Chapter Nine

1

About fifty years ago, the grassroots organization "Lè" began operating in the alleys of the country Shimen in its serene capital. Out of curiosity, Shimen's mother joined the organization, and Shimen was born and raised within Lè. He felt a deep sense of belonging to Lè and was always willing to speak up for it, unless Lè wanted his life, which was another matter altogether.

There is no definite account of which country among the five nations Lè originated from, and the organizational structure is also quite simple. The fact that there are only three types of masked disguises - sun, moon, and stars - demonstrates this. Shimen, at the age of eighteen, dons the sun mask and is the leader of Lè in his homeland island. Each island governs itself and carries out tasks that the local government dares not do but do not contradict the government. Their only rule is "to be patriotic, not to harm the interests of their motherland, and to sacrifice their lives for this cause."

One day, the sun-masked leaders of the other islands sent a message that all the sun-masked individuals in Lè should gather to select one person to lead the joint effort of the five nations in eliminating Zilie Song. Since there are no higher-ranking leaders than those who wear the sun mask, an additional white mask, called the outer crown, was added to Shimen's sun mask. Those who wear the outer crown can lead the other masked individuals in Lè.

"At the age of eighteen, it is probably why they chose you to be the leader."

"My mother only joined as a star-masked individual in the beginning. The other children born within Lè used to bully me, so naturally, I wanted to climb up. But once I sat in this position, I realized it's not an easy one. To lead the people underneath, one must understand what the grassroots desire and determine if their aspirations benefit or harm the nation. Young people are impulsive, so they chose me, mainly to take the blame. It's convenient for the hot-headed ones."

"Dad, don't you have the outer crown mask? Wouldn't Lè treat you differently?"

"It's been eighteen years, and it's still uncertain whether anyone within Lè knows about this mask."

Shimen took off the white mask from behind and disdainfully threw his sun-masked disguise away, which happened to fall right in front of the masked individual.

"Ugh!" The masked individual instinctively pulled the vines, causing them to move.

"Lan."

Lan swung his clothes, and a leaf brushed across the back of his hand.

"Ah!" The masked individual cried out, proving that he had awakened.

"He recognizes the outer crown. Who is he?" Shimen suddenly realized that this person had been present for so long, yet he had never uttered a single word.

The four of them walked in front of the person, who was bound by vines in the town center. The ferocity displayed by the enemy last night made the townspeople reluctant to come near.

Shixue Qi glanced at his mask, and it turned out to be a sun-masked disguise.

"Take it off and have a look."

"My daughter, don't think that this is just an ordinary masked disguise. If it is forcibly removed, he will die."

"Isn't that strange? The person who dies when the mask is removed is himself."

"And death is in the form of disintegration, making it impossible to find any clues on the corpse."

The masked individual no longer feigned sleep and stared at us, although we couldn't see his eyes.

"I have a way. Give me paper and a pen." I picked up a pen and began to draw on the paper, meticulously sketching a face.

Shixue Qi glanced over a few times and casually remarked, "You can sketch? Are you kidding?"

I turned my eyes towards her, and Shixue Qi was instantly taken aback.

"You don't even need to remove it to see. Do you know what kind of eyes these are?"

"Peeping eyes!" Shixue Qi said these three words quite cleverly, but it felt somewhat unsettling to me.

"Aw~~ It's the X-ray vision!"

"It doesn't matter anyway."

After I finished sketching, I handed the drawing to Shi Meng, who carefully examined it on the paper.

"I haven't met him, but since you've revealed your face, you might as well speak up," said the other with a sneer, indicating that he didn't want to call Shi Meng his brother.

"Forget it, someone from the imperial capital will come soon to take him away. His intentions are obvious - to take Shi Laoshi's life and mask. And the sniper incident from a few days ago should also come to an end."

"I'll tell Young Master Qin about what happened with Le, and try to make Othrie more vigilant." Although Shi Meng was still reluctant, he had no choice. He couldn't go back now.

2

Half an hour later, Qin Ying and his men arrived at the small town. Qin Ying floated in the air and slowly entered the wooden town.

The townspeople were busy repairing their houses, working diligently one by one.

"I think we should promote the use of family defense shields to the public. It can at least mitigate some damage."

"Do such things really exist?" Qin Taiyuan followed behind Qin Ying, serving as his aide.

"If there's a market for it, it must exist." I stood in front of them and said.

"Master! We meet again." Qin Taiyuan waved at me, with his little girl familiar spirit by his side, holding a lollipop in her mouth. In her innocent eyes, there was a hint of gloom. It was hard to bear witnessing such a dilapidated scene.

"You two disciples should stop chatting. Where is the masked person?" Qin Ying couldn't wait anymore.

"Why are you so impatient?"

"Master, don't you know? Master Niang opens up an empty nest for enemies every day, not getting angry is already good enough, right?"

