Firmament Sword

Xu Luo had already closed his eyes to await his death. Then, he felt his body go light. The severe injuries and extreme weakness sent him straight into unconsciousness.

When Xu Luo opened his eyes once more, he found himself lying on his own bed. The room was filled with the pungent smell of medicine. He tried to move but found his entire body wrapped in bandages. The stinging pain from his wounds reminded Xu Luo.

This was no dream. He was still alive.

”Oh my, the Young Master is awake! The Young Master is awake!” A young girl, about thirteen or fourteen, saw Xu Luo open his eyes and immediately jumped up in excitement. She ran out, shouting as she went.

Xu Luo recognized the young girl. She was one of his family’s Maids, likely arranged by Lianyi to look after him.

A moment later, Uncle Cai pushed the door open and came in. Seeing Xu Luo lying immobile on the bed, Uncle Cai’s face filled with grief and anger. Tears nearly streamed down his face as he choked out, ”Young Master, who injured you so badly?”

Xu Luo gave a bitter smile and shook his head. He didn’t even know how he had escaped death. He remembered the walls of the alley collapsing on both sides, and then his body seemed to go light...

’Did that Tier Nine Spirit Beast save me?’

’But... how is that possible?’

”Where’s Lianyi?” Xu Luo didn’t know what to say, nor could he explain. He could only change the subject.

He was so heavily injured, yet Lianyi was nowhere to be seen. Xu Luo instinctively felt that something was wrong. He looked at Uncle Cai and said, ”Uncle Cai, I want the truth.”

Uncle Cai hesitated for a moment before saying, ”Last night, a servant suddenly reported that you, Young Master, were grievously injured, nearly beyond saving, and had been left at our front gate!

The Young Miss erupted immediately, acting almost as if she had gone mad. She first had you carried back into the mansion and issued a complete lockdown on the news. Then she began searching for people to treat your injuries.

It wasn’t until she finally confirmed that your life was no longer in danger that she left, grinding her teeth. No one knows where she went.”

”Sigh... She acted too rashly!” As soon as Xu Luo heard this, he guessed what had happened. ’Lianyi must think the Wei Family did this to me. After confirming my life wasn’t in danger, is there any doubt what she went off to do?’

Xu Luo could only hope that Lianyi wouldn’t blow things out of proportion, lest it affect the investigation into that old case.

...

Early this morning, as the residents of the Imperial Capital were just waking up, they discovered that the atmosphere felt off. A tense air hung over the city.

Countless members of the City Defense Army and the Imperial Forest Army were patrolling everywhere with menacing auras.

The local hooligans, ruffians, and petty thugs of the Imperial Capital were out of luck; they were almost all rounded up in one fell swoop!

Gang bosses who were usually big shots, the kind even the Imperial Capital’s Prefect would greet with a smile and a nod, were now miserably locked in prisoner carts, their eyes filled with bewilderment.

Perhaps they had no idea why they were arrested, or perhaps they had done so many bad deeds they couldn’t remember which specific one had led to their capture.

However, after seeing the other gang bosses had also been arrested, their confusion vanished. They all understood at the same time.

Something major had happened in the Imperial Capital!

Last night, an empty alley had collapsed for some unknown reason.

While not a common occurrence, the collapse of a dilapidated old alley wasn’t exactly news. Even the most ordinary commoners wouldn’t think much of it.

But afterward, in less than four hours, a total of seventy-eight shops in the Imperial Capital were attacked!

The number of dead and injured exceeded six hundred!

These seventy-eight shops covered nearly every profitable business in the entire Cangqiong Kingdom.

Money Shops, cosmetic stores, jewelry stores, accessory shops, antique stores, top-tier luxury restaurants...

The strange thing was, these shops were all attacked at almost the exact same time!

Most astonishingly, the attackers weren’t after money at all. Not a single valuable was touched, nor were any of the shops’ lower-ranking servants killed.

The ones who died... were all the Guards and high-ranking Stewards of these shops!

