Li Ye said that he was going to tear down the Prime Minister"s Manor, so he really did it.
In the face of many masters of the Prime Minister"s Manor, Li Ye waved his hand, and the officials of the Chang"an Office rushed to the courtyards like tides.
Soon, the sound of jade wares being smashed and bookshelves being knocked over came out from all the houses.
"Vice magistrate, I suspect that it"s empty under the bluestone tiles in the third courtyard. Please tell me what to do!" w.a.n.g Li came to ask for instructions.
Li Ye waved his hand. "Dig!"
"Yes!"
After a while, an Inspector came to report, "Vice magistrate Li, there"s a rockery in the back of the fourth courtyard, which was high and big. It seems to be able to hide a lot of things..."
Li Ye waved his hand. "Dig!"
"Yes!"
Another official came to ask, "Vice magistrate Li, I have found a gap between the walls in the east study, but I can"t find the switch. Please give me an instruction!"
"Push it over!"
"Push over the wall or the entire east study?"
"Hmm?"
"Okay. Push over the entire courtyard!"
"Vice magistrate Li, the location of the attic of the east courtyard isn"t in accordance with geomancy and it looks very strange!"
"Push it over!"
"Vice magistrate, there is no fish in the lake behind the rockery!"
"Dig!"
"Vice magistrate..."
"Push it over!"
"Vice magistrate..."
"Dig!"
Cultivators were always good at hiding things. The Prime Minister"s Manor was too big and there were many gaps and secret rooms. In order to search thoroughly, if the officials of the Chang"an Office were suspicious about a place, they would break it violently after reporting to Li Ye so that they wouldn"t miss any tiny place.
The Wei Baoheng"s Manor wasn"t smaller than the Prince An"s Manor. Under the command of Li Ye, walls were destroyed, houses collapsed, hills fell, lakes were filled, and everywhere were in chaos. All the men of Wei Baoheng, who were in custody in a place by the officials of the Chang"an Office, stared at Li Ye"s back like looking at Yama, shivering.
Because of their status, w.a.n.g Duo and Lu Yan didn"t join the destruction action. The command of the action was in the Chang"an Office. Xu Shaomu wouldn"t steal the spotlight from Li Ye at this time, so he was just standing on the side with his hands behind his back and enjoying the show.
"Vice magistrate, we have found something! We have found fifty Cultivation Pills, ten Rank 2 magic treasures, and four Rank 3 magic treasures in the gap of the east study!"
"Vice magistrate, we have found a secret room hidden underground in the sixth courtyard! There"re copper coins piled up like mountains and countless gold and silver!"
"Vice magistrate, when the rockery is pushed over, we have found a treasure house filled with jewels and pearls!"
"Vice magistrate, we have found many letters inside a book in the east study!"
"Vice magistrate, many missing teenager girls are hidden in the attic of the side courtyard..."
w.a.n.g Duo, Lu Yan and the others were stunned. w.a.n.g Duo was greatly frightened. "What? There"re teenager girls? Shameless! Wei Baoheng, you"re shameless! Crazy!"
Li Ye was also stunned. "Wei Baoheng, that fellow, abducted underage girls?"
"Go and see!"
Li Ye sighed and looked at the collapsing Prime Minister"s Manor, not knowing what to say.
The investigation of the Wei Baoheng"s Manor lasted for three days. A lot of money, jewelry, calligraphy and paintings, and treasures were found and piled up into several hills in the front yard, which was spectacular. The officials of the Chang"an Office were busy counting day and night. In this way, on the fourth day, the investigation of the Wei Baoheng"s Manor was still on the halfway.
w.a.n.g Duo, Lu Yan and the others certainly wouldn"t stay here to watch and Xu Shaomu had a lot of official affairs to deal with in the Chang"an Office, therefore, Li Ye was in charge of the investigation.
On the fourth morning, Li Ye was drinking tea in the front yard as usual and looking at the busy crowd.
Suddenly, w.a.n.g Li came over quietly. Seeing no important officials around, he hurriedly whispered to Li Ye, "Vice magistrate, we have found the real place that Wei Baoheng hides his magic treasures and Dan Pills! There"re all kinds of magic treasures from soup to nuts, all of them with high Cla.s.s-ranking!"
Li Ye was happy and nodded. "Well, go and see."
For cultivators, money was important, but the things about cultivation were the most valuable.
Li Ye followed w.a.n.g Li to the underground secret room. He was shocked by the dazzling treasures in front of him as he entered the door.
