There is a god in the sky

Chapter 283 The City God Temple Turmoil 10

A quarter before midnight, a horse-drawn carriage slowly approached.

Xiao Ji was still with Shen Lan with him. The coachman was Uncle Liao, whose eagle eyes were fixed on the front, and his body was in a ready-to-attack posture.

The City God Temple is usually not locked at night, so no thieves would come here to cause trouble.

But tonight the gates are tightly shut, and there isn't a single light in the temple; it's quiet as if no one is there.

"There isn't a fixed location in front of the City God Temple. Does it necessarily mean this place?" Shen Lan lifted the carriage curtain and looked outside.

Uncle Liao reassured her, "Miss Shen, don't be afraid. A tight net has been laid all around, and no one will be able to escape easily."

The carriage waited quietly by the roadside for a quarter of an hour.

At midnight, the sky was covered with dark clouds, as if a thunderstorm was brewing.

"Whoa..." came the sound of a horse neighing, followed by the rumble of a carriage wheels, approaching from afar.

Everyone stared intently in that direction until a carriage appeared.

The guards, who were lying in wait, were ready to fire a volley of arrows at their master's command and kill the horse on the spot.

It's only a street away, but time seems to pass very slowly.

Liao Wude suddenly stood up, startling the two people in the carriage.

Shen Lan instinctively stepped in front of Xiao Ji, until a hand landed on her shoulder and Xiao Ji's gentle voice came from beside her ear, "Go to the back."

From outside came Uncle Liao's surprised voice: "Young Master, there's no one driving that carriage."

As soon as he finished speaking, they saw Uncle Liao leap high into the air, landing directly on the roof of the carriage, and then jump to the driver's position to bring the carriage under control.

Sui Feng led the first group of guards out and surrounded the carriage.

When they opened the car door, they saw a man lying inside, bound hand and foot.

“Alive!” Sui Feng said after checking.

"Bring the person out for a look first."

Xiao Ji jumped off the carriage, his steps hurried. He knew at a glance that the man was one of the assassins who had tried to kill the Crown Prince.

Although these assassins were dressed differently, they all wore hats of the same style.

"Check him for anything on him."

Sui Feng fumbled around for a moment and pulled a letter from the man's chest.

It read: "In the dead of night, mobilizing so many people, Lord Xiao is far too cowardly."

There was even a smiley face drawn after that sentence.

If it were someone with a thin skin, they would have been furious by now.

But Xiao Ji secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

It seems they were wrong; this person is a friend, not an enemy.

But who would send someone to him in this way? And if he was sending an assassin, why only one?

He looked around and saw that some residents had their doors and windows open to peek out, but when they noticed him, they quickly closed them.

It seems impossible to find that person.

"Let's go, let's take the person back first."

The Xiao family members all left. It was a large group of people, and we thought there was going to be a big battle, but it turned out to be a false alarm.

The Imperial Guard leaned closer and asked, "What exactly happened?"

Sui Feng chuckled and replied, "It's nothing, it's just that we adults received a message late at night and came out to catch the thief."

Zhang Xinghui had fought the assassin that morning and recognized his attire. Pointing to the person being carried by the guards, he said, "You caught the assassin so quickly?"

How could there be an assassin here?

They had searched every house in the area, even the cellars.

The Xiao family ignored him because they couldn't explain how he came to be there.

You can't say it was delivered to your door automatically.

Xiao Ji interrogated the assassin overnight, but Shen Lan did not participate.

The next day, when she went to the yamen, she heard that Lord Xiao had led Constable Xing and his men to capture the assassin.

Just as she was about to head to the morgue, she saw Ji Zeqian running over in a panic, shouting, "Something's wrong! The body is missing!"

The crowd was puzzled. "What body is missing?"

"It's just that... one of the assassins' bodies we brought back yesterday is missing."

Surprisingly, everyone's first reaction was not anxiety, but fear.

"Could it be that it's come back to life?"

“Impossible!” Ji Zeqian immediately retorted.

He personally witnessed the dissection of the corpse. If it could rise from the dead, that would be terrible.

Shen Lan walked over and said, "I'll go take a look."

When Shen Lan learned that the first corpse she had dissected had disappeared, she had a hunch.

The deceased was not part of the group of assassins.

"Did you notice yesterday that the deceased wasn't wearing a hat?"

Ji Zeqian was stunned by the question. How could he have noticed such a detail?

And what does it mean that he wasn't wearing a hat? Maybe he was killed and left at the scene?

The government didn't send heavy guards to places like the morgue; there was only an old man with white hair watching the door and doing some cleaning.

He's very hard of hearing; he can't answer a single question even if you ask him three.

Shen Lan had no choice but to go back and wait for Xiao Ji, hoping that he would allow her to see Zhang Xinghui again.

Xiao Ji and his group didn't return until almost noon, and they were all dejected, showing that they hadn't gained anything.

Upon seeing Shen Lan, Xiao Ji told her directly, "The assassin has already escaped and cannot be tracked down."

"But what did that person confess last night?"

"Yes, he told us about the escape route and gathering point that the leader had arranged, but we found nothing there."

"How was he arrested?"

"He said he was arrested before the assassination attempt and locked in a dark room where he could neither hear nor see any light until he was thrown onto a carriage at night."

Shen Lan excitedly grabbed him and said, "I have a guess. Someone must have replaced him. It's that assassin who wasn't very good at martial arts, the one who was killed by Zhang Xinghui."

After listening to her recount the disappearance of the body, Xiao Ji lowered his head in thought, "What was his purpose in replacing the assassin?"

And since he's dead, who took his body away?

In a grove of trees on the outskirts of Beijing, several men were digging a hole.

The body covered with a white sheet next to them was the one Shen Lan and the others were looking for.

“These government officials are so heartless. They actually cut up Ah Sheng’s body. We should have gone to steal the body sooner.”

"They were also investigating the case, and I saw that Ah Sheng's appearance was well taken care of. It's a pity that we can't give him a grand funeral."

"Didn't the Lord say that he would burn lots and lots of paper money for him so that he would be a rich man in his next life?"

No one can say for sure what will happen in the next life.

But the death of their companion still made everyone very sad.

"He died unjustly. He originally intended to stay on the sidelines and run away when things got bad, but he ended up getting entangled by the Imperial Guards."

"The situation was chaotic at the time, and we didn't have time to save him. We could only watch helplessly as his body was taken away by the authorities."

"And the young master is also injured, I don't know how he is."

"Don't worry, that injury is nothing to the imperial physician. He'll definitely be able to heal it. As for his mission... I wonder if my little master will be able to come out alive."

They all knew what Li Ye's mission was, but they couldn't help him.

To kill a highly skilled martial arts master, having more people won't be effective.

Moreover, they did not understand why their master wanted the young master to kill Zhou Ru.