Chapter 53 : Mutilation

Colourful fireworks blossomed in the night, but the beauty was only in the blink of an eye before they turned into shades of grey and faded away.

Inside the Ruiqing Palace, the Fourth Prince Lan Zhao was happily watching the new chamberlain change his tricks, pulling out a dove from an empty cloth bag or a gorgeous silk handkerchief from his palm. He shouted his approval and rewarded a few of the chamberlains with wine.

The light of the fireworks attracted his attention, and he turned his head to look at the sky, wondering who would set off fireworks in the palace in the middle of the night, unaware that not long ago, in the Hall of Nourishing Heart, his older brother of the same mother had launched a campaign to force his way into the palace.

"Imperial brother, that one is so beautiful!" The young eleventh prince climbed over from the end of the soft couch, lying on his brother's lap, his little head looking up at the sky, blearily expecting to see more fireworks, but the sky resumed its initial stillness and silence.

"Who was bored in the middle of the night, right?" Lan Zhao laughed, he was about to continue to go and watch the chamberlain's performance when suddenly there was a flash of black shadows in front of his eyes, five masked black-clad men jumped in through the window, the sharp blades in their hands exuded an icy cold glow in the bright firelight, distorting and blurring to reflect Lan Zhao's face full of panic.

"Who are you people?!" Lan Zhao picked up the eleventh prince, panicked back and forth, "bang" sound knocked over the nearby coffee table, porcelain "clattering" fell on the ground and shattered, scared eleventh prince cried loudly, in Lan Zhao's arms constantly waving his limbs.

The masked man did not open his mouth to answer, raised his sword forward. The three chamberlains who had just been laughing and changing tricks instantly became expressionless, and drew their long swords from somewhere and jumped in front of Lan Zhao, coldly gazing at the masked assassin.

Lan Zhao's shock at seeing them was no less than the assassin appearing in front of him, "You, you ..."

"Please, Your Highness and Your Eleventh Highness follow the lackeys to escape from this place!" A tall chamberlain said in a low voice, not letting Lan Zhao say anything, pulling him and rushing out of the palace, running into the vastness of the night.

Lan Zhao hugged the eleventh prince tightly, the fierce sound of swords clashing came from behind him, he didn't dare to turn around and look at him, he tried his best to follow closely behind the tall chamberlain.

Outside the Ruiqing Palace inexplicably parked two horses, a man dressed as a guard saw them running, and hurriedly picked up the eleventh prince in Lan Zhao's arms, pointing a few acupoints to quiet him down.

"Your Highness, for safety's sake, please put on these clothes." The guards placed the eleventh prince on the saddle, and then ripped off a piece of chamberlain's clothing and presented it to Lan Zhao.

Lan Zhao was uncertain, "Who exactly are you people? And who sent those assassins?"

The guards respectfully said, "Your Highness, the one who came to assassinate you tonight is the one who will ascend to the throne in the future, and the one who rescued you is Lord Wuban, so please be sure to keep that in mind."

Lan Zhao frowned, he wouldn't leave before understanding what was going on, even if there was still a group of vicious killers in the palace behind him, what if following these unidentified people disguised as chamberlains was the real way into the tiger's mouth?

"How did Lord Wu Pan know that I would be assassinated tonight?"

"Your Highness, the emperor is sick for a long time and difficult to cure, Lord Wu Pan just foresee that someone will do whatever it takes for the throne, to protect the peace of the royal family is the duty of the auxiliary ministers, so they sent slaves and so on to guard beside your Highness. The several slaves are Lord Wu Pan's exclusive guards." The one who answered Lan Zhao was the taller chamberlain, his voice was low and not as shrill as before.

Lan Zhao's eyes widened, "Who, who would even want to murder their own brother?!" Could it be the second brother who was at the end of his tether and thus let go of the battle, or the indifferent and calm sixth brother? Or is it the supporters behind those young princes?

The high-checked chamberlain and the guard exchanged a look with each other before saying, "This slave doesn't know, the slave was only ordered to protect the Fourth Highness. Your Highness, the situation is urgent, so please quickly put on your clothes, and slave will lead you to a safe place."

Lan Zhao turned back to look at the palace, the figures of the assassins and the chamberlains fighting were printed on the window paper like a messy and complicated shadow play, dark coloured ** splattered on the window paper as a figure slowly fell.

His heart clenched, immediately took the chamberlain's coat and draped it over him, the chamberlain on the other side took off his outer coat, what he was wearing inside was actually the clothes of an imperial prince, the rich floral prints glittered in the dismal night, but it was where it would attract the enemy's attention the most.

The chamberlain helped Lan Zhao onto the horse and then sat behind him, steering the horse towards the palace gate and galloping wildly, the guards bringing the eleventh prince right behind them.

Late at night in the imperial capital, there was no longer a single pedestrian on the streets. Two fast horses, one in front of the other, galloped across the cold, wide street, the "da da da" sound of uninterrupted hoofbeats was particularly alarming.

Lan Zhao shrinking in the horse, do not dare to look up to see the surrounding, beads of sweat along his cheeks sliding down, clothes wet most of the. It wasn't that he was afraid of the horse running too fast, but rather that he hadn't yet slowed down from the assassin's disturbance. Coming from a royal family, he naturally understands that historically the battle for the throne is the most tragic and vicious, even if they are biological brothers, as long as they dare to compete for the throne they are bound to be ruthless.

He knows that he is mediocre and incompetent, talent and martial arts than a few brothers, pressure is not worthy of sitting on that ten thousand people on the throne, so sex free life, not with any court officials have dealings, just waiting for the age of the father gave the throne and fiefdom, leaving the imperial capital, living in the mountains and the emperor is far away from the days of pleasure.

However, I never thought that the brother who plotted against the throne would still poison him.

