Wu Du stood in the courtyard and slowly drew his long sword.
"Lord Changliu." Wu Du said coldly, "I have something urgent, don't force me to do it."
Mu Qing just thought Wu Du was joking, walked aside and still kicked his shuttlecock.
Changliu-jun restrained his expression, drew out his sword, and the two faced off.
Wu Du knew that Mu Kuangda must be in this mansion, but because he was afraid of death, it was impossible for him to go to Jiangzhou by himself, but he let Lord Changliu leave his side.
"What's the matter?" Mu Kuangda's voice asked from upstairs, "Why did you come back by yourself, Wu Du?"
Only then did Lord Changliu withdraw his sword, but Wu Du still held the sword, his eyes locked on the movements of Lord Changliu's whole body.
Mu Kuangda walked up to the two of them and put one hand on Wu Du's sword-wielding wrist. Only then did Wu Du put away his Lieguang sword, still staring at Lord Changliu, but he said, "I have something important to report to Prime Minister Mu."
"Let's talk." Mu Kuangda replied, and then led Wu Du upstairs.
The light in the room on the second floor was dim, Wu Du smelled of sweat, took off his shoes, and entered the room.
"Wu Qing?" Cai Yan's voice said unexpectedly.
Wu Du never expected that the prince of the current dynasty would come to the Mu Mansion in person, and beside Cai Yan sat an entourage, but not Lang Junxia.
"His Royal Highness is looking for you." Mu Kuangda said, "I didn't expect you to come back first."
Wu Du first saluted Cai Yan, then looked at the entourage beside him strangely, with surprise in his eyes.
The entourage was dressed in a dark red brocade martial robe. Diaoerlang was drinking in front of the case. He wore a jade ring finger and three precious rings in his left hand, and a gauze glove in his right hand, holding a luminous cup. Chao Wu handed it over alone, motioning for a drink.
"Why are you here?" Wu Du frowned.
"Your Majesty called me." The young man smiled like a ruffian and replied casually, "I'm here, do you have any questions?"
"Zheng Yan, you two know each other?" Now it was Cai Yan's turn to be surprised.
"Hmm." The man's name was Zheng Yan, he glanced at Cai Yan absentmindedly, and then looked at Wu Du with a smile.
"Reminisce about the old and postpone it for now." Mu Kuang said, "Wu Du, what do you have to say?"
Wu Du was worried that Cai Yan and Zheng Yan were on the side, and did not speak. Before, Lord Changliu didn't come to pass the news, presumably because the prince was in the mansion. Naturally, it was inconvenient to elaborate, so he took out an oiled paper bag from his arms and handed it to Mu Kuangda.
Mu Kuangda said happily: "Very good." Then he said to Cai Yan: "The news of the permanent employment has come, and Rong Weichen will sort it out first, and then transcribe it to His Highness."
"It's okay." Cai Yan said to Mu Kuangda, "I just wanted to ask Wu Qing for a small matter."
"Yes." Mu Kuangda backed out, closed the door for Wu Du, and went to read Duan Ling's letter.
After a moment of silence, Cai Yan said to Wu Du, "Zheng Yan is his own."
Wu Du made a "shush" gesture, indicating that he should not say more now.
Cai Yan thought for a while, then nodded, cut to the point, and said, "Wuluohoumu disappeared a month and a half ago, and he didn't even leave me a letter."
Zheng Yan chuckled.
"A good bird breaks a tree and perches." Zheng Yan said to Cai Yan, "Your Highness, don't be so persistent."
There was a slight anger in Cai Yan's eyes. He was obviously very angry at Zheng Yan's rudeness, but he didn't dare to do anything to him. Wu Du knew at a glance that Lang Junxia ran away without a sound, and Zheng Yan took his place to guard him. , most of them were also assigned by Li Yanqiu.
It's just that this personal bodyguard, Cai Yan seems to be not so easy to use, just seeing that Zheng Yan dared to interrupt when Cai Yan was talking, he knew that Cai Yan must have endured him for a long time.
"Wuluohou Mu betrayed the first emperor, and then betrayed His Highness." Wu Du said, "It is time to arrest him."
Cai Yan sighed, waved his hand, and said, "I don't blame him, after all, even Zheng Qing can't guess where Wuluohou Mu will go... Wu Du, you... If you have any clues about him... "
"Just tell the truth." Zheng Yan said impatiently, "How come there are so many twists and turns."
"Get out of here!" Cai Yan was furious and stopped drinking.
