After returning to the Mei Er Courtyard, he frowned to himself in silence.

　　He had to give Prince Bao and Prince Kang a heads-up on the case so that they would not give a passive response and leave a bad impression on the Emperor.

　　Thus, he took his pen and wrote two letters to Leng Shoushi and Leng Shoushan respectively before instructing Ning Boyuan and Ning Zhongyuan to deliver the letters to them.

　　After doing these things, he sat in the living room in silence, lost in his thoughts while awaiting news from Fu Mengshan.

　　Since he might very likely have to meet the Emperor this time, he felt rather uneasy and anxious.

　　No one knew what kind of divine powers the Enlightened Masters truly possessed. Would an Enlightened Master be able to see through him and know the divine powers he possessed? The Life and Death Scripture and the Omniscient Mirror, or even God’s Limbs?

　　He instinctively rejected the feeling of being seen through by others.

　　However, there was no way for him to escape from meeting the Emperor this time around.

　　It would not be easy to make any decisions on such a huge matter. The Emperor would definitely have to ask him about the details of his investigation first since he was the one who handled the case personally. From there, His Majesty would then judge the truth of his answers and make a final decision based on his judgment.

　　Whenever the Emperor made a decision, it would usually affect the fates of countless people, so His Majesty could not make a decision without careful consideration.

　　Meanwhile, with an order from the Emperor, there was no way he could avoid meeting His Majesty as well.

　　At this particular moment, he longed especially to become an Enlightened Master, for he did not wish to keep living such a life where his fate was not his own to decide. He wished to attain true freedom.

　　Two hours later, he saw in his Omniscient Mirror that Fu Mengshan had returned to the main hall of the Secret Guardians Hall with an upset look.

　　He came to the main hall and found Fu Mengshan drinking tea non-stop, wearing a dark expression.

　　Fu Mengshan had always been a jovial and good-natured person much like a Maitreya Buddha ¹ . It was very rare to see him with such a grim expression.

　　Chu Li greeted him with a fist salute. “Commander, have you met the Emperor?”

　　“The Emperor is in isolated cultivation!” Fu Mengshan huffed.

　　Chu Li turned to glance at Xu Huande.

　　Xu Huande shook his head. “The Emperor is in isolated cultivation and although the Commander has been waiting outside for quite a while and has been insistently asking to see the Emperor, the Chief of the Imperial House refused to let him enter, so he wasn’t able to meet the Emperor.”

　　Chu Li frowned and looked back at Fu Mengshan.

　　Fu Mengshan said impatiently, “Of course, I’ve told them that this was a very urgent matter, but it was all in vain. The Emperor is in isolated cultivation and won’t see anyone!”

　　“How long will the isolated cultivation last?” Chu Li asked.

　　Fu Mengshan replied, “That’s top-secret information. There’s no way the Chief of the Imperial House will let anyone know that!”

　　Chu Li frowned. “Well then, we’ll have to assume that the Emperor will not come out of his isolated cultivation anytime soon and plan accordingly… I think their target is King Ping!”

　　Now that he knew of the Holy Church of Light’s involvement in the case, he felt a sense of relief instead and now had a plan in mind. By connecting these incidents together and viewing them in light of the current circumstances of the world, he was already able to get pretty close to the heart of the matter. All the schemes and plots in the world were nothing more than these and there was nothing new under the sun.

　　“King Ping…” Fu Mengshan pursed his lips.

　　Xu Huande shook his head. “King Ping handles matters in an overbearing manner and he’s never allowed any of our secret guardians to stay by his side. The number of secret guardians in the Xi Jiang Military is pathetically small and there’s none of them by his side!”

　　Chu Li said, “King Ping is a genius military officer. Although our Ji Dynasty army is weak, we’ve been able to stand against the cavalry of the Li Dynasty and this is all thanks to King Ping.”

　　“That’s true.” Xu Huande remarked and nodded. “Otherwise, the Emperor wouldn’t have tolerated him to this extent. Why else would the Emperor not send the secret guardians over?”

　　Fu Mengshan exhaled sharply. “Young Chu, you mean to say that the Holy Church of Light is planning to eliminate King Ping?”

　　Chu Li had investigated the affairs of Xi Jiang and had gathered much intelligence, so he proceeded to explain. “Our Ji Dynasty is good at defense, but His Highness King Ping is an expert in commanding troops. By changing our defensive style to an offensive one, we’ve been able to attack and defeat the Li Dynasty’s cavalry and even invade the territories of the Li Dynasty. Therefore, he has a great reputation for his impressive military service.”

　　Chu Li scorned. “The Li Dynasty must hate King Ping very much.”

　　Xu Huande nodded in agreement. “If we were to talk about whom among us the Li Dynasty hates the most, it has to be King Ping.”

　　“Then, they must’ve thought of assassinating him before, right?” Chu Li asked.

