145 Know Yourself and Know Your Enemy, and You’ll Never Be Defeated
When Zhang Yueheng heard this, he couldn’t stay calm anymore. He hurriedly went forward and said, “Wait! Lord Shen, since this person is an assassin, how can you bring him to His Majesty? Why don’t you let me take care of him first?”
Hearing this, Li Tianyi reacted and said, “Lord Zhang, you’re right. This assassin is not allowed to be brought in to see His Majesty. Someone! Take this assasin away and lock him up. I’ll interrogate him later!”
As soon as he finished speaking, a few guards came forward.
“There’s no need to trouble the guards!”
Zhang Yueheng hurriedly went forward. “This assassin intercepted the felon, Lin Ran, halfway. He must have been sent by the person who stole the Sacred Abyss Sword to silence Lin Ran! Let me interrogate him immediately!”
!!
As he spoke, Zhang Yueheng took a few steps forward, wanting to take the assassin from Shen Rulin. However, he did not expect Shen Rulin to take a step back and reject him again.
“Shen Rulin!”
Zhang Yueheng glared at him and scolded angrily, “I didn’t stop you when you insisted on handing the urgent report to His Majesty. However, interrogating the assassin is also my duty. Why are you trying to stop me? Could it be that you have something to do with this assassin?”
Although Zhang Yueheng was not a martial artist, he was a first-rank official in the imperial court after all. When he was angry, it was equally terrifying!
Unfortunately, the person he was dealing with was Shen Rulin, someone as stubborn as a mule.
“Lord Zhang, don’t slander me, okay?”
Shen Rulin smiled faintly. Facing Zhang Yueheng’s anger, he was still neither servile nor overbearing. “I never said that this assassin wanted to kill Lord Lin specifically…”
Zhang Yueheng’s expression froze. Shen Rulin narrowed his eyes and asked coldly, “Then dare I ask Lord Zhang, how did you know?”
“This… I… he…”
Even though Zhang Yueheng was an experienced official, he could not help but panic at this moment. After hesitating for a long time, he did not say anything. The only change was that the cold sweat on his face increased.
Seeing this, Shen Rulin was even angrier. Not only because of Zhang Yueheng’s dirty trick, but also because these assassins actually wanted to kill him too!
At this moment, Lin Ran suddenly shouted at the door of the imperial study, “Lord Shen, why are you wasting your breath on him? If you have something to say, come in and tell His Majesty. His Majesty will give you justice!”
When Shen Rulin heard this, he knew that Lin Ran couldn’t wait anymore, so he didn’t say anything else. He glared at Zhang Yueheng one last time before walking towards the imperial study with the unconscious assassin.
However, for the sake of palace rules, before entering, Shen Rulin handed the assassin to the guard and instructed him not to take him away before entering the imperial study with Lin Ran.
In the imperial study, the empress had been listening to the conversation outside.
Seeing Lin Ran enter, she subconsciously wanted to stand up to welcome him, but when she saw Shen Rulin following behind, she sat back down patiently. Before the two of them could bow, she raised her hand and said, “It’s an urgent matter. There’s no need for formality. Let’s get down to business.”
“Thank you, Your Majesty!”
After the two of them cupped their hands in gratitude, Lin Ran paused for a moment and repeated what he had told Shen Rulin in Mount Sword.
Roughly, it went like this. He went to Mount Sword to visit his old friend and coincidentally, someone stole the Sacred Abyss Sword. He tried his best to stop the thief but to no avail.
The empress knew that Lin Ran was talking nonsense. As soon as he finished speaking, the empress looked at Shen Rulin. “Lord Shen, how’s the investigation going?”
Seeing that the empress was asking him directly, Shen Rulin hurriedly knelt down and cupped his hands. “Your Majesty, according to the latest report from Mount Sword, the situation is basically as Lord Lin said. Currently, the Medal Guards and the Water Guards are intensifying their investigation. I believe there will be results soon.”
“I understand. You can leave first.”
The empress waved her hand absent-mindedly. After saying that, she added, “I have some questions that I want to interrogate Lord Lin alone!”
Shen Rulin turned to look at Lin Ran. Although he found it strange that the empress felt safe to be with Lin Ran alone, he still cupped his hands and nodded. Then, he stood up and left the imperial study.
Almost at the same time, the empress stood up and walked around the desk. She came to Lin Ran and asked softly, “How did this happen? Why were you arrested? Where’s Huo Qiyun? What’s going on?”
“Don’t be anxious. It’s a long story.”
Lin Ran held the empress’s hand to comfort her and roughly explained the situation in Mount Sword.
However, this matter involved too many things. Even if Lin Ran tried his best to keep it simple, it still took him fifteen minutes.
After the empress heard this, she frowned. “In that case, Xiao Huai can be trusted. Are they pretending to betray us and join hands with Liu Hongshan?”
As soon as Lin Ran nodded, the empress immediately lost her composure.
“Lin Ran! How can you do this?!”
The empress punched Lin Ran hard in the chest. She tried her best to suppress her tears. “Qiyun and Xiao Huai are still children. How can you let them do such a dangerous thing?!”
“Children?”
Lin Ran rubbed his chest helplessly. “Come one, any one of them is older than me, okay? Besides, this was their idea. That kid didn’t tell me a word. I’m also a victim!”
The empress said unreasonably, “I don’t care! In short, think of a way to find them as soon as possible. Liu Hongshan is an extremely dangerous person. Something will definitely happen to them!”
At the mention of Liu Hongshan, Lin Ran’s expression turned serious. “Actually, it’s not difficult to find their location, but I can’t look for them now.”
The empress was stunned. “What do you mean?”
“I left a wisp of sword intent on Xiao Huai’s wrist. I can find them anytime.”
Lin Ran said casually, but his expression was not relaxed at all. “But if I go to find them, there’s a high chance that I’ll have to fight Liu Hongshan. However, I only know that his cultivation level is about the same as mine. If I go rashly, I might even die!”
Hearing this, the empress’s expression became solemn. It was true that she was worried about Huo Qiyun, but she also didn’t want anything to happen to Lin Ran.
“As the old saying goes, know yourself and know your enemy, and you’ll never be defeated. It’s indeed quite risky to go if you don’t know your enemy well…”
The empress muttered thoughtfully. After a moment, her eyes suddenly lit up. “How about this? I’ll immediately get people to gather information about Liu Hongshan… I just hope that Qiyun and Xiao Huai can buy more time.”
Lin Ran shook his head helplessly. “Don’t waste your time. Liu Hongshan has been missing for decades. Even if there are records of him in the palace, he must have destroyed them long ago.”
“Did I say I’m going to check the palace records?”
The empress chuckled and looked out of the door with her almond-shaped eyes. “I have an intelligence network personally established by the late emperor back then. There’s nothing in the world that they can’t find!”
Foll𝑜w current novels on fre(e)w𝒆bnovel