Will Li Yanfu give them time?
"Ma Yan! Strike! Capture the king to catch the bandit first!" Grandmaster Dong suddenly shouted.
Now, with most military generals out of the city to resist the enemy, the strongest in the hall was Ma Yan. A martial artist of the Worldly Realm should be able to hold the situation.
However, Ma Yan did not move, clenching his fists and vigilantly staring at a masked guard beside Li Yanfu.
"Ha," Li Yanfu chuckled. At this moment, he no longer concealed his wolfish ambitions, revealing his true, fierce nature:
"Dong Xuan, could it be that you have grown senile? How dare I, the Prime Minister, enter the palace today without accounting for Ma Yan, this fierce general?"
His eyes carried an air of disdain:
"Or do you think I cannot find even one expert of the Worldly Realm by my side?"
As his words fell, the masked guard on his back right suddenly removed his mask, revealing a face imprinted with tattoos.
"Kong Wu!" Someone in the crowd exclaimed.
Many people were awakened, recalling the name: a death row inmate once imprisoned in the Heavenly Prison, also one of the military leaders.
"Wasn't he already dead?" The Minister of War's face changed.
The man named Kong Wu smiled without paying attention to others, stepped forward, and locked his qi mechanism firmly onto Lord Ma:
"Ma Yan, long time no see, you should remember me, right? Back then, when I was wanted, it was a group of Inner Court Tributors who joined forces to capture me. Ha, should you have tried to capture me without outnumbering me?"
Ma Yan stared at him intently and shook his head, saying:
"When I took over the Imperial Prison, I reviewed the files and felt suspicious that your death occurred during the Xuanmen Coup, dying mysteriously in prison. Now it seems Li Yanfu took advantage of the chaos in the Capital, when no one had time to attend to the Imperial Prison, to replace and nurture you."
Kong Wu did not deny it, touching the tattoo on his face with a manic smile:
"I thought I was dead for sure, but I didn't expect to come back now. Haha, I heard you've stepped into the Worldly Realm. Not bad, you now finally have the qualification to face me. You can try, at this distance, whether you can kill the Prime Minister first or you die first."
Ma Yan's face was solemn, as if facing a formidable enemy!
As one of the Tributors who participated in capturing Kong Wu that year, he knew full well this guy's combat power.
Even though he cultivates the royal family's secret, without weapons, he could at most match Kong Wu; hoping to kill someone in front of him was slim.
Li Yanfu smiled, overlooking the Old Grandmaster:
"Dong Xuan, you are too old, your mind is no longer sharp. With Kong Wu holding back Ma Yan, I still have over a hundred retainers, all skilled. At my command, in a few breaths, they can slay all of you.
However, I have the virtue of sparing lives, only executing the main evil. Aside from you, Dong Xuan, and a few others like Yuann Li, the rest, if willing to switch allegiances, I would not like to engage in a big fight either."
The officials were silent!
The hall was quiet, and an uneasy atmosphere surged. Facing the threat of life and death, many ministers hesitated.
However, Grandmaster Dong, facing the threat, was unexpectedly calm, with a calmness that was somewhat abnormal.
"Li Yanfu, you indeed fooled almost everyone. I admit, I underestimated you too much, but..."
On the face of the octogenarian Grandmaster Dong, a slight smile suddenly appeared: "Do you think you can deceive Your Majesty?"
Your Majesty? Li Yanfu's heart stirred, and he sneered:
"Stop pretending. Your Majesty is currently missing, several thousand miles away from the Capital."
"That's right," Dong Xuan sighed lightly, "but who said that when His Majesty went south for the Sealing, he truly took all the palace experts with him?"
As his voice fell, suddenly, from the corner of the hall that had been almost ignored, four female officials stepped out.
They were extremely inconspicuous, wearing uniformly styled low-ranking female official robes, their foreheads adorned with plum blossom makeup in imitation of Mo Chou.
Every time there was a court meeting in the hall, some eunuchs and female officials would be present to record the meeting, maintain order, and tidy up benches and tables.
And no one ever paid attention.
But at this moment, these four female officials, as they walked, seemingly shed their disguises, their temperament suddenly changed, more in unison, they drew four gleaming soft swords from around their waists!
At the same time, a qi mechanism at least above the Divine Chapter approached, with four people moving in unison, their sword blades aimed at Li Yanfu from four angles, following a constellation formation!
The sword blades were fierce!
Ma Yan's eyes moved, at the same time stepping forward and punching! Striking at Kong Wu!
"Outsiders only thought that the inner court of the Imperial Palace gathered eunuchs to cultivate the royal secret transmission as Inner Court Tributors. But who ever thought that the Imperial City Tributors were truly all men? How could there be no female Tributors within the palace?"
Grandmaster Dong's voice echoed in the hall.
In Li Yanfu's pupils, the four soft swords rapidly enlarged.
...
...
Outside the Imperial Palace, a chilling atmosphere prevailed.
The slaughter in the Meridian Gate Square was perfectly blocked by the high palace walls.
And the South Gate, controlled by the rebellious imperial guard, looked completely normal from a distance.
People outside the palace would never have imagined that at this moment, within the high palace walls, a potentially earth-shattering event was playing out.
On Vermilion Bird Street outside the Imperial Palace, the atmosphere was equally chilling.
An official of the Li Party was ordered to lead a group of death warriors disguised as patrol government officers, wandering the street to drive away any outsiders that might approach the Imperial Palace.
To ensure that no news leaked out from outside the South Gate before the coup ended.
"Who goes there?! Halt!"
As the Li Party official rode on a tall horse, clutching a long whip, he suddenly noticed two figures quickly approaching from the end of Vermilion Bird Street for no apparent reason.