Tu Ling Tuo was not resigned!
He was different from Chu Ye. He had never played the grandson.
All along, he had been the top-ranking noble of the Fury Wave Kingdom, commanding the wind and summoning the rain, his power and influence overwhelming.
When King Zhi Bian was reduced to a figurehead, his authority even surpassed Zhi Li’s. Although Zhi Li was the Young Lord, every time the two met privately, Zhi Li had to salute him with the utmost respect.
Especially after Tu Ling Mo married Zhi Li, the other party repeatedly said that he had lost his parents from a young age, and seeing Duke Tu Ling Tuo was as if his father were still alive.
Moreover, Tu Ling Tuo controlled half the armies of the Fury Wave Kingdom. In terms of pure power, he exceeded anyone. Even Zhi Li’s fate was in his hands. When he decided to sit on the fence, Zhi Li was so desperate he wanted to seek death.
For these several decades, he had been bowed to by people without a moment’s pause.
Now asking him to bow to someone else, and moreover someone he had never regarded as worthy of his notice, Suo Lun, he could not do it!
Suo Lun? Two or three years ago, what kind of thing was he? He was a good-for-nothing second-generation rich kid. Not to mention that Tu Ling Tuo had not regarded him as anything, even his daughter Tu Ling Duo looked down upon him.
And now he was expected to take the initiative to kneel before him? He truly could not do it.
His, Tu Ling Tuo’s, knees were hard, he could not kneel down. His spine was hard, he could not bend.
Most crucially, once Tu Ling Tuo knelt down, he would face Suo Lun’s extortion. Even if he preserved his life then, he would have nothing left.
At this moment, he, Tu Ling Tuo, still had eighty thousand great troops in hand. And once he went alone before Suo Lun to kneel and pledge loyalty, whether he could return was unknown.
“I, I will not go.” Tu Ling Tuo said coldly, “I will stay here, right here in Bai Yun City waiting. Let us see whether that incompetent good-for-nothing Chu Ye has the guts to attack me. The ones he can truly use number only eighty thousand Northern Legion troops. The remaining hundred and fifty thousand provincial allied troops are all a mob of trash.”
After Tu Ling Tuo made his decision, Tu Ling Chen merely bowed respectfully and said nothing more.
Once Tu Ling Tuo made a decision, no one could change it.
Instantly, the eighty thousand great troops of the entire Bai Yun Commandery City began preparing for battle and defending the city. And Count Chu Ye’s two hundred and thirty thousand great troops continuously crossed the river southward.
Under Suo Lun’s manipulation, the great war between the two titans of the Fury Wave Kingdom was about to erupt.
And this great war would determine Duke Tu Ling Tuo’s fate.
……
Inside the Purple Jade Mountain palace of the royal palace!
After stabbing into the heart, the brocade-clad old man on the bed did not emit any sound either. There was merely a heaving of his chest, a series of rapid gasps from his mouth, and with all his strength he opened his eyes to glance at Li Cheng Lian.
Then, these eyes slowly closed again, exhaling their final breath, completely dead!
The surrounding assassins all turned their gazes towards Li Cheng Lian. Although he was loyal to Zhi Li, he was after all the great eunuch of the Fury Wave Kingdom, and should be very familiar with the king.
Li Cheng Lian looked at the face of the** dead brocade-clad old man. It did indeed look like the king’s outline.
But he was at least twenty years older than the king in his impression, his entire person skin and bones, completely emaciated beyond recognition.
He immediately stepped forward and tore open the old man’s clothes, revealing his chest.
A chest completely impossible to look at directly. It truly was just a layer of skin wrapped around jagged ribs. One could no longer use the word thin to describe it. It was completely withered.
For such a person, death was even a kind of release.
Although only a layer of skin remained, Li Cheng Lian still clearly saw a five-star scar on the right side of his chest.
Li Cheng Lian’s heart leapt with joy. That’s right, this was the king!
This was the wound the king had received when he was assassinated during the agricultural ceremony in his youth. If not for Jian Ze risking his life to save him at that time, he would have been killed.
