Chapter 341: Exposure
Prince An shook his head and said, “Deputy Commander Meng has a point. Their deaths are worth nothing. But because of their deaths, it’ll ruin the wedding… I have my own moral compa.s.s, so let them go! I’ll let them go this once. I’ll forgive them and hope that by doing so, their thought of rebelling against us will die down!”
After that, he said again, “Chu Li, you’re too hostile! You cannot take everything too rigidly. All you know is to kill, kill, and kill more. Instead, you should be patient and be a little more forgiving — give people a chance to change.”
Chu Li held his fist and smiled, “Thank you, Your Highness. for your advice, I will definitely note that down!”
The stagnated qi in Prince An slowed down, and he simply nodded his head.
Chu Li arrived before the black-s.h.i.+rt men. He gave each of them a slap on their bodies, sealing all the acupuncture of the whole body except the sound acupuncture. However, he did not pull down the mask that was covering their faces. Then, he returned to Prince An’s side.
Prince An frowned as he looked at him. He did not understand what he just did.
However, Chu Li kept his eyes on them, shook his head and sighed, “I admire Your Highness’s patience. But for these b.a.s.t.a.r.ds, this is not acceptable. If our house did not plan this secret attack, I’m afraid Your Highness would have become their prisoner, or Your Highness would have died in their hands… For such outrageous and evil men, would Your Highness still want to forgive them?”
“They might not have been able successful with that last step.” Prince An shook his head, “I believe that they know where the boundary lies. If they really wanted to kill me, none of them would have been able to escape!”
Chi Li smiled, “It seems like Your Highness does not understand the people of the martial arts. Our House has always been in contact with them and we understand their guts very well. These b.a.s.t.a.r.ds often know that they will die and yet, they still carry out attacks like these. On the other hand, the House of High Duke will also be too laid back if these things did not happen. But Your Highness, take a look at the situation today — There isn’t a day where the House of High Duke has time to spare. Every day, there are masters of the martial arts world committing fight crimes. They do not hesitate when it comes to death, and they don’t make it a big deal. More so, they don’t even consider about other people’s lives!”
Prince An stared at him coldly.
Chu Li shook his head and sighed, “These are the sacrificial warriors. They are already prepared to die. They’d rather not sacrifice their lives, and use that strength to kill Your Highness. That’s why there’s only one word for these people: death!”
“You must kill them, don’t you?” Prince An grinned, “You don’t care about my wedding with the second lady?”
Chu Li said with a straight face, “Your Highness’s words have wronged me. Only killing them in public would frighten the generation of gangsters who are staying nearby. If not, there is still quite a distance to cover towards the back of this journey. The beginning of the journey is difficult, but along that journey, we can kill them!”
Prince An said disapprovingly, “Ridiculous!”
Chu Lu answered, “Your Highness will understand this someday. It’s still best if we kill them first!”
He lifted his arms as he spoke.
“Your Highness, help!” Among the black-s.h.i.+rt men, one of them yelled out.
Prince An’s expression changed immediately.
Chu Li revealed a hint of smile and shook his head, “It’s too late now to ask His Highness for help. When you came to a.s.sa.s.sinate him, you should have known that you were going to die, without a doubt. Why would you want to lose your integrity in front of everyone? There are others accompanying you along this path of death. It won’t be lonely at all. Just die!”
“We’re one of you! One of you!” The black-s.h.i.+rt man quickly called out.
“Shut your mouth!” Chu Li shouted.
He turned his head to look at Prince An, shook his head and smiled, “Martial Arts people are filled with guts, but it’s hard to come across a weakling. It’s so sad!”
He pointed at that particular black-s.h.i.+rt men, and said in a low voice, “Take him out, that person without guts should not be a threat. It’ll be nothing if I spare his life.”
One of the men in blue robe walked over, lifted that black-s.h.i.+rt man up and left him aside.
Chu Li nodded his head satisfyingly. He then rushed towards Prince An and gave a fist salute, “Your Highness, please step away. You do not need to observe such a b.l.o.o.d.y scene!”
Prince An frowned as he stared at Chu Li coldly in the eye, “Chu Li, do you have to kill them?”
Chu Li said, “For Your Highness’s and the second lady’s safety, as well as the safety of our Residence. These people must be killed! I hope Your Highness will forgive me!”
