"There are many strong men in the Han Empire. There are actually quite a few people who can come to my room silently. The alert outside can deal with ordinary masters, but in the eyes of the strong, it is just something made by children!" Yan Liqiang smiled and looked at the man's face, "Among the people who can come here, there are not many who like to wear masks, and there are even fewer people who have the face of the judge of the underworld painted on their masks. There is probably only one person in the world who can come here, wearing such a mask, and who has some relationship with Qiyun County and me..." Yan Liqiang paused, and the smile on his face became more intense, "The reward for the Killing Hu Order on Taimiba's head has long been paid. Although tens of thousands of acres of grassland are a lot, it is nothing to me. I keep my word. In this matter, we have a pleasant cooperation. Therefore, the Netherworld, the world's number one killer organization, naturally did not come to me to kill Hu Ling. We have no other dealings and exchanges before. From the looks of you, you are not here to kill me, but your business is related to killing. Thinking that I have offended a lot of people recently, someone should have found you and wanted to target me... ”
“Awesome, awesome!” The man in black with the judge’s mask exclaimed in admiration, his eyes behind the mask flashing with surprise. “It’s said in the world that the King of Pingxi can be favored by gods in dreams, and his thoughts and martial arts are hard for ordinary people to fathom. I had some doubts before, but now that I’ve seen him, I realize that His Highness is indeed extraordinary. He guessed my identity and purpose in the blink of an eye. I admire you, I admire you!”
"Hehe, can I redeem your gift now?"
"My gift is a piece of news. The Lanzhou governor, Gu Tongan, sent someone to find us and offered a high price for your head, Your Highness!" The masked man casually blurted out a shocking piece of news.
Yan Liqiang's eyes gleamed, but he remained calm, "Can I ask how much money that person paid?"
"Five hundred thousand taels of gold, plus half of all the profits he will make from the changes in Qiyun County after killing you..."
"Then why don't you take it? This is a big business!"
"Although we in the Netherworld are in the business of killing people, we also have our own rules. We don't accept every job. There are three types of jobs that we won't accept, which are called the Three No-Kills. We won't accept jobs involving the royal family and important officials in the court, and we won't participate in court struggles. We also won't accept jobs involving the orphans of loyal officials and the bloodline of martyrs. This is the code of conduct for thieves. The third is jobs that we won't accept to protect the people and intimidate foreigners. After all, no matter what, we are also people of the Han Empire. We can kill people, but we can't be traitors to the country. Strictly speaking, your highness has met all of these three rules. So according to the rules of our Netherworld, we will not only not take action against people who meet our Three No-Kills rules, but we will also give them a warning!"
"Don't outsiders know your rules?"
"Besides us in the Netherworld, the only outsider who knows this rule is you, Your Highness. Otherwise, Gu Tongan would not have come to us. For other people, if they only meet one of the three no-kill rules, we simply won't take the job and won't tell them about this rule. If Your Highness wants to kill Gu Tongan, you can entrust this job to us now. The price for entrusting is only one copper coin!"
"Just one copper coin?" Yan Liqiang looked at this man from the underworld in surprise.
The masked man in black nodded, "Yes, one copper coin. Although Gu Tongan is the governor of a state, his head is only worth one copper coin in the eyes of us in the netherworld!"
Yan Liqiang thought about it, shook his head and refused, "Thank you, I will handle this matter myself. I also want to ask, if I ask you to get someone's head, can you take such a job?"
"As long as it's not a job that won't kill you, and as long as Your Highness can afford the price we offer, we'll take it!"
"Well, if I want the head of the White Lotus Saint, how much do you offer?"
"This is the most expensive head..." The man behind the mask smiled softly, "If Your Highness really wants this head, you must at least exchange it for half of the Gulang Grassland, and you must pay a deposit of one-third in advance. Moreover, it takes a long time to obtain a head like this..."
"how long?"
"At least ten years!"
"ten years?"
"Yes, ten years. The various preparations and arrangements required to kill such a person, as well as the resources consumed and the risks taken, are beyond your imagination, Your Highness. So the cost is also enormous!"
"Forget it. If I had the time, I could probably kill him myself. Thank you very much for coming to tell me this news today!"
"You're welcome. If you want to do business with us in the Netherworld in the future, just put this thing at the feet of the stone lion under the Deshengfang at the west gate of Pingxi City. Within seven days, our people will contact you, Your Highness!" The masked man said, taking out half a copper coin from his pocket and placing it on the table. "Goodbye!"
Yan Liqiang picked up the half copper coin. The candlelight in the room flickered slightly, and the man had already left. He left quietly and cleanly. Only the slightly opened window told the people in the room that someone had just come here and left...
Taking the half copper coin in his hand and looking at it carefully, Yan Liqiang let out a long sigh.
Yan Liqiang did not immediately attack Gu Tongan and his men after returning from being conferred the title of King of Pingxi. There were two main considerations. One was that the territory he had was already very large. It would take time to digest the Gulang Grassland and the Black Jie Tribe. As long as he could digest these two territories, when his steel plant was officially put into production next year, the wool trade of the Gulang Grassland would be formally formed, and a huge community of interests would be formed in the entire northwest. By then, it would be effortless to take down people like Gu Tongan. At that time, he could take down the other five states in the northwest at the lowest cost, or even in a completely peaceful way. His second consideration was that he really did not want to start a civil war and start a war in the northwest. The Han Empire was already in chaos enough, and he did not want the northwest to be in chaos again. He had a relatively decent follow-up arrangement for local governors like Gu Tongan in the end. He did not want to completely break up with them. This not only took into account the face of the court, but also took into account the personal interests of those governors. It was not so difficult to accept.
"It is true that people have no intention of harming tigers, but tigers are harmful to people. It seems that I have oversimplified things. I am willing to give them time, but they may not be willing to give me time. Could it be that my restraint is actually understood as weakness and an opportunity that can be exploited in the eyes of some people? In this case, well, since you don't want a decent and dignified solution and are not afraid of any means, then don't blame me. You forced me to do this..." Yan Liqiang muttered to himself, his eyes gradually becoming sharper, revealing the edge of a knife...
(End of this chapter)