Wu Du was very embarrassed, but Zheng Yan was a shy face, holding a cup, staggered out, opened the door, slammed the door, and there was a "bang" sound.
Cai Yan's face was terrifyingly black.
Wu Du said, "How can I share the worries of Your Highness?"
Cai Yan hesitated for a moment, and finally said: "I came here today, in addition to discussing the relocation of the capital with the minister, I also want to ask you to find Wuluohou Mu."
Wu Du was silent for a moment, nodded, and replied, "Although Baihutang was once the leader of the four major assassins, and it has been passed down to my generation, it has been withered. As for obeying my orders, but as long as His Highness says a word, I can't guarantee whether the alive can be caught, and the corpse can be taken back."
Cai Yan was silent, frowning tightly, as if he was about to make an extremely difficult decision.
"Try to catch them alive." Cai Yan finally said.
Wu Du nodded, at this time Mu Kuangda knocked on the door again, came in, and said to Wu Du, "I already know, you are running around day and night, you are working hard, so go back to rest first, eat dinner, replenish your strength, and you will be back before dawn. Gotta run a leg for me."
Wu Du knew that Mu Kuangda was going to send a letter to Tongguan, and most likely agreed with Duan Ling's proposal, so he saluted Cai Yan again and withdrew, while Mu Kuangda came over and sat in front of Cai Yan and opened a memorial.
At sunset, Wu Du walked through the corridor and saw Zheng Yan drunk, holding a cup and talking to Muqing, while Lord Changliu sat in front of the corridor with his arms crossed and looked at him. As soon as Zheng Yan saw Wu Du, he waved to him and said, "Come on, come and drink a few altars with me today, you won't go home if you don't get drunk!"
Zheng Yan came up, but Wu Du returned a sword and pointed at Zheng Yan's throat.
"Master is going back to sleep." Wu Du said coldly.
Zheng Yan had to nod and said, "Wake up and have a few drinks with me."
"Let's talk about it." Wu Du put away his sword and glanced sideways at Lord Changliu, who sneered, Wu Du ignored him and hurriedly returned to the secluded courtyard where he and Duan Ling lived.
Nothing has been touched, Duan Ling's flowers have withered and died, Wu Du and Yi went to bed, and fell asleep.
Inside the Qinling Caves.
As soon as Duan Ling slid down, he knew something was wrong, and he reacted instantly. Just when Bian Lingbai kicked him, Duan Ling quickly took off his long bow and shouted loudly to attract Bian Lingbai's attention, and then fell off the cliff. , and at the same time use the bowstring to suddenly hook the bulge not far from the cliff edge.
His fingers clenched the bow body tightly, hanging upside down on the cliff, kicking the stone on the side, and a loose stone rolled down towards the bottom of the cliff, making a muffled sound.
The sound of Bian Lingbai's footsteps went away, and Duan Ling broke out in a cold sweat and crouched at the bottom of the cliff.
A moment ago, Bian Lingbai was still telling him to lure Helianbo out. It can be seen that he did not intend to kill when he left Tongguan. He kicked him down only when he got here.
Duan Ling's original intention was to tell him the treasure he found first, so that Bian Lingbai would come in again. As long as Wu Du came back, let him put poison there, or put the golden centipede on Bian Lingbai's body and take a bite. , must be unknowingly, dead without proof.
At that time, the poisoned Bian Lingbai can be sent back to Tongguan smoothly, and the doctor can be consulted for diagnosis and treatment. Duan Ling can also help Bian Lingbai to temporarily control Tongguan. After all, he never expected that Bian Lingbai would say it right at the moment, and he would kill when he found the treasure. As for how to lure Helianbo and what to do when Wu Du came back, Bian Lingbai didn't think about it at all. Within the range, the only thought is to kill first. Duan Ling has always been used to dealing with smart people. This kind of development is really unreasonable, and it really underestimates the stupidity of Bian Lingbai.
Duan Ling hung on the edge of the dark cliff for a while, tried to move sideways, groped around, and suddenly felt a protruding wooden tenon.
The dowels are not long and are nailed to the cliff facing outwards, so that only one person can stand. Duan Ling grabbed the dowel and slowly climbed up. But I don't know if Bian Lingbai has gone far or not, so he doesn't dare to go up rashly. Logically speaking, Bian Lingbai will probably send someone to guard him.
