roccoschili Chapter 144 What will happen on their wedding night? Xu Longxiang dared not imagine!
Chapter 144 What will happen on their wedding night? Xu Longxiang dared not imagine!
In the southeast corner of the imperial city, in the main hall of the small courtyard where Xu Longxiang was temporarily staying, candlelight flickered.
Xu Longxiang sat upright on a rosewood chair, his black python robe gleaming dimly in the yellow light.
His back was ramrod straight, and his usually resolute and cold face was expressionless at this moment, but deep in his dark brown eyes, there was a surge of ice and magma that seemed about to burst forth.
His three most trusted advisors stood in the hall.
Sikong Xuan, Fan Li, Mo Ya.
All three of them noticed the unusual atmosphere; the air was so heavy it seemed to freeze.
Worry flickered in Sikong Xuan's deep-set eyes. The white jade chess piece in Fan Li's hand stopped spinning, while Mo Ya was almost completely hidden in the shadows, with only his occasionally moving eyes reflecting a faint light.
"Your Highness," Sikong Xuan spoke first, his voice aged yet steady, "after returning from the banquet, you seemed unusual. But... what happened?"
His questions were cautious, but his gaze was fixed on Xu Longxiang's face.
This veteran of three dynasties had followed the Xu family for thirty years and had seen too many storms, but at this moment he felt an unprecedented, extremely oppressive sense of danger emanating from Xu Longxiang.
Xu Longxiang slowly raised his eyes, his gaze sweeping over the three of them.
His gaze was as cold as a knife, which sent a chill down Sikong Xuan's spine.
"Mo Shen is dead."
Four words.
Brief, calm, without any emotional fluctuations.
But it was like four heavy hammer blows, slamming hard into the hearts of the three!
"What?!"
Sikong Xuan gasped in shock, his wrinkles tightening instantly, his eyes filled with disbelief!
The white jade chess piece in Fan Li's hand fell to the ground with a "thud," rolled a few times, and came to rest next to the candlestick.
He looked down at the chess pieces, but seemed not to see them, frozen in place.
Mo Ya's figure suddenly emerged from the shadows, his eyes, which were always half-open, were now fully open, his pupils suddenly contracted, and his aura instantly became icy cold!
"Your Highness..." Sikong Xuan's voice trembled slightly with shock, "Is this...is this news reliable?"
His fingers clenched unconsciously inside his sleeve, and the veins on the back of his hands bulged.
Who is Mo Shen?
That was the most mysterious and top-tier assassin in the Northern Territory, a Celestial Realm cultivator, proficient in Qimen Dunjia, mechanisms and hidden weapons, and even more skilled in the bizarre secret technique that could completely "dissolve" a person.
How could someone like that...
"Reliable." Xu Longxiang's voice remained calm, eerily calm. "It was Empress Li Yang who told me."
"The Empress of Liyang?!"
Fan Li suddenly looked up, his eyes flashing with extreme shock and confusion.
"How could she know? Mo Shen was on a top-secret mission; even we don't know the specific details. How could Empress Li Yang know?"
This question reflects the sentiments of everyone.
Mo Ya stepped forward, his voice hoarse as if grinding sand: "Your Highness, what else did Empress Li Yang say? How did she find out about this?"
Xu Longxiang's gaze slowly shifted to the night outside the window, his voice low and deliberate, each word distinct:
"She said she learned this through our northern...special communication channels."
"boom--!!!"
A thunderbolt seemed to explode in the minds of the three people in the hall at the same time!
A special channel for transmitting messages?!
What is that?
That was a top-secret intelligence network that the Xu family had built up over decades in the northern border region, expending countless efforts!
Every link is heavily encrypted, and every point has strict protective measures.
No more than ten people in the entire North know that this channel exists!
And now, Empress Li Yang is actually saying that she intercepted the information through this channel?!
"This...this is impossible..."
Sikong Xuan's face turned deathly pale, and even his voice trembled. "The Northern Border's intelligence network... how could it have been exposed? How could it have fallen into Li Yang's hands?"
Fan Li's mind raced, his eyes, which always gleamed with calculation, now filled with confusion and terror: "Unless... unless we have internal..."
