Imperial Guard on the Case—Who Dares Obstruct Us? Kill!

"Hold it!"

Huang Shaojie thrust out a palm to block Cao Renqi's hand as it chopped toward Wu Zhen. He said coldly, "Lord Cao, what are you trying to do? Are you trying to silence him forever?"

Cao Renqi wore a righteous expression as he said, "Battalion Commander Huang, what are you talking about? Why would I kill him to silence him?"

Huang Shaojie raised a brow. "If that is so, why did Lord Cao just strike at the crown of his head? Wu Zhen's acupoints are sealed. With Lord Cao's skill, that palm strike would have made his head burst like a flower."

Cao Renqi cupped his hands. "Battalion Commander Huang, this scoundrel Wu Zhen colluded with the Japanese pirates and has now attempted to assassinate this official. His crimes are unforgivable. What is the point of keeping such a man alive? It would be simpler to kill him outright."

Wu Zhen roared, "Cao Renqi, bullshit! I've killed no fewer than a hundred Japanese pirates, and I hate them to the bone! You forged a few letters to frame me for colluding with them only because you feared I would avenge my family. That is why you devised this venomous scheme to set me up and kill me..."

Cao Renqi pointed at Wu Zhen and shouted, "Wu Zhen, stop trying to quibble! Confess your guilt honestly, and this official may grant you an intact corpse!"

He then pointed at Huang Shaojie and said to Wu Zhen, "Do you know who this lord is? He is a Banner Commander of the Imperial Guard. Do you think Battalion Commander Huang is so easily fooled by the likes of you?"

"If you still refuse to confess honestly, Battalion Commander Huang will take you to the Imperial Guard's Imperial Prison and let you sample all one hundred and eight tortures. Then you will beg for life but be unable to live, beg for death but be unable to die!"

It was obvious that Cao Renqi was threatening Wu Zhen, urging him to confess now so that he would not be thrown into the Imperial Guard's Imperial Prison and subjected to cruel torture.

Who in the realm had not heard of the Imperial Guard's Imperial Prison? Who did not know its reputation?

Even men forged of steel and iron could not endure those 108 extreme tortures and would be reduced to a puddle of rotten mud.

Once in the Imperial Prison, a prisoner's greatest desire was simply to die.

Yet Wu Zhen spat and snorted coldly. "So what if it is the Imperial Guard's Imperial Prison? I, Wu Zhen, stand upright and sit straight. I have never done anything to betray my country. Even if you skin me and pull out my sinews, I will never admit to colluding with the Japanese pirates!"

Wu Zhen's words struck the ground like iron. Huang Shaojie watched coldly from the side and could tell that he was a man of unyielding backbone.

Huang Shaojie did not believe that such a man would collude with the Japanese pirates and sell out his country.

Yet he sneered. "Is that so? I will take you to the Imperial Guard's Imperial Prison right now. Let us see just how hard your bones truly are!"

With that, he seized Wu Zhen by the arm and started walking away.

Cao Renqi hurried forward and cupped his hands. "Battalion Commander Huang, in this official's view, this scoundrel Wu Zhen will not confess even if beaten to death. Why not simply kill him and save the trouble?"

To Cao Renqi, Wu Zhen was an unstable factor. If the Imperial Guard investigated the case from back then and discovered that Wu Zhen had indeed been framed by him, Cao Renqi would be in deep trouble.

Huang Shaojie cast Cao Renqi a glance and said coldly, "Lord Cao, when the Imperial Guard handles a case, it is not anyone's place to point fingers and meddle. Understood?"

Cao Renqi shuddered and could only bow as he withdrew to one side. "This official understands."

Though he desperately did not want Huang Shaojie to take Wu Zhen away, what could he do?

Did he dare forcibly keep Wu Zhen here?

Leaving aside the fact that he could not defeat Huang Shaojie, even if he could, he would not dare lay a hand on an Imperial Guard Banner Commander.

Huang Shaojie escorted Wu Zhen back to the Imperial Guard office.

He did not throw Wu Zhen directly into the underground prison. Instead, he brought him to his own duty room.

After shutting the door, Huang Shaojie sat down in a chair.

