Accompanying a ruler is like accompanying a tiger!
"But I don’t remember, that I and you were fellow travelers..."
Shen Fa replied without changing his expression, "If I were truly in tune with your thoughts, and you decided to use me for your schemes, turning around to sell me to Huang, wouldn’t that be like entering the wrong ancestral hall and crying at the wrong grave?"
Wei Heng glanced at him and said with a warm smile, "Little fellow, you’re not very big, but you sure do have plenty of tricks up your sleeve... However, it would be best if you were straightforward. From my understanding of that old skinflint, after he learns the details about that little bastard, the first thing he will do is make a move on Luting Yuelai Inn!"
Shen Fa’s expression suddenly turned solemn, and he said in a deep voice, "It would be best for him to consider the consequences carefully. That guy now even dares to kill Ning Wang, if we really cause trouble for Yuelai Inn, that guy might just make his way to the capital!"
Wei Heng said, "That’s exactly how I see it too... So, what do you think we should do? Do the work but don’t put in effort, and oust that old skinflint from his position as the head of the Eastern Factory in three months?"
"It’s best not to."
Shen Fa, moving slightly, shook his head and whispered, "For such a large-scale royal command by the imperial envoy, if both our families work without effort, it would be too conspicuous. Once someone reports it to the royal family... We would be in a lot of trouble!"
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Wei Heng furrowed his brows and pondered for a long time before nodding in agreement, "Then what do you suggest we do?
Checking his surroundings, Shen Fa whispered, "If it were up to me... our families should just do as we normally would!"
Wei Heng: ???
Shen Fa said, "Think carefully about what the royal decree and the oral order from the royal family said earlier?"
Without a second thought, Wei Heng answered, "There were Black Guard assassins and Elite Cavalry led by Yang Erlang... Yang Erlang?"
He suddenly arched his eyebrow, as if he had discovered something significant.
"Do you understand now? The person his Majesty wants to arrest is Yang Erlang!"
Without averting his gaze, Shen Fa clearly articulated in a whisper, "What has Yang Ge of Yuelai Inn to do with him?"
Yang Ge has many aliases to the public, such as Yang Erlang, Zhang Mazi, Wu Yanzu, Ding Xiu, and recently he concocted another one, Zhang Muzhi.
Even in official documents, he is commonly referred to by the alias Yang Erlang.
But those who truly know the details about Yang Ge know that his real name is Yang Ge.
They also know his most cherished and true identity is actually being the Shopkeeper of Yuelai Inn.
Emperor Xiping was obviously one of those who knew the details about Yang Ge.
But in such a situation of openly breaking off relations, he referred to him as Yang Erlang every time... not once did he mention Yang Ge!
A slip of the tongue could happen once, a mistake might occur twice, but if it happens every time, it surely cannot be a coincidence.
"This..."
Having grasped the implication Shen Fa was trying to convey, Wei Heng still frowned, "The difference isn’t great, is it?"
The only difference he could think of was just Yuelai Inn.
He thought this was normal for a youthful prodigy close to reaching the Grandmaster Realm; before killing him, who would dare push him into a corner?
By leaving no leeway for others, you force them to leave no leeway for you either.
Shen Fa said, "The difference is significant, Yang Ge is Yang Ge, Yang Erlang is Yang Erlang. The royal arrest warrant is for Yang Erlang, not for capturing Yang Ge... Think again carefully about the royal family’s oral command."
Wei Heng furrowed his brows and silently recited the royal family’s oral command from the beginning...
Shen Fa said, "Didn’t you feel that something was missing?"
Confused, Wei Heng shook his head.
In a low voice, Shen Fa said, "If the royal family truly didn’t leave any leeway, why would they forget to mention your Imperial Horse Supervisor?"
Wei Heng was stunned for a second, then suddenly saw the light.
This might be a case of not seeing the forest for the trees. Since he himself came from the Imperial Horse Supervisor and knew it too well, he instinctively overlooked it.
The so-called Imperial Horse Supervisor was nominally just an inner palace department for raising horses for the imperial family, but in fact, it was the highest defense force of the Ziwei Palace that controlled the palace’s secret guards. The didact statesmen from the past dynasties, even those from Emperor Taizu’s time who had withdrawn from the power struggle in the inner court, all the old ancestors of Wei’s eunuchs, concealed themselves in the Imperial Horse Supervisor to live out their years, among them were Grandmasters of peerless prowess...
Perhaps it was because the eunuchs, being castrated, lacked worldly desires, which made it easier for them to lead a life devoted to cultivating health.
Or perhaps it was because many eunuchs were castrated as boys, and practicing the Virgin Boy Skill made it easier for them to achieve mastery.