The ordinary clerks, Servants, grooms, and Maids, though scared half to death, all survived!

This was clearly an organized and premeditated operation!

It was a blatant provocation!

Or perhaps, it was straightforward revenge!

To the common folk of the Imperial Capital, this was just a horrifying murder case, albeit one with an unusually high death toll.

But for those who truly knew who was behind these shops, this incident... was simply too extraordinary.

The perpetrators were audacious beyond belief!

They were almost one hundred percent certain that this was a vendetta!

This was retaliation!

No matter who was behind it, this incident was bound to cause a massive uproar!

No one would be able to suppress it!

Because the true owner behind these seventy-eight shops was one and the same person!

All of the shops bore the surname Wei!

That’s right. These seventy-eight shops, spread across various profitable industries, were the entirety of the Wei Family’s assets in the Imperial Capital, accumulated over countless years!

In less than four hours, seventy-eight shops were smashed to pieces, and all their Guards and Senior Stewards were killed...

At the scenes of the crime, killing intent soared to the heavens, and blood flowed like rivers!

The bloody stench permeating the air dared anyone to approach!

Then, an even more shocking piece of news was revealed...

The thirty-odd vicious guard dogs raised in Prime Minister Wei Feng’s family estate had all suddenly died violent deaths this morning.

Before dying, these thirty-odd dogs had gone on a rampage, biting to death or injuring twenty to thirty people...

In the Wei Family’s stables, a priceless Dragon Elephant Steed from the Northern Border was found poisoned, bleeding from all seven orifices, its death a ghastly sight!

A cat beloved by Wei Feng’s seventeenth concubine had its neck snapped and was thrown into her bed. The woman, who had always been arrogant and domineering due to being doted upon, nearly went mad from fright the moment she opened her eyes.

On the wall of the room of Wei Feng’s first wife, four large words had been written in fresh blood—”All adulterers must die.”

And that blood belonged to a wicked servant of the Wei Family.

The same wicked Wei Family servant, who once galloped wildly through the Imperial Capital with unbearable arrogance, had been decapitated and his naked body left at the door of the first wife’s room.

His head was nowhere to be found.

It was said that after Madam Wei saw the four words on the wall, she pushed open the door to find the headless, naked body of the servant, and immediately fainted.

From the crack of dawn, the entire Wei Family was thrown into a state of chaotic panic.

Prime Minister Wei Feng was woken from his sleep. When he heard the news reported by his servants, he was so furious he nearly fainted. Enraged, he roared for the case to be solved within a single day!

A cry of misery rose from the Wei Family. Almost everyone felt an impending sense of doom, as if their days were numbered.

Setting aside what happened to the Wei Family’s shops outside, the incidents that occurred within the family estate itself were done without a single trace. If the target had been Prime Minister Wei Feng or other important figures of the Wei Family, what would the result have been?

People hardly dared to imagine!

”Provocation! This is a grave provocation against the laws of the Cangqiong Kingdom! I will go see His Majesty! No matter who dared to do this, I will not let them go!”

Wei Feng roared hysterically. This Prime Minister, always so graceful and calculating, had finally and completely erupted.

He didn’t even know who was behind all this. It felt as if a sharp sword was hanging over his neck, ready to fall at any moment!

It was simply terrifying!

”I am the current Prime Minister, yet the culprit is this brazen! How can this be allowed to continue! Prepare the carriage, now! I will go see His Majesty!”

”My lord, you must seek justice for me... Someone has framed me for having an affair with a wicked servant, how am I supposed to live...” A wail was heard, and Madam Wei, her hair disheveled, rushed in and knelt before Wei Feng, sobbing inconsolably.

”Get out!” Wei Feng, already vexed and tormented by terror, felt a surge of anger at the sight of the woman before him. He kicked Madam Wei aside and said coldly, ”Do you really want your sordid affair to be known by the entire world? Get back to your room at once! For the sake of our many years together, I will not hold this against you. If you dare cause any more trouble, I will divorce you!”

