Book 3: Four-in-Nine Heavenly Tribulation

B3C1: The 1st Trans-Heaven diagram (1)

“Trash! Trash! Trash!!!”

“Bang!” The ink stone is thrown on the ground fiercely and shatters completely.

Xiang Guang stares at the hook-nosed man like a wild beast that wants to swallow people and angrily rebukes: “You piece of trash. Even Zhen Xu has already been killed. What happened actually? You must tell me everything in detail. Otherwise … you won’t be the secret service’s head anymore.”

Xiang Guang is so angry that he has become muddled.

The hook-nosed man’s heart skips a beat. As a secret service chief who knows a lot of secrets about the Emperor, if he no longer held this postion, there would be only one result -- he would be erased! An idea springs to his mind. He immediately bows and says: “Your Majesty, according to my investigation, killing Zhen Xu was exactly one of the Heavenly Net’s gold card missions. Even though we don’t know who undertook the mission, judging by the scene of the incident, we can confirm one thing, that is, the murderer of Zhen Xu is a silver card assassin!”

“Trash, I know very well about Zhen Xu’s power, silver card assassin? Bullshit, even his subordinates, the Nalan brother and sister, would’ve been able to deal with a silver card assassin easily. Both of them were Xiantian experts and Zhen Xu was even much stronger than them in overall power. You said such 3 people had been killed by a silver card assassin. Do you think I can believe it? Or perhaps, you think I’m an idiot,” says Xiang Guang while staring at the hook-nosed man.

The hook-nosed man smiles bitterly in his mind. He told the truth but the Emperor does not believe it.

“Your Majesty, Zhen Xu was extremely powerful. His personal security was totally taken care of by himself so I know nothing about it. This time there was the mask of a silver card assassin left at the scene after he was killed, but I think the murderer must be a gold card assassin who confused Zhen Xu by wearing a silvery mask. Zhen Xu was only murdered after being led to underestimate his enemy,” says the hook-nosed man hurriedly.

Xiang Guang ponders for a long time. Seeing that Xiang Guang seems not to believe him, the hook-nosed man comes up with an idea and says: “Your Majesty, there is another possibility, that is, East Vanquishing Prince Qin De disliked being hindered by Zhen Xu so he sent top-class experts to kill him. Even those fragments of a silvery mask were probably used by East Vanquishing Prince to confuse us.”

The hook-nosed man thinks to himself: “East Vanquishing Prince, sorry. At this crucial moment I can only force everything on you.” The hook-nosed man understands very clearly that, because Xiang Guang has always been suspicious of Qin De, if he blames everything on Qin De he will probably succeed.

Indeed!

“Correct. It must’ve been Qin De. He wants to rebel but he worried that Zhen Xu would find out about this so he sent someone to kill him. He was afraid that I would discover this is his deed so he tried to fool me with a broken silvery mask. Humph, this idiot, why didn’t he use a broken golden mask? Wouldn’t it have made the whole thing more believable?” Xiang Guang talks to himself, his eyes glittering with coldness. “However, I’m not that easy to deceive. Qin De, you want to rebel, I have no doubts about this. This time you killed Zhen Xu, breaking one of my wings. Good! Good!!!”

Xiang Guang is extremely furious.

Zhen Xu was very important to him. During the last over 20 years, whenever Xiang Guang experienced difficulty in finding out if someone was disloyal or hostile to him or had a great treasure and so on he always sent Zhen Xu to investigate and handle the matter. And Zhen Xu never disappointed him. Having Zhen Xu, Xiang Guang could just sit back and relax.

Despite Qin De’s artifices, Zhen Xu was still able to find out many secrets of East Vanquishing Prince. Zhen Xu was obviously very important to Xiang Guang.

However, Zhen Xu is already dead.

Even though there are still many spies under the command of the intelligence chief, these spies are far less formidable than Zhen Xu. To Xiang Guang, the death of Zhen Xu is equivalent to the loss of one wing so how can he not be furious? How can he not gnash his teeth? Moreover, he directs all of this intense hatred of the murderer towards Qin De.

He has been suffering from a recurring nightmare for so many years. Then recently he discovered that Qin De wants to rebel. Now the person he values the most, Zhen Xu, has also been killed by Qin De.

“Qin De, if I don’t destroy your Qin clan, how can I be satisfied?” Xiang Guang crushes the teacup in his hand with a firm grip. His eyes are blazing with fury. At this moment, Xiang Guang makes another decision in his mind. “Tell Yi Yan to come to my place. You can leave first.”

The hook-nosed man secretly lets out a sigh of relief because Xiang Guang obviously will not take out his anger on him because of this matter. To him, being in a mornarch’s company is just like being in a tiger’s company. Every time he does something near the Emperor, he must be extremely careful.

“Yes, I take my leave.” The hook-nosed man bows and says.

