Chapter 384

"Thousand-household Mei, long time no see."

The trembling voice was ironed flat by the heterogeneous soul. The woman no longer trembled, her head slowly raised from inside her surrounding arms, about to look at Mei Qinghe.

"You—"

Squish.

Mei Qinghe stepped forward and sealed her throat with a sword.

"It really is you."

The sword edge pierced the throat and then slashed horizontally, beheading the woman.

The head rolled a few times on the ground, and after stopping, the face was toward Mei Qinghe. Although there was no torso to make a sound, the lips were clearly making mouth shapes, as if to say something. The iconic cold gaze looked at Mei Qinghe, but it was rarely stunned for a moment.

Mei Qinghe actually closed her eyes.

No torso to make a sound, and Mei Qinghe couldn't see the mouth shape made, so the last effort of this clone was in vain.

Mei Qinghe counted silently in her heart, and after a few breaths, she opened her eyes; the head had completely lost movement, and the eyes had lost their luster.

She split it in two with a sword.

At this point, Mei Qinghe breathed a sigh of relief.

Liu Jin forcibly split himself without practicing nature-cultivation, and the quality and quantity of his clones were severely limited, and he couldn't create any clones above the supreme level. It could be said that the current Liu Jin only had a sharp mouth.

If it were An Ziyang, he might have dealt with him, set him up, and pried for information. But Mei Qinghe knew her own weight; if she said a few words, she was afraid that even her old bottom would be pried out by Liu Jin.

So she simply didn't speak.

Behead first, then close eyes.

Don't have any information interaction with Liu Jin.

Don't give Liu Jin any chance to mouth her.

Liu Jin felt the horror of cold violence for the first time.

But at this time, the loud noise of Heaven-Man fighting not far away also stopped. Two figures moved swiftly from far to near, stopped in front of Mei Qinghe, and threw a head on the ground.

Two retainers bowed.

"Thousand-household Mei, this person's moves don't look like they come from a famous righteous sect; it should be from the evil path, a bit like the martial arts foundation of the Green Willow Manor decades ago, and I don't know if it's a remnant or a descendant."

"The two of us originally wanted to capture him, but later saw that he was from the evil path and there was no need to settle accounts, so we killed him, which delayed some time."

Although the two had martial arts far higher than Mei Qinghe, they were extremely respectful.

Mei Qinghe also bowed in return.

"Thank you two, leave this place to my subordinates to deal with first, we need to rush to the next place."

She raised her hand and showed the Gu worm in her palm to the two.

"Brother An gave me this Gu worm, and we both know each other's position. From a moment ago, Brother An's position has been moving straight in one direction, it should be that he discovered something... perhaps it is the key to today."

The two retainers looked at each other and nodded in unison.

"Understood... Thousand-household Mei, excuse me."

The two stepped forward, each grabbed one of Mei Qinghe's shoulders with one hand.

The next instant, the two carried Mei Qinghe and flew onto the roof, rushing toward the direction she pointed.

————————

Shuntian Prefecture, Outer City.

This area was a newly expanded urban area during the reign of the current Emperor, extending along the original city gate, expanding a city outside the city with a radius of one mile.

This was also the most chaotic place in the capital.

Outer City, as the name suggests, is located outside the city wall; the curfew and patrols in the city cannot reach here, and there is no need to check identity when leaving, so the population mobility here is extremely large, wine shops and brothels are lined up, overlapping with various messy broken houses, making people feel irritable at a glance.

And as the perspective gradually pushed closer, passing through dirty and muddy streets, passing through several houses covered in dust and filth, approaching a plain-looking house, one could smell the blood smell faintly spreading inside.

This house was actually full of dozens of people.

Wu Lin people.

According to Wu Lin status, martial arts, and seniority, they sat cross-legged from the wall root to the center, their eyes focused on the three people in the middle. And those three in the middle were looking at the corpse wrapped in white cloth in front of them, silent.

These three could all be counted as top figures in Wu Lin.

Kunlun Sect Elder, Yue Buzheng.

Water-End Zen Temple Discipline Hall Master, Liaokong.

And a middle-aged man whose appearance and figure were ordinary to the extreme, but whose temperament was as majestic as a mountain, making people unable to ignore him.

Qingluan Gate, Gao Ming.

A Heaven-Man who won the position of "Supreme Peak" at the Moon-Appreciation Banquet.

Up to this point, plus the late Qiao Cailian and Liaoxing, the Heaven-Men who won the position of Supreme Peak at the Moon-Appreciation Banquet, except for those who had met Li Miao privately, were all here.

