Were Su Wen’s words true? Of course it was fake, but it was necessary. If he told Song Huaigu the truth… ‘Brat, you’re dead. You have to die even if you don’t say it.’ Would Song Huaigu choose to bring down anyone else?
He might just bite his tongue and hope that someone else would save him! But now, Song Huaigu knew that there was a huge pile of shit on his body that he could not remove no matter what. Furthermore, this matter did not involve anyone else. The only person he could rely on was the smiling Su Wen.
“I… I’ll talk!”
“Ever since I took office… the governor… and I’ve heard that in the middle of a disaster…” The collapse of Song Huaigu’s psychological defense meant that he had drawn out a large number of officials.
To be honest, Song Huaigu had no evidence for many things. However, Su Wen had achieved what he had hoped for. Through Song Huaigu, he had gained a thorough understanding of the internal affairs of the government in Li Prefecture, including the transactions between these officials and the aristocratic families. They were filthy and even had some conflicts.
Su Wen also learned about the conflicts between the aristocratic families.
Of course, Song Huaigu still had some concrete evidence. For example, he had given gifts to Shangguan Fei and also some transactions of bribery within the prefecture. This was enough.
This would be a sharp blade for Su Wen to tear apart the bureaucracy of Li Prefecture. Three days later, the Anhe County Magistrate was arrested by Su Wen. The reason for the arrest was that he had conspired with Song Huaigu to cheat money and provide the caravan with a convenient excuse to leave.
Five days later, the county magistrate from Ten Seals Town was arrested. Same excuse…
And at the same time, every time someone was arrested, the Royal Court would immediately send someone to replace the original official in a few days.
There was no need for the interrogation procedures as well. But the aristocratic families who had lost their money were anxious. They never expected Su Wen to do something completely different from what they imagined… Seven days later, when Su Wen captured another county magistrate, he announced that he had gotten back four million taels of loot! All of a sudden, the aristocratic families went into an uproar!
There was hope!
He had gotten back some of the money! However, the money was in Su Wen’s hands. The wealthy families didn’t know anything about it.
They only wanted to see the silver that they had gotten back. However, the silver was back, and a new problem appeared. Which family did these four million taels belong to? How were they going to split it? Everyone had suffered great losses. Everyone wanted to take back their family’s money first. Otherwise, who knew when they would be able to get back all their investments in full?
What if the rest of the investments could never be found?
Once again, there appeared many visitors in front of Su Wen’s house.
“Milord, Ma Mingyu has come. He has brought a beautiful woman with him and is requesting an audience,” Zhao Jin said.
Su Wen was lying on a chair when he heard Zhao Jin’s words. He sat up as he looked at Zhao Jin with dissatisfaction. “You are such a vulgar person. Why did you need to say the last sentence when you’re just reporting his presence? Moreover, why did you say that he would bring a woman even if he really brought a woman? Am I the kind of person who would be lenient just because a woman is beautiful? Let him in. After all, he is the number one family in the Li Prefecture. Let’s see what he
says.”
Zhao Jin smiled, “Roger!”
Not long after, Ma Mingyu came in to the living hall, accompanied by a woman. When he saw Su Wen, Ma Mingyu did not say anything. Instead, he smiled and said, “Lord Su, this is my younger sister. I heard that after you came to Li Prefecture, you were not used to the food here. My younger sister studied in the capital in her early years and specially made a few dishes for you to taste.” Su Wen turned to the lady he gestured towards.
Hmm, she was quite pretty. The woman placed the food box on the table beside Su Wen and gently opened it. She placed the dishes on the table one by one and took out a cup. She gently poured a cup of wine for Su Wen and said in a gentle voice, “This little lady offers a toast to my lord.” As she spoke, she gently passed the wine glass to Su Wen. Su Wen placed his hands in front of her and held her hands. His face was like a pig as he smiled and caressed her hands. Wouldn’t it be a pity if he didn’t take advantage of this god-given opportunity? Ma Mingyu was overjoyed! “D*mn, the rumors are true. This Lord Su is so lecherous! Looks like there’s hope.”
The woman’s face turned red from Su Wen’s touch, but she couldn’t take her hand away.
But all of a sudden, Su Wen sat upright with a stern expression and scolded, “What do you think? Do I look like someone who lacks food? Just leave the wine there!”
The woman and Ma Mingyu were both dumbfounded.
This change in attitude was way too fast, and for no reason at all.
At this moment, a woman appeared from the back of the hall.
Dressed in a green outfit, she looked extremely heroic.
