Chapter 218: Su Ling Protects His Wife (1)

"This humble one didn't dare to count carefully, probably a dozen or so." He was scared to death; they rushed into the mansion and killed everyone they saw!

A dozen or so was not a small number. Gu Yun pondered for a while and said, "You are the steward, you should be very familiar with the situation in the villa. Draw a map of the villa immediately, the more detailed, the better."

The steward raised his head slightly, looking hesitantly at Gu Yun. None of the lords in the room had spoken, so he didn't know whether to listen to this young woman's order or not. As the steward was still dawdling, Cheng Hang roared impatiently, "Draw it quickly."

"Yes, yes, yes." Once scolded, the steward didn't dare to hesitate any longer, hurriedly took the brush, ink, paper, and inkstone, retreated to a low table on the side, and began to draw with his head down.

Gu Yun saw a large map on the large desk near the back, which looked very much like a map. Gu Yun asked, "Is this a topographical map of the villa's surroundings?"

"Yes." The group moved to the desk. Dan Yulan pointed to the map and said in a low voice, "The Gao family villa backs onto Lu Shan. Although the mountain is not high, the other side is a cliff face. A stream runs through the courtyard, and the other sides are all low slopes with nowhere to hide people. Now there is a very strong smell of fire stone around the courtyard; they may have buried explosives in front of and behind the courtyard walls. If we send troops to storm it, the casualties will likely be high, and if we provoke them, I fear those desperate criminals would rather die together than release the hostages."

Su Ren nodded and replied, "Storming in is easy, but saving people is too difficult." The other side only had a dozen or so people; even if their martial arts were high, they couldn't withstand thousands of troops. Taking their lives was simple; the fear was that the enemy would have already killed the Gao family before the soldiers could storm in.

For a moment, everyone was speechless, and the tent fell into a brief silence. At this moment, a sharp, high-pitched shout rang out from outside the tent, "The Emperor has arrived! The Empress has arrived!"

This announcement caused the expressions of everyone in the tent to change. The first to change was Su Ling; his hawk-like eyes narrowed, but he still couldn't hide the cold light of dark anger. Su Ren also had a grave expression. Zhuo Qing looked worriedly at Lou Xiyan, who was still composed beside her. Lou Xiyan patted her shoulder and whispered in her ear, "She will be fine." His gentle voice always calmed her panicked mind. Zhuo Qing looked at Gu Yun, but this center of everyone's worry was completely unaffected. Her clear eyes remained fixed on the map on the table, unmoved.

Lord Gao was Empress Xin Yuening's own uncle, with the entire Xin family backing him; Mistress Gao was the cousin of the Western Empress Dowager Yang Zhilan, with the Yang family's protection; Qing Mo was General Su's intended, the younger sister of Consort Qing, and the sister-in-law of the Prime Minister. This, this was too hard to weigh!

Cheng Hang and Dan Yulan looked at each other. Dan Yulan rubbed his forehead in a headache, while Cheng Hang had only one thought in his mind: it was a disaster.

The tent flap was lifted the next moment, and a tall, slender figure appeared in the tent. At Lou Xiyan's family banquet, Gu Yun had seen Yan Hongtian. Even without wearing his dragon robes, this man was already imposing. That noble temperament cultivated from long-standing high position and control of power, his cold eyes looking down with arrogance, standing with his hands behind his back, required no clothing or adornment to set him off; no one could ignore him. Beside him followed a woman, looking less than twenty, very beautiful, with magnificent robes trailing on the ground, dressed in luxury.

"Greetings, Your Majesty, greetings, Empress." Everyone in the room knelt halfway to receive the Emperor. Gu Yun and Zhuo Qing could not help but squat down halfway. Looking at each other, both had expressions of disgust in their eyes, and they tacitly lowered their heads, hiding the self-deprecating low laughter at the corners of their lips.

"Rise." The steady male voice sounded just like the man himself, giving people an infinite sense of oppression.

Everyone stood up, looking at the group of them crowded in the room, with no movement outside. Su Ling and Lou Xiyan had actually brought women with them. Xin Yuening asked impatiently, "Lord Dan, why haven't you saved the people yet?"

Returning a salute, Dan Yulan replied truthfully, "Replying to the Empress, the men in black captured Lord Gao's family, and the servants were all killed by them. This official does not yet know the situation inside the courtyard. The men in black have buried explosives outside the courtyard walls. If we storm in, the commotion will be great, and I fear it will provoke the men in black to act against Lord Gao."

"Then what is the current plan to deal with this?"

"This official is currently discussing countermeasures with General Su and the Prime Minister." Dan Yulan answered fluently, but Xin Yuening was dissatisfied. It had been so long, and they were still discussing; they were truly useless! She was unhappy in her heart, but since the Emperor was present, Xin Yuening could only endure it.

Dark eyes swept over the men and women in the room. Yan Hongtian asked coldly, "What is the identity of the men in black?"

Dan Yulan stepped forward and replied, "Replying to the Emperor, they are people from Juling Island."

"So, they have come to seek revenge." His sword-like brows raised majestically. Yan Hongtian seemed to be smiling, yet also seemed to be angry. One could not tell his joy or anger from his slightly deep voice.

