The First Lackey Under The Empress

In a secluded alley.

Accompanied by the swarm of Zhao Ya officials and runners, it suddenly became lively and crowded.

Due to the angle, what Haitang, hurrying to provide support, saw first was a carriage overturned and lying flat on the ground.

Then, Zhao Du'an standing in the alley, and Jin Jian, whose presence was less noticeable beside him.

As for the dead swordsman, he was conveniently blocked behind the two, in a blind spot.

"Why are you here?" Zhao Du'an was taken aback.

Surprised by the appearance of his two colleagues, and also astonished by the word "rebel" in their mouths.

Haitang looked him up and down, and relieved to see that he was not injured.

Her gaze shifted to the maiden priest, and she paused slightly.

In an instant, she completed a series of mental deductions, seemed to understand something, and cupped her fist in greeting:

"Greetings, Priest Jin Jian."

Then she explained:

"We received news that the new leader of the Kuangfu Society has entered the city…"

She spoke quickly, concisely describing the situation.

Zhang Han nodded and added:

"We were in the distance just now and vaguely saw a green aura rising here, which disappeared in an instant. We were wondering if a sorcerer sent by the rebels was trying to harm you.

Now it seems, could it be that Priest Jin Jian took action?"

The two were also somewhat confused by the situation before them.

As they spoke, they were still cautiously looking around, as if searching for traces of battle.

Then, unsurprisingly, they noticed a figure behind Zhao Du'an and immediately shouted:

"Who's there!"

As they spoke, they had already adopted an attack stance.

"…No need to be nervous, he's already dead," Zhao Du'an said after a moment of silence, reluctantly stepping aside and introducing:

"This is the person who tried to assassinate me on the road. Well, he's already been killed by me."

Killed by me…killed…

Zhao Du'an's light words entered their ears, causing them to pause.

When they saw the corpse kneeling on one knee, using his sword as a crutch, eyes closed as if falling into a deep sleep.

The expressions on their faces turned to disbelief.

"Gao Li!"

The two almost simultaneously connected the appearance of the person in front of them with the portrait in the files.

Especially the iconic Frost Sword, which undoubtedly indicated the identity of the corpse:

The successor of Zhuang Xiaocheng, who had just arrived in the capital a few days ago, the new leader of the Kuangfu Society branch, and a genius swordsman who had stepped into the Divine Chapter realm decades ago.

Not long ago, they were still in the Peony Hall, seriously discussing how to deal with Gao Li.

How to gather the strength of the nine halls to jointly meet the challenge.

But now, Zhao Du'an said that the new leader had been killed by him.

"He really is Gao Li?"

The heroic female constable with long legs, a slender waist, and a high ponytail muttered to herself.

Zhang Han stepped forward, confirmed it, and said with a complicated tone:

"It should be right, he is indeed dead."

He raised his hand, touched the blood on his chest, and said blankly:

"It's a knife wound? But this wound doesn't seem right…there's no fatal injury, could it be the spirit…"

Zhao Du'an cleared his throat and said:

"He was indeed killed by sorcery."

There was no way to hide this, and at the same time, he became entangled in his heart, wondering how to explain this matter.

A single Divine Edict Charm, unexpectedly had such power.

Zhao Du'an was almost certain.

That old man who had repeatedly tried to poach him and take him as a disciple was definitely a cultivator in the "Worldly" realm.

Otherwise, ordinary Divine Chapter realm officials, even if they had such a trump card talisman, would not be generous enough to give it away, right?

He, a dignified court official, a royal family offering, had an unclear relationship with a high-ranking priest…

It didn't sound good.

At this time, Jin Jian next to him suddenly said:

"It was relying on my Celestial Master Mansion's 'Divine Edict Charm'."

Seeing the three looking over, she lied without changing her expression:

"I gave it to him for self-defense."

Ah?

When did you give it…Zhao Du'an was stunned for less than a second, then smiled and nodded:

"That's right, last time I asked Priest Jin Jian to protect me, and we became friends. Recently, I've provoked too many enemies, plus yesterday's Xia Jianghou incident, so I asked her to help."

A perfect excuse!

When saying these words, Zhao Du'an suddenly understood why Jin Jian would appear here.

It must have been that the old scatterbrain who could predict the future sensed that he would have a tribulation today, so he informed Jin Jian and asked her to come over.

In this way, just saying that the talisman was given to him by Jin Jian would explain everything.

As for the reason, there was a ready-made one—

In the Jingwang Mansion incident last time, the middle-aged sorcerer captured happened to be a priest who had defected from the Celestial Master Mansion.

In other words, in that case, Zhao Du'an accidentally helped the Celestial Master Mansion capture a traitor.

This was not a secret, and many people knew it.

Priest Jin Jian privately helped him once as a reward to thank Zhao Du'an, which was reasonable.

Anyway, as the disciple of the Old Celestial Master, she was rich and didn't lack money.

"So that's how it is…"

Zhang Han and Haitang looked at each other, revealing a look of realization.

At the same time, they couldn't hide their surprise in their hearts.

They didn't expect that Zhao Du'an was actually friends with a Celestial Master's disciple, and had so much face to be able to invite her.

When did the proud priests look up to the infamous gigolo?

"Alright, this time was quite dangerous, fortunately, the enemy died in the end, not me."

Zhao Du'an said with a serious expression:

"Thank you both for coming to the rescue. This matter is of great importance, and this official is just about to enter the palace, so I will go to report it. Please help bring the corpse back, and also, I suspect that there may be rebels lurking nearby…"

Zhang Han and Haitang looked at each other and said at the same time:

"Officer Zhao, don't worry, leave this to us."