It was Yan Luoying. She stepped out and glared at the woman who handed her the wine. She sneered and said, “What are you doing? Didn’t you hear what Lord Su said? Just put the wine away.”
The woman turned around and glanced at Ma Mingyu, who hurriedly gave her a warning look.
The woman placed the wine on the table and slowly retreated.
Ma Mingyu stood up and cupped his hands. “This must be Madam Su. I’ve long heard that Madam Su is a heroine. Seeing you today, you truly live up to your reputation!” Yan Luoying walked to the chair on the other side of Su Wen and sat down. She looked at the dishes on the table, picked up her chopsticks, and tasted them. She smiled and said, “Why, are you here to apply for a chef? If that’s the case, your culinary skills are a little lacking. I don’t really like it. What do you think, husband?”
Su Wen smiled. “If Madam says no, then naturally it will be a no from me.” Yan Luoying rolled her eyes at him. Don’t think that she didn’t see him taking advantage of her just now. However, it was enough for her that he knew when to stop. Yan Luoying was also very clear that even though Su Wen didn’t mind taking advantage of her, this woman would definitely not be accepted into the residence. These Li Prefecture Aristocratic Families were going to be the targets of revenge sooner or later. When the time came, it wouldn’t be surprising if their entire family would be exterminated! Taking them as his own would only cause more trouble! Ma Mingyu looked at Yan Luoying and said awkwardly, “Lord Su… This…” Yan Luoying said, “His Majesty has also appointed me as the deputy commander of the Secret Shadow Guards. It’s fine to talk about official matters! As for personal matters, I’m the wife of the Su family. There’s nothing that I can’t listen to. There’s no need to hide it.”
When Ma Mingyu saw that Su Wen did not respond, he smiled apologetically and said, “Lord Su, it’s like this. Didn’t you get back four million taels of silver from the stolen goods two days ago? Do you think you can give a portion of this money to my Ma family first? Our Ma family’s business has been rather tight recently, and we really need funds.” “If Lord Su can take care of it, Ma tribe will definitely pay heavily. I guarantee it will suit Lord Su’s intentions!”
This last sentence was wonderful.
In front of Yan Luoying, he hinted to Su Wen.
Su Wen smiled and said, “I’m afraid this won’t do. Tell me, if you say that the funds are tight, then the Gu Family will also say that the funds are tight. If you deliver the capital’s local dishes to me, they will also send a batch of Li Prefecture’s specialty dishes earlier. If I return your Ma Family’s money first, how will I account to the other families?” “Let’s cut to the chase. Right now, this is not something I can decide. I can only try my best to wait until the case is closed and see how much money we can get back before making a decision!”
When Su Wen said this, Ma Mingyu could only leave helplessly. After the two of them left, Yan Luoying rolled her eyes at Su Wen. “Was her hand nice to touch?”
Su Wen smiled. “Not bad, quite smooth and supple.” “That’s true. She’s the daughter of a wealthy family. A boorish martial artist like me can’t compare to her.” Su Wen hurriedly said, “Madam, what are you saying? Madam is as fair as any woman!” After teasing Su Wen for a while, Yan Luoying sighed and said, “These people move too fast and they are unscrupulous. They have been sending you more than one woman these past two days.” Su Wen nodded and said, “Unless these women are extremely talented in martial arts, they won’t have much status. If they can be exchanged for some money and be used to befriend me, it will naturally be worth it.” Yan Luoying was confused. “Can they really do what you want? Fight each other?” Su Wen said with a smile, “Of course. These aristocratic families are always fighting openly and covertly. It was only when they faced huge benefits and pressure from the Royal Court back then did they combine their strengths temporarily. Now, they are trying to pull tricks to get me over to their side. When the time comes, if the soft tactics don’t work, then they will have to think of ways to obstruct their opponents.” “Let’s wait and see. In a few days, these people will start fighting. After all, if the other party falls, or if I don’t have a good impression of them, it might affect the distribution of the money.”
Su Wen took out a stack of banknotes and said with a smile, “This is good stuff, able to allow guys to fight each other.” Yan Luoying sighed. “I suddenly feel that it’s really difficult to be an official. It’s better to lead the army!” Su Wen smiled. “It’s not as easy to lead an army as you think. It’s just that the troops that you commanded back then were the ones that your father built the foundation for. It’s naturally easy.” Yan Luoying was silent. She knew that Su Wen was right.
In the next few days, as Su Wen had expected, many of the aristocratic families started to send people to report on other families’ illegal activities.
