Chapter 44 Burnt

Outside the cross street, there are crowds of people at the alley.

A row of imperial guards, holding shields upright, had already sealed off the area. Behind the shields stood a forest of spears, creating an especially murderous feeling.

A team leader walked back and forth behind them, holding a knife, looking up at the sky from time to time, muttering: "Why hasn't the Xuanming Sect taken action yet..."

According to the plan, the Xuanming Sect should take the lead in dealing with the martial arts factions such as Huanyinfang, and their imperial guards will only be on the periphery to kill the fish that have slipped through the net, to prevent anyone from escaping by chance.

This matter was planned years ago, and the layout was so clever that no one from the Huanyinfang could find any loopholes.

The leader of the team knocked on the hilt of his knife, figuring that it was already past the hour of You. If the Xuanming Sect dragged on any longer, the brothels inside would have to react.

At this moment, there was a dull sound of a heavy object falling to the ground, attracting the attention of all the imperial guards.

A hundred steps away, under the Fire Watchtower, the Jinwu Guard general fell in the snow, his body splattered with blood, motionless.

Because it was a secret encirclement and suppression operation, each unit had not yet turned on its lights. As they were quite far away and it was dark, the leader of the team could not see clearly, but he immediately discovered that there was no one on the lookout tower.

"Light the torches!"

He gave the order immediately, but his voice was drowned out by the sound of fireworks that suddenly shot up into the sky.

Everyone was startled and subconsciously looked in the direction where the fireworks were rising.

Then, the sound of dense footsteps suddenly came from behind.

Before the leader had time to analyze the situation, his nerves were already tense, he drew his sword and shouted:
"Who is it? Stop!"

The imperial guards around him also turned around instantly and placed their shields on the ground.

The alley was extremely dark, but one could still clearly see a number of human figures moving about.

"Array up!"

The leader's heartbeat quickened, and he quickly ordered the soldiers beside him to light a torch.

In the firelight, several hooks were suddenly thrown over and then fiercely grabbed the shields in the front row.

In the sight of the team leader, rows of crossbows were raised in the alley.

A chill suddenly ran down his spine, and he cried out in fear: "Xuanming Sect!?"

Before he could react, the iron chain behind the hook suddenly tightened, and at the moment the shield was pulled down by the huge force, dense arrows shot straight at it.

The shield-holding imperial guards were carried directly to the ground by inertia, and the soldiers behind them began to scream.

The torches fell to the ground, and on the walls on both sides of the alley, multiple figures ran diagonally over. With a turn of the long swords in their hands, the heads of the leaders were spun off.

More than twenty bad guys in the alley stepped forward, and seeing that someone was still screaming, they raised their hands and shot an arrow at the person's face.

On the fire-watching tower, a bad guy strode up, picked up the command flag and pointed to the north.

All the figures passed by the corpses on the ground and split into two groups, heading north to the cross street.

…………

In a small brothel facing the street, someone curiously poked his head out of the window.

The loud bang of the fireworks was particularly eye-catching in the long night.

Then, screams from several dark alleys tore through the night.

Some imperial cavalrymen whipped their mounts hard and galloped across the cross street from south to north, shouting in panic.

"The Xuanming Cult attacked and killed the Jinwu Guards, plotting rebellion!"

"Bah."

An arrow chased after him and pierced the leather armor on his back.

The cavalryman was so frightened that he whipped his horse desperately, but he saw dozens of Xuanming Sect ghosts pouring out from the street ahead.

He couldn't stop his horse, so he gritted his teeth, drew his sword and started chopping.

"puff."

A figure suddenly jumped out and stabbed the cavalryman in the chest with a knife.

But at this moment, the sound of fighting suddenly rang out from the periphery of Jier Lane. Then, countless clanging sounds of armor could be heard, as if a large army was beginning to mobilize.

A ghost was greatly surprised and asked in panic, "Lord Yan, why is this happening?!"

Liu Cheng took off his mask, his face gloomy, and said angrily: "Can't you see it? These damn imperial guards are planning to take advantage of the fact that the Hades Emperor and the Ghost King are away from the capital to attack our Xuanming Sect!"

