The First Lackey Under The Empress

Creak… creak… The leader felt a sudden stiffness all over his body, as if his joints didn't belong to him.

His hands had a mind of their own, his fingers spreading open, causing his saber to fall to the ground.

Then, his hands uncontrollably made a toasting gesture, raising slightly and approaching his lips.

"What strange thing is this…"

The intelligence chief was horrified. As a martial artist, he lacked the means to deal with spells.

He could only grit his teeth and vibrate his Qi Sea, trying to guide his Qi to disperse through his meridians and regain control.

However, Gongshu Tianyuan didn't give him the chance. Taking advantage of the moment when the other party was controlled by the "Toasting Barbarian," the portly cleric stepped forward with his hands behind his back.

He lifted the hood, revealing a face full of banditry.

His palm pressed a high-grade cinnabar talisman onto the intelligence officer's forehead with a "smack."

The leader felt a burst of dizziness, the light in his eyes extinguished, and with a "thump," he fell straight back into the bamboo forest.

"Easy as pie."

Gongshu Tianyuan smugly tossed out a hemp rope, which wriggled on its own as if alive, binding the man up.

At this moment, two more young clerics drifted over from the bamboo forest in the distance, cupping their hands in salute:

"Senior Brother, the other two teams that scattered and fled have also been dealt with."

"Senior Brother, the Jinyi of the Zhao Yamen arrived a step too late…"

"Very good."

Gongshu Tianyuan nodded haughtily and casually instructed:

"Send all these people to the Divine Mechanism Camp."

"Yes!"

The two clerics turned to clean up the bodies on the ground.

Gongshu Tianyuan beckoned, picked up the intelligence chief who was tied up like a dumpling, and soared towards the capital:

"Hopefully, Brother Zhao isn't too impatient."

… …

… …

Inside the city, the banquet hall was brightly lit!

The entire courtyard had been surrounded by hastily dispatched officials from the Zhao Yamen, leaving no gaps.

Inside the hall, the atmosphere was heavy and oppressive, no one spoke, and everyone's face was filled with solemnity.

"Inspector Zhao, it's been so long, are we just going to wait like this?"

Finally, Shi Meng couldn't help but speak.

As the commander of the Divine Mechanism Camp, he bore the greatest responsibility for the dereliction of duty tonight.

It had been nearly an hour since Zhao Du'an blocked the door with his sword.

Everyone's patience was almost exhausted.

Zhao Du'an sat in the seat closest to the door, his Frostfall Sword resting on his lap, eyes closed in concentration.

At this moment, he opened his eyes, glanced at the sky, and said:

"Be patient."

The commander of the Three Thousand Camp was also somewhat restless and uneasy, and said bitterly:

"It's not that we are impatient, it's just that even if Inspector Zhao has arrangements, you should give us a hint so we can feel at ease. With His Majesty here, and Grand Secretary Xue here, no one in this hall could possibly leak any information."

The commander of the Five Armies Camp echoed:

"Moreover, it's getting late, we can wait, but we must also consider His Majesty's health…"

"Yes, so much time has passed, I'm afraid the thieves have already escaped beyond the capital… making it even harder to recover [what was stolen]."

"Lord Zhao, say something."

For a time, the group of military officers, tormented by the oppressive and silent atmosphere, spoke up one after another.

Mo Chou, standing beside the Empress, couldn't help but say:

"Lord Zhao wants to wait, and His Majesty has allowed it, but how much longer must we wait?"

Xu Zhenguan resumed his taciturn "emperor" demeanor, not saying a word, although he trusted him in his heart, he couldn't help but feel anxious.

But the next second, the Empress suddenly glanced into the distance, her brows relaxing.

Zhao Du'an, as if facing a pot of boiling water, was about to speak when suddenly his ears twitched, he turned his head to look outside the hall, and smiled:

"They're here."

What's here?

The generals in the hall fell silent, looking over one after another, and then, they saw that in the center of the heavily guarded courtyard, the ground suddenly rippled with circles of earthy yellow.

The guards were shocked and drew their swords in alert.

Then, from the rippling ground, a giant hand made of wood slowly emerged.

