Chapter 1 The Danger Attractant

When the inner court guards learned that Ye Tao was preparing to reveal his identity to attract attention, they admired his courage and heroism on the one hand, and secretly lamented on the other. According to the news from the spies lurking within the Dao Ming Sect, Ye Tao was undoubtedly at the top of the Dao Ming Sect's Eagle Hall's elimination list. This list included key figures from all forces with various direct conflicts of interest with Western Liang or conflicts with the Dao Ming Sect, including royal family members and important officials from Dongping, Chunnan, and Yunzhou, as well as many other figures. Before Ye Tao took office as governor, he had already entered the top twenty on this list due to his achievements in popularizing military chess, establishing the Blood Kirin Army, leading the Blood Kirin Army to raid the Western Liang army, and constructing landmark buildings. The suggested method of dealing with him was: "Attempt to kidnap him to obtain the essence of Dongping's military equipment manufacturing technology and construction technology. If this is not possible, it is better to eliminate him early to avoid future troubles." On the latest version of this list, this description had changed to "A great danger to the country; he should be eliminated as soon as possible."

The spies and secret guards had a deep understanding of Ye Tao. They had no doubt that even if Ye Tao knew this, he would not change the decisions he was making now. More likely, he would be more confident in attracting the power of the Dao Ming Sect's Eagle Hall. The news that Ye Tao's guard was about to arrive made the inner court guards feel a little relieved, but they still had to prepare contingency plans in all aspects.

Late that night, Mo Leng had already learned that Ye Tao had arrived in Ninghe Town. He even knew the reason why Ye Tao had changed his private visit into a public inspection. Although Dongping's intelligence was well-developed, Western Liang had always been the most powerful country on the mainland, with ambitious plans to unify the world, and Western Liang's intelligence deployment in Dongping for many years was not in vain.

"What is the strength of the defense around Ye Tao?" Mo Leng asked.

The Eagle Hall member who had just sneaked out of Ninghe Town respectfully reported: "Ye Tao's party consists of twenty-nine people in total. Including Ye Tao, his maid Sophie Marceau, the governor's office scribe Feng Zi, the governor's office manager Xu Hankang, and the personal guard captain Bi Xiaoqing. There are twelve guards. There are also two scribes, four servants, one groom, and three coachmen from the governor's office. And two apprentices from the Ye Family Workshop."

"Ye Tao is quite bold, daring to act so presumptuously." Mo Leng smiled sinisterly, "Haven't those busybodies in the city received the news yet?"

"I don't think so."

Mo Leng and his party came to Dongping not just to avenge Mo Leng's family affairs. Mo Leng originally valued that brother-in-law of his, not so much because he doted on his wife, but because he valued Xing Yuan's decisive actions and promising future. Xing Yuan's death meant, to him, that some clues in Dongping and some hidden one-way contacts had been lost. As for whether it would be easy to explain to his wife, it was not within Mo Leng's consideration at all. The fact that Mo Leng and his party were openly seeking revenge was only to divert attention so that Mo Leng could restore those contacts. Many of the sources of information they had were controlled by Xing Yuan through his knowledge of the shameful secrets of those officials and merchants. With Xing Yuan's death, some of these people would breathe a sigh of relief. Although Xing Yuan was dead, the evidence he had retained to control these people must be hidden in the various contact stations established by the Dao Ming Sect in Dongping. Under the joint sweep of the Dongping Inner Affairs Guards and the military, many of these contact stations had been destroyed, but the evidence had not necessarily been obtained by Dongping. At least, on the surface, those officials and merchants who had once been controlled by them were still living well and had not been purged.

In order to restore these contacts, Mo Leng had to take risks and come to Dongping to personally take control of the affairs related to the retrieval of evidence. The remaining power of the Dao Ming Sect in Dongping's central government was truly limited.

The removal of the Hundred Lotus Princess, also known as the Lotus Consort's female official, was an eternal pain in the Dao Ming Sect's heart. Although this female official did not know martial arts, she was an important chess piece that the Dao Ming Sect had gradually cultivated for almost ten years. By seducing military officers to obtain information, Western Liang had once gained an absolute advantage in the Battle of Hengshan, which had once given the Western Liang Emperor extremely high hopes for the Dao Ming Sect and the Eagle Hall, but Dongping's relentless pursuit had destroyed everything. Although the Dao Ming Sect still had many spies lurking in Dongping, these people were not high enough in rank and rarely had access to key information in the center of power. Although another chess piece they had placed next to the Lotus Consort had not been exposed, the Lotus Consort had once fallen out of favor. After the Lotus Consort gave birth to another son, Tan Weizai, for Tan Xiaopei, the Lotus Consort's treatment had improved greatly, but she was surrounded by more people arranged by the Dongping royal family, making it too difficult for that chess piece to be active.

Re-establishing contact with those people previously controlled by Xing Yuan had become the top priority for the Eagle Hall to regain the initiative in the intelligence war with Dongping.

Mo Leng weighed the situation. He was not worried about those who had been sent out to investigate the abandoned contact stations. Even if some of those contact stations were being monitored by Dongping's secret agents for a long time, these people were experts and would naturally have various ways to deal with it. But was it necessary to change the original so-called revenge plan in Ninghe Town? If Mo Leng was present and heard Han Dong's reminders to Ye Tao, he might laugh out loud. If Ye Tao could really wipe out the Dao Ming Sect, most people in the Western Liang martial world would be overjoyed. The Dao Ming Sect was not so popular in the Western Liang martial world, or even in the entire martial world. Although Mo Leng had sent people to kill the warden and several jailers, he had been carefully controlling the intensity of the activities, fearing the backlash from the Dongping martial world. Although Dongping was still weaker than Western Liang in terms of strength, the Dongping court and the public, and even the business community and the martial world were united, which was enviable compared to the complex and tense situation in Western Liang. Mo Leng knew that with the power he had in hand, with two of the Eagle Hall's four heroes and many other experts, if he launched a strong attack, a surprise attack, or prepared an assassination, he would have at least a 50% chance of killing Ye Tao. But he didn't know what the consequences would be if he did so. One of the reasons why the Dongping martial world was not very enthusiastic about serving the court was that the martial worlds of Dongping, Western Liang, Chunnan, and Northern Liao had a tacit understanding not to actively intervene in national-level conflicts. And assassinating a highly valued governor would obviously break this tacit understanding. At that time, the pressure on the Dao Ming Sect at home and throughout the continent would be difficult to estimate. If the target was Tan Xiaopei, Mo Leng would not hesitate. But even though the Dao Ming Sect's think tank had listed Ye Tao, and even Tan Weixin, in the top twenty priority elimination list, Mo Leng still hesitated: was it really worth it?

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Sorry, the update was late. I accidentally fell asleep. In my daze, I remembered that I still owed an update. I jumped up, rushed to update, and then rushed back to continue sleeping.