Chapter 456: Discussing History At The Feast At Hongmen (2)
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Yang Gongcheng, one of the Eight Generals. It looked like a very simple thing, but when these words were put together in one place, they had completely different meaning. Everyone knew that this referred to the eight aces that the Second Prince privately kept in his manor. These eight aces always followed beside the Second Prince and were one of his most powerful martial forces.
During the battle between Fan Xian and the Second Prince, it was these eight generals that had held Fan Xian down in the tea shop outside of Baoyue Brothel. Although, in the end, they didn't manage to keep him down, they still left a deep impression on Fan Xian.
They were indeed eight aces.
Outside the Jingdou government, in that Baoyue Brothel case that was closely related to Fan Sizhe, Fan Xian had suddenly struck. He shattered the soul of ease and triggered the zhenqi problems in his body. This was the first time.
Beside the royal mountain in the autumn rains, swordsmen of the Sixth Bureau of the Overwatch Council struck out to silence all with their metal drills. It shocked Fan Wujiu, causing him to disregard the Second Prince's attempts to have him stay after the event and left for far away. This was the second.
After that undeclared small-scale battle, there were only six left of the Second Prince's eight generals. The Second Prince was a guest at the Baoyue Brothel and very confident that Fan Xian would not dare do anything to him. In order to show his noble and benevolent character, he had not brought a single person. He had also sent back the remaining six of the eight generals.
Yang Gongcheng was one of them. In such a night where one's gaze could see only white snow and in which the layers of cloud had hidden the silver moon, his path and escape had both been cut off by a group of black-clothed men.
During the day, it had been clear. The snow on the eaves of the alley had melted into water and was dripping down, soaking the alley. As day entered into night, the dripping water gradually decreased and formed into icicles. Yet, there was still a drip of water at the tip of the icicle hanging down and waiting to drop.
Yang Gongcheng's pupils constricted slightly. He flipped his hand to pull out the sword at his waist. He rose to his toes. His entire body swept forward, chopping down at the icicles beneath the eaves.
The icicles broke with a crack, becoming sharp tips that pierced toward the black-clothed people.
Immediately, Yang Gongcheng stepped onto the shoulders of two of his cohorts and pushed them in the directions of the black-clothed people coming in from two sides. His figure had already risen and was about to escape through the top of the small alley.
He knew this was an attack, and one that had been planned for him for a long time. The other party had confirmed his usual walking route, thus, they could perfectly block him in the small alley.
However, he didn't want to die. He would rather sacrifice two of his cohorts or disciples and have them be the dummies blocking the attacks, giving him enough time to escape.
To escape, not to fight. At this time, Yang Gongcheng had long lost his drive. There were few who dared set up and ambush to kill in Jingdou, and there was only one person with a grudge against the Second Prince.
The people that person sent out to kill him were not people he could stand against.
It had to be said, Yang Gongcheng lived up to being one of the Second Prince's eight generals. His reaction and style of retaliation were first rate. By the time the black-clothed men had chopped his disciples to the ground and dodged those icicles imbued with his true strength, he had already flown into the air.
He only needed a brief instant before he could reach the head of the alley and escape into the night sky.
Unfortunately, the attackers did not give him this brief instant. An arrow flew over, silently, directly toward his chest.
Yang Gongcheng gave a muffled grunt. Flipping his wrist, he chopped down and chopped away the arrow in a flash.
That being the case, since the crossbow had fired, there was more than one arrow.
Phew! Phew! Phew! Phew! A dozen arrows shot out at the same time. He was in midair, so how could he block them? Although with his extraordinary cultivation he managed to narrowly dodge a few fatal arrows, a few arrows still slipped by and sunk deeply into his thigh.
Yang Gongcheng's leg throbbed with pain one moment and was numb the next. His eyes were opened wide and he, hopelessly, fell from midair.
He only had time to jump into the air in the middle of the alley for a moment. He saw seven crossbowmen standing in the corners of the eaves of the private residences in the alley. Standing in different positions, they had completely blocked the sky.
