Two Secret Letters

At dusk, Xu Qi'an waited for Wei Yuan to return from the palace.

A spacious and luxurious carriage drove into the yamen. Wei Yuan stepped down from the carriage using a small ladder, and Xu Qi'an eagerly approached him, whispering, "Duke Wei."

Wei Yuan, whose temples were graying, glanced at him and said as he walked, "Prince Yu wrote a letter in blood, accusing the Earl of Pingyuan, the Supervising Secretary of the Ministry of Revenue, and the Minister of War of plotting to harm members of the imperial family."

Xu Qi'an had already learned of Prince Yu's actions from Princess Huaiqing, and nodded. "His Majesty has handed it over to the Three Judicial Offices for joint trial?"

"No!" Wei Yuan shook his head. "His Majesty's anger is no less than that of Prince Yu. He couldn't wait that long, so he immediately wrote an imperial edict, summoning the Imperial Censor to the palace to confront those three face to face. Also present at the time were many high-ranking officials of the court."

"And the result?" Xu Qi'an already knew the result, but he still had to ask.

Wei Yuan sighed, "Those who plot against members of the imperial family will have their entire clan exterminated. The official proclamation will be issued by tomorrow morning at the latest. The Liang faction is finished."

The phrase "exterminating three clans" slightly moved Xu Qi'an.

The term "extermination of three clans" refers to the father's three clans, the mother's three clans, and the wife's three clans, which falls under the category of extreme punishment, second only to the extermination of nine clans for treason.

"Sigh, tomorrow will probably see a lot of heads rolling around." Xu Qi'an sighed as well, unsure whether to applaud or feel sorry for the innocent people who would be implicated.

Although the Earl of Pingyuan's entire family was wiped out, compared to the extermination of his three clans, at least several dozen or even a hundred more people would die. None of the relatives within the Earl of Pingyuan's three clans would escape.

The same applies to the other two.

"Liang Party?" Xu Qi'an asked in confusion.

Wei Yuan nodded. "The Liang faction is the biggest beneficiary of Prince Yu's withdrawal from the power stage. It is led by Zhang Feng, Minister of War, and Sun Mingzhong, Supervising Ministry of Revenue of the Ministry of Revenue. The Earl of Pingyuan joined the Liang faction last year."

"Duke Wei, then, then what about my matter?" Xu Qi'an said in a low voice. The political factions in the court were too far removed from him, and Xu Qi'an was unwilling to accept it.

He only cares about his own future and his own life.

"No rush. His Majesty is in a bad mood right now. Bringing up this matter now would only make things worse," Wei Yuan shook his head.

That makes sense. Xu Qi'an nodded, bid farewell to Wei Yuan, and headed home in the afterglow of dusk.

Dusk, in a certain room.

A fair hand holds a pen and writes on the letter paper:

--

Dear Master:

The Sangbo case has come to an end. The Ministry of Rites once said that cooperating with us was like asking a tiger for its skin. Hey, he was right.

A year ago, I inadvertently witnessed the encounter between Princess Pingyang and Monk Heng Hui. Heng Hui died but did not die; his Primordial Spirit condensed resentment. I refined him into a puppet and kept him by my side.

And I told you about this, and you said that the opportunity has arrived, and the year of the Capital Evaluation will be the beginning of our plan for a great cause that will last for five hundred years.

Please forgive my great disrespect, but I was not optimistic to begin with. The Director of the Bureau of Astronomy and the Daoist Master of the Human Sect are among the strongest figures in the world.

In this incident, however, the two, out of some tacit understanding, chose to stand by and do nothing. Once again, I praise you; the master's wisdom is unparalleled.

Emperor Yuanjing was not enthusiastic about this case; otherwise, he would not have appointed a bronze gong as the presiding official. All of this was within your expectations.

However, that gong-wielding man was extremely skilled, possessing a keen sense of smell.

During the investigation, he discovered your arrival. He has repeatedly come to the Imperial Academy of Music to spy on the Yao Qi. May I ask, was this intentional?

In addition, other Nightwatchers were also secretly investigating.