Su Wen did not personally take over and directly handed it over to the new officials sent by Emperor Zhou. The news of the internal strife between the families and the consecutive discharge of officials naturally reached the ears of the conferred King of Li Prefecture Wang Yuanchun. Feng Yuanchun frowned and asked a scholar, “Do you think His Majesty was the one who suggested Su Wen to come over?” The scholar frowned and said, “I don’t think so. Su Wen started his investigation from that caravan. Logically speaking, this should have nothing to do with His Majesty. It’s just that the various families are already in a mess because of this benefit. Even if Su Wen doesn’t want to investigate, these people will still send evidence to him!”
“That scammer’s caravan is really hateful! I also threw in two million taels of silver!” Upon being reminded of this matter, Feng Yuanchun also felt that he was unlucky.
He pondered for a moment and said, “Now, take some men and go find Su Wen. Ask him to first return my money.” “No!” The scholar hurriedly said, “Your Highness, if you want the money back, Su Wen will naturally give it to you. However, I’m afraid that the other families in this state will bear grudges!” Feng Yuanchun sneered and said, “I don’t care if they bear grudges or not, I naturally have to get my money back first. Why should I be afraid of them! In any case, I’m already the Li Prefecture King, this prefecture should be under my control!” Su Wen did not expect that the Li Prefecture King would ask him for money as well. In the face of such a request, Su Wen naturally returned the money with a smile and also disseminated the news.
All of a sudden, the wealthy families were also displeased with how the King did things. Could it be that when something happened, he had to protect his own interests and not care about anything else? In addition, Feng Yuanchun was someone they had no choice but to push out, making them even more furious.
Subsequently, Su Wen continued to capture the various county officials!
After the arrest, he would immediately let an official sent by Emperor Zhou take over the position, firmly returning the authority to the officials of Great Zhou. And every time he captured a portion of officials, Su Wen would announce to the public how much money he got back.
This caused these wealthy families to think that these officials and caravans were conspiring together to deceive others, and their conflict further worsened. In less than a month, more than half of the counties and towns in Li Prefecture were once again under the control of the hands of Emperor Zhou.
At this moment, Su Wen received Feng Yuanchun’s warning that he was not to touch the remaining officials!
There was no reason, no answer for that, only a cold warning Su Wen immediately knew that Feng Yuanchun had already sensed that something was amiss. Thus, Su Wen secretly brought his own men over to the Li Prefecture King’s estate! They all changed into casual clothes and pretended to be commoners. Hundreds of Secret Shadow Guards, Zhao Jin, Chu He, Su Wen, and Wei Guo’an — this was Su Wen’s full strength! And the most important Thirteenth Master! Unfortunately, the Thirteenth Master suddenly looked at Su Wen with a solemn expression and said, “I have to go. Brat, it’s up to you whether you can take down the general.”
Su Wen immediately had an inkling of what was going on! The Thirteenth Master then flew up into the air.
Soon, he disappeared from Su Wen’s sight.
In the skies above…
The Thirteenth Master stood in the air. In front of him was another person standing in the air with a solemn expression, with a longsword in his hand.
He said to the Thirteenth Master, “You cannot attack.”
The Thirteenth Master nodded. “If you don’t take action, I won’t.”
The two of them floated in the air and looked down like spectators. At this point, the Thirteenth Master could no longer care about Su Wen. He had to restrain the Heaven Rank expert in front of him.
Even if it was his duty, there was nothing he could do if Su Wen really died!
“Lord, isn’t it too risky to attack the Li Prefecture King now?” Wei Guo’an asked softly. Su Wen’s gaze was sharp as he said, “Feng Yuanchun has tens of thousands of soldiers and has already gathered them at the Northern Camp in the city. In the past few days, he has already sent people to warn me not to touch the rest of the officials in the Li Prefecture. Now, I can’t give him a chance to turn the tables! As long as I can capture Feng Yuanchun and take over the prefecture, I will be able to settle this matter entirely!” That’s right, this was the most crucial step. If they failed to seize the military authority and Feng Yuanchun managed to react, it was very likely that he would slowly find a way to replace the new officials with his own people instead.
One had to know that as the King of Li Prefecture, he had the right to appoint an official. However, Su Wen’s combo of attacks was too confusing and Feng Yuanchun could not react in time.
And now, it was obvious that he had sensed something was wrong.
In a head-on confrontation, Su Wen naturally did not stand a chance. However, if he could take Feng Yuanchun down, that would be another story.
