Volume 4: Holy Capital Tribulation Chapter 265: Dead or not?
On the south side of Guang'enfang in Shengdu, there is a huge mansion with a huge Chinese character "Li" written on the gate. It is the mansion of Li Ren, Duke of Lushan.
Li Ren is the uncle of the current emperor and the younger brother of the previous emperor from the same father and mother.
Logically speaking, with such a prominent identity, he should naturally be a prince.
However, Li Ren was granted the title of Duke of Lushan, which was one level lower than a prince, and his status was even lower than that of Xue Guihua, the Duke of Liang.
It turned out that as early as during the reign of Emperor Guizong, the Crown Prince's Tutor Qi Chong joined forces with the three kings of the Li family to rebel.
Although Li Ren, who was the emperor's younger brother at the time, was not directly involved, he had always had contacts with Qi Chong and it was difficult for him to prove his innocence.
Originally he was going to be demoted to a commoner, but because the emperor took into consideration that they were brothers from the same mother and had always been busy with the affairs of the royal family, he stripped him of his throne and demoted him to the Duke of Lushan.
However, Li Ren had been concurrently serving as the Imperial College Chief Academician and the Minister of Imperial recognition from the royal family and the emperor, so he remained in the Holy Capital.
It was not until the emperor passed away and Empress Dowager Lin came to power that she gradually undermined Li Ren's power, fearing that the Li royal family might take action.
Later, because of his frail health, Li Ren gradually became obsessed with alchemy and medicine making. He indulged in it all day long and became crazy, which was a pity.
Because of his addiction to alchemy, he was reprimanded many times by the Queen Mother, but he still refused to change.
In this Xuanmen assassination incident, he also died at the hands of the Xuanmen assassin.
The person who stabbed him to death was a female Taoist child whom he had taken in under the pretext of refining alchemy. After the assassination, the female Taoist child had long disappeared.
A few days ago, Xu Zun came to Li's house to investigate. He not only checked the crime scene, but also examined the body of the deceased.
The corpse had bloodshot eyes, purple lips, and ugly scars on its body, which were obvious signs of long-term use of elixirs.
Li Ren has no sons, only a daughter and a son-in-law who married into his wife's family.
However, Li Ren was the emperor's uncle after all, and his family residence was vast and he had nearly a hundred servants.
At this moment, the coffin was still placed in the mourning hall, and Li Ren's daughter and son-in-law were also keeping vigil for him.
They were discussing in the mourning hall whether they could apply for burial arrangements now that the assassination was over.
As a result, at this moment, the door of Li's mansion was knocked open, and a group of aggressive people rushed in from outside!
The leader was Cai Kun, the leader of the Right Cabinet of the Inner Guard, and the other was Xu Zun.
After the guards rushed into Li's mansion, they went straight to the mourning hall.
After entering the mourning hall, Li Ren’s daughter was about to ask questions, but Xu Zun did not say a word and directly led his men to open Li Ren’s coffin!!!
Gurgle...
As the coffin lid was opened, an unpleasant smell of medicinal herbs wafted out from the temple.
"You...you guys..." The son-in-law wanted to ask a few more questions, but he had already recognized Cai Kun's identity and was so scared that he dared not breathe.
"That's right... Tsk tsk..." Cai Kun carefully examined the body and said to Xu Zun, "I met Lord Lushan recently. This is clearly him!"
"No..." Xu Zun said, "If it's really just a dead man, Bi Sheng has no reason to risk his life to protect him!"
"Indeed..." Zhao Yu analyzed, "Think about it, how important is Bi Sheng's position? He controls the intelligence of the world. Even so, he still wants to protect Lushan Gong. Doesn't it mean that Lushan Gong's position is more important than his?
"Or..." Zhao Yu reached out to touch the corpse, meaning that he wanted to see if the person in the coffin was really dead?
Xu Zun stopped him, because Xu Zun had just examined the body a few days ago. The wound on the neck was obvious and the body already had a smell, so it was definitely a dead body.
Seeing Zhao Yu reaching out his hand, everyone in front of the mourning hall was terrified.
"You..." Li Ren's daughter couldn't hold back any longer and asked in tears, "What are you going to do? My father is already dead, what else do you want to do to him?"