Assassins below and crossbowmen up top, this was an inescapable net. How could he avoid it?
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…
During Yang Gongcheng's fall, he wanted to open his mouth to cry for help. However, out of the corner of his eyes, he saw the black-clothed man in the alley also take out a crossbow from his clothes. A bolt flew toward his face and entered his mouth. Blood sprayed out and forced back his cry.
He wondered hopelessly to himself, Why did the other party use so many high-quality crossbows to defeat such a minor figure as himself? Because of the overly dense arrows, his body had already been pierced a dozen times while he was in the air. He looked as funny as a hedgehog.
With a slap, Yang Gongcheng's body fell into the snowy water and sprayed up a puddle of bloody water. However, his cultivation was truly very elevated. After taking such heavy injury, he was still not yet dead. He knelt with one knee on the ground with his sword stabbed into the ground. He watched the leader of the black-clothed men come closer and closer to him. A glimmer of a wild beast's panic and fierceness right before death appeared in his pupils.
Yes, he was an ace. But, he was an ace that had been attacked by a dozen quality crossbow bolts so could not do much unless he was Ye Liuyun.
Fresh blood followed the dense arrow shafts in his body and flowed down. It carried out his essence and blood soul. Yang Gongcheng made choking noises in his through but refused to fall down.
The leader of the black-clothed men stopped in front of him. He turned his hand and pulled out the straight knife at his waist. The blade of the knife was as bright as snow, without a speck of dust.
Most of the icicles on the eaves in the alley had already been broken. There were only a few lonely ice columns. The drop of snow water that had been gathering for a long time finally became a large pearl of water and dripped down. It landed in the bloody water in the alley and a light sound rose.
The leader of the black-clothed men drew his knife and silently chopped down. The knife chopped of Yang Gongcheng's head cleanly.
Yang Gongcheng's headless body remained kneeling.
The leader of the black-clothed men waved his hand. The crossbowmen standing on the private residences flipped and landed on the ground. The attackers in the alley silently approached and took away all of the arrows. They then destroyed all the evidence in the alley.
The group of people took off their black clothes and disguised themselves as ordinary commoners. They left the small alley and merged back into the seemingly never-changing life in Jingdou.
The little alley was completely quiet as if no one had passed through. However, there were an additional three bodies. That headless corpse finally fell without the surrounding support of the arrows, making a muffled crash in the alley.
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…
"In the past, I had never thought that things like arrows could be so terrifying." Fan Xian lifted his wine cup and slowly drank. His eyes were filled with a perplexed expression, "As everyone is aware, the Overwatch Council is used to using arrows. However, I still had not thought that when a murder object reached a certain number, it would become so terrifying."
At the feast in Baoyue Brothel, everyone listened quietly to Fan Xian's story. These were the details of the attack in the valley. Everyone could hear the glimmer of melancholy and darkness in his tone.
Fan Xian placed his cup on the table and smiled slightly. "The sky was raining with arrows. I had never seen such a sight in this lifetime. I had probably never seen it in a past life either. This was not an attack, it was more like being on a battlefield. It was only at that time that I realized that one person's strength was indeed limited."
Across from him, the Great Prince nodded slowly with a complicated expression on his face. Perhaps he was thinking of year after year of killing with the Hu tribe during the Western expedition.
"The sound of the arrows landing on the carriage was like the knock of a soul stealer." Fan Xian furrowed his brows, he seemed to be remembering the specific details of that time. "That feeling of being blocked in and killed is not very good."
The Crown Prince sighed and comforted, "Fortunately it has already passed. As you were able to survive, those rebels and traitors will eventually be executed. The court is investigating closely. Presumably, they will have results any day now."
"Thank you, Your Highness." Fan Xian raised his cup to drink to everyone. He smiled and said, "Yes, at least I survived. Presumably, many people were disappointed. Even the city-guarding crossbows were used, yet it could still not kill me. What does this mean?"
No one took his cue. The coloring of the two Deputies of the Bureau of Military of Affairs did not look very good. Without question, the attack in the valley implicated the military. Although the court's investigation had not yet yielded any results, this point was already ironclad. Speaking to here, Fan Xian could not allow these military elders to secretly analyze it.
