Chapter 2116 - 2101: Raising Bandits to Strengthen Oneself

Chapter 2116: Chapter 2101: Raising Bandits to Strengthen Oneself

The reprimanding decree from Ren Venerate Emperor Ji Long and the arrival of the Special Envoys from the Heavenly Patrol Department and the Military Department stirred up a storm even greater and more bizarre than what Ye Zhen had imagined.

The reason it was called bizarre was because just as the Special Envoys from the Heavenly Patrol Department and the Military Department arrived, the Marshal of the Border Pacifying Army of the Eastern War Zone, Wu Zhao, voluntarily submitted a confession.

He stated that the Demon Clan Dao Realm infiltrating was entirely due to his own negligence.

That night, the early-warning Grand Formation in the patrol sector under his inspection detected a fleeting anomaly, yet he failed to take it seriously and investigate, leading to the Demon Clan Dao Realm’s intrusion.

At the same time, this Marshal of the Border Pacifying Army, Wu Zhao, submitted a blood-written letter, begging His Majesty to grant his wife and children a way to live, in consideration of his one hundred and thirty years of arduous service guarding the borders for the nation.

As for himself, he felt his sins were grave and that he had no face to see the Holy Sovereign, thus he committed suicide, washing his shame with blood!

By the time the Special Envoys from the Heavenly Patrol Department and the Military Department who received this confession and blood-letter rushed over, the corpse of the Marshal of the Border Pacifying Army was already cold.

As for his Innate Divine Soul, it had long since vanished.

According to the personal guards who witnessed Wu Zhao’s suicide with their own eyes, after the Marshal killed himself, feeling that he had no face to meet the Emperor, even his Innate Divine Soul self-immolated and dispersed.

This counted as Divine Soul utterly extinguished, dead with no possibility of testimony.

Of course, the Special Envoys from the Heavenly Patrol Department and the Military Department were not people that could be easily fooled.

The infiltration of a Demon Clan Dao Realm expert was not something that could be glossed over by the suicide of a single Marshal.

They then followed the trail and began digging through the Border Pacifying Army.

This investigation was no small matter; once they started, they were utterly shocked.

Because before Wu Zhao, Marshal of the Border Pacifying Army, killed himself, he had already conducted his own investigation, and he subjected all the military commanders and commanders of the units on patrol duty that night, along with a batch of senior officers—seventy-one in total—to army law.

The officers and soldiers on duty that night guarding the Guardian Formation, one thousand and one in total, were also all subjected to army law, each and every one of them with their Divine Souls utterly extinguished.

No matter how capable the Special Envoys from the Heavenly Patrol Department and the Military Department were, they simply had no way to exert pressure on the dead.

When this news reached Ye Zhen’s ears, it truly gave Ye Zhen a tremendous fright.

Only Ye Zhen was very clear on how this matter came about; it was entirely something Ye Zhen himself had stirred up.

Yet this Marshal of the Border Pacifying Army, Wu Zhao, had taken the initiative to confess and submit to the law, even writing a blood-letter, and had all these officers and soldiers dealt with under army law.

Ye Zhen knew very well that they were innocent.

Yet they were all subjected to army law.

The reason they were executed under army law was worth deep contemplation, including the death of Marshal Wu Zhao of the Border Pacifying Army.

That reason was that someone did not wish for this matter to escalate, and wanted it to end right here.

However, the Special Envoys personally dispatched by the Emperor, especially the Special Envoys of the Heavenly Patrol Department, were not so easily placated.

That very night, they set things in motion everywhere, arresting officers on guard duty for interrogation, plunging the entire Eastern War Zone into anxiety and unrest.

Yet by the very next morning, Wu Zhao, Marshal of the Border Pacifying Army’s confession and blood-letter had spread throughout the entire Eastern War Zone, and rumors had even begun to appear in the other four war zones.

A rumor that chilled everyone to the core began circulating among ordinary soldiers—saying the Special Envoys of the Heavenly Patrol Department were using this chance to implicate and expand the scope of the incident, even extorting the generals for bribes in exchange for safety, and that frontline soldiers must not be allowed to shed blood only to shed tears as well!

The most direct manifestation of this was that impeachment memorials by Imperial Censors against Grand Celestial Official Wu Yu of the Heavenly Patrol Department and the Special Envoys of the Heavenly Patrol Department flew toward the Universe Hall like snowflakes.

Some even claimed that the Special Envoys of the Heavenly Patrol Department were calamities to the nation and the people, and that if they chilled the hearts of frontline soldiers, their crime warranted extermination of the Nine Clans.

In this way, even with Grand Celestial Official Wu Yu as their backing, the Special Envoys of the Heavenly Patrol Department did not dare act rashly.

On the imperial court, mutual attacks and accusations were even fiercer; Ren Venerate Emperor Ji Long dismissed three Imperial Censors from their posts.

This series of changes left Ye Zhen dumbfounded.

He had merely used his Xuan Ji Avatar to butcher a single Military Judge, yet unexpectedly, he had thrown the court situation into complete chaos.

All of a sudden, Ye Zhen realized something.

The affairs on the Human Demon Battlefield were far more complicated than he had imagined.

