Chapter 74: Saving People

In the darkness of night.

Chen Ji returned to the edge of the rooftop, standing on the high, suspended eaves, calmly looking down at his feet.

Did the prince have a problem?

If he had a problem, he had been in Donglin Academy for the past three years and couldn’t have done anything.

If he didn’t have a problem, he happened to return at this time and just happened to appear in the Gold Workshop.

Chen Ji furrowed his brow. He wanted to sort out some clues but found there were too few.

In the courtyard.

The prince saw the Jianghu xia who had abandoned him and run away, and immediately cursed under his breath as he turned around. "They're not Jianghu xia! They usually say they value loyalty and righteousness. This is completely lacking in both!"

Six dagger-wielding secret agents had already rushed into the courtyard, surrounding the prince and Bai Li under the courtyard wall. One of the secret agents said coldly, "Resisting arrest adds another charge."

Bai Li opened her mouth to say, "We are..."

Before she could finish, the prince quietly pulled her and took over, saying, "We're just ordinary folks who came to Hongyi Alley to play around. We didn't break any laws of Da Ning. Why are you pursuing us?"

The secret agents carefully scrutinized them, seemingly examining the two people by the moonlight. After a moment, one hesitated and said, "Prince, County Princess, I recognize you! Our Secret Agents Office has solid evidence proving that Jing Dynasty thieves were active in the Gold Workshop tonight. Your appearance here is simply too coincidental. Please come with us to the Inner Prison."

The prince cursed inwardly. The Si Li Jian always wanted to find something to hold against Jing King Manor. In recent years, many of Jing King's old subordinates had been taken into the Inner Prison and never came out.

Once they arrived at the Inner Prison, the identity of the King Manor’s prince was useless.

Seven years ago, Prince Huai was taken away by the Secret Agents Office for privately possessing armor and crossbows. He died in the Inner Prison that very night.

Six years ago, during the great drought in Guanzhong, Prince Jin, while drinking wine, said it was a heavenly punishment from Emperor Ning's poor governance. He was taken into the Inner Prison by the Secret Agents Office under the charge of ‘plotting omens’. He died in the Inner Prison that same month, along with Ling Tailang and Bao Zhangzheng, two officials from the Celestial Bureau.

The prince knew in his heart that the lives of the Ning Dynasty’s feudal lords were like wild grass before the eunuch faction. If he entered the Inner Prison today, he probably wouldn’t come out again.

Thinking of this, the prince quickly made a step with both hands. "Bai Li, you go first!"

The secret agent's face darkened. "No one can leave. Prince, if you have nothing to hide, why aren't you daring to come with us?"

The prince spat out a curse and picked up a bamboo broom from the courtyard to block Bai Li. "If I go to the Inner Prison with you, even if there's no problem, there will be one. I'll fight you all. If you have the guts, just kill me here!"

Chen Ji silently watched this scene.

Should he save them or not?

If he didn't save them, the prince and Bai Li, no matter how they struggled, would definitely be taken to the Inner Prison. Jin Zhu was originally looking for evidence of Jing King Manor's connection to the Jing Dynasty. If they were caught here, it would be like someone handing him a pillow when he was sleepy. He could completely find an excuse to torture them into a confession.

If he saved them, the six secret agents were very tricky, and other secret agents could reinforce them at any time. The key was, Chen Ji was here tonight to kill Shopkeeper Yuan, not to save people!

But in the same Hongyi Alley, on the same night, how leisurely it would be if he could finish drinking and then go to the Drum Tower to watch the sunrise.

Chen Ji's hand was wrapped in cloth strips, and his right hand gripped the short knife tightly. Blood slowly dripped from the tip of the knife, finally collecting into a drop of dark red blood, falling onto the gray tile.

When the drop of blood fell on the tile, Chen Ji had already disappeared from his original spot.

"Come on!"

The prince swung the bamboo broom horizontally, trying to fend off the secret agents.

But how could he block these elites of the Secret Agents Office? Six secret agents formed a fan shape, and one stepped forward, swinging his knife. With a light swing, he chopped the bamboo broom into two sections.

