All Heavens: From Joy of Life to The Great Feng Night Watchman

Page 514

Li Yuchun rushed to Yunzhou, but what he was escorting was a letter from Li Chang'an to Li Miaozhen, which demanded the arrest of Zhou Chixiong.

Therefore, no matter what benefits Xu Qi'an offered, Li Miaozhen could not agree to them, because one good cannot be sold to two different people.

Moreover, Zhou Chixiong is the person Li Chang'an, the woman he loves, wants; how could he just give him away to someone else?

[Number Three: Master Jinlian, isn't the Heaven and Earth Society supposed to help each other? @Number Nine]

Huaiqing frowned and asked, "What symbol is drawn on number three?"

Li Chang'an laughed and said, "I guess this symbol means 'come out and answer'."

[Number Nine: @Number Three, mutual help should be based on voluntary exchange. Number Two may have his own difficulties.]

The chat group fell silent, and soon Li Chang'an saw a message appear on the screen.

[Number One: @Number Seven, why aren't you saying anything? Is there any other message?]

Li Chang'an looked down and saw Huaiqing nestled in his arms, giggling, her golden hairpin swaying on her head.

"Huaiqing, I may have misunderstood the meaning of this symbol. This symbol might mean my dear so-and-so..."

Huaiqing retorted with a slight pout, "Who would believe your nonsense? All you do is try to take advantage of me!"

Li Chang'an didn't speak, but continued to send messages on the small mirror.

[Number Seven: Five hundred years ago, the Great Feng Dynasty's Pinghai King raised an army to purge the court of corrupt officials and successfully seized the throne. The current royal family are all descendants of Emperor Wuzong.]

Huaiqing frowned and said, "Li Lang, you even know about this. Is there anything in this world that you don't know?"

Li Chang'an said calmly, "I know everything, but the secrets of heaven cannot be revealed. It's not that I don't know them, but that I cannot say them."

Huaiqing muttered with a hint of disbelief, "Just making it sound mysterious!"

Then she leaned closer to Li Chang'an, resting her chest comfortably on his arm that was around her, feeling a steady sense of support and security, before continuing to look at the messages in the small mirror.

Her expression was just like that of a young girl nestled in her boyfriend's arms playing on her phone; where was her aloof and cold demeanor now?

"Number Five... is really smart."

Huaiqing's emotional reaction stemmed from seeing the message from Number Five: "[Number Five: What is the connection between this matter and the Sangbo case?]"

[Does Number Two/Seven imply a suspicion that the sealed artifacts suppressed in the Yongzhen Mountain and River Temple are related to the royal family of five hundred years ago?]

Xu Qi'an, standing in front of the small mirror, suddenly shivered; he realized he was in deep trouble.

Five hundred years ago, the crown prince drowned, and five hundred years ago, Emperor Wuzong rebelled. So, Sangboli may be sealing away figures related to the previous dynasty's royal family.

The northern demons are trying to destabilize the capital of the Great Feng Dynasty and cause political turmoil. The situation here is very complicated.

"Next time I use the small mirror to start a chat group, can I do it with my master? That way, we'll both be in the open and can work together to scam people out of their favors. I'm so clever!"

Regarding the sealed artifact, everyone offered their opinions but couldn't reach a proper conclusion. However, Xu Qi'an had seen two strange runes at the bottom of Sangbo Lake.

However, releasing him now could expose his identity, since he is the only one who has ever been to the bottom of Sangbo.

Damn, the chat group doesn't have a private chat function, otherwise I could chat with Number Six privately and ask him to explain what the runes mean.

It now appears that Zhou Chixiong's case can only be handled through normal channels by having the night watchmen apprehend him; the investigation must continue.

Early the next morning, Xu Qi'an went to find Wei Yuan.

Wei Yuan has been somewhat anxious lately because the backlash against the night watchmen has already begun in the court.

This time, dozens of officials demanded that Emperor Yuanjing investigate the night watchman for his negligence in guarding the temple, which had been blown up, and that Wei Yuan be held accountable for his dereliction of duty.