He didn't finish his sentence, but his meaning was crystal clear.
There's a traitor within!
Or what's even more terrifying is that the entire intelligence network has already been infiltrated, monitored, and even... used against it!
Mo Ya's aura grew even colder, and a sinister light flickered in his eyes hidden in the shadows.
"Your Highness, if that is the case, then all our actions in the capital city have probably already been exposed to Qin Mu."
These words instantly extinguished the tension in the room.
A chill ran down everyone's spine.
If that's the case, then Xu Longxiang's trip to Beijing this time is tantamount to walking into a trap.
The three thousand iron cavalry he brought, the spies he planted in the Imperial Guard, his alliance negotiations with Li Yang... all of this may have already been seen and remembered by Qin Mu.
Then they laid a trap, waiting for them to jump in one by one.
"There is only one possibility."
Xu Longxiang finally spoke slowly, his voice hoarse but exceptionally clear.
He turned his head, his gaze returning to the three of them, and a storm seemed to be brewing in the depths of his dark brown eyes:
"Mo Shen's mission to assassinate Chen Feng and his wife in Jiangnan was a top secret. Apart from the four of us, no one else in the Northern Territory knew about it. But Empress Li Yang not only knew about it, but also accurately uttered the code word 'seven qian of Sichuan lovage'."
He paused, then each word struck like an icicle:
"Seven qian of Sichuan lovage is the highest level of warning in our Northern Army—'If the plan is exposed, the entire army will be wiped out. Retreat immediately.' This code word is unknown even to many high-ranking officers in the army; only a few of the most core members understand its meaning."
"And now, Empress Li Yang knows."
"What does this mean?"
Xu Longxiang slowly stood up, his black python robe drooping with the movement, rippling darkly in the candlelight.
He walked to the window, pushed it open a crack, and let the cold autumn night wind rush in.
The wind was cool, blowing the damp hair at his temples away, but it couldn't dispel the bone-chilling coldness in his heart.
"This means that our intelligence network is already riddled with holes."
Sikong Xuan's voice was old and heavy, carrying a deep sense of powerlessness, "It means that what we thought was a covert operation was nothing more than a transparent trick in the eyes of some people."
Fan Li picked up the white jade chess piece from the ground, his fingertips trembling slightly from the force he used.
"What's even more frightening is that Empress Li Yang chose to tell us this news at this time. Is she trying to curry favor? Or is she issuing a warning? Or... is she plotting something else?"
This question plunged the room into silence once again.
Yes, why did Empress Li Yang tell them?
If she wants to form an alliance, she should keep it a secret and help her in secret.
If she wanted to betray him, she should have pretended not to know anything and waited for Xu Longxiang to walk right into her trap.
But she chose the strangest way—to tell him face to face, without any concealment.
What kind of scheme is hidden behind this?
"Whatever her motives,"
Mo Ya's voice was as cold as iron, "The most urgent things are to determine two things—first, how exactly Mo Shen died; and second, how much Qin Mu actually knows."
He paused, then added:
"If Mo Shen was indeed killed by Qin Mu's men, it means that the power around Qin Mu is far more terrifying than we imagined. To be able to silently eliminate a Celestial Phenomenon Realm assassin like Mo Shen, one would need at least the same level, or even... higher."
He didn't say the words "land immortal" aloud, but everyone understood.
The atmosphere in the hall became even more somber.
Xu Longxiang listened quietly for a long time before slowly speaking:
"The Ink Mirage... will not fall into enemy hands."
His voice was low and soft, yet it carried an undeniable certainty, as well as a hint of deep-seated pain.
"He is extremely loyal to me, the Crown Prince."
Xu Longxiang slowly turned around, the candlelight reflecting on his face, outlining a resolute yet pale profile.
"Once captured, he will immediately activate a secret technique to completely 'dissolve' himself, leaving no clues and certainly not... uttering a single word."
As he said this, a fleeting, yet remarkably clear, pain flashed in his eyes.
The heartache wasn't because the plan had been exposed, nor because of the loopholes in the intelligence network, but because of... Mo Shen himself.
