Demoness, where are you Fleeing to? Chapter 440

The disciple of Divine Bow Gate handed a few paintings to Lu Liancheng as he finished speaking.

Lu Liancheng took the paintings, forcing down his dizziness. But he had only glanced at them when his chest tightened, and he suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood.

— those were the wanted posters issued by the Xiuyiwei and among them was a portrait of his elder brother, Lu Lianhai, the head of the Divine Bow Gate.

"The charges are conspiring with Meng Wu, smuggling weapons, and plotting to assassinate the Earl Jingan."

At this point, the disciple of Divine Bow Gate’s voice was very dry: "It has been confirmed by Artifact Mountain that Earl Jingan single-handedly overturned our main altar on the night of the previous day. Earl Jingan has put out word in the jianghu: either we send back Leng Yurou now and give him a satisfactory explanation, or he will hunt us down until not one of us is left."

At the same time, in Luoyang City, the shopkeeper of The Fuyun frowned intensely and returned to his shop with concern in his eyes.

The Fuyun was a property of Shenji Building in Luoyang City doing various types of business, including animal skins, metals, food, salt, and so on. Under the table, they also dealt in weapons, crossbows, and hidden weapons.

But just now, he had received several pieces of bad news from the boss.

One of them was about four of Shenji Building’s ships, loaded with goods, sinking.

Shenji Building in Luoyang is one of the top three sects in the Divine Artifact Union, with nearly a thousand disciples in the building, and various industries collectively worth no less than nine million. Such a huge loss would be seriously damaging to Shenji Building.

The key issue was that Shenji Building could no longer use the waterway for transporting their goods in the future.

Just as the shopkeeper was worrying, wondering whether he could borrow some goods from other businesses, he saw a large number of soldiers storming into the shop.

Seeing this, he was stunned for a moment, then suddenly erupted into rage: "Who the hell are you? This is the territory of Shenji Building, which even the mansion of Prince Zhou of Kaifeng has a stake in. Whose soldiers are you to make a mess here?"

But the soldiers just ignored him. The Baihu leading them just glared coldly at him: "By the order of the Henan’s Imperial Censor, from today onwards, all properties of the Shenji Building are to be searched. Any evidence of Shenji Building colluding with the enemy to undermine state security and illegally dealing in military equipment will be dealt with severely.!

You are the boss here? Very impressive! You even brought Prince Zhou into this. Men! Take this riffraff down and send him to Luoyang Prison!"

The shopkeeper’s face turned a ghastly shade of green and purple.

He thought about how the Divine Artifact Union had a conflict with Earl Jing’an. Why would Henan’s Imperial Censor also get involved in this, seemingly taking the side of Earl Jing’an?

※※ ※※

On the evening of the twentieth day of the twelfth month, in a mountain cave near Miyun County in Hebei Province, everyone, including Dai Longli, the union master of Shenqi, had a stern and gloomy expression. The atmosphere was as tense and cold as ice, incredibly stifling.

Knowing that a cunning rabbit has three burrows, the Divine Artifact Union had established several hidden bases in the north to prepare for emergencies. This cave, with its many rooms like an underground palace, was one of them.

After they left Artifact Mountain, they fled here.

They had initially thought that Earl Jingan would be unable to do anything about them, but the bad news that came one after another from the 19th to the 20th day of the twelfth month made everyone unable to eat or sleep in peace.

As the core members of the Divine Artifact Union, even while fleeing, they received information better and faster than the Divine Bow Gate.

All the twelve members would report their situation for the first time. And the open and covert channels that the Divine Artifact Union had set up everywhere would also transmit news back to the union at monumental speed.

Therefore, everyone could clearly understand how bad the situation of the Divine Artifact Union was at this point.

"On Yangzhou’s Ship City side, they are preparing to expel our seven ships. It’s said that Earl Jingan and Yangzhou Longjun joined forces to exert pressure. Once we lose the protection of the Ship City, these seven big ships are likely to be destroyed instantly!"

"The key point is that our shares and shops in Yangzhou’s Ship City amount to a loss of no less than two million teals."

"All of Qingyang Castle’s properties in Jinling have been seized—it was the Eunuch of Nanjing who had a hand in this. That eunuch has no particular relationship with Earl Jingan, so this is clearly a case of everyone pushing an already tottering wall. They want to take advantage of the situation and possess our property."

"New news—the Provincial Imperial Censor of Shandong has also started to take action. The properties of Divine Wind Castle in Qingzhou and Jinan have also been seized."

"Have these imperial censors gone crazy? We haven’t offended them!"

"It should be because of the status of the Hufa of Neo-Confucianism. Didn’t Immortal Li say that this generation’s Hufa was different from previous ones? He is a direct disciple of Duke Wen Zhonglie. When it comes to the lineage within Confucianism, he’s even more orthodox than Master Yu. I didn’t believe it before—"

"Shandong and South Zhili are closely followed, then the provincial imperial censors in other places will not be able to sit still, what should we do?"

Wei Shumeng’s mind was in a daze. Three days ago, he would not have dreamed that Earl Jingan could turn the tides in just a few days, pushing them to such a point.

He looked around and noticed that the face of Bai Zheli, owner of the Shenji Building, was also extremely pale.

Weishumeng didn’t find it surprising at all, as the hit on Shenji Building this time was also extremely heavy. They just had bad luck that this term’s Henan’s Imperial Censor, Zhou Gang, was famously stern and unyielding. He was unafraid of those in power and was known for his cunning tactics.

It was said that most of the top-level of the Shenji Building was already arrested by Henan’s imperial censor.

In the cave, everyone was still arguing extensively.

"I think it’s better to choose peace. Maybe we can ask the Duke Cheng’s Mansion and Duke Rong’s Mansion to mediate. After all, we paid them respect before."