Book 12: Chapter 45: Losing Control

Many years ago, Central Continent City wasn’t as massive as it was now, nor was it as clean and in order as now.

Some businesses, some workshops and even some official posts were things many people seized and fought for in the open and in the dark. Power and authority hid, flourished and changed. At that time, the power within the influential bigwigs didn’t even reach the level of a private army. That was why during that time, it was the world of ruffians.

Many alternations of power were oftentimes done so through the slaughter of thousands of ruffians in a single night.

Jiang Yanzhi was precisely a hero who rose up among countless crooks and honest folk.

As Central Continent City became larger and larger, the alleys also became calm for many years. However, the moment Jiang Yanzhi’s long blade shattered, falling in a ruthless and unwilling manner, in many streets and alleys within Central Continent City, blood began to flow once more, the streets covered in a blood red color.

Everything happened too fast, too sudden, impossible for people to react to.

Some officials who didn’t have the authority to face the emperor, when they just walked out of their houses, they were directly delivered more than ten strikes to their chests.

These injuries were all extremely deep, openly displaying the violent nature of the perpetrators. The daggers actually directly cut through their chest, the tips coming out of the officials’ backs.

Some officials who just left from the official gates, still deeply worried about how tomorrow’s events would develop, if his majesty would still refuse to hold an imperial court session all suffered attacks. Some carriages, horses and servants were hacked to pieces by long blades as well, some palanquins turned into porcupines from being shot at by crossbow arrows.

As time continued, in many of the city’s streets and alleys, Central Continent Guards and some people who held crossbows carried out a slaughter.

Some people who held long blades began to fight against the Central Continent Guards. Furthermore, some people who held long blades also began to fight against those who held crossbows.

Fear, vicious roars, sounds of blades cutting and blood scattering out filled many streets, leaving the alleys in utter chaos.

The complexions of many officials who still hadn’t left the palace gates turned snow-white, not daring to believe that this type of thing would happen today.

In an instant, it was as if they went back more than seventy years.

Back then, youngsters like Li Zhenshi[1] and Zhang Qiuxuan[2] had just walked into Central Continent City, sighing with deep emotions towards the majestic scene of that past Central Contient City that was less than a tenth of what it was now.

…

Just like what that Hu Family senator and yellow robed old lady predicted, Central Continent City was filled with shouts of killing and great chaos.

Destruction would forever be easier than creation. Creating chaos and destroying order would always be much simpler than controlling chaos and establishing order.

Jiang Yanzhi was a ruffian hero to begin with. Even though he sat behind the layers of curtains for many years, deep down in his bones, he still had the blood of ruffians flowing through him.

After Li Zhenshi and the others died in Sanskrit Passage, his rage and ruthlessness reached the limit.

He didn’t even try to first consider who exactly associated with the Divine Elephant Army, because if it wasn’t for the emperor assassinating Li Zhenshi and the others in Sanskrit Passage, no one else could use this Divine Elephant Army to kill two birds with one stone.

One matter was one matter, this was the way ruffians dealt with matters.

Li Zhenshi died under the emperor’s hands. The emperor wanted to deal with Jiang Family, so he would naturally retaliate, make the emperor pay the price.

If it wasn’t because of his exceptionally deep feelings towards Central Continent City, towards this empire that was established through the blood of many brothers and friends, after he obtained the news of what happened in Sanskrit Passage, he would definitely directly unleash a great slaughter in Central Continent City, even use the most simple method ruffians used, assassinating the emperor.

Li Zhenshi and many people who had followed Jiang Yanzhi for many years were all ruffians as well. These were originally precisely the type of people who, many years ago, in the streets, even though they clearly knew they couldn’t defeat their opponent, for the sake of loyalty and self-sacrifice and seizing territory, even if they were throwing away their own lives, even if they were cut more than ten times by the enemy, they would still charge and deliver a cut to those they wanted to cut.

In this early morning, Jiang Family’s strength already became a barrel of gunpowder that was on the verge of exploding.

It was only because of Jiang Yanzhi’s final shred of rationality and reluctance, as well as those black gold carriage elders’ efforts and suppression that this barrel didn’t explode, that the emperor was given some room to deal with this case.

