Chapter 1 阿哲，你带两个人上树顶

"A Zhe, take two men to the treetop, ready to snipe the enemy chief. Guan Huan, you go to the study and stay there. Protect Ye Tao closely. Xiao Qing, you go and arrange things. Everyone must be prepared, in case someone attacks and we are unprepared. Send a few more people to the little mistress's place." Liu Yong calmly ordered.

Just now, the situation took a sharp turn for the worse. After Huo Dong revealed his identity, those blocking the gate seemed to know that the manor would never hand anyone over, and the matter could not be resolved peacefully. They simply laid their cards on the table, saying that either the person was handed over, or they would attack the manor. Moreover, there were far more than just a few dozen people. In the villages at the foot of the manor, people kept lighting torches and surrounding the manor from all directions, gradually approaching and threatening. It looked like there were several hundred people. And on the road in the distance, the large group of people who had been waiting silently with their lights off also lit torches to illuminate the road and headed towards the manor. In total, there were probably more than a thousand people.

Yi Province's unique terrain allowed Wanke Manor, with its excellent field of vision, to spot all of this. Nothing was missed, but precisely because of this, Wang An, Huo Dong and others began to feel a chill down their spines. Hand someone over? It would be too humiliating to hand someone over just like that. To dare to oppose the Imperial Guards, the other party must have an extraordinary background. Would they really withdraw if they handed the person over? In fact, no one was confident about this. Ye Tao and his group, who also knew the situation, didn't seem so anxious. Although they only had fifty or so guards, Liu Yong's few words of instruction set them up to prepare in an orderly manner, as if preparing for war. Among these fifty or so guards were all kinds of strange characters, especially two super-physical monsters. They could wear heavy infantry armor, with its comprehensive protection, as if it were nothing, and still be able to run and jump, and even perform extremely difficult moves. With such meat grinders, just two people could contain dozens or even hundreds of opponents. And the few guards from the Yun Province tribes in the team, especially the guy named Zheluo, simply called "A Zhe," was the kind of guy who could shoot a string of geese with consecutive arrows, each hitting the right eye. There were even rumors that no tribe in the Benlang Plains allowed such archers to practice with live animals, for fear that they would get carried away and directly commit genocide against good prey like geese, herons, and wild donkeys...

"Xiao Qing, what are your people doing? Such a large group of people ran to the foot of the mountain and you didn't react." After the situation was basically confirmed, Liu Yong remembered to pursue Bi Xiaoqing's responsibility.

Bi Xiaoqing's face turned red in front of her martial uncle, and she said softly, "The surrounding area is too large, and after dusk we can only take the eagles back. We can't take care of everything. Moreover, the other party should be heading for the two villages below, and then set off from the villages. We can't check those people one by one. Who knows which ones are merchants and which ones are villains?"

Liu Yong glared at Bi Xiaoqing and said, "If you mess up like this again, see how I deal with you."

Liu Yong paused and then asked, "Have those who can't fight been arranged properly?"

Bi Xiaoqing nodded quickly and said, "It's all arranged. Fire-spraying sticks have also been distributed. Even if the situation gets chaotic and there are too many opponents to take care of at once, it's enough for self-protection."

Liu Yong nodded and said, "I'll go find Ye Tao now. This matter... looks a bit strange."

Liu Yong, who had once been the chief of the Imperial Guards and had served as Tan Weixin's bodyguard for many years, wouldn't have been willing to leave Tan Weixin to come to Chunnan this time if Tan Weixin hadn't insisted. But at this time, he was indeed the kind of person who could make decisions in an instant and give confidence to those around him.

"That person is awake." Suddenly, a guard ran over in a hurry and reported loudly.

Liu Yong came to the room where that person was placed, and now two guards were specially arranged to guard the door of this room. The one who was diagnosing this person of suspicious origin was none other than Feng Zi. Feng Zi didn't have much practical diagnostic experience, but his theoretical knowledge was extremely rich. After exchanging opinions with an accompanying military doctor, he used a set of acupuncture methods that he had just learned from his maternal grandfather to stimulate the young man and quickly woke him up.

Seeing Liu Yong's arrival, Feng Zi bowed and said, "This guy says his name is Chen Kai."

"Give me back my things." Chen Kai looked at the composed Liu Yong and roared, "Let me go. This has nothing to do with you."

"Give it back to you? Okay, even if I give it back to you, you can't open it. What do you want it for? You look like you want to collect the Canglong Box?" Liu Yong shrugged and said.

Chen Kai stammered, "You... how do you know I can't open it?"

Liu Yong curled his lips, ignored his question, and instead asked, "Tell me, who exactly are you, and why are there a thousand people gathered outside, willing to attack the manor to get you?"

Chen Kai was a little dejected and said, "This has nothing to do with you."

"The Canglong Box has never been a matter for one or two people, you must understand that, right?" Liu Yong sighed.

