Chapter 075
Search ‘Viciously’
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Li Youran silently got up and straightened himself, a ruthless coldness flashed across his eyes before disappearing. He maintained his courteous attitude and said with a humble smile. “Senior Duke’s teachings are true. Please forgive this junior’s offense.”
He said those words with a smile. Looking at Jun Zhantian, his face expressed a smile of sincerity which was able to even portray him feeling a deep sense of shame. It seemed that he was truly embarrassed by the words that he had just spoken earlier.
Jun Zhantian’s eyes widened as he suddenly felt an invisible pressure. Judging by his calm demeanour, this brat is no ordinary individual! He is likely the ruthless type that could toy with people to their deaths! Jun Zhantian sighed inwardly: If Moxie remains healthy, this brat would become his biggest rival amongst the younger generations!
He coldly turned around and scoffed. “The Li family line is indeed all of the sinister* type.” Grand Preceptor Li Shang’s beard trembled. Jun Zhantian’s words was the equivalent of cursing all their ancestors of the Li Family!
“Everyone move out of the way and let him search! Old bag Jun! If you cannot find the assassins, this senior will have a good ‘discussion’ with you before His Majesty tomorrow! When that happens, I will see if you can still maintain this toughness!” Li Shang coldly waved his hand, turned around and stormed out towards a flower tree. He sat down below the tree and closed his eyes, not making any more movements.
Jun Zhantian waved his hand again. “Search in detail! Do not miss out a single spot and do not leave a single stone unturned!” Nearly a thousand soldiers behind him shouted their affirmation in unison and fiercely rushed inside.
Instantly, the entirety of the Li Family was turned upside down to the point of having chickens fly and dogs jump.
On a spot situated some distance away from the Li Residence was a normal looking sedan chair. Four figures stood around the sedan chair, their faces were filled with indifference. The curtains of the sedan chair were lifted to reveal a profound set of eyes observing the situation in the Li Residence. The person’s ears were focused on listening in on the conversations within. This person possess a clear face which is somewhat squarish. However, both his eyebrows are slanted upwards, just like a pair of dragons soaring to the Heavens. Even without moving or saying anything, he exuded a prestigious awe-inspiring aura.
After listening for a bit, this person closed his eyes and murmured. “The amount of stubbornness shown by Jun Zhantian against the Li Family this time is indeed a little overboard. It is only natural for the Li Family to have many secrets pertaining to the protection of their family that would prove dangerous if revealed. If these secrets were to be exposed, the Li Family would disappear. Jun Zhantian would not let them off easily, but the Kingdom still have need of the Li Family,” The person frowned, seemingly having a headache. “Shadow, if anything unexpected were to happen, you will need to step forward to solve it.”
Not a single sound could be heard outside, but this person knew that his command has been received. He then closed his eyes, his fingers tapping a tea table made of jade. Both his eyebrows moved, seemingly coming closer and intertwined with one another. A thought suddenly flashed through his mind: This grandson of Li Shang is not just a talent, he is a very dangerous talent…
Jun Zhantian’s soldiers ‘searched’ all the way as they moved, turning over containers and toppling cabinets, causing things to fall and crash. It seemed as though these men were not trying to look for assassins, but were here purely to carry out acts of destructions!
“Peng!” A huge vase was thrown out and shattered into pieces. The Grand Preceptor Li Shang’s face twitched violently for a moment: The number of those vases is only…
“Peng!”
“Peng!”
Grandpa Jun glanced around with a cold countenance as he held on to his horsewhip. Inhaling deeply, he shouted. “I want you to search viciously!” Even though the atmosphere was very solemn, those standing behind him all turned their heads and secretly laughed. The act of searching… could the word ‘viciously’ be used for such an act? The Senior Duke Jun’s use of words was apparently quite ‘unprofessional’.
The word vicious should be used for ‘crush’! Crush everything viciously!
“This old thing can be quite funny! It almost seemed as though he is afraid that people would not know that he is simply trying to create havoc! Let us observe for a little longer!” The man in the sedan chair could not help but let out a smile.
Hearing the word “viciously”, the soldiers proceeded to ‘search’ with even more ‘force’.
Nearly two thousand soldiers poured into the Li Residence, acting as though they had just broken through into the enemy fortress. Anything that can be thrown was thrown; anything that can be destroyed was destroyed. Every member of the Li Family stared at this spectacle from the courtyard, blood dripping out from their hearts: All that… is money ah!