Fortunately, Emperor Yuanjing did not express his opinion, but instead fully supported the night watchman in solving the case. However, Wei Yuan was uneasy because his faction was too conspicuous in the court. The nail that sticks out gets hammered down.

After listening to Xu Qi'an's report, Wei Yuan said, "Zhou Chixiong has been wanted by the night watchmen and the Six Doors, and a warrant has also been sent to Yunzhou, but to bring him back in half a month is like finding a needle in a haystack."

Xu Qi'an continued, "There are two directions now. One is a magical artifact that can block the Qi-observation technique. Zhou Chixiong has used such an artifact before. The second is having the channels and ability to smuggle gunpowder into Sangbo's list."

Wei Yuan said slowly, "Then let's investigate. I don't have a good method, but your master might."

"Also, when Li Yuchun returns to the capital, you take a group of people to read out the order reinstating him to his original position. Take a lot of people with you, to embarrass him, since he dared to give me attitude in public."

Xu Qi'an's lips twitched. It would be extremely embarrassing for Li Yuchun, a socially awkward person with obsessive-compulsive disorder, to be publicly welcomed in such a grand setting.

"Lord Wei, aren't you being too lenient with the practices of the night watchmen?"

Wei Yuan didn't seem surprised by Xu Qi'an's words. "Human nature is like this, a mixture of light and darkness. How many people like Li Yuchun are there?"

If all the night watchmen were like Li Yuchun, how could they possibly suppress the entire court of civil and military officials?

However, if the night watchmen didn't have people like Li Yuchun, they probably would never have been able to turn back.

"Even if we want to make changes, we have to wait for the right time. The officialdom of Dafeng is corrupt and in decline. If we want to change the atmosphere, we have to blend in with the crowd and take them down one by one. The best time is when there are no obstacles in front of us."

Xu Qi'an understood what he meant; it simply meant that without rivals in the court, they could act freely.

But with no rivals in the court, would the emperor unconditionally trust Wei Yuan?

"Lord Wei, now... such an opportunity has arrived."

Wei Yuan smiled helplessly. Indeed, several major factions in the court were declining, but he always felt that the trust between him and Emperor Yuanjing was gone.

However, these are things I cannot say to Xu Qi'an.

After leaving the night watchman's office, Xu Qi'an went to Li Chang'an's residence and told him everything.

“Master, if Number Two is willing to help, this case will be much easier.”

Li Chang'an said, "That's true, but you don't need to worry about Zhou Chixiong. Someone will definitely bring him back within half a month."

Hearing Li Chang'an's words, Xu Qi'an immediately felt more confident. His master meant that he would guarantee his success, so he could go all out.

"Master... if Zhou Chixiong shows up too early, he will become the target of everyone's criticism?"

Li Chang'an nodded in satisfaction. "You're quite clever. Now, every major step you take will be watched by the person behind the scenes, so the capture of Zhou Chixiong must be done secretly."

"Your task now is simply to investigate the case according to your two lines of thought."

Xu Qi'an nodded and then said, "Master, I plan to do three things based on these two lines of thought."

The first task was to investigate the magical artifacts used to conceal the presence of the enemy; the second was to examine records of the appropriate gunpowder production and use; and the third was to interrogate the magistrate of Taikang County, where Mount Huangshan is located.

Li Chang'an further cautioned, "There are quite a few forces involved in this case, and many people want to use it to do something. So perhaps one or two of your three directions were misled into your investigation."

Xu Qi'an's head was spinning as he listened. This case involved so many people. "So, making me investigate in the direction they misled me was actually misleading them as well, making them mistakenly believe that I had fallen into their trap."

"But in fact, this is all a smokescreen by Master. Master has already grasped the most crucial point of this case, which is Zhou Chixiong."

But we absolutely cannot let them know that we haven't been misled, so I'm going to pretend that Zhou Chixiong's connection has been completely severed.