Then, he slammed his mask to the ground and said in a cold voice: "The Imperial Guards have looked down on us for a long time. Now that they see that my Xuanming Sect will make great contributions, they actually throw such dirty water on us at such a critical moment. This is really intolerable!"

Someone among the ghosts shouted.

"Lord Yan is here, why don't you lead us to kill the imperial guards in the city? Let your majesty see who is the foundation of Daliang!"

In the corner, a faint voice said, "But we should encircle and suppress Huanyinfang tonight..."

"You're just eating dog intestines. The Imperial Guards have their knives at your neck, and you're still fucking caring about Huanyinfang?"

Slightly encouraged by a few ghosts in the crowd, everyone's blood instantly boiled and they turned around and ran in the opposite direction.

Liu Cheng had a cold look on his face, but he just followed at the end slowly.

Several members of the Xuanming Sect who were about to charge into Jier Lane were also stopped by the various voices in the team and turned around to rush to the periphery.

No one is a fool. They all know that the imperial guards are deployed on the periphery tonight, and they are all wearing armor and holding shields. If they are really allowed to surround them, few people will be able to escape.

……

The crossroads were suddenly empty, and Fan Yintian and Ji Ruxue appeared from the shadows with their faces covered.

All the people they brought from Fengxiang were handed over to Xiao Yan for arrangement, so only the two of them were taking action at this time.

Fanyintian raised his head slightly and saw from afar the bad guys on the Fire Watchtower waving small flags.

She discovered that every time a command flag was waved, the shouts of the imperial guards would be heard within a moment.

Xiao Yan had only a few hundred men at his disposal, but at this time he instigated several waves of Xuanming Sect's troops, as if he really had countless people under his command, and half of East City was alarmed in an instant.

Fan Yintian couldn't help but shudder, turned his head, and saw Ji Ruxuyi just had a calm face.

She suppressed her doubts and sneaked into the brothel with Ji Ruxue.

A brothel is not just a single building, but a stretch of alleys with courtyards that are either large or small, elegant or simple.

Normally, at this time, there would be endless sounds of music and harps, the girls' shouts and the clients' laughter. Some alleys would even have lights on all night long, making it extremely lively.

But now, the gates of several alleys are closed and not a single light is on inside.

Fan Yintian and Ji Ruxue knew very well that no matter how well the Xuanming Sect hid itself, their people would more or less sense some dangerous aura after a few days.

However, since only one person escaped when Zhengzhou was besieged, the other secret agents did not learn the news immediately, so Bianliang was also kept in the dark and was turned into a deaf person who could not know the news from the outside world by the Xuanming Sect.

Suddenly seeing Ji Ruxue and the other person arrive, the person in charge of Huanyinfang in Yu Bianliang looked at them in surprise.

The person in charge was about thirty years old, a very charming and beautiful woman.

Normally, because she controlled the resources of the entire brothel, she was able to get to know many dignitaries in Bianliang City, and thus was able to avoid crises of varying sizes several times. Only this time, she could not find the source of the crisis.

"Saint Princess came to Bianliang in person to rescue us. I and all the sisters are truly grateful."

The beautiful woman was still a little scared, and her voice trembled as she said, "I have sensed some danger in the past few days, but the letters I sent out have all fallen into the sea, so I have not dared to act rashly... If it weren't for Saint Ji and Miss Xue'er, I and hundreds of sisters would have been in great danger tonight..."

Fan Yintian had a cold face and was too lazy to explain. He just said, "Hurry up and inform everyone to burn all the things related to my Huanyinfang. It doesn't matter if you take them with you or not. It's safest to burn them, so that the Xuanming Sect won't take the opportunity to track down our other hidden people."

The beautiful woman nodded continuously and said, "I have already made preparations a few days ago, and it can be done immediately, but it will take some time..."

Fanyintian frowned.

At this moment, Ji Ruxue on the side suddenly spoke.

"Why bother? This place has already been exposed, so there is no point in keeping it here."

She had a cold expression and started a fire with the fire starter in her hand.

"It's better to burn it."

(End of this chapter)