Star Trace Gate

Chapter 966 Internal Strife, the Complete Depravity of the Young Marquis

After receiving the task of "confiscating" Moro's house, Little Bad King immediately led his men to the garrison headquarters.

Among those accompanying him were not only two officials from Moro's inner court, but also more than a dozen civil officials and clerks from his supply depot. These people had just been woken up, mainly to cooperate with his confiscation of property, and under Moro's orders, they all obeyed only Ren Ye's command.

As far as Ren Ye was concerned, he certainly wouldn't be so foolish as to think that Mo Luo had deliberately chosen a good job for him by sending him to confiscate his property, as if he wanted to give him special treatment, win him over, and pamper him.

I'm not Moro's biological father, and our relationship isn't close enough to "collude in embezzlement," so why would he be so good to me? This doesn't seem to fit the "sincere and honest" nature of adult relationships involving the transfer of benefits...

So, he kept thinking about it the whole way. Was Moro sending him to search the house because he wanted to find something in the garrison and needed him to act as his staunch witness?

Or perhaps, Moro wasn't interested in him at all, but rather in the Yuyang Arhat behind him. That's why he wanted to force him into the game and get involved in the changes at the garrison, so that he could easily gain the Yuyang Arhat's support.

These guesses are all possible, but Little Bad King is uncertain about them. Because so far, he hasn't figured out Moro's real purpose in coming to Northwind Town, or what his true intentions are.

However, Moro sending himself to the garrison headquarters suited Little Bad King's wishes perfectly. On his way back, he had been pondering how to protect Wang Anquan if he couldn't escape, preventing him from being captured or executed. Otherwise, losing the Enlightenment Ginseng Fruit would mean the end of his trip to North Wind Town; failing to complete even one Heavenly Dao task was tantamount to failure.

To achieve this, relying solely on an unidentified alien female corpse would certainly be insufficient. Therefore, upon returning to the supply depot, he had already decided to use his true self to enter the game, but on the condition that his identity absolutely not be revealed. He would act according to circumstances, seeking an excellent opportunity or excuse…

He led the civil officials and clerks from the supply depot, along with two officials under Moro's command, and traveled under the cover of night, quickly arriving at the outskirts of the garrison—Zhen'an Street.

As expected, when Ren Ye and the others arrived, the garrison compound was already surrounded like an iron barrel. In addition to the monk soldiers on night patrol, at least two thousand more monk soldiers had arrived and blocked the nearby streets, making it impossible for even a mosquito to fly out alive.

The leader at the scene was Feng Yiyang of the Gray Robe Camp, but the one in real charge was actually the monk Fulai standing next to Feng Yiyang. He was a member of the Moro Squad, and when he and Feng Yiyang rushed back to the Martial Monk's Mansion, they saw the group of military officers who had led their troops back from the three teleportation arrays, as well as the officers of the Imperial Guard who were completely bewildered by the situation.

These people met at the Martial Monk's Mansion and, after exchanging only a few simple words, deduced Wang Anquan's conspiracy to kidnap the commanders of the various monk-soldiers, falsely issue imperial edicts, secretly rescue prisoners, and control the three teleportation arrays.

It wasn't that they were particularly clever, but rather that Yu Tiange's haphazard actions inadvertently revealed too much information to the Martial Monk's Mansion. After Wang Tudou returned, he explicitly told Moro that the Wang family members in the garrison were acting strangely and might be plotting a rebellion; and those military officers who had been falsely summoned back from the teleportation array by imperial decree, upon meeting at the Martial Monk's Mansion, discovered that they weren't the only ones who had been recalled; the others had also received orders from their commanders and had been inexplicably pulled back.

Not only were they brought back, but the Martial Monk's Mansion was also without a leader. Even the officers of the Imperial Guard hadn't heard of any major military action planned by Tianzhao Temple the next morning. Furthermore, all the commanders had gone to the garrison headquarters for a banquet tonight and hadn't returned or sent any messages… This left all the officers puzzled.

So when Feng Yiyang and Monk Fulai arrived, after exchanging a few bewildered questions, they instantly understood the situation inside the garrison headquarters and could guess that the commanders of each battalion were probably now prisoners of war.

In this way, Feng Yiyang immediately revealed Niu Dali's highest military officer seal and mobilized three thousand monk soldiers from the personal guard to take control of the teleportation array in three directions. He then ordered the military officers who had been recalled from the teleportation array to immediately lead the existing troops to surround the garrison.

Therefore, when Ren arrived here, not only was the town's gate surrounded by more than two thousand monk soldiers, but the teleportation array was also likely to be besieged by the strongest guard monk soldiers.

On the deserted Zhen'an Street, Ren Ye stood on the periphery of a group of military officers, looking at the densely packed bald men with a chilling sense of despair.

At that moment, he clearly realized that protecting Wang Anquan and the Wang family tonight would be incredibly difficult. And if anything unexpected happened here, he alone probably wouldn't be able to change the situation...

What should we do? We need to have a backup plan...

Ren stood in the dim moonlight, pondered for a long time, and then waved his little hand and called out softly, "Old Lu, Old Lu!"

"Hey, Master Zhenyi, I'm here...!" A middle-aged civil servant from the supply depot approached, bowing and scraping.

Old Lu was the clerk of the chief of the supply depot, and in that respect, he could be considered Ren Ye's staunch henchman. After all, a local official is more powerful than a distant one, and loyalty to the Tianzhao Temple required loyalty to one's superior first.

Ren pulled him aside and whispered, "Good old Lu, I have a very important task for you...!"

Old Lu looked timid and asked very cautiously, "What are your orders, sir?"

"Go find Liu Wei, the cook, immediately and have him bring his troops here. Tell him... I received a mission from the abbot of Tianzhao Temple tonight, and I need his presence if necessary," Ren replied without room for argument.

