Chapter 459 - 273: The Mastermind Part 2

Chapter 459: Chapter 273: The Mastermind Part 2

"Li Tributor, how are the preparations on your end?" Lord Liu’s voice betrayed a hint of urgency.

"Rest assured, Lord Liu. I’ve already mobilized the elites from the Sacrificial Department. The moment that brat Fang Yue shows his face, we’ll make sure he never leaves." Li Tributor’s voice was filled with confidence.

"I’ll give the kid credit—he managed to escape with his life even when besieged by both the Blood Dragon Platform and Shadow Grey. But it doesn’t matter if he has three heads and six arms; he won’t escape our grasp this time!" Lord Liu’s voice was thick with killing intent.

~~~~~

Hearing this, Fang Yue’s gaze turned colder. He had already made his decision.

’So, these two are the masterminds,’ he thought. ’But since they dared to come to Gongzhou Prefecture, they can count themselves unlucky. With the Blood Dragon Platform and Shadow Association thugs running rampant in Gongzhou Prefecture right now, the deaths of a couple more high-ranking court officials will just be part of the cleanup.’

Fang Yue shot to his feet and immediately began to circulate his Primordial Qi, activating both the Soldier God Technique and the Dark Radiant Golden Body at once.

As the Soldier God Technique circulated, the Primordial Qi around Fang Yue surged like a tidal wave. A dark golden light emanated from within him, making him look like a golden War God descended upon the mortal realm.

The power of the Dark Radiant Golden Body tensed every muscle in his body, filling every nerve with explosive strength.

His figure flickered like a phantom, vanishing and reappearing in an instant. He burst through the tent’s entrance like a bolt of lightning tearing through the silent military camp.

"Who’s there?!" Lord Liu and Li Tributor were aghast. They hadn’t sensed Fang Yue’s approach at all and only reacted now.

But Fang Yue gave them no chance to react. Moving like the wind, he was instantly before Lord Liu, a fist rocketing toward his face.

Although Lord Liu was also a master who cultivated Primordial Qi, he seemed utterly defenseless before Fang Yue.

He hastily raised his hands to block, but Fang Yue’s fist was as heavy as a mountain, shattering his defense directly.

THUD!

Lord Liu’s entire body was sent flying as if struck by a sledgehammer, crashing heavily against the tent wall.

He spat a mouthful of blood, his eyes filled with terror and despair.

Seeing this, Li Tributor was horrified. He made a move, wanting to escape from this terrifying man.

But Fang Yue was faster. He grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and hauled him into the air.

"Wh-what do you want?" Li Tributor shrieked in terror. His feet kicked wildly in the air, but he couldn’t break free from Fang Yue’s iron grip.

Fang Yue watched him coldly, not a trace of pity in his eyes. He channeled his Primordial Qi and slapped a palm against Li Tributor’s chest.

THUD!

Another dull impact. Li Tributor’s chest instantly caved in. His eyes bulged wide as he spat out a mouthful of blood, and then his entire body went limp, dangling from Fang Yue’s hand.

Fang Yue casually tossed Li Tributor’s corpse aside, then swept his cold gaze over the other soldiers nearby.

The soldiers were already stunned by Fang Yue’s fearsome power. They were all silent as cicadas in winter, not even daring to breathe too loudly.

Fang Yue knew these soldiers were just innocent pawns. He had already killed the real masterminds.

He had no desire to slaughter the innocent, so he didn’t make a move against them.

He turned, walked out of the tent, and immediately left the military camp.

At the same time, the urgent blare of a horn sounded through the camp. Immediately after, squad after squad of fully armed soldiers rushed out, searching everywhere for any trace of Fang Yue.

But by then, Fang Yue was long gone.

~~~~~

After getting far away from the military camp, Fang Yue found a hidden spot, changed out of his black clothes, altered his appearance, and snuck back into Ganzhou Prefecture City.

He knew that although Lord Liu and Li Tributor had been dealt with, the storm was far from over.

His enemies in the imperial court would not let this go. They would definitely send more people to hunt him down.

