Chapter 173: Return

Beneath the dense white mourning banner, before the coffin.

Chen Ji silently looked at the scattered silver money on the ground, suddenly understanding the true trump card of Jin Zhu’s Ya Guan cultivation path. The person most cautious and afraid of death, with the heaviest gambling nature, had chosen a cultivation path most suitable for himself.

Then... did Mister Feng know that Jin Zhu was a Ya Guan cultivator and possessed a substitute death puppet?

He must have known; the other side had once revealed a flaw!

Just a few hours earlier, Mister Feng had subconsciously said to him, "According to my knowledge, you and Jin Zhu have no friendship, right?" This sentence was the flaw.

Earlier in Long Wang Village, Jin Zhu had rushed day and night to save himself. From a normal person's perspective, it would certainly be seen as deep friendship between Jin Zhu and himself, thus prompting the rescue. But Mister Feng didn't think so.

Only someone who knew Jin Zhu's cultivation path would understand that Jin Zhu's coming to save someone wasn't due to friendship, but a gamble on himself.

But why would Mister Feng lie about planning to return to the Secret Spy Department and seize Jin Zhu's zodiac position?

If the essence of a lie is to cover the truth, what exactly was Mister Feng trying to cover with his lie?

Chen Ji's eyes suddenly widened. Mister Feng wanted to cover his real identity!

At this moment, Liu Shi Ye ran outwards, shouting all the way: "Where are the Black Clothes Guards? Chase back that Feng fellow! Absolutely cannot let the Tiger Armor Iron Cavalry fall into his hands!"

Several black-clothed figures quietly emerged from the small alley. "Liu Shi Ye, please calm down slightly. We will go chase."

In front of the gate of the Liu family mansion, Liu Shi Ye dramatically produced several carrier pigeons and gave them to the Black Clothes Guards, instructing them carefully: "None of you are a match for that Feng fellow. Divide into seven routes and go to the Tiger Armor main camp to expose that Feng fellow to Deputy General Yang. If Deputy General Yang doesn't believe it, then tell him to come to the Liu family mansion and question the old master face to face! If this matter succeeds, immediately write a letter and let the pigeon bring it back!"

A Black Clothes Guard hesitated and said: "But Mister Feng... that Feng fellow holds the Tiger Talisman. The Tiger Armor main camp only recognizes the military symbol, not the person!"

Liu Shi Ye said in a low voice: "We can only try, hurry and go!"

"Yes!"

The Black Clothes Guards each put the pigeons into their embrace, flipped onto their horses, and rushed into the night.

Liu Shi Ye just leaned against the door frame, his heart burning with anxiety as he waited. Before even the time it takes to burn one stick of incense, a pigeon flapped its wings and flew back.

Liu Shi Ye was startled and immediately reached out to let the pigeon land on his wrist. An armored soldier reminded him: "Liu Shi Ye, the pigeon's feathers have blood."

"It's the blood of the Black Clothes Guards," Liu Shi Ye's eyes were gloomy and uncertain. "There are people ambushing and killing the Black Clothes Guards I sent out!"

The crowd raised their heads and looked outside the large gate. The black, dark sky was like an abyss that devoured people, no matter how much was put in, it couldn't be filled.

Liu Shi Ye's face turned iron blue. He raised his voice and said: "Close the mansion gate! Light up torches on the watchtower! No one is allowed to open the door without my command!"

Chen Ji and several armored soldiers slowly pushed the heavy vermilion lacquer gate closed. The moment the two doors shut, the Liu family mansion became a tightly defended fortress.

Liu Shi Ye suddenly turned back towards the ancestral hall. "I'm going to find the old master!"

Chen Ji and the other armored soldiers followed behind him through a long alley. They saw Liu Shi Ye reach the front of the ancestral hall door and kneel on both knees. "Old master, we have all been deceived by Feng Wen Zheng! Earlier I said that the generals of the Tiger Armor Iron Cavalry had accidents successively, it must be this Feng fellow secretly obstructing things. This person tells lie after lie, not a single word from his mouth is true..."

At this moment, Chen Ji and Liu Shi Ye felt the same way.

That Mister Feng was like a swindler, both righteous and evil, chaotic and powerful.

The other side freely wandered between knife edges, making everyone play along. Chen Ji also couldn't distinguish which sentence the other side spoke was true and which was a lie.

Liu Shi Ye continued to say: "Old master, at this time, recalling other armies is too late. The urgent matter is to send people to find General Zhou and order him to bring the Elephant Armor Camp to aid..."

