Firmament Sword

Xu Luo couldn’t help but roll his eyes and sigh. ’What a couple of idiots!’ he thought. ’If their opponents weren’t confident, would they have made such a move?’

He could figure out the result without Xia Muyao even having to say it. The search parties must have found a large amount of gold, silver, and other treasures in the homes of those two managers.

Once you were implicated in something like this, it was like getting mud in your pants—even if it isn’t shit, it looks like it. You can’t ever explain it away!

”From these incidents, what have you concluded?” Xu Luo asked, looking at Xia Muyao with a slight smile.

Xia Muyao shot Xu Luo a glare and said, ”Isn’t it obvious? The Wei Family has set their sights on us and are making their move!”

Xia Muyao, his sister-in-law, and Xu Luo, her brother-in-law, had a very casual way of speaking with each other. This was especially true after the incident in Hongcheng, which had shown her just how extraordinary Xu Luo was. So when trouble arose, the first person she thought of wasn’t her fiancé, Xu Su, but surprisingly, her brother-in-law, Xu Luo!

This wasn’t to say that Xia Muyao had any particular feelings for Xu Luo; it was simply that his performance in Hongcheng had been far too astonishing.

The Hongcheng Wei Family, which had dominated Hongcheng for years and was backed by the most powerful official in the court, was annihilated before Xu Luo without even a chance to resist.

Therefore, although the current situation was also very serious, deep down, Xia Muyao felt no fear at all.

In fact, deep inside, she even felt a faint… sense of anticipation!

’I wonder just how many cards my brother-in-law still has up his sleeve,’ she thought. ’When faced with an attack from the most powerful official in the Cangqiong Kingdom, what methods will he use to fight back?’

’Brute force?’

’If it’s only brute force, I’ll be a little disappointed.’

Because no Immortal Dynasty or powerful family could be sustained by martial strength alone.

As a merchant, what Xia Muyao preferred to see was momentum!

The kind of unparalleled, comprehensive strength that coalesced into an unstoppable force!

In the face of such a force, it wouldn’t matter if you were the court’s most powerful official, the entire Civil Servant Group, or even the reigning Emperor—you would have to step aside!

This was what Xia Muyao, the young woman known as the goddess of commerce, truly desired most!

’Do they really want to make a move against the Xu Family at a time like this?’ Xu Luo narrowed his eyes, his brow furrowed in thought. Seeing him like this made Xia Muyao feel a little uncertain.

She couldn’t help but sigh to herself. ’It seems I expected too much of him. No matter what, for someone his age to have accomplished so much is already incredible! If I were in his position with his strength, I doubt I could do any better.’

’No matter how you look at it, the Wei Family is a behemoth. The family alone is frightening enough, let alone the terrifying Civil Servant Group behind them!’

’They are a force capable of shaking the very foundations of the kingdom!’

’Now that is a truly great power!’

’And Xu Luo… he’s just a young man, not even twenty years old!’

Xu Luo didn’t know what was going through Xia Muyao’s mind. He was pondering a question himself: ’With so much happening, why hasn’t the Emperor reacted at all? Could it be that he’s already dissatisfied with the Xu Family? And secondly, why would Huangfu Haoyue target Guo Ying?’

’Though not many people know about the connection between Guo Ying and the Xu Family, the true upper echelon of the Imperial Capital should know something. Moving against Guo Ying is tantamount to moving against the Xu Family. If the Wei Family had made the move, I wouldn’t have been surprised.’

’But the one who acted was Huangfu Haoyue… a man with Royal Family blood. That is what makes this so baffling.’

’Could it be that Huangfu Haoyue has joined forces with the Wei Family? Or perhaps… this was the Emperor’s intention all along?’

Xu Luo pondered this but quickly dismissed the speculation. The Emperor had always been wary of the Xu Family, but he would never make such an unwise move.

At least, not now.

After all, the Xu Family’s position in the Cangqiong Kingdom was too important. Attacking them in this manner would likely incite the dissatisfaction of the entire Military Merit Faction.

Therefore, the most likely explanation was that this was Huangfu Haoyue’s own initiative. The Emperor might be aware of it, but he would surely pretend he wasn’t.

”Could it be the Crown Prince? Or perhaps… the Sixth Prince?” Xu Luo raised an eyebrow. ’The Sixth Prince is more likely,’ he thought. ’Little Fatty mentioned before that Huangfu Haoyue is very close to the Sixth Prince.’

For years, the Sixth Prince had been trying to cultivate his own influence within the military, but because of Xu Ji’s presence, his plans had never gone smoothly.

If there was any prince who disliked the Xu Family the most, it would undoubtedly be the Sixth Prince.

Especially since, according to some information Xu Luo had obtained, the Sixth Prince also had a private, tacit understanding with the Wei Family.

Seeing Xu Luo silently lost in thought, Xia Muyao couldn’t help but say, ”I heard that Huangfu Haoyue used the excuse of ’cleaning up the Imperial Capital’s public order’ to move against the organization that Guo Ying took over. Apparently, someone from Guo Ying’s group offended him...”

