The Smiling, Proud Wanderer, becoming a disciple of Yue Buqun

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The woman nestled against Lord Zhang's chest and said sweetly, "His Majesty has lifted your confinement; this is truly a cause for celebration."

Lord Zhang was overjoyed upon hearing this.

"Of course, I am the emperor's uncle, how could he really confine me to my quarters?"

Today, his wife went to the palace to see the Empress Dowager. The Empress Dowager made it clear that the young emperor had been released from confinement at her request, and not only that, but his salary deduction was also waived.

Lord Zhang was beaming with pride.

So what if you're the emperor? Your own mother is my sister.

"Okay, I'm hungry too."

Lord Zhang patted the woman.

"Go and ask the kitchen staff to prepare some food."

Although the woman was also tired, she obediently got up, put on her clothes, pushed open the door, and went out.

After lying in bed for a while, Lord Zhang also started to get up and dress, but when he was halfway dressed, he suddenly heard a noise behind him.

As soon as Lord Zhang turned his head, he found that he could no longer move.

Jiang Ning withdrew his hand.

He had already struck Lord Zhang's pressure points, rendering him unable to move, though he could still speak.

"It's you?"

Lord Zhang's pupils contracted when he saw the man's appearance.

"Are you Chen Qingyuan's nephew?"

Upon seeing Jiang Ning's appearance, Lord Zhang was immediately enraged.

"What are you doing here at my Marquis's residence? Did Chen Qingyuan send you?"

"I'll take you on your way."

Jiang Ning smiled, but the smile was somewhat cold.

"what?"

Lord Zhang's pupils contracted again, and he instinctively sensed something was wrong. He was about to shout for help when Jiang Ning pressed his mute acupoint, rendering him unable to make a sound.

Lord Zhang looked at Jiang Ning with a look of horror.

After immobilizing Lord Zhang, Jiang Ning could kill him at any time, but he didn't intend to kill him with a single sword strike; the crimes he had committed didn't warrant such a simplistic death.

Jiang Ning took out a tinderbox from his pocket, lit it, and set Zhang Houye's clothes on fire. The flames began to spread along the clothes.

Lord Zhang's eyes were filled with terror; he could already feel the burning pain.

At this moment, his pressure points were all sealed, rendering him unable to move or speak. He could only watch helplessly as he spontaneously combusted.

Chapter 423: Leaving the Capital

A burning sensation and excruciating pain washed over him, and Lord Zhang's eyes widened, veins bulging on his forehead.

The intense pain nearly made him faint.

why!

Lord Zhang roared inwardly.

The other party was Chen Qingyuan's nephew, so it must be someone Chen Qingyuan sent to kill him. He couldn't understand why.

How could a civil official be so ruthless? He even dared to lay a hand on someone who was a member of the imperial family.

Jiang Ning then set fire to several other places, fueling the fire, and spoke up.

"You think you're royalty and that no one dares to touch you, so you act recklessly, arrogant and domineering, bullying the people and killing countless individuals, and yet you've gotten away with it all these years, huh?"

Jiang Ning's voice was very soft, but it sent chills down Lord Zhang's spine.

What on earth do you want to do?!

Lord Zhang roared inwardly.

“I went to a family’s house. The family of three was originally happy and content. You forcibly took someone else’s wife and burned the husband, son and house to ashes. I’ll let you taste that bitterness too.”

Jiang Ning said.

The fire grew larger and larger, and soon Lord Zhang was engulfed in flames.

Jiang Ning took a step back, looking at Lord Zhang, who had become a human torch, with no emotion in his eyes.

After watching for a while, Jiang Ning set the house on fire. The fire spread rapidly and soon turned the room into a sea of ​​flames.

Jiang Ning prepared to leave, glancing back at the burning figure in the sea of ​​fire before walking away without leaving a trace.

Before long, the situation here immediately attracted the attention of the other people in the Marquis's mansion, and the entire mansion was thrown into chaos.

"Firefighting!"

"Quickly put out the fire!"

The servants of the Marquis's mansion rushed toward the fire when they saw it in the distance, but some of them were killed on their way, and others died before they could even leave the house.

However, these things went unnoticed because of the fire.

After Jiang Ning finished doing all this, he left.

After leaving the Marquis's residence, Jiang Ning headed towards the city gate, the same direction he had come from.

Before long, they arrived at the city gate. The same few soldiers were still guarding the city. Taking advantage of their inattention, Jiang Ning climbed down the city wall and left the capital.

call out!call out!

Jiang Ning's figure rose and fell in the night.

In fact, with his martial arts skills, killing an ordinary person wouldn't require such a complicated process, but the other party was, after all, a marquis, and this was the capital city, so he had to be cautious and careful.

……

Zhu Shou was very angry.

He sat in the chair with a gloomy face, not saying a word.

The other eunuchs in the hall didn't dare to breathe.

They didn't know why Zhu Shou was angry. They only knew that Zhu Shou returned from Kunning Palace with a gloomy face and then remained silent, creating a very frightening atmosphere.

As servants, they dared not go up and ask what had happened, for fear of incurring Zhu Shou's wrath.

At this moment, Zhu Shou's breathing became somewhat heavy as he forcibly suppressed the anger in his heart.

