Chapter 127: Death of the Accomplice
Translator: StackThatCoin Editor: Hitesh
After looting nearly everything found in Shi Tianmo's secret chamber, under the persuasion of Wu Qi, Princess Zhang Le had her eyes flicker with five colored divine rays while reluctantly sparing a few stolen goods for Yan Bugui, so he could bundle them up and send to Scouting Office as the evidence of the crime. Besides from the jewelry and other similar treasures, they also found some books of accounts and documents. However, no matter it was Wu Qi or Princess Zhang Le, none of them showed any interest in these findings. Thus, they were all brought away by officials from the Scouting Office.
In addition to those treasures of immeasurable value in the secret chamber, they found a few warehouses in the backyard as well. They were fully packed with gold bars, silver bars, and copper coins. As Shi Martial Club had been operating for ninety years in Ji City, besides from the wealth they obtained from robbery, the income from their legal business was pretty significant as well. The value of the treasures in these warehouses was over a million. Conveniently, Wu Qi took away some gold and silver bars and put them into his storage ring while he did not touch any of those copper coins. On the other side, Princess Zhang Le simply ignored this petty wealth, as the rare treasures found looted from the secret chamber by her were merely because they looked splendid.
With his wealth boosted significantly, Wu Qi and Princess Zhang Le walked out from Shi Martial Club with their faces smiling. Then they saw Shi Tianmo, who was narrowing his deep eyes and letting out a strange smile towards the Scouting Officers guarding beside him. His shoulder blade had been broken, and all thirty-six extraordinary acupoints throughout his body were pierced, causing all his innate energy to leak and be emptied. But, even with such cruel torment, he still carried an arrogant and overbearing manner while threatening those secret agents of Scouting Office, mentioning that he would find their relatives and kill all the members of their clans.
Upon seeing Shi Tianmo still behave arrogantly even though he had been brought into such a sorry state, Princess Zhang Le frowned, then indifferently pointed at him and said, "This guy is absolutely unbridled. Somebody, pull out all his teeth and replace them with a mouth of dog's teeth! Apply some 'Nine Cherries Bone Mending Paste' to them, so that he can have those dog teeth firm and tough! I really wish to see, after having his mouth filled with dog's teeth, how this guy who mimics a dog’s barking can still face the public!"
Wu Qi shuddered. He really wondered where did Princess Zhang Le learn this kind of torturing method. Logically, as she always stayed in the Imperial Palace, she shouldn't have any way to get in touch with this kind of knowledge. The Nine Cherries Bone Mending Paste was a secret formulated medicinal paste of Great Yan Dynasty. When a person's arm or leg was broken, as long as his blood was still warm, applying this medicinal paste would make the bone mend in an instant. If Shi Tianmo's teeth were pulled out and planted with dog's teeth after applying Nine Cherries Bone Mending Paste, they would immediately be bound tightly with his gum, and there would not be any adverse reaction.
If the most famous grandmaster of martial arts in the underworld of Great Yan Dynasty were tormented by in such a way, then Shi Tianmo would really have no face to stand in front of public anymore.
Shi Tianmo's face turned deadly pale. Aggressively, he glared at Princess Zhang Le, threw his head back and roared, "Fine, I've raged through my life, how could I be insulted by a girl? Fine, fine! My master will definitely avenge me. You just wait for it, every single member of your nine generation ancestors will have to die!" After the furious roar, Shi Tianmo turned to his son, Shi Wugou, who was also being tied up tightly beside him, "My son, why are you not killing yourself yet? Could you want them to torment you like what they just said?"
Shi Wugou gave his old father a look, then roared wildly into the sky, "Master, you have to avenge your humble servant and his father!"
Suddenly, numerous loud noises sounding like the breaking of steel bars came from Shi Wugou's body, as light green blood violently burst out from his seven apertures. In just the blink of an eye, his breathing stopped completely. Besides him, Shi Tianmo let out a wild cry too, and a loud boom came from his body like a sudden thunderclap. It was followed by sticky and dark green blood shooting out from his seven apertures while his body struggled and trembled violently for a brief moment. He too had committed suicide with a secret technique. Those secret agents of Scouting Office standing right beside them simply had no time to respond to the sudden change, and could only watch how they killed themselves.