"I am a very self-confident person." Fan Xian showed everyone he had already drained his cup. He smiled and said, "Including the Emperor and the Director, elders have all once asked me, 'why are you so self-confident?'"
Everyone focused their attention and listened, but an absurd feeling grew in their hearts. The feast was filled with important Qing Kingdom figures, there were also the Crown Prince and the three princes, yet, as long as Fan Xian opened his mouth, everyone's attention would be drawn by him. This was not only because he was the host of tonight's feast, but because…it was if everyone unconsciously admitted that he was the truly the most powerful one.
It was truly very absurd. Perhaps there were powerful officials in history who could overturn the court known as "Faction of the Nine Thousand Year Old [JW1]," but there had never been a young illegitimate royal child full of deterrent force as this. He was also a very dazzling illegitimate child.
Everyone unconsciously glanced at the Crown Prince.
However, the Crown Prince was smiling slightly and listening to Fan Xian speak. There was not a glimmer of unhappiness in his expression. On the contrary, it was full of comfort and understanding.
The Great Prince coughed gently.
Fan Xian's left hand gently played with the large wine cup. His gaze was on the table in front of him as if he was looking at a very beautiful artwork. "Why am I so self-confident? Because I believe I am the person with the best luck in this world. No one else could have better luck than me."
For a clearly already dead person to mysteriously come alive again, and, furthermore, have such a rich and exciting, even monstrous and multi-colored, life, this kind of luck needed to be slowly celebrated through the years.
Fan Xian smiled and said, "As I said earlier, the Overwatch Council is also very used to using arrows. Those arrows cannot kill me, and my enemies are certain to not have as much good luck as me."
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…
In the Overwatch Council, not very far from the Royal Palace, in Director Chen's favorite secret room, Yan Bingyun wore an outfit of pure white cotton and was staring in a daze at the case file on the table. A moment later, he sighed and rubbed his temples. The pain in his temples was difficult to stop.
Knocking came from the door. An official of the Second Bureau's intelligence service came in and handed him three small and sealed bamboo containers.
Yan Bingyun used his fingernail to pick apart the wax seal. He took out the intelligence report from within and swept his eyes over it, and then moved to stand beside a candle and burned it. Under the confused gazed of the intelligence officer, he tiredly said, "Don't put tonight's events into the record."
The intelligence officer immediately lowered his head an acquiescence, "Forty-three targets, three had already been cleaned out."
Yan Bingyun seemed to have a headache at hearing these words. He shook his head irritably and waved his hand to indicate that he knew and had him leave.
The secret room once more returned to silence. Yan Bingyun looked at the pieces of wax on the table and his mind began to wander again. Fan Xian was hosting a feast in the Baoyue Brothel while the Overwatch Council was in a state of second-class emergency. In the darkness of the Jingdou night, countless people were moving and countless people would die. And all of this was because of Fan Xian's craziness.
The night's plan had been personally formulated by Yan Bingyun. Although he had determinedly expressed his opposition to Fan Xian's face, he would continue to do what needed to be done. In this plan, they needed to kill 11 people and capture 32 people. Of the 11 people that needed to be killed, the first ones were the six of the Second Prince's eight generals.
This was a crazy revenge mission.
Three of the Second Prince's eight generals had already died. Given the Overwatch Council's full strength crazy retaliation, the power of a mere royal manor was not enough to shake the bigger picture. Presumably, he would receive news of the death of the rest of them.
Yan Bingyun walked to the window and lifted a corner of that black cloth just like how Chen Pingping used to do so. He gazed toward the not very distant Royal Palace through that narrow space. The Royal Palace was still brightly lit and gave off an air of holiness and majesty in the dark night.
He gazed at the Royal Palace and thought with worry, The Emperor wants you to be an isolated official, not an extreme official.
[JW1] "Nine-thousand-year-old" is another name for Wei Zhongxian – a late Ming eunuch who is considered the most powerful and notorious in Chinese history.