"Should we continue to eavesdrop on their conversation?" Ji Yijun asked.
"I have cast a spell, but they are silent now. I don't know what they are doing in there." Xiao Chen said. He only heard some sporadic noises. It seemed that Jiang Yitian and Cole had already had some plans and were making their own preparations.
At this time, Xiao Chen heard Cole say, "You have no way out now. Favio and the others have already set off. As long as you really accomplish this, the Empire's promise will definitely be fulfilled."
Jiang Yitian said, "I didn't hesitate. I just went through all the steps at the end. It's a little too early now. Let's wait a little while before setting off."
Cole said, "It's up to you to arrange. We are already prepared and can leave at any time."
After the two finished talking, the room fell silent again.
"Cole actually represents the empire? From the way he speaks, his status is not low? Could he be a spy sent by the empire before?" Ji Yijun said.
“It’s very possible that being a mercenary is just his cover identity. He was originally responsible for gathering intelligence about the kingdom, but later his mission changed, so he followed Kalanda to join us, working for us and waiting for an opportunity to get news about us time travelers.
He should be a nail that the Empire has planted here a long time ago, maybe he is also a Black Guard. With Cole's identity, he had been in contact with us for a long time before he escaped last time, and participated in many of our affairs. It seems that the Empire already knows a lot about us. "Xiao Chen said.
"When we were hunting down Orville together, he looked like an ordinary mercenary. There was nothing special about him except that he was half-elf." Ji Yijun said.
Xiao Chen said: "Half-elves mostly live at the border between the Kingdom of Iberia and the Kingdom of Elf. There are very few half-elves in the Empire. This identity is a good cover."
Ji Yijun said: "But, it's strange to say, he joined the hunt because of Zhang Hong. I don't know why Zhang Hong was so enthusiastic at that time and took the initiative to ask to hunt down the horse thieves. This is not like his usual self at all. This person always keeps aloof from things that don't concern him. What does revenge for my father have to do with him?"
"You mean, it was Zhang Hong who took the initiative to seek cooperation with them?" Xiao Chen asked.
"Yes, he hired the two mercenaries, Cole and Gamero. They were nominally his bodyguards, but in fact they were his killers who hunted down the bandits. He said that he was abused when he was caught by the bandits, and he wanted to seek revenge on them. But I always felt that it was not the case. He was in a very strange state at that time. It seemed that he did not want to do anything to Orville, but he hoped that he would die as soon as possible."
"Murder to silence the witness."
"Yes, that's the feeling." Ji Yijun said.
Xiao Chen said, "Could it be that Orvel has mastered some secret of Zhang Hong, which makes Zhang Hong eager to silence him? This must be a very serious problem. Once this secret is revealed, Zhang Hong will be finished. Therefore, he must risk his life to eliminate this threat."
"That makes sense." Ji Yijun agreed, "That's the feeling he gave me at the time, extremely urgent."
Xiao Chen continued to analyze, "Then Cole killed Orville for Zhang Hong. It is very likely that he learned the secret from Orville, so that he had the leverage over Zhang Hong.
Now that I know Cole is from the Empire, everything fits together. When we were interrogating Zhang Hong in Suero about why he betrayed us, he mentioned that the Empire threatened him. He just said he wanted to save his life. Now it seems that there is more to it than that. The Empire has more things in its hands to control him. Maybe this is the fundamental reason why Zhang Hong betrayed us.
I guess that when we were hosting the Empire's negotiation team, Cole sneaked in and met Zhang Hong, and then threatened him with this handle. In order to maintain his position, Zhang Hong turned to the Empire and opened the Black Wood Pass for them!"
"But what did Zhang Hong do? If it was information, then under torture, we didn't expect him to remain steadfast and resist to the end. Even if he leaked some information to the horse bandits and the bandits were later eliminated, everyone would forgive him, right? In that situation, he didn't need to behave like this." Ji Yijun asked puzzled.
"I think maybe it's not intelligence, maybe it's people."
"people?"
Xiao Chen uttered a name: "Hong Lifeng."
"Hong Lifeng? Didn't they say that the bandits killed him..." Ji Yijun suddenly realized, "That makes sense. No one knows how Hong Lifeng died. Zhang Hong told us everything. Maybe Zhang Hong played an ignominious role in Hong Lifeng's death. For example, he wanted to surrender to the bandits, and then the bandits forced him to kill their own people as a token of his loyalty! So he killed Hong Lifeng."
Xiao Chen said: "I'm afraid only Cole knows the specific situation now. However, the most crucial point is what Cole is doing with Jiang Yitian now. What will the group of people who were taken to the conference center just now do at night? According to Cole's previous actions, he has always been a spy who secretly sabotages, not a diplomat at all. Are the people led by him really here to negotiate?"
"How about I lead the troops to surround the conference center directly? Catch those imperial people. No matter who they are or what they want to do, as long as they are caught, they can't cause trouble for us." Ji Yijun proposed a plan to cut the Gordian knot.
"This is risky. All of the above are our speculations. Maybe these people are really messengers secretly sent by the empire. If that happens, we will have made a big mistake. The committee will definitely not let us go." Xiao Chen said.
Ji Yijun smiled and said, "You must be joking. When have I ever been afraid of this? At worst, I will just throw away my hat and stay with you in jail for a while."
Xiao Chen nodded and said, "I'm glad you understand. This is an emergency, and this is indeed the most effective way. Go now, mobilize troops, and lead people to capture the four imperialists. Remember to bring experts with you. I have seen those imperialists, and they are extraordinary in temperament and should be quite strong. At the same time, send people to welcome Chairman Guo and Peng Ziyi, and tell them that there may be something fishy about the emergency meeting to be held here."
Ji Yijun said: "Great! This way, we will disrupt the opponent's rhythm. I want to see how they play next."
Ji Yijun was about to leave, but at this moment, Jiang Yitian's vicious voice came into their minds: "Okay, it's almost time. Let's go to the Mage Prison now and kill Xiao Chen!" (To be continued)