Chapter 74: Saving People

In the darkness.

Chen Ji returned to the edge of the rooftop, standing on the high, empty eaves, calmly looking down at his feet.

Is the World Son problematic or not?

If there is a problem, the other party has been in Donglin Academy for three years and has done nothing.

If there is no problem, the other party just came back at this time and appeared in the Jinfang.

Chen Ji furrowed his brows. He wanted to sort out some clues but found that there were too few clues.

In the courtyard.

The World Son discovered that the Jianghu heroes had abandoned him and run away. He immediately cursed and turned around, saying, "Not Jianghu heroes? Don't they always say they value loyalty for others? This is too disloyal!"

Six agents holding sabers had already rushed into the courtyard, surrounding the World Son and Bai Li against the courtyard wall. One of the agents said coldly, "Resisting arrest adds another crime."

Bai Li opened her mouth to say, "We are..."

Before she could finish, the World Son quietly tugged at her and interrupted, "We're just ordinary commoners who came to Hongyi Alley to have some fun. We haven't broken any Great Ning laws. Why are you chasing us?"

The agent carefully sized them up, seemingly using the moonlight to observe the two people. After a moment, he hesitated and said, "World Son, County Princess, I recognize you! Our Secret Agent Office has solid evidence that Jing Dynasty spies are active in Jinfang tonight. It's too coincidental that the two of you are here. Please come back to the Inner Prison with us for a visit."

The World Son secretly thought, "This is bad." The Sili Jian always wanted to find leverage against Jing Wang Fu. Many of Jing Wang's old subordinates had been captured and taken to the Inner Prison over the years and never came out again.

Once inside the Inner Prison, even the World Son's identity as a member of the Wang Fu would be useless.

Seven years ago, Huai Wang was seized by the Secret Agent Office for privately possessing armor and hand crossbows. He died in the Inner Prison that very night.

Six years ago, during the great drought in Guanzhong, Jin Wang said while drinking that it was a punishment from heaven because the Ning Emperor wasn't governing well. He was captured and taken to the Inner Prison by the Secret Agent Office under the false charge of 'plotting against the omen.' He died in the Inner Prison that same month. Along with him were also the five officials of the Qintian Jian, Ling Tailang and Bao Zhangzheng.

The World Son knew in his heart that the lives of the feudal kings of the Ning Dynasty were like weeds in front of the eunuch faction. If he entered the Inner Prison today, he might never come out again.

Thinking of this, the World Son quickly made a ladder with his hands. "Bai Li, you go first!"

The agent's face was grim. "No one can leave. If the World Son isn't problematic, why wouldn't he dare to come with us?"

The World Son spat a curse, picked up a bamboo broom from the courtyard, and blocked Bai Li's front. "Go to the Inner Prison with you all? Even if there's no problem, it will become a problem! I'll fight you all! If you've got guts, kill me here!"

Chen Ji silently watched this scene.

Should he save them or not?

If he didn't save them, the World Son and Bai Li would definitely be taken to the Inner Prison, no matter how much they struggled. Jin Zhu was originally looking for evidence connecting Jing Wang Fu to the Jing Dynasty. If he caught the World Son and Bai Li here, it would be like someone handing him a pillow when he was sleepy. The other side could completely find an excuse to torture them and force a confession.

If he saved them, the six agents were very tricky, and other agents could reinforce them at any time. The key was, Chen Ji was here to kill Yuan Zhanggui tonight, not to save people!

But in the same Hongyi Alley, on the same night, how leisurely it would be if he could finish drinking wine and then go to the Gulou to watch the sunrise.

Chen Ji's hands were wrapped with cloth strips, and his right hand tightly gripped the short knife. Blood was slowly sliding down the tip of the knife, finally gathering into a drop of dark red blood that fell onto a gray tile.

When the drop of blood fell on the tile, Chen Ji had already disappeared from his original position.

"Come on!"

The World Son swept the bamboo broom in his hand horizontally, trying to fend off the agents.

But these elites from the Secret Agent Office were not someone he could block. He saw the six agents form a fan-shaped encirclement. One agent advanced and swung his knife, and with just a light swing, he chopped the bamboo broom into two sections.

