215: Chapter 215 Crushing

The next moment, the blade of the previously plain-looking dagger instantly lit up with a layer of golden light as dazzling as flowing light, and a sharp, indestructible Aura surged forth from it!

Gao Feng could even clearly feel that after the dagger was activated, its sharpness instantly increased several times over!

Its sharpness was likely already comparable to those legendary Sharp Weapons!

"Good! A truly good 'Demonic-Breaking Dagger'!" Gao Feng's eyes were filled with undisguised appreciation. "Gongshu Qiao, you have done well!"

"Convey my imperial decree!" Gao Feng turned his head and ordered the attendant beside him in a deep voice, "Appoint Gongshu Qiao as 'Junior Supervisor of the Tiangong Pavilion', enjoying the salary of a fifth-rank official! Grant her free access to all Forbidden Grounds of the Tiangong Pavilion and the right to utilize all resources! I want you to equip at least ten thousand special elites capable of using this kind of Demonic Energy weapon for me within one year!"

Upon receiving such high praise and rewards from Your Majesty, Gongshu Qiao's delicate, pretty face instantly flushed red. She was so excited that she could barely speak, and could only bow deeply to Gao Feng again and again to express her gratitude.

Meanwhile, Gongshu Ban, watching his granddaughter being entrusted with such an important task by Your Majesty, had a smile on his wrinkled old face like a blooming chrysanthemum, filled with unparalleled pride and joy.

He knew that the future of their Gongshu family, as well as the future of the entire Tiangong Pavilion, would blossom in the hands of this Genius girl with a brilliance more dazzling than ever before!

A brand-new military revolution led by technology had quietly begun within this small, slightly cluttered workshop.

Just as the spark of technology was thoroughly ignited within the Tiangong Pavilion of the Wu Dynasty, and a vigorous military-technological revolution was in full swing, the distant Taixi Empire did not stop their expansion due to that small defeat at the Tianshan Pass.

On the contrary, that conflict was like a drop of water falling into a calm pan of hot oil, completely infuriating this behemoth entrenched in the West, causing them to focus their eyes, filled with greed and fanaticism, truly upon this ancient and rich Eastern continent.

However, the ones they dispatched this time were no longer those heavily armored, rampaging Temple Knights, but a group of silent shadows walking in the darkness, as lethal as vipers.

They were the secret agents of the Inquisition, the most mysterious and terrifying organization under the Church of Light.

In the winter of the twelfth year of Qiyuan, when the first heavy snow covered the vast Anbei Protectorate in a world of silver, an invisible undercurrent began to surge wildly beneath this seemingly calm land.

These secret agents from the Inquisition were elites who had emerged only after the most rigorous and bloody selection and training.

They were proficient in all shady methods such as disguise, infiltration, assassination, and subversion. Their faith in the god of light had long been twisted into a cold fanaticism that allowed them to abandon all humanity and emotion.

Their infiltration was silent, yet lethal.

In Zhenyuan City of the Anbei Protectorate, Zhang Wenyuan, the Senior Clerk, an upright official deeply loved by the local people and the surrendered grassland tribes, was found dead in his heavily guarded study on a dark and windy night.

His throat had been cut with a single stroke of an extremely sharp thin blade, and his face still retained the focused expression he had while reviewing official documents before his death. There were no traces of a struggle at the scene, and not even the slightest Aura of the murderer could be detected.

Half a month later, General Li, the Grand Commandant responsible for managing border provisions and ordnance, was on his way to inspect the military camps when his carriage exploded violently without warning!

The entire carriage, along with General Li and his four personal guards, were blown to pieces, leaving no remains.

After an investigation, the source of the explosion turned out to be a strange crystal the size of a fist, filled with some unknown energy, which had been cleverly placed under the axle.

For a time, the entire officialdom of the Anbei Protectorate fell into a panic where everyone feared for their own safety.

In addition to the precise and lethal assassinations targeting important officials of the Wu Dynasty, these agents of the Inquisition extended their sinful tentacles into those grassland tribes that had only recently surrendered to the Wu Dynasty and whose hearts were still unsettled.

They used some grassland scum bribed with heavy gold as cover to quietly spread the teachings of the so-called "god of light" among the herdsmen who felt lost due to the loss of their past faith.

They claimed that the god of light was the only supreme True God in this world. As long as one devoutly believed in him, one could receive his endless blessings, and after death, the Soul could ascend to the "Kingdom of God" filled with milk and honey to obtain eternal life.

And the Emperor of the Wu Dynasty was a false god who had stolen the authority of the gods and was a tyrant who needed to be overthrown.

