Chapter 457 The Eve of the Storm [Two in One]

Yunlu City, Wei Family.

The head of the family, Wei Lingfeng, sat on a big chair with a worried look on his face. "Zhou Baihe has already been imprisoned, and now Qi Delong is also in trouble. I'm afraid it will be my turn soon among the three great families in Qingdu."

Sitting on both sides of him were the elders who held real power in the family. Originally there should have been more than a dozen of them, but now only half were left, and each of them had a gloomy look on their faces.

"Maybe not?" One of them still had a hint of optimism. "The Zhou family was in cahoots with the Righteous Fire Cult, and Qi Delong was courting death by getting the demon cultivators to assassinate him. Our Wei family has stood on the side of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince from the beginning, and has never put any obstacles in the way of Liang Yue. Why would he target us?"

"Old Five, you still don't understand the situation." A dignified old man holding a wooden stick said solemnly, "At the beginning, we all stood on the side of the crown prince, but now Liang Yue is no longer on the side of the crown prince or the noble families. He stands on the side of the common people! He wants to settle all the old accounts in Yunlu City, and no noble family can stay out of it."

"That's right." Wei Lingfeng said, "He is not like the previous imperial envoys who came here just to go through the motions and pretend. He really wants to wipe us all out. Moreover, he is dying now. No matter what he does, he is not afraid of the consequences and is completely unscrupulous... This kind of person is the most terrifying."

What Wei Lingfeng said is also the voice of all the heads of aristocratic families. If you can threaten a normal person with death, and if you threaten a person who is about to die with this, then you are abnormal.

"He must have a weakness, right?" Another elder said, as if he didn't believe in evil. "Beauty, fame, family... As long as he lives, he has to care about something."

"Sixth uncle, you haven't been involved in family affairs for too long." Wei Lingfeng shook his head and said helplessly, "Beauty... He is said to have had an ambiguous relationship with Fairy Wen of Xuanmen. With such a peerless beauty as a Taoist partner, what else can we use to impress him? Reputation... His master is Wang Rulin, who is known as the most shameless person in Xuanmen. Since he has entered this master's sect, he can't care about reputation..."

"As for his family, all gods know about it. His father is Liang Fuguo, the left prime minister, his sister is a priest of the Heavenly Questioning Tower, and his brother is the new number one scholar and a top student of the Sword Academy..."

"His mother seldom goes out. When she does, she is secretly protected by the prisoners arranged by Liang Fuguo. A few days ago, someone from Yunlu City wanted to attack her, but was captured by the prisoners before he could get within a few dozen feet of her." The majestic old man continued, "As for him, he is protected by his master. All the strong men in the Qingdu underworld have been killed by the Criminal Court. Even the more powerful ones are unwilling to offend the Xuanmen behind him..."

Good guy.

These words stunned the old men who had not taken care of affairs for years.

What is this three-dimensional defense?
There are no weaknesses at all.

"Second uncle, what do you think we should do?" Wei Lingfeng asked carefully. He had a normal attitude towards other elders, but was very respectful to this man.

Because this majestic old man was the previous head of the Wei family, Wei Zeng, who had promoted Wei Lingfeng. Later, when he was old, he passed the position to Wei Lingfeng, and he was content to be an old man, enjoying the support of the family, and coming back to participate in the meeting at critical moments.

"If you ask me..." Wei Zeng groaned, "He has only one weakness."

"What?" Everyone looked over at the same time with expectation.

"That's his lifespan." Wei Zeng said, "Although he is reckless because of his limited lifespan, he can't hold on for long. As long as we can survive the storm of the next one or two months, then only our Wei family will remain in Yunlu City... This is actually a great opportunity.

"Uncle, this is too difficult." Wei Lingfeng looked bitter. "I have begged everyone, and the prince is nominally in charge of this matter. No one in Longyuan City wants to get involved, and the prince has always supported him. Several major cases were uncovered yesterday. In a few dozen days, he will be able to label all of us as criminals!"

"Alas." Wei Zeng sighed, "He is now like a fire that is about to spread. You can't try to suppress him. You can only fuel his fire. Naturally, someone will come to put him out."

Hearing this, Wei Lingfeng seemed to be thinking, "Oh?"

"You thought of it." Wei Zeng smiled slightly.

Wei Lingfeng shook his head frankly: "No."