This was a stone room with a radius of twenty paces, and it was very s.p.a.cious. There were many stone tables arranged in rows and there was a treasure on each of the stone tables. They were jade bottles containing Dan Pills, precious knives placed on knife holders, Invocations in the box, and so on.
"Wei Baoheng deserves to be the ruling Prime Minister. I have no idea how many bribes he has received over these years. The magic treasures and Dan Pills, which the va.s.sal states and officials gave to him in order to curry favor with him and bribe him, have high Cla.s.s-ranking. They are much better than the things in the gap of the east study!" w.a.n.g Li rubbed his hands and looked at the treasures with greedy eyes. "Now we have all the good things in our hands! No, they are in your hands!"
Li Ye came to the nearest stone table. He took out a jade bottle and poured out one of the Dan Pills inside. His expression changed as he saw it. The Dan Pill emitted rich Spiritual Qi.
"This is the Golden Spiritual Pill from Penglai Island!" w.a.n.g Li blurted out immediately as he saw the words on the jade bottle. He was shocked. "Penglai is in the east, Shushan is in the west, Xuelu is in the north, and Dongting is in the south. Penglai is the most famous Immortal"s sect in the east. Refining Dan Pills is their specialty and has been famous for a thousand years. Golden Spiritual Pill is the best Dan Pill of Penglai Island!"
Speaking of this, w.a.n.g Li swallowed and continued, "The Golden Spiritual Pill is invaluable. If a cultivator under the Spiritual Master Realm takes one Golden Spiritual Pill, his cultivation will be improved by one realm temporarily and three Golden Spiritual Pills can help to improve by two realms! When necessary, it means that there are several masters of Level 9 Qi-refining for help!"
Li Ye really poured out three Golden Spiritual Pills. w.a.n.g Li gasped in shock. "It"s said that it takes three years for Penglai Island to refine a stove of Golden Spiritual Pills and each stove only has three Golden Spiritual Pills! This, this is the volume of Penglai Island for three years! What did Penglai Island ask for Wei Baoheng to help so that they would give him three Golden Spiritual Pills?!"
"It couldn"t be a good thing anyway. Maybe Wei Baoheng asked for them." Li Ye put the Golden Spiritual Pills back to the jade bottle and took them for his own.
On the second stone table, there was a box with two purple Invocations inside.
"They are purple Invocations?!" w.a.n.g Li opened his eyes wide because the purple Invocations were rarities. "They are the Big Dipper Invocations from Xuelu?!" When he recognized the Invocations, he was dumbfounded and speechless.
Li Ye glanced at w.a.n.g Li. He took out a purple Invocation and looked at it carefully. It was a typical offensive Invocation and presented in the way of technique. "Big Dipper Invocation? It"s said that when it is used, its momentum is like thunder. Even if masters of Level 9 Qi-refining, they dare not to confront it face to face!"
"Vice magistrate, you really know a lot!" w.a.n.g Li praised him immediately. This guy was actually knowledgeable. During his frustrating years in the Chang"an Office, he did nothing every day, but read ancient books to kill time. "Only the owner of Xuelu can make the Big Dipper Invocations. It"s said to consume blood, so only one can be made in three years. And every time when he makes one, he will need to take three years off..."
Li Ye took the Big Dipper Invocations.
Then they continued to look at various magic treasures.
The third magic treasure that Li Ye took was a pair of boots in red and golden color. Its name was Cloud-walking Boots. There was no special function, but it helped to run fast and improve a lot in speed. It reached the extremely rare four-cla.s.s!
With this pair of Cloud-walking Boots, Li Ye estimated that Song Jiao might not catch up with him. It was an unparalleled excellent tool for running away in traveling, murdering and fleeing in Jianghu.
"Vice magistrate, look. This is Sword Spiritual Dew! A whole bottle of Sword Spiritual Dew!" w.a.n.g Li was particularly excited. He put a gla.s.s bottle in front of Li Ye with his hands trembling. "Sword Spiritual Dew is the most valuable treasure in Shushan! It"s horrible that it can enhance the Cla.s.s-ranking of a magic treasure!"
Li Ye was also surprised and moved.
"Many people cultivate swords in Shushan and the spiritual sword of Shushan is unparalleled in the world. The biggest reliance is the Sword Spiritual Dew which is the specialty in Shushan! The outstanding disciples in Shushan will maintain their spiritual swords with the Sword Spiritual Dew in order to upgrade their spiritual swords" cla.s.s-ranking!" w.a.n.g Li"s voice trembled with his hands.
"Good thing." Li Ye praised and took it.