　　“King Ping is almost always in the military camp. To carry out an assassination would be as hard as trying to climb up to the sky — that is, unless the assassins were some Enlightened Masters,” Fu Mengshan said while he shook his head. “Young Chu, you’ve never seen a military camp. When you’ve seen one for yourself, you’ll then know how hard it is to break into and assassinate someone. Even you, Young Chu, won’t be able to do it!”

　　Xu Huande added. “Moreover, King Ping is surrounded by numerous top-notch masters. It’s impossible to assassinate him.”

　　“If it’s impossible to assassinate him, they can always use their army to kill King Ping,” Chu Li said. “If they managed to hold King Ping under siege, then they should be able to kill him off, right?”

　　“King Ping is very skilled at commanding troops. He has never suffered any losses in such a manner.” Xu Huande shook his head in disagreement. “He’s always been the one to put others under siege.”

　　“If his Deputy General leaked some information to the Li Dynasty, will they be able to hold King Ping under siege then?” Chu Li challenged.

　　Fu Mengshan and Xu Huande frowned at this.

　　“Commander, are we able to gather any information on the Ministry of War?”

　　Fu Mengshan seemed reluctant to answer him.

　　“This is the one place the Secret Guardians Hall can’t touch,” Xu Huande replied instead.

　　Chu Li insisted. “Now’s a critical moment. We have to think of something.”

　　“You’re asking us to go beyond our authority and violate a taboo of the Emperor. Nothing good can ever come from that!” Xu Huande warned. “Although we’ve been granted an important position, His Majesty is on guard against us as well. After all, we’ve been given great power and influence, so His Majesty has to take any necessary precautions.”

　　Chu Li pressed on. “We have to conduct a thorough investigation on the Minister Counsellor of the Ministry of War, Gu Qi and the order that passed through his hands regarding King Ping.”

　　Fu Mengshan shook his head. “A Minister Counsellor isn’t qualified to give a military order to King Ping. Only the Vice Minister can do so.”

　　Chu Li shook his head as well as he said, “This Gu Qi is giving us such a big hassle. Initially, we could’ve slowly investigated and found out why he had turned traitor — whether he was being forced into it, or doing this for some other purpose — before teaching him a lesson. However, now that we’ve captured the three disciples of the Holy Church of Light, it may not be a good thing if Gu Qi finds out about it, so we have to arrest him at once.”

　　“To arrest a Minister Counsellor without any evidence…” Fu Mengshan hesitated and frowned. “I’m just worried that it’ll be easier to invite the devil in than to send him away.”

　　“We can search for evidence after arresting him. I doubt we won’t be able to find any evidence,” Chu Li reasoned. “I think this matter should be handed over the Mei Yi Courtyard to deal with. Gu Qi can be considered as an accomplice in the assassination of Prince Jiang, so it would be equivalent to Mei Yi Courtyard solving this case.”

　　Xu Huande looked at him in confusion.

　　They knew very well about the disharmony between Chu Li and Chen Donghai and did not mind it at all.

　　When their subordinates were getting along with one another well, it would be harder for the Commander and Deputy Commander to control them to do what they wanted instead.

　　Chu Li explained. “We’re colleagues after all. We can’t be fighting all the time. Anyway, it’s not shameful to make some compromises when necessary.”

　　“Good, it’s rare to find a young man with such a generous heart like you,” Fu Mengshan said, smiling. “Very well then. Let’s hand this matter over to the Mei Yi Courtyard and have them handle it.”

　　“Are we really going to arrest Gu Qi?” Xu Huande questioned.

　　Fu Mengshan replied, “It’s better to arrest the wrong person than letting him get away. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be able to show our faces to others anymore!”

　　“That’s true,” Xu Huande slowly began to nod.

　　Fu Mengshan said, “I’ll think of a way to gather some military intelligence. Elder Xu, I’ll leave the rest to you.”

　　“Don’t worry, Commander. I’ll let Chen Donghai know what to do,” Xu Huande reassured.

　　Then, Fu Mengshan stood up and strode off.

　　Meanwhile, Chu Li returned to the living room of the Mei Er Courtyard.

　　He did not intend to let Chen Donghai take credit for his work, but more importantly, Qin Jin and the others had been heavily wounded and would not be able to fight again so soon. Gu Qi was not an easy person to deal with as well, so he did not mind letting Chen Donghai go through some hardships.

　　Two hours later, Fu Mengshan returned to the main hall once again and ordered someone to call Chu Li over for a round of discussion.

　　“Chen Donghai has already left to arrest Gu Qi. Firstly, let’s talk about military intelligence I’ve managed to gather.” Fu Mengshan went straight to the point. “The Li Dynasty cavalry is preparing for a southern invasion, so the Ministry of War has given King Ping a military order to hold back his troops and focus on defense.”

　　Xu Huande frowned. “Will King Ping follow orders?”

　　“Based on what we know of him, King Ping won’t sit and watch the cavalry of the Li Dynasty show off their strength and wreak havoc. His Highness will definitely choose to be on the offense,” Fu Mengshan said.