RWNEFE -Chapter 276 The Son of Heaven of Zhou!

In just that short span of time, the fake Sun Qian was already dead, and the people who killed him had vanished without a trace.

Liu Yanhui and the others stared silently out the window, then suddenly reacted.

“That waiter just now…”

Before he could finish, Ban Sicao was already about to give chase.

“Stop—don’t alert the enemy!”

Ban Sicao had been running too fast to stop in time and slammed straight into the doorframe.

“We’ll split into two teams!”

There was no time to lose. The group immediately divided in two.

The ten-man squad split in half: Ban Sicao led four men, while Shen Lanxi took Liu Yanhui and the rest.

The two teams set off separately, heading toward the hiding places of the fake Sun Qians.

Shen Lanxi chose the farther location—the town entrance.

By the time she arrived, the fake Sun Qian was already under attack.

“Save him!”

The guards rushed forward together, but quickly found themselves at a disadvantage.

Liu Yanhui frowned. “These are all professionally trained assassins.” Their guards were no match for them.

Shen Lanxi tossed out a quick instruction—“Take care of yourselves”—and charged in to help.

Liu Yanhui hurried to find a safe place to hide.

After only a few exchanges, the assassins were all lying on the ground. Shen Lanxi knocked them unconscious, not giving them any chance to take poison and kill themselves.

The fake Sun Qian had been slashed twice on the arm and shoulder, but his life was not in danger.

Just as Shen Lanxi was about to have someone secure the scene, her expression suddenly changed.

“Get down!”

As she shouted, she flung the stick in her hand.

With a loud bang, Sun Qian was knocked to the ground. An arrow embedded itself in the wall where he had been standing. If that blow hadn’t knocked the fake Sun Qian down, he would already be dead.

Seeing there were still assassins around, Liu Yanhui sprinted toward Shen Lanxi.

Several guards drew their blades and scanned the surroundings warily.

Shen Lanxi stared darkly in the direction from which the arrow had flown. After firing that single shot, the assassin had already fled.

“General, this place isn’t safe. Let’s head to the Salt Lake at once!” There were Northern Suppression Army troops stationed there.

“Send them to the Salt Lake,” Shen Lanxi said.

Liu Yanhui asked, “General, what about you?”

“The fish has already taken the bait—how could I reel in the line now?” She intended to haul them all ashore, strip off their scales, and gut them clean.

“General, maybe we should regroup with Ban Sicao first, then leave,” Liu Yanhui said uneasily, a strong sense of foreboding in his heart.

Shen Lanxi took out a signal whistle and blew once.

Liu Yanhui’s eyes lit up—how had he forgotten about Xiao Xue?

Shen Lanxi wrote a letter and had Xiao Xue carry it away, then immediately led her people to rendezvous with Ban Sicao.

When Ban Sicao saw the assassins trying to use poison on him, he laughed.

“You’re really showing off your blade in front of Guan Yu—playing poison with me? You’ve got a death wish.”

He scattered a packet of powder, and the assassins dropped to the ground one after another like dumplings falling into boiling water.

After the two groups reunited, Shen Lanxi proposed waiting for reinforcements right there in Mosang Town.

“General, this town is far too strange,” Ban Sicao said. “I suspect the entire town is theirs. We should wait outside the town instead.”

He had already sensed something was wrong on the way over.

The merchants didn’t look like merchants, the pedestrians didn’t look like pedestrians, and even the errand runners didn’t look right. On a bustling main street, there wasn’t a single child in sight.

Shen Lanxi could no longer restrain herself. She wanted the truth—she wanted answers.

“I want to interrogate them.”

Ban Sicao and Liu Yanhui both heard the urgency in her voice. This was the best chance to uncover the truth behind the theft of the Wei Army’s grain and pay. If they missed it, there might never be another opportunity.

“Yes!”

Ban Sicao shook his wrist. The red bracelet around it instantly turned into a small red snake, which bit each assassin once.

“After being bitten by Little Red, they’ll quickly fall into hallucinations,” Ban Sicao explained. “They’ll think they’re dreaming—ask them anything, and they’ll answer.”

In the blink of an eye, the assassins opened their eyes hazily, swaying as if drunk, grinning foolishly.

Ban Sicao tested them. “Have you eaten?”

The assassins giggled and answered, “No!”

Ban Sicao nodded. “That’ll do.”

Shen Lanxi asked, “Who sent you?”

The assassin chuckled before replying, “Our superior.”

“Who is your superior?”

“Our superior is our superior.”

Shen Lanxi frowned. Her gaze flickered, and she changed her approach.

“Who do you swear loyalty to?”

The assassins giggled, swayed twice, and said, “The Son of Heaven of Zhou!”

Shen Lanxi’s pupils contracted sharply. “Who is the Son of Heaven of Zhou? What does he look like? Where is he?”

“The Son of Heaven of Zhou is the Son of Heaven,” they replied. “He wears a mask and is in the capital!”

“Where in the capital?” Shen Lanxi pressed.

In unison, they answered, “Don’t know!”

“Was the theft of the Wei Army’s grain and pay your doing?”

“Yes!”

“How many of you are in Mosang Town?”

“The entire town is ours.”

“What about the original townspeople?”

“Killed! Everyone in the town was killed!”

These people deserved to die.

Fury instantly filled Shen Lanxi’s eyes—but now was not the time to kill them.

“How do you contact the Son of Heaven of Zhou?”

“Our superior contacts him!”

“How many assassins like you are there in total?”

“Don’t know!”

“How did you steal the Wei Army’s grain and pay?”

“Don’t know!”

Shen Lanxi asked several more questions. When the assassins could no longer withstand the drug’s effects and began vomiting blood before losing consciousness, she finally stopped.

“This Son of Heaven of Zhou commands a massive assassin organization,” she said grimly. “These assassins are all contacted through their superiors. The people at the bottom only know how to follow orders—they know very little.”

There was a question Liu Yanhui had been holding back for some time.

“They had chances to kill us. Why didn’t they just finish us off once and for all?”

Ban Sicao couldn’t figure it out either. In his mind, if he hadn’t detected the knockout drug, Shen Lanxi and the others would still be unconscious in the inn right now.

The Son of Heaven of Zhou’s people were fully capable of killing them.

Shen Lanxi considered several possibilities, but none made sense.

Could it be that this mysterious Son of Heaven of Zhou didn’t want to kill her?

Even thinking about it without much effort, she knew it was impossible. There had to be another purpose—one they simply couldn’t discern yet.

“Capture more assassins for questioning,” she ordered. “If possible, seize one of their superiors.”

Before her subordinates could respond, a guard outside rushed in.

“General, bad news—there’s a fire!”

Shen Lanxi’s expression changed.

“Quick, get people to put it out!” Liu Yanhui said.

The guard looked uneasy. “There are too many fires, and the wind’s picked up. We should withdraw from Mosang Town immediately. At this rate, the flames will reach us in the blink of an eye!”

The anger burning in Shen Lanxi’s chest had never been fiercer.

“Send a signal to our people outside the town. I want Mosang Town surrounded!”

Liu Yanhui hurriedly ordered signal pigeons to be released.

The fire spread in an instant. Shen Lanxi stood at the entrance of Mosang Town, her entire presence icy, staring at the place being swallowed by flames.

“They must have withdrawn as soon as that archer escaped,” someone said. “They moved fast.”

Killing their own without hesitation, abandoning their comrades without a second thought—what kind of person was this Son of Heaven of Zhou, who controlled such cold-blooded assassins from behind the scenes?