The prince looked at the bald broomstick with bitterness in his heart. He said in a deep voice, "I can go with you, but you must let my sister go. What could a young girl understand?"

The secret agent shook his head. "No one can leave. If your identities weren't so precious, why would we be persuading you with good words?"

"Obediently come with us to the Inner Prison. That way, neither of you will be injured."

"Wait until we verify your innocence, and we will naturally let you out."

The prince said in a low voice, "How many people who enter the Inner Prison ever come out again? Do you even believe that yourselves? Aren't you afraid of my Jing King Manor seeking revenge?"

"Prince, we've even arrested princes over the years. You don't scare us. Go, arrest them."

Several secret agents suddenly advanced.

The prince still wanted to resist, but a secret agent flashed over and punched him in the abdomen. He bent over in pain, spitting out wine and bile from his stomach.

These assassins from the Secret Agents Office really didn't take the prince's identity seriously.

They were very clear how much their superiors wanted to bring down Jing King Manor. Position determines thinking.

In the struggle, someone twisted Bai Li's arm and held it behind her back. Bai Li's forehead beaded with cold sweat from the pain, but she didn't utter a sound, only stubbornly staring at the secret plot in front of her.

Suddenly, in the chaos, her gaze swept around and she was stunned for a moment.

One secret agent sensed something was wrong and turned around alertly.

In an instant, he lifted his knife to chop behind him, but his knife-holding hand had just been raised above his head and before it could fall, a figure silently closed in.

The other side’s left hand clamped his arm, making it impossible for him to chop down.

In a breath, the attacking figure supported his arm and stabbed twice, one knife to the kidney, one knife to the ribs and lung.

The short knife in the other side's hand was like a poisonous snake spitting its fangs, utterly ruthless.

The secret agents’ colleagues on the side were terrified and suddenly swung their knives back to help, but the figure only lightly and casually swung his hand to block. The short knife and the swinging long knife collided in the black night, creating sparks. With a clang, the long knife broke!

The secret agents' faces changed. They had seen Jianghu knife wielders as numerous as fish in a river, but they had never seen anyone break a knife so casually.

There was no knife energy, no official mysterious methods, the other side just lightly swung the short knife, and their steel knife broke like ice!

Bai Li was clamped by the secret agent, looking blankly at the figure. The other side's face was painted with black charcoal powder, and his eyes were also particularly strange, but his body shape felt familiar no matter how she looked.

At this time, she suddenly noticed that this person attacking in the dark seemed to have some difficulty using his right leg during his movements.

This person seemed to know that his right leg was a weakness, so he tried to conceal it, but the severe injury on his leg was still visible no matter how he covered it.

Bai Li thought of someone whose leg was also injured…

But, she couldn’t possibly link the street-sweeping apprentice neighbor with the sharp killer figure in front of her.

It was as if the two figures, one bright and one dark, were inherently contradictory.

Bai Li's expression became complicated.

Just at this moment, she saw the secret agents taking down hand crossbows from behind their waists and aiming at that figure. She suddenly exclaimed, "Be careful, there are crossbows!"

The battlefield suddenly quieted. Chen Ji supported the secret agent's arm, blocking the corpse in front of him. He exposed half his face from behind the secret agent's lowered head, quietly scrutinizing the short crossbows in the secret agents' hands.

That secret agent whose lung had been pierced was just weakly coughing up bloody foam.

The secret agent coughing blood, and the cold and quiet assassin hiding behind him, avoiding the crossbow bolts, one quiet and one moving, were especially cruel and mysterious.

Bai Li looked at this scene, only feeling that the answer in her heart was becoming uncertain again... The person in her impression smiled as if he would never say a harsh word, and even when questioned, he would only lower his head and remain silent, not retort.

At this moment, the secret agents wanted to find an opportunity to fire the crossbow bolts but found there was no angle to shoot.

In the standoff, the secret agent who was coughing blood finally closed his eyes. His knife-holding hand slowly fell, and the long knife dropped from his hand.

Chen Ji took advantage of the dropping short knife to catch the falling long knife.

Taking advantage of the moment he caught the knife, with a swish, a crossbow bolt shot towards the half-face Chen Ji had exposed.