Xia Muyao added with a touch of disdain, ”Of course, that’s definitely just an excuse. While I’m not fond of Guo Ying, I know that after she took over that group, their discipline became strict from top to bottom. They would never do something as foolish as offending a member of the Royal Family and Relatives.”

”Exactly. Who would go looking for trouble with Royal Family Descendants unless they had a death wish?” Xu Luo said with a scornful smile. ”This way, he at least has a legitimate pretext, making it seem like it’s not an attack aimed at my Xu Family.”

”That’s right.” Xia Muyao glanced at Xu Luo. ”How do you plan to handle this?”

Xu Luo smiled but didn’t answer her. Instead, he looked at her and asked, ”Sister-in-law, what would you say a Civil Servant cares about most?”

”What a Civil Servant cares about most?” Xia Muyao frowned slightly, then said, ”Their reputation, I suppose...”

As she said this, her eyes brightened. She looked at Xu Luo and said, ”You mean...”

Xu Luo nodded slowly, a cold light flashing in his eyes as he sneered, ”Since they enjoy slinging mud at others, then let’s have them get a taste of it themselves. Let them see just how awful it feels to be wrongly accused!”

Soon after, a piece of news sent the Imperial Capital into an uproar.

”What did you say? The Xu Family admitted that those shops were evading taxes? And they proactively paid back the astronomical sum in arrears, then severely punished the people responsible?”

”That’s right. I never would have expected it. The ever-assertive Military Merit Faction, the ever-assertive Xu Family... to think they’d actually back down this time...”

”Yeah, wasn’t it always the Xu Family’s Second Young Master beating the Wei Family black and blue and turning their lives upside down? Why has he suddenly had a change of heart? He’s become so low-key. This isn’t like him at all!”

”From what I know, those seized Xu Family shops never evaded taxes at all... How do I know? Duh! My brother-in-law’s friend’s little brother-in-law’s third uncle is the tax collector for that district. Of course I know!”

”If the Xu Family didn’t evade taxes, why would they admit to it? Aren’t they just slinging mud on themselves?!”

”Who knows? Maybe the pressure from all those powerful clans that have gathered from across the kingdom recently is getting to the Xu Family.”

As news of this spread, a storm of discussion swept through the Imperial Capital, with people everywhere gossiping about the affair.

The vast majority of people found it unbelievable. The Xu Family’s Second Master could stir up a storm even when he was in the wrong, throwing the Wei Family into chaos. Now, when he was clearly in the right, he had actually chickened out. No matter how you looked at it, the whole thing felt bizarre.

”Xiaoluozi… why did you do that? Your family’s shops didn’t evade taxes, did they? Why would you bow your head to those damned people?” Su Qianqian asked, looking at Xu Luo with a baffled expression, her eyes flashing with displeasure.

In Su Qianqian’s eyes, this was an act of bowing to the enemy and admitting defeat. If it had been anyone else, she might have understood: one is often powerless against a greater authority…

But for it to be Xu Luo who did this was something she found hard to accept.

If not for her grandfather’s constant reminder not to get too deeply involved in worldly affairs, Su Qianqian probably would have already stormed the Wei Family estate to cause a huge scene.

Xu Luo smiled and said to Su Qianqian, ”Things aren’t as simple as you think. They had follow-up moves planned for this. If we had raised a fuss, we would have fallen right into their trap.”

”Follow-up moves? What follow-up moves?” Su Qianqian asked curiously. ”Isn’t this just simple retaliation?”

”Heh, Wei Ziting may be a fool, but his father, Wei Feng, is not. He wouldn’t have recklessly brought people to seize my family’s shops without making thorough preparations first. At a time like this, we absolutely cannot dance to their tune. Otherwise, we’d truly be falling for their trap.”

Xu Luo sneered. ”They were probably hoping I’d do what I used to do: grab a sword and charge over to their estate to raise hell...”

”And what if you did?” Su Qianqian retorted. ”Who could possibly stop you?”

Xu Luo shook his head. ”If I did that, I would truly be in the wrong. The reason I could get away with causing trouble before was because I was carrying immense military merits! Those merits put the Emperor in a difficult position. Not rewarding me would have disheartened many people, but the rewards would have been too great... For a young man not even twenty years old to reach the highest position a subject can hold—that’s not normal. That’s why I used those opportunities to wreak havoc on the Wei Family, including annihilating their branch in Hongcheng. It was all for this reason...”

Su Qianqian looked at Xu Luo, only half-understanding. ”The secular world is so complicated!” she grumbled. ”If we were in the anc... If we were back at my home, hmph, it’s simple: whoever has the bigger fist gets to say what’s right!”

”Heh, the secular world is actually the same. The problem is, my fist isn’t yet big enough to be ’the reason’...”

Xu Luo smiled at Su Qianqian and said, ”If I cause trouble again this time... well, you can get away with something once or twice, but not a third and fourth time. The Emperor would have no reason not to punish me. Therefore, I must use a different method to let everyone know one thing... The Xu Family is not a family they can bully!”