Jiang Yanzhi’s death was like the guiding thread that led to this barrel’s explosion.

Moreover, the most crucial point was that after Jiang Yanzhi was killed, many of Jiang Family’s forces also quickly suffered bloody assassinations.

It was just like the Central Continent City from many years ago, the boss of a gang killed, several backbone figures dying, then many people continuously being assassinated, the remaining brothers of this gang naturally couldn’t just sit around, starting their final retaliation, to kill the enemies they could kill.

This type of ruthless retaliation from these people who didn’t want to be cut down for no reason, these leaderless men who didn’t want to die for no reason was originally impossible to control.

The emperor’s forces would naturally bear the brunt of this type of retaliation.

Some officials who were deathly loyal to the emperor were the first to suffer bloody assassinations in the streets and their homes.

Some secret threads, secret forces and intelligence networks of the emperor already known by Jiang Family were destroyed, the secret agents killed.

…

To immediately suffer an assassiantion after entering the imperial palace and stating his standpoint, this matter, in many people’s eyes, was extremely strange.

Yunqin Emperor Changsun Jinse naturally understood the most clearly that Jiang Yanzhi’s assassination had nothing to do with him.

This was especially the case after the seven black gold carriages uniformly fully displayed their attitude, even if he wanted to kill Jiang Yanzhi, there was no way he would adopt such direct methods, he naturally wouldn’t be this stupid.

However, even though it was easy for one to be sure that they weren’t stupid, to make others believe they werent’ stupid, this was an extremely difficult matter.

The people he sent out with the Central Continent Guards immediately began to search. The ones they were chasing after were precisely the assassins who killed Jiang Yanzhi.

It wasn’t just him, many senators, as well as the forces of other officials were investigating the truth.

However, the ones he sent out, those Central Continent Guards, also quickly became caught up in Jiang Family’s retaliation.

As such, everything went out of control.

Some forces he didn’t believe belonged to him, officials who weren’t under him began to suffer assassinations as well. He naturally carried a trace of clear-headedness as well; these people might not have been killed by Jiang Family’s final retaliation. However, what he was sure of was that this afternoon, the deaths of many officials whose blood dyed the streets and alleys, the destruction of his secret organizations and the destruction of  some powers that were extremely important to him were all done by Jiang Family.

This was especially since  there were even some assassinations in the imperial palace. Even the concubine who carried the crown prince suffered an assassination. After being given a scare, under his violent rage, he understood that he already didn’t have any choice left. What he had to do now was only to use some power he could transfer to completely pull out those Jiang Family people who were unleashing slaughter in all directions, to completely kill them all.

Central Continent Guards began to pour into Jiang Family’s property in waves, going into Jiang Family’s courtyards and starting to kill some retaliating Jiang Family people.

…

Once again, three black gold carriages gathered in a completely emptied street corner.

“What has fallen isn’t limited to only Jiang Yanzhi and Jiang Family. This is a reckless purging and assassination.” While listening to the cries of alarm and grief in the streets, Hu Chenfu’s voice was the first to sound from one of the carriages.

“Who has the ability to do this?”

An aged voice calmly asked.

An extremely cold voice sounded from another black gold carriage. “Us, Chen Family, Zhong Family, Rong Family, Wen Xuanshu[3] and his majesty.”

“Compared to us, Wen Xuanshu and his majesty are naturally more suspicious.”

“However, what will his majesty think? In this type of situation, he might instead feel that we are rooting out his forces, might truly go completely crazy.”

“If his majesty really is this stupid, if this matter was done by him, what are you all going to do? Starting from the assassination of Li Zhenshi, perhaps ever since Jadefall City’s chaos, he has already been extremely stupid. If it wasn’t because he wanted Wenren Cangyue to shave off a bit more of Green Luan Academy’s forces, to have Green Luan Academy’s people die under Wenren Cangyue’s subordinates, why would the crown prince have died?! Stupidity and methods of toying with politics… borrowing this type of time to launch a great purge, to the extent where Wen Xuanshu himself agrees with his intentions, if we look at everything that has happened, it instead has the highest chance of happening.”