Two secret agents stood too close to Shi Tianmo, and the blood that burst out from his seven apertures had splashed onto their arms. It acted like a strong acid and instantly burned and corroded their skin, turning them charred and rotten, emitting a pungent smell of wood and grass. Shrill cries instantly came from these two secret agents. It startled Wu Qi, as he quickly sprung forward while drawing out Sword of Greedy Wolf and chopped off their arms. Before two broken arms could touch the ground, they had been burned into ashes by the green blood.
Everybody at the scene gasped. How could Shi Tianmo himself endure such a poisonous blood?
A peculiar gleam flickered from Wu Qi's eyes. Stretching his hand out, he touched on the nostrils and blood vessel on their neck, shook his head, sighed and said, "Well, they are considered bold for doing that. Let's not further insult their bodies. Xiaobai, bring them out from the city, find a blessed land and have them properly buried!"
Although he said that in front of everyone, but at the same time, Wu Qi whispered to Meng Xiaobai with a divine sense, asking him to bring two dead bodies and make a round outside the city, randomly find a place and dig out a hole to pretend that he was going to bury them. Then, he asked him to just bring both the dead bodies back and hid them in Duke Yan Le's Mansion. He also asked Meng Xiaobai to be extra cautious when returning to the city, and never let anybody noticed that he had brought two dead bodies back.
Wearing the same expression, Meng Xiaobai answered secretly. Then he beckoned Zhao Chenzui, brought along a group of over one hundred private guards of Duke Yan Le's Mansion, and drove a large coach, bringing the dead bodies of Shi Tianmo and his son towards the outside of the city. The people from Scouting Office did not express any opinion towards Wu Qi's order. Since Shi Tianmo had already died, what purpose was there to keep his dead body here? Although this pair of father-and-son was cultivating a rather strange technique, as they had died now, no one could interrogate them to ask about the technique.
Wu Qi was sneering in his mind. Shi Tianmo and his son had committed suicide as they did not want to suffer any insult. Although that could deceive everybody else, they could not hide their dirty trick from Wu Qi. There were more than one hundred methods in Scroll of Stealing that allowed one to hold their breath and pretend death, and every single one of them was much more advanced and profound compared to the evil technique used by Shi Tianmo. They were merely displaying their slight skill before an expert. Since they wanted to pretend death, Wu Qi simply would grant their wish, as he could take this opportunity and bring them back to Duke Yan Le's Mansion, which would allow him to make a good use of them later.
Whenever Wu Qi thought of the enormous blood and energy essence contained in their bodies, he felt hard to refrain himself from drooling! In order to make everybody believe that they were genuinely dead, this pair of father-and-son had used a secret method to shatter all their meridians, and the life force in their bodies was nearly shut off completely as well. They had only reserved a tiny thread of life force near their heart. If they were not rescued within the next thirty-six hours, they would be dead for sure. However, within these thirty-six hours, they were in a state of a real death. Thus, Wu Qi had no worry that anything unexpected would happen during this period.
Looking at Meng Xiaobai and the convoy disappearing into the far distance, Wu Qi smiled. After that, he waved his hand at Princess Zhang Le in sober earnest.
"Zi Xuan, I'm sure you have heard about what happened to this Shi Martial Club!" With a solemn expression, Wu Qi told Princess Zhang Le. "None of us had expected this that Shi Martial Club was actually the base of robbers that hid all their stolen goods! Although the masterminds have committed suicide, many of their accomplices are still here, and there are many matters that we have to work on. I need to inform the news regarding the case of Yan Buji's assassination to my young master, but we can’t afford to leave this place unattended. Because if someone cheated while we were away and set these suspects free, then our hard work will go to waste!"
Gently, he lifted up a strand of Princess Zhang Le's hair, laughed softly and said, "I need you to stay here and supervise those people from Criminal and Justice Court and Scouting Office in investigating the case, and you must urge them to work on it with their full effort. Find out if there are any other crimes that this Shi Martial Club had committed."
Hearing that Wu Qi was asking her to stay here, Princess Zhang Le's mind was immediately filled with unwillingness. She pulled Wu Qi's sleeve and murmured under her breath, "I'll follow to wherever you go. I can ask Bai Zhu'er and Bai Zu'er to stay back here. With both of them, who dares to mess around?"
