Chapter 184 - Battle Started at the Doorway!

The Xiao family’s funeral procession stopped before Shen Ninghua’s Princess Mansion, throwing paper money into the air while crying aloud. Fifteen minutes elapsed, but the procession still had no intention of leaving.

Shen Ninghua stood at the window, she watched the paper money which flew over the wall and fell into the courtyard. A trace of chill flashed across her eyes.

Bai Ruo stepped forward and whispered, “Miss, why is the Xiao family still daring to be so ostentatious at this moment? How could His Majesty tolerate him?”

Shen Ninghua chuckled gently. “The Xiao family has a good reputation, and its prestige among the people is extremely high. Moreover, it takes sole control over the army. Xiao Jingran alone controls hundreds of thousands of soldiers in the northwest. So what can His Majesty do even if he can’t tolerate Xiao Jingran? If he wants to stabilize the country, he has to protect the Xiao family.”

“However, I think that His Majesty is not a weak and incompetent ruler. How can he be willing to see the Xiao family getting too strong?”

“Father Emperor naturally will not sit still without doing anything to suppress the Xiao family. Since a peace agreement was signed between Da’an Dynasty and its neighboring countries, there has been no war for more than a decade. The prestige of the Xiao family among the people has also declined to some extent. Do you think these changes are just a coincidence?”

Bai Ruo couldn’t help but widen her eyes as she asked, “A dozen years ago? Could it be that His Majesty had actually planned everything since then?”

“Father Emperor is a man of great talent and bold vision. Shortly after his ascension to the throne, he shocked the court with swift and powerful measures. At that time, the Da’an Dynasty was in turmoil and he needed the support of the Xiao family. I think he had foreseen the current consequences. The peace agreement was his preparation for addressing the future conflict. If there were no need to get rid of the Xiao family, the Da’an Dynasty would be able to recover its vitality. This would be the best end. If the Xiao family had the intention to rebel, being weakened for so many years, it would surely suffer a great loss of vitality.

“His Majesty is truly far-sighted.” Bai Ruo sighed in her heart. She looked at Shen Ninghua and her eyes became more shining. “Miss, you can even guess what His Majesty did ten years ago, I really cannot admire you more.”

“This isn’t what I guessed. I knew it from the notes that Granny Poison collected.” Shen Ninghua looked outside the window. A tall platform had already been erected, and Hong Ling was directing the monks to step onto it to perform the religious ritual.

“Bai Ruo, Hong Ling has almost arranged everything well. Go down and assign the tasks. Xiao Jingran hates me to the bone. His attack will be powerful and fierce at this time. Tell Qing Que to ensure the safety of the surrounding people.”

“Yes, Miss, don’t worry. I have already arranged everything. I’ll go down and confirm the arrangements with them again.”

Shen Ninghua raised her head and looked at the white pieces flying in the sky. She would take on the outcomes of whatever tricks that were played by the Xiao family. She hoped that the Xiao family could bear the consequences as well!

Standing on a pavilion aside, Xiao Jingran watched the entire street that was covered with a layer of white paper money. The chill in his eyes diminished slightly.

Xiao Fengjue rushed over. He saw the scene downstairs and asked anxiously, “Father, what are you doing?”

“What am I doing? Of course I am avenging your younger sister. How dare you ask what I am doing?” Xiao Jingran narrowed his eyes, and a cold light flickered in the depth of them.

“Huanxi has already passed away. What’s the point of doing this?”

“Shut up!” Xiao Jingran abruptly stared at him, a trace of hostile aura flashing across his eyebrows. He raised his hand and slapped Xiao Fengjue in the face. “What right do you have to mention your younger sister? She was murdered. As her elder brother, you didn’t avenge her at all. Instead, you are wholeheartedly helping that bitch Shen Ninghua.”

“Father, I am not.”

“Humph, do you think I don’t know what you’re thinking about? Let me tell you, I will definitely let that bitch Shen Ninghua die. She must apologize to Huanxi even if she becomes a ghost!”

“She is a dignified princess!” Xiao Fengjue was both depressed and discontented, and he said angrily, “Father, why don’t you understand? Without His Majesty’s order, no one has the right to get rid of her. No matter how powerful the Xiao family is, it is impossible for us to openly kill the princess for a daughter of the Xiao family!”

“Even though I cannot kill her openly, I can definitely have her assassinated!” Xiao Jingran suddenly turned around and looked at the towering gate of the Princess Mansion, and killing intent surged in his eyes. “The Xiao family has been training the troops for so many years and raised so many trusted confidants. Do you think we can’t kill an insignificant princess?”

Xiao Fengjue’s heart skipped a beat. “Father, those people can only be used as a last resort.” He thought that his father was crazy. Killing a princess would be taken as an open provocation to the royal family. Now His Majesty had become dissatisfied with the Xiao family. Wasn’t this just an attempt of courting self-destruction?

“It’s up to me. It has nothing to do with you. Go home!”

“Father!”

“Get lost!” Xiao Jingran shouted angrily, and he looked at Xiao Fengjue as if he was an enemy.

Xiao Fengjue gritted his teeth fiercely, and a trace of determination appeared in his eyes. He turned around and strode away.

Inside the Princess Mansion, the monks invited from Guangning Temple had already ascended to the tall platform. They spread out the bright yellow spiritual magic figures and started to chant sutras of salvation.

On the street, a lad servant quickly ran to Xiao Jingran. “Master, there is a religious ritual in Princess Zhaohua’s mansion.”

“What?” Xiao Jingran got furious, he stared at the Princess Mansion not far away.