Everyone's eyes blurred, yet they saw Chen Ji only slightly tilting his head down to dodge the crossbow bolt. By the time the crossbow bolt was embedded in the wall behind him, Chen Ji's head had already tilted back up, still hidden behind the dead secret agent, calmly staring at everyone.

Just as the secret agents wanted to string their crossbows again, Chen Ji pushed the secret agent's corpse forward, rushing straight at them. Crossbow bolts shot out one by one, either embedding themselves in the corpse or shooting into the empty space.

Close quarters!

Chen Ji dropped the corpse and flashed out from behind it, fighting four people alone and engaging in a close-quarters battle with the secret agents. From time to time, the secret agents' long knives would break with a clang.

The secret agents had never felt so powerless before. The assassin in front of them seemed to have no flaws whatsoever. Every move and change protected his entire body, his defense as solid as a golden soup.

Even surrounded by four people, they couldn't find an opportunity for a fatal strike.

Let alone a fatal strike, their knife edges could at most cut Chen Ji's clothes, not even leaving a single wound.

The secret agents didn't know what kind of knife technique this was. The famous knife techniques in Jianghu were only a few, but they had never heard of this knife technique where water wouldn't even splash on it.

They didn't know that when Chen Ji and Feng Huai fought each other, the slightest exposed flaw would be seized by the other side. A single flaw meant he had to die again.

This kind of extreme training led Chen Ji to first learn not how to attack, but how to defend.

Only by not dying could he attack.

The secret agent clamping Bai Li held his knife to Bai Li's neck. "Drop your knife, otherwise I'll kill her now."

But Chen Ji seemed to be deaf, still going his own way and fighting with the secret agents. The long knife in his hand didn't stop for a moment.

The secret agent froze. Sending a county princess to the Inner Prison was one thing, but killing a county princess directly here was another.

He gritted his teeth, suddenly let go of the county princess, and held his knife to support his colleague.

Bai Li was no longer clamped, but she didn't run. She only stood blankly in place and anxiously reminded, "Be careful behind you!"

The secret agent who had come to support slashed diagonally, chopping towards Chen Ji's back.

Chen Ji heard the reminder and suddenly turned his body, his knife following his turn!

He saw two long knives collide head-on. Chen Ji twisted his wrist, and the blade in his hand reversed direction all the way up, creating a burst of sparks from friction with the secret agent's chopping knife.

The secret agent was blinded by the sparks. Before he could react, the long knife in Chen Ji's hand, with a reverse grip, cut from his arm to his neck!

Fresh blood spurted!

Chen Ji looked at Bai Li and the prince, and said in a deep voice, "Go quickly, don't drag your feet here!"

The prince was about to say, let's go together, but Bai Li pursed her lips and pulled him to climb over the wall. "Go quickly, we can't help him here, we'll only distract him! If we go, he can go!"

"Oh, oh,"

The prince hurriedly turned and ran away.

A secret agent wanted to chase, but Chen Ji chopped him down with a single knife.

He bent over, holding his knife horizontally, blocking under the courtyard wall, coldly blocking all the secret agents.

Blood dripped constantly from the knife blade, and the smooth surface reflected the blood-red moonlight in the sky.

By the time the prince had climbed over the wall, Bai Li, covered in dust, sat on the courtyard wall and turned back. She thought of the fleeing Jianghu people and looked at the blood-stained back figure in front of her. With a complex expression, she said, "Be careful yourself!"

After saying that, she turned around and jumped down the courtyard wall, running away.

The courtyard quieted down, only three secret agents remained, forming a fan shape, firmly blocking Chen Ji under the courtyard wall. They slowly changed their steps, wanting to find Chen Ji's flaw, but no matter how they tried, they couldn't find one.

Just when they thought they could hold out until reinforcements arrived, Chen Ji took the initiative to attack.

Once, when Chen Ji and Feng Huai fought, he would feel depressed every time he died.

But now he understood that the knife technique honed at the cost of countless deaths was his return.

The figures of the four people intertwined. The knife light in Chen Ji's hand was like one moon arc after another, breaking three people's knives and also cutting through three people's necks.

