Knock, knock, knock!
Just then, the door was lightly tapped from the outside.
Xia Mingqing’s brow furrowed slightly, then he raised his left hand and gave a gentle flick toward the door.
The door opened at the sound, as if an invisible hand in the void had pulled it open.
Immediately after, a light, graceful figure swiftly came to Xia Mingqing’s side, lowered her head close to his ear, and spoke.
“Your Highness, urgent news!”
“The Luo family has met with disaster. Lord Luo Jin is dead!”
Upon hearing this, Xia Mingqing’s composed and confident expression turned ashen, his face dark as a burnt pot bottom.
“What did you say!”
“This Prince’s teacher is dead!”
“How can this be!”
Xia Mingqing abruptly raised his head to look at the messenger and immediately stood up.
“This Prince’s teacher possessed the protective prohibition left by the Surveillance Department.”
“Aside from a martial artist at the Grandmaster level of Perfected External Gang, it’s fundamentally impossible for anyone else to have harmed him.”
Xia Mingqing forcibly suppressed the rage in his heart, staring fixedly at the messenger before him.
If this messenger weren’t his most trusted maidservant, Chen Luomeng, he would have thought someone had the audacity to mock him.
Lü Haodong, watching from the side, was extremely shocked to see Xia Mingqing react so strongly.
But upon hearing that Luo Jin was dead, he set aside his shock and also rose to his feet.
“Luo Jin is dead?”
“This…”
Luo Jin, the Surveillance Commissioner of Anzhou, had been murdered. This matter was about to reach the heavens themselves!
Just which reckless old monster was responsible for this?
Xia Mingqing had now accepted the reality of Luo Jin’s death, but his face still showed confusion and disbelief.
“In all of Anzhou, besides this Prince and that old bastard Tao Zhenbang, who else could harm my teacher?”
“Unless…”
Xia Mingqing murmured quietly.
Suddenly, he thought of another possibility.
“Unless… someone used the power of a Sacrificial Artifact!”
“Yes, that must be it. They definitely used the power of a Sacrificial Artifact.”
“Otherwise, any martial artist below the Grandmaster level of Perfected External Gang absolutely could not have harmed my teacher.”
The prohibition left by one Sacrificial Artifact could be broken by using another Sacrificial Artifact.
A martial artist who has just entered the Outer Strength Grandmaster realm can unleash power approaching that of a Grandmaster at the Great Perfection level when using the power of a sacrificial artifact.
Why was Xia Mingqing so certain of this deduction?
Because, in the entire Anzhou region, there are only two people who have reached the Great Perfection level of the Outer Strength Grandmaster realm.
One is himself, a Grandmaster at the peak of the Outer Strength realm, just one step away from the Divine Palace realm.
The other is Tao Zhenbang, a Grand Perfection level Outer Strength Grandmaster.
He was the Provincial Governor of Anzhou and the Vice Minister of the Heavenly Soldiers Department—a high-ranking frontier official governing an entire province!
The Heavenly Soldiers Department was the authority governing all military forces of the Great Xia Empire.
Every Provincial Governor concurrently held the position of Vice Minister of the Heavenly Soldiers Department, precisely to be able to mobilize the troops within their respective provinces.
As it happened, Tao Zhenbang, the Provincial Governor of Anzhou, ranked among the top five in strength among the thirty-six Provincial Governors.
Provincial Governors below Tao Zhenbang were generally at the Outer Strength Grandmaster realm, or martial artists who had just entered the External Gang Grandmaster realm.
“Luomeng, immediately instruct Lin Yu to lead all the Green Armor Guards. This Prince wants to know who did this within three days!”
“At any cost!”
“That Martial Grandmaster who used the power of the Sacrificial Artifact must have consumed a vast amount of True Gang energy. He couldn’t have gotten far!”
“Also, have Lin Yu bring the Windfire Blade!”
Upon hearing her Prince’s decision, Chen Luomeng’s eyes were filled with shock.
Lin Yu was the Deputy Chief of the Green Armor Guards, a terrifying existence whose personal strength ranked in the top three within the Prince of An’s mansion.
He was a martial artist at the Outer Strength Grandmaster realm.
