DLERB -Chapter 12 Luowang’s Rat Nest

“Young Master, eight-hundred-li urgent dispatch!”

A Jinyiwei knelt on one knee, holding up a bamboo slip tightly sealed with wax in both hands.

The black eagle emblem stamped upon it belonged exclusively to the First Emperor’s eastern inspection convoy.

The moment Li Si saw that symbol, the nerves that had only barely recovered after seeing the hundreds of severed heads snapped completely.

Thud!

The Chancellor of Great Qin collapsed heavily to his knees.

“Young Master! This old minister deserves death! I was foolish!”

Tears and snot streamed down Li Si’s face as he kowtowed repeatedly toward Ying Ziye. His forehead slammed against the cold floor with dull thuds.

“It is all this old minister’s fault alone! It has nothing to do with the Young Master! I beg His Majesty… I beg His Majesty to spare him on account of his youth!”

He was convinced this was a letter of condemnation from the First Emperor!

In a single night, Xianyang had become a river of blood.

More than a hundred officials had died.

Even Zhao Cheng, the younger brother of the Director of the Imperial Carriage Office, had been killed.

How could the Emperor not know of such a world-shaking event?

It was over.

Everything was over.

Ying Ziye did not even glance at him.

He simply took the bamboo slip from the Jinyiwei.

With his small fingers, he leisurely tore open the wax seal.

Then he unfolded the slip.

The hall fell deathly silent, filled only with Li Si’s heavy breathing and suppressed sobbing.

Everyone present believed that in the next moment, this eight-year-old child would read the Emperor’s furious rebuke and collapse in terror.

However—

Ying Ziye merely glanced at it once.

Then he made a move that nearly caused everyone’s eyes to pop out of their sockets.

With a casual flick of his hand—

He tossed the eight-hundred-li urgent dispatch, a document that determined the life and death of countless people, into the nearby brazier as though it were garbage.

Whoosh!

The flames instantly swallowed the bamboo slip, reducing it to drifting smoke.

Li Si froze mid-kowtow.

Even Qinglong was stunned.

“Y-Young Master?”

Li Si’s voice trembled violently.

Burned it?

He burned the First Emperor’s dispatch?!

This was even crazier than killing people in Qilin Hall!

Ying Ziye dusted off his hands as though brushing away dirt that did not exist, his little face full of disdain.

“So noisy.”

Tilting his head, he explained in a childish tone to the dumbfounded Li Si:

“It wasn’t from Father Emperor.”

“It was from that dog Zhao Gao, sent under Hu Hai’s name.”

“He asked whether Xianyang was well and whether I needed him to send people back to help.”

Ying Ziye curled his lips in contempt.

“What is he supposed to be? Does he deserve to tell me how to do things?”

Li Si stood frozen in place, his mind blank.

A letter from Zhao Gao…

He had directly burned a letter from the most powerful favorite at court—and even called him a dog?

Ignoring Li Si, Ying Ziye turned toward Qinglong behind him.

“Among the bugs we killed last night, were there a few especially troublesome ones?”

Qinglong immediately recovered himself and knelt on one knee.

“Reporting to Young Master, among the people on the list, forty-nine had unknown identities and possessed extremely high martial skill. Before dying, they counterattacked and wounded seven of our brothers.”

“And who were they?”

Qinglong pulled a dried leaf from his robes and respectfully presented it.

“These individuals do not appear in the Black Ice Terrace archives.”

“We only know their attacks were ruthless and lethal, like assassins raised in captivity.”

“And beneath every corpse’s pillow, we discovered one of these.”

It was a dried phoenix tree leaf.

Ying Ziye did not take the leaf.

He merely glanced at the leaf before speaking indifferently.

“Luowang.”

Qinglong suddenly raised his head, shock appearing on his face for the first time without any attempt to hide it.

“Young Master… how do you know about Luowang?!”

Even the Black Ice Terrace had only encountered that name in scattered classified files, listing it as top-secret information.

They knew only that it was an extremely terrifying assassin organization.

As for the details, they knew nothing at all.

So how did the Ninth Young Master know about it?

Li Si also forgot his fear for a moment as he stared at Ying Ziye in shock.

Ying Ziye jumped down from the grand chair, clasped his little hands behind his back, and paced around like a miniature adult.

“In Father Emperor’s study, there are some books that other people are not allowed to see. I flipped through them when I was bored.”

Tilting his little face upward, he spoke in a childish voice as though reciting from memory.

“Luowang is Zhao Gao’s privately raised assassin organization. Their network spreads across the world, penetrating everywhere.”

“They are divided into three ranks.”

“The Human Rank handles infiltration, intelligence gathering, and spreading rumors—like the storyteller in the teahouse yesterday.”

“The Earth Rank carries out assassinations on lesser officials or clears obstacles for the Heaven Rank.”

“As for the Heaven Rank…”

“They are Luowang’s true fangs. One strike, one kill. They exist only to take lives and never leave traces behind.”

With every sentence Ying Ziye spoke, Qinglong’s face grew paler.

The information was far too detailed.

Detailed enough to send chills down the spine of even him, the Commander of the Jinyiwei.

The Black Ice Terrace had spent years trying to uncover Luowang’s organizational structure and still failed.

Yet an eight-year-old child had described it perfectly.

After finishing, Ying Ziye instantly returned to his innocent childlike demeanor.

Curiously, he pointed at the phoenix leaf in Qinglong’s hand.

“Uncle Qinglong, is this Luowang some kind of tasty fish?”

“It sounds like a fishing net.”

Hearing those words, Li Si felt cold air rush from the soles of his feet straight to the top of his head.

He no longer dared treat this child as an actual child.

Was he truly foolish?

Or merely pretending?

Either possibility meant the boy’s scheming mind was deeper than the abyss itself.

Qinglong was still immersed in shock and did not know how to respond.

At that moment, Ying Ziye suddenly stretched out his hand.

“Give me the leaf. Let me see.”

Qinglong hurriedly handed over the phoenix leaf.

Ying Ziye pinched it gently between two pale little fingers and walked over to the brazier, examining it carefully beneath the firelight.

The flames flickered across his small face, casting alternating light and shadow.

“Interesting.”

After staring at it for a while, he casually tossed the leaf back to Qinglong.

“The veins are three parts denser than those of an ordinary phoenix tree, and the edges are slightly scorched yellow from poor adaptation to the local soil and water.”

“This tree species isn’t native to Xianyang.”

“In the entire city, there’s only one place where this kind of southern phoenix tree was transplanted.”

He paused, then raised his head to look at the bewildered Qinglong and Li Si.

“Western City.”

“Wutong Alley.”

Qinglong and Li Si were completely stunned.

Just from a single leaf…

He had pinpointed the enemy’s headquarters?!

What kind of terrifying observation skills and knowledge was this?!

Ying Ziye clapped his hands, and the innocent smile on his face vanished instantly.

In its place appeared a cold killing intent completely incompatible with his age.

“Pass down my order.”

“Within a quarter of an hour, three thousand Jinyiwei are to seal off Wutong Alley.”

“Not even a fly is allowed to escape.”

He turned and walked toward the exit of the prison on his short little legs.

“Young Master! Where are you going?!” Li Si cried out in alarm.

Ying Ziye did not look back.

His childish voice echoed from deep within the corridor, carrying unquestionable authority.

“I’m going to take a look.”

“At what Luowang’s rat nest looks like.”