Moreover, remnants of the Blood Dragon Platform and the Shadow Association were still lurking in the city, ready to launch a new attack at any moment.

Fang Yue knew he had to act carefully and not let his guard down for a second.

He quietly made his way to a bustling marketplace in the city and blended into the crowd.

People bustled to and fro in the market. Cries of vendors and the sounds of haggling rose and fell, painting a vivid and realistic picture of worldly life.

Fang Yue’s gaze scanned the crowd, sharp as a hawk’s, not missing a single suspicious detail.

Although everything seemed calm on the surface, Fang Yue knew that a dark undercurrent was surely flowing beneath the peace.

After confirming that no one had spotted him, Fang Yue went to the Observatory’s secret contact point again.

Fang Yue arrived at the Observatory’s secret contact point, a hidden residence deep within the marketplace.

The residence looked ordinary from the outside, no different from the surrounding homes, but its interior concealed hidden mechanisms and was filled with complex traps and secret passages.

Fang Yue navigated the secret doors with practiced ease, finally arriving in a hidden chamber.

This secret chamber was the Observatory’s intelligence hub in Gongzhou Prefecture. It was piled high with all sorts of files and secret reports, recording the various secrets of Gongzhou Prefecture and even the entire Great Wei Dynasty.

Fang Yue had come here to look through the archives and find information on the two lords he had just killed.

After all, those two were merely the ones carrying out the orders. There was someone else behind them.

Fang Yue sat at a desk in the center of the chamber. A dim yellow oil lamp flickered on the desk, casting his long shadow onto the walls.

He did not feel at ease. Although he had just successfully killed Lord Liu and Li Tributor, he knew this was merely the calm before the storm.

The enemy’s counterattack could come at any moment, and it was bound to be even more ferocious.

He took a deep breath, trying to calm the turmoil in his heart, then began to carefully leaf through the files on the desk.

These files contained intelligence the Observatory had gathered over many years, including no shortage of secrets about high-ranking court officials.

Fang Yue knew that if he wanted to find clues about the mastermind, he would have to sift through this intelligence, unraveling it thread by thread.

His eyes scanned quickly over the dense script as his mind raced, constantly thinking and analyzing.

Every name, every event, every detail could be the key to uncovering the truth.

Time passed bit by bit, and Fang Yue soon found a lead.

He confirmed his suspicions were correct: Lord Liu and Li Tributor were just the executors. The real mastermind was indeed someone else.

Duke Dingguo, Wei Chengliang.

Duke Dingguo, Wei Chengliang—the name sent a thousand ripples through Fang Yue’s mind.

He had seen this high and mighty Duke Dingguo once at a court ceremony. He was an unfathomable man—amiable and approachable on the surface, but his eyes always held an elusive glint.

Fang Yue continued to dig deeper into the files and discovered that Wei Chengliang had countless ties to Lord Liu and Li Tributor.

These connections were subtle, but they could not escape Fang Yue’s sharp eyes.

He gradually pieced together a complete picture of the conspiracy. This conspiracy was aimed directly at him and might even be entangled in a much broader power struggle within the imperial court.

At this moment, Fang Yue was filled with anger and a chilling cold.

He knew he had been dragged into a life-or-death struggle. The slightest misstep could lead to a point of no return.

’I have no connection to this man, yet he wants me dead!’

Fang Yue’s expression was grim. After all, this Duke Dingguo held immense power in Great Wei and possessed an extremely high cultivation level, making him a supreme expert on par with Prince Wucheng.

Being targeted by someone like that couldn’t just be because he had exposed the Shadow Association’s plot before.

There had to be another reason.

’Could it be because of Zhu Linlang?!’

Just as he had this thought, Fang Yue saw a familiar name in the file: Zhu Linlang, the woman with whom he’d shared an intimate encounter.

Zhu Linlang was the daughter of the current Han Prince of the Great Wei Imperial Dynasty, and she was also the fiancée of Duke Dingguo Wei Chengliang’s eldest son.

Seeing this name, a complex mix of emotions suddenly welled up inside Fang Yue.

Although he and Zhu Linlang had no deep emotional entanglement, their brief time together had left an indelible mark on his heart.