He told him to turn around, and then he lifted his head.
“Hold on!” Zheng Lide shouted with a deep voice.
Chu Li’s arm dropped down as he looked at Zheng Lide, “Commander Zheng has another opinion; if you are advising me to spare their lives, then save your words!”
“Chief Chu, you have violated His Highness’s orders for many times now. Even though I do not withhold the official authority, I cannot sit back and ignore this!” Zheng Lide said in a deep voice, “Since His Highness has said to let them go, then let them go. However, you just ignored it. Chief Chu, you’re so bold!”
After he heard the last sentence, his outrage nearly showed, with his thunder-like voice, fury stare, and his wrathfulness.
Chu Li sighed, and shook his head, “If His Highness want to talk about forgiveness and patience, please forgive me as I disagree. This is under the House of High Duke’s prefecture, not His Highness’s Imperial Residence, and as of now, the second lady is still not the Princess. First and foremost, I’m the Chief of the House of High Duke. Then after that, only am I His Highness’s servant.”
“Treachery!” Zheng Lide snorted, “Everything under the sky belongs to the King. Firstly, you’re His Highness’s servant, and only then are you the House of High Duke’s Chief.”
Chu Li shook his head, and he couldn’t help but laughed, “It’s not too late to say that phrase one day, when His Highness becomes the King!”
After he said that, he turned around and raised his arm up again.
“Your Highness, save me!” Another black-s.h.i.+rt man shouted out loud.
Prince An’s face overcast with sadness. Both his eyes were s.h.i.+mmering with cold and icy light.
Chu Li laugh in spite of himself, “You’re not going to say you’re one of us too, are you?”
“I’m one of you! I’m one of you!” The black-s.h.i.+rt men quickly said.
Chu Li waved his hands, “Take him aside!”
One of the blue-robed men took him over to one side, along with the previous person who pleaded for mercy.
“I’m one of you! I’m one of you!” The rest of the men immediately shouted.
As the saying “the problem lies not in the scarcity of resources, but in the uneven distribution”, same goes with their natural instincts.
Before that, no one begged for mercy — everyone did not beg for mercy. All they did was grit their teeth and gamble on whether Prince An would say something; hope that Chu Li would not dare to kill them.
Seeing that Prince An’s plea did not work, Chu Li was going to kill them himself.
Some of them begged for mercy and was pardoned from death. Then, the rest of them immediately felt emotional and they did not want to die in vain. It was just one sentence. Besides, no one will give each other up by revealing who said it. As long as they want to survive, they had to beg for mercy and did not matter if it was embarra.s.sing.
Seeing all these people shouting that they were one of them, Chu Li looked at Prince An with a sense of doubt, “Your Majesty? How is it possible that they’ve becomes one of us?”
Prince An said coldly, “How would I know!”
Chu Li said, “In that case, it is an excuse they made up in order for them to survive. That’s just miserable. The only way solve this is to kill them!”
“Hold on, Chief Chu. We’re the Prince’s servants!” A black-s.h.i.+rt man shouted.
The rest of the black-s.h.i.+rt men were all shouting at once.
“Your Highness!”
“Commander Zheng!”
Chu Li shouted, “Shut up!”
He stared coldly at the crowd of black-s.h.i.+rt men, and gave an evil laugh, “What a wicked trick! All of you said that you serve under the Prince. So Prince An allowed all of you to a.s.sa.s.sinate yourselves?”
“Yes!”
“Yes!”
“They are just fooling around. This is only to see how good the defense is.”
“That’s right!”
The men in black s.h.i.+rts spoke all at once.
Chu Li sneered, “Nonsense! You are all very sinister. The a.s.sa.s.sination wasn’t successful, and instead, you blame it on the Prince!”
He did not wait for the black-s.h.i.+rt men to open their mouths as he continued on, “His Highness allowed his own men to get themselves killed. After he is injured, the marriage can no longer proceed and the wedding will not go according to plan. That would be such an unfortunate thing because I’m afraid that would be the end of any marriage plans between the two families. So, this is Prince An’s resistance against the Emperor’s engagement arrangement. Due to his dissatisfaction with this wedding, he has resorted to this trick… Your plans are so evil!”
The crowd of men in black s.h.i.+rts was suddenly stunned.
Even Prince An’s expression had changed.