Chapter Thirteen: The Mysterious Prince Su Estate, a Nightmare Descends Upon the Family
An army composed of three hundred thousand martial practitioners.
This is an alarmingly formidable and almost defiant figure.
Anyone who merely thinks of it cannot help but shudder, and the two men in the room were no exception.
“I once doubted,”
“I wondered if doing this would provoke a backlash from Prince Su, if it would shake the very foundations of our Great Ming.”
The middle-aged man rose and walked to the window, gazing out at the endless line of civilians enlisting as soldiers, eyes fixed on the majestic Tiance Mansion. His voice was low and steady: “But now, I am immensely relieved.”
The other man understood his meaning and nodded slightly. “Indeed. If Prince Su had been given a few more years, considering the speed at which his mansion has developed, it wouldn’t just be the ambitions of the Marquis; even the two great predatory states of Mengliao, who regard Prince Su as a tiger or wolf, a thorn in their side, would have to sleep with one eye open.”
A border prince commanding a million troops was already terrifying.
What was even more terrifying was that this border prince’s army was gradually transforming into an entirely martial practitioner force.
What did that mean?
Even if the million-strong army in Shaanxi consisted solely of mid-level martial men, they could wield power comparable to two million heavy-armored shield bearers or heavy cavalry.
At that point, it wouldn’t matter what secret plans they hatched. Even if the Great Ming conscripted a million soldiers and drew troops from the other nine border regions to fight a death match with Zhu Jinzhen, the final outcome would remain unchanged.
“Duke Zhou feared daily rumors, while Wang Mang feigned humility before usurpation.”
Zhu, ignoring the folded hands behind his back, stared at the Tiance Mansion, his eyes revealing unhidden ambition and murderous intent: “The turmoil Emperor Taizong unleashed to seize power will never happen again in Great Ming.”
“Great Ming will be mine alone.”
Wearing resplendent attire, Wan Sanqian listened but looked somewhat worried.
Then, as if recalling something, he asked curiously, “The Marquis’s Hulong Villa and the World’s Greatest Manor possess the largest intelligence networks in Great Ming. Have they found no source for Prince Su’s massive cultivation of martial forces over the years?”
“None.”
Zhu shook his head coldly, a flash of disappointment and dissatisfaction in his eyes. “Not only I, but even the three dogs under my imperial nephew and the Six Doors have found no clues.”
Wan Sanqian was even more astonished.
Hulong Villa and the World’s Greatest Manor, backed by his financial resources, had indeed expanded their intelligence network at a terrifying pace, but the Embroidered Uniform Guard, Eastern Depot, and Western Depot were the emperor’s direct intelligence agencies and not idle.
Yet they found nothing?
Zhu seemed to notice Wan Sanqian’s surprise. “The only clue is that it very likely originates from Prince Su himself.”
“That…”
Wan Sanqian was instantly speechless.
He understood Zhu’s meaning: to uncover the truth, they had to infiltrate Prince Su’s mansion.
But although the mansion was in Lanzhou, its security was far more stringent than the palace’s—by thousands of times. Beneath its seemingly calm surface lurked an endless abyss, one that even a great master of divination could not stir.
***
With the rise of Zhu Jinzhen and Prince Su’s mansion, did fewer people dare scheme against it?
What was the result?
Divination masters who entered the mansion were found the next day at the city outskirts of Lanzhou, among the mass graves.
The same fate befell even great masters of divination.
Ordinary means were utterly useless because the mansion never recruited servants, attendants, or maids from outside—it was like an iron hedgehog, leaving rival factions nowhere to strike.
***
At a certain tavern,
A graceful young man, folding his fan with a flourish, could not help but exclaim, “That Prince Su is not just skilled at leading troops. Those poor civilians who would not willingly march to war unless forcibly conscripted seem to have reversed that at Jiayuguan.”
People were afraid to die, without exception.
Yet the young man could not understand why the people of Shaanxi appeared fearless.
“If the princess wishes to know, I might be able to explain.”
A voice that should not have been there sounded outside the youth’s door.
“Who?”
The few attendants inside the room turned pale.
All of them were renowned experts in the martial world, even two masters at the Divination realm. Yet before the voice spoke, they had failed to detect a single hint.
Could it be...
Bang!
The door shattered into countless fragments.
A woman clad in silver armor, wielding a strange saber, appeared before them.
The wood splinters flew like the deadliest hidden weapons in the world, causing the would-be rebellious servants inside the room to change color in fear.
“Not good!”
The wood fragments rained down like a torrential storm, reminiscent of the Tang Sect’s deadly Pear Blossom Needles, precisely targeting everyone in the room except the young nobleman.
“Damn it! Watch my mighty Vajra Palm!”
Two men, A’er and A’san, joined forces, unleashing golden palm energies to shatter the wood splinters.
Beside them, a sharp sword light ignited, dancing like a swimming dragon. The sword’s aura formed a shimmering barrier, as if to slice the flurry of wood fragments to pieces.
Crack! Crack! Snap! Snap!
The first to be struck, A’er and A’san’s proud Vajra Palm forces were pierced through.
***
A-da’s sword was swift but useless.
The seemingly endless wood fragments, infused with the might of heaven and earth, could not be shattered by his mere sword aura. The fragments poured down like countless falling stars.
Even as A-da fought with all his might, blood soon stained his body.
A-da opened his mouth and looked at the approaching female general, eyes wide with terror: “Hea... Heaven Pattern... you, you...”
But he could say no more.
Countless wood fragments pierced his body, including his throat.
With a clink, the traitor swordsman of the Beggars’ Sect dropped his sword and collapsed into a pool of blood.
The intruder strode over his corpse without even a glance. Her orders were clear: bring the princess before her and kill everyone else without mercy.
A-da, A’er, and A’san—all met the same fate.
Even the monk who had tried to hide his strength and ultimately unleashed all his skills, only to be pierced through like countless fallen petals.
The female general approached the young nobleman. “I am Yan Yimei, ordered to escort Princess Shao Min as a guest.”
“Yan Yimei?”
Minmin Temur, known as Princess Zhao Min, pupils dilated in shock: “The one who, on the battlefield years ago, killed seven of my Yuan’s fierce generals, and four Divination masters, and relentlessly pursued the Goddess of Assassins who protected my father?”
She was no stranger to intelligence on the Tiance Mansion and the Cangyun Army.
Among those who caught her attention were several heroines under Prince Su Zhu Jinzhen’s command, besides Cangyun’s commander Changsun Wuqing and the Tiance Mansion’s General Cao Xueyang.
Yan Yimei, the female general of Cangyun, had been studied by Zhao Min countless times over the years.
More importantly, four years ago, in the life-and-death battle that decided Great Ming’s fate, Zhao Min’s father, Prince Ruyang, and her brother Wang Baobao, had directly faced the pursuit of the female guard commander Yan Yimei.
Where her strange saber passed, men and horses shattered.
Even top Divination masters could only be felled by a single slash.
If it weren’t for the many martial experts of the Mongol Yuan and the good fortune of Prince Ruyang and Wang Baobao, they would have lost their heads to Yan Yimei back then—and thus Zhao Min often heard their murmurs.
And their fearful cries in the dead of night.
Zhao Min never imagined that the nightmare haunting her father and brother would now come knocking at her door.
Yan Yimei, clearly aware of Zhao Min’s knowledge, lifted her chin and sneered: “If that one with the wheel hadn’t blocked three of my strikes back then, your father and brother would have surely died.”