Zhu Zai and Li Miao were right; after the Imperial Mausoleum affair, the hearts of the people in Wu Lin had been completely boiled, and the dissatisfaction accumulated against the court, even if forcibly suppressed by Li Miao with both kindness and power, would explode at a specific time.

Yingzhou and the Eastern Depot just gave them this opportunity.

And back to the present, the room was silent for a while.

After a long while, Kunlun Sect Elder Yue Buzheng spoke hoarsely.

"My Kunlun Sect Heaven-Man, head, and true disciple have all died in a battle last night, and the mountain gate will inevitably be wiped out by the court in the future. Hundreds of years of inheritance have already been broken in my hands."

Liaokong of the Water-End Zen Temple also put his hands together and sighed.

"My Water-End Zen Temple will also inevitably suffer this disaster."

"If we talk about the courage to seek life in death, none of us lack it. But last night the Emperor killed people openly, and in just an instant, he killed Senior Brother Liaoxing; his martial arts are already no longer under Official Li Miao."

"We dared to come to the capital to compete for the profound observation martial arts, originally thinking that the Emperor himself was weak and Li Miao was busy with clones, so we might be able to make an assassination attempt... But now it seems that we were wrong from the beginning."

He smiled bitterly.

"In the world today, the only one who can pose a threat to the Emperor is probably Official Li... But they are on the same side."

"Except for fleeing for our lives, it seems we have no other way to go."

As soon as these words came out, the atmosphere in the room became even more oppressive.

Liaokong was right.

Wu Lin had been suppressed too hard and for too long.

The assassination attempt that could work in An Qisheng's era could not even find a person who could fight the Emperor in the current Wu Lin. The balance between the court and Wu Lin had long been completely unbalanced.

But fleeing... people can flee, can the mountain gate flee?

Can the elders flee, can the Heaven-Men flee, can the outer and inner disciples flee?

Flee, the inheritance of the sect is broken.

Don't flee, and there is nothing to do.

Ahead is the abyss, behind is also the abyss, and there is not even a direction for them to fight for their lives.

Someone gritted their teeth and shouted angrily: "Forget it, the Emperor is no good, Li Miao is no good, I will just go and kill a few dog officials to earn enough!"

Someone retorted: "There are no less than eight hundred officials killed in the city today; you go to assassinate, but you are helping the court! Why, do you think the court doesn't have enough reasons to exterminate your nine clans!"

Someone still had expectations: "Maybe go and look for the profound observation martial arts; even if we die, if we pass the martial arts out, it can be considered as finding a foothold for the sect."

Someone sneered: "But you don't even know where the martial arts are!"

The arguments became more and more intense, although each held their own words, all carried despair.

"Shut up."

Suddenly, a low voice, carrying majestic true Qi, erupted from the middle of the room, suppressing everyone on the spot.

Qingluan Gate Gao Ming slowly stood up, his gaze sweeping over everyone in the room one by one.

"Want to die, don't want to implicate the sect, just slash your face and jump into the river, why make noise here? Everyone here is a disciple of a famous sect, not to mention thinking of ways to find a way out for your own sect, what is the benefit of arguing like a woman?"

"Why, have you learned martial arts on a dog?" As soon as he said this, he scolded everyone in the room together.

Most of the Wu Lin people were flushed.

"Senior Gao speaks lightly!"

Someone didn't know if he was scared to the extreme or angry to the extreme, and regardless of Gao Ming's martial arts and seniority being far above his own, he stood up and retorted with a red face.

"Today's situation is just that the court is powerful and Wu Lin is declining; it's a mistake because of weakness. Everyone present has a share, can you escape it, Senior Gao Ming?"

"If you have a way to break the situation, why would you be hiding here with us? We don't lack the courage to fight for our lives, but this life is useless even if we want to send it; is this our fault?"

Gao Ming sneered.

"Then what is the use of your nonsense here?"

"I said, don't want to implicate the sect, go out and slash your face and jump into the river yourself. There are corpses floating everywhere in the moat today, the Embroidered Uniform Guard can't check your head... Or, you don't dare?"

That person's veins bulged.

"Why wouldn't I dare!"

Then, in the astonished eyes of everyone, he took his sword and slashed at his face, slashing his face into a mess, and walked quickly to the door, about to push the door out and jump into the river.

His hand had just been placed on the door, but it was pressed down.

The person who stopped him was Gao Ming.

He didn't understand, and said in surprise and anger: "Senior Gao, what else, are you going to humiliate me?"

Gao Ming patted his shoulder, then reached out and pinched his pulse, operating the healing martial arts, and passed true Qi into his body to heal the wounds on his face.

That person was almost confused by Gao Ming.

"Senior Gao, you are..."

Gao Ming reached out and patted his shoulder.

"Since you are not afraid of death, it is better to shut up and do things."

