Chapter 412: Searching the City
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
At night, several poisoning and assassination incidents occurred in the capital of An Kingdom, killing more than 20 innocent people and causing much panic again. As a result, the army Gu Shenwei had temporarily assembled was almost defeated.
The renegades of New Moon Hall had intended to assassinate the Managing Master Maid Lotus in the Gulping Wind Gorge, but they had failed and fled. When they realized there was no way out, they went crazy and planned to fight against their enemy in the densely populated capital.
Fortunately, they had some sense and did not use unstopple poison in the capital, but left it at the courier station midway along their journey. Otherwise, the city would be full of corpse, even they would not be spared.
The first incident happened to be a guard. Someone had requested to enter, and the guard come inside to report. As he opened his mouth to speak, the poison began to work. He seemed to be drowning, suddenly, and his entire face was flushed. His hands clutched at his throat, almost strangling himself. Air could not enter his body, but a milky liquid spurted almost twelve feet, out of his mouth.
Gu Shenwei, who had been guarding New Moon Hall, reacted very quickly. As soon as the guard vomitted the liquid, he drew out his saber and rushed to cut off the guard’s head. He stepped aside and explained to the stunned guards: “He was poisoned by witches, so whatever he vomitted is also poisonous.”
As expected, the milky liquid was corrosive. Where it fell, small potholes appeared on the stone floor in the tax office.
Everyone’s faces changed. They believed Gu Shenwei, but had much doubts in their minds, “Poisoned by witches?”
Gu Shenwei couldn’t let the guards blame the poisoning incident on the Great Snowmountain, but it was too troublesome to explain the struggle between them, so he made up a story, “Well, this is a group of witches who wish to stir up trouble. They want to start a war to benefit from. I have been tracking them.”
Everyone was even more surprised. Gu Shenwei paused for a moment. After they had accepted this sensational news, he went on, “We can’t sit still and wait for death. Instead, we should take the initiative to launch an attack and catch all those witches.”
Maid Lotus appeared at the door and raised one finger to Gu Shenwei, indicating that she had already killed the poisoner and that there were still seven renegades left.
The second manhunt in the whole city had began. This time, the targets were not the young and middle-aged men who were hiding, but the terrible witches.
Disciples of New Moon Hall were good at camouflage, making them difficult to identify from their appearance alone. Gu Shenwei reminded people to pay more attention to single women. If they discovered anything unusual, they shouldn’t make a move, but send someone to inform him.
Gu Shenwei was in charge of the tax office, while Maid Lotus would secretly guard the perimeter.
After the first poisoning failed, the renegades of New Moon Hall changed their strategy.
A guard rushed in to report that six people in a family had been killed three blocks away. However, soldiers who were searching the city strictly obeyed General Gu’s order and did not enter for a detailed search.
It was obvious that those six people had died of poisoning, because their faces were purple and their eyeballs had popped out of their heads, but the corpses themselves were not harmful. Maid Lotus pointed to the half melted candle on the table, “It was pear flower scented candle… If someone had lit it incautiously, he would have been poisoned to death immediately.”
The candle looked very common. However, if not for General Gu’s strict orders, the soldiers could have easily lit it without second thought.
That night, Gu Shenwei had no choice but to believe Maid Lotus, taking a large number of pills, guaranteeing resistance to most of the poisons of New Moon Hall.
Using a similar measure to lure the enemy, the renegades repeated the poisoning four more times, killing many innocent people. Three careless soldiers died in their boots just by trying to move a chair that had been in the way.
Panic began to spread. The number of dead had multiplied and people’s hearts changed. More and more people violated the curfew and rushed to the streets. Some of them ran to the docks while others rushed to the gate, all wanting to leave the city that was shrouded with the shadow of death.
Many soldiers left their weapons and joined the panicking crowd.
The temporary troop, which included thousands of people, contained only few credible people. Wu Zongheng, the leader of guards, was one of them. Gu Shenwei ordered him to lead a hundred armed men and hold the city wall. No one was allowed to climb it. As for several gates in the city, the keys were all kept by General Gu himself.
Next, Gu Shenwei had to spend a little time stabilizing his army. He patrolled around, encouraged those who stuck to their posts, punished those people who were absent without permission, and announced the death toll. By doing this, he led everyone to think that the situation was not terrible as they imagined.
Of all the measures, the most effective was producing the corpses of several “witches”.
Maid Lotus knew the methods of her fellow disciples very well. Everytime they set a trap, they would reveal clues, so she would track and kill them one by one.
The arrest of the “witches” showed that Gu Shenwei had the ability to prevent more death. Due to this news, people grew excited. First, the soldiers gradually calmed, and then the city’s attitude changed from one of panic to one where they would wait and see.
After midnight, 15 witches were killed. Seven of them were the real renegades of New Moon Hall, and most of them died under the sword of Maid Lotus, but only one had been hacked to death by soldiers for resisting ordinary inspection.
Eight people were killed by mistake, because they looked suspicious and were single, without spouses.
People searched for the witches enthusiastically, but the situation began to grow out of control.
Gu Shenwei immediately ordered soliders to stop killing. He claimed that the witches had all been killed and the search on the whole city turned into a normal patrol.
But in truth, there was still one renegade in hiding.