Inside the ancestral hall, Liu Ge Lao paid no attention to Liu Shi Ye. He just turned his back to everyone, slowly raised his head to look at the spirit tablets on the central niche that were like mountain ranges, and sighed softly: "If Feng Wen Zheng truly began laying this plan seven years ago, then it's all over..."

Liu Shi Ye suddenly looked at Liu Ge Lao's kneeling back. "Old master, we cannot sit and wait for death!"

"Of course we cannot sit and wait for death, that would not be dignified," Liu Ge Lao stood up and smoothed his body's gray cloth robe. "Beat the drum and ascend the hall, burn incense, draw the lots of death, sacrifice the flag!"

At Mao time, the sky light was slightly bright, and the east side showed fish-belly white.

In the deep parts of the high walls of the Liu family mansion, heavy drum sounds rang out, beating faster and faster.

Inside the mansion, house after house of Liu family clan relatives heard the drum sounds and hurried over.

Liu Shi Ye led the armored soldiers to push open the doors of the mansion one by one. Outside the mansion, several hundred black-clothed dead soldiers were stationed. They streamed in from these doors one by one, finally gathering densely before the ancestral hall, filling the empty ground and alley in front of the ancestral hall.

No one spoke, only solemnly looked inside the ancestral hall. Liu Ge Lao took out the lots of death that had been sealed and hidden for a long time under the offering table—sixteen boxes full of bamboo lots.

Liu Ge Lao used his sleeve to wipe a box of lots and slowly said: "I originally wanted to lead all of you to rise in rebellion, yet I did not expect to suffer a calculation and brew a big mistake. Today, the ancestral hall is opened, those who draw the lot of death will welcome the enemy with me, those who do not draw it will leave through the back door. At that time, there will be people to escort all of you quietly south, take a ship to Java Island. In my early years, I already ordered my eldest son to lay down industry there, enough for all of you to live. Remember, never return to the Ning Dynasty."

Everyone thought Liu Gun's eldest son had already shaved his head and become a monk at the Yuan Jue Temple in the capital, yet they did not expect the Liu family had long used the scheme of Li Dai Tao Jiang, sending him to Java Island.

As Liu Ge Lao said, aristocratic families' goal should originally not be 'winning', but 'not losing', thus they can last long.

Liu Shi Ye pleaded: "Old master, why don't you leave? That fast ship can carry over a hundred people! The eldest master is already firmly established in Java Island, you can rise again there!"

Liu Ge Lao smiled: "If I don't die, the one inside Ren Shou Palace will not sleep. If I stay behind, then I will give him an account. Beat the drum!"

The drumbeats grew dense again. The wiped clean lot boxes were passed among the crowd. Everyone silently drew their own lot. Those who drew the lot of life cried joyfully, and some secretly exchanged the lot of life with others; those who drew the lot of death were silent, while some unwilling ones wailed and fainted.

Liu Ge Lao stood on the steps of the ancestral hall, full of vicissitudes.

After one stick of incense, those who drew the lot of life left the ancestral hall under the guidance of several Black Clothes Guards, going who knows where. Those who drew the lot of death wrapped their heads with white cloth and were all in mourning clothes.

Liu Shi Ye suddenly said: "Old master, Jing Wang is still in our mansion, he must also have participated in the plot! The Liu family has this calamity, he is indispensible!"

Liu Ge Lao was silent for a long time: "Bring him here, use him to sacrifice the flag!"

Chen Ji's heart sank.

Liu Shi Ye turned his head to the black-clothed dead soldiers and said: "Go! Bring the Wang Ye, Shi Zi, and Jun Zhu! Sacrifice the flag!"

Chen Ji watched over ten black-clothed dead soldiers turn and leave. He had a mind to follow, but no reason to.

Hesitated for a moment, he finally still slowly moved his feet, wanting to secretly follow.

Liu Shi Ye turned his head to look at him: "Where do you want to go?"

Chen Ji said in a muffled voice: "Shi Ye, I want to go to the toilet."

Liu Shi Ye suddenly said in a stern voice: "What kind of person are you? Take off your face armor!"

However, just at this moment, a scream suddenly came from the watchtower of the Liu family mansion, interrupting Liu Shi Ye's thoughts.

Several hundred people turned their heads to look together, only to see a meteor flying over in the dim sky, piercing through the dead soldier on the watchtower.

When the meteor extinguished, the sky light darkened again, as if nothing had happened just now.