Wu Qi smiled, moved closer to Princess Zhang Le's ear and whispered, "It is not only about supervising them. Shi Martial Club is a large piece of land with many buildings. I need Zi Xuan helps me to occupy it. I plan to open a martial club here. Without Zi Xuan's help, as the location of this courtyard is a golden place, it will never come into my hand!"
He sighed lightly, then looked into Princess Zhang Le's eyes and said, "Wu Qi has no family in this world. Besides Zi Xuan, there is no one else can help Wu Qi handle this matter."
Princess Zhang Le's spirit was instantly aroused. She poked her chest out, tilted her tiny chin up proudly and said, "So you want this martial club? Rest assured, Zi Xuan will definitely help you settle this properly and orderly. For anything that I've my eyes on, who dares to fight with me? This martial club will be confiscated and made a national property. Anything that belongs to the national treasure will be mine, and anything that belongs to me will be yours!"
Wu Qi narrowed his eyes and smiled, gently caressing Princess Zhang Le's hair bun.
Beside them, Yan Bugui and all other men were staring blankly into the sky. Anything that belonged to the national treasure belonged to Wu Qi? Was that a hallucination? Although Princess Zhang Le was bold enough to say that, none of them had the guts to listen to it! They were wondering if Yan Dan heard what his precious granddaughter had just said, how would he feel? And what kind of thought would leap into his mind?
Like a cat who just ate the canary, Princess Zhang Le brought a large chair and sat herself in the main hall of Shi Martial Club, giving out her orders to all the officers from Criminal and Justice Court, officers from Patrolling Office, and captains from City Guards. With this mighty existence personally supervising their duty here, all the justice departments and authorities had started to function at an unprecedented high speed. Very soon, according to the information in the books of accounts found in Shi Tianmo's secret chamber, they had concluded that Shi Martial Club was behind many robberies that happened in the past tens of years, within the radius of ten thousand miles around Ji City.
As Ji City was the absolute core of Great Yan Dynasty's politics and economy, all the rare and precious treasures under the heaven were gathering at this place. For those trade conveys and tributary parades that traveled to Ji City from different vassal kingdoms, the value of the products they brought was measured to be an astronomical figure. Shi Martial Club had been carrying out their robbery business for a couple dozens of years. Thus, their total loot was far greater than that found in the secret chamber. Everything found in the secret chamber, including those rare treasures which Wu Qi and Princess Zhang Le had privately taken possession of, were merely one percent from the total loot that Shi Martial Club had robbed in so many years.
More and more evidence was being uncovered from those books of accounts. The spirit of officers from Criminal and Justice Department was getting elevated, and the atmosphere was getting tenser.
The crime committed by Shi Martial Club was far beyond than what could be seen on the surface. Vaguely, from the records found in these books, they could tell there was a deeper plot buried deep within. For example, there was a light-golden book of accounts, inside which was a long list of names and numbers, which had been recorded using some secret symbols. If their guess was correct, these were the records of bribery that Shi Tianmo had provided to some officials, or possibly the records of merchants who helped Shi Martial Club in getting rid of stolen goods.
More and more elites from Criminal and Justice Court had rushed over to this place, and like the flies that smelled the scent of blood, the elite investigators from Central Wind Guard of Scouting Office were also swarming to Shi Martial Club. More than thirty percent of the Patrolling Officers and secret agents in Ji City had sealed off the entire Mighty Martial Street. Over ten thousand elite soldiers had set up barricades in the neighboring areas, and even all the city gates were shut. A tight security was enforced.
Swiftly, all the captured apprentices of Shi Martial Club had been taken away by some men, including Wei Xiaoxiao's guard who Wu Qi personally captured. As Wu Qi had specially given the order, the guarding force around this man and his followers was extra tight.
Right when everything was being carried out orderly and properly, a group of elite men, nearly a couple dozens of them, including those who were clad in an official outfit of Criminal and Justice Court and soft armor of Scouting Office, suddenly launched an assault. They drew their weapons and hacked toward those apprentices beside them, chopping off their heads with one swift strike. Their weapons were smeared with some unknown substance, such that when the heads were chopped off, they immediately kindled and caught on fire, then turned into a pile of ashes.
It happened so suddenly that there was not enough time for all the nearby Patrolling Officers and secret agents to react. Wei Xiaoxiao's guard and his followers’ heads were chopped off as well. Flame leaped and sprang in all directions, and within the blink of an eye, their heads had turned into falling ashes.