They would even occasionally display some "Holy Light" methods that appeared like miracles to the simple herdsmen, such as healing minor injuries or conjuring food and fresh water out of thin air.

Although these despicable methods were crude, they had an extremely significant effect among the herdsmen who generally had low education levels and relatively difficult lives.

Signs of unrest began to appear in some tribes, and some young herdsmen even began to gather secretly, offering fanatical prayers to the ethereal god of light, with the fire called "ambition" reignited in their eyes.

Darkness spread rapidly across this frozen land like a plague.

However, the Inquisition had ultimately underestimated their opponent.

What they were facing was the vast and precise intelligence agency personally created by the Wu Dynasty Emperor Gao Feng, which was also hidden in the shadows of the Empire—Tianwang!

And at this moment, the one personally sitting in command in this Anbei Protectorate, engaging in a fierce shadow war with this group of dark travelers from foreign lands, was the supreme commander of Tianwang, the legendary figure who had once stirred up the winds and clouds of the entire world with his own strength and made countless princes and generals tremble with fear—Gu Shenwei!

Upon learning of the series of strange cases occurring at the border, Gu Shenwei, who had long sensed the scent of danger, did not hesitate and secretly arrived at the capital of the Anbei Protectorate, Zhenyuan City, with the most elite "Xuan-class" agents of Tianwang.

He did not conduct a city-wide search with great fanfare, because he knew that doing so would only alert the enemy. These agents of the Inquisition were like a group of cunning rats; once they sensed danger, they would immediately retreat into their dark nests, making them impossible to find again.

Gu Shenwei chose a more clever and lethal method—weaving a net.

With Zhenyuan City as the center, he used the intelligence network of Tianwang, which had long penetrated every corner of society like capillaries, to spread an invisible net throughout the territory of the Anbei Protectorate.

Every new foreign face appearing in the border area, whether he was a merchant, a monk, or a wandering entertainer, had his background, words, deeds, and contacts summarized on Gu Shenwei's desk immediately.

Every grain shop, tavern, blacksmith shop, and even every brothel in the city was filled with Tianwang's informants. Any slight movement could not escape his sharp eyes that seemed to be able to see through people's hearts.

Soon, a fur shop opened by a Taixi merchant called "Holy Light Chamber of Commerce" entered Gu Shenwei's sight.

On the surface, this chamber of commerce looked no different from other chambers of commerce, but according to the report of the Tianwang agent, the manager of this chamber of commerce, a blonde and blue-eyed Taixi person named "John," was not contacting those who had business dealings with him, but rather some disreputable and idle thugs and rascals in the grassland tribes.

Moreover, the consumption of goods by this chamber of commerce was completely disproportionate to their pitifully small sales volume; large amounts of food and money were consumed like water, yet no decent furs were ever seen being shipped out.

"Interesting."

Gu Shenwei looked at the detailed secret report in his hand, and a cold smile, like a hunter seeing prey, appeared on his handsome but slightly pale face, which always carried a faint, elusive smile.

"Pass on my order: conduct twenty-four-hour uninterrupted, highest-level surveillance on this 'Holy Light Chamber of Commerce'. I not only want to know what they eat and what they excrete every day, I also want to know every word they say and every dream they have!"

Under the cover of Gu Shenwei's invisible net, the actions of the Inquisition's agents, which they thought were seamless, were already seen clearly and fully exposed, like clowns performing under a spotlight.

On a snowy night, when two Inquisition agents once again disguised themselves as grassland herdsmen, carrying large amounts of money and grain, and attempted to infiltrate a large tribe called "Black Wolf" with a population of nearly ten thousand to subvert the young Clan Chief who had already been corrupted by them, a net of death prepared for them quietly tightened.

When they had just stepped into the seemingly unguarded gate of the Black Wolf tribe's camp, built from huge logs, dozens of Tianwang agents who had long been lying in ambush nearby, wearing snow camouflage suits and holding the latest "Armor-Piercing divine arm crossbows," jumped up from the thick snow like ghosts!

"Swish! Swish! Swish!"

Dozens of divine arm crossbow bolts, flashing with a blood-colored cold light, instantly sealed off all evasion space for the two Inquisition agents amidst the shrill sound of breaking air!

Although the two agents were quite strong, having both reached the "Punisher" level at the sixth-rank Peak, and had activated the soft armor they wore close to their bodies, which was engraved with defensive Demonic Energy runes, at the very first moment.

However, in the face of this nearly saturated strike specifically developed to restrain them, all their resistance appeared so futile.