Left with no other choice, I had to push Grey Princess out to take the blame. I know she is one of your people, please forgive me for taking the liberty of making this decision.

Don't worry, the item has been delivered to the rightful owner.

I'm very sorry, all leads in the tax silver case have been cut off. I've had several contacts with Zhou Li, and he is indeed just a somewhat clever playboy who is unaware of everything his father, Vice Minister Zhou, has planned.

Here, I would like to inform my master of four things:

Firstly, during the transport of the tax silver, Vice Minister Zhou had many opportunities to embezzle it, which would have been safer, but he chose to do so in the capital, where he would have embezzled 150,000 taels of tax silver.

This is truly perplexing. Vice Minister Zhou is a smart man, yet he made a foolish move. I believe there must be a reason for this.

Unfortunately, Vice Minister Zhou died unexpectedly during his exile, and no one could give me the answer anymore.

Second: According to reliable sources, Vice Minister Zhou has embezzled more than a million taels of silver over the past twenty years, but when the Zhou Residence was raided, the court only managed to find a few thousand taels of silver.

Where did all that silver go?

Thirdly, through a secret investigation of the Bureau of Astronomy, it was discovered that the youngest disciple of the Director was named Chu Caiwei, a very pretty and interesting girl. Of course, she was far from being comparable to her noble and beautiful master.

What I'm trying to say is that the Warlock in the Bureau of Astronomy called her Junior Sister or Sixth Senior Sister. The Director of the Observatory only had five direct disciples.

Fourth: The members of the Witch God Cult killed Magistrate Zhao of Taikang County, who was the official who discovered the saltpeter mine.

Yes, the sorcerers of the Witch God Cult intervened in this matter, and they could have used a more subtle and covert method to silence them, but instead chose to kill them in a dream.

It is not difficult to deduce that they were trying to mislead the court, smear the Prince of Zhenbei, and sow discord between Emperor Yuanjing and the Prince of Zhenbei.

Finally, there's something I'm ashamed to say: I've fallen in love with a man, a man I shouldn't love. I beg my master to have mercy and reshape my physical body.

--A servant who will always be loyal to you.

In another secret room, a cloaked man picked up a pen and wrote:

Dear Sir/Madam:

I bear primary responsibility for the failure of the tax silver scheme. The death of Vice Minister Zhou was purely due to his folly. His self-righteous son caused the failure of a series of plans.

As you predicted, the Kingdom of Ten Thousand Demons's plan succeeded; they released the sealed artifact beneath Sangbo.

I will describe in detail the intelligence I have gathered over the past year in this letter.

About a year ago, the struggle between the nobles and the civil officials reached a fever pitch. Prince Yu, representing the entire noble force, was appointed Minister of War with the tacit approval of Emperor Yuanjing. He was just one step away from entering the cabinet.

During this process, his legitimate daughter, Princess Pingyang, fell in love with a monk from Qinglong Temple. The two decided to elope and sought help from the eldest son of the Earl of Pingyuan, a family friend.

Three dissolute young men, coveting Princess Pingyang's beauty, planned to rape her and then kill them to silence them. However, they encountered fierce resistance, and Princess Pingyang committed suicide by swallowing a hairpin.

The spy planted by the Kingdom of Ten Thousand Demons in the Great Feng accidentally discovered this scene. She used the Corpse Gu to turn Heng Hui into a walking corpse puppet, and kept this secret hidden.

The Great Feng launched a new round of Capital Evaluation, and the infighting between factions intensified. It must be said that Emperor Yuanjing was a formidable emperor, and his imperial tactics were masterful.

But he was not a good emperor; in his eyes, there was only power and immortality.

The spy from the Kingdom of Ten Thousand Demons, possessing this secret, quietly searched for a partner in the capital. Ultimately, she set her sights on the Ministry of Rites and the forces behind him.

Because it just so happened that during that period, a saltpeter mine was discovered in the Dahuangshan Mountains of Taikang County, which was exactly what the remnants of the Kingdom of Ten Thousand Demons needed.