Though Wu Zhen's hands and feet were not shackled, he had sustained internal injuries, and several of his acupoints had been sealed. His martial arts had been restrained, and at this moment, he was weaker than even an ordinary man.

Huang Shaojie took a sip of tea, looked at Wu Zhen standing there with his head held high, and asked, "Wu Zhen, you said that ten years ago Cao Renqi violated your wife, murdered your entire family, and framed you for colluding with the Japanese pirates. What exactly happened? Tell me everything in detail."

A look of grief and indignation appeared on Wu Zhen's face. He said, "Ten years ago, I was a centurion in the Suzhou military camp, while Cao Renqi was a chiliarch and my immediate superior."

"One day, I invited Cao Renqi to my home as a guest and served him fine wine and food. Who could have imagined that I was inviting a wolf into the house? While my wife was pouring him wine, that bastard Cao secretly pinched her thigh."

"At the time, I did not notice what that bastard Cao had done. My wife was also afraid that I would fight him to the death and bring disaster upon us, so she did not dare say anything."

"The next day, that bastard Cao found an excuse to send me and my men to Yancheng to search for Japanese pirates. Yet that night, he took the chance to sneak into my home and violate my wife."

As he said this, Wu Zhen clenched his fists so tightly that his nails dug into his flesh. His eyes were red, nearly spitting fire.

Huang Shaojie could not help asking, "Since you were in Yancheng, how did you later learn of all this?"

Wu Zhen drew a deep breath and continued, "Two days later, I returned home from Yancheng and found my wife. She had already hanged herself! She left behind a letter that told me the truth."

"The letter said that after I left, that bastard Cao came and forced himself upon her. He warned her not to tell me and said that she was to willingly cooperate with him in the future. She had no face to see me, so she could only choose death."

"Grief and fury consumed me, and I immediately grabbed my saber to seek that bastard Cao out and fight him to the death! But the moment I stepped out of my home, I saw that bastard Cao leading men to arrest me, accusing me of colluding with the Japanese pirates."

"I went mad and tried to fight that bastard Cao to the death, but I only hated that my martial arts were inferior to his. I suffered several saber wounds. My parents desperately tried to stop that bastard Cao, yet they were both killed by him!"

"Watching my parents die beneath that bastard Cao's blade, my heart twisted like knives! But I knew that this was not the time for grief. Only by escaping and preserving my life would I have a chance to return and avenge myself on that bastard Cao."

"I fled toward the mountains, and that bastard Cao chased me to a cliff on a high peak, where there was no road left to escape. I leaped off, but a wandering Daoist gathering herbs halfway down the cliff saved my life."

"I took that benevolent Daoist as my master and studied martial arts under him for ten years. Only last month did my master pass away, and only then did I descend the mountain to seek revenge on that bastard Cao. Damn it, I still failed!"

As he spoke, Wu Zhen clenched his fists. His blood-red eyes stared at Huang Shaojie with hatred.

If not for this Imperial Guard lackey's intervention, even if he could not have killed Cao Renqi today, he could at least have escaped safely and still had another chance to kill that bastard Cao.

But now that he had been captured by the Imperial Guard, Wu Zhen already knew what his miserable fate would be.

After listening to Wu Zhen's account, Huang Shaojie paid no attention to his hateful gaze.

Had he been Wu Zhen, he would have hated himself as well.

He rose to his feet, paced before Wu Zhen, and said, "Wu Zhen, I will investigate what you have said and get to the bottom of it. If things are truly as you claim, this official will clear your name. And I will certainly seize Cao Renqi and bring him to the Imperial Guard's Imperial Prison, where he will be brought to justice."

Wu Zhen's hateful gaze turned to astonishment. Somewhat unable to believe it, he asked, "Will you truly investigate the truth for me? Will you dare bring Cao Renqi to justice? He is now a Principal Fourth Rank Commandant, with more than ten thousand troops under his command!"

Huang Shaojie clasped his hands behind his back, raised his head, and snorted coldly. "What the hell is a Principal Fourth Rank Commandant? Even a first-rank minister will be arrested by the Imperial Guard if he commits a crime! There is no official in this realm whom the Imperial Guard cannot arrest."