Chapter 240
Chapter 240
As a child, Su Jianting used to play hide-and-seek here whenever he visited the Count of Xuanwu's Estate.
He led a dozen or so masters, sneaking through an abandoned sewer tunnel to easily infiltrate the Count of Xuanwu's Estate. This was another feint in their strategy. With a hundred masters from the Western Regions attacking the main wall, everyone's attention was focused there. He took a dozen or so martial arts experts, even more skilled, and secretly infiltrated the estate.
At that moment, everyone in the Count of Xuanwu's Estate was gathered in two locations.
One was the main fortress wall, where all the warriors were fighting off the enemy.
The other was the main hall of the fortress. All the elderly, women, and children were gathered there. Shen Lang's parents were among them.
Su Jianting's group easily followed the sewer to the garden outside the Count of Xuanwu's library.
Su Jianting gave an order to his men.
“You will stand guard outside. If you see anyone, kill them immediately.”
“Yes, sir!”
A dozen or so masters stood guard outside the library while Su Jianting entered alone.
The library of the Count of Xuanwu's Estate was very, very large.
It spanned three floors—two above ground and one below.
It housed tens of thousands of books, several hundred martial arts manuals, and several hundred more manuals carved on original jade tablets.
But right now, no one was guarding the library.
This was because to the Countess, the people of the estate were what mattered most; books and manuals were not important.
She had dedicated all her manpower to protecting the people.
Su Jianting quickly searched the library.
He wasn't looking for books or martial arts manuals.
He sifted through the books with incredible speed, but the library was so vast that finding what he wanted was taking too long.
“Ten of you, come in and help me search. Look for a plain wooden box.”
“Yes, sir!”
Ten men entered the library and began to search frantically for the box.
A moment later, they had searched the entire first floor and moved on to the second.
Since it wasn't on the first or second floor, it had to be in the basement.
Su Jianting easily found the entrance to the basement.
There was an iron door, unlocked from the outside but bolted from within.
*‘Is someone... inside?’*
Su Jianting instantly became wary. Channeling his inner energy, he kicked the iron door with all his might.
The latch securing the iron door broke under his kick.
Su Jianting immediately rushed inside with his ten masters.
The basement library was slightly smaller and housed the original martial arts manuals.
All of them were carved on jade.
At a glance, the wooden box Su Jianting was looking for was nowhere to be seen.
Su Jianting gestured, and the ten masters retreated.
He closed his eyes and began to listen and smell.
Soon, he heard what he was listening for—the sound of rapid breathing and a racing heart.
Moreover, there was a very pleasant scent, an unfamiliar one, clearly a woman's fragrance.
And she was hiding right behind the wall.
There was a secret room in the library's basement.
Judging by the sound of her heart and breath, the woman had practically no martial arts skill.
Su Jianting gestured again, and four masters quickly ran forward.
Su Jianting pointed at the wall in front of him. The four masters used all their strength to charge and slam their bodies against it.
In that instant, the door to the secret room burst open.
“Ah.”
A sharp scream came from inside as a dense storm of silver needles flew out.
Su Jianting was startled, but with incredible speed, he grabbed two of his men and used them as shields.
Thud, thud, thud, thud.
Dozens of slender silver needles pierced the bodies of the two masters, and they died instantly.
Su Jianting was stunned by the sight.
*‘Are... are these poisoned needles? Coated with a potent poison? A volley of hundreds of poisoned needles like this would be impossible to defend against.’*
Who was the woman hiding in the secret room?
It was Xiao Bing.
She currently served as Shen Lang's chief steward, responsible for storing and managing all his secret weapons.
Today, when the enemy attacked, she was originally waiting in the main hall with the Countess.
But Xiao Bing remembered her duty and had rushed here to the secret room.
Shen Lang had built several secret rooms, and many secret weapons were stored inside them.
Among the various secret rooms, the one beneath the library was extremely important.
Inside were Shen Lang's crucial experiment notes.
Shen Lang had instructed her to burn them all quickly in case of an emergency.
So, when the emergency arose, Xiao Bing had rushed here and thoroughly burned Shen Lang's experiment notes.
These notes weren't for Shen Lang himself, but were teaching materials for his trusted artisans.
After burning the notes, Xiao Bing had intended to return to the main hall, but the enemy unexpectedly breached this far. She had hurriedly hidden in the secret room, only to be discovered by Su Jianting.
The hidden weapon she had just used to fire countless poisoned needles was called the Storm of Pear Blossoms.
It was a device Shen Lang had invented specifically for her self-defense.
***
Seeing Xiao Bing, Su Jianting's eyes lit up.
He knew Xiao Bing, of course, but he had last seen her as a child and never imagined she would grow into such a beautiful woman.
