Le Premier ministre stupéfiant

Chapitre 77

For quite some time, the three of them stood in front of the white jade gate, and no one stepped into the treasure.

Mo Xibei's eyes had already swept over countless gold and silver treasures. In an inconspicuous corner, there was a wooden box. The size of the box was just right to hold books, but the wood of the box was loose and broken, and there were already signs of corrosion.

Volume Two: The Wind Leaves a Mark, Chapter Twenty-One: The Treasure (Part 8)

“Chen Youliang, who dominates Hanzhong, is indeed richer than a country.” After a long silence, Huang Jin suddenly said, “If someone gets hold of these treasures and raises their arms, I’m afraid they will rise up in response. At that time, the sky will probably change color.”

"As the saying goes, a good bird chooses a good tree to perch on, and a good minister chooses a good lord to serve. If someone raises their arm and the whole world responds, it is probably not because of this treasure that is richer than a country, but because the ruler has lost the hearts of the people." Chu Junfeng added, which sounded ordinary, but in this time and place, it gave people a strange feeling.

"In your opinion, Young Master Chu, it doesn't matter who owns this treasure, it won't affect the overall situation." Huang Jin had lost a lot of blood from his severed arm, and now a layer of cold sweat had gathered on his forehead, and his voice seemed to have lost its confidence.

"The Factory Supervisor's words are quite difficult to understand." Chu Junfeng did not answer Huang Jin's question, but instead said something ambiguous.

"We understand each other implicitly, but I'm afraid Your Highness won't understand." Huang Jin suddenly turned to Mo Xibei and said, "Isn't Your Highness curious about what we, Young Master Chu, were talking about?"

"I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I'm not interested in anything you say." Mo Xibei remained calm, her eyes darting around, searching for the best way out. Few wouldn't covet such immense wealth, and those who dared to embezzle it were naturally well-prepared. She understood what that bad feeling she had when she woke up that morning was telling her, but she didn't know just how dangerous the current situation truly was.

"What happens here has nothing to do with her." Chu Junfeng suddenly reached out and grabbed Mo Xibei's sleeve, forcefully pulling her behind him. His tone was rather cold and impatient. "Supervisor, let's stick to the original plan. Time is running out." "Young Master Chu is truly a man who cherishes beauty, but a real man should strive for great things. How can he be bound by romantic feelings?" Huang Jin chuckled coldly, his gaze unabashedly sharp as he looked Mo Xibei up and down. "There are plenty of fish in the sea. In the future, how many beauties will be at your disposal? As for her, it's best to let go when the time comes."

"I've said before, if you touch her, then everything we've discussed before is null and void," Chu Junfeng said coldly. "I didn't care anyway; at worst, we'd just part ways."

"Why bother?" Huang Jin shook his head, seemingly heartbroken. His eyes narrowed slightly, and although his face was pale, the light in his eyes did not diminish. He stared at Chu Junfeng for a long time before saying with a helpless expression, "Whatever you say, then so be it."

"So..." Chu Junfeng had just released his grip on Mo Xibei's sleeve when his expression suddenly changed. In the dark passageway of the stone cave, the sound of light footsteps grew closer. Although the person was trying to conceal their presence, it could not escape the ears of a master.

Of course, it wasn't just one or two people who came.

“Young Master Chu, if you want to keep all of this for yourself, you might as well just say so.” Huang Jin’s expression changed several times at the same time.

"Shouldn't I be asking the Director of the Eastern Depot that question? Everyone knows that the cliff is full of your Eastern Depot people." Chu Junfeng's voice was mocking. "Isn't this 'thief crying 'stop thief' trick a common tactic of the Eastern Depot?"

"If we were playing tricks, would we have lost an arm?" Huang Jin's face darkened, his voice still deliberately lowered, but it was so sharp and close that it made Mo Xibei's eardrums buzz.

"Why are you arguing about this? Just wait here quietly for a while, and everything will be clear soon." Seeing the two of them at each other's throats, Mo Xibei couldn't help but laugh and interjected in a small voice.