Rumor had it that this man was violent, arrogant, and bloodthirsty. Gu Yun, however, disagreed. Based on her observations over the past half year, the Qiongyue Kingdom was strong, the legal system was relatively clear, and the people could live and work in peace. As a monarch, expanding territory and launching wars was inevitable; bloodthirsty was not quite the word. Arrogance was certain, and his joy and anger were very hard for people to control. Dealing with such a man, Qingfeng must have exhausted her mind.

Su Ling and Lou Xiyan were both silent. Dan Yulan didn't know whether to answer "yes" or "no" for a moment. Yan Hongtian looked at Lou Xiyan and asked, "Xiyan, what do you think?"

Lou Xiyan shook his head calmly and replied, "It is not yet clear what they want to do."

Dark eyes raised slightly, Yan Hongtian looked at Su Ling, "And Minister Su?"

Su Ling guaranteed with a serious face, "The Su Family Army will do its best to assist the Ministry of Justice to save Lord Gao as soon as possible."

Zhuo Qing really wanted to laugh; these two men were both very good at pretending. Seeing them answer this way, Dan Yulan didn't dare to specifically mention that the men in black wanted to exchange Gu Yun for the hostages.

He had already known before he came that the men in black wanted to exchange Qing Mo for Gao Hongjian. For the sake of a woman, they had actually joined forces to hide it from him. Yan Hongtian's expression darkened slightly. Very good, his three beloved ministers were truly in sync today.

The steward had finished drawing the map, but there were big figures in the tent, and he didn't dare to speak rashly. Gu Yun noticed his hesitation, stepped back quietly, came to the steward, and asked in a low voice, "Is it finished?"

The steward nodded while handing the map in his hand to her. Gu Yun took it. The villa was not very large, and this steward was quite careful; the map was drawn in great detail. Gu Yun lowered her head and began to study it carefully. At this moment, a concise male voice rang out from outside the tent.

"Report!"

Cheng Hang hurriedly lifted the tent flap and asked in a low voice, "What is it?" The Emperor and Empress were both in the tent; he hoped nothing would go wrong.

"My Lord, the gate of the Gao family villa has opened, and the men in black are dragging a woman out." The yamen runner's loud report shattered Cheng Hang's wishful thinking.

"Let's go out and see." Yan Hongtian walked out of the tent first, and the others had no choice but to follow closely behind. One mile away from the villa, the yamen runners and the elite soldiers brought by Su Ling had already surrounded the villa tightly. The heavy smell of fire stone also drifted in the air; no one dared to enter rashly.

Looking from afar, the villa gate was open. A woman in magnificent robes was being grabbed by the neck by a man in black and dragged to the courtyard gate. Seeing them in the distance, the woman waved her hands and feet excitedly, but because her throat was tightly gripped, she couldn't make a sound.

Yan Hongtian asked coldly, "Who is that person?"

"It is the secondary mistress, Mistress Yu." Xin Yuening's heart rose to her throat, and she said urgently, "What exactly do they want to do?"

Before she could finish her sentence, the man in black moved very quickly, pulled a short sword from his waist, and with a swift motion, stabbed it into the woman's chest without the slightest hesitation. The woman didn't even have a chance to scream; with eyes wide open, filled with fear, she fell straight to the ground with a thud. Where she fell, blood quickly soaked the mud beneath her.

"Ah!" Xin Yuening screamed, raising her hand to press against her heaving chest, her eyes tightly closed, but that bloody scene was deeply imprinted in her mind. The person who fell was her little aunt! Although not the main wife, she was still a relative who had watched her grow up!

This scene left everyone present unable to react. They were a mile away from the villa; although they could see everything that happened clearly, they were powerless to stop it. Long bows and crossbows couldn't shoot that far, and there were explosives in front of the courtyard; storming in now would only force the men in black to kill more hostages.

Zhuo Qing sighed secretly; that person must be a professional assassin who killed often. This knife pierced directly through the heart and blood vessels, causing massive bleeding. Without immediate blood plasma replenishment, fifty percent of the body's blood volume would be lost within five minutes. This woman absolutely had no chance of survival.

Gu Yun's brow furrowed even tighter. The criminals had already started killing hostages. According to past experience with such cases, they would kill a hostage every so often until the government agreed to meet their demands. Gu Yun was still worrying that the situation would develop in the worst direction when the men in black had already abandoned the female corpse on the ground. From behind the people, they grabbed a six or seven-year-old girl like a chick, held the little girl high above their heads toward the direction where they were, and a steady, cold male voice came from far to near, "Give you one hour. If you don't hand over Qing Mo, the next person to die will be her."

After speaking, the man in black took a step back, and the two large wooden doors closed subsequently. One could vaguely hear the little girl's screams, while the woman who fell in front of the door had already breathed her last.

Su Ren was shocked. This person's internal energy was so strong; at such a distance, he wasn't shouting, yet he could make them hear it as if it were right in their ears from a mile away.

"Qing Mo? Qing—Mo!" The panicked Xin Yuening finally figured out the demand of the men in black. The person they wanted was Qing Mo! With trembling fingers pointing at Gu Yun, who was standing beside Su Ling, Xin Yuening almost screamed, "What are you still waiting for! Tie this woman up quickly!"

Several palace guards were about to step forward upon orders, but Su Ling's cold voice shouted, "Stop!"

The guards froze there. Su Ling was a first-rank official, the General of the State; without the Emperor's order, who would dare to move him?

The guards were timid, and Su Ling's aura was imposing. Xin Yuening said sternly and urgently, "Su Ling, are you defying an order?"

(End of Chapter) ===== CHAPTER 219 =====