"Do you think I went to great lengths to gather you together just to have a companion before dying?"

That person was stunned for a moment, then surprised, and finally happy.

"Senior Gao, do you have a way to break the situation?"

Gao Ming shook his head.

"No."

"But someone has, and he is in this room."

That person was stunned, his eyes sweeping over everyone in the room.

But he looked for a long time, only to see a look of confusion like himself. In terms of martial arts, background, and sect, there was no unexpected person, and he couldn't think of anyone who could break the situation.

Gao Ming turned around and stared at someone.

"Your Excellency, you have heard what I said just now; we have been forced into a dead end, and your plan has succeeded. Now is the time to be honest... Do you still want to hide it?"

Everyone's eyes turned in unison, following Gao Ming's gaze, looking at a middle-aged man.

"Ah?"

"Who is this?"

"Seems to be a true disciple of the Qingyang Gate, first-class level... haven't heard of anything unusual either?"

All were puzzled.

Even the middle-aged man had an expression of astonishment.

Gao Ming didn't hesitate in the slightest, stepped forward and walked toward him, saying in a deep voice.

"Does Your Excellency think that Wu Lin people are all rough people, and all fools without scheming?"

"From the moment I received the news of profound observation, I deliberately paid attention to the sect location, arrival time, and manpower of the Wu Lin fellow disciples who arrived in the capital."

"If the news was spread by word of mouth, then the further the sect, the later they should arrive, and the worse the quality of manpower should be; after all, experts are not all shrinking in the sect, and gathering also takes time... But the situation is not like this at all."

Gao Ming walked in front of the middle-aged man.

"I found that the more sects that came out in full force, the more their positions were far and near; if calculated according to distance and arrival time, the departure time was almost on the same day... This is a plan pushed by someone deliberately."

"I probed with several big sects and found that their sources of news were different. But the common point is that there are very important figures in the sect pushing this matter."

"Disguise? Pretending? My first reaction was this, but last night... I quietly followed to Wang Gongchang and saw the conversation between An Ziyang and the Kunlun Sect female disciple."

Gao Ming said in a deep voice.

"Although it was eerie and inexplicable, and hard for people to believe, I saw it with my own eyes... An Ziyang called her Lord Liu."

"Possession? Clone? Reincarnation?"

"These are not important for now, but Your Excellency led us to the capital, and you must want to do something. If you don't say it now, I'm afraid it will be too late."

Gao Ming looked down at the middle-aged man.

The atmosphere in the room became heavy.

Some understood, some didn't.

But everyone could understand that now was a matter of life and death. Whether they could live today depends only on whether Gao Ming identified the wrong person.

Dozens of eyes stared fixedly at the middle-aged man.

After a while, the middle-aged man's face changed.

All emotions disappeared from him, his gaze was as calm as water, as if he had become a puppet without a soul.

He said calmly.

"How did you determine it was me?"

Gao Ming also answered calmly.

"I wasn't sure, but I bet right."

Liu Jin asked again.

"You knew long ago that I wanted to use you as a knife, why did you still come?"

Gao Ming smiled.

"Why not come?"

"Is the court's suppression of Heaven-Men fake, is Li Miao's strong suppression of Wu Lin fake, is the path of martial arts broken... is it fake?"

"Wu Lin is declining; if we only rely on ourselves, I'm afraid we will have to crawl at the feet of the court as dogs for the rest of our lives, wagging our tails and begging for pity from the Embroidered Uniform Guard, watching ourselves grow old day by day, but our martial arts cannot make an inch of progress... Clearly we can cultivate to two paths, three paths of Heaven-Man, but we cannot take that step."

"If this life is wasted day by day, it is better to throw it in the right place. Someone has made a plan we couldn't make, and it can pose a threat to the court that we couldn't constitute."

"I came to try, to help Your Excellency, to see if I can open a path for the descendants of Wu Lin, can't I?"

Gao Ming said easily.

"Time is running out, the Embroidered Uniform Guard may chase here at any time, does Your Excellency have any other questions?"

"If not, why not bring out the plan early."

"We have completely offended the court, and the court has also made up its mind to destroy us. We have no other way to go, Your Excellency can rest assured."

Liu Jin stood up.

Scanned everyone in the room, and finally stopped his gaze on Gao Ming.

"I am the seal-holding eunuch of the Eastern Depot, Liu Jin."

"Time is running out, please follow me, everyone."

"I have some things, a secret passage, and a hiding place to hand over to you."

At the same time, An Ziyang and the two retainers walked into the Outer City, raised their heads and greeted Mei Qinghe, and walked side by side in the direction indicated by the Gu worm toward Gao Ming's location.