If it wasn t for Lord Wu Pan s foresight, I am afraid that ... Lan Zhao could not help but fight a cold war when he thought of this.

I'm afraid that he had already died horizontally in the Ruiqing Palace.

At this moment, Lan Zhao did not have the slightest idea that their party had been stared at by a dark shadow standing on a building by the street, that person's icy cold eyes stared unblinkingly at the person on the horse, taking out a long arrow from the arrow basket behind his back and resting it on his bow, which was glowing with an eerie green light.

The man aimed at the target on the horse, his fingers gently loosened, and the stringed arrow cut through the air, emitting a sharp sound as it stabbed at the man on the horse's back!

Lan Zhao heard the chamberlain behind him muffled a grunt, then felt a rolling hot *** spreading across his back, he turned slightly in shock and saw the sharp pointy sharp object poking out of the chamberlain's heart, blood gushing out, staining the gorgeous brocade robe red.

The heart was pierced by a sharp arrow, but the chamberlain still firmly controlled the direction of the horse's gallop with amazing perseverance, and said to Lan Zhao with difficulty, "Your Highness, please hold the reins, quickly! Be sure to fool the assassin!"

Lan Zhao's hands were busy holding the reins, and only after gradually controlling the wildly running horse did the chamberlain let go of his hand, falling limply on Lan Zhao's back, no longer breathing.

The guards on the side saw their companion die, and without a word, continued to steer the horse.

The blood that stained his body was getting hotter and hotter, Lan Zhao's body was trembling uncontrollably, he didn't have the courage to turn around and look behind him to see what happened to the chamberlain. He had never seen anyone die by his side, even a few years ago he had only received news to rush to the bedchamber after his mother's death.

For the sake of the throne ... just how many people have to be sacrificed?

Lan Zhao suddenly wanted to cry bitterly, the first calamity in his life was too much for him to bear. But then he thought that his brother was not within the imperial capital and might be fortunate enough to escape this assassination, he was slightly better again.

They are brothers with the same father and mother, in the future to maintain each other can also certainly live well ...

Almost to the entrance of the imperial capital, the guard took out a token from his bosom and threw it to the official soldier guarding the gate, that official soldier took the token and carefully examined it again and again, and waved his hand to a group of companions standing in front of the tightly closed gate, that group of people immediately opened the gate as fast as they could with a slit big enough for horses to pass through.

The white horse flashed by. The officials and soldiers closed the gates and dispersed as if nothing had happened.

Night, gradually restored tranquillity, the darkness hiding everything deeply.

Outside the city's military camp, Lan Xuan smiled as he slowly stepped into the tent, and as soon as Fang Ping saw that his master had arrived, he joyfully stepped forward and bowed on one knee.

"Your Highness, you have finally come."

"It's been hard on you these past few months, Fang Ping," Lan Xuan laughed, helping Fang Ping up with his own hands, "The theatre - is it finished?"

Fang Ping nodded, "Yes, Your Highness, it has been arranged as you ordered earlier." He hesitated for a moment and carefully asked, "Your Majesty, on your side ..."

"Everything is going well," Lan Xuan walked to the position of the commander-in-chief and sat down, flipping through the records of the march over the past few months, "Tomorrow we will go into the city, there is a much better theatre waiting for us, and after that this world is mine."

At this time, Pei Si Yan was still standing in front of the Nourishing Heart Palace, looking up at the dark cloudy sky in a daze, her long hair and skirt fluttered lightly with the wind, there was a faint sadness and worry on her beautiful face, and there seemed to be shallow traces between her eyebrows because of a long period of time frowning, and no one could wipe out this one sad eyebrow.

Li light dye quickly step behind her, said in a low voice: "Someone sent a killer, the guards with the fourth prince and eleventh prince to escape, has fooled the killer, peacefully out of the city to hide. The other princes ... did not have anyone to assassinate the second prince, my subordinate had originally ordered people to keep a close watch, but the second prince locked himself in his room, and when he went to probe again, he found that he hanged himself. The killers all escaped, and none of the casualties were captured. In addition, news came from outside the city that the military camp was mixed with assassins."

Pei Siyan was not surprised and lowered her head, asking, "Do you think the assassin was sent by His Highness, King Hui, or the Second Prince?"

"Both are possible," Li Qingyan replied, "His Highness King Hui was worried that the other princes living in the world would threaten him, so he simply eliminated all of them, leaving the second prince alive, so he could blame him for the tragic deaths of several princes. As for the second prince, after hearing of the Emperor's repeated critical condition, he had been restless and seemed to have some kind of arrangement, only to find out that a huge change had occurred in the palace, knowing that there was nothing he could do to return to heaven, and thus chose to commit suicide." Speaking here, his brows knit up tightly, "No assassins have appeared here in the Yangxin Palace, indicating that His Highness Prince Hui is the most likely."

"Replace the people guarding the second prince with the imperial guards in the palace," Pei Si Yan's face emerged with a complex smile, "Have them tell everyone in the world that the second prince, in order to seek the throne, gathered Feng Taishi's remaining party to enter the palace to assassinate His Majesty and all the princes, and was caught by the palace guards who found out in time to capture him, and that the second prince, knowing that he The second prince, knowing that the mountain is exhausted, hanged himself and died. The Emperor was disturbed and was bedridden, not seeing outsiders."

"Yes, Miss." Li Qingye owed his body.

Pei Si Yan looked back at the tightly closed gate of the Nurturing Heart Hall, "No matter how the Emperor is now, he must not let outsiders take a step into the Nurturing Heart Hall. If ... the Emperor has already collapsed, delay until the day after tomorrow to announce the news."

"Subordinate understands." Li Qingyan hurriedly left.

Pei Si Yan continued to look into the dark night sky, starting tomorrow, this day was going to change.