The World Son looked at the bald broom with a bitter heart. He said in a deep voice, "I can go with you all, but you must let my sister go. What can a girl understand?"

The agent shook his head. "No one can leave. If it weren't for your noble identities, why would we bother to persuade you kindly?"

"Obediently come with us to the Inner Prison. This way, neither of you will be injured."

"We will naturally let you out after we confirm your innocence."

The World Son said in a condensed voice, "How many people can enter the Inner Prison and come out again? Do you all believe that yourselves? Aren't you afraid of my Jing Wang Fu's revenge?"

"World Son, Your Highness, we have even arrested members of the imperial family in recent years. You can't scare us. Up, arrest them."

Several agents suddenly advanced.

The World Son still wanted to resist but was flashed by an agent who punched him in the abdomen. He doubled over in pain, spitting out wine and bile together from his abdomen.

These killers from the Secret Agent Office really didn't put the World Son's identity in their eyes.

They were very clear about how much their superiors wanted to bring down Jing Wang Fu. Their position determined their thinking.

In the struggle, someone twisted Bai Li's arm and pinned it behind her back. Cold sweat seeped from Bai Li's forehead in pain, but she didn't utter a sound. She just stubbornly stared at the scene unfolding in front of her.

Suddenly, in the chaos, as her gaze swept around, she was startled.

One agent sensed something was wrong and turned around in alert.

In an instant, he raised his knife to chop behind him, but his knife-holding hand had just been raised above his head and hadn't yet fallen when a figure silently closed in on him.

The other party's left hand clamped his arm, making it impossible for him to bring the knife down.

In the blink of an eye, the attacking figure supported his arm and stabbed two knives, one in the waist and kidney, the other under the ribs and lung.

The short knife in the other party's hand was like a venomous snake spitting its fangs, ruthless and deadly.

The agents on the side were greatly frightened by the situation and quickly swung their knives to assist. But that figure just lightly and calmly waved a hand to block. The short knife and the long knife swung at it collided in the black night, sparks flying. With a clang, the long knife broke!

The agents' faces changed. They had seen Jianghu swordsmen as numerous as fish in a river, but they had never seen this kind of swordsman who could break a knife so casually.

There was no knife energy, no official mysterious techniques. The other party just lightly waved a short knife, and their steel knife broke like an ice edge!

Bai Li was being restrained by an agent and blankly looked at that figure. The other party's face was smeared with black charcoal powder, and his eyes were also especially strange, but the other party's body shape felt familiar no matter how she looked at it.

At this moment, she suddenly discovered that this person who attacked and killed in the dark seemed to have some difficulty using his right leg when he rolled.

This person seemed to know that his right leg was a weakness, so he tried to cover it up, but his leg was heavily injured, and no matter how he covered it, it was still visible.

Bai Li thought of one person, whose leg was also injured...

But no matter what, she couldn't overlap the figure of the neighboring apprentice who swept the floor with the figure of this sharp killer.

It was as if the two figures, one bright and one dark, were originally full of contradiction.

Bai Li's expression became complicated.

Just at this time, she saw the agents take out hand crossbows from their waists and aim at that figure. She suddenly exclaimed, "Be careful, there are crossbows!"

The battlefield suddenly quieted. Chen Ji supported the agent's arm and used the corpse to block in front of him. He exposed half of his face behind the agent's lowered head, quietly observing the short crossbows in the agents' hands.

The agent whose lung had been pierced was just coughing blood foam powerlessly.

The agent coughing blood, hiding behind him to avoid the crossbow arrows, was a cold and quiet assassin. One quiet, one moved, yet they were especially cruel and mysterious.

Bai Li looked at this scene and felt that the answer in her heart was again somewhat uncertain... The person in her impression smiled as if he would never say a harsh word. Even when questioned, he would only lower his head in silence and not retort.

At this moment, the agents wanted to find an opportunity to fire the crossbow arrows but found that they simply couldn't find a shooting angle.

In the stalemate, the agent who was coughing blood finally closed his eyes. His knife-holding hand slowly fell, and the long knife dropped from his hand.

Chen Ji threw away his short knife with the momentum and caught the falling long knife.