Like a limb of some giant puppet, its five fingers were short and thick, with distinct edges and corners.

The giant hand grasped the edge of the ripples, and suddenly exerted force, then, a huge illusory puppet, as if crawling from hell to the mortal world.

Only half of its body was revealed, but it was already as large as a house.

One hand propped up the ground, while the other large hand slowly opened, with an earthy yellow "chrysalis" rotating in its palm.

"Crack!"

The chrysalis split open from the inside out, and Gongshu Tianyuan, standing with his hands behind his back and an imposing aura, walked out, holding the sealed intelligence chief in his hand.

"My lord… the thief leader has been captured…"

The little fatty wanted to put on a show of his divine abilities in front of everyone, but halfway through his words, the corners of his greatly upturned mouth suddenly stiffened.

His small, beady eyes widened, and he clearly saw the bright yellow dragon robe and the enchanting face with a teasing smile on the main seat of the brightly lit hall.

"Your… Your Majesty?"

Gongshu Tianyuan was shocked, the puppet illusion woven by magic power under his feet collapsed, and he accidentally lost his footing, his knees softening, almost kneeling on the ground!

Immediately, he pretended that nothing had happened, clasped his small fleshy hands in a fist and bowed:

"Gongshu Tianyuan, greetings, Sage!"

The generals in the hall tacitly ignored the scene of the fat cleric's failed display of his abilities, with expressions of astonishment:

"Is that the Fifth Disciple of Celestial Master Zhang?"

"Cleric Gongshu?"

"The one Inspector Zhao was waiting for… is him?"

Xu Zhenguan nodded lightly, her snow-white chin slightly raised, and said "En" in a dignified voice:

"No need to be so polite."

Gongshu Tianyuan was quick-witted, his eyes rolled, and he proactively said:

"Reporting to Your Majesty, Gongshu, entrusted by Envoy Zhao, has captured the leader of the thieves who broke into the Ordnance Bureau, and the remaining thieves have been either killed or captured and sent to the Divine Mechanism Camp."

As he spoke, he kicked the leader, who was like a wooden stake, tied up like a dumpling, with a yellow paper talisman stuck to his forehead, to the front of the hall.

There was a moment of silence in the hall, followed by a suppressed exclamation that had been building up for a long time.

Even though many people in the room had already guessed that Zhao Du'an had a backup plan.

But when this scene really appeared before their eyes, it was still difficult to hide their surprise.

Xu Zhenguan's phoenix eyes slightly lifted, and she gently pressed down with her jade hand, and the sound waves immediately diminished.

Her eyes widened in surprise as she looked at the confident Zhao, curious, "Zhao Qing, could you enlighten the generals in the hall?"

Zhao Du'an silently exhaled a breath. Only now did the stone hanging in his heart finally fall to the ground.

He won the bet!

The calm smile he had been feigning on his face now became genuinely sincere:

"Your Majesty, the matter is actually not complicated. Given the previous theft of firearms, after today's drill, I considered making some preparations.

The methods were also quite simple. I simply asked Divine Official Gongshu to make some means of tracking with magic on the blueprints within the Firearms Bureau.

And secretly protect it. Originally, it was just a precaution, but unexpectedly, the thief fell right into the trap."

Gongshu Tianyuan also said with a smile, "That's right. When these thieves sneaked in, I and some fellow disciples were nearby, secretly using some illusion techniques to make this group think they were successful.

Then, according to Envoy Zhao's request, we followed the thieves, originally wanting to dig out their lair, but these small fry insisted on fleeing the capital after succeeding, so we had no choice but to capture them."

Beside him, Haitang looked dumbfounded.

She really wanted to say:

That's not how it is... This dog thief wanted us to pretend to steal...

But the words that came to her lips were: "Then we later..."

Gongshu Tianyuan glanced at her, said "Oh", and said lightly:

"When you arrived, the illusion I left behind hadn't been removed yet. Well, those corpses in the camp were just injured and unconscious."

Haitang opened her mouth, her eyes complex as she looked at Zhao Du'an.

She understood!

Tonight, this guy had clearly prepared two plans.