"But I'll be joining you in ransacking the house later." With everything in chaos outside, Old Lu didn't really want to leave; he just wanted to go with the flow.

"More than twenty people helped me with the raid, but you were the only one who went to inform Liu Wei." Ren Ye pointed to the other man's chest, making a double entendre: "There aren't many opportunities for superiors and subordinates to be truly on the same page, do you think?"

Old Lu was prompted and immediately understood Ren Ye's meaning. He solemnly clasped his hands and said, "This humble official will go right away. Don't worry... Even if there are mountains of knives and seas of fire on the way, I will definitely bring Lord Liu here."

"Mm." Ren Ye immediately waved his hand.

Before long, Old Lu quietly left the raiding team and ran all the way towards the direction of the cooks' barracks.

"Anyone who dares to break into the garrison's gates, we'll kill them right now!"

"Get back, all of you, get the hell away from me!"

"...!"

Just as Ren turned around, intending to exchange a few words with Feng Yiyang and Monk Fulai, he heard an unusually excited warning coming from inside the garrison compound.

This was the threat and warning issued by the Wang family after sealing off the gate. From Ren Ye's perspective, it was clear that the Wang family, led by Wang Boshan, had given up all hope of breaking through or escaping and were simply trying to buy time.

Not far away, Feng Yiyang, clad in armor and surrounded by eight hundred gray-robed monks, stared sharply at the garrison compound and shouted, "Wang Boshan, are you out of your mind?! Stand on the wall and take a good look outside. See how many monk soldiers there are, how many magical treasures are deployed... With just your Wang family, you think you can fight like cornered beasts?! You probably don't even know what death means."

“I’ll give you ten breaths to bring the Wang family members to open the gates of the garrison and kneel down to surrender. If that happens, my Tianzhao Temple might still remember that Wang Anquan once surrendered the city and only pursue the responsibility of the bandit leader, without implicating your Wang family’s children and descendants… Otherwise, if we force our way in, not a single member of the Wang family will survive.”

His words were blunt, and his tone conveyed a sense of cold indifference and oppression from someone who had been through many battles.

Inside the courtyard, Wang Boshan, standing outside the main hall of the government office, remained silent for a moment before gritting his teeth and whispering, "I believe what that woman from Fulong Pavilion said. After all, she saved Wenping, and at this time, she has no reason to betray us. Now, if our family wants to live, we must ensure that Anquan can escape back to Tiandu, so... we absolutely cannot compromise at this moment, or we will all die."

"Uncle, whatever you say, we'll do it!"

"Yes, things have come to this point, we'll listen to you...!"

"...!"

The Wang family members all expressed their opinions.

Wang Boshan, his hands trembling behind his back, raised his head with a furrowed brow and shouted towards the courtyard using his divine power: "Feng Yiyang, let me be frank with you. If you dare to force your way in now, I will definitely take the dozen or so commanders from the inner hall of the government office with me to the Yellow Springs before I die. But if you can give us two quarters of an hour to see the three teleportation arrays light up with our own eyes, then I can guarantee that the Wang family will open the gates and surrender after two quarters of an hour, without harming a single hair on the heads of the dozen or so commanders."

"Stop shouting. You decide what to do."

After Wang Boshan finished shouting, he turned and walked into the inner hall. After that, the Wang family no longer communicated with the monks outside the courtyard.

On Zhen'an Street, Feng Yiyang strode up to Monk Fulai, his face grim. "High Monk," he said, "I know what the Wang family is thinking. Their insistence on waiting two quarters of an hour before surrendering is actually to ensure Wang Anquan's escape… The brown-robed battalion officer who returned from the Nanshan Illusionary Realm has already said that Wang Anquan went there to receive prisoners from the Divine Court. This means that Wang Anquan himself is definitely not in the courtyard now, but rather within the teleportation array. Therefore, after the Wang family learned that their plan had been exposed, they must have sent someone to the array to inform Wang Anquan to escape…!"

"They wanted to use the prisoners of war they had as leverage to buy time, so as to get rid of Wang Anquan."

“Commander Feng is absolutely right.” Monk Fulai nodded solemnly.

"Then what should we do? Should we storm the garrison headquarters or wait?" Feng Yiyang asked, looking at him. "If we wait, Wang Anquan might escape back to Tiandu; if we storm it, the Wang family, having nowhere else to turn, will certainly dare to kill those dozen or so monk soldier commanders...!"

At this point, he deliberately lowered his voice to remind them, "You should know that each of the monks' military offices in Beifeng Town has its own stronghold. If so many high-ranking military officers die at once because of our strong attack, Lord Moro may face some attacks and encirclement within the temple."

Under the moonlight, Monk Fulai pondered for a long time before resolutely replying, "We cannot listen to the Wang family's threats, nor can we allow them to successfully send Wang Anquan back to the Divine Court with the prisoners they hold. Let me be clear, Lord Moro came to Northwind Town on a special mission... and this mission may be closely related to Wang Anquan. Therefore, we must not let him go."

"Let's launch a full-scale attack and quickly take control of the entire Wang clan within the garrison compound, right now."

He spoke with absolute certainty, leaving no room for argument.

Feng Yiyang's lips moved a few times, but in the end he couldn't bring himself to say anything to dissuade him. He just nodded heavily and said, "Alright, I'll lead my troops to charge into the garrison now."

As soon as he finished speaking, he turned around and waved to his officers: “Quickly assemble my Grey Robe Camp’s monk soldiers, eight hundred men, and charge in through the front and rear gates and the left and right side gates. If you encounter any resistance, execute them on the spot without asking for permission.”

"As ordered!"

"As ordered!"