Cai Kun looked embarrassed. Although Lord Lushan was indeed a strong suspect, he would not make a mistake. The dead person in the coffin was undoubtedly Li Ren.
If we really don't find out anything today, it will be difficult to explain. After all, Duke Lushan is a member of the royal family and the younger brother of the late emperor.
"Butler," Zhao Yu remembered something and asked everyone hurriedly, "Who is the butler?"
Hearing Zhao Yu's question, everyone present looked at each other and shook their heads.
Li Ren's daughter replied: "I saw him just now! He should be in the kitchen, right?"
Hearing this, Hou Zhen and others immediately rushed to the backyard...
Xu Zun glanced at everyone in the mourning hall, and his eyes suddenly fixed on one person.
He immediately thought about it and said to Li Ren's son-in-law, "Are you the son-in-law of Lord Lushan?"
"Yes..." The man nodded.
"Okay," Xu Zun said, "Now take me to the place where Lushan Gong refines the elixir. I want to check it out."
"Oh, okay, okay..." The son-in-law stood up, pointed in a direction, and led Xu Zun and others to the backyard.
Due to the huge area, they walked for a while before arriving at an alchemy room in the backyard.
There were several alchemy furnaces of different sizes standing in the room, with firewood, coal, and various metal and stone powders piled next to them.
Xu Zun deliberately asked others to wait outside the door. After leading Li Ren's son-in-law into the alchemy room, he pulled him aside and asked in a low voice:
"Let me ask you, is there any other exit from this room?"
"This..." The son-in-law was puzzled and shook his head repeatedly, "No? This is the only exit!"
"Really? That's difficult!" Xu Zun pretended to frown, then suddenly whispered, "Shangxuan will destroy the dissidents, all gods will return to their origin, cut off the nine gates above, and destroy the flatterers below."
"This..." The son-in-law was startled and asked hurriedly, "Sir, what do you mean?"
"Something has happened to the left leader of the Inner Guards," Xu Zun whispered, "I was sent by him to rescue you and transfer you!"
"Sir..." The son-in-law waved his hands quickly, "Don't joke with me. What is Zuoge Ling and what is transfer? I don't understand..."
Seeing that the other party was not fooled, Xu Zun immediately picked up a pair of fire tongs used for heating the stove and drew a symbol on the powder on the ground.
This symbol was the one that appeared in the home of Ying Rang, the Minister of Works at that time.
Although Xu Zun didn't know what it meant, he felt that he could use it.
Sure enough, after seeing this symbol, the son-in-law was finally moved, and his eyes betrayed him.
It was obvious that he could understand the symbols.
In other words, Xu Zun guessed correctly, Li Ren’s son-in-law is also a member of Xuanmen!
"Lushan Gong has been completely exposed," Xu Zun said, "Nothing can happen to him!"
"You..." The son-in-law swallowed his saliva and still pretended to be stupid, "What are you talking about? My father-in-law...has...already..."
"Time is running out," Xu Zun nervously looked outside the door, "This matter has already alerted Lin Chaofeng and the Demon Queen. I have a way to get you out now. If you miss this chance, you won't have another chance!"
"This... " The son-in-law was sweating and had obviously begun to believe Xu Zun.
Xu Zun was extremely surprised, because judging from the other party's reaction, he must have been right, that Lord Lushan Li Ren was definitely not dead!!!
If Li Ren was not dead and Cai Kun did not recognize the wrong person, then there seems to be only one explanation left.
"Hurry up!" Xu Zun looked outside the door again, "I can trick them into the alchemy room later, telling them there's a secret passage or something, and then I'll take you out through the main door.
"Everyone there is my man, everything has been arranged..."
"What...what can you do?" The son-in-law finally fell for it and asked, "The city...the city gates are all sealed, how can we get out of the city?"
"Did you see it?" Xu Zun quickly took out the inner guard token and waved it, saying, "This is the gold medal bestowed by the Queen Mother. Since I'm here to pick you up, I can guarantee your exit from the city!"
“This…this…”
"Oh, hurry up!" Xu Zun said anxiously, "Cai Kun has become suspicious of me. If I don't leave now, I won't be able to protect myself!"
"Okay... okay..." The son-in-law finally made up his mind and said to Xu Zun, "I'll take you to pick up my father-in-law..."
…
