Chapter 770: Assassination (1)

Beilian City.

This was a large city of Great Ming near Starfall Mountain. After going past the Starfall Mountain and traveling a few hundred kilometers, one would reach Nanyuan City of Great Xia.

Teahouses and restaurants were always the places where rumors and information were exchanged. Great Ming did not lack storytellers. Even with the existence of televisions, this form of entertainment was still popular in Great Ming. After all, the shows in television were boring and repetitive. Meanwhile, these storytellers were much more interesting.

In Great Ming, storytellers shouldered a heavy responsibility as well: dissemination of gossip.

At the moment, within a teahouse in Beilian. Su Yu was seated comfortably in a private room with one leg over the other while drinking tea and listening to the storyteller.

The storyteller's voice filled the restaurant, "Just last night, a Mountainsea elder of Great Yuan was killed! The criminals are getting more and more brazen! Great chaos is coming!"

"Let us do a little calculation here. Just how many experts have perished over the past few months? First, a Mountainsea official was killed at the Rising Sky Sea. Then, a Mountainsea was killed in Great Tang. Next, a Mountainsea was assassinated in Great Qi. Last night, a Mountainsea was assassinated in Great Shang..."

The storyteller continued with an agitated voice, "Four Mountainseas in a row have been assassinated over the past few months. All of them were important individuals. Through our analysis, these assassinations were carried out by the same group of people. They are too audacious!"

Someone asked in astonishment, "Great Shang is not far from us. Has the chain of assassinations spread to even Great Shang? I thought the Six-Winged Divine Sect was the culprit. But all their Mountainseas were dead while their Sunmoons were in hiding. How are they finding the courage to continue these assassinations?"

The storyteller sighed, "Who knows? All sorts of people are appearing to do whatever they want nowadays. This is sign of great chaos. The various prefectures have increased their security measures. Great Ming is actually doing quite well. Five Sunmoons attacked us not long ago but all of them were killed, scaring anyone else that might also harbor evil designs against us."

"Sigh. These are troubled times. These criminals are actually brazen enough to start assassinating Mountainseas. This is too scary."

Someone asked curiously, "Why kill these people? What's special about them? There are so many Mountainseas around so why are they the targets?"

The storyteller smiled, "You asked the right person. It is said that these experts all used to be commanders in the Allheaven Battlefield. They were all individuals with great military contributions. They were brave and good at war. I suspect that the myriad races might be planning to restart the war against humanity. The first step of their plan is to assassinate the fierce commanders of humanity."

An anxious look covered the storyteller as he said, "This is so troublesome. The commanders who have retired from the frontlines need to be careful. Great Ming might not enjoy fighting in wars that much, but we also have a few retired commanders as well. If something happens to them...sigh."

Inside the private room.

Su Yu had a pensive look. Four Mountainseas of four different prefectures. All were former military commanders in the Allheaven Battlefield.

Were the myriad races really preparing for a war? In his opinion, the storyteller's analysis made sense. But that also seemed too brazen. Several Mountainseas had been killed in a row. Were the assassins the myriad race Sunmoons hidden in the Human Realm?

While he was thinking, a different voice rang out, "I can accept that the others were fierce commanders. But I know that dead Mountainsea from Great Shang. Back then, the army he led was stationed not far away from our Heavenly Dao Army. How is he a fierce commander? Sure, I won't deny that he had killed some myriad race enemies, but he is definitely not a good man. I heard that he loved to send a squad of cultural researchers out on a lone mission before each battle. And he would always wait until everyone was dead before sallying out to kill the weary enemies."

"Is that so? How are we not aware of this? Don't make up stories. His reputation was quite good."

"You are free to believe what you want. I heard this from a different person from Great Shang. We would occasionally meet each other when we were rotated back to the main headquarters."

The storyteller asked. "Is that true? I have never heard of that. His reputation was quite good. Even if you're right, that might be a strategic move. We can't deny that he was a fierce commander just because of this. Old Huang, don't talk drivel. We should respect the dead. You don't want to get misunderstood as a cultist, right?"

The other person nodded and said, "We're in Great Ming, right? I wouldn't have dared to say that in Great Shang."

Ji Hong had been investigating this matter since half a year ago, including the list of dead multiple character faction cultivators on the battlefield, their location of death, time of death, and the armies they served during the death.

Even the deaths of the multiple character faction cultivators in the Human Realm had been investigated. He was slowly arranging all the information he had obtained. With his eyes shut, he sank into thought. Gradually, he found a certain direction all the information was pointing toward.

"He's not doing this for a personal grudge. There is no need for that Invincible to kill so many multiple character faction cultivators for something like that."

Ji Hong finally had a direction, but he still couldn't be sure who the culprit was. But in truth...he already knew enough to make some things very clear. The dead commanders had not interacted with each other much. They only shared a single similarity. They had once served in the Allheaven Battlefield at the same period of time.

Thus, the Invincibles stationed there during that period of time were the most likely ones to get in touch with all these people. Between seventy to fifty years ago, all these people were serving at the Allheaven Battlefield.

Twenty years.

Someone might have recruited them over that period of time. Who was that person? Who were the Invincibles stationed there at that time?

Humanity had quite a lot of Invincibles, and the whereabouts of most of them were unknown. Great Qin King was the sole exception as he had never stopped guarding the frontlines. The other Invincibles would be stationed at the Allheaven Battlefield after a certain period of time. Each Invincible would be rotated out after at least ten years.

At any given time, there would be more than ten human Invincibles stationed at the eastern sector. Which Invincibles were there between seventy to fifty years ago? It would be quite hard to get a concrete answer.

But it wasn't impossible. If this line of thought was correct, then that Invincible would be one of them. After all, not even Invincibles could freely go everywhere and recruit everyone they wanted. After all, the Invincibles of the other prefectures would always be on the watch.

Thus, only when one was stationed on the same battlefield would one have the opportunity and time to perform some recruitment. An Invincible would never recruit someone for no reason. That Invincible must have noticed something during their time there to reach a conclusion that these people could be recruited.

As for the recruited commanders, they had probably agreed to join because the Invincible had met them personally. Otherwise, it wouldn't be so easy to push Mountainseas into action.

"How terrifying."

Ji Hong had a clear direction to pursue. He only needed to figure out the list of Invincibles stationed there during those years. One of them would be the traitor. Sure, he still didn't have a clear answer, but the scope of the investigation had been greatly narrowed down.

He didn't know the exact number of Invincibles in the War Shrine and Knowledge Seeking Realm. But the number wouldn't be lower than thirty. And with this new clue, two-thirds of them could be cleared of suspicion.

"Chen Yong..."

Things would get even more dangerous for Chen Yong. That fellow was too crazy. All the people he killed must be the ones that had been recruited by the unknown Invincible. By killing them, he was basically telling the Invincible that he had caught onto the Invincible's tail.

"He is risking himself. The moment his actions are exposed, that Invincible can get him killed openly without risking exposure."

Ji Hong sighed with regret. After a while, he shut his eyes and tried to calm his mind. He needed to be more careful as well. In the course of his investigation, he had gathered a lot of information, including some military secrets. That might have attracted some attention as well.

"Chen Yong...since you're attracting all the attention, I'll be the one to hide in the shadows."

He could only pray that Chen Yong would be safe.