That taciturn man, always hidden in the shadows, carried out the most dangerous missions for him for ten years.
The man who secretly shielded him from three arrows when he first went to the battlefield at the age of fifteen, but whom he never mentioned.
The man who silently stood guard outside the mourning hall for three days and three nights without eating or drinking when his father, Xu Xiao, passed away.
Mo Shen is not a staff member, not a subordinate, but... a brother.
Now, this brother is dead.
He died silently, leaving not even a complete corpse behind.
"This debt," Xu Longxiang's voice suddenly turned cold, each word as if pulled from an ice cellar, "must be settled with Qin Mu."
His eyes flashed with a cold light, and the hatred that had been suppressed all night, almost tearing him apart, finally found an outlet at this moment.
It wasn't for the humiliation of her sister being forcibly taken, nor for the pain of Qingxue being taken away, but for... Mo Shen.
For the brother who gave everything for him, yet died such a tragic death.
"The Crown Prince is right!"
Sikong Xuan said in a deep voice, anger blazing in his old eyes.
"Mo Shen served the Xu family for ten years with unwavering loyalty and made invaluable contributions. Now he has died tragically in a foreign land. If we do not avenge this, how can we face the soldiers of the Northern Frontier?"
Xu Longxiang slowly closed his eyes.
The scene of the last time Mo Shen saw him flashed through his mind.
That was a few days ago, at the Zhenyue Hall in the Northern Territory.
Dressed in black, Mo Shen knelt on one knee, his voice hoarse: "Your Highness, I will certainly not fail in my mission to Jiangnan."
He patted Mo Shen on the shoulder and simply said, "Be careful."
Mo Shen looked up at him, and a barely perceptible ripple flashed in his eyes, which were always as empty as still water.
Then, he nodded emphatically, turned and left, disappearing into the snowstorm of the North.
That was the last time he saw Mo Shen.
And now...
"Alright," Xu Longxiang slowly opened his eyes, his gaze now filled with a cold, lifeless stillness. "You can all go now. Let me be alone... for a while."
His voice was weary, a weariness that seemed to emanate from the depths of his soul.
Sikong Xuan, Fan Li, and Mo Ya exchanged glances, all seeing the worry in each other's eyes.
But they knew that saying anything at this moment would be superfluous.
The Crown Prince needs time to process all of this.
The humiliation of her sister being forced into marriage, the pain of Qingxue being forced to submit to pleasure, the hatred of Mo Shen's tragic death, and the crisis of the intelligence network being exposed...
All of this weighed heavily on the shoulders of this young general, who was only twenty-five years old.
too heavy.
"This old minister takes his leave." Sikong Xuan bowed deeply and slowly withdrew.
"Your subordinates take their leave." Fan Li and Mo Ya also bowed and quietly left the main hall.
The hall door closed gently, separating the inside from the outside.
Only Xu Longxiang remained in the hall.
The candlelight flickered in the night wind, casting his shadow long, long on the wall, like a lonely giant carrying a mountain on his back.
He slowly walked to the window and pushed it open.
The cold autumn wind swept over me, carrying the unique coolness of the imperial city, a mixture of various scents.
He raised his head and looked in the direction of the palace.
The night was deep, and the majestic palace complex lay dormant in the darkness, with only a few scattered lights flickering, like the eyes of a sleeping beast that occasionally opened.
And at this very moment, deep within that palace, what is happening?
Xu Longxiang clenched his fist silently inside his sleeve, his nails digging deep into his palm, drawing blood that stained the cuffs of his python robe.
But he was completely unaware.
In his mind, there was only one image—
Qin Mu, the young emperor dressed in a black robe and wearing a twelve-tassel crown, was leading two women by the hand, step by step towards his bedchamber deep in the palace.
One of them is his older sister, Xu Fenghua.
One of them is his Qingxue, Jiang Qingxue.
They were all dressed in magnificent wedding gowns, wearing heavy phoenix crowns, and perhaps even had forced smiles on their faces.
then……
The door to the sleeping quarters slowly closed.
The candle went out.
The red curtains fell.
What will happen next?
Xu Longxiang dared not think about it, yet he couldn't help but think about it.