Immortal of the Nine Realms

”You can get up.” Fang Chen smiled. “Are you recovering well?”

Yuan Zhuang stood up. ”My injuries are almost completely healed. The remaining ones are mostly superficial.”

Fang Chen nodded slightly. ”Well, the physique of a martial artist in the Qi Detonation Stage is indeed much better than an ordinary person.”

Suddenly, Fang Chen stared at him thoughtfully. ”You were captured by the Valiant Saber Guards because of me. Will you hold it against me?”

”How could I? If anything, their actions only further solidifies our suspicions and proves that there are other secrets still hidden regarding the disappearance of so many people. These two guards interrogated me nonstop. They really wanted to find out how much we know. Their actions are a sure sign that there are people amongst the Valiant Saber Guards who are involved in this whole thing!” exclaimed Yuan Zhuang.

Beside Yuan Zhuang, a hint of seriousness flashed in Yuan Yu’s eyes. On their way over here, she and Yuan Zhuang had come to terms that they both might lose their lives because of this case as it involved the Valiant Saber Guards; a faction that only answered to the emperor! If they were able to take Yuan Zhuang away that time, essentially kidnapping him, what could stop them from straight up assassinating him next time?

”Now that Deputy Minister Qin has been arrested by the Ministry of Justice, Minister Jiang has extracted a lot of information from him. I believe that some of the missing people cases can be closed now,” Fang Chen said.

Yuan Zhuang was pleasantly surprised. ”Really?”

He had been completely kept in the dark about the entire situation since the day he had been rescued from prison. No one from the Grand Brilliance Bureau had informed him of Qin Dong’s arrest.

Yuan Yu immediately felt relieved. It seemed that the case was about to reach its conclusion.

However, Fang Chen’s next words came as a surprise to her.

”There are still a few other people involved who we haven’t found. Are you willing to continue the investigation?”

“My lord, do you intend to expose the members of the Valiant Saber Guards? They might actually not be directly involved and might’ve only been bribed by Deputy Minister Qin,” Yuan Zhuang pointed out.

—like Li Huafeng, he thought inwardly, but he didn’t voice out his suspicions since he didn’t have any evidence to back them up.

”Well, what if I tell you that Deputy Minister Qin was merely a pawn, and that there’s another hidden mastermind who’s orchestrating this whole thing? Would you believe me?” Fang Chen asked.

Yuan Zhuang seemed somewhat lost upon this new revelation. ”This...”

Isn’t this getting too complicated? Deputy Minister Qin is just a pawn? Then wouldn’t the mastermind be at the level of the prime minister?

Suddenly, a servant walked in, bowed, and said, ”Niu Jue from the Valiant Saber Guards has come to visit, my lord.”

Hearing the words “Valiant Saber Guards,” Yuan Zhuang and Yuan Yu trembled, anger flashing through their eyes.

Fang Chen nodded. ”Please invite him in.”

Not long after, Niu Jue led a group of Valiant Saber Guards into the main hall. He bowed the moment he saw Fang Chen. “Greetings, Divine General Fang!”

Yuan Zhuang and Yuan Yu glared at him with anger.

”Niu Jue, did Xiao Shence send you here?” Fang Chen asked, smiling.

Seeing him almost read his mind, Niu Jue admired him inwardly. ”You are truly perceptive, General Fang.” he said, indirectly confirming Fang Chen’s words, then stepped aside, revealing two haggard figures.

When Yuan Zhuang saw who they were, he bubbled over with anger; these two were the two guards who had tortured him day and night!

As he tried to calm himself down and not show any signs of anger, Yuan Zhaung interjected, ”These two were the ones who had interrogated me.”

The two haggard guards fell to their knees and began kowtowing repeatedly. ”Divine General Fang, we are innocent, really! We were only following the orders of Chief Pacifist Lu. He was the one who had told us to interrogate Yuan Zhuang, but we really don’t know why! We don’t know any of the details,” they cried out.

Fang Chen showed a mysterious smile. ”If I’m not mistaken, then Chief Pacifist Liu should already be on the run. Am I right?”

Niu Jue’s eyes flashed with astonishment, and he stared blankly at Fang Chen. Could there be a Hidden Dragon among the Valiant Saber Guards?