In just a single instant, both of them were shot into two flesh-mangled hedgehogs by the dense rain of arrows, and they died on the spot without even being able to let out a scream.

At the same time, within Zhenyuan City, the headquarters of the "Holy Light Chamber of Commerce" was also subjected to a lightning raid by the "Xuan" rank elites of Tianwang.

Led by Gu Shenwei, dozens of Tianwang experts, like death gods descending from the sky, silently eliminated all the open and hidden sentries of the chamber of commerce.

When they kicked open the door to the secret chamber located in the deepest part of the chamber of commerce, that person named "John," the head of the Inquisition's Zhenyuan City branch, was still leisurely tasting fine wine from the Taixi Empire.

Facing this group of Men in Black who appeared suddenly like ghosts and exuded cold Killing Intent, a look named "fear" appeared on John's face for the first time.

He attempted to activate the powerful life-saving alchemical item on his body to put up a final resistance, but how could Gu Shenwei give him that chance?

A sword light, faster than lightning and more sinister than a viper, flashed and vanished.

John's head, filled with shock and disbelief, shot up into the sky, traced a bloody parabola in mid-air, and finally rolled to the corner with a "gurgle."

This lightning counterattack by Tianwang was precise, efficient, and lethal.

With zero casualties, they uprooted and completely destroyed the intelligence network that the Inquisition had painstakingly operated in the Anbei Protectorate for several months!

However, Gu Shenwei did not feel even the slightest bit of relief because of this.

Because he knew that what he had wiped out this time were merely the outermost pawns sent by the Inquisition to test the waters.

The truly formidable ones, those ace assassins hiding in the deeper darkness, had not yet appeared.

Sure enough, not long after Gu Shenwei successfully shattered the opponent's first round of infiltration plots, a more dangerous and lethal assassination attempt targeting him personally arrived quietly.

That was during a trip when Gu Shenwei was personally leading a team to inspect the defenses of a remote border outpost.

When his convoy traveled to a strategically dangerous "A Thread of Sky" canyon with steep cliffs on both sides, a sudden, violent explosion sounded without warning at both the entrance and exit of the canyon!

"Boom—!!!"

Accompanied by two deafening roars, countless giant rocks, pre-installed with high-explosive Demonic Energy crystals, crashed down from the cliffs on both sides, instantly sealing both ends of the entire canyon completely!

Gu Shenwei's convoy was like a turtle in a jar, tightly trapped in this narrow, inescapable dead end!

"Ambush! Protect the Lord!"

The accompanying Tianwang secret agents were shocked but not panicked.

They immediately drew their weapons, surrounded the carriage Gu Shenwei was riding in, and vigilantly scanned the eerily silent cliffs all around.

Just at this moment, a cold voice, full of magnetism but devoid of any emotion, sounded without warning in everyone's ears like a ghost.

"Tianwang commander Gu Shenwei. We have been waiting for you here for a long time."

Before the voice faded, a vigorous figure, like an eagle spreading its wings, leaped silently from the hundred-zhang-high cliff on the left!

His movement technique was so light that it seemed to completely ignore the existence of gravity.

As he fell, he spread his arms, just like a real goshawk, gliding through the air in a beautiful and lethal arc, and finally landed silently on a protruding rock in the center of the canyon.

This was a man wearing black tight-fitting leather armor and a silver falcon mask on his face.

In his hands, he held two strangely shaped, sharp short blades resembling eagle claws, and his entire body exuded a lethal Aura as sharp and aloof as a falcon.

And on the other side, on the cliff to the right, a figure completely different from him appeared at the same time.

That was a terrifying giant with an extremely burly and sturdy build, at least two meters tall, with muscles all over his body bulging high like granite!

He was shirtless, revealing bronze skin filled with explosive power.

On his face, he wore a Leigong mask that looked as ferocious as a demon.

He did not use any weapons in his hands, but wrapped around his arms, which were thicker than an ordinary person's thighs, were visible, constantly flashing and leaping, violent blue electric arcs!

He did not leap down lightly like the falcon-masked man, but smashed down heavily like a meteorite from the hundred-zhang-high cliff!

"Boom—!!!"

A loud bang!

The ground of the entire canyon trembled violently because of it!

The place where he landed was actually smashed into a huge deep pit!

"Inquisition, 'Twelve Executors', codename 'Eagle'."

The falcon-masked man slowly introduced himself in his cold voice.

"Codename, 'Thunder'."

The Leigong-masked man spat out a few words in a muffled voice, his eyes hidden beneath the mask filled with violent, bloodthirsty Battle Intent.