Not long after he returned to the palace, the Empress Dowager sent someone to the Qianqing Palace again, asking him to go to the Kunning Palace. Zhu Shou went, but to his surprise, the Empress Dowager told him that she had informed Zhang Yanling's wife in his name to lift Zhang Yanling's confinement and to waive his salary penalty. She had not consulted him beforehand and was only telling him now.

Zhu Shou was furious and had a big argument with the Empress Dowager. The Empress Dowager angrily pointed at him and told him to leave Kunning Palace.

"I am the Empress Dowager, your mother. Even when the late emperor was alive, he never treated me like this. Do you intend to disobey me? Do you think that just because you've become emperor, you don't have to listen to me anymore?"

The Empress Dowager's words kept echoing in Zhu Shou's mind.

"Do you think I'm the emperor?"

Zhu Shou's face was cold, and the muscles beneath his skin twitched incessantly.

As an emperor, his authority was so severely challenged, and the one who challenged him was none other than his own mother.

Zhu Shou closed his eyes, his mind involuntarily recalling the time when the late emperor was still alive.

He recalled an incident that had occurred in the palace eight years ago.

At that time, his father was still alive and invited the Empress, who is now Empress Dowager Zhang's two younger brothers, Zhang Yanling and Zhang Heling, to the palace for a banquet. During the banquet, his father went to the toilet, and Zhang Heling, Empress Dowager Zhang's younger brother, took advantage of his father's absence to put the emperor's winged crown on his own head. When a eunuch stopped him, he was beaten to death by Empress Dowager Zhang.

Apart from this incident, the following year, Empress Zhang's two brothers entered the palace and raped palace maids, but under Empress Zhang's protection, nothing happened.

Zhu Shou's eyelids twitched as he recalled these past events.

"Do you think I can be manipulated at will just because I'm the emperor?"

Zhu Shou was furious.

His relationship with the Empress Dowager was already somewhat cold, and after this argument, their relationship plummeted to its lowest point.

Zhu Shou wanted to deal with Zhang Yanling and Zhang Heling, but because of Empress Dowager Zhang, he was unable to do so.

Moreover, as long as Empress Dowager Zhang lived, he could do nothing about the Zhang brothers, Yanling and Zhang Yanling.

Even an emperor has times when he is helpless.

Zhu Shou was both angry and helpless at this moment.

Just then, a eunuch rushed in from outside the hall, looking panicked, and knelt before Zhu Shou.

"Your Majesty, something terrible has happened."

Zhu Shou was in a fit of anger at the moment, and when he saw the eunuch so flustered, he couldn't help but frown.

"what's up?"

"The Marquis of Jianchang's residence is on fire!"

The eunuch hurriedly said.

The Marquis of Jianchang's residence?

That was Zhang Yanling's residence.

"Fire?"

Upon hearing this news, Zhu Shou was startled and asked, "What's the situation now? Has anyone been injured?"

The eunuch still looked panicked.

"It was the residence of one of the Marquis's concubines that caught fire. The Marquis happened to be there at the time. He was unable to escape when the fire broke out and unfortunately perished in the flames."

Upon hearing this news, Zhu Shou's eyes widened, and he immediately stood up.

You're saying the Marquis of Jianchang was burned to death?

"Yes, Your Majesty, the Marquis was found burned to a crisp."

The eunuch hurriedly replied.

Upon receiving confirmation, Zhu Shou was momentarily stunned.

At this point, he calmed down and asked, "Have you found out what caused the fire? Has anyone else died?"

The eunuch hurriedly replied, "The specific cause is still unclear and under investigation, but besides the Marquis, many other servants in the Marquis's residence have died mysteriously for unknown reasons."

Upon hearing this, Zhu Shou narrowed his eyes slightly.

After a while.

"Someone, go and fetch Mu Bin."

……

"Don't kill me, don't kill me."

A man knelt before Jiang Ning, kowtowing and begging for mercy.

However, he was met only with a fleeting glint of sword light.

After killing the man, Jiang Ning turned and left.

After leaving the capital, Jiangning did not go north, but instead headed south directly to Shandong.

After leaving Dengfeng, he had been searching for those unorthodox people who had fled from Songshan. Although he found quite a few along the way, he still missed some. In the end, he lost all trace of these people. Jiang Ning then went to the capital for a visit and then went south to Shandong.

He remembered that among the martial arts figures who surrounded Mount Hua last year, there were many forces. There were too many forces to know all of them, even with the intelligence provided by the Hengshan Sect. But Jiang Ning remembered that one of these forces was in Shandong, called the Black Wind Society.

Jiang Ning had wanted to eliminate the Black Wind Society when he last came to Shandong, but the organization was too secretive and difficult to investigate. In addition, time was tight last time, so Jiang Ning temporarily put it aside. Now that he has returned to Shandong, he is ready to investigate it thoroughly.

As for the man from earlier, it was quite a coincidence.

Jiang Ning passed through a village, which happened to be ravaged by this man. After capturing him, Jiang Ning discovered that he was one of the unorthodox people who had escaped from Mount Song.

Originally, Jiang Ning couldn't find these people anymore, but unexpectedly, he ran into one after leaving the capital. What a coincidence!

However, under Jiang Ning's interrogation, the man did not know the whereabouts of the other unorthodox people who had also fled down Mount Song, which Jiang Ning found quite regrettable. In the end, Jiang Ning still sent him on his way.