“That’s right, this is the king.” Li Cheng Lian said in a woman’s voice.
At this moment, the imperial guards outside were madly charging in through the door hole.
But the door hole was too small. With two assassins guarding inside, it was basically one man holding the pass, ten thousand men unable to get through. However many charged in, that many died!
“Bang, bang, bang, bang!”
Outside, Gao Yin activated the Purple Jade Palace’s mechanisms.
Instantly, all the steel plates behind the windows and great doors rapidly retracted, and the entire palace’s doors and gates swung wide open.
Hearing the royal palace’s alarm, Gao Yin’s scalp nearly exploded, completely terrified to the bone.
Someone was going to assassinate the king!
Zhi Li was actually so demented as to assassinate the king? Did he not know that although he could not become king at this moment, his life could still be preserved? With Zhi Yan ascending the throne as a woman, in order to win people’s hearts, she should not kill Zhi Li.
And Zhi Li was actually mad enough to assassinate the king. He was completely seeking his own death.
The king was Gao Yin’s only master. Protecting the king was Gao Yin’s sole mission.
Instantly, he cast aside all matters, led the Shadow Pavilion experts, and rode griffin beasts madly charging into the royal palace, landing on Purple Jade Mountain.
But it was already too late. Li Cheng Lian had already led the assassins charging into the Purple Jade Palace. Acting decisively, he immediately found the mechanisms outside the Purple Jade Palace and activated them fiercely.
Then, he charged into the palace at the first opportunity!
Instantly, he saw that emaciated old man on the bed, his eyes already closed, without breath.
“Your Majesty……” Gao Yin let out a roar.
This roar was truly like the dying roar of one whose vital energy was about to sever.
Hearing it, Li Cheng Lian’s heart leapt with joy!
Then, Gao Yin’s entire person seemed to go mad, charging alone towards Li Cheng Lian and the others to kill!
“Go……” Li Cheng Lian gave the order.
Instantly, over a dozen assassins madly charged out of the Purple Jade Palace, while behind them Gao Yin madly pursued in pursuit, followed closely by over a dozen Shadow Pavilion experts who arrived, chasing after the dozen or so assassins led by Li Cheng Lian.
“Whoosh!”
After exiting the Purple Jade Palace, Li Cheng Lian rapidly released a crystal signal flare. It was red!
This was to tell Zhi Li that the assassination of the king was successful!
But at this moment, the entire Purple Jade Mountain was already surrounded by several tens of thousands of imperial guards.
Li Cheng Lian led the dozen or so assassins to form a dagger formation, continuously breaking outwards.
“Bang bang bang……”
Priceless Demon Continent poison bombs were continuously smashed onto the ground, violently exploding and releasing intense poisonous fog.
Wherever the poisonous fog passed, the imperial guards fell dead one after another!
These Demon Continent poison bombs were specially used to clear a path. When they had charged into Purple Jade Mountain just now, they had not been willing to use them. And now, they were smashing them down as if they cost nothing.
These poison bombs were provided by Demon Continent princess Wan Wan. They were banned items of the Demon Continent, completely strategic-level goods. The mad Wan Wan had actually even provided these things to Zhi Li, showing how displeased she was with Suo Lun.
Even if any of these poison bombs had leaked into human kingdoms, they would be completely countable on one’s fingers, and each poison bomb was astronomically priced.
Because with these poison bombs, at critical moments one could certainly preserve one’s life and escape.
These poison bombs all came with specialised antidotes. Before using them, one first took the antidote. When surrounded, one smashed these poison bombs, and they would instantly explode into several dozen square metres of poisonous fog. Anyone who touched the poisonous fog would immediately have their body corrode and die. And those who had taken the antidote could pass through this poisonous fog to escape.
“Bang, bang, bang……”
Li Cheng Lian’s assassin squad continuously smashed out poison bombs, and the dozen or so people always concealed themselves within this poisonous fog, breaking out and fleeing.
Countless imperial guards surged forward one after another, charging into the poisonous fog, then instantly dying, their bodies rotting, their manner of death horrific.