After all, the eunuchs who succeeded in martial arts usually lived much longer than ordinary people. To the outside world, those who were seventy or eighty years old and entered the Imperial Horse Supervisor could only be considered mere grandchildren, having to sit at the child’s table during meals...
And those old ancestors within the Imperial Horse Supervisor were Wei’s ultimate martial force and the strongest combat power to deter foreign enemies!
If it weren’t for them stationed at Ziwei Palace, this forbidden imperial ground would have become the back garden for successive generations of Jianghu Grandmasters, coming and going as they wished.
If the imperial family truly wanted to kill Yang Ge, that bastard, to make an example out of him, by disregarding all consequences, it’s unthinkable to forget the Imperial Horse Supervisor, even if they forgot the three Interior Courts or the three Exterior Courts!
"If the Imperial Horse Supervisor doesn’t come out, with just our few scraps, it’s clearly very difficult to take down that toad,"
Shen Fa spoke softly, "So we don’t even need to think about how to slack off; just perform normally, and once three months are up, we’ll head straight back to the capital!"
"The union of the three Interior Courts with the three Exterior Courts, plus the arrest warrants with a reward of one hundred thousand taels of silver..."
"Even if we still can’t take down that toad, it is not because the court’s resolve isn’t large enough or its power isn’t strong enough."
"It’s because that toad is stronger!"
At this point, he lowered his voice again and said in a volume only the two of them could hear, "A combatant whose strength is nearly reaching the Grandmaster, even if slaughtering a Vassal King who has committed numerous evils and disregarded human lives... What of it?"
"The White Lotus Sect and Ming Sect have been rebellious for hundreds of years, and no dynasty or generation has really managed to do much about them..."
He had heard earlier from Fang Ke about Yang Ge’s intentions to take action against King Ning, and naturally, his considerations were more comprehensive and thorough than Wei Heng’s.
Wei Heng stared blankly at the face in front of him and, impressed, gave him a thumbs up: "No wonder you and that bastard can piss in the same pot!"
Shen Fa glanced at him, always feeling that this damn eunuch was cursing him in a roundabout way... That brute who only knew how to swing a knife and chop people, dared to compare himself with him, the ’Jade-faced Fox’?
But at that moment, he had no mood to argue with Wei Heng and continued, "The priority now is still to first protect Luting Yuelai Inn... that old shopkeeper, he is the last string tied to that toad. If anything happens to him, from now on, we all have to dig a hole and bury ourselves deep, showing ourselves means death!"
After a pause, he hesitantly added, "And from what I know about that toad, if he dares to strike so fiercely this time, his martial arts must have made great progress... don’t push him, don’t ever push him. I suspect that if we push him further, he might truly become a Grandmaster!"
Wei Heng’s eyes were almost popping out in shock at his words, his voice breaking as he exclaimed, "A Grandmaster can be forced out?"
Others might not know how difficult it is to reach the summit of the Grandmaster Realm, towering high as if piercing the clouds, but him, who had climbed halfway up the mountain with a boy’s body in forty years, how could he not know?
"Great genius, you don’t understand!"
Shen Fa shook his head like a rattle-drum, "Can you imagine, just two years ago, that guy was just an inn boy with some brute strength, almost driven into a corner by a practitioner of the Vigorous Dart Skill?"
Back then, he could crush ten Yang Ges with one hand!
And now, Yang Ge could crush ten of him with one hand!
That’s just in the span of two mere years...
This kind of unprecedented genius, one that defies all normal reasoning, normally people wouldn’t really push him to his limits.
As the old saying goes: fear not the likely, but the unlikely.
What if? What if pushing him creates a legendary ruthless character, capable of annihilating families and slaughtering cities?
"Dammit..."
After hearing Shen Fa’s words, Wei Heng suddenly remembered that a year and a half ago he had fought Yang Erlang and Yang Tiansheng, barely managing to escape them with his tail between his legs, crawling and rolling. Yet less than half a year later, he couldn’t bear to face the slaughter-ready gaze in Yang Ge’s eyes ever again: "I’ve lived as long as a dog!"
Shen Fa looked straight ahead, his upturned lips harder to suppress than an AK.
Wei Heng glanced at him and scornfully said, "At least I have lived as long as a dog, you? Even dogs can’t afford to lose that kind of face. How about you beg me, and I’ll teach you the skill of the Golden Bell Guard, so next time that bastard comes to the capital to beat you up, you can take a few more punches, right? As the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, being beaten until your face is swollen every few days, in the end, it’s the imperial family who loses face."
Shen Fa immediately widened his eyes and grabbed his wrist, shouting loudly, "Wow, so the Golden Bell Guard of that toad was taught by you, ya old bastard?"
Wei Heng: ’Oh no, I’ve let it slip!’