There were twenty-five stone tables in the stone room. Li Ye only took five treasures. Besides the Golden Spiritual Pills, the Big Dipper Invocations, the Cloud-walking Boots and the Sword Spiritual Dew, he also took a set of seven small flying swords, dividing into seven colors including red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue and purple.
The name of the flying swords made Li Ye somewhat speechless because they were called the Seven Fairies. He didn"t know where they came from.
But flying swords were rare. Even the worst flying sword was invaluable, not to mention that the "Seven Fairies" ranked four-cla.s.s!
Arguably, they were the most valuable treasures that Li Ye had acquired.
It needed technical skills to use a flying sword. Cultivators in low-level or middle-level Qi-refining were unable to use it. However, Li Ye had a unique method. As long as he improved his cultivation to Level 6 of Qi-refining, he could use it normally.
Li Ye let w.a.n.g Duo, Lu Yan and Xu Shaomu divide up the rest of the treasures. Of course, some of them needed to be submitted to the imperial court, so w.a.n.g Duo and the others wouldn"t get more treasures than Li Ye. In addition, Li Ye had chosen the good things first.
"Wei Baoheng, this old guy, deserves to be the most powerful Prime Minister and the second powerful man in public in Tang Empire. He has so many good things, which suites his ident.i.ty. It makes sense that the person who does bad things becomes rich and who does good things ends up dead!" When Li Ye left the treasure house, he sneered. But he was in a good mood after a good harvest today.
With today"s windfalls and the jade medallion that Li Xian left behind, Li Ye could attack and defend and he was free to advance or retreat in terms of magic treasures. When fighting with others, he would definitely give his opponent an unexpected surprise.
Li Ye allowed w.a.n.g Li to choose a treasure, which made w.a.n.g Li become overwhelmed with grat.i.tude.
Under the command of Li Ye, the investigation of the Wei Baoheng"s Manor lasted for seven days.
After seven days, the investigation was over. All the incriminating evidence was recorded by the officials of the Chang"an Office and the Criminal Department. Because the case was of great importance, it was heard by three departments together and the chief judge was Lu Yan.
On the eighth day, the officials of the Chang"an Office and the Criminal Department escorted Wei Baoheng, whose cultivation had been deprived by the masters inside the Imperial Palace, to the Wei Baoheng"s Manor to identify the evidence. It was only a needed process and no one would care what Wei Baoheng said.
With disheveled hair, Wei Baoheng in prison clothes was confounded like a beggar. His body was full of scars and mottled blood. His spirit was low. It seemed that when Wei Baoheng was in prison, Lu Yan had taken the opportunity to torture his former "ally".
"Vice magistrate, Wei Baoheng is brought here!" w.a.n.g Li dragged Wei Baoheng to the front of Li Ye and kicked him to kneel down.
"You... Li..." Wei Baoheng lay p.r.o.ne on the ground and looked up hard. When he saw Li Ye looking at him coldly, his eyes were full of fear. He raised his hand, shivering. He was trying to say something, but he couldn"t say a word clearly.
Li Ye glanced at Wei Baoheng and bent down. He said coldly in Wei Baoheng"s ear, "Wei Baoheng, have you ever thought that you will end up like this when you murdered my father on that day?"
"Li Ye... You, what are you talking about?" Wei Baoheng looked at Li Ye in horror. His eyes opened as wide as copper bells. When he said those slanderous words to Li Cui that Li Ye might have already known the secret of Li Xian"s death, he just wanted to censure Li Ye"s motives and he didn"t take his words seriously.
But now, Wei Baoheng finally realized that Li Ye had already known the truth of the Battle of Bagong Mountain!
"I need to see Your Majesty... I need to see Your Majesty... Li Ye wants to rebel and has malicious intents. He is avenging himself. I need to see Your Majesty!" Wei Baoheng was struggling and spared his last strength to grab the trouser of the official of the Criminal Department. He was crying and shouting desperately, like a crazy man.
The official of the Criminal Department gave him a cold look. He didn"t intend to listen to his "nonsense" and kicked him off.
Li Ye walked over and stepped on Wei Baoheng"s face. He kept grinding Wei Baoheng"s head into the soil.
Wei Baoheng"s face was quickly covered with blood. He was howling like a pig.
The officials around all turned their heads and pretended not to see anything.
Li Ye looked down at Wei Baoheng with no emotion in his eyes. He mobilized a little of Spiritual Qi to transmit his voice to Wei Baoheng clearly, "You are my mortal enemy since you have killed my father! Wei Baoheng, when you go to h.e.l.l, remember to tell Yama that you don"t want to be a human in the afterlife! Otherwise, I will kill you once I meet you. I won"t let you die so easily ever forever!"