Taking advantage of the moment he caught the knife, with a whoosh, a crossbow arrow shot towards the half of Chen Ji's face that was exposed.

Everyone's eyes blurred, but they saw Chen Ji only lightly tilt his head downwards to dodge the crossbow arrow. By the time the crossbow arrow was nailed into the wall behind him, Chen Ji's head had already tilted back up, still hiding behind the dead agent, calmly staring at everyone.

Just as the agents were about to string their hand crossbows again, Chen Ji pushed the agent's corpse forward to charge. Crossbow arrows shot out, either hitting the corpse or missing completely.

Close quarters!

Chen Ji threw away the corpse and flashed out from behind it, fighting four enemies at once, engaging in a chaotic battle with the agents. From time to time, the agents' long knives would break with a snap.

The agents had never felt so powerless before. The assassin in front of them seemed to have no flaws whatsoever. Every move and change protected his entire body, his defense as solid as gold.

Even though four people surrounded and attacked, they couldn't find an opportunity for a fatal strike.

Not to mention a fatal strike, their knife edges could at most cut Chen Ji's clothes and couldn't even leave a single wound.

The agents didn't know what kind of knife technique this was. There were only a few famous knife techniques in the Jianghu. This kind of watertight knife technique was unheard of.

Who knew, when Chen Ji and Feng Huai were killing each other, if he exposed even a slight flaw, the other side would seize the timing, and one flaw meant he would die again.

This kind of crazy extreme tempering led to Chen Ji first learning not to attack, but to defend.

If he didn't die, then he could attack.

The agent holding Bai Li clamped his knife to Bai Li's neck. "Put down your knife, otherwise, I'll kill her now."

But Chen Ji seemed deaf, still fighting the agents in his own way, the long knife in his hand not stopping in the slightest.

The agent stiffened. Sending the County Princess to the Inner Prison was one thing; directly killing the County Princess here was another matter.

He gritted his teeth and suddenly let go of the County Princess, holding his knife to support his colleague.

Bai Li was no longer restrained, but she didn't run. She just stood there blankly, anxiously reminding, "Be careful behind you!"

The agent who went to support him swung his knife in a diagonal chop towards Chen Ji's back.

Chen Ji heard the reminder and suddenly turned around, his knife following his body's turn!

He saw two long knives collide head-on. Chen Ji twisted his wrist, the blade in his hand flowing backward all the way up, the blade rubbing against the agent's incoming blade, sparking.

The agent looked at the sparks flying, his eyes confused. Before he could react, the long knife in Chen Ji's hand, with a reverse grip, picked up from the arm and cut to the neck!

Fresh blood sprayed!

Chen Ji looked at Bai Li and the World Son and said in a deep voice, "Quickly go, don't drag me down here!"

The World Son was about to say, "Let's go together," but Bai Li pursed her lips and pulled him to climb the wall. "Quickly go, we can't help him here, we'll only distract him! If we leave, then he can leave!"

"Oh, oh,"

The World Son quickly turned and ran away.

An agent tried to chase but was struck down by Chen Ji's knife.

He bent his waist and held his knife horizontally, blocking under the courtyard wall, coldly blocking all the agents.

Blood dripped continuously from the knife blade, and the smooth surface of the knife reflected the blood-red moonlight in the sky.

By the time the World Son had climbed over the wall, Bai Li, with a gray and dusty face, was sitting on the courtyard wall and turned her head. She thought of those Jianghu people who had fled, then looked at the bloody back figure in front of her, and said with a complicated expression, "You be careful yourself!"

Having said that, she turned and jumped down the courtyard wall and ran.

The courtyard quieted down, only three agents remaining in a fan shape, firmly blocking Chen Ji under the courtyard wall. They slowly changed their footsteps, wanting to find a flaw in Chen Ji, but they couldn't find one no matter how hard they tried.

Just when they thought they could stalemate until reinforcements arrived, Chen Ji took the initiative to attack.

Once, when Chen Ji and Feng Huai were killing each other, he felt depressed every time he died.

But now he understood that the knife technique he honed at the cost of countless deaths was his return.

The four figures intertwined. The knife light in Chen Ji's hand was like arcs of moonlight, chopping through the three people's knives and also cutting through the three people's necks.