"What are you saying..." Wei Zeng rolled his eyes at him and said, "Isn't he going to get rid of the noble families? Then let him do it. There are so many cases involving noble families in the city, he can't possibly judge every one of them right, right? Even if he is not wrong, his subordinates must be wrong, right? If all else fails, then we can accuse him of one mistake. Anyway, we have to make the matter bigger, and then we can go to the capital to sue. If we start a lawsuit, it's hard to say when the matter will end, and it won't be that easy to drag him to death."

"This is a brilliant plan!" After hearing what he said, Wei Lingfeng clapped his hands in delight, "Second uncle is worthy of being the pillar of our Wei family. You have to step in at the critical moment!"

"Don't worry." Wei Zeng stood up and paused with his cane. "In just two months, Qingdu will be our Wei family's world!"

……

Longyuan City, Rakshasa Ghost Market.

After the disturbances, the ghost market was depressed for a while, but it was short-lived. Because the demons and underworld colleagues needed a place to gather together, it soon regained its vitality.

Liang Peng wore the same mask as before and walked on the streets of the ghost market again. He had not been here for a while because he was preparing for the imperial examination. When he came back, he found that there were more people here than before.

“If it continues like this, it will probably be busier than the East and West Markets.” He said with a chuckle.

"Do you know why?" Here, Shadow Lord could be a little more unbridled. He hid behind the mask, his aura blending into the surrounding darkness, with the most perfect disguise. "Because the world is in chaos."

"Is it a mess?" Liang Peng asked.

The Yin Kingdom had just won a great victory in the battle to capture the city, and the whole country was at peace, so how could there be chaos?
"I don't know where it is, but something is definitely going to happen." Shadow Zun said confidently, "Rakshasa Ghost Market can actually accurately predict whether the world will be fine or not. The world is about to be in chaos, and many things cannot be done openly, so some people will put on masks and look for ways to get in the ghost market. Whether it's killing people or robbing goods, it can be satisfied here."

"If the world is peaceful and everyone is safe, who would come here for no reason? If you show off your cultivation and wealth, you are at risk of being killed. Do you think your life is too long?"

Liang Peng thought what he said made sense, so he nodded and said, "Where is the connection point you are talking about?"

"Go forward a little further and it's the first ditch on the right." Ying Zun replied.

Liang Peng followed his instructions and walked to a slightly secluded corner. Looking to the right, he saw a dry and smelly ditch connected to a small hole in front. It was pitch black and no one knew where it led to.

He took out a black pill from his sleeve and threw it into the ditch. The pill flowed forward like flowing ink. "Does your most loyal subordinate live in the gutter of this Rakshasa Ghost City?" Liang Peng couldn't help asking.

"You don't understand this. The Ghost Market is the place where the Demon Sect connects. It has the most news and the most widespread rumors. I don't know how much information he has gathered for me here over the years. Although the environment looks dirty and messy, it is actually worth a fortune." Shadow Zun said.

After a while, a squeaking sound was heard from the gutter, and then a small black shadow jumped out. It was a skinny mouse, the kind that you would not bother to catch and eat during a famine.

The rat scurried back and forth in the ditch for a while, and Liang Peng asked, "Master Zi?"

"Hmm?" Hearing this call, the mouse was startled, and his eyes instantly became like a human's. He looked up at Liang Peng at the edge of the ditch, "Who are you?"

"I am the direct disciple of Ying Zun, and he ordered me to find you." Liang Peng replied.

"Master Shadow?" The mouse's voice suddenly became excited, "He escaped?"

"Of course." Liang Peng nodded and said, "But he still needs some time to recover his peak cultivation. Before he comes out of seclusion, he hopes to contact his former subordinates."

"Alas!" The mouse sighed heavily.

The Liuying Pill that Liang Peng just threw out was a pill that only Ying Zun knew how to refine, and it was also the only way for them to communicate, so the mouse had no doubt about Liang Peng's authenticity at all.

After sighing, he said, "Since the disappearance of Lord Yingzun, in the past few decades, our brothers from the Wusheng Sect have either been taken away by the Demon Queen to Jiuyang, or killed by the other sects. There should not be many left now..."

"It's better to have something than nothing." Liang Peng said calmly, "As long as Master returns, he will definitely lead us to stand on the top of the Demon Sect again!"

"Of course." Mouse chuckled twice. "The other two families are not doing well now either. The Blood Refining Sect was swept up by the Yin Kingdom court overseas and is now fleeing everywhere. The Skeleton Temple went to Yunlu City to assassinate the Xuanmen disciples and killed two guardians. The Bone Master was furious and is about to issue a killing order for the Demonic Path."