The three carriages simultaneously became quiet.

“Regardless of whether it is Wen Xuanshu or his majesty… Wen Xuanshu is someone who was raised to authority by him in one go. We must first force him out before we make further plans.”

“Fine.”

“If we pull back, all will die.”

“Protect Jiang Family’s women and children.”

…

Wen Xuanshu stood outside the palace gates, standing between some officials. Some Central Continent Guards’ military officers and soldiers would appear before him from time to time, waiting for his following orders and for the emperor to pass out a decree.

While listening to the news that continuously returned from Central Continent City and seeing the flames and smoke that rose from the distant alleys, he who grasped Central Continent’s military also revealed a hint of true shock and coldness from time to time.

The one who lit this barrel of gunpowder was naturally him.

For the sake of completely turning Jiang Family into ruffians, he also paid an extremely great price this time. Some of his bargaining chips were completely used up.

However, right now, the chaos in Central Continent City and the responses of some elders instead made him discover that he still underestimated the backing and power of these ruffian knit elders.

That was why right now, even though he didn’t know that the three carriages’ figures already decided to first use the most direct and decisive methods, he understood that just because of some slight miscalculations on his part, the amount of time he had left wasn’t much.

In this type of situation, there was no way he could leisurely add one piece of straw after another on the back of the emperor who didn’t have much rationality left, it was better to do his best to decisively throw as much straw as possible.

“This really is unstable chaos…”

After giving the order for the Central Continent Guards who had just arrived to protect the families of officials, Wen Xuanshu shook his head in cold mockery, knowing that the time to truly gamble with his life had arrived. For the sake of granting himself a bit of time, he had to throw on that straw that originally could have won him more benefits.

Only, by throwing on this piece of straw that he originally prepared as the final piece to take down the emperor, how was he supposed to face the following situation?

…

There were bloody assassinations carried out everywhere around Central Continent City. While the emperor began to completely purge Jiang Family’s strength, in the border between Jadewater Province and Heavenfall Province, Lin Xi and Gao Yanan were currently quietly following a carriage.

The one inside this carriage was named Lu Tianfu[4], someone from River Province, precisely the owner of the horse field who previously bought more provisions than a horse field needed.

If he wanted to deal with the Divine Elephant Army, he had to first understand just what kind of connection he had with the Divine Elephant Army, as well as understand clearly just what kind of identity he had, if he was originally a Tangcang spy or the subordinate of a certain Yunqin royal court bigwig.

Judging from the past few days of shadowing him, this Lu Tianfu wasn’t a cultivator, the people he came into contact with not having any special identities either. This horse field owner, upon closer inspection, only had a single point that was worth questioning. He was extremely extravagant in his spending, and he was too fond of pleasures.

He always had to eat the best dishes, the women he played it would always be the leading figures; only this type of description could be used to describe this middle-aged, fat, slightly balding man currently in this meadow’s path.

Almost every few days, this horse field’s owner would ride to the closest Wuren City[5] to eat at the best restaurant. Then, he would enter the city’s only flower house, bringing away the most popular girl.

Even though Wuren City flower house’s girls couldn’t compare to those of some bustling great cities, because it was the only one, the price was naturally high. Moreover, if one wanted to bring them out and then send them back by carriage the next day, the amount of silvers needed for them to accompany you for the night would naturally be even greater.

For Lin Xi and Gao Yanan who had experienced the continuous battle against Great Mang’s army and cultivators in South Tomb Province, hiding  in the chest height grassland everywhere around them that could easily provide cover and silently following a carriage was naturally not very difficult at all.

The smell of grass in the meadow was extremely fresh and clean.

However, all of a sudden sudden, Lin Xi and Gao Yanan developed the feeling of being targeted by someone.

In a fraction of a breath of time, an expanse of dark night emerged in their perception from the other side of the meadow. As if true night descended, it completely flooded all of their perception.

1. Jiang Family’s advisor

2. Imperial City Consecrator

3. The current Grand Secretary

4. B12C39

5. This is where the Provincial Supervisor Manor in Jadewater Province is.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.