Chen Ji panted and bent down to pick up his short knife that he had just thrown on the ground and hid it in his sleeve.

He didn't escape but climbed back up the ladder to the rooftop.

Chen Ji limped to the ridge of the roof and lay on the ridge, quietly observing the situation in Hongyi Alley.

In Hongyi Alley, who knows how many disheveled guests and girls were driven out of the brothels by the agents.

Chen Ji's gaze searched among the crowd for Yuan Zhanggui's figure. The transaction tonight was the most important matter; the other party couldn't possibly not personally supervise it.

But as he watched the pavilions being cleared out one by one, and everyone being driven onto the blue stone road of Hongyi Alley, he still couldn't find Yuan Zhanggui.

Something was wrong.

The scene in front of him was completely different from what Chen Ji expected.

Hongyi Alley wasn't in chaos. No one was trying to break through the Secret Agent Office's defense line, and no one was fighting the Secret Agent Office. Even the guards Jin Zhu specially transferred from Mengjin Camp to deal with the trouble weren't even put to use!

Lin Chaoqing wore a bamboo hat and calmly sat on his horse. "Master Jin Zhu, it seems you are no different from Jiao Tu and Yun Yang. But you are a bit luckier, you didn't go and dig up the coffin of the current cabinet elder. Our main office's trouble-solving guards and the Yulong Guard, as the personal soldiers of the inner court, have to listen to you all being scolded every day."

"Don't be impatient,"

Jin Zhu smiled, his narrow eyes jumping down from his horse. He grabbed a middle-aged man who was trying to escape and asked kindly, "What's your name?"

"This humble one is Wu Dongliang."

"What business do you do?"

"I am a tax official in Xin'an County."

Jin Zhu raised his eyebrows. "A tax official alone, why were you running..."

Saying this, Jin Zhu had already realized why the other party wanted to run.

Ning Dynasty law prohibited officials from hosting prostitutes. Going to places like Qingyin Xiaoban was fine, but coming to a place like Hongyi Alley and being caught would lead to immediate dismissal and investigation.

This law was set down in the early years of Ning Taizu. Up to now, everyone turned a blind eye, didn't care, didn't hear, but occasionally some officials were unlucky and were reported, losing their positions.

Jin Zhu cursed his bad luck in his heart and instructed his agents to immediately verify this person's identity. Then he came to another middle-aged person. "And what do you do?"

"Reporting, Master, this humble one is a Hui merchant. I came to Lu City to advance some furs to sell in the south. This is my road pass."

Jin Zhu took the other party's road pass and knew with just a glance that the other party had just arrived in Lu City tonight.

He said with a fake smile, "Check, check everyone's identity for me clearly. See if there are any suspicious figures."

At this time, Jin Zhu's heart had slowly sunk to the bottom of the valley. He didn't expect to actually stumble in the ditch... Where exactly did the problem arise?

The agents began to investigate everyone. These people were either Hui merchants from the south, Jin merchants from the north, or city merchants, small gang leaders from Lu City. Each person could clearly answer their origin, and their household registration and road passes showed no fake traces.

Chen Ji watched silently.

Except for the two black-clothed people he had killed on the rooftop, none of the people in the field looked like Yuan Zhanggui's spies!

Were these people disguised too well?

No, that wasn't it. Chen Ji searched inside Hongyi Alley and discovered that the old madam and the Yan'er girls from Hongyi Alley weren't among them either!

Someone must have tipped them off and leaked Jin Zhu's actions in advance!

That's why the old madam and Yan'er ran away early!

Chen Ji suddenly thought of something. When the cart driver Si Cao interrogated him at Bailu Pavilion, he once mentioned that the other party clearly knew which evidence Yun Yang and Jiao Tu had searched for from Liu Shiyu's house. Jin Zhu's side still had an undercover agent!

This undercover agent could not only see the Secret Agent Office's evidence but also had the authority to know about tonight's actions.

Chen Ji believed that with Jin Zhu's caution, to ensure absolute safety, he would definitely be careful, careful, and then careful. But the news still leaked.

Just at this time, Jin Zhu suddenly turned his head and looked towards the rooftop. "Who's up there? Grab him!"