"Yunlu City?" Liang Peng was moved when he heard this place, and said, "This information is also very important. Lord Yingzun is preparing to leave the mountain. You can sort it out and give it to me to take away. Then notify Lord Yingzun's old subordinates to gather here in three days."

"Okay!" The mouse nodded heavily and looked into the ditch again, "Then please follow me in and sit down..."

"No." Liang Peng raised his hand, rejected the other party's invitation, and said, "I'll just wait outside.

The little mouse's movements were also very agile. It should be just a puppet pet of the Taoist priest, with only a trace of his soul possessed. Not long after it went back, it came back with another jade slip, which contained all the information about the Demon Sect that it had collected over the years.

After returning, Mouse's eyes were full of excitement. "I was ordered by Shadow Lord to collect intelligence here. I have learned countless secrets of the Demon Sect, but I hate that no one has shared them with me! From now on, Shadow Lord is finally back, and I finally have someone to share them with!"

……

Compared to the undercurrents in Shendu, Qingdu was bustling with activity.

The vigorous campaign against the aristocratic families, organized by Liang Yue, mobilized the enthusiasm of the people inside and outside the city. People who had been oppressed by the aristocratic families in the past then discovered that they had such great power when they united.

So everyone turned in evidence of their crimes, complained, and sought revenge.

However, it is inevitable that there will be many false accusers who want to defraud the property awarded by the court. Although Liang Yue instructed the Criminal Justice Department and the Imperial Guards to conduct strict investigations and not to wrongly accuse anyone, there will always be omissions when there are too many cases.

"Yesterday, a member of the Wei family's side branch was arrested in a manor outside the city. He died of a sudden illness on the way to the city. His wife also committed suicide this morning, leaving a suicide note saying that her family was falsely accused, and the police who went to investigate raped her and killed her husband." Zou Shiyi stood in front of the case and said coldly, "The news spread quickly in the city. Many people from big families have gathered together and want to file a complaint with the emperor."

"This..." Chief Constable Liu Dashan was sweating profusely, and he kept saying, "I have detained all the constables involved in the case in jail. I guarantee that this will be handled impartially. This kind of thing has never happened before."

"People's words are scary." Zou Shiyi frowned and said, "If something like this happens, it will be enough to make people doubt your intentions. If we file a lawsuit in the capital, I don't know how long it will take. This..."

"It doesn't matter." Liang Yue waved his hand and said calmly: "If the stall is spread too wide, there will always be chaos. As long as we are upright and vigilant against such behavior, we can stop the overall situation."

This kind of method was not the first time he had seen it. When Liang Fuguo investigated the Ministry of Works, Lu Yuanwang also used this method to expand the scope of affairs.

Seeing that he was so calm, Zou Shiyi did not say anything more, but continued: "The Yihuo Cult members who disappeared a while ago seem to have found their way back. In the past two days, small groups of Yihuo Cult members have appeared in various parts of Yuezhou, attacking the military headquarters and attempting to rebel. The Yihuo Cult in Yuezhou is more powerful than that in Nanzhou, and the Nanzhou military town has already sent troops to support them. It is estimated that the Yihuo Cult has also pulled all the people from Nanzhou to prepare for an uprising in Yuezhou."

"That's the best." Liang Yue smiled and said, "If they are in secret, we still need to investigate the case and find evidence. As long as they jump out and rebel openly, we can just report their location to the court."

Their men have searched many places in Nanzhou recently, but found no trace of the Yihuo Sect's large group. They think they must have retreated.

After all, there are tens of thousands of people there, and they have to eat, drink, defecate and urinate every day, so it is impossible for them to live without leaving any traces. In this way, Nanzhou should not have to worry about the Righteous Fire Sect for the time being.

As they were talking, Chen Ju hurried in again, "Liang Yue, didn't you ask me to ask the Nanzhou Military Town about the identities of the dead? I really let you guess, they are indeed military personnel. The Nanzhou Military Town said that several managers of their Fire Head Battalion went missing a few days ago, and they sent people to identify the bodies. These are the ones!"

"Sure enough!" Liang Yue's eyes flashed with brilliance.

Just say that he has a big head and a thick neck, he really is a cook...

But he suddenly remembered something about the Huotou Camp in Nanzhou Military Town, and it was as if a flash of lightning lit up in his mind.

"I know! Their target is not Yuezhou at all!"

(End of this chapter)