Guan Shang had not made a move. As a disciple of New Moon Hall, she adored occult sciences, but she had practiced Kung Fu of Golden Roc Fort from childhood and was not good at using poison, so she had a hand in any of the poisonings.
The capital of An Kingdom was not very large, and it was crowded with accommodating tens of thousands of people. Gu Shenwei had inspected almost all the areas, before coming to the conclusion that there was only one place Guan Shang had left to hide.
Maid Lotus had the same idea.
The soldiers’ trust and awe in General Gu kept increasing. Although it was far from self-sacrifice, General Gu’s orders would always be strictly enforced. However, this time, they hesitated.
“This is the royal palace.” A soldier whispered, appalled by the general’s decision.
The royal palace was the only place in the capital that had not been searched.
Although the king and queen had escaped, the royal palace was not empty. There were many eunuches and court maids, and it was said that the king’s concubine was still there.
The An Kingdom was located on the edge of Western Region, but it had been established for a long time, so people’s respect for the royal family went deep. Even if they were angry and disappointed in the king, they did not want to and dared not break into the palace.
Gu Shenwei did not force soldiers to break into the palace, because only Guan Shang was left. He thought that he could fight against her with Maid Lotus.
Instead, he arranged a large number of soldiers around the palace and ordered them to kill anyonethey found trying to escape.
For nearly four days, Gu Shenwei and Maid Lotus climbed over the wall and sneaked into the palace without the soldiers’ knowledge. They all thought that he had returned home to have a rest.
The palace was small, not as large as the private residence of Meng family in Jade City, not to mention Golden Roc Fort.
After a simple search, they deduced the innermost room as their target.
Together, they pushed open the door and saw Guan Shang.
In front of the Dragon King and Maid Lotus, the killer’s cloaking technique was of little use. Therefore she chose not to hide, but took a simpler route: holding hostages.
She put her saber on the neck of an elderly woman. Four maids lay in a nearby pool of blood.
That woman was dressed in loose pajamas. Although looked scared, she still had a trace of nobility, so she was obviously the master of the palace.
To their surprise, the king’s concubine had not run away with the king.
However, Gu Shenwei did not understand why Guan Shang would do that. He was not be afraid of sacrificing innocents.
But Guan Shang was aware of this, so she immediately explained, “This is the Queen Mother of An Kingdom, the king’s biological mother.”
However, this was of no significance to Gu Shenwei and Maid Lotus. They looked around carefully. Although Guan Shang was supposed to be the last renegade of New Moon Hall, they could not drop their guard.
“She is the princess of the Central Plain.” Guan Shang revealed what was really at stake, “If the Dragon King wants to compete for hegemony with Golden Roc Fort in the Western Region, you’d better keep her alive.”
Actually, Gu Shenwei had broken ties with the Central Plain, and they were only nominal allies. Guan Shang clearly knew this fact, but what she said was true. The Central Plain was caught unprepared by the alliance between Golden Roc Fort and Norland. As a result, it was temporarily in a weak position and hadn’t the ability to counterattack, but it was still one of the most important forces in the Western Region. If Gu Shenwei wanted to return, it would be futile to fight by the army of 10,000 soliders. Sooner or later, they had to compromise with the Central Plain.
“You had good methods.” Guan Shang went on, “You cheated all people in this city, but you have to reveal your real identity sooner or later. If the princess of Central Plain dies in front of you, the army of the Great Snowmountain will be isolated. By then, the Central Plain will not forgive you.”
Her words were somewhat accurate. Gu Shenwei was a native of the Central Plain, so he knew the standard of behavior of the Central Plain court. Their emperor might turn a blind eye to the princesses who married abroad all. However, if the princess was humiliated, it was a challenge to the imperial power. Over the past hundred years, many wars had happened for this reason.
However, things had became easier over time. The control of the Central Plain over the Western Region had been greatly weakened, and the troop closest to An Kingdom were still thousands of miles away.
Gu Shenwei snorted, and did not even look at the two women. He held the Five Peaks Saber which he had unsheathed and walked slowly around the maids in the pool of blood, “Which emperor’s princess are you?”
The queen mother, caught by Guan Shang, was frightened and could barely keep calm. She answered Gu Shenwei after a long while, “My father is An emperor.”
An Emperor was the emperor of the Central Plain three generations ago. Therefore, the Queen Mother of An Kingdom was the grand aunt of the current emperor of the Central Plain.
” Why didn’t you run away with the king?” Gu Shenwei asked slowly, as if making simlpe conversation. He seemed to be unconcerned about “the Princess of Central Plain”.
“He was an unfilial son who betrayed the Central Plain and surrendered to the self-styled Supreme King, and I have broken the bond between mother and child. Are you really the Dragon King?”
“Yes.”
“Are you also the General Gu who was selected by people? ”
“Yes.”
She sighed lightly. Gu Shenwei did not know whether it was in admiration or disappointment.
After Gu Shenwei was certain that there was no one else in the room, he turned to Guan Shang and said, “It is strange that your machete skills have regressed so much after several months. You killed several maids, but there is so much blood.”
When Gu Shenwei finished his words, the four maids who fell in blood suddenly resurrected, and launched an attack at the same time. Their target was Maid Lotus.
These four maids were flexible and quick. They were as skillful as Guan Shang, and did not appear to be disciples of New Moon Hall.