Chapter 763: The Truth Comes to Light

Yun Yuqing didn’t try to beat around the bush, and instead said directly, “I believe you’ve already guessed at the truth. It’s precisely the Shi clan, because their most beloved son Shi Kun perished at the hands of you and the crown princess. If it were just you, that would be one thing, because there are more than enough methods for the Shi clan to deal with you through their authority. However, the crown princess is also one of the ‘murderers’. That leaves them little room to maneuver.

“If the crown prince becomes the emperor, she’ll become the empress. There will be no hope for the Shi clan to get revenge then. Actually, though, that isn’t the most frightening thing; rather, it’s that they don’t know what kind of attitude the crown princess has about this matter. If the crown princess believes that the Shi clan is on alert because of Shi Kun’s death, the Shi clan will inevitably fall in the future. After all, everyone knows the crown prince’s situation. The one who makes all of the decisions is the crown princess. By offending her, there can be no good result for the Shi clan at all.

“The Shi clan can’t place their hopes on something so intangible, which is why they decided to see this to the end. They’re going to get rid of the crown princess to get their revenge, as well as deal with the Shi clan’s future worries.”

Zu An sighed with amazement. “But once this matter is exposed, it will instead bring the Shi clan to the chopping board ahead of time!”

Yun Yuqing replied calmly, “But doing this can instead place the initiative in their hands. It’s better than just waiting for their fate. All in all, their greatest mistake this time was that the one they ended up targeting was you. Something that originally should have been a cinch ended up producing all types of accidents. You managed to get away.”

Zu An harrumphed. “I’m the victim here, okay? I really was almost done in by them that night.”

Yun Yuqing looked apologetic. “Ah Zu, I’m sorry. I didn’t expect that the man the crown princess was going to be implicated in a scandal with was you, or else I would have definitely been opposed to it.”

Zu An held her hand. “If you had never appeared, I would never have thought that it was you guys who had done all of this. You ended up exposing yourself for my sake, so how can I turn on my benefactor and instead doubt you?”

A smile quickly covered Yun Yuqing’s face. “I didn’t like the wrong person after all.”

Zu An couldn’t help but ask, “Right, is Xin Rui one of your people?”

Yun Yuqing shook her head. “Not at all.”

Zu An began to think to himself. Then he continued, “There is something I just can’t wrap my head around. Is it really just King Wu and the Shi clan who are involved in this scheme? Are there any other powers?”

Yun Yuqing stared blankly at him for a moment. A while later, she sighed and said, “Ah Zu, you’re really smart, as expected. Indeed, there is one other party. However, please forgive me; I can’t tell you who they are for various reasons. You know I’m shouldering the fate of many people, so I can’t selfishly sell out other people for personal reasons.”

Zu An chuckled and said, “Don’t worry, just tell me what you can; if you can’t, it doesn’t matter. It’s better that you told me ahead of time, rather than trying to trick me. Besides, your words have already affirmed some of my suspicions, so I should be thanking you.”

Yun Yuqing looked at him with a complicated expression. “Ah Zu, you’re always so good at understanding others.”

Zu An chuckled as he took her into his embrace. “Actually, I’m even better at removing clothes.”

“You’re so bad…” Yun Yuqing pouted playfully, her cheeks bright red.

…

After some time passed, Zu An examined the soundly sleeping King Wu. He couldn’t help but feel worried. “What are you planning to do from now on? You’ve already become hostile to him. I don’t think he’ll let you go once he wakes up.”

Yun Yuqing smiled. “Don’t worry, after suffering from my Devil’s Eye, he’ll forget everything that just happened. That’s also the reason why I went all out earlier.”

Zu An sighed in amazement. “Your Devil’s Eye is really incredible… Please don’t ever use it against me.”

Yun Yuqing said, looking upset, “Didn’t I use it before you in North Order Commandery? And yet, I was almost done in as a result.” Zu An smiled when he recalled how they had first met.

