Chapter 397

Late at night, the Imperial Palace.

The Imperial Study was still brightly lit.

Since the rebellion of Qingxu, the Emperor has been more diligent than in the past, often reviewing memorials or discussing affairs with ministers in the Imperial Study until late at night.

Tonight was no exception; the Emperor was still in the Imperial Study.

The Imperial Eunuch Feng Cheng held a telegram in his hand, walked quickly to the door of the Imperial Study, and said softly:

"Your Majesty, an emergency telegram came from Gansu Province, which has been reported to the center."

Normally, emergency telegrams reported to the center do not need to be presented to the Emperor; the Central Secretariat can handle them directly.

Only telegrams presented to the Imperial Presence need to be presented to the Emperor.

But the person mentioned in this telegram is the one the Emperor focuses on, so Feng Cheng, as the Imperial Eunuch, came with the telegram.

"Bring it here."

The Emperor's somewhat tired voice came from the Imperial Study.

Feng Cheng hurriedly walked in and presented the telegram that had already been translated.

The Emperor took the telegram and looked at it for a few times, then suddenly slapped the page in his hand heavily on the desk.

Feng Cheng lowered his head hurriedly, clearly feeling the Emperor's anger.

This telegram was about Li Fei, the Marquis of Jing'an, entering the Tomb of Heaven's Water.

"Proclaim Lou Lou Hongtao to enter the palace."

The Emperor said.

Lou Lou Hongtao, the Pavilion Master of the Supervision Pavilion.

The Emperor rarely summoned such high-ranking imperial officials late at night.

"Yes."

Feng Cheng retreated quickly.

Although the Heaven Altar assassination case had been handed over to Li Fei to be responsible for, Lou Lou Hongtao, as the Pavilion Master of the Supervision Pavilion, still dared not slack off.

The Emperor stayed up late in the Imperial Study every night, and Lou Lou Hongtao also almost lived in the Imperial City every day, not returning to his mansion.

After receiving the Emperor's summons, he soon followed Feng Cheng to the Imperial Study.

"Your subject pays respects to Your Majesty."

"Exempt from courtesy, do you know about the Marquis of Jing'an?"

The Emperor went straight to the point.

Lou Lou Hongtao had already guessed on the way that the Emperor summoned him suddenly because of this matter, and said calmly:

"Your subject had just received the telegram before coming."

"What do you think of this matter?"

"Your subject thinks... this matter was deliberately done by the New Heaven Society, but it may not be to harm the Marquis of Jing'an."

"Oh?"

"If the New Heaven Society really wanted to kill the Marquis of Jing'an, on that day in the Provincial City of Gansu Province, that Martial Arts Master was the first to take action; under the situation of being completely unprepared, if the other party set the target as the Marquis of Jing'an, there was a great chance of success.

But the other party set the target as a disciple of the Red Dust Pavilion; afterwards, we verified that the disciple had always been colluding with the New Heaven Society, and the New Heaven Society did this to kill the witness.

And according to the intelligence passed back by the Marquis of Jing'an, when that Martial Arts Master exchanged blows with him that day, he intentionally concealed his second supernatural ability, until the end when he was forced out. If the other party really wanted to kill the Marquis of Jing'an, under the situation of tight time, he should not have hidden his strength at the beginning, but should have gone all out."

Lou Lou Hongtao talked eloquently and stated his analysis calmly.

"Hmm."

The Emperor nodded, "Then why did the New Heaven Society have to take action only after the Marquis of Jing'an entered the Tomb of Heaven's Water this time?"

The New Heaven Society clearly had mastered the method of actively creating cracks, and could completely wait for no one else, entering first.

But they had to wait until Li Fei went in before taking action; no matter how this behavior is interpreted, it only makes people feel deep malice!

Lou Lou Hongtao: "This looks indeed very targeted, but your subject still thinks that if the New Heaven Society really wanted to deal with the Marquis of Jing'an, there are clearly better ways, not necessarily having to choose in the Tomb of Heaven's Water."