Chen Ji panted and bent down, picking up the short knife he had just thrown on the ground and hiding it in his sleeve.

He didn't escape, but turned back and climbed the ladder back to the rooftop.

Chen Ji limped to the roof ridge, lying on it, quietly observing the situation inside Hongyi Alley.

Inside Hongyi Alley, there were countless disheveled guests and girls being driven out of the brothels by secret agents.

Chen Ji's gaze searched the crowd for Shopkeeper Yuan's figure. The handover of goods tonight was the most important matter, and the other party couldn't possibly not personally supervise it.

But he watched as one pavilion after another was cleared out, and everyone was driven onto the bluestone road of Hongyi Alley, yet he still couldn't find Shopkeeper Yuan.

Something wasn't right.

The scene in front of him was completely different from what Chen Ji had expected.

Hongyi Alley wasn't in chaos, no one was trying to break through the Secret Agents Office's defense line, and no one was fighting with the Secret Agents Office. Even the Trouble Solving Guard that Jin Zhu had specially transferred from Mengjin Camp wasn't deployed!

Lin Chaoqing, wearing a bamboo hat, calmly sat on his horse. "Master Jin Zhu, it seems you're no different from Jiao Tu and Yun Yang. But you're a bit luckier, not having to go open the coffin of the current dynasty's cabinet elder. My Main Criminal Office's Trouble Solving Guard and Fish Dragon Guard, as inner court personal guards, still have to be scolded by you every day."

"No hurry,"

Jin Zhu smiled, his eyes narrowed, and he jumped off his horse. He grabbed a middle-aged man who was trying to escape and kindly asked, "What's your name?"

"This humble one is Wu Dongliang."

"What business do you do?"

"I'm a tax officer in Xin'an County."

Jin Zhu raised his eyebrows. "A tax officer alone, why were you just running..."

Saying this, Jin Zhu already realized why the other party was running.

Ning Dynasty law prohibited officials from hosting prostitutes. Going to places like Qingyin small classes was acceptable, but coming to places like Hongyi Alley would lead to immediate dismissal and investigation if caught.

This law was established in the early years of Emperor Ning Taizu. By now, everyone turned a blind eye and deaf ear, but occasionally, officials were unlucky enough to be reported and lose their positions.

Jin Zhu cursed inwardly and instructed his secret agents to immediately verify this person's identity. Then he went to another middle-aged man. "What do you do?"

"Reporting to the master, this humble one is a Hui merchant. I came to Lu City to purchase some furs to sell in the south. This is my travel permit."

Jin Zhu took the other party's travel permit, and with a quick glance, he knew the other party had just arrived in Lu City tonight.

He said with a strained smile, "Check, check everyone's identity clearly. See if there are any suspicious figures."

At this time, Jin Zhu's heart had already slowly sunk to the bottom of the valley. He hadn't expected to capsize in a ditch... Where exactly did the problem arise?

The secret agents began to investigate everyone. These people were either Hui merchants from the south, or Jin merchants from the north, and there were also city merchants, small gang leaders from Lu City. Every single person could clearly answer their origin, and their household registration and travel permits also had no traces of falsification.

Chen Ji silently watched.

Except for the two black-clothed people he had killed on the roof just now, no one in the field looked like Shopkeeper Yuan's spies!

Were these people disguised too well?

No, they weren't. Chen Ji searched inside Hongyi Alley and discovered that the old procuress and Yan'er girl were also not among them!

Someone must have tipped them off, leaking Jin Zhu's actions in advance!

So the old procuress and Yan'er had run away early!

Chen Ji suddenly thought of something. When the cart driver Si Cao interrogated him at Hundred Deer Pavilion, he had mentioned that the other party clearly knew which evidence Yun Yang and Jiao Tu had searched from Liu Shiyu's home. There was still an undercover agent on Jin Zhu's side!

This undercover agent could not only view the Secret Agents Office's evidence but also had the authority to know about tonight's operation.

Chen Ji believed that with Jin Zhu's cautiousness, he would be extremely careful to ensure absolute safety, but the news still leaked.

Just at this moment, Jin Zhu suddenly turned his head and looked towards the rooftop. "Who's up there? Arrest him!"