"Didn't you hear on the way here? His Majesty the Emperor gave Xingzhou to King Xuan!" Gan Zixu's tone could no longer contain the anxiety.

"What? I've never heard of it." The young man's expression changed drastically. But he quickly calmed down and said, "I should have set out earlier, the imperial edict came later. It was just delivered through the inn, and we arrived in Xingzhou faster than me.

You don’t have to worry, since the imperial edict has been issued, the master must have known about it. A message will be sent soon..."

Qian Zixu interrupted fiercely: "You can't send a message!"

The young man frowned: "What do you mean?"

"Anyway, you can't send a message, and I can't send a message." Qian Zixu became even more anxious, "King Xuan may be staring at us, no, maybe he is already staring at us."

The young man felt horrified and instinctively looked back at the way he came.

Then he frowned in confusion: "It's only been a few days since they arrived in Xingzhou. How come you offended King Xuan so quickly?"

"Where is the offence? I think King Xuan has clearly found traces in the mountains..." Qian Zixu frowned and asked quickly: "Princess Xuan, is the sister that the master once mentioned?"

"Oh, that's not it." The young man didn't know how to explain the difference between Xue Qingyin and Xue Qinghe, so he just said vaguely, "Before the new order comes, you can just coax Princess Xuan."

"Keep coaxing, keep coaxing, if you keep coaxing like this, you may really have to pay for everything..." Qian Zixu gritted his teeth.

Xue Qingyin sat in the room and sneezed heavily, wrinkled her nose and said, "Who must be scolding me behind my back again."

King Xuan took the handkerchief from the palace attendant expressionlessly, covered the tip of her nose, and rubbed her twice.

Xue Qingyin sniffed gently and felt much better.

"Maybe someone is thinking of you." King Xuan said.

"Oh, it's possible. Grandma must be thinking of me," Xue Qingyin answered.

King Xuan did not correct her.

He just said: "It's cold in the mountains, so there's no need for Yin Yin to follow me into the forest tonight."

Xue Qingyin clicked her tongue and said, "Are you going to torture Qian Zixu openly? I'm afraid he won't be able to sleep well anymore."

Now it was Qian Zixu's turn to sneeze.

It's night.

King Xuan was standing in the forest wearing a green robe. He looked a bit like a scholar. But when the cold moonlight fell on him along the ferocious branches, he gave off a murderous aura.

Then the footsteps slowly came closer.

Fang Chengzhong stood still in front of him and whispered: "Your Highness, the secret passage has been found, let's... take it immediately?"

King Xuan lowered his eyes and straightened his sleeves: "Well, take it."

Fang Chengzhong nodded, turned around, took out the knife from his waist, and then pushed aside the bushes and strode forward.

Qian Zixu built the mountain for his residence and connected it to two other mountains. The secret passage was located in the heart of one of the mountains.

There is a cave in the heart of this mountain.

Several short and muscular men were carrying basket after basket of things covered with black cloth and shuttled through the mountain.

From time to time, you can hear the sound of "ding-dong-dang" hitting the mountain.

"The master has not come to inspect for several days." Someone said in a lowered voice.

A middle-aged man raised his eyelids and said: "Prince Xuan is here recently, and I have to accompany you. Just be careful. What kind of crime is it to mine privately? I don't need to tell you anymore, right?"

"Master Qiu, we can save it! We can save it!"

The middle-aged man known as "Master Qiu" hesitated for a moment and said: "I won't use that hole these days. Let's stay in the mountains for a while."

"Then what are we going to do about food and accommodation? There are so many people..."

"It's not the first time to live and eat in the mountains." Mr. Qiu said with a straight face.

"Then you have to do something first."

"What's the matter?" Master Qiu asked.

"Although our entrance is secretive, it can't be hidden from human eyes, but not from wolf eyes. I don't know if a female wolf escaped from other places, ran into the cave, gave birth to a litter of wolf cubs, and blocked the door.

In the past two days, some prey has been dragged in, making the entrance smell fishy... which inevitably attracts people's attention."