Of course, what shocked Chen Luomeng the most was this:
That Windfire Blade was a legendary Sacrificial Artifact, a Chen-grade, two-inscription Sacrificial Artifact.
However, Chen Luomeng did not immediately leave. Instead, with exceptional composure, she spoke.
“Your Highness, Luomeng has another discovery.”
“Luomeng suspects that Lord Luo’s death may very well be connected to this discovery.”
The moment Chen Luomeng said this, it drew the attention of both Xia Mingqing and Lü Haodong.
“Speak!”
Receiving Xia Mingqing’s affirmation, Chen Luomeng then calmly laid out her deductions.
“Your Highness, do you still remember this morning, the mysterious man outside the city riding a Divine Wind Steed?”
“Luomeng just received word from the Green Armor Guards. The few men who were track him ended up unconscious in the street.”
“By the time they woke up, they discovered that man had already left the prefectural city!”
“Based on what these men said, Luomeng suspects that mysterious man used the True Gang energy of an External Gang Grandmaster to knock them unconscious.”
Before Xia Mingqing could speak, Lü Haodong interjected with confusion.
“Divine Wind Steed?”
“This old man recalls that none of the Divine Wind Steeds within the prefectural city’s Mysterious Bird Guards have been deployed in the past few days.”
Lü Haodong’s words caused Xia Mingqing to sink into thought.
If no one in the prefectural city had deployed a Divine Wind Steed, then it could only have come from the Mysterious Bird Guards of another prefectural city.
This conclusion suddenly made Xia Mingqing think of one person.
It was the man his teacher, Luo Jin, had mentioned yesterday—Lu Xuan, the newly appointed Mysterious Envoy of Baidao Prefecture!
The entire Anzhou knew that the man who shared a mortal, life-and-death enmity with his teacher was precisely this Lu Xuan.
“It’s this Lu Xuan!”
“A few days ago, this Prince ordered you to investigate this Lu Xuan’s information. Have you found anything?”
Xia Mingqing’s gaze fell upon Lü Haodong. A large part of the reason he had summoned him today was precisely for this Lu Xuan.
“In response to Your Highness, according to reports from the Mysterious Bird Guard I planted within Baidao Prefecture,”
“this Lu Xuan appeared among the Mysterious Bird Guards only a month ago. Apart from that old fellow Li Chengfeng, no one at all knows his background.”
“However, this old man happens to have a painting with me—a portrait of this Lu Xuan.”
As Lü Haodong spoke, he retrieved a scroll of white paper, rolled into a cylinder, from his grey sleeve.
“Oh!”
Seeing this, Xia Mingqing focused his eyes. Several streaks of pitch-black True Gang energy emerged around him, darting toward the white paper.
Under the influence of those several streaks of True Gang energy, the white paper gently unfurled in mid-air, floating up and down.
On the white paper was painted a young, handsome man. His hair, like dark clouds, was neatly bound behind his back.
Seeing the man painted on the white paper, even Xia Mingqing was somewhat taken aback.
So young!
This Lu Xuan appeared to be only around twenty years old.
“Luomeng, have those men verify whether the person who entered the city today is him!”
“Yes, Your Highness!”
Just as Chen Luomeng was about to walk out, Xia Mingqing spoke again, his voice cool.
“If it is this Lu Xuan, you and Lin Yu are to personally go to Baidao Prefecture and tell him that this Prince wishes to see him.”
“Of course… if he refuses to come… this Prince does not wish to hear news of him still being alive anywhere in Anzhou.”
At the end, Xia Mingqing added a profoundly meaningful statement that made Chen Luomeng’s heart tremble.
“Luomeng… regarding this Lu Xuan, you are to satisfy… any and all demands he makes.”
Chen Luomeng understood this implication all too well.
Satisfying all of Lu Xuan’s demands naturally included herself.
Lu Xuan had originally been on Xia Mingqing’s kill list.
However, upon seeing how young Lu Xuan was, Xia Mingqing had abandoned his murderous intent.
If this Lu Xuan in the painting was not disguised or altered in appearance,
then he was very likely the most monstrously gifted martial artist in terms of natural talent that Xia Mingqing had ever encountered.
