A Clash of Gods - Chapter 51
Chapter 51 The Startling Night
Duan Canghai scanned the room after getting in. His face slightly changed when he saw the long line formed with people. He hurried forward and drew the sword from the sheath, hacking.
As the sword flashed by, the arm, which was stuck to Yang Ning, got cut off. Blood spurted. Duan Canghai was now holding Yang Ning by the arm and retreating at a rapid rate.
It took him only a second to draw the sword and take Yang Ning away. He did it without any hesitation nor fear.
After that arm got cut off, all those guards leaned backward. They were all exhausted and suffered the soreness of muscle. At this moment, none of them could manage to get up.
Yang Ning was involuntarily taking in the flows of strength. The flows of strength were getting smoother. The route from the Qihai acupoint to his belly was already broken through, but his belly was extremely upset, like it was burning inside. Every time a wave of strength flowed in his body, it was like adding firewood to Yang Ning’s burning belly. Just as he was in terrible pain, the flow of strength, which was coming through his Qihai acupoint, suddenly got cut off. It was right in time. Yang Ning let out a sigh of relief, drenched in sweat.
“Your Excellency. Your Excellency, how do you feel?” Duan Canghai held on Yang Ning’s shoulders. Seeing Yang Ning’s face was burning like mad, Duan Canghai was shocked and he asked anxiously, “Anything wrong with Your Excellency?”
Yang Ning took a few deep breaths, and looked at Duan Canghai as he was getting his wits back. He said, “Someone…someone was trying to kill me!”
At this time, more people rushed in from the outside. It was Qi Feng leading several guards coming here. Seeing what was happening in the room, they all drew out their swords and stood around Yang Ning, protecting him.
Now, the guards of the villa also struggled to get up, all looking pale. The broken arm of the servant in black was bleeding profusely, and he was lying motionless on the ground.
“What on earth has happened?” Clenching the sword in his hand, Qi Feng scanned the room, and stared at one of the guards of the villa, asking, “How did this happen? How did you do your job of safeguarding the earl?”
The guards of the villa were all embarrassed.
The villa had always been used for the reception of corteges. According to the rules, people who could stay in the villa were all noble guests. Since the guards of corteges were not allowed entering the villa, they had arranged the guards of the villa, who were authorized here, to take care of the security issues inside the villa.
There were only a few loyalists qualified of being buried in the Loyalty Cemetery, so it was normal for the villa not receiving any guests in many years. Jobs in the villa could be quite cushy.
No one had expected that an assassination would happen in the villa. Now that Qi Feng was asking interrogative questions in a cold voice, the guards of the villa were all very embarrassed.
“Qi Feng, arrest the assassin!” Duan Canghai said in a low voice, “We will question him later.”
Qi Feng immediately stepped forward and pressed his broad sword against that guy’s neck. He kicked that guy to flip him over, making him lying on his back. Someone on the side immediately screamed, “Ah!” They saw the assassin’s face had turned blue with his eyes widely open. Those eyes were cloudy without any spirit, like he was dead.
Footsteps came from the other side of the door. Steward Qiu rushed into the room, screaming, “The earl. The earl. How is the earl?” Seeing Duan Canghai squatted down on the floor holding Yang Ning, Steward Qiu hurried over and asked, “Mr. Duan, what happened to the earl…?”
Duan Canghai turned on his cold face, saying, “Steward Qiu, in such a royal place, who would expect an assassin? The assassin almost killed the earl.”
Steward Qiu’s face changed, and he asked hurriedly, “Is His Excellency all right?”
Duan Canghai said, “Thank god. No real damage was done to His Excellency.” Looking at the assassin lying on the ground, he said, “Looks like that he was determined to death coming here.”
Zhao Wushang was not checking the assassin at this time. He came up to the table with a silver needle in his hand. He tapped the needle on the dessert on the tray, then stuck the needle into the teacup on the table. By the time he raised the silver needle, it had turned black. Zhao Wushang’s eyes turned cold as he asked those guards of the villa, “The assassin was one of the servants in the villa?”
“No,” Said one guard of the villa, the only one whose internal power had not been sucked up, and who still had energy. “There are less than twenty servants in this villa, and we are all familiar with each other. The assassin was definitely not the staff in the villa.”
“What is going on?” Said someone disheveled, coming from the outside. Steward Qiu darted a look at him and recognized that he was the chief of staff in the villa, a petty official in the Ministry of Rites. They had contacted with each other in the past. Steward Qiu stepped forward and said, frowning, “Chief Wu, an assassin had broken into the villa and our earl almost got killed. What do you say about this?”
Steward Qiu was not an official, but he was the chief of staff in the Mansion of the Marquis of Honor, so he had a higher status than a petty official in the Ministry of Rites. Besides, Yang Ning almost got killed, so Steward Qiu’s tone was quite offensive.
Chief Wu’s face suddenly turned pale, he hurriedly yelled, “The assassin?” Then he hurried forward, seeing all the guards of the villa standing on the side, all down in the mouth. The guards, like pieces of limp lettuce, couldn’t gather any strength. He also saw that Qi Feng was squatting on the ground checking on the assassin who was lying on his back. Chief Wu’s face turned even more pale seeing this. He panicked and yelled at the guards of the villa, “You…how did you do your job of safeguarding the villa? The assassin…how did the assassin got in?”
Qi Feng looked up at Duan Canghai, saying, “Brother Duan, your guess was correct. The assassin was determined to die. He just died of the poison he had swallowed. We can’t save him.”