Then Yun Yuqing said, “Right, the people who tried to assassinate you have been discovered by the city defense, so I believe you should be able to solve your case soon. Zhao Yan and I will leave the capital as quickly as possible so we aren’t dragged in as well. I don’t know when we’ll be able to meet again.”

Zu An gently sorted out the hair around her temples. “We’ll meet again even across a thousand miles if fate wills it. Wasn’t it because of fate that we met again this time?”

“We’ll meet again if fate wills it?” Yun Yuqing’s eyes lit up. As she mumbled those words to herself, her gaze was full of respect when she looked at Zu An. “Ah Zu, I didn’t expect you to have such skills in literature as well.”

Zu An shamelessly took on the role of a plagiarist. He took her into his embrace and asked, “Do you like me even more now?”

“You’re so annoying…”

…

It was still time for them to separate in the end. They gave each other reluctant goodbyes. After he left King Wu Manor, Zu An headed straight to the imperial palace. When he arrived he changed into his Sir Eleven uniform. He hurried to the Embroidery House, where he saw a man suffering from baldness in the shape of the Mediterranean Sea.

“Boss!” Chen Eighth ran over excitedly. “You’re finally back! Something huge just happened on the city outskirts.”

“Oh?” Zu An remained unfazed. He wanted to see what kind of information the Embroidered Envoy had access to right now. “What happened?”

Chen Eighth gestured for him to come inside while explaining, “An intense assassination attempt happened near the home of Xin Rui’s mother, and there was even a siege crossbow involved. His majesty was furious and put the chief commander in charge of investigating this matter thoroughly.”

Dai Seventh, who was suffering from an entirely different kind of baldness, appeared out of who knew where and added, “Judging from the corpses that were found at the scene of the crime, all of them are deathsworn soldiers from the army. Chief commander is currently checking their identity. However, we don’t know who they were after. That person got away even while attacked by a siege crossbow! Isn’t that person a bit too formidable?”

Zu An subconsciously stuck out his chest. He thought to himself, If I didn’t know that there was no chance you knew it was me, I would’ve thought that you were buttering me up.

“I believe this siege crossbow attack has something to do with the case we’re investigating,” a calm voice said from off to the side. It turned out Xiao Jianren had come out after hearing news of Zu An’s arrival.

“Oh?” Zu An was curious. He wanted to hear what this fellow had to say.

Xiao Jianren said, “Boss told me to investigate which noble clans were raising Fiend Race experts who could silently kill that casino boss.

“After looking through the Embroidery House’s records, I discovered that even though there aren’t too many clans like that, there are still a good amount. Those high officials and noble persons all seem to have some of these foreign tribe experts. However, after eliminating some clans that clearly have nothing to do with this case, I discovered that the Shi clan has a guest called Jia Sili. She’s from the mysterious southern border and excels in spirit subduing techniques. It would be extremely easy for her to silently kill a casino boss.

“Furthermore, there was a siege crossbow involved, as well as deathsworn knights. Both of them are from the army. Back then, the Shi clan’s leader Shi Miao relied on military achievements to get to his position. His third son Shi Tong is a military officer in the capital. I suspect that those deathsworn soldiers came from the Shi clan.

“Lastly, the crime happened at the home of Xin Rui’s mother. How can there be that much of a coincidence? Every single clue can be traced back to the Shi clan. That’s why I suspect that it was precisely the Shi clan who framed the crown princess, it’s just that I don’t know who was being surrounded and attacked this time.”

Zu An laughed heartily. “Indeed, your analysis is excellent. It sounds almost identical to the truth.”

Xiao Jianren said with a bitter smile, “But unfortunately, all of this is speculation; we don’t have proof. The Shi clan won’t admit to it. Whether it’s the siege crossbow or those deathsworn soldiers, the Shi clan can just say that it has nothing to do with them. Even though the chief commander is investigating their backgrounds, since they’re deathsworn soldiers, it will be hard to find out anything about them.”