”Chief Pacifist Liu fled the capital yesterday, and his exact whereabouts are still unknown. The commander has ordered all the guards to search for him and find him at any cost,” Niu Jue reported respectfully.

”I understand. You can send these two to the Grand Brilliance Bureau for questioning,” Fang Chen ordered.

Niu Jue wasn’t surprised at all to hear this. He had long since anticipated these words. These two fellows had the misfortune of offending the Grand Brilliance Bureau—and Fang Chen. With the chief pacifist on the run, they would undoubtedly become the scapegoats for the whole case and would be the ones to bear the pent-up frustrations of both sides.

When Yuan Zhuang heard Fang Chen tell Niu Jue to head to the Grand Brilliance Bureau, his eyes lit up, and he said, ”That’s perfect! Niu Jue, since you’re heading to the Grand Brilliance Bureau, we’ll go with you.”

Niu Jue didn’t seem to mind and showed a smile, then said, ”In that case, we’ll trouble you to lead the way,”

When they left, Tie Ma walked up to Fang Chen, his eyes showing a hint of confusion, and asked, “My lord, what’s the meaning behind the actions of the Valiant Saber Guards?”

”Their meaning? Well, they’re just telling me to stop looking into Chief Pacifist Liu further. I am guessing that during this period, many officials will be dismissed and thrown into the prison of the Ministry of Justice,” Fang Chen said with a faint smile. Chief Pacifist Liu’s escape as well as the sacrifice of his subordinates was a hidden message from the palace. The fact that Xiao Shence specifically sent Niu Jie over meant that the person backing him was someone from the palace, one they were unwilling to mess with.

”Have someone monitor the crown prince closely. I want to know if he targeted me because of his personal grudges against me, or if he’s genuinely involved in this whole thing,” Fang Chen instructed.

Tie Ma nodded slightly. ”We’re always keeping an eye on him.”

Several days later.

The case involving Deputy Minister Qin finally erupted, and dozens of officials who were working in the six ministries were implicated. Many influential families in the capital were raided as a result.

The commoners of Grand Xia also finally learned that the many Hall of Compassions in the empire were involved in illicit activities which resulted in the deaths of many innocent people. However, the court did not disclose the full details. They chose to keep it to themselves that some of those innocent people were actually practitioners of demonic techniques.

Also, Chief Pacifist Liu was now a wanted man on the run who was being pursued by Grand Xia’s authorities.

...

Fang Manor.

Fang Chen held a brush and sketched on the talisman paper before him. Heaven and earth spiritual qi continuously poured into his body, gradually condensing into another immortal vein. When his fourth immortal vein was finally condensed, his spiritual energy experienced a significant increase in quantity.

Sensing his new-found strength, Fang Chen let out a sigh. ”The fourth level of Qi Refining Realm. Immortal cultivation... is truly simple.”

His power now was roughly equivalent to his power in the past, before he was crippled. The only difference was that instead of “internal qi,” he now had “spiritual energy.”

”The advancement this time took a few more days than the last. It seems that it’ll only get more difficult as I move up the stages. But that matters not; it won’t be long before I reach the twelfth stage of Qi Refining Realm. When I reach it, I’ll head to the Three Thousand Dao Sect and join them. I guess I have to wrap up the stuff at Grand Xia soon...” Fang Chen contemplated, sweeping his gaze inside his storage ring. The wooden puppet, dragon truncheon, and the two hundred low-grade spirit stones were all piled up neatly to one side of the ring. Next, he looked over at the two hundred mid-grade Purple Lightning Talisman near them. Seeing their quantity, it suddenly hit him that he has been running quite low on materials lately.

Aside from these mid-grade Purple Lightning Talismans in his storage ring, Fang Chen had already distributed five hundred low-grade ones to many of the Hidden Guards.

He had given Huang Sihai, Tie Ma, Xu Gu, and Fairy Yu mid-grade talismans instead.

Even though they were martial artists and their cultivation varied from Qi Detonation to Qi Manipulation, their actual combat power might be comparable to someone at the fourth or fifth level of Qi Refining Realm. If they joined forces, even someone at the sixth level might not withstand the bombardment of so many mid grade Purple Lightning Talismans.

The overall strength of Grand Xia’s Hidden Guards had unknowingly reached a terrifying level.

Suddenly, Tie Ma appeared in the room, reporting, ”My Lord, envoys from Longdu have arrived.”