"Oh... wait, how did you know about the visitors?" Qin Taiyuan picked up his familiar spirit and hurriedly caught up with Qin Ying.

"Does this organization called Le have many hideouts?"

Dozens of people, military personnel marching in formation, surrounded the masked person.

I handed the information and portrait provided by Shi Meng to Qin Ying. When Qin Ying saw the sketch of the man's face, his eyebrows furrowed as if he had noticed something wrong.

"Is this a man?" Qin Ying asked when he saw the portrait.

"Isn't he a man?"

"He is a man, but not the one who sniped the emperor."

"Huh? Didn't you say before that the sniper was a woman?" Did I miss something? Qin Ying didn't mention whether the person was male or female that day.

Floating in the air, Qin Ying floated lightly in front of the person, feeling around his body with his hands.

"Two things. Firstly, the physique is not the same. He is obviously stronger than the sniper from that day. Secondly, his weapon. The sniper from that day had only a sniper rifle, but if the revolver is a true Magic tool, she should have used it back then."

"So we haven't captured the real sniper yet." Shi Xueqi appeared next to me, and Qin Ying's gaze suddenly changed when he saw her.

"Shi Xueqi?"

"It's been a long time, Qin Ying."

"If there's a Judgment Wheel, why haven't we interrogated her?"

"She can't use it. Regardless of whether the 'Wheel of Time's Judgment' can actually do it, just Shi Xueqi's abilities are not enough to unleash the power of the Judgment Wheel." There are seven Judgment Wheels, each capable of amplifying one of the seven human desires, making it easy to hit the enemy's weak points, extract confessions, and pass judgment.

"You're saying I can't do it, huh? Lao Bai."

"Lao Bai, Lao Bai, so familiar, Qin Yang was Zi Sirou last time and Shi Xueqi this time, what are you trying to say?"

"I didn't mean anything? This time it's purely about solving the problem. Look at the prisoner, although it's not the one you wanted, there's information about the enemy. There's an organization called 'Lè' that has tried multiple times to assassinate our emperor. Furthermore, I also found out that this organization made a move eighteen years ago. At that time, they established several hideouts. Take a look and see if there's any that you've been to or haven't been to."

Shi Meng had explained before that eighteen years ago, when he was the leader of the Day Crown, the division of labor was like this: Dong Zhi Ji was responsible for gathering information before the operation and carrying out the act. The other four nations were in charge of hijacking trains and finding Emperor Zilie Song to force him to compromise on the maritime issue, or else they would let Pluto take care of it. At that time, people from Dong Zhi Ji had handed over information about their hideouts. Based on his memory, he marked them on the map.

Qin Ying had someone take away the masked man and had the Empire's adjudicators interrogate him, while she carefully analyzed the map.

"These two were the ones we took care of last time, and they've been blown up."

"So that means they're still using these hideouts. They've been using them for eighteen years?" Qin Taiyuan had also been involved in the search for the past two days and was equally clear about the situation.

"It's not that they're loyal, but rather they're not familiar with this place. When someone goes to a new place, if they want to quickly figure things out, they must rely on the footsteps and wisdom of those who came before them. Some of these hideouts are remote and hard to find, while others are unexpected. Based on the current situation, we need to mobilize a large number of troops and eliminate all these hideouts at the same time. Then they won't be able to hide so easily."

"They?"

"You still can't see, Taiyuan? There are already two snipers available. We can't guarantee there won't be a third or fourth, or even a legion of people in hiding in Othrie." After Qin Ying became the acting Duke, her way of thinking was no longer that of a student. Although she was frustrated that they still hadn't caught anyone, she remained calm.

"Shifu..."

"Don't call me Shifu, I haven't married him yet!" Qin Ying glanced at me and said with dissatisfaction.

"Oh... Shouldn't we pause the search and secretly investigate before taking action together?" Qin Taiyuan's suggestion sounded sweet and thoughtful, but it might not be applicable.

"That could work too. If we stop, they might come to assassinate us again on their own initiative."

Thinking about how the organization Lè hadn't appeared in all these years, even if their plans were exposed, they could silently disappear for eighteen years before reappearing. They were not a rash organization.

"Qin Ying, this method might not work. They haven't made a move in eighteen years within this timeframe, which shows that Lè is an extremely patient organization. The next time they strike could be in another eighteen years."

"So, Master, should we continue the search loudly?"

"Yes, we must. We can't let the other side know that we have a lot of information and are secretly investigating these places to prepare for a clean sweep. But we need to let them know that we have a companion in our hands, whether they come to save people or to kill and silence, if they reveal themselves, we'll have an opportunity." My eyes flickered with a spark of intelligence. I was simultaneously digging a pit and casting a wide net.

Shi Meng watched and said to his wife beside him, "A group of teenagers in their teens discussing national affairs and strategies, we're getting old."

"Qin Yang is not just in his teens."

"Who knows?"