Dai Seventh and Chen Eighth both sighed. They had already investigated this case for a long time, yet now, even though the truth was in sight, there was actually nothing to be found.

If it were anyone else, they could seize them and extort a confession, but the Shi clan was different. The clan leader Shi Miao was one of the Great Zhou Dynasty’s prestigious eight dukes. His sons were also all top level officials in the court.

Ignoring the son who had died, his second son Shi Qiao was the Imperial Secretariat’s Court Gentleman, and his third son Shi Tong was a high ranking officer of one of the guerilla warfare armies. His fourth son Shi Jun served as the Assistant Minister of the Huang Gate, and his fifth son Shi Jin was a senior provincial official. The least impressive of them all was probably his sixth son Shi Kun, but he was still a crown prince secretary.

That was why the Shi clan really was an incredibly powerful clan, a top tier family in the entire Great Zhou Dynasty. Furthermore, they had a death pardoning token, so the Embroidered Envoy couldn’t do much to them.

When he saw their dispirited appearances, Zu An chuckled and said, “Don’t worry, I have proof. I’m going to pay the chief commander a visit right now.”

When they saw his departing figure, Xiao Jianren and the others looked at each other in dismay.

“We didn’t manage to find any proof even when we used all of the Embroidery House’s resources. But boss found a way so easily?”

“Our boss really is deep and unfathomable!”

“He really is someone to look up to!”

…

Zu An arrived outside Zhuxie Chixin’s office and saw that he was currently taking out his anger on his subordinates. They had investigated all day, yet they couldn’t find any records of those deathsworn soldiers in any of the military records. They couldn’t find anything about their existence.

“How could these people appear out of thin air? Even if they’re deathsworn soldiers, they would definitely have left behind some traces in the capital over the years! Yet you’re all telling me that you can’t find anything?” Zhuxie Chixin roared in anger.

His subordinates replied while trembling, “We might find something if you give us a bit more time…”

“Might? Perhaps?” Zhuxie Chixin erupted into another burst of rage when he heard those words. “His majesty is pushing me; we don’t have time!”

The others fell silent out of fear. None of them were willing to say anything. Suddenly, Zu An coughed lightly and said, “Chief commander, I have some leads here.”

“Oh?” Zhuxie Chixin was first shocked to see him, but he quickly became happy as he asked, “What kind of leads?”

Zu An was a bit distracted when he saw the man’s appearance. After all, he had fought him to the death in Jia Sili’s world of illusion. But he quickly snapped out of his daze and said, “I have some things I wish to discuss with chief commander in private.”

Zhuxie Chixin knew that his identity was special, so he waved his hand and gestured for the others to leave for now. His subordinates were all happy, but also envious. They were happy that they didn't have to hear the chief commander’s criticism, but they were also jealous that this Golden Token Eleven had just arrived, yet he already seemed to have received the favor of their chief commander. They are always chatting with each other in private.

When it was only the two of them left, Zu An said, “The one those deathsworn were after was me.”

Zhuxie Chixin was shocked and quickly asked, “What exactly happened?”

Zu An repeated everything that happened that day, but of course, he omitted the details involving Yun Yuqing. “Later on, I continued to run, and those experts pursued me relentlessly.”

“The Shi clan truly is daring!” Zhuxie Chixin slammed his table in anger. The first-rate pearwood table exploded into pieces on the spot. “Then based on what you’re saying, the three experts are probably the gold and silver ring user Bo Zhou, White Horse Red Spear Luo Xin, and Three Extremes Hammer Yuan Fu. All three of them are outstanding warriors from the army who established great contributions with Shi Miao in battle. It’s quite surprising that you were able to survive under their attack. Unfortunately, we have no proof. The Shi clan won’t admit to anything even if we knock on their doorstep.”

“Who says there’s no proof?” Zu An had a strange expression. He clapped his hand, indicating for the people outside to come in.

Three corpses were carried in. Zhuxie Chixin’s eyes almost popped out as he said, “It’s them…”