Xiang Guang then stays motionless in the imperial study, staring at the shattered ink stone. Even though his eyes are focusing on the shattered ink stone, he is obviously thinking about something else. In a short while, footsteps can be heard outside.

“Yi Yan, come on in.” Xiang Guang’s voice rises.

The door opens and an unusual-and-evil-looking young man comes in. This is none other than Yi Yan, the head of the Dominant Dragon Corps. While those spies only investigate and gather information, this Dominant Dragon Corps is the secret force which destroys every single enemy of the Xiang royal clan in the dark.

Yi Yan looks extremely evil and unusual. He has the face of a young man but actually he has reached the Xiantian level for over 40 years. This is mostly because a Xiantian expert can live 500 years and once they reach the Xiantian level their aging will slow down.

“Your Majesty.” Yi Yan slightly bows and says.

Xiang Guang thinks for a while then gnashes his teeth and says: “Alright, tell that Zhu San that I have agreed. But every material in the body of that demonic beast saber-toothed tiger must go to me, especially those 16 sharp swords. Not even one of them can be missing.”

Yi Yan raises his eyebrows. With the corners of his mouth slightly curving upward, he bows and says: “Your Majesty is brilliant. That Zhu San has guaranteed that as long as he has a Trans-Heaven digram he will deliver the whole corpse of the demonic beast saber-toothed tiger without keeping anything back.”

“This is good.” Xiang Guang gives a cold smile. “I don’t think that Zhu San will dare to pull any tricks on me.”

Zhu San is known by reputation as the no. 1 magnate on the Qian Long continent and is based in the Ming kingdom. His business has spread all over the whole Qian Long continent. His influence is extremely great. Using some unknow method, a group of his elite subordinates was able to kill a demonic beast.

A demonic beast saber-toothed tiger looks like a huge tiger with 16 sword-like sharp spikes on the back. All of the spikes are extremely sharp and can match high Xian-grade weapons in power. Furthermore, the sharp claws of a saber-toothed tiger can be turned into weapons. Therefore, killing a saber-toothed tiger is just like finding a living treasure store.

Perhaps only Shangxian can be as formidable as saber-toothed tigers. Heaven knows what method Zhu San used to kill one.

“Your Majesty, Magnate Zhu San has a whole lot of secret bases. Because this time they killed the saber-toothed tiger in the Wilderness, they are currently staying in a secret base in a city near the Wilderness. They can’t openly transport the tiger to the Ming dynasty so they will have no choice but to cut it up in that city first then bring the body parts back in turn. However, that city is located in none other than the 3 Eastern region counties.” Yi Yan bows and says.

Hearing this, Xiang Guang also understands that this matter is rather troublesome.

The Immense Wilderness is in the easternmost part of the continent and the Chu kingdom is next to the Wilderness. The 3 Eastern region counties of the Chu kingdom are the 3 counties adjacent to the Wilderness. Generally, anyone who wants to enter the Immense Wilderness will have to pass the 3 Eastern region counties. However, these 3 Eastern region counties are under Qin De’s control.

In the past Qin De would not have dared to snatch the tiger’s body openly but it is hard to tell what the current Qin De will do.

“Yi Yan, tell your father Elder Yi to personally lead a group of experts to the 3 Eastern region counties and trade with them.” Xiang Guang solemnly gives an order. Yi Yan says respectfully at once: “Yes, as long as my father goes into action, nothing can go wrong.”

Xiang Guang suddenly bursts out laughing: “Ha-ha, I only have the 2nd Trans-Heaven diagram. Without gathering all 3 Trans-Heaven diagrams, it’s simply impossible to find out that vague mysterious technique from it. Moreover, throughout history, many talented people including even Xiuzhenists have obtained the diagrams or collected all 3 of them but no one has ever found out their secret. I only have 1 diagram so it’s useless. Trading 1 useless Trans-Heaven diagram for a saber-toothed tiger can also be considered something worth doing.”

Yi Yan bows and says: “That Zhu San is just fond of collecting treasures. He only wants to collect 1 diagram to satisfy his curiosity.”

“Alright, Yi Yan, there must be no mistake this time. By getting that saber-toothed tiger, I’ll have quite a lot of high Xian-grade weapons. Not only Elder Yi, you must also dispatch several more Xiantian experts. Remember, there must be no mistake,” says Xiang Guang again.

If the saber-toothed tiger’s body is snatched by Qin De, it will be no different from Xiang Guang himself giving Qin De a wedding present. Giving Qin De a batch of good weapons instead of getting them for himself, Xiang Guang definitely cannot allow this possibility to happen.

“Don’t worry, Your Majesty. When my father goes into action, he shall not disappoint you.” Yi Yan bows and says.

Thinking about Yi Yan’s father Elder Yi, Xiang Guang also feels assured.

.

End of b3c1.