Great Li Martial God

At almost exactly the same time, the heads of the Yuan, Zhu, and Cen martial world families, along with the person managing the Bai family’s affairs, all received instructions from Sheng Province General Han Cuiyuan.

”Proceed as planned. Take down the Murong family before midnight.”

Upon receiving this instruction, the four major families immediately held an urgent discussion.

The outcome was that, under the premise of seeking Han Cuiyuan’s support, all four families agreed internally to act according to his direction.

The four major martial world families would wage a decisive battle against the Murong family, swearing to erase the Murong family from the provincial city within a single day.

...

Sheng Province provincial city government office.

After the three Sheng Province parties arrived, Hu Rui’an, Wu Shang, and Cheng Zhong joined the Six Doors Gold Constable Yao Lingyuan in leading the investigation into the murders at the government office.

Under normal circumstances, the three Sheng Province parties would have been required to jointly report to the court in the capital, and only after receiving authorization from the Board of Punishments and the dispatch of a special envoy to Sheng Province could they be granted full investigative authority.

With Li Musheng present, however, this step could be temporarily dispensed with. Under his witness, Yao Lingyuan and the others were fully entitled to conduct a thorough investigation without being constrained by the need to avoid impropriety.Of course, Li Musheng had no intention of involving himself in the matter, and had only reluctantly taken on the role of ”overseeing” the various parties at Hu Rui’an’s request.

Hu Rui’an’s reason for pursuing the investigation was naturally to look into the connections between Governor Zhu Ziming and Falling God Peak, as well as the matter of the Tianjin Guards intelligence leak.

Mei Yan’s son Mei Yanyu was also participating in the case investigation on behalf of the Sheng Province Tianjin Guards.

Even so, his attention was not particularly focused on the investigation itself. He was instead paying intermittent attention to Hu Rui’an, or more precisely, covertly watching Hu Rui’an, Wu Shang, and Cheng Zhong.

The reason for this was, of course, self-evident.

He was waiting for the ghost in the Tianjin Guards branch office to come and take the lives of the three of them.

As time passed, the unease in Hu Rui’an and the other two’s hearts grew gradually as well. Though they had Li Musheng with his terrifying martial Dao cultivation protecting them, it was still difficult not to feel some degree of anxiety.

After all, Li Musheng was only one person. If the ghost entity proved genuinely bizarre and hard to deal with, even the deepest cultivation had its limits.

Or if Li Musheng happened to be careless, any of these things could leave them sharing the same fate as that Garrison Inspector.

So even though their reverence for Li Musheng was like that of men gazing up at a mountain, and even though they knew the probability was very low, that single possibility of it going wrong was still too much to dismiss entirely.

In this atmosphere of each person occupied with their own anxious thoughts, noon passed.

During this time, Yao Lingyuan proved worthy of the Gold Constable title. With a precise eye and a meticulous mind, he had examined all one hundred and seventy-six bodies in a single pass and determined that the killers numbered exactly seven.

The person who had used the Azure Dragon Thousand Swords was likely the primary perpetrator, having killed the most victims and also possessing the highest martial Dao cultivation of the seven, which appeared to be at least at the half-step Heaven-Human level.

The one who had killed Governor Zhu Ziming was this same individual. As a civil official, Zhu Ziming had possessed some martial Dao cultivation, but it was no more than the Martial Dao Grand Master level, which meant he had stood essentially no chance against the killer.

”The killer had clearly searched through the rooms, yet had not interrogated Governor Zhu before killing him. The killing was immediate, a single sword thrust to the throat.”

”This indicates the killer came with preparation and was very likely someone Governor Zhu was acquainted with, who had prior knowledge that the Governor carried a specific object.”

Yao Lingyuan spoke in a measured voice, while Deputy General Zhang Feng beside him furrowed his brow and said, ”So according to Constable Yao’s thinking, the motive behind the government office murders was killing to obtain a treasure?”

Yao Lingyuan gave a nod, then immediately shook his head, saying, ”The scene does suggest as much, but we cannot rule out the possibility that the killer staged the crime scene deliberately to mislead the investigation.”

Hearing this, Deputy General Zhang Feng furrowed his brow and gave Yao Lingyuan a skeptical look, feeling as though the man had just said something and nothing at the same time.

At the same time, Mei Yanyu raised his head and glanced at the sun’s position above the government office, then shifted his gaze back to Hu Rui’an and the other two, who were as lively as ever.

For a moment, a look of puzzled surprise spread across his face.

As the son of the Sheng Province Tianjin Guards Deputy Commander, he naturally knew the situation at the Tianjin Guards branch office better than anyone.

Following the pattern of everything that had happened before, every person who had encountered the ghost in the Tianjin Guards building at night had, without a single exception, been found dead by strangulation before the following noon, and not one had survived.

Yet now, to his considerable surprise, Hu Rui’an and the other two had clearly broken this pattern, and were still alive and in perfectly fine condition. Nothing had happened to them at all.

Mei Yanyu looked at the three of them, and could not help furrowing his brow, thinking to himself, ”How can this be? Even my father, with my mother and Master Mu and a whole group of experts protecting him, still could not avoid being attacked by the ghost and seriously injured before noon. Why have they been left completely unscathed?”

Just as he was completely at a loss to explain it, a black falcon suddenly flew in over the government office, circled once, and then dove down to land on Mei Yanyu’s shoulder.

Seeing this, Mei Yanyu immediately composed himself, and quickly removed a finger-sized bamboo tube tied to the falcon’s leg.

He then sent the falcon back into the air, opened the bamboo tube, and scanned the note inside.

Very shortly, Mei Yanyu’s entire expression froze, and he read through the contents of the note carefully once more.

Then he suddenly raised his head to look at Hu Rui’an, and then let his gaze sweep past Li Musheng, Murong Xiaoya, and the others.

For a moment, his expression became visibly unsettled and uncertain.

At this point, the servant following behind Mei Yanyu seemed to sense the change in him, and immediately transmitted through condensed True Qi, asking, ”Young Master, has something happened?”

Hearing this, Mei Yanyu let out a quiet breath and said, ”I have just received word. Bai Changfeng is dead.”

The moment those words fell, the servant behind him narrowed their eyes slightly, then asked, ”Was it one of the Murong family’s undying old ones who acted?”

But he saw Mei Yanyu give an almost imperceptible shake of his head, saying, ”No. It was done by Hu Rui’an and his people. And Bai Changfeng was killed with a single pointing of a finger.”

As he said this, Mei Yanyu suddenly seemed to remember something, froze briefly, then looked as though something had just become clear to him, saying, ”I finally understand what Hu Rui’an meant when he said what he said earlier. Not only did they kill Bai Liwei, they also killed Bai Changfeng himself.”

The moment those words fell, the servant behind Mei Yanyu also went quiet.

After a moment, they furrowed their brow and transmitted once more, asking, ”Hu Rui’an’s martial Dao cultivation is something I can see through at a glance. He is absolutely no match for Bai Changfeng. Does the Young Master know who actually made the move?”

Hearing this, Mei Yanyu thought for a moment, then shook his head, saying, ”The news of Bai Changfeng’s death has been suppressed by the four major martial world families. Our people’s information is limited, and we do not know who actually acted.”

As he spoke, Mei Yanyu’s gaze shifted to look at Li Musheng under the covered walkway not far away, saying, ”Even so, I suspect it most likely has something to do with this Eighth Prince.”