Zhao Du'an nodded in thanks and looked at Jin Jian again.

But he saw the maiden priest raise her small hand and yawn, her figure slowly fading away:

"I'm leaving, just come to the Celestial Master Mansion to find me if you need anything."

She really is a night owl, so sleepy… Zhao Du'an shook his head.

He borrowed a runner's mount, whipped his horse, and galloped towards the palace.

"Hopefully, I haven't delayed too long…"

… …

… …

Imperial Palace, outside the Meridian Gate.

The sun had already risen high into the sky, the sky was bright, and today's morning court was coming to an end.

On the white jade steps, carved with dragons and phoenixes, a large group of officials walked out one after another.

The atmosphere was strange.

Many eyes fell on the group of officials from the Great 理寺, Zhou Cheng, with a deep "川" character between his brows, had a gloomy face, didn't say a word, and left angrily.

Without making any stops.

Everyone could see that this Minister of the Great 理寺 was in a bad mood, and no one dared to touch his bad luck.

Ma Yan was the last batch to walk out of the Golden Luan Hall.

Not even one minister was close to him.

The lack of popularity was obvious.

When he walked alone to the Meridian Gate, he suddenly raised his head and looked into the distance.

Outside the Meridian Gate, a horse galloped against the tide outside the arch of the imperial city!

When he reached the gate, the black figure on the horse somersaulted down, his steps were extremely fast, from far to near.

The deep red palace walls, the golden sunlight, and the ink-like black figure formed a rather artistic scene.

"Why are you here?"

Ma Yan stopped, a look of surprise appearing on his slender and stern face.

Zhao Du'an was covered in dust, galloping all the way, and was panting at this moment, smiling and saying:

"May I ask senior brother, what was the result? On the way here, I saw Zhou Cheng's face was ashen, and he didn't even pay attention to me. It seems that he suffered a loss."

Ma Yan heard the words, the corners of his mouth raised slightly, and he simply said what happened in the court.

In other words, I broke into the Dali Temple yamen and beat people… and it was all fine?

Zhao Du'an found it quite interesting and asked curiously:

"What about Xia Jianghou?"

Ma Yan said calmly: "Guilty of heinous crimes, beheaded immediately."

So ruthless… Zhao Du'an was greatly surprised.

But after learning about the crimes he committed, he shook his head, thinking that this kind of person would not be too much even if he died a hundred times.

"Then the result of the disposal of Princess Yunyang…"

He finally asked the question he cared about most.

Ma Yan glanced at him and said:

"You came at the right time. When I came out, His Majesty said to look for you to enter the palace and give you an explanation alone."

Although the Xia Jianghou case was instigated by Princess Yunyang behind the scenes, there was a lack of evidence after all.

And it involved the royal face, so it was not mentioned on the spot, which was not surprising.

But the Empress must give him a disposal result.

"His Majesty is looking for me?"

Zhao Du'an thought that it was not a coincidence, things were all together, and immediately smiled:

"I'll go over now, there's just one more big thing I want to report to His Majesty."

The palace was far from the assassination site.

In addition, the power of the Divine Edict Charm was obscured by the "Taixu Painting Scroll".

The brief condensation of Qingyun only caused a commotion limited to that block.

Therefore, the people in the Golden Luan Hall did not know about this matter.

Ma Yan asked in confusion: "Big thing?"

… …

… …

Imperial Study.

After the morning court, the Great Yu Empress first took off her dragon robe and removed the beaded curtain under the service of the palace maid.

She changed into white casual clothes, and then, as usual, came to the imperial study to review the accumulated memorials.

Wearing a female official robe, wearing a wingless black gauze hat, and embellishing plum blossom makeup on her brow, the extremely "androgynous" "female prime minister" had been waiting for a long time.

"Your Majesty, the secret report just sent by the Shadow Guard has been placed on top."

Mo Chou strictly played the role of "female secretary".

Xu Zhenguan, who was faintly tired after the early court, heard the words "Shadow Guard" and cheered up.

She stepped lightly and walked behind the desk.

She leaned back on the gold-threaded nanmu seat cushion.

Her fair and slender fingers picked up the "secret report" from the top layer of the mountain of memorials.

Everyone in the world knows that Zhao Ya is a knife in the hands of the Empress, placed on the bright side.

But only a few people know that the emperors of the Great Yu Dynasty also had a dagger hidden in the dark.

It was an organization of Jianghu secret agents under the "Royal Offering" system, loyal only to the emperor, named "Shadow Guard".

Different from Zhao Ya, who was stationed in the capital, mainly monitoring the court officials, and sending people on business trips to the Nine Provinces and Eighteen Prefectures in the event of major cases.

The Shadow Guards are scattered throughout the Great Yu Dynasty, in major prefectures except the capital.

The members are all hidden in the dark, existing as secret agents.

With the form of "secret reports", they present important information from all over to the Empress.

"Branch leader?"

Xu Zhenguan opened the secret report, her beautiful eyes swept over the words, her slender eyebrows furrowed slightly, and she said coldly:

"One Zhuang Xiaocheng is gone, and another Gao Li is stuffed in, these remnants in the gutter are really restless. It seems… I am still too kind to them."

This secret report contained the news that Gao Li had succeeded Zhuang Xiaocheng, secretly sneaked into the capital, and served as the "branch leader".