"Your Highness, don't be too happy yet. No matter whose people are coming, the first one they'll probably deal with is you. If you ask me, you'd better pray for your own good fortune." Huang Jin snorted and said in a sinister tone.

"Even in the worst-case scenario, it's just a matter of risking my life. From the moment I decided to come here, I was prepared for the worst." Mo Xibei was completely unconvinced. When she left the capital, she had already anticipated the worst outcome. Life and death are preordained, and wealth and honor are determined by fate. It's not that she has no attachments, but she has always been carefree and her luck is usually not bad.

Volume Two: The Wind Leaves a Trace, Chapter Twenty-Two: The Duel

Things in this world are often unexpected. Mo Xibei thought that facts speak louder than words, so when a group of masked men in black stood neatly in front of the three of them, she was the one with the calmest reaction.

These men in black were all dressed in water armor, carrying Japanese swords, and their small, triangular eyes, visible through their face masks, revealed a greedy and murderous glint in their eyes.

This wasn't the first time Mo Xibei had encountered someone with such vision. The earliest encounter was on a boat on the Grand Canal, and the most recent was during his duel with Murong Songtao.

"Leave the treasure and your lives behind." The man in black at the front uttered these words curtly, each syllable carrying a weighty weight, yet sounding somewhat deliberately strange.

"That depends on whether you have the ability." Chu Junfeng laughed and glanced at his opponent with disdain. He had already quickly calculated in his mind that there were exactly ten men in black. The cave was not spacious, which meant that it would not be easy for them to rush at him all at once. However, if they fought one-on-one, although Huang Jin had lost an arm, with his and Mo Xibei's combined strength, they would definitely not be at a disadvantage.

"You Central Plains people, besides your big mouths, you're nothing special." The man in black walking in front chuckled strangely a few times, then raised his hand, ready to attack.

"Murong Songtao, you've lived in the Central Plains for so many years, how come you can't even speak clearly now that you've reverted to your Japanese identity?" Mo Xibei knew something was wrong as soon as he heard the masked man's laughter. He never expected that Murong Songtao, who had suffered such depletion of internal energy and severe injuries, would still be alive.

"Mo Xibei, your hearing is truly remarkable. I never imagined that my feigned death and deliberate concealment of my accent wouldn't fool you. Too bad, it only hastens your demise." The man in black laughed repeatedly upon hearing Mo Xibei's words expose his identity once more. He made no attempt to hide anything, "This time is different. I'll make sure you die without a burial place."

“What a coincidence, we really are on the same wavelength,” Mo Xibei smiled as well. “Originally, I thought it was a pity that this treasure was left here in the dark. As for ownership, anyone who is destined can take it, but these all belong to the Chinese, and anyone can get them, except you Japanese pirates. Since you have found this place, I can only make sure you don’t leave.”

"Enough with the nonsense!" Murong Songtao waved his hand, his blade flashing, and lunged straight at Mo Xibei. The men in black behind him also roared and charged forward, brandishing their blades.

"Northwest. I'll deal with that old scoundrel Murong; the rest are yours." Mo Northwest drew his sword. But Chu Junfeng was even faster, stepping in front to block Murong Songtao's powerful, mountain-splitting strike.

The Japanese pirates who came this time were different from those they had encountered before. They were all agile and ruthless with their swords. In this small space, they fought with a ferocious and reckless abandon, as if they were not worried at all that their blades might accidentally injure their comrades.

The Japanese pirates' swordsmanship was purely practical, lacking fancy techniques; every strike aimed to kill. Therefore, although Chu Junfeng managed to block Murong Songtao, the most skilled fighter, the remaining pirates swarmed in, and Huang Jin, having already lost an arm, was inevitably thrown into disarray. "Lord Supervisor, why don't you call for reinforcements?" Amidst the chaos, Mo Xibei was slightly puzzled. Why hadn't anyone come down to check on things after so long? Had they also met with misfortune? But given Mu Feinan's abilities, even Murong Songtao couldn't gain the upper hand; who could possibly hold him back?

