528 Intercepted (2)
Moreover, with the excuse of being poisoned, he could escape the responsibility of having lost the war. Even if someone wanted to make a fuss, it would be difficult for them to do anything to him.
Zhou Jing calculated in his heart. There was no one in the court who directly hated him. At most, they were hostile to him because of benefits.
Among them, the only conflicts were between him and the clean officials faction, the Imperial Medical Hall, and the Jade Cauldron Sect.
There was no need to mention the clean officials. Calling him out for lazing around and practicing a demonic path was not something that only recently happened.
As for the Imperial Medical Hall and the Jade Cauldron Sect, they were his enemies from the same line.
It was difficult to talk about the grievances of the Imperial Medical Hall. Zhou Jing did not want to recall all the problems they had with him as well. A group of doctors would not have enough power nor authority, so it would not be them.
Therefore, the most likely person to attack him was still the Jade Cauldron Sect, which was in charge of the Imperial Astronomers. However, he could not rule out the possibility that someone was squandering their resources to get rid of him.
“Jade Cauldron Sect… Could it be this group of people who poisoned me? They’re also the ones who wanted to kill me by sending me out.”
Zhou Jing’s mind flashed with the sage-like face of the Supervisor, Ning Zhongjun.
Although the two sides had been peaceful some time ago, the attitude of the Jade Cauldron Sect towards him as a threat had never changed.
He narrowed his eyes and thought about how to deal with the current situation from the perspective of the person behind the scenes.
If he returned alive, the Emperor would definitely ask about the reason for his defeat. Of course, he would mention the poison, which would be very troublesome for the person behind the scenes.
Therefore, to the person behind the scenes, he could either hide and pretend to be innocent, or he could simply not let him return to the capital…
Just as he was deep in thought, Zhou Jing’s ears suddenly twitched as he heard the sound of arrows breaking through the wind.
On the other side, outside the carriage.
The team slowly advanced. Suddenly, an overwhelming rain of arrows shot out from the forest on both sides of the road, catching the disciples off guard.
The disciples were shocked and hurriedly dodged, shouting in shock and anger.
“Ambush!”
“Be careful!”
A deluge of arrows poured down on them.
Arrows were nailed to the walls of the carriage one after another. The horses pulling the carriage were shot into porcupines on the spot. Six to seven disciples were too slow to dodge and were shot to death on the spot. The others also suffered from varying degrees of injury.
A shout sounded. In the next moment, one to two hundred masked people jumped out of the forest and quickly rushed towards the carriage. Their target was clear.
“Protect Master!”
The disciples endured their injuries and drew their weapons. They surrounded the carriage and fought these masked people.
These masked people were all quite skilled and were proficient in martial arts, but no one could not tell which sect they belonged to. As for the disciples of the Heavenly Secrets Sect, they had learned the martial arts of the Righteous Heart Sect and were not mediocre either. The two sides quickly tangled together.
However, the disciples were outnumbered. Although they fought bravely, they were still unable to stop the masked men from advancing.
Taking advantage of the fact that the guards present were entangled with the subordinates, the leader of the masked men approached the carriage.
“Don’t hurt my master!”
Under the furious gazes of the Heavenly Secrets Sect disciples, the leader of the masked men did as he pleased. He used his saber to lift the curtain, revealing Perfected Master Windwalker sitting cross-legged inside.
Zhou Jing’s expression did not change. He looked at him calmly and spoke casually, “Who is it that wants my life?”
“Heh, Perfected One, don’t blame me. I’m only following orders. Don’t think about me when you go to the netherworld.”
The masked leader’s eyes flashed with a ferocious light as he drew his saber and stabbed it at Zhou Jing’s heart.
If not for the fact that Perfected Master Windwalker had been poisoned, they would not have dared to come and kill him. Fortunately, this Daoist could not use his magic power at the moment. The tiger had fallen from grace and was at their mercy.
The masked leader felt that it was a pity even as his blade stabbed out.
Perfected Master Windwalker’s spells were world-shaking. Naturally, his eyes also turned red upon thinking of such spells, and he wanted to force out the technique… However, this Daoist had many abilities, making him extremely terrifying. He was worried that something would happen if he delayed, so he decided to bear the heartache of losing the possibilities of gaining such spell techniques and kill him directly.
This ability to summon the wind and rain would probably become a legend from here…
However, at this moment, the saber that was stabbing out suddenly stopped.
The masked leader was stunned and looked over in shock.
Perfected Master Windwalker had grabbed the blade with two fingers like an iron clamp, preventing him from snatching it back.
Pak!
Zhou Jing exerted strength with two fingers and broke the blade.
Immediately after, he reached out and grabbed the mask of the masked leader. His movements were astonishingly fast.
The masked leader was horrified and hurriedly wanted to retreat.
However, in the next moment, his movements froze. He felt a pulling force pull him towards Zhou Jing. Then, someone grabbed his neck, opened his mouth, and stuffed a pill into his mouth, forcing him to swallow it.
“After eating my Tendon Numbing Pill, don’t even think about moving for ten minutes. Lie down obediently. I’ll deal with you later.”
Zhou Jing abandoned the masked leader and rode the wind into the battlefield.
He did not make too much noise. He only swept up wind blades and injured the masked men one by one.
Seeing this, the other masked men immediately fell into chaos. They had originally taken the opportunity of him being poisoned to attempt the assassination. Now that they realized that he had recovered, they panicked.
“Master’s magic power has been restored!”
The disciples of the Heavenly Secrets Sect perked up and immediately turned from defense to offense, killing the injured enemies one by one.
The battle did not last long. The group of masked men quickly collapsed, leaving behind a large number of corpses and injured people. Only 20 people escaped, and Zhou Jing had specially let them go.
The remaining disciples controlled the surviving enemies and took off their masks, but they did not recognize them at all.
“Master, where did this group of people come from?”
“We’ll know when we ask.”
Zhou Jing had a rough idea, but he still came to the masked leader’s side and fed him the antidote. Then, he brought him to the side and interrogated him.
“Don’t even think about learning anything from me! Kill me!”
The masked leader refused to speak and wanted to bite his tongue to commit suicide, but he was stopped by Zhou Jing.
Even after seeing this person’s attitude of a death warrior, Zhou Jing did not mind. He took out a needle bag from his pocket and took out a few silver needles.
“I don’t want to be stained with blood, but since you came to kill me, I can’t let you off. It’s not difficult for me to make you speak.”
With that, he raised his hand and slapped it repeatedly, inserting needles into the other party’s head and neck.
Not long after, the expression of the masked leader, who would rather die than submit, gradually became sluggish. Saliva flowed out of his mouth, and his mouth subconsciously opened and closed, muttering “Abba, abba” like a fool.
After doing all this, Zhou Jing restarted his interrogation. This time, the masked leader answered all the questions.
Soon, Zhou Jing received the answer. Without hesitation, he tapped on this person’s heart meridian.
Pssh!
The leader trembled and fell to the ground, already dead.
“It’s really the Jade Cauldron Sect… Ning Zhongjun, right?”
Zhou Jing’s eyes flickered.
He did not want to fight for the control of the Imperial Astronomers, but the Jade Cauldron Sect did not give up and kept plotting to kill him.
This group of people provoked him again and again. Although there was no danger, they were really annoying.
“The Jade Cauldron Sect has been favored for so many years and has gotten a lot of benefits. They should be very rich… Looks like it’s time to collect a loan from them.”
Zhou Jing thought to himself.