“Shoot arrows, shoot arrows……”
Then, countless imperial guards madly shot arrows towards the poisonous fog.
“Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh……”
Countless arrows, truly denser than a violent rainstorm, madly rained down.
The dozen or so assassins led by Li Cheng Lian either danced their weapons to parry, or released dragon power to form a protective astral qi around their bodies.
But this rain of arrows was too dense, without any blind spots whatsoever.
So, the protective astral qi needed to cover the entire body, and the consumption of dragon power this required was completely terrifying.
And the most terrifying were the arrows of the dragon archers! How much dragon power it took to block these people’s arrows was unknown.
Gao Yin was not a dragon archer, but his cultivation was astonishingly high. At this moment, shooting arrows in his fury.
“Whoosh……”
The assassin immediately sensed the arrow Gao Yin shot, and immediately fiercely swung his weapon to parry and block.
“Bang!” His speed was very fast, directly chopping away the dark gold arrow Gao Yin shot.
But……
Gao Yin’s power was too astonishing.
After this assassin chopped at the arrow Gao Yin shot, the dark gold arrow directly violently exploded, shattering into countless pieces.
These fragments fiercely shot towards his head.
The assassin immediately used protective astral qi to protect his entire body.
But this dark gold arrow contained powerful and incomparable dragon power. The countless fragments directly passed through the assassin’s protective astral qi, fiercely smashing towards his head.
“Bang……”
Instantly, this assassin’s head violently exploded, completely pulverised, dead beyond dead.
Gao Yin’s arrows, their power was astonishing!
But unfortunately, he was not a dragon archer, so he was somewhat lacking in accuracy, unable to shoot the lethal killing technique of consecutive arrows.
And so……
Li Cheng Lian led the dozen or so assassins, all the way smashing poison bombs, escaping through the passage created by the poisonous fog.
A full twenty-something minutes passed, consuming over a hundred poison bombs, before Li Cheng Lian and the other assassins finally reached the great gate of the royal palace.
Li Cheng Lian and the others drew their dragon gold swords, about to cut open the royal palace gate.
“Bang!”
However, at this very moment, the royal palace gate actually opened directly!
Just as Zhi Li himself had said, he had even infiltrated a portion of the imperial guards. Although he could not change the overall situation, at critical moments they could be of use.
Something like secretly opening the palace gate was something the hidden traitors could accomplish.
In waves of thick smoke and poisonous fog, Li Cheng Lian and the others escaped from the royal palace, then continued fleeing all the way towards the densely populated areas of the royal capital.
And at this moment, the Zhi Du city defence army mobilised on a large scale, sealing off the various streets of the royal capital.
Immediately after, several hundred to over a thousand black figures appeared on the streets of the royal capital, dressed exactly the same as Li Cheng Lian’s assassins.
The true assassins, after mixing into the crowd, immediately disappeared.
And the city defence troops in groups, towards these black-clad figures appeared to be capturing them, but were actually secretly covering the assassins’ escape.
By the time Gao Yin led the imperial guards in pursuit, Li Cheng Lian and the other assassins had already fled without a trace.
……
After fleeing to the underground secret stronghold, Li Cheng Lian counted his numbers.
Twenty-two super experts had gone to assassinate the king. In the end, only five people escaped. Seventeen were killed.
One must know that the weakest martial arts among these people exceeded City Lord Tu Li Wen’s, and the cultivation of most of them was on par with Zhuang Zhi Xuan’s.
Such super experts, and yet seventeen had died.
Of these seventeen dead, five died at the hands of Shadow Pavilion experts, four died under Gao Yin’s arrows, and the other eight were shot dead by the imperial guards’ rain of arrows.
Their martial arts were super powerful, but their dragon power was exhausted, and they could no longer deploy protective astral qi, so they were alive shot to death by random arrows.
For this assassination, both the Hidden Continent and the Demon Continent had paid a tremendous price.
Now, it had finally succeeded!
Fortunately, Gao Yin and the others had been wholeheartedly trying to save Zhi Ning and her child, and had not gone to protect the king.