"Are you saying that the New Heaven Society has another plot in the Tomb of Heaven's Water, and the Marquis of Jing'an will not be in danger?"

The Emperor asked.

"This... your subject also dare not be sure."

Lou Lou Hongtao said hurriedly.

He had already seen that the Emperor was angry about this matter, so how could he dare to make a guarantee indiscriminately.

What if Li Fei really died in the Tomb of Heaven's Water?

"Hmph!"

The Emperor snorted coldly, and the temperature in the Imperial Study seemed to drop a lot; a huge pressure shrouded the study, making Lou Lou Hongtao sweat on his forehead.

As a high-ranking imperial official, Lou Lou Hongtao knew more secrets than others.

Don't look at the Emperor's martial arts cultivation being very ordinary, but in this Imperial Palace, if the other party wanted him to die, he didn't need anyone else to take action at all, and he would be useless even if he had the cultivation of a Martial Arts Master!

"A Martial Arts Master publicly attacked an imperial Marquis; investigating until now, has the Supervision Pavilion found out the identity of this person?"

The Emperor asked.

Lou Lou Hongtao heard the blame and said hurriedly: "Reporting to Your Majesty, the Supervision Pavilion conducted a detailed investigation based on the intelligence passed back by the Marquis of Jing'an on that day, initially locking onto eleven forces, and has now narrowed the scope to three Jianghu sects and one martial arts family."

From You Ming's sudden action until now, it has been more than half a month. The other party is not a fool, so they would leave very obvious characteristics and clues; plus the forces involved with Martial Arts Masters are not small forces, and they all have intricate connections with the local government; using the local Supervision Court to investigate the case, the difficulty is inherently very high.

And the Martial Arts Masters being investigated are all giants of one side; under the situation of not identifying the other party as a suspect, the Supervision Pavilion must also treat them with courtesy and cannot treat them roughly.

In this non-information era, the Supervision Pavilion being able to narrow the suspicious scope to four forces so quickly is actually considered godspeed.

But the Emperor was not satisfied: "Within five days, I want a result!"

"Your subject obeys the decree!"

Lou Lou Hongtao bowed and saluted, and could only accept the order.

Just as he intended to retreat, the Imperial Eunuch Feng Cheng suddenly entered the Imperial Study:

"Your Majesty, an urgent report came from Feng Province."

Lou Lou Hongtao stopped in place immediately.

The Emperor glanced at him and looked at Feng Cheng: "Speak."

"Principal Shi Caiming of Martial Peace University rushed to the Provincial City of Feng Province alone and is confronting Principal Xu Jing of Hongyi University."

Feng Cheng said with his head lowered.

"Shi Caiming?"

The Emperor frowned slightly, "What is he suddenly looking for Xu Jing for?"

After speaking, he looked at Lou Lou Hongtao again.

Lou Lou Hongtao turned around immediately: "Principal Shi has not taken action for many years; suddenly making such a big move, perhaps because of the Tomb of Heaven's Water?"

The Emperor: "What does this matter have to do with Xu Jing?"

Lou Lou Hongtao: "This... your subject cannot guess, please forgive your subject, Your Majesty."

The Emperor narrowed his eyes, his gaze changing constantly.

He suddenly looked at Feng Cheng: "Feng Cheng, you tell me your opinion."

This Imperial Eunuch has served two Emperors and is the Chief Eunuch of the Inner Palace, with extremely high authority, and is himself a Grandmaster!

In the entire Imperial Palace, there are only two eunuchs with Grandmaster cultivation, and Feng Cheng is one of them, and is the one recognized as having the deepest cultivation.

Concerning the dead domain, Lou Lou Hongtao is only a Martial Arts Master after all, so the Emperor turned to ask Feng Cheng for his opinion.

Feng Cheng lowered his head: "Reporting to Your Majesty, the dead domain is related to the Martial Arts Domain; your servant does not know what method those thieves used to open the crack, and what method they used to allow a Martial Arts Master to enter; it is possible that they made an article on the Martial Arts Domain.