These two were precisely two of the "Twelve Executors," the ace assassins within the Inquisition whose status was second only to the three Grand Inquisitors and who were specifically responsible for executing the highest-difficulty assassination missions!

The two of them, one open and one hidden, one fast and one slow, coordinated tacitly; working together, they had successfully assassinated kings and generals of several hostile nations, and their hands were already stained with the blood of endless experts!

And this time, their target was the supreme commander of Tianwang—Gu Shenwei!

Facing these two top assassins exuding the terrifying Aura of a seventh-order Grandmaster Peak, all the Tianwang secret agents present felt a tremendous pressure originating from the depths of their Souls!

However, as their assassination target, Gu Shenwei still wore that calm, indifferent smile on his handsome face, as if everything was under his control.

He slowly walked out of the carriage that had already been locked on, straightened his slightly wrinkled robe, looked at the two imposing uninvited guests before him, and spoke with a smile:

"To kill Gu, you actually dispatched two of the Inquisition's 'Twelve Executors'; you really think highly of me."

"However," Gu Shenwei's tone shifted, and a heart-palpitating, abyss-like cold glint flashed in his pitch-black eyes, "Do you think you have me cornered?"

"Less nonsense!"

The giant codenamed "Thunder" was clearly a person with little patience.

He roared, and the blue electric arcs wrapped around his body instantly surged several times over!

His massive body charged fiercely toward Gu Shenwei like a cannonball fired from a chamber!

Every step he took on the ground caused the entire ground to tremble violently!

A violent, immensely destructive power of thunder was crazily gathering on his fists!

However, just at the moment he was about to rush in front of Gu Shenwei, a sudden change occurred!

Dozens of huge iron chains that had been hidden underground, flashing with ominous cold light, suddenly burst out from the cracked ground like vipers emerging from their den!

These iron chains were actually engraved with runes filled with binding power, flickering with faint light!

They were like they had life, crazily winding around the Leigong-masked man's limbs and his massive body from an extremely tricky angle!

This was actually a trap prepared for them long ago!

"What?!"

The Leigong-masked man clearly did not expect that the opponent could actually predict their ambush in advance, and had even set a reverse trap for them here!

He roared, attempting to use his violent thunder power to shatter all the iron chains winding toward him!

However, these rune iron chains, specially made by Tiangong Pavilion and mixed with "Deep Sea Sinking Silver" and "Insulation Crystal," possessed toughness and binding power beyond imagination!

After his thunder power, capable of splitting mountains and shattering rocks, struck these iron chains, it was actually quickly guided and dissipated by more than half by the runes engraved on them!

In just a moment's delay, his massive body was tied into a solid, immobile dumpling by the dozens of rune iron chains!

And just at this moment, on the other side, the falcon-masked man codenamed "Eagle," who had been waiting for an opportunity to launch a lethal strike, felt a sudden, intense warning in his heart!

An extreme sense of danger, sufficient to make the hair all over his body stand on end, suddenly attacked from behind him!

Without even thinking, he immediately abandoned the idea of assassinating Gu Shenwei, and his vigorous body rolled to the side in an extreme maneuver like a civet cat!

"Shh!"

A sound of breaking air, so subtle it was almost imperceptible, flew past his scalp!

A strand of silver hair slowly drifted down from his temple.

Breaking out in a cold sweat, he turned back abruptly to look, only to see that at the position where he had just been standing, a mysterious person had appeared, wearing black night-traveling clothes, also wearing a ghost mask on their face, and holding a slender soft sword that was constantly spitting out pitch-black sword light like a viper.

This mysterious person seemed to have appeared out of thin air; beforehand, he hadn't even been able to sense the slightest bit of Aura!

"Tianwang, 'Xuan' rank Number One, greets the two of you."

The ghost-masked person said slowly in a hoarse and cold voice.

Watching this dramatic scene before him, the smile on Gu Shenwei's face deepened.

He walked slowly to the Leigong-masked man, who was still struggling crazily but could never break free from the binding of the rune iron chains, squatted down to look at his eyes filled with anger and unwillingness, and spoke softly:

"I know that before you 'Twelve Executors' joined the Inquisition, you were all top experts of the various principalities on the Western continent."

"The reason you chose to work for that hypocritical Church of Light is nothing more than being blinded by their hypocritical lies about 'God's Kingdom' and 'Eternal Life'."

"But, do you really believe it?"

Gu Shenwei's voice seemed to carry a certain strange magic, directly penetrating the opponent's body and interrogating his Soul.