If Gao Yin, A Shi Li Ren, and the dozen or so Shadow Pavilion experts had all been protecting the king.
Then Li Cheng Lian basically would have had no possibility of success, and would even have had difficulty entering the Purple Jade Palace. All twenty-two super experts would have died outside the Purple Jade Palace.
However, successfully assassinating the king was merely the first step!
The second step: Zhi Li captures Zhi Ning and her child, and uses Suo Lun’s biological son to threaten Suo Lun not to act rashly.
The third step proceeds simultaneously with the second step: vigorously proclaim that the king had already died long ago, but the death was kept secret. Now after Suo Lun won, he staged the false appearance of assassinating the king, attempting to slander Young Lord Zhi Li.
The fourth step: Zhi Li pretends to return to the royal capital at the fastest speed, and under the support of the remaining ministers in the royal capital Zhi Du, forcibly ascends the throne as king!
……
Zhi Du Sacred Hall!
Before entering the high tower, Zhi Li saw the red signal flare from the direction of the royal palace.
Instantly, he trembled with excitement!
Success, Li Cheng Lian and the others had finally successfully assassinated the king. That dark cloud pressing upon his head had finally dispersed.
This king whom he hated to the bone, was finally dead!
The first step was successful. Next he was going to carry out the second step!
Entering the high tower, he walked down the steps to the underground secret chamber.
After opening the door, he immediately saw three familiar people.
His wife Fang Qing Zhuo, his younger sister Zhi Ning, and his exquisitely carved nephew, Suo Lun’s son.
Seeing Zhi Li enter, Zhi Ning still held the baby, gently patting him and coaxing him to sleep, not looking over once.
And Fang Qing Zhuo’s eyes were fixed upon Zhi Ning.
She could protect the baby. She could certainly protect the baby.
She knew Zhi Li’s fatal secret. Once the demon blood in his body was made public, he would certainly die!
However, she could not speak of it now. The two Sacred Hall acolytes before her eyes and Zhi Li were birds of a feather. Once she spoke of it, she would only be silenced.
She had to speak it before a large crowd, before everyone’s face, so that Zhi Li could not silence her, and would certainly die.
Then what now? How should she protect the baby from harm?
The baby could not suffer the slightest harm, or she could not forgive herself!
At this moment, footsteps sounded from above the secret chamber.
Tall and graceful Tu Ling Duo walked down. Her eyes were bloodshot, her entire person appearing in a state of extreme excitement, like bewitching flames blazing fiercely.
“Wow, so this is Suo Lun’s son. He is truly beautiful.” Tu Ling Duo said, “Although Suo Lun pretends to be indifferent, his love for his family is completely mad. For his family’s safety, he is willing to pay any price.”
Tu Ling Duo’s voice was too sharp, causing the sleeping baby to be startled awake at once. He looked at her with sleepy eyes, then his small mouth flattened, hesitating whether to cry or not.
“Wow, he is truly too cute!” Tu Ling Duo said excitedly, “Your Highness, shall we also have such a cute baby?”
Her voice was truly too sharp and grating. The baby finally began to whimper and cry, not wailing loudly, but whimpering.
This kind of crying was to remind mummy that it was time to coax the baby, or it would turn into loud wailing.
“Oh, good baby, we are not afraid!” Zhi Ning gently patted and comforted him.
Tu Ling Duo said, “The baby’s small hands are so cute, so white and tender, his little fingers like small scallions. If we cut off two and sent them to Suo Lun, he would probably be scared out of his wits and agree to any condition, would he not?”
Her voice became coquettish, but the words she spoke made one’s hair stand on end, sending chills down one’s spine.
The gaze she directed towards the baby was also filled with madness and bone-deep hatred and venom.
This was Suo Lun’s son!
Suo Lun had made her life so miserable. She could not take revenge on Suo Lun, but taking revenge on his son and making Suo Lun suffer unbearable pain was also quite satisfying!
At this moment, the baby was finally frightened. His chubby little hands desperately hugged mummy, burying his little head in mummy’s embrace, wailing loudly!