However, the guards were on the other side of the stream, and Bian Lingbai went over to give instructions. It would take a while after the notification. Taking advantage of this time to go out of the cave, maybe they could escape successfully. Duan Ling went up quietly, trying not to make any footsteps, and ran out of the cave, but heard Bian Lingbai's voice.
"... just guard here, no one is allowed to enter..."
Duan Ling had to retreat quickly, dodged into the depths of the cave, messy footsteps came into the cave, Duan Ling almost slipped off the cliff on the wet stone road again, and couldn't help breaking into a cold sweat. Fortunately, the footsteps of the soldiers stopped when they reached the entrance of the cave.
Duan Ling came to the edge of the cliff again, and looked down along the footprints left before. The cliff was empty, only the wooden dowel that saved his life before. With no way to go, Duan Ling had no choice but to bite the bullet and hook the jagged rocks on the edge of the cliff with his bowstring. He tried to step on the wooden tenon, and when he stepped on it, the wooden tenon was unexpectedly strong.
So he stepped on it, and when he looked down, his eyes adapted to the dark light, and found that in the same direction as him, there was another wooden dowel hidden in the darkness and almost integrated with the rock.
Duan Ling: "..."
The wooden dowels were nailed in such a hidden place, and if they hadn't just fallen off the cliff, they wouldn't be able to see it at all. Duan Ling stepped on the second wooden dowel, and then found more wooden dowels - all the wooden dowels were connected to form a plank road, not extending to the bottom of the cliff they thought before, but to the left side of the cliff!
Duan Ling walked over the volley plank road opened up by the wooden tenon, and came to the platform that was hundreds of steps away from the previous cliff. At the same time, he heard the sound of gurgling water—the area was wider than he thought. Immediately afterwards, he found that there was another tunnel in the platform. Duan Ling was about to go in, but he kicked something. There was a "dangdang" sound. kerosene.
Duan Ling lit a torch, looked around, and found signs that someone had lived on this platform, and it was just recently.
Who is it
He suddenly remembered the unidentified assassin who attacked Fei Hongde. Could it be him? Is he the one who came to the side house to steal things? What is his purpose? There was another dark tunnel underneath. Duan Ling walked along the tunnel and saw a solid stone door. The iron lock on the stone door was divided into two by a sharp weapon, and the broken chain was thrown aside.
He pushed open the door, a dark room appeared behind the door, neatly coded iron boxes were presented in front of him, and one of the iron boxes was unlocked. Duan Ling lit up a brazier placed in the cave, and the flame suddenly ignited, and then the golden light almost blinded Duan Ling's eyes.
Gold, a whole room of gold! They were all neatly stacked gold bars. Duan Ling picked one up and glanced at it, unable to believe it. He began to count and counted it as one piece of twenty taels. One box contained a thousand taels, and there were fifty-six boxes of gold in the dark room, a total of fifty-six thousand taels!
There is not necessarily so much gold in the treasury! Duan Ling's breathing was suffocated.
But this wasn't the most precious thing. Duan Ling looked around and found that there was a concave grotto in the secret room, and there were traces of stored things on the grotto. In the dust is a square vacancy, perhaps a box was placed here before, and was later taken away.
What is more valuable than these fifty-six thousand taels of gold? Looking at the vacant seat, it seems like a small box the size of a palm. First of all, someone has been here, and secondly, this person has no desire for gold bars, but just took the most important things in the secret room. Is that the assassin? Duan Ling thought about it and thought it was understandable. If it was himself, he would not walk with gold bars with him.
Duan Ling turned and left, closed the door of the secret room, and looked for another way out. He accidentally found a rope on the platform, hanging down to the bottom of the cliff. After hesitating for a moment, he decided to go down and have a look, so he climbed down along the rope.
How did these gold bars come in through the wooden tenon ladder? Duan Ling was very puzzled, but the rope stopped halfway down. There was another cave in front of him, only one person could pass through. Duan Ling held the torch and continued to move forward. He felt the cold wind blowing from the cave. cheerful.
I don’t know the day or night in the cave, but it’s already night. The starry sky is shining on the earth. He has appeared on the top of the mountain high in the canyon. In front of him are bushes that are scattered with each other. There are many thorns lying in front of him. Opened a road to the top of the mountain. And brought down a tree as a token. After coming out, the road was not difficult to walk. Duanling climbed to the top of the mountain and found a big tree scorched by lightning. He extinguished the torch to avoid attracting anyone's attention. Looking down, he had reached the end of Qinling Mountains, and the ridge stretched. Not far away is Tongguan.
This is the third day that Wu Du left.