Li Chang'an nodded in satisfaction. Many major cases are like this; they are not actually complicated, but someone deliberately muddies the waters.

“That’s right, we’ll mislead them by investigating the case in the direction they’ve been misled into.”

After the two finished discussing the case, Li Chang'an asked, "Have you been experiencing severe swelling and pain in your lower abdomen lately?"

Xu Qi thought to himself, "Can you even tell something like this?"

He had indeed been feeling a burning sensation in his abdomen lately, but the investigation had been too intense, and he couldn't vent his frustrations to Mingyan Niangzi. He had heard that Mingyan, the courtesan, was somewhat obsessed with him.

As outstanding young people of the new era, they may have a unique attraction to courtesans; this is true for both the master and the disciple.

"Master's insight is profound. Perhaps he's been too anxious to solve the case lately."

Li Chang'an said, "This is the beginning of the Qi Refining Realm. This pain will rise to the middle dantian and then the upper dantian, and then you will enter the Spirit Refining Realm."

Xu Qi'an asked in surprise, "So it's because of cultivation. I wonder if Master has any way to alleviate this?"

"No, go to brothels more often and let professionals help you relieve the pain. However, I can give you a book on visualization techniques to shorten the process a bit."

Subsequently, Li Chang'an gave Xu Qi'an one-tenth of the contents of "The Great Mighty Heavenly Dragon Bodhisattva View". As long as Xu Qi'an cultivates according to this, he will be able to enter the Refining Spirit Realm much more smoothly.

Xu Qi'an took the cultivation manual and was shocked when he saw the name. It turned out that not only could the Six Gods Technique in the comic be cultivated, but even the Great Mighty Heavenly Dragon was a real cultivation technique.

"Great Mighty Heavenly Dragon, World Honored Ksitigarbha, Prajna Buddhas... Such a technique truly exists in the world!"

He opened the manual, which actually consisted of only three sheets of paper. The Buddha depicted in the manual was tall and thin, but powerful and strong, with an arrogant expression and fierce eyes, completely different from the Buddha in temples.

“Ning Yan, these Dharma images are compatible with your temperament, making cultivation twice as effective with half the effort.”

Xu Qi'an silently put away the cultivation manual. As long as it could accelerate his cultivation, it didn't matter if it didn't look good.

Turning the page again, Xu Qi'an made a new discovery: some of the symbols on the Dharma body were very similar to the symbols he had seen at the bottom of Sangbo.

He took out the symbols, and Li Chang'an glanced at them casually and said, "These are commonly used Buddhist scriptures. According to you, they should be remnants of the formation beneath Sangbo, but we can't tell much from just these two symbols."

The seal beneath Sangbo is related to Buddhism, and Xu Qi'an has obtained new information. After leaving Li Chang'an's residence, Xu Qi'an went straight to the government office to interrogate the magistrate of Taikang County.

As soon as they arrived at the government office, they received news from the night watchman that the Ministry of Works' investigation into gunpowder records had not made much progress.

"Continue the investigation, investigate thoroughly, and arrest and interrogate anyone who is even slightly suspicious!"

Although his subordinates were puzzled, they still followed Xu Qi'an's orders.

Xu Qi'an had fully grasped Li Chang'an's meaning. The Ministry of Works was clearly a direction that the person behind it wanted to mislead, and they wanted to frame the Ministry of Works.

Xu Qi'an then did as they planned, confusing the people behind the scenes and preventing them from making any more rash moves that would muddy the waters even further.

Then, Xu Qi'an led his men into the government office, demanding to interrogate the magistrate of Taikang County.

The clerk left in the hall asked habitually, "Gentlemen, do you have any documents from the Prefect?"

Song Tingfeng, who was standing next to Xu Qi'an, shook his head and said, "No, the night watchman was ordered to investigate the Sangbo case. It was an emergency, so he had to act expediently. Quickly take us to find the person."

Just as the clerk was about to speak, he saw Lü Qing walk in from outside. "The Sangbo case is of great importance. Quickly take Lord Xu to the prison."