In a basement in the imperial capital of Daxing, silence fell,
Only the sound of heavy panting remained.
Everyone's mood was complicated.
They all wanted to abduct Yang Hong and make him serve their own families;
But with so many factions present, if any one of them gained control of Yang Hong, the others would never be at ease.
Because Dugu Qiuhong had specifically emphasized the word "young" earlier.
They were not fools; they naturally understood the implied meaning.
Young meant more possibilities.
Now, that young man could cultivate eleven high-yield crops;
Given time, he would surely be able to cultivate even more.
This would undoubtedly make the Yang imperial family's position even more unshakeable.
The Great Sui dynasty had been established for over 380 years, and land annexation had reached its peak.
For the imperial family to develop the nation, more land needed to be distributed to the people;
Whereas the feudal landlord class spent their entire lives annexing land.
This was an irreconcilable contradiction.
The imperial Yang family had been constantly troublesome to these great landowners, hoping to reclaim some land to distribute to the common farmers.
The aristocratic clans were not pigs or sheep; naturally, they sensed this, and naturally, they all harbored thoughts of rebellion and redistributing land.
A new start!
Not a redistribution!
This matter had been secretly planned by these families since the Great Sui's nearly thousand Grandmasters failed in their campaign against the Great Yuan dynasty more than thirty years ago.
Everyone had originally planned to instigate Yang Jian to excavate the [Du Hang Grand Canal], causing the Great Sui to exhaust its people and resources, ideally incurring heavenly wrath, and then use this opportunity to rebel and seize power.
The plan had proceeded quite smoothly and had entered its critical stage.
Unexpectedly, starting this year, the imperial Yang family had produced as many as eleven types of high-yield grains and sold the superior seeds to the populace at low prices.
As a result, the imperial family's previously somewhat tarnished reputation had actually improved considerably.
This was something they could not tolerate.
And this led to Dugu Qiuhong urgently convening this meeting.
"Kill him! And destroy Yang Family's breeding base!"
As everyone was discussing, a deep voice rang out, suppressing all other voices.
It was the voice of Li Chongshan, the head of the Li clan.
The Li clan, the foremost aristocratic clan of the Great Sui, not only had numerous family members and extensive industries, owning millions of acres of land, but also boasted many skilled experts within the clan.
They were also the leaders among these individuals.
"That person must be killed, otherwise none of us will be at ease.
However, the Yang family's breeding base cannot be destroyed; it represents over 300 years of accumulated wisdom. Let everyone share its benefits later."
The head of the Wang family also spoke, he was the patriarch of the Wang clan, one of the five great esteemed families of the Great Sui.
The surname Wang was the most common in the Great Sui, and the Wang family alone was said to have hundreds of thousands of descendants.
"That person indeed deserves to die, but can our forces manage to move the foundation of the breeding base in time?"
"Our military faction can adjust the defenses of the capital city of Daxing. It's autumn, and we need to guard against the Meng Yuan barbarians raiding the grasslands."
"It's also time for our civil officials to cause some trouble for Yang Jian. Yang Hong, a prince from the Cold Palace, actually married four official consorts, which is against propriety."
Various factions pooled their wisdom and quickly agreed on a plan to assassinate Yang Hong, which was then swiftly put into action.
...
On the thirteenth of August, the moon was already very full and bright.
Yang Hong lay on the rooftop of a two-story wooden house, listening to the chirping of insects and gazing at the moon in the sky,
Yet he thought of his family in his past life.
"My little sister's child must be in junior high school this year, right?
And my younger brother, he should be married by now, shouldn't he?
With the money I left behind, Mom and Dad should be doing alright, shouldn't they?
It's just that I can't be by their side to show filial piety, truly unfilial."
Yang Hong murmured softly, and two tears slowly rolled down his eyes.
It was the Mid-Autumn Festival again, inevitably evoking homesickness.
If it were before, he might not have had such emotions, but these past few days at this breeding base, seeing the harmonious families of ordinary people,
And the trivial matters of small households,
Had allowed him to feel the pulse of the human world, and thus he felt more of a common person's longing for home.
"Mmm... what is this... the smell of blood!
Did someone slaughter a pig tonight? The smell of blood is so strong."
Suddenly, a faint scent of blood wafted into Yang Hong's nostrils. Though faint, for it to reach Yang Hong's dwelling, it must have been a considerable amount of blood to achieve this.
Besides slaughtering a pig,
It could also be murder!
Yang Hong was startled and sat up.
"Could it really be murder!"
He carefully sniffed the air and listened intently.
"It truly is murder! They are targeting this breeding base."
Yang Hong turned and returned to his room, changed into dark cloth clothes, and then used a towel to loosely wrap his head and face. He immediately activated his full-level Snowfall Flying technique and vanished from the room like a phantom.
Within a few breaths, Yang Hong rushed through the spiritual rice forest and arrived at a cluster of buildings behind it.
This was the residence of the Imperial Guards guarding the area.
It was also the source of the bloody smell.
Without even opening the door, Yang Hong knew that the guards in this section were dead.
Someone was challenging the bottom line of the Great Sui's Yang family. In the Great Sui, he was also a prince.
Such an event was also an insult to him, and Yang Hong's face turned somewhat ashen.
"Brother, all 210 men have been eliminated."
"Good, next sentry post, let's go."
Just as Yang Hong was filled with anger, two faint voices reached his ears.
"Hmph, still haven't left, then you don't need to leave."
Yang Hong shouted loudly, his voice not only audible to those nearby but amplified by his true qi. In the dead of night, it could be heard for a radius of ten li!
He believed that the surviving Great Sui Imperial Guards would awaken and begin to counterattack.
At the same time, he moved towards the direction from which the voices had just come.
"Just one person?"
"Kill him!"
Yang Hong had not yet seen the enemy, but the hidden enemies had already detected him.
With a command, nine figures either broke through windows or doors and attacked Yang Hong directly.
In the bright moonlight, even Yang Hong, who was at the Foundation Establishment realm, could not clearly see the figures of the nine.
This was formidable.
These nine were the renowned Ghost Fiend Nine Shadows of the martial world, ranked second on the assassin leaderboard!
They were fellow disciples and brothers, always carrying out their missions together, regardless of whether the enemy was one person or ten thousand, mortal or Grandmaster.
They always attacked as a group of nine.
Their assassination success rate had always been 100%, with no failures and no abandonments.
Moreover, all nine of them were already Grandmasters!
Even more terrifying than the number one on the assassin list, Death.
The nine figures flickered and appeared, and even Yang Hong, a Foundation Establishment cultivator, could not clearly discern their movements,
Which showed their terror.
Yang Hong could not see,
But it was alright.
He had divine sense, and within a three-meter range, against martial artists, he was absolutely invincible.
He released his divine sense, channeled his true qi, and cautiously guarded against any potential attacks.
"Be careful, this fellow is strange, don't attack rashly!"
The leader of the Nine Shadows had already reached Yang Hong, but a sudden palpitation made him hesitate to act recklessly.
The other eight shadows, alerted by the warning, did not rashly approach Yang Hong either.
"Use poison!"
"Use hidden weapons!"
Just as Yang Hong was contemplating whether to attack proactively, two voices spoke simultaneously.
This caused his expression to change.