570 Glamour (1/2)
Fu Yuan had just been about to serve King Dari when the assassin broke in and killed him. Those five children and maidens whom he had used to practice kung fu, easily broke free and tore one of their master's leg and arm each into pieces. In their state of incomprehensible insanity, they might even have eaten part of them.
This was all Gu Shenwei had heard of the whole process. The assassination had taken place a quarter of an hour before Shangguan Yun and Zhang Ji went to the feast, and the two reported the news with incredible speed. The Dragon King and his counselor, however, were unable to keep up with the latest news because they were preoccupied by their preparation for the guests.
Fang Wenshi felt ashamed because he had failed to defeat the school teacher in front of the Dragon King. And the intelligence system he had built himself also did not work in time.
The feast ended hastily, and Fang Wenshi left the camp that very night. After wandering around aimlessly, he found that the situation was much more serious than he had previously thought. But he could only get a general idea of the assassination process from street gossip, and those officials who had taken gold and silver from him had suddenly became honest and reserved. Not only did they refuse to accept any more bribes, but several of them also did not even show up.
”It must have been King Kuari who interfered,” Fang Wenshi said indignantly, the last bit of favorable impression he had of King Kuari gone. ”We are isolated.”
”We've always been isolated.” Gu Shenwei did not feel any pain from the betrayal. In his eyes, the reactions of the Norland officials were rather normal because the assassination of King Dari's favorite minion was like a declaration of war. Who would want to take a stand carelessly at such a time and possibly incur a fatal disaster? What confused him was why Fu Yuan had been abandoned so quickly when he was still useful to King Kuari in helping him set up a seemingly powerful opponent.
The death of Fu Yuan also caused a series of side effects. There was no need for the officials to report this because the rumors were already everywhere. Long Fanyun had just gone out one time but with just that he brought back more news than the counselor, most of which had questionable authenticity.
It was said that the death of King Dari's favorite minion had scared him out of his wits. At first, he intended to lead his army to attack King Kuari and avenge his attendant, but then he wanted to run to the palace to complain to the Khan. At last, motivated by his fear of King Kuari, he actually escaped from the Royal Court. Some said that he was going to a tribe that was loyal to him, while others said that he wanted to mobilize the army to come back to fight with his opponent.
At first, Fang Wenshi was still able to leave the camp and ask around for information, but soon the streets became unsafe. Brigades of cavalry rampaged about, and no one could tell which king they belonged to. The residents of the Royal Court hid in their tents and put away all their necessities. People were all well dressed, ready to move. The horses were already tied up in the doorway so that they could flee at any time.
That night, the whole Royal Court was in turmoil. The internal war had seemed to break out in advance, even though the Khan was still alive. It was not until noon the next day that everyone finally realized that they had all overreacted, especially King Dari.
King Dari thought that it was his nephew who was going to attack him. But actually, in less than two hours after the assassination of Fu Yuan, an assassin also appeared in King Kuari's palace, his target precisely the king. This time, however, the assassination failed, and the assassin was captured alive.
King Kuari's reaction was calm and steady. Instead of making a fuss, he immediately took the assassin into custody and asked the officials of the Khan to interrogate him personally. And it was this man's confession that convinced the Khan that the whole riot was a huge misunderstanding.
After receiving the assurance of the Khan, the runaway King Dari quickly returned to the Royal Court. He then sent his trusted men to participate in interrogating the assassin until he finally admitted that the assassination was not a conspiracy planned by his nephew.
The assassin was Shangguan Shaomin's lover.
Lots of people couldn't accept the statement when it first came out and thought it was just a cover to conceal the truth. But more and more people began to believe it as the details came out. As a result, a great turmoil which had nearly divided the Norland was now a murderous crime of passion.
The assassin was a killer disciple who had given up halfway. He was recommended to the East Castle by the big young master Shangguan Chui. After Shangguan Chui's death, he voluntarily quit and returned to his lord's house as a servant. It was in this process that he fell in love with the miss and decided to marry her for the rest of his life.
His servant name at the castle was Servant Ke. In order to marry the miss publicly, he gathered a large sum of money, bought his own freedom two years ago and then started wandering outside. He also went back to his original name, Feng Qin.
Not many people knew what Feng Qin had been doing exactly in the past two years, but it was more or less raiding and pillaging. Either way, he had amassed a great fortune and planned to wash his identity clean outside Jade City before returning to the castle to seek a marriage alliance from his former lord.
Their idea was very simple. Since Shangguan Chui had already died, the young lady was like a superfluous person to the Shangguan family. As long as they had enough money, their marriage shouldn't have been a big problem.
But when Feng Qin hurried back to Jade City, the news he received was like a thunderbolt from the blue. Even so, he didn't give up and instead ran all the way to the Royal Court.
Two years of making a living by wandering from place to place had washed away his killer's mindset developed from the brutal training in East Castle, but his killing techniques had remained. The boy had grown into a ruthless robber. He could have snuck the young lady out, but he couldn't bear that his woman had been insulted, even if the insult was only verbal.
Fu Yuan paid the price for his excessive performance. He shouted a lot of obscenities at the gate of Golden Roc Castle camp, each of which was enough to irritate Feng Qin into hacking him to pieces.
Feng Qin, who already easily indulged in killing, then rushed to King Kuari's palace during the chaos and planned to kill the man who was coveting the young lady. But the protection of the King was not the same as that of a servant, and he was captured alive by a large group of bodyguards.
Golden Roc Castle was suddenly thrust into the eye of the storm. Shangguan Yun and Zhang Ji, along with the many killers they had brought along, were all called in for questioning to corroborate Feng Qin's confession.
Golden Roc Castle, however, shed all suspicion in less than a single day. Although the culprit was still among the people of the castle, Feng Qin had been under the jurisdiction of the castle since a long time ago.
The best evidence was from those several wandering bandits who had come to the Royal Court. They all claimed to know Feng Qin, and described him as, ”He is ruthless and only cares about money. I never would have thought that he would touch a woman. So it's still because of women.”
These people were arrested quickly and then interrogated by several of the kings' men at the same time. Finally, they were able to draw a convincing conclusion that Feng Qin had severed his connection to Golden Roc Castle as early as two years ago.