Master Qiu was impatient to listen to the wolf story and asked, "What do you want?"

"Kill him, it just so happens that we have some meat in the mountains. I don't know how long this stay will last..." The man couldn't help but lick his lower lip as he spoke.

"That's right!" Master Qiu said.

The poorer the place, the more ruthless people appear.

These people who work hard for Qian Zixu are all tough guys.

Many of the things in the mountains were hunted and eaten by them.

They have a large number of people and powerful tools in their hands. The big insects sometimes have to walk around, let alone a lone female wolf with several cubs?

After they had eaten the food they had brought in from outside and stopped what they were doing, and when they had no way to vent their energy, they all carried hoes, chisels, and hammers and walked toward the entrance.

"How long has it been since you guys have been home?"

"Forgot, half a month?"

"That's still a small amount. I haven't been back for almost half a fucking year, and I don't know if my mother-in-law has cuckolded me."

"You're so depressed, aren't you? Female wolves are females too, hehe."

"You kid, you are so fucking useless..."

"Why, haven't any of you read this book of folk tales? I don't believe it."

They spoke nonsense without scruples, and when they got out of their mouths, they smelled a bit of the fishy smell of wild animal excrement.

There is actually a she-wolf curled up here. She is chewing a piece of skin and trying to make a nest for her cubs.

The man went up and hit a wolf cub on the head with a hoe.

The wolf cub didn't even have time to scream, and was only startled so that the other wolf cubs whimpered, making a sound like a dog barking.

The she-wolf threw away her skin and turned around to pounce on them.

"Hurry up! Pound it gently! How can you cook it and eat it if you beat it to pieces?" The leader just finished giving instructions cursingly, and when he turned his head, he felt a chill on his neck.

It wasn't the she-wolf that bit his throat.

Instead, his head seemed to have been twisted off by a huge force.

The man's eyes were wide open and his head fell to the ground.

Just like they killed the wolf cub just now.

He also died quietly.

The others were startled and opened their mouths to shout.

A hand stretched out diagonally, slender and powerful, holding the handle of the knife casually, slashing casually. But three heads were chopped off in a row. Then a group of shadow-like figures rushed in and quickly harvested the remaining heads.

"I'll go, what is it? A wolf?" Fang Chengzhong was startled by the corpse of the wolf cub on the ground.

King Xuan didn't squint his eyes: "Leave him alive, don't want to lead the way and kill him on the spot."

His tone was crisp and clear.

The last remaining survivor knelt down on his knees without thinking: "I will take you, I will take you..." He didn't even have time to ask who these people were.

Fang Chengzhong raised his eyebrows: "Quite interesting..."

He just finished speaking.

Suddenly, a female wolf suddenly jumped out of the shadows, kicked off the mountain wall with her hind legs, used the momentum to pounce forward, and tore the throat of the last living creature open.

"This thing is quite ferocious!" Fang Chengzhong was stunned and gripped the handle of the knife tightly.

King Xuan's eyes moved slightly, and he said coldly: "It's probably for revenge."

"Oh, this is a female wolf? No wonder..." Fang Chengzhong muttered, turning slightly to make way for the female wolf.

The female wolf probably regarded them as her "allies" to help her get revenge. She lowered her head and bit a still living wolf cub, then turned around and jumped out without a trace.

They no longer cared about the wolf's movements.

Fang Chengzhong sighed: "There is no chance of survival..."

King Xuan: “Go in.

"Will it alarm Qian Zixu?" Fang Chengzhong was still a bit conservative.

King Xuan made an understatement: "With the royal guards guarding him, if he doesn't want to expose the master behind him, he will remain obedient and not dare to move."

Fang Chengzhong couldn't help but laugh: "Ha, he didn't expect it, we don't care at all about catching the person behind him, we just want to kill him with one strike and kill him directly."

King Xuan said nothing.

Do you still need to fish?

King Xuan wiped away the blood drops on his clothes with his fingers: "Let's go."

From the discovery of the secret passage to the silent attack, it only took half an hour.
To be continued...