If the enemy didn't come, he would use deception.

If they came, the Divine Official would take care of everything.

Perhaps, there were even many methods that hadn't been revealed.

However, now, whether it's deception or other methods, they are no longer needed.

"Your Majesty, since this thief is the leader of the rebellious party, we may be able to interrogate him to find out the identity of the inside traitor."

Zhao Du'an cupped his hands and said loudly.

At this time, the generals in the hall gradually came back to their senses, and their expressions changed.

Especially Ma Yan's mood was the most subtle—clearly, when they came, he was in the carriage, still feeling sorry for Zhao Du'an, thinking that failing to ferret out the inside traitor was not perfect.

Now, thinking carefully... Where didn't Zhao Du'an go to look?

He clearly took every step on the path of fishing.

Xu Zhenguan was expressionless, his gaze fell on the secret agent on the ground, and suddenly said:

"Since Divine Official Gongshu captured him, you should interrogate him."

Zhao Du'an was stunned. Judging from Zhenbao's meaning, this little fatty seemed to possess some means of interrogation.

"Hehe, as you command." Gongshu Tianyuan smiled, waved his hand, and took back the yellow paper talisman.

On the ground.

The leader of the secret agents, whose five senses were sealed, suddenly woke up, instinctively struggling, but found it difficult to move.

When his eyes adjusted to the light and he saw the generals of the Great Yu around him, saw Zhao Du'an, and saw the Empress, his pupils suddenly dilated.

As if falling into an abyss!

"Envoy Zhao, you can ask." Gongshu Tianyuan smiled.

Zhao Du'an blinked and was about to nod.

The secret agent on the ground suddenly spoke. He said extremely calmly:

"No need to ask, I know what you want to know, I won't say it."

In the next second, his teeth grinding, he was about to bite through the poison between his teeth, but he failed.

"Don't try, I already took it out for you. And don't think about biting your tongue, you know that's useless."

Gongshu Tianyuan said quietly, "Looks like a dead soldier."

Zhao Du'an wasn't surprised and probed:

"In my prison, there are torture experts who are good at dealing with dead soldiers."

Gongshu Tianyuan said: "No need to bother."

He suddenly turned his hand and took down the large bamboo tube from his back.

With a "thump", he pressed it on the ground and explained:

"I raised a wild god, named 'Fox Immortal', which can make people honestly say any answer you want. The price is that after asking, this person's soul will be swallowed and turned into a living dead."

On the ground, the secret agent, who originally had a determined look, suddenly turned pale, his eyes widening:

"You..."

In the next second, Gongshu Tianyuan slapped the bamboo tube hard.

A wisp of white smoke rose, and the smoke slowly condensed into a fox with half of its body buried in the bamboo tube, revealing half of its snow-white fur, and its eyes were an eerie deep blue.

"Wild god..."

In the hall, many people frowned slightly, but there was no fear on their faces.

Wild god?

What strange thing is this... How many strange gadgets do you have on you... Zhao Du'an muttered to himself.

At this time, the blue-eyed, white-haired "Fox Immortal", whose appearance was eerie yet exuded an immortal aura, slowly turned its head, staring at the secret agent, and the corners of its mouth slowly widened, as if smiling.

At the same time, the terrified secret agent suddenly seemed to be possessed, losing all expression.

His eyes met the Fox Immortal, as if trapped in a nightmare.

"Brother Zhao, you can ask." Gongshu Tianyuan said with a smile.

Zhao Du'an grinned, moved his gaze away from the Fox Immortal, looked down at the secret agent, and said in a deep voice:

"Are there people here who colluded with you and worked for you? Who are they?"

The banquet hall was so quiet that one could hear a pin drop.

The secret agent, trapped in a nightmare, showed a struggling expression on his face, as if fighting against the "wild god". The veins on his forehead bulged, and his eyes were bloodshot.

But in the end, he uttered a name in a hoarse voice:

"Knowing Privy Council Affairs, Wang Heng."

In an instant, gazes of extreme astonishment simultaneously turned to the face of Wang Zhishi, a man in his fifties with a thin figure, in the crowd.

The latter was expressionless and sighed deeply.