The newcomer was, of course, Chen Ye.
He naturally knew that the grassland barbarians had attacked the border passes and were advancing straight toward the Capital.
He had come to see how these powerful and influential families would react.
Would they stand or fall with the nation, or surrender before the fighting had even begun?
The result was just as he had expected. These families had no backbone whatsoever. The army had yet to arrive, and they were already pondering the terms of their surrender.
At the thought, a cold sneer rose in Chen Ye's heart.
Given his current strength, slipping into the study and slaughtering everyone from the Lin Family inside would not actually be all that difficult.
But Chen Ye did not want to do that.
There was no point.
Especially for a man like Lin Hong, death was certainly not the most terrifying fate.
What was most terrifying was watching everything he had spent his life building-the glory of his family, his boundless wealth, his descendants' prospects... all vanish like bubbles and be ground into dust.
That would be the most heart-rending revenge.
And right now, an excellent opportunity had presented itself.
The emperor in the palace, Yang Zhao, was now like a trapped beast driven into a corner.
His failure to capture the Moon-Treading Great Thief had already made him lose all face. With the barbarian army at the gates and the military garrisons standing idly by, all of it had left him unable to sit or stand in peace.
The emperor desperately needed a victory now, even if it was only a victory over his own people, to restore his crumbling authority and intimidate the ministers who obeyed him in public but defied him in private.
So as long as Chen Ye presented the evidence of the Lin Family's collusion with the enemy, Yang Zhao would surely pounce like a shark that had scented blood and tear the Lin Family to pieces without hesitation!
Of course, the powerful families of the Capital had always stood together, their roots tangled and intertwined. Under normal circumstances, even if Yang Zhao wanted to move against the Lin Family, the other families would most likely step in to intercede, and the matter would ultimately be reduced to a minor affair.
But Chen Ye knew that their so-called solidarity rested on the absence of any fundamental conflict of interest.
In truth, these families were just as full of scheming and infighting among themselves.
And once the Lin Family fell, its vast holdings, as well as the positions of power left vacant, would become a huge slab of fat meat.
When that happened, those so-called allies would be even more eager than the emperor to pounce and divide it up among themselves.
The only difficulty in the entire matter was how to deliver the evidence to the emperor in a reasonable and plausible manner.
He had to find someone with sufficient standing and influence and, most importantly, a deep-seated grudge against the Lin Family to be the bird that stuck its head out.
He would hand the man a knife, and the man would do the stabbing.
But who in the Capital had such a deep grudge against the Lin Family?
A figure instantly appeared in Chen Ye's mind.
As he pondered, Lin Hong's voice rang out again. "Here is a letter. A De, I'm leaving this matter to you. Take it and leave the Capital at once. Go to the front lines and deliver it to Khan Yelü of the grasslands."
"Yes, Patriarch!" a steady male voice answered from inside the room.
"Don't worry. Two years ago, I already established contact with Khan Yelü's younger brother through a trade route. When they see that you're from the Lin Family, they naturally won't make things difficult for you."
At those words, not only the Lin Family members in the study, but even Chen Ye on the roof could not help feeling a chill in his heart.
What a Lin Hong. What deep scheming!
He had begun laying his plans two years ago, securing a path of retreat for himself.
With families like this eating away at the foundations of the nation from the imperial court, how could Great Zhao's realm fail to fall?
But none of that had anything to do with Chen Ye. If a dynasty like Great Zhao fell, so be it. There was nothing worth missing about it.
What interested him was the letter Lin Hong had given to his subordinate named A De.
Chen Ye remained on the roof ridge and continued to wait. A moment later, a powerfully built man strode out of the room and hurried away.
Chen Ye moved and silently followed him.
A De rode straight for the city gates. It was late at night, and the emperor had previously ordered a lockdown, so the gates had long since been shut.
But the Lin Family had established itself in the Capital for a hundred years, and its influence had long since seeped into every corner.
A De did not go to the main gate. Instead, he circled around to a relatively secluded stretch of the city wall, where an officer of the city guard had long been waiting.
After a brief exchange, the officer waved his hand. Several of his personal guards immediately stepped forward and quietly opened a corner of the gate to let A De out.
Once outside the city, A De squeezed his legs against his horse's flanks. The steed's four hooves flew as it raced north across the wilderness.
Not long after he left the city, Chen Ye leaped down from the wall and followed close behind him.
Though he was not riding a horse, Chen Ye was not slow in the slightest.
Like a wisp of blue smoke racing close to the ground, he swiftly closed the distance to the steed ahead under cover of the wild grass and the night.
As the distance narrowed, Chen Ye suddenly raised a hand. A small knife flew from his grasp, turning into a streak of silver that flashed through the darkness and vanished.
There was a muffled pfft.
A De, still galloping ahead, went rigid. The tip of a blade had emerged from his throat.
Then he pitched headfirst from his horse. After a few twitches, he moved no more.
Freed from its master's control, the steed galloped another several dozen meters before gradually stopping. It turned its head and looked in puzzlement at its fallen master.
Just then, Chen Ye's figure slowly emerged from the darkness.
He came to A De and found that his head had been smashed flat in the fall. He was naturally as dead as could be.
Chen Ye bent down and quickly retrieved a wax-sealed letter tube from inside his robes. After confirming it was the right one, he turned and raced back toward the Capital.
Although the city gates were heavily guarded, they posed no obstacle to Chen Ye now. After entering the city with ease, he headed straight for Vice Minister Lu's residence in the northern part of the city without hesitation.
Meanwhile, at Vice Minister Lu's residence, Lu Ying, a high official of the Ministry of Personnel, sat blankly in his study.
His son, Lu Jingcheng, was not studying today either. Instead, he sat beside him with a gloomy expression.
After a long while, Lu Jingcheng could not help saying, "Father, the nation has declined to this point, and the grassland wolf cavalry could arrive at any moment. If the Capital falls, it will surely be a catastrophe."
Lu Ying sighed as well. "Of course I know. Once the city falls, the common people will surely be plunged into misery and become slaves beneath the blades of a foreign people."
"Among all the officials at court, has no one thought of a solution?" Lu Jingcheng pressed.
"A solution?" Lu Ying gave a bitter smile. "At court today, His Majesty asked the families to donate some silver to pay the troops. And what happened? Of all the civil and military officials in the hall, not one said a word."
"In the end, His Majesty had to force them. Only then did the Duke of Ying and a few others reluctantly contribute a thousand taels of silver per family."
"Heh, a thousand taels! A single meal for those fellows might cost more than that!"
Lu Jingcheng fell silent.
He cherished the ambition to set the world right, but the stronger that ambition was, the more deeply he felt a powerlessness that reached into his bones when faced with Great Zhao's utterly rotten court.
As father and son sat facing each other in silence, a cold glint suddenly shot in through the window and struck a pillar in the study with a thunk, embedding itself firmly in the wood!
The sudden turn of events made father and son tremble all over in fright, and they sprang to their feet.
When they looked closely, they saw that it was a flying dagger, its blade still humming. And tied beneath its hilt was a letter!