After a moment, the man within the sedan chair closed his eyes slightly and whispered. “There shouldn’t be any problem here, let’s go back.” He closed the curtains and leaned upon the soft seat, before closing his eyes.
The old Jun Zhantian had already understood his intentions and had only destroyed the things that were placed conspicuously. As for the secret areas in the Li Residence, he had chosen to avoid it. It seemed that there would not be any problems here.
I would like to see if any family would still dare to pick sides again after this round of chaos! The man within the sedan chair smiled: Even if you want to fight, you must fight within certain limits. Once your actions endanger the safety of the kingdom, then what happened today would be… a warning!
The sedan chair left quietly without a trace. Jun Zhantian continued standing still, but Jun Wuyi turned his head to look for a moment after the sedan chair had left.
“Reporting to Grand Marshall, no trace of the assassin was found!” One by one, the soldiers came forth to give their report, each of them stating that the assassins were not found. Jun Zhantian turned furious and shouted. “Are you trying to say that the assassins have flown off to the skies? Hmph! They are not in the Li Residence? Then we will go to another residence to search!” Leading the soldiers, he strode out of the main gate, jumped up his horse and rode forward. The direction he took was the one leading towards the Meng Family…
The members of the Li Family stared at their compound, which had been turned into a beggars living area, tears flowing down their eyes.
The Grand Preceptor Li Shang patted his waist as he struggled to get up from the ground. Li Youran quickly came forth to help him up. Both grandfather and grandson looked at one another in the eye and saw the anger evident in them.
“Grandfather, anyone with good eyes could tell that those men in black from back then belonged to Jun Zhantian! Jun Zhantian kept touting ‘searching assassins’ as an excuse and threw false charges at others. This action is tantamount to rebelling. Since he could not find any assassins, tomorrow grandfather can get together with a group of officials and heavily step down on him.”
Li Youran considered. “Jun Zhantian is obviously showing signs of going crazy, mobilizing the military for personal reasons, trespassing into the homes of court officials and searching wantonly. Hehe, if we could bring about the demise of the Jun Family with the destruction of these properties, then that would be quite the acceptable transaction. On the contrary, if Grandfather chooses to stay your hand, others might think that you have a guilty conscience.”
Li Shang frowned and gave a deep sigh. He spoke in a deep voice. “Youran, you are a talented genius, possessing a wisdom that surpasses the masses. Even in the area of strategy, you have proven yourself to be capable of identifying the enemy’s weak points. Watching you become the number one amongst the talents of your generation, grandfather have always felt happy about it. However, you also have your weak points. One example would be the area of governance. You are still too young. As such, the things you could see is still limited!”
“Governance?” Li Youran became puzzled. “Are you saying that this amount of crime by Jun Zhantian is not enough for His Majesty to take action against the Jun Family?”
“Enough? No, it is not! It is far from enough!” Li Shang’s white eyebrows quivered, the earlier expression of anger and helplessness that he had shown before Jun Zhantian earlier had evaporated. Instead it was replaced with an expression of endless amount of shrewdness. Obviously, the expression he had shown earlier was fake. “You still do not understand just how much trust His Majesty have towards Jun Zhantian. For starters, His Majesty’s life had been saved by Jun Zhantian at least six times or more. Back then, if Jun Zhantian had wanted to rebel or if he had even the slightest bit of secret ambition, then the seat of the Emperor would have been his a long time ago! It is true that there can be no love within the royal family. However, one would never truly treat an absolute loyalist as a mortal enemy. This is also the main reason why the Jun Family which has fallen to the point of nearly losing all their successors could retain so much power over the military!”
“Simply with those few things that happened earlier, did you think it is possible to bring down Jun Zhantian?” Li Shang laughed out for a bit. “Did you really take Jun Zhantian to be such a brainless person who would offend our Li Family to a bloody end? Furthermore, based on his earlier movements, did you think that he had forced us into a road of no return?”
Li Youran was a brilliant person. In just moments, he had gained understanding of many of the points spoken. His face changed greatly and he said. “Could it be…”
[*TL: The word yīn (阴) should mean sinister in this context. However, It could also mean feminine, moon or hidden.]