“Died of poison, so he was afraid of us questioning him about the guy who was behind this,” Duan Canghai said with a sneer, “If I am right, his commander must be someone we know.” Then he added, “At least, he is not someone from the Northern Han State.”
Zhao Wushang said, “It seemed like that the assassin was just trying to poison the earl, but somehow they were caught in a fight.”
Looking at Chief Wu, Qi Feng said with a sneer, “Chief Wu, you are in charge of this villa. Now the assassin had broken in to the villa, and he even changed into an outfit of the servant of the villa. What’s more, he got into the earl’s room with dessert and tea, and you weren’t even aware of it. I would worry about you if the central officials get to know about this.”
Now the face of Chief Wu was pale like a piece of paper. He surely knew that there was no way to cover up such a major accident. The earl was a noble man, so if he had died here, all the staff in the villa might go down with him. Though no real damage was done to him, this case, of course, would not rest so easily. Having made such a big mistake, Chief Wu, a petty official, would surely lose his position at the Ministry of Rites.
Since there was no way to escape from punishment after this, he could only pray that the punishment wouldn’t be severe. At this time, he needed to do everything he could to show his cooperative attitude to the Mansion of the Marquis of Honor, so he immediately ordered, “The kitchen. Right, hurry and check on the kitchen.”
The guards also knew that this was a serious matter, so one of them had already rushed to the kitchen before the order.
“The…the assassin was really powerful,” Said one of the guards, who was still in shock, “He performed some evil arts…the moment we touched him, our internal power got sucked up.”
The guards only knew that they had lost internal power when they touched the assassin, but they didn’t know that the assassin was just a medium, and the ultimate destination of the internal power was Yang Ning.
“That’s right. This guy was evil. We never heard of this kind of martial arts!” Added someone on the side.
Looking at Zhao Wushang, Duan Canghai said, “Do you have any clue about the assassin’s background?”
Zhao Wushang walked around the assassin, then he poked the assassin with a knife. He said while shaking his head, “He was that kind of people whose career was assassination, and they do it only for money. There are many assassins like him in circle of martial arts practitioners, and they are all very neat, quick and seasoned, leaving no trace behind them. When they completed an assassination, they would disappear, and it would be really hard to track them down. If they ever miss, they would commit suicide, leaving no clue of who they are.”
Duan Canghai nodded slightly and said with a sneer, “How dare they attempt an assassination of the earl. Looking high and low, we shall track down the man behind this.” Then he ordered, “The earl is startled. Everyone, get out of here. Remove the dead body and clean it up!” He asked Yang Ning, “Your Excellency, would you want to change your room?”
Yang Ning shook his head and said, “I…I am fine.”
Suddenly, they heard footsteps. The guard who was checking the kitchen came and report, “Mr. Qiu in the kitchen got murdered, and his outfit was ripped off.”
Looking at Steward Qiu, Chief Wu said, “It seems like that the assassin sneaked into the villa. He killed the guy in the kitchen and then dressed up like a servant to come over here.”
Steward Qiu said in a cold voice, “How did the assassin sneak in? The villa is not big and guards were arranged for both front gate and back gate. How did he make his way into the villa?”
Zhao Wushang suddenly added, “The assassin killed the guy in the kitchen and then dressed up like a servant. He managed to avoid everyone else in the villa and found out the earl so easily. Apparently, he knew very well about the structure of the villa.” After a pause, he continued, “Even we couldn’t get into the villa under normal circumstances, and in ordinary days, of course, common people are not allowed here. How come the assassin was so familiar with the villa?”
Hearing this, Chief Wu’s face turned even paler. The guards of the villa were also embarrassed, looking at each other.
“None of our staff would ever cooperate with the assassin.” Of course, Chief Wu knew what Zhao Wushang meant by saying that, so he explained, “If you have any doubt, you can question and investigate anyone as you wish.”
“I was saying that, the assassin’s commander must be very familiar with the structure of the villa.” Zhao Wushang’s face was cold as a piece of stone, he casually said, “Other than you, there are many people who could be familiar with the structure of the villa. Anyone who has entered the villa before us could be associated with the assassin.”
Steward Qiu nodded slightly, saying, “That’s right. We shall never let go of this so easily. They got a lot of nerve assassinating the earl. We need to investigate this thoroughly.”
At this time, some of the people carried the dead body out of the room, and some of them cleaned the room up. Due to this accident, Qi Feng and Zhao Wushang were allowed to stay inside the villa, guarding Yang Ning at his room door. This was breaking the long-standing protocol of the villa, but under this special circumstance, Chief Wu dared not to say anything about it.
Steward Qiu and Duan Canghai helped Yang Ning get seated. Seeing Yang Ning’s face was still glowing red, they exchanged a look. Steward Qiu carefully asked, “Your Excellency, are you feeling unwell? Shall we get the doctor for you?”
Yang Ning shook his head and said, “Steward Qiu, just go ahead and do your job. I am fine. Don’t worry.”
Steward Qiu nodded slightly and left. When Steward Qiu was gone, Duan Canghai quietly said, “Your Excellency, are you feeling that something is wrong inside your body?”
“Ah?” Yang Ning darted a look at Duan Canghai. The flow of blood was still unsettling in his belly. Though the burning sense had greatly faded away, his belly was still extremely upset. Besides, his heart was also fiercely beating, much faster than usual.
“Your internal power is unstable.” Duan Canghai said in a low voice, “If I am right, your belly must be very upset now.”