Wei Feng ground out his words, not sparing his wife of many years another glance before storming off in a rage.

Madam Wei collapsed to the floor, weeping. She had indeed been having an affair with that servant, but how could such a thing be spoken of, even if it was an open secret? Now, having been publicly humiliated by her husband, she couldn’t bear the shame. In a moment of utter despair, she stood up and slammed her head against the hard corner of a table.

With a THUD, Madam Wei died on the spot without so much as a whimper.

This scene was witnessed by Wei Ziting, who had just walked in. His eyes looked as if they were about to split open, and he let out a blood-curdling howl, ”Mother!”

Wei Feng, who was already a good distance away, paused his steps for a moment. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and let out a long sigh before saying to a trusted subordinate beside him, ”Let’s go. To the Imperial Palace!”

...

「In the Imperial Palace, inside the Secret Pavilion.」

Lianyi knelt quietly on the floor, her cold and beautiful face filled with stubbornness.

”Xu Lianyi, you have committed such a treasonous crime, and you think you are in the right? Kneeling here in silence before Us? Are you trying to anger Us to death?”

Huangfu Haoran paced back and forth in the room with his hands behind his back, his face as black as the bottom of a pot.

”You... Tell Us, have you gone mad? You mobilized the Hidden Dragon, and in a single night, you destroyed the Wei Family’s foundation of several hundred years in the Imperial Capital and threw their household into chaos! Right now, Prime Minister Wei is outside, kneeling and demanding an audience with Us! Just say it, what exactly are you trying to do? Where do you place the laws of the kingdom? If everyone acted like you, the country would have long since fallen into chaos! This is sheer nonsense!”

At this moment, Huangfu Haoran was like a furious lion. All his shrewdness and composure had been thrown to the nine heavens.

What had happened last night was simply too astonishing.

No one would have thought that the perpetrators would be the Emperor’s own people!

Although Wei Feng didn’t know of the Hidden Dragon’s existence, not even a ghost would believe that an operation of this scale in the Imperial Capital had no connection to the Royal Family!

Besides the Royal Family, even if other families had such power, who would dare to act so unscrupulously!

So the issue now wasn’t whether to punish Lianyi, but how to appease Wei Feng!

”My Young Master... is dying!”

Lianyi suddenly let out a wail and burst into tears. She looked up at the Emperor and said, ”My Young Master was attacked last night. He was gravely injured, a single breath from death, and thrown at the entrance of the Xu Mansion... Your Majesty, you didn’t see what he looked like, *sob sob*...”

”What?” The Emperor’s expression changed slightly. He frowned, looking at Lianyi with a solemn face. ”Princess of Vulture, you must take responsibility for your words. Your Young Master... was truly attacked and seriously injured?”

”If Your Majesty does not believe me, you can send someone to see for yourself immediately. My Young Master has never provoked anyone. A while ago, he risked life and limb to find medicine for the Seventh Princess, only to be met with resentment. He had just been ennobled as a marquis by Your Majesty, and the moment he stepped outside, he was ambushed. The other party was so brazen they even used Military Heavy Crossbows!

My Young Master didn’t want to trouble Your Majesty, nor did he want to trouble our Old Master and the Eldest Young Master on the front lines, so he entered True Martial Academy to avoid those people.

But who would have thought that they would press him at every turn, their killing intent palpable!

He had just left the academy yesterday when he was attacked again. Your Majesty, if something were to happen to my Young Master, do you think the Old Master and Eldest Young Master could continue to guard the Border Region with peace of mind?

They risk their lives on the front lines, yet their family’s safety cannot even be guaranteed back home...

Yes, what happened last night was done by me, your subject, using the Hidden Dragon. But they pushed us too far! If they hadn’t been so outrageous, how could I have resorted to such measures?

I was afraid that the Old Master would be disheartened if he found out, so I made the desperate decision to seek justice for the Young Master, so that the Old Master could continue to serve the kingdom on the front lines with a peaceful heart...”