This darkness stopped for an instant, and again as if it stopped for a long time. The next moment, meteors suddenly burst like rain, splendid like the flow of the Milky Way, piercing the dead soldiers on all ten-plus watchtowers!

Immediately after, heavy iron hoof sounds rang out outside the Liu family mansion. The iron hoof sounds spread from the north to the east and west, completely surrounding this huge mansion that had stood for several hundred years.

At this time, a dead soldier who had been shot through the abdomen lay on the watchtower and shouted with his last strength: "Jie Fan Guard has come! Qian Sui Army has also come!"

Liu Shi Ye angrily shouted: "Where is the Tiger Armor Iron Cavalry?"

That dead soldier was already breathless.

The Tiger Armor Iron Cavalry, which should have been blocking the road and defending, had been taken somewhere by Mister Feng, and the Qian Sui Army and Jie Fan Guard had pierced through the Liu family's defense line, coming directly in front of them.

Liu Shi Ye said fiercely: "Qian Sui Army? Jing Wang did indeed participate in it! Old master, execute Jing Wang on the spot... wait, where was that armored soldier just now?"

Through the sudden interruption of events, Liu Shi Ye looked again at Chen Ji's previous position, and Chen Ji was already gone.

At this time, Liu Ge Lao sighed softly: "Your Majesty, Jing Wang, and the eunuch party have been laying out for my Liu family for many years. It is not wrong to lose. Shi Ye, moreover, bring people to block for a while to buy some time for the clan people who drew the lot of life."

Liu Shi Ye led people towards the direction of the main gate to hurry and support: "Quickly go to the mouth of the main gate, block them, and don't let them rush in!"

As the words fell, with a boom, the vermilion lacquer gate of the Liu family mansion was broken open from the outside. The two doors slowly fell down, kicking up a cloud of dust in the air.

The black-clothed dead soldiers who had just arrived at the door stopped in their tracks. They wanted to see clearly the comer through the dust, but could only see a vague figure slowly emerging in the dust.

After several breaths, a man wearing white clothes and a white mask stepped into the threshold. He fanned the dust in front of him with his right hand and smiled as he looked at the several hundred dead soldiers squeezed into the small alley: "Yo, so many people here?"

On that white mask, faint gold dragon patterns were drawn with gold inlay craftsmanship. In the rules and regulations of the Ning Dynasty and Jing Dynasty, arbitrarily matching dragon patterns would lead to the execution of the entire family, unless this dragon pattern item was personally granted by the emperor.

Liu Shi Ye felt as if he was facing a great enemy for a moment: "White Dragon?!"

White Dragon, as if no one else was present, took out a token from his sleeve and slowly said: "The King's order flag token is here. See one kneel and worship, as if the emperor is personally present."

Liu Shi Ye and the dead soldiers' faces were expressionless, and they did not move. They had white headbands wrapped around their foreheads.

White Dragon didn't care. He stuffed the king's order flag token back into his sleeve again and said with a smile: "If you don't want to kneel, then forget it. Anyway, all the lords in the field are subject to the death penalty."

Liu Shi Ye said in a cold voice: "Adult White Dragon truly thinks highly of my Liu family, to actually come in person."

White Dragon laughed heartily: "If I didn't come in person, I'm afraid it wouldn't be safe."

Liu Shi Ye's face was ferocious: "My Liu family will not surrender..."

Words did not fall. A voice suddenly came from above the crowd's heads: "I advise you not to move, otherwise, you'll be the first one I kill."

Liu Shi Ye looked up, only to see Jiao Tu and Yun Yang wearing black tight clothes on the roof on the left side of the alley.

Jiao Tu sat on the high eave corner of the roof ridge, her two legs dangling and swinging back and forth. Yun Yang stood beside her, with both hands crossed on her chest. Both of them were smiling as they overlooked the dead soldiers.

Liu Shi Ye was surprised and doubtful: "You... weren't you two exiled to Ling Nan?!"

Jiao Tu played with the jade pendant on her collar button and said with a smile: "The climate in Ling Nan is humid and hot, and there are many poisonous insects. We walked halfway and didn't want to go."

Another voice also came: "Liu Shi Ye, if you don't want to die, obediently put down all your weapons."

Liu Shi Ye turned his head again. Jin Zhu and Meng Ji stood on the roof on the other side, trapping the several hundred dead soldiers inside the alley!

White Dragon, Tian Ma, Jin Zhu.

Meng Ji, Jiao Tu, Yun Yang.

All six zodiacs have arrived!

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