The lad servant was so scared that his entire body trembled. “Yes. Those monks chanted sutras loudly. There were also many spiritual magic figures with Buddhist scripture floating out. This… Shall we order the funeral procession to leave first, so as not to startle the soul of the young lady?”

“Leave? Why do we have to leave?” Xiao Jingran fiercely clenched his fists. “Tell them to play the funeral music as loud as they can!”

The coffin below didn’t contain the body of Xiao Huanxi at all. He would never let his deceased daughter suffer such torment. This was why he could act even more unscrupulously.

“Yes, Master.”

After the lad servant left, Xiao Jingran abruptly pulled out the sword on his waist, he slashed the table in the room into two halves. “Shen Ninghua, you are so vicious. You actually want to expiate the sins of Huanxi with a religious ritual. You bitch, you must pay this debt of blood with your own blood today!”

More and more people gathered around to watch the fun, wondering if the Xiao family would defeat Princess Zhaohua, or Princess Zhaohua would overwhelm the Xiao family. Some even took bets on the final outcome in restaurants and gambling houses.

Shen Ninghua stood in the courtyard and listened to the loud funereal music outside. The expression in her eyes became more serious. Her upright figure was like a graceful lotus flower, which looked quite eye-catching as the white paper money and yellow figures were thrown into the sky.

Xiao Jingran saw that his side actually failed to gain the slightest advantage. The flesh on his face moved as if it was twitching. Suddenly, he curled his lips and said, “Someone, Shen Ninghua’s religious ritual is causing trouble to us so that the funeral cannot proceed properly. Tell them to hit the door of the Princess Mansion with the coffin. Many people are gathering here. Throw out some money to cause trouble. Arrange our men to secretly mingle in the crowd and trample some people to death. I would like to see if His Majesty will ignore such a serious incident!”

“Yes, Master.”

On the tall platform, the monks of Guangning Temple who were performing the ritual got so frightened that they could barely read the scriptures correctly. Hong Ling held her sleeve sword and stared at them aside. When she found anyone stop chanting scriptures, she would slash her sleeve sword close to his forehead and stabbed it into the floor. It gave the person an illusion that his head was nailed through.

Qing Que, who was hiding in a stealthy place of the fence, narrowed her eyes at the servants of the Xiao family who came out of the pavilion. A cold light flashed and disappeared without a trace. She quietly made a gesture to her men in the shadows. Immediately, someone quietly disappeared and sneaked into the crowd.

Just as everyone was watching for fun, the men who were carrying Xiao Huanxi’s coffin started to shake. No one knew what happened to them. Maybe they had carried the coffin for too long a time.

“Ah, the coffin is about to fall. Get out of the way.” Someone suddenly shouted.

Everyone was stunned. The coffin was made of Phoebe zhennan wood. Although it didn’t look too big, if it fell on people, it could crash eight or ten persons to death. So it was better to run away quickly.

At this moment, someone actually threw out large amounts of silver ingots. Many people immediately forgot to run away and started to stare at the silver ingots and fought for them.

“Silver ingots, a lot of silver ingots, go get them.”

“Don’t push.”

Some people knocked into the persons who were carrying the coffin, immediately causing the coffin to tilt even more seriously. With a bang, the thick and heavy coffin head slammed into the gate of the Princess Mansion.

The thick and heavy gate was actually no match for the weight of the coffin and was directly crushed apart. The two doors fell inward and heavily smashed onto the tall platform where the ritual was being performed.

A trace of chill flashed across Hong Ling’s eyes. She jumped down from the platform. However, the monks of Guangning Temple were not so lucky. They shouted and hurriedly grabbed onto the edge of the platform.

Unfortunately, the edge of the tall platform was polished with extreme care, and it was even applied with greasy oil. So there was no place for grabbing. As a result, these monks fell down like gourds.

“Ah, help!”

One of the monks couldn’t dodge and was directly smashed by the tall platform. He spat out a mouthful of blood and then died.

Hong Ling took a close look at the monk and nodded at Bai Ruo.

Bai Ruo walked into the room and said, “Miss, the monk who sent poison to the Xiao Family’s nurse has been disposed of.”

“Dead?”

“Yes, he was crushed to death by the platform. No matter how it was investigated, it would end up as an accident. If someone must be held responsible, it would be the Xiao family.”

Shen Ninghua narrowed her eyes and said, “Alright, don’t forget to notify the abbot of Guangning Temple.”

“Yes, Miss.”

Outside the wall, people were in chaos. Many of them were pushed by others so hard that they almost fell. In times of despair, there were always people who desperately rushed over to help them up. Then, they shouted, “On the order of the princess, we are here to maintain order. Everyone, don’t push!”

People were much quieter for a moment when there were more voices shouting like this.

Of course, if the servants of the Xiao family were pushed down, someone would also step forward to help them up. However, after standing up, those servants inexplicably fell down again and were trampled to death in the end. Therefore, the Princess Mansion couldn’t be blamed for failing to save them. After all, after someone helped those servants up and left, they fell down again. It was too late to save them.

The chaos outside the gate of the mansion reached the height when the Governor of Capital Guards arrived with his men. He was stunned on the spot. He had already tried to delay as much as he could on the road. He didn’t expect to see the chaos still going on. “You guys go forward, quickly ask people to leave and stop pushing. What should we do if something bad happened?”

The several guards whose names were mentioned looked at each other helplessly. They almost cried out. In front of them were hundreds of people. What could the four men do? However, their Lord’s order couldn’t be ignored. They could only walk to the edge of the crowd and slowly remind them one by one. When they saw someone being pushed towards them, they quickly ran away.

The Governor of Capital Guards smiled and sighed secretly. The princess was truly bold-spirited. If she didn’t send someone to remind him yesterday, he would probably faint from seeing such a scene.