In the shadows at the street corner, Zhao Wuji stood perfectly still, like a stone statue.
That smile from across the street was like an invisible needle, piercing straight into the calm waters of his heart.
It wasn't a provocation. It was a declaration.
A declaration that the rules of the game had been completely rewritten.
"Commander?" one of the Imperial Guards behind him asked quietly, confused. Their targets—the merchants—had suddenly gone and turned themselves in to Shuntian Prefecture. What kind of move was that?
Zhao Wuji didn't turn around.
His gaze remained fixed on the open window. Gu Shen had already disappeared from sight, but the invisible pressure he exuded still lingered.
Obscure who's really involved. Shift the battlefield...
Those eight words flashed through Zhao Wuji's mind.
A masterful move.
Truly masterful.
He had forcibly reduced a treason case of the highest order to a civil dispute handled by a local government office. A group of hot potatoes had become "protected assets" in the Shuntian Prefecture jail.
Did the Crown Prince want to use them as a sword to strike at Prince Yan?
Did Prince Yan want to remove these thorns to eliminate future trouble?
Now, neither of them could touch the merchants easily.
Shuntian Prefecture Magistrate Feng Yuan was a notorious old fox, a fixture of the bureaucracy who had weathered every storm. If anyone wanted to get someone out of his hands—or kill them—without losing a pound of flesh, they could forget about it.
More importantly, Gu Shen's move had shut the Imperial Guards out, too.
The Imperial Guards held immense power and could meddle in almost anything, but they couldn't interfere with the Shuntian Prefecture's internal investigations. That was for the Censorate and the Ministry of Personnel to worry about. If they forced their way in,