Xiao Bing had become an exceptional woman, with a face that still held a touch of youthfulness and a full, mature figure.
If the engagement hadn't been broken back then, this girl would have married into his family along with Mulan.
So, in a way, wasn't the girl before him someone who could have been his woman?
Su Jianting's voice was different from when he ordered his men as he asked Xiao Bing,
“What are you doing here?”
Xiao Bing frowned and did not answer.
Su Jianting entered the secret room and found a basin on the floor filled with burnt ashes.
He asked in a cold voice,
“What were you burning in here just now?”
Xiao Bing still didn't answer.
Instead, she was muttering to herself inwardly,
“I can't be a traitor. I can't be a traitor.”
Su Jianting pressed a sharp sword to her throat and said coldly,
“If you don't answer by the count of three, I'll slit your throat. You'll watch the blood spurt from your body as you grow cold and die.”
Xiao Bing trembled in fear, clenching her legs together.
She felt like she was about to wet herself in terror.
“One! Two! Three!”
Su Jianting's sword drew a fine red line of blood.
Xiao Bing shivered, thinking to herself,
“I'm going to die, I'm going to die! I regret it so much. Why did I have to be so clever on our wedding night? If I hadn't, I would have slept with Shen Lang a hundred times by now! I'm dead, I'm dead...”
All sorts of frantic thoughts raced through Xiao Bing's mind.
But after a moment, she realized she wasn't dead.
Su Jianting's sword had only broken the skin on her neck; it hadn't cut an artery.
To think that even a cowardly girl could be so loyal.
Now, Su Jianting no longer cared what she had burned.
The crucial thing was to find that object—the object on which the fate of the Su Clan rested.
His father had ordered him to find and seize it, no matter the cost.
“Search!”
Two masters began to search the entire secret room.
They smashed countless of Shen Lang's medicine vials as they searched, but they still couldn't find the wooden box.
Su Jianting frowned.
*‘Where on earth did the Count of Xuanwu hide it? If it's not in the library, it will be difficult to find elsewhere. Searching for it in this vast estate is like finding a needle in a haystack.’*
An idea quickly came to Su Jianting.
He kept his sword at Xiao Bing's throat and said,
“Let's go. To the main hall!”
***
Dressed in black and wearing masks, Su Jianting and his dozen or so masters dragged Xiao Bing into the estate's main hall.
Everyone inside cried out in shock.
The main hall was filled with only the elderly, women, and children.
The Countess was even more horrified when she saw them.
*‘How did they get in? The estate's walls are guarded on all sides, and there's been no word of a breach.’*
She soon recognized one of the figures.
Even with his face covered, she could tell.
It was Su Jianting, her own nephew.
No wonder. He was familiar with the Count of Xuanwu's Estate and could sneak in undetected.
The Su Clan was her maiden family.
She couldn't believe what they were doing.
*‘When the Count of Xuanwu's Estate is in crisis, not only do you refuse to help, but you kick us when we're down. Before, you lent masters to Count Tang Lun of Jinhai, forcing a draw in the Gold Mountain Island military contest and nearly ruining Shen Lang's plans. And now, you're launching a sneak attack on the estate. Can you truly call yourselves relatives? You are more venomous than our enemy, the Tang Clan. Why? Why?’*
The Countess immediately tried to shout Su Jianting's name.
Su Jianting noticed and said coldly,
“Keep your mouth shut. If you say my name, I'll have no choice but to kill everyone here!”
The Countess fell silent, then cried out,
“What do you want? What do you all want?”
“Isn't it obvious what I want? Hand over the secret letter our grandfather sent to the Jin Clan over twenty years ago.”
The Countess was stunned, but then she understood.
She knew about that secret letter.
Over twenty years ago, the political situation in the State of Yue was unprecedentedly complex.
The state was at war with the State of Wu externally, while internally, two princes were vying for the throne.
Ning Yuanxian was the Crown Prince at the time and had the support of the civil officials.
The Zhu Clan, in particular, lent him great strength by marrying their official daughter to him.
Ning Yuanwu was the eldest son and had the support of the military and many generals.
He had achieved brilliant military victories and possessed astounding momentum.
Because of this, Ning Yuanxian was at a disadvantage in the struggle for the throne.
During the great war with the State of Wu, Ning Yuanwu personally led his troops, charging into enemy lines, defeating them, and capturing several cities.
Many generals followed his command exclusively.
The Count of Xuanwu's Estate maintained absolute neutrality at the time, not interfering in the succession struggle, as did Marquis Zhenyuan.
However, as Ning Yuanwu was on the verge of winning the throne, the Su Clan of Marquis Zhenyuan's estate grew anxious and sought to pledge their loyalty to him.
Believing their clan's support alone was not enough, they tried to pull in the Jin Clan to stand with them on Ning Yuanwu's side.