"You think we don't want to?" Standing back-to-back with Mo Xibei, Huang Jin, panting heavily, had just repelled two frenzied slashes from the men in black. "I understand. People die for wealth. You won't die unjustly today." Mo Xibei immediately understood. To avoid attracting too much attention and smoothly divide the treasure, Huang Jin must have given a strict order for everyone to guard the cliff. He had only thought that even if someone coveted the treasure, they would have to climb down the cliff using ropes. He hadn't considered that some desperate individuals would dare to go against the current at the mouth of the river and climb up from the bottom. Therefore, while there were many people on the mountain, those below could only fight for themselves, their lives in the hands of fate. But if Huang Jin's death wasn't unjust, wasn't his own?

Thinking of this, Mo Xibei tightened his grip, and a hidden weapon that he had just prepared to give to Huang Jin for self-defense flew silently out of the darkness. He heard a black-clad man who was attacking him cry out "Ah!" and the impenetrable shadow of blades in front of him finally eased.

It was a gold needle coated with poison. Mo Xibei's hidden weapons were never coated with poison, but this needle just happened to be the one he had used to torture the blood-covered man he had captured that day. The gold needle had pierced the blood-covered man's body and was coated with a deadly poison. Mo Xibei hadn't noticed it until this morning when he was sorting out his hidden weapons and discovered that the gold needle had changed color. Because he had a strong premonition that morning, Mo Xibei had secretly kept the gold needle with him. Now, it came in handy.

A golden needle pierced the eye of a man in black, and the poison spread instantly. The man in black was an expert; he knew something was wrong as soon as his vision went black. When he regained consciousness and realized that the poison was there, he roared and stuck two fingers into his eye socket, gouging out one of his eyeballs.

Dark blue blood flowed from the black eye sockets.

The Blood Sea Fragrance was too vicious. Even if the eyes were gouged out immediately, it would not stop the spread of the poison. However, when the blue blood flowed all over the face, the scene was still extremely terrifying.

"How come you have the fragrance of blood?" The other men in black who participated in the siege also saw this scene, and one of them asked in disbelief.

"Because justice is clear and retribution is inevitable." Mo Xibei's sword was unstoppable. While the man in black was stunned, the sword light slashed across the neck of another man in black. The force was not great, but the sharp tip of the sword was enough to cut through the throat and blood vessels.

Huang Jin was not idle either. He struck the black-clad man opposite him, who had exposed an opening, with a palm strike. This palm strike was the culmination of half of his life's power and was enough to shatter stone and break monuments. The black-clad man did not even utter a sound before collapsing to the ground, his internal organs shattered and he died.

With one-third fewer opponents and the intimidating power of Blood Sea Fragrance still present, the pressure on Mo Xibei and Huang Jin immediately eased. Wherever their swords and palms flashed, they instantly killed two more men in black.

The tide of battle turned. Chu Junfeng had exchanged a hundred blows with Murong Songtao and gained the upper hand. Mo Xibei glanced at the scene and saw that Murong Songtao's swordsmanship was still skillful, but his face was covered in sweat, and he couldn't execute many of the subtle variations in his moves. It seemed that his previous injury hadn't fully healed, and he was struggling to fight. As time went on, his weakness gradually became apparent. On the other hand, Chu Junfeng became more and more calm and composed. Every move he made was a mix of feints and real attacks. Most of the time, he didn't directly meet Murong Songtao's blade, but instead led him to hack at the surrounding walls, exhausting his stamina. Mo Xibei knew from just a few glances that Murong Songtao would definitely suffer a very humiliating defeat in another thirty or fifty moves at most.

Volume Two: The Wind Leaves a Trace, Chapter Twenty-Three: Failure

However, in this world, conclusions that are too easy to draw are often the easiest to overturn.

During the fierce battle, Murong Songtao was struck by Chu Junfeng's palm and forced to retreat to the side. The remaining four men in black also launched two strong attacks before retreating at the same time.

"Stand still!" Murong Songtao ripped open his shirt, revealing a bundle tied to his abdomen. Inside the bundle, dark and unrecognizable, were some things. However, Chu Junfeng and Huang Jin's expressions changed almost simultaneously.

At the same time, the four men in black tore open their clothes and pulled out several dark, round balls from the bundles in their arms. Their fierce eyes revealed a resolute determination.