To make the Marshal of the Border Pacifying Army, Wu Zhao, commit suicide, and to have Wu Zhao’s confession and blood-letter spread in a single night, as well as to stir up rumors throughout the army—besides Grand Governor Prince Lik Ji Yuan, who else could it be?

This was an army that enforced military law!

Those who disturb the army’s morale—behead!

These rumors, by the standards of military law, all counted as disturbing the army’s morale; as soon as the Military Judges moved to act, how could such rumors possibly spread?

All of a sudden, Ye Zhen realized that his unintentional actions had already dragged him into the struggle between Ren Venerate Emperor Ji Long and the Human Demon Battlefield Grand Commander, Prince Lik Ji Yuan.

Strictly speaking, the moment Ye Zhen accepted Ren Venerate Emperor Ji Long’s Secret Decree, he had already been drawn into this conflict.

Prince Lik Ji Yuan intended to use the death and blood-letter of a Marshal to pacify this matter, but the seasoned and shrewd Ren Venerate Emperor Ji Long refused to grant him that chance.

Ren Venerate Emperor Ji Long first high-profile pardoned the death sentence of Marshal Wu Zhao of the Border Pacifying Army’s wife and children, and issued it in the name of an Imperial Decree, instructing the Human Demon Battlefield Grand Commander Prince Lik Ji Yuan to show mercy beyond the law while enforcing military statutes.

It made it seem as though Prince Lik Ji Yuan had become the villain.

Afterwards, Ren Venerate Emperor Ji Long issued another Imperial Decree, stating that the Demon Clan Dao Realm infiltration was of grave importance, and ordered Human Demon Battlefield Grand Commander Ji Yuan to, within seven days, ferret out the demon traces and slay them, lest they bring calamity upon the common people.

And the duty of the Special Envoys from the Heavenly Patrol Department and the Military Department was to supervise the generals of the Eastern War Zone in promptly seeking out and slaying the demon traces.

This Imperial Decree seemed to be Ren Venerate Emperor Ji Long taking a step back, but the Special Envoys stationed here from the Heavenly Patrol Department and the Military Department now had far more opportunities to come into contact with the generals of the Eastern War Zone.

Subsequently, something even more astonishing to Ye Zhen occurred.

Only two days after this Imperial Decree was issued, in a deep cave within a great mountain in the north of the Eastern War Zone, a world-shaking surge of power erupted, with one particular Demon Clan Qi aura distinctly obvious.

Before long, Human Demon Battlefield Grand Commander Ji Yuan memorialized Ren Venerate Emperor Ji Long, stating he had ferreted out demon traces and, paying whatever price necessary, had slain one Demon Lord of the Demon Clan.

Sent up along with this report was also a perfectly fresh corpse of a Demon Clan Dao Realm expert.

Ren Venerate Emperor Ji Long was naturally greatly comforted, issuing decrees to commend and reward as appropriate.

Only the originator of this matter, Ye Zhen, felt his heart growing ever heavier.

The troublemaking Xuan Ji Avatar was quietly staying in the Mirage Dragon Pearl Space, yet Human Demon Battlefield Grand Commander Ji Yuan had forcibly captured and killed an invading Demon Clan Dao Realm expert.

For this kind of situation, there were several possibilities: it might be that a Demon Clan Dao Realm expert had indeed coincidentally infiltrated; it might be one who had infiltrated earlier; or it might be one who had infiltrated previously but had never been detected, and so on.

Yet all these possibilities pointed toward one tremendously shocking possibility—Human Demon Battlefield Grand Commander Prince Lik Ji Yuan might have ties to, or even collude with, the Demon Clan!

At the thought of this, Ye Zhen felt a chill run down his spine.

This was the Grand Commander overseeing tens of millions of troops on the Human Demon Battlefield, a Prince of Political Affairs of the Great Zhou Dynasty, actually having some degree of collusion with the Demon Clan.

The consequences such a thing represented were far too terrifying.

"Fostering the enemy to aggrandize oneself!"

This was the thought that leapt up in Ye Zhen’s heart.

In that instant, Ye Zhen realized that the vortex he had been drawn into might be even more horrifying than he had imagined!

Yet he now had no possibility of withdrawing.

Once he attempted to withdraw, either side would grind him to powder like a millstone.

The only thing Ye Zhen could do now was to become the most steadfast grain in the millstone of one side, and by persisting to the end, borrow the momentum of the great trend and survive to the last!

Moreover, Ye Zhen believed that this outcome would probably make Ren Venerate Emperor Ji Long grit his teeth in hatred as well, because Ye Zhen had already spoken the truth, yet Prince Lik Ji Yuan had conjured up a Demon Clan Dao Realm corpse to bring the incident to a close.

This way of handling things could hardly be judged as Prince Lik Ji Yuan being foolish or daring.

But the incident was indeed concluded; with the corpse of the Demon Clan Dao Realm in hand, the Special Envoys dispatched by Ren Venerate Emperor Ji Long departed for Luoyi.

The Grand Commander of the Human Demon Battlefield remained Prince Lik Ji Yuan, and the entire Human Demon Battlefield remained firmly under his control.

And after this political vortex subsided, Ye Zhen, who had spent ten continuous days drinking tea outside the Grand Governor’s Mansion, was finally granted permission to meet Grand Governor Ji Yuan face-to-face!