Chen Kai turned his head and remained silent. After a while, he turned his head back and said through gritted teeth, "You can't open it either. Give me back the box. There's no need to fight those bandits to the death for me. ...Anyway, it can't be opened. Let me destroy the box in front of those people, and they will retreat. ...Or, or they might spare my life."

Chen Kai's tone was not confident, and the so-called words of being able to spare his life did not sound like joy or hope, but rather like a state more desperate than death.

"Who said we can't open it? Did you think we took your box to play with? My lord is working hard on it. If my lord admits defeat in the end, it won't be too late for you to seek death," Liu Yong said with a chuckle.

"Your lord?" Chen Kai was stunned. "What ability does your lord have to open the Canglong Box? Since the entire lineage of Master Musiyu is dead, there are only a few people in the world qualified to try. Is your lord Lu Anjia of Fanxin Pavilion, Fang Lin of Baoqing Hall in Western Sichuan, or 'Ghost Craftsman' Qi Buping?"

The people Chen Kai mentioned were all well-known technical experts in the world, known for their exquisite craftsmanship, their skill in making precision instruments, and their ability to crack various mechanisms. Almost all of these people were highly regarded experts supported by the most famous jewelers and aristocratic families in various places, and ordinary people rarely saw them. But to Liu Yong, these people seemed ordinary. Ye Tao's studio in Danyang had several works by these people. Their ideas and techniques were indeed superb, but after Ye Tao's analysis and explanation, many technicians in the Ye family workshop could actually do it now. Perhaps these technicians didn't have such strong imaginations, their ideas weren't so detailed, or their techniques were biased and they couldn't solve all the problems independently, but being able to turn other people's unique works into things that everyone used for practice, the Ye family workshop's technical team led by Ye Tao was undoubtedly the best in the world.

"My lord is Ye Tao, the Yun Province Pacification Commissioner," Liu Yong said with a sneer.

Chen Kai petrified instantly. He never expected that Liu Yong would utter such an answer. With Chen Kai's current appearance and his decline, even the masters he had just mentioned might not have the opportunity to see him, let alone crack something like the Canglong Box. Given his current situation, he was afraid that no matter who he found to crack the box, he would no longer have the opportunity to lead the remaining matters. But it was actually Ye Tao.

If Ye Tao said he couldn't crack it, the few famous craftsmen he had mentioned earlier would have even less chance. Faced with the profitable grandfather clock business, how many merchants in the world had invested a lot of money in tackling and cracking the products of Tissot Watch Company? But without the scientific basis of gravity and simple harmonic motion, without a complete set of solutions from materials to technology, no merchant had succeeded. He didn't know how many large Chunnan and Xiling merchants had paid a great price but were unable to overcome the precision problem of mass production of gears. But looking at the current Tissot Watch Company, almost every month several new products were launched, and the product line of grandfather clocks and wall clocks was becoming more and more abundant, the volume was becoming smaller and smaller, and the timing accuracy was becoming higher and higher. The newly launched desktop stopwatch was accurate to one-twentieth of a second. And the safe business and various professional lock business under the name of Ye's workshop, which was currently only operating in Dongping, made Chen Kai feel it was the most direct hope.

Moreover, Ye Tao was rumored to be a reasonable person. This was even more important to Chen Kai.

"Let me see your lord!" Chen Kai looked at Liu Yong and said decisively.

Pa—Feng Zi slapped Chen Kai on the back of the head. "Are you looking for a beating? Do you have a brain? If you move even slightly now, the wounds on your body will open up, and you'll bleed all over, and you won't last a few minutes before you die."

Liu Yong chuckled and said, "Feng Zi, be gentle, don't beat this guy to death. I'll go see if the lord is free. He's been holed up in the study with that old man Wang Shi for a while, it's time for him to rest. I'll have the lord come over as soon as possible."

Feng Zi nodded and said, "Then I'll take care of him here. ...By the way, what's going on outside?"

Liu Yong shrugged and said, "Just a thousand or so people."

Liu Yong turned and left. After hearing this conversation, looking at Liu Yong and Feng Zi, who seemed so normal, Chen Kai found it too incredible. Would a pacification commissioner, who commanded one side and had the final say in Yun Province, a territory so large that it could be divided into at least four to five Chunnan standards, actually consider that an injured person couldn't move casually?

As soon as Liu Yong walked out of the room, a guard approached and said, "The manor is surrounded."

"What?" Liu Yong rolled his eyes. These so-called gang members and martial world figures were too daring. "Got it. I guess you guys can have a feast today."

Liu Yong's understatement made the guard chuckle and respond quickly, "Hehe, that's great. We've been running for so many days, it's good to stretch our muscles."

After a while, Zhou Rui, who personally led the Special Operations Battalion, bypassed the encirclement and sneaked into the manor to deliver a message that made Liu Yong's expression serious. A Chunnan army with a scale of more than two thousand people was rushing towards Huandai Mountain, which should be related to what was happening.