In the King’s estate, Feng Yuanchun was currently discussing matters with his subordinates.
“That Su Wen has already stopped investigating the officials of Li Prefecture. I was still thinking that if this person was stubborn, I would silence him! From the looks of it, it’s not that bad!”
Feng Yuanchun said solemnly. The scholar under him said, “But Your Highness, many of our officials have already been replaced by people sent by the Imperial Court.”
Feng Yuanchun sneered and said, “So what? We have the military power in our hands, and the title of King has also been conferred. Do they dare to disobey my orders? If anyone dares to resist, we can just find a reason to kill them! We just can’t let that Su Wen fool around anymore.”
At this moment, one of his generals said, “Your Highness, in my opinion, we shouldn’t be co-existing with the Court. We should just have broken free to govern ourselves. Why should we listen to the Court’s pardon? As long as the Court doesn’t want to fight to the death, there’s nothing they can do to us!”
The moment he finished speaking, there was a loud bang! A huge flaming blade aura slashed down from the sky! The person next to Feng Yuanchun opened his eyes wide and threw out his arms. Pa!
The blade aura shattered, but the scorching flames spread out in an instant. It was incomparably hot, but the guard’s Qi suddenly swept out, extinguishing all the flames. “Guards! Assassins!”
A loud roar was heard.
But Su Wen and the others had already rushed in!
They did not talk to anyone at all! They cut down anyone they saw and charged straight towards Feng Yuanchun. When Feng Yuanchun saw that it was Su Wen, he sneered and said, “Are you crazy! You dare to assassinate me?” As he spoke, Feng Yuanchun’s guard took a step forward!
A 9th Grade Earth Rank expert!
Wei Guo’an also gave it his all and shouted, “We’ll hold him off! Lord Su, hurry up and attack!”
As he spoke, he drew his saber and charged over.
Chu He and Zhao Jin shouted, “Let’s help him!”
Chu He’s current cultivation had already broken through to 6th Grade Earth Rank, and his combat strength had increased again. Everyone knew that this 9th Grade Earth Rank expert would be the most difficult to deal with. Su Wen charged straight at Feng Yuanchun! At that moment, the general who had just spoken also drew his saber and shouted, “Little brat, you are so arrogant. Die!” This fellow’s cultivation was not weak either. He was actually at 8th Grade Earth Rank! Furthermore, Su Wen discovered that he was not the only one in the surroundings. There were also other guards of 6th and 7th Grades Earth Rank. Su Wen’s gaze was sharp. He had fought countless battles in the mystic realm and was extremely confident in himself. On the other side, Wei Guo’an was almost instantly suppressed by that ninth-grade expert! It was all thanks to Chu He, who brandished his sword from afar, constantly targeting the person’s vital points with his Sword Qi.
Although Chu He’s cultivation wasn’t high, his understanding of the Sword Dao was extremely deep. The Sword Qi didn’t disperse as he stabbed out. Even a 9th Grade Earth Rank expert couldn’t just ignore his attacks!
What Su Wen did not expect, or rather, what everyone did not expect, was that… Zhao Jin suddenly underwent a transformation. He removed the bracelet on his right arm, and his arm suddenly grew thicker. His clothes were forcibly torn apart! A vast amount of white fur appeared on his arm! His five fingers became thick and huge! This was clearly not the arm of a human! With a flash of blue light, a Polymer Cannon appeared on his thick and somewhat misshapen arm!
Zhao Jin immediately activated the cannon, aiming it straight towards the 9th Grade Earth Rank expert.
BAM!
The Polymer Cannon exploded once again! However, the blue light had already shot out. The attack speed of the polymer cannon was too fast!
Puchi!
The expert had never seen a Polymer Cannon before, nor did he expect Zhao Jin to be able to fire such a fast attack. He was unable to dodge in time and his left arm was actually forcefully snapped by the blast! “Hahaha! Is this daddy vicious enough?!” Zhao Jin laughed wildly. His right arm, which was like a beast’s hand, had actually withstood the explosion of the polymer cannon! There was no flesh or blood on his arm, only a slight amount of pain!
The 9th Grade Earth Rank expert look at his broken arm and was instantly enraged! He immediately stopped his blood loss by sealing the acupoints around the area. He looked at Zhao Jin and said coldly, “You’re dead for sure, kid!” With that said, he ignored Wei Guo’an and Chu He, running straight towards Zhao Jin!
Su Wen also let loose a loud cry as he slashed his saber toward the 8th Grade Earth Rank general. “Nine Waves Return to Origin!”
