548: Chapter 548 Irrefutable Evidence

They were really going to kill Wu Chuanqiong?! He was a disciple of the Sweeping Monk, a genuine Martial Arts Grandmaster!

Fortunately, Leng Bingyan looked troubled.

"Uh..."

"What is it?" Xiao Qingxuan asked.

"Qing'er, the Xuanming Ice Soul ice is too hard. If I strike it with my sword, his head might shatter."

"Isn't Su Wansha here?" Xiao Qingxuan rolled her eyes at her.

"Let me do it."

Su Wansha smiled knowingly, then channeled the Red Lotus of Karma, striking Wu Chuanqiong's frozen head with a burst of Red Lotus Karma Fire!

Princess Lanyi felt this scorching internal energy and her pupils dilated in shock once more!

A Martial Arts Grandmaster!?

This merchant woman, who spent her days surrounded by the stench of gold and silver, was actually a Grandmaster too!?

Then what did that make her own lifelong pursuit of martial arts, her so-called "literary and martial excellence"!?

A sense of unwillingness and powerlessness left Princess Lanyi with a complex mix of emotions.

She had prided herself on being an unparalleled woman, yet the three women before her were each more outrageous than the last!!

If not for the dazzling brilliance of the Prince of Zhenbei, any one of these women, if left to their own devices, would have shocked the world!

Because of the disparity in their power levels, Su Wansha's fire did not melt the Xuanming Ice quickly.

But weakening the thickness was enough.

Leng Bingyan didn't care that Wu Chuanqiong's eyes were still moving, nor did she care about the pleading in the old man's eyes; with one strike of her sword, she cleanly severed his head.

Then, carrying the head, she stepped out with a light gait.

Princess Lanyi and the Haitang stared, dumbfounded, at the headless ice corpse, their minds buzzing!

Old Master Wu... was just gone like that!?

They never would have imagined that Leng Bingyan's hesitation wasn't out of fear of killing, but out of concern that the head wouldn't be severed cleanly!

"Ugh!!—"

When Wu Chuanqiong's blood sprayed out, the Haitang finally lost control and began to vomit!

"Princess Lanti, please. I will take you to the dungeon."

Su Wansha was quite polite, gesturing with her hand.

Princess Lanti wanted to argue, but when Su Wansha smiled and released a scorching heat from her body...

She instantly recoiled in fear.

The woman before her could incinerate both her and her servant without a trace with just a burst of fire!

The priority now was survival!

She warned herself to stay calm; she had to survive!

"Haitang, let's go..."

The Haitang was in a daze, and only after being tugged by Princess Lanyi did she follow, sobbing.

At night.

Lin Xiao, who was on the road to Western Qiang, was practicing diligently in an independent camp with Mu Wanying and Zhao Caiwei.

During a break, he discovered a message sent via carrier pigeon from Su Chang.

After reading the contents, Lin Xiao couldn't help but scratch his head.

"Is Princess Lanyi really this stupid? Is she not on good terms with her father?"

Mu Wanying and Zhao Caiwei also found it absurd. The Zhenbei Army was worrying about having no reason to invade Baiyue, yet someone dared to attempt an "assassination"?

The key was that Wu Chuanqiong was no nobody; his status was significant, and his influence was great!

"Husband, could it be that Princess Lanti also admires you and wants to marry into the Prince Wus Mansion, so... she sent you a token of allegiance?" Mu Wanying speculated.

"Impossible. If she wanted to send a token of allegiance, she shouldn't have tried to assassinate the Princess Consort," Zhao Caiwei said.

"Oh, our Princess Consort is highly skilled in martial arts; perhaps she knew that early on?" Mu Wanying said.

Lin Xiao waved his hand: "Stop guessing. Her true purpose doesn't matter at all, because she is inherently insignificant."

"Then what does Husband intend to do?" the two women asked curiously.

Lin Xiao pondered for a moment and said: "Regardless of what Prince Wu intends, Princess Lanti spied on our military secrets, and Wu Chuanqiong attempted to assassinate the Princess Consort. The Buddhist Sect and the Academy cannot escape responsibility!"

Lin Xiao naturally understood that Xiao Qingxuan must have "embellished" the story, but it didn't matter.

The woman intended to use this opportunity to take the South, which was not a bad strategy!

Who told you, Princess Lanti, to seek out Lü Sixian? Who told you to bring a Martial Arts Grandmaster to show off?

More importantly, who gave you the courage to try and drive a wedge between them as husband and wife?

You reap what you sow; you can't blame anyone else!

That night, Lin Xiao wrote down several orders and sent them back to Baishui.

Several days later, two shocking pieces of news spread across the land!

First, Zhao Yunting, who had just captured Donghai City, deployed troops to surround the Buddhist Sect's Tianyin Mountain!

Cutting off water! Cutting off food!

The reason was that the Buddhist Sect disciple Wu Chuanqiong had colluded with Princess Lanti in an attempt to assassinate the Princess Consort of Zhenbei. The Prince of Zhenbei was furious and demanded an explanation from the Buddhist Sect!

As one of the Five Great Sects of the Tianwu Continent, the Buddhist Sect had been highly revered since ancient times.

Sending troops to surround the mountain was a first in history!

Logically speaking, there were as many Buddhist followers and disciples under heaven as there were stars, and any movement from them would be something no noble could withstand.

But this time, facing the Prince of Zhenbei and the Zhenbei Army, no one dared to step forward to speak for the Buddhist Sect!

Even the elders of the Buddhist Sect acted like tortoises, not daring to clash directly with the Zhenbei Army.

The people of the world understood that the Buddhist Sect was truly afraid. If they clashed with the Zhenbei Army, it would give the Prince of Zhenbei a sufficient reason...

The outcome would likely be becoming the next Blade Mountain!

Second, the Academy's top expert, Martial Master Qi Songyuan, a leader among the Southern Confucian scholars and one of the Academy's powerful masters, was issued an "arrest warrant" by the Prince of Zhenbei!

Princess Lanti, a disciple of Qi Songyuan, had used the Academy's intelligence network to investigate military secrets in Baishui, and the evidence was irrefutable!

The Zhenbei Army suspected that the Baiyue Academy and the Prince Wus Mansion were colluding in a conspiracy.

Therefore, the Prince of Zhenbei demanded that the Academy clarify its position and hand over Qi Songyuan.

If Qi Songyuan did not surrender himself for interrogation in the Northern Territory within half a month, the Zhenbei Army would invade the Baiyue Academy!

Surrounding the Buddhist Sect! Issuing a warrant for a Master!

Either of these two events would have been a fantasy in the past!

But now, they were happening simultaneously!

What was even more bizarre was that whether it was the Academy, the Buddhist Sect, or even the Baiyue Prince Wus Mansion, upon learning that Princess Lanti had been imprisoned and Wu Chuanqiong had been beheaded and displayed, they all remained silent!

Even though the blades were already at their throats, they acted as if they didn't see it!

Everyone actually understood that whether the assassination and the theft of secrets were true or false didn't matter at all!

In the past, even with irrefutable proof, no one would have dared to move against the Academy, the Buddhist Sect, and the Prince Wus Mansion simultaneously.

The only reason these three parties were "tacitly" quiet was one thing—fear of the Prince of Zhenbei!

But silence ultimately had its limits; if one did not erupt in silence, one would die in it.

For a time, rumors swirled throughout the Great Gan, and the air was thick with suspicion.

No one knew when this calm before the storm would be broken!