding his Nine-Ring Saber, killing intent surging.
Guan Ning glanced around. He saw Gu Landa lying in a pool of blood and Jiang Zhaoming surrounded within the formation—but no trace of the assassin.
“Your Highness, are you—”
Before he could finish, Jiang Zhaoming barked sharply, “General Guan! The assassin is skilled in concealment!”
At once, Guan Ning leapt into the air, scanning the floor warily.
Just as he wondered why the assassin hadn’t struck again, a chill crept down his spine.
A poisoned dagger silently thrust out from the ceiling beam above!
“Clang!”
At the last instant, a silver flying blade tore through the air, striking the dagger aside precisely.
It was the second form of the Thousand Mechanisms Gu—“Riftblade.”
“Courting death!”
Guan Ning’s eyes flared in fury as his saber descended with thunderous might.
The assassin hastily blocked, yet was still sent flying several meters by the sheer force.
Only then did Jiang Zhaoming clearly see the assassin’s face—a middle-aged man with a sinister countenance.
What was most chilling was the venomous hatred in his gaze, as if he wished to tear Jiang Zhaoming into a thousand pieces.
“Who are you?”
Jiang Zhaoming asked in a deep voice, the hand beneath his armor quietly tightening around the Riftblade.
The assassin didn’t answer.
Seeing his ambush on Guan Ning had failed, he turned his attacks once again toward Jiang Zhaoming.
Though he was elusive, his close-combat ability clearly fell short.
Every swing of Guan Ning’s saber sent him staggering like a ragdoll, crashing into walls, his black clothes shredded to ribbons by the saber’s energy.
Jiang Zhaoming’s heart burned like fire as he saw the blood spreading beneath Gu Landa’s body.
He guided the Riftblade, and the silver blade traced deadly arcs through the air, carving several fresh wounds into the assassin.
“Thousand Mechanisms Gu, prepare the Spirit-Sealing Lock!”
Jiang Zhaoming secretly urged the Gu worm within his body.
But the assassin, as if reading his mind, suddenly dissolved into black mist and drifted toward the outside of the hall.
“General Guan, pursue him!”
Yet Guan Ning hesitated, glancing anxiously at Jiang Zhaoming.
“Guan Ning! That is an order!”
Guan Ning clenched his teeth, took one last look at Jiang Zhaoming’s gleaming armor, and then charged out with his saber.
Soon, two hundred royal guards poured into the hall, forming a tight defensive circle around Jiang Zhaoming.
Jiang Zhaoming knelt beside Gu Landa, gently pressing his fingers to her neck—only to feel a faint, fragile pulse.
“Where is the physician? Why isn’t he here yet?”
Jiang Zhaoming’s face darkened like iron. Moments later, a physician hurried in carrying a medicine chest.
Yet before he could even open it, a blade pierced cleanly through his back.
“Protect His Highness!”
The guards immediately tightened their formation, every eye fixed on the dark corners of the hall.
A new assassin slowly stepped out of the shadows—identical in appearance to the previous one, yet exuding a completely different aura.
Jiang Zhaoming’s heart sank to the bottom. So there was more than one assassin.
They had used his anger against him—deliberately luring Guan Ning away.
The new assassin walked forward leisurely, a mocking smile curling on his lips like a cat toying with a mouse.
The guards had focused all their vitality on protecting Jiang Zhaoming, leaving themselves no room to defend.
Suddenly, one guard’s shadow came alive!
From the darkness beneath his feet, a dagger shot up, piercing straight through his throat.
Then the second, the third—guards kept falling, their own shadows turning into deathtraps.
Seeing this, Jiang Zhaoming had no choice but to step forward, relying on the military formation’s energy and the Thousand Mechanisms Gu to resist.
He maneuvered between the armor and Riftblade forms, clashing with the assassin again and again.
But unlike generals such as Qin Wei, this Divine Power Realm assassin was far more agile.
Jiang Zhaoming’s strikes rarely landed, while the assassin kept exploiting the formation’s flaws to slay the guards.
If this continued, it would be nothing but a slow boil—the guards wouldn’t last.
Just as Jiang Zhaoming prepared to risk entering the River of Fortune, the palace wall of the main hall suddenly exploded.
Before anyone could react, the assassin—who had been killing men like cutting grass—was struck in the chest, leaving a gaping hole.
The assassin turned in disbelief and saw, behind the collapsed wall, a simple, honest-looking middle-aged man walking in.
Jiang Zhaoming looked closely and realized—it was none other than the sesame cake vendor he had observed for months.
Before he could speak, the man lifted a longbow, drawing it swiftly.
A deep creak sounded—then an explosion like thunder.
Jiang Zhaoming saw another arrow fly, piercing into a shadowed corner of the hall.
“Bang!”
The entire hall shook, tiles shattered into dust, and blood mist filled the air.
The third assassin hidden in the dark was blasted into a cloud of gore.
The middle-aged man slowly turned, then bowed respectfully toward Jiang Zhaoming.
“Old Servant of the Qin Family, Guo Huaian, greets Your Highness.”