The Martial Arts Domain of the Tomb of Heaven's Water is left by the 8th-grade Heaven's Water Soul Beast, which is constructed with water-attribute supernatural ability as the core. Your servant heard that Principal Xu's Martial Arts Domain is also dominated by water-attribute supernatural ability..."

Feng Cheng did not finish his words.

As an Imperial Eunuch, he cannot have an obvious inclination toward anyone or anything.

However, the meaning he wanted to express was already clear.

"Xu Jing?"

The Emperor shook his head.

He knows the grudges between Xu Jing, the Lu family, and Li Fei.

But just because of an old case, he would go to the point of killing Li Fei; the Emperor does not quite believe it.

Whether it is the Lu family or Xu Jing, wanting to deal with Li Fei's future investigation, there are many ways; choosing to kill is the one with the greatest price and the worst.

The Emperor does not feel that the Lu family would be so stupid, and Xu Jing would be so impulsive.

So this matter is very difficult to establish in terms of motivation.

Moreover, it is currently impossible to determine what method the New Heaven Society used to enter the Tomb of Heaven's Water; one cannot just think he is a suspect because Xu Jing's Martial Arts Domain is consistent with the dead domain of the Tomb of Heaven's Water in terms of attributes.

This is also too childish.

"Your Majesty, do you want to send someone to stop Principal Shi?"

Feng Cheng asked.

The Emperor was expressionless and glanced at the telegram on the table:

"Forget it, this old guy has been stuffy for so many years; suddenly wanting to vent his temper, let him go, he is a person with a sense of proportion."

"Yes."

Feng Cheng and Lou Lou Hongtao retreated together.

This night, the light in the Imperial Study stayed on until dawn.

Rewind the time.

Li Fei leaped down the crack, and the surroundings were full of ghostly blue light.

After falling for more than ten seconds, the light around him suddenly disappeared, and a vast water vapor rushed toward his face.

Li Fei fell into the water; even separated by a layer of force and a divine garment, he still felt a chill.

He had anticipated this, immediately activated his force to float up from under the water, and finally stood on the water surface.

Looking around, it was pitch black, and only the water surface under his feet emitted a faint blue light.

In the sky above his head, there was a crack, which was exactly the crack Li Fei entered.

This is the Tomb of Heaven's Water, looking like an endless sea, but the sea water did not flow at all, and there were no fish or shrimp in the sea.

It is like a dead sea.

In fact, Li Fei knew that the area of this dead domain was not that large, but the dead domain would affect people's perception of space, thereby creating an illusion of being boundless.

All the "treasures" of this Tomb of Heaven's Water are underwater, and the temperature underwater is extremely low; the chill contained within cannot be completely isolated even with force or divine garments, and will accumulate more and more.

Until the chill invades the internal organs, invades the implanted bodies, then there is truly no salvation!

So even without the time limit brought by the Domain-Breaking Talisman, people cannot stay in the Tomb of Heaven's Water for too long; each exploration can only be shallow, taking away limited treasures.

Li Fei did not rush to start exploring, but waited in place.

He wanted to wait for Xiang Xiang Dongliang and others to come in, and then explore this Tomb of Heaven's Water together.

But he stood in place and waited for a long time, but did not see anyone coming down.

"What's the situation?"

Li Fei looked up at the crack in the sky, and was surprised to find that this crack was gradually shrinking until it disappeared completely.

"Something happened?"

Li Fei immediately reached into his arms and took out the Domain-Breaking Talisman given by Xiang Xiang Dongliang to check.

Seeing that both Domain-Breaking Talismans were intact and could be activated at any time, he breathed a sigh of relief.

Xiang Xiang Dongliang and others did not come in, and the crack disappeared in advance.

All this indicates that something must have happened outside, perhaps related to the plot of the New Heaven Society.

At this time, directly activating the Domain-Breaking Talisman to leave might be the best choice, but Li Fei did not do so.

He put the two Domain-Breaking Talismans back, and then dived into the water abruptly.

He would not leave just like this.

After all, he had already come.

(End of chapter)