No one in this world could silently infiltrate Sangbo and destroy Yongzhen Mountain and River Temple under the noses of the Supervisor and the Head of the Human Sect, but gunpowder could help them accomplish this task.

The forces behind the Ministry of Rites have always coveted absolute control of the court and the suppression of all other factions. The Liang faction, as one of the obstacles, was naturally on their list of targets to be eliminated.

The two sides quickly reached an agreement: the Ministry of Rites would help the remnants of the Kingdom of Ten Thousand Demons destroy the Yongzhen Mountain and River Temple, releasing the sealed artifact at the bottom of the temple.

The remnants of the Kingdom of Ten Thousand Demons pushed Heng Hui to the forefront, guiding the Nightwatchers to investigate the disappearance of Princess Pingyang.

To clear himself of suspicion, the Ministry of Rites used a spy, Zhou Chixiong, a centurion of the Golden Guard, to smuggle gunpowder into the capital and bury it under the Yongzhen Shanhe Temple. He also murdered nine officials from the Court of Judicial Review, the Ministry of Rites, and the palace to confuse the authorities and mislead the officials in charge of the three departments.

They even tried to frame Qi Dang's Minister of Ministry of Works using gunpowder, but they underestimated Xu Qi'an, the Copper Xu Qi'an. I assassinated Magistrate Zhao and tried to mislead him into investigating the Prince of Zhenbei, but he didn't fall for it. That boy is exceptionally clever.

Zhou Chixiong, a centurion of the Golden Guard, deliberately murdered Liu Han, a junior officer, attracting the attention of the Nightwatchers and the government office. During their questioning, he used Law Artifact to shield his Qi-Watching Technique, guiding the Nightwatchers to turn his attention to Qinglong Temple, where he discovered the case of the monk Heng Hui's elopement and, following the clues, investigated the factional struggle that occurred a year ago.

This move was absolutely brilliant; I believe it was beyond the capabilities of a mere centurion. Without a doubt, it was the daughter of the Demon Emperor who made this move.

That's the general outline of the matter. There are still two points I haven't clarified:

First: Despite my painstaking efforts, I have yet to ascertain the true nature of the sealed artifact beneath Sangbo Lake. However, one thing is clear: it is deeply connected to Buddhist School. The purpose of the remnants of the Kingdom of Ten Thousand Demons in releasing it remains unknown.

Second: The attitude of the supervisor is truly unfathomable. While I can guess the purpose of Emperor Yuanjing's lifting of the city ban, I cannot fathom the supervisor's thoughts.

Even though he did nothing, I always felt that everything was within his expectations and under his control.

--complete

Xu Qi'an returned home, had dinner, and told his second uncle about the progress of the Sangbo case and the truth behind the Pingyang Princess case.

Second Uncle Xu listened in stunned silence, not eating a single bite for a long time, muttering, "These scholars are all wicked. Although I killed quite a few people back then, compared to them, I was practically upright."

"Ningyan, remember, never argue with scholars again. If it comes to violence, don't hesitate, or you won't even know when you've been taken down."

Xu Qi'an nodded and hummed in agreement, thinking to himself, "Have you forgotten that you have a scholar's son?"

After finishing his meal, Xu Qi'an teased Xu Lingyin, chatted with Lingyue, and then prepared to return to his courtyard.

"Ahem." Auntie coughed insincerely, glancing to the side, and said, "I had someone make you a dress. Lingyue will send it to you later. Whether it fits or not, I don't care. Wear it or not, it's up to you."

"Wow, is the sun rising in the west today?" Xu Qi'an looked outside in surprise.

Her aunt gritted her teeth, and a single word escaped from her rosy lips. "Get out."

Xu Qi'an immediately rolled back to his own courtyard.

The moment he pushed open the door, he suddenly felt a pang of fear, not the kind of fear he felt when receiving messages from fragments of the Earth Book, but a fear that made his hair stand on end and goosebumps rise.

Xu Qi'an stiffly turned his head to look at the bed, where he saw a bright red severed hand lying quietly.

His scalp tingled instantly, his adrenaline surged, and cold sweat rolled down his face.