We have fought to the Arctic Circle, and you want me to inherit the throne?

The wheels rolled over the official road covered with a thin layer of frost, making a monotonous and dull rumbling sound.

Li Lin sat upright in the spacious carriage, his fingertips unconsciously stroking the smooth armrests.

Outside the car window, the sparse dead trees on both sides of the official road looked like ghosts with bared fangs and claws, and the cold wind whistled in from the gaps in the car.

Li Lin sighed and added a few pieces of charcoal into the charcoal basin.

It has been seven days since we left Fengguo, and we are still hundreds of miles away from the imperial capital. I don’t know how the prince is doing.

Compared to Li Che's pure hatred, Li Lin's feelings towards the prince are complicated.

The two were born of the same mother, and the prince had always taken good care of Li Lin for most of his life.

When did things start to change?

It could be when he became the crown prince, or when he had a leg disease, or it could be when Li Che came to prominence.

In any case, the brothers can no longer go back to the way they were before.

When the prince attacked Li Che, Li Lin was affected more than once, but he did not take into account the brotherhood.

Li Lin slightly lifted a corner of the heavy curtain and looked further away on both sides of the carriage.

Outside the carriage, there were five hundred Sauron cavalrymen and five hundred Fengguo elite cavalrymen guarding it, and the two commanders Qu Jinshan and Kuoqi were accompanying it.

The cavalrymen were wearing bright armor, holding swords and guns. They were all warriors who could fight ten enemies at once, and they felt very safe.

Li Lin knew that the real force protecting him was not these cavalrymen in the open.

He looked into the depths of the woods on both sides of the official road. Although he could not see anything, he knew that the missing night watchmen were there.

They seem like an extension of the night, silent and yet omnipresent.

Li Lin lowered the car curtain. He needed to conserve his energy to deal with the complicated situation after entering Beijing.

suddenly!

Whoosh! Whoosh whoosh whoosh——

The sharp sound of breaking through the air tore through the silence of the night, like a poisonous snake spitting out its tongue.

Hundreds of poisoned crossbow arrows shot out without warning from the dead woods on both sides of the road, aiming directly at Li Lin's carriage and the guards outside!

"Enemy attack! Protect His Highness!"

Qu Jinshan's roar exploded instantly, and the knights reacted quickly, raising their shields to block.

There was a sudden clanging sound, sparks flew, and a crossbow arrow narrowly missed the carriage wall and was deeply nailed into the wooden frame, the tail of the arrow still trembling.

Li Lin looked at the arrow calmly. Not only was he not nervous at all, but he felt relieved instead.

"I knew it. How could there not be an assassination?" Li Lin said self-deprecatingly. "Innate Assassination Saint Body, damn, this guy Lao Liu really knows how to make up words!"

Dark shadows gathered in the forest, and hundreds of assassins dressed in black night clothes and covered with black scarves jumped out like ghosts.

They were armed with poisoned daggers, daggers and other weapons, and rushed towards the carriage with strong murderous intent!

The assassins moved extremely quickly, obviously well-trained, intending to take advantage of the chaos and kill with one strike!

However, although these assassins looked fierce, they were unable to actually get within five steps of the carriage.

The incident happened faster and more strangely than an assassin's raid.

The moment the assassins jumped out of the woods, the woods that had been silent like the background moved!

There were no shouts, no warnings, only swift shadows that merged into the night wind!

puff--

With an extremely slight muffled sound, the assassin at the back suddenly froze, and his forward momentum came to an abrupt halt.

He lowered his head in disbelief, only to see a thin, sharp blade flashing with a cold light. It had accurately pierced his heart from behind and protruded an inch from his chest.

A hooded figure clung to his back like a gecko, its left forearm pressed against his back.

At the cuff, the deadly green blade was slowly retracting into the arm armor.

The murderous light in the assassin's eyes instantly went out, and his body fell limply.

bang bang bang-

Almost at the same time, several dull thunder-like but extremely short explosions suddenly sounded, and a flash of fire disappeared in the darkness.

The assassin who rushed towards the carriage at the front felt his body hit hard as if by an invisible sledgehammer. A cloud of blood mist suddenly exploded on his chest or face. He flew backwards and fell heavily to the ground. He twitched a few times and then died.

A faint blue smoke was coming out of the muzzle of the pistol in the hands of the night watchmen. The timing of their firing was terrifyingly accurate, and they killed the assassin with one shot the moment he jumped up.

The sudden appearance of the Night's Watch threw the assassins into disarray, while the escorting cavalry were also busy, having formed a defensive formation near the carriage.

Seeing more and more cavalrymen rushing in from the front and back of the road, the assassins knew that their assassination attempt would fail and decisively chose to retreat.

How could the Night's Watch do as they wished? They had already cooperated with the cavalry to block the assassins' retreat.

The cavalrymen who came from the flank charged back and forth, and the assassins without armor were no match for them and fell in a pool of blood.

The Night's Watch's fighting style was completely different from the cavalry's large-scale, head-on fighting.

They were like those in the shadows, using trees and earth slopes as cover, their figures erratic.

The hidden blade is like a poisonous snake spitting out its tongue, stabbing from incredible angles, and can always accurately pierce the assassin's throat, heart or spine.

The small shield in his hand blocked and counterattacked in one go, and the sharp edge of the shield turned into a deadly cutting tool, cutting off the assassin's last chance of survival.

Speed! Efficiency! Ruthlessness!

Colleagues know each other best. When it comes to assassination, the Night Watchmen are their ancestors!

The stealth raids that the assassins were proud of seemed clumsy and ridiculous in front of the Night's Watch.

From the forest came the sounds of short, muffled groans, the thud of sharp weapons entering flesh, and the dull thud of bodies falling to the ground.

Li Lin sat in the carriage and saw the one-sided massacre through the gap in the curtain.

Those fierce assassins were easily cut down like straw in front of the Fengguo cavalry and the night watchmen.

The battle started suddenly and ended even faster.

In less than half a cup of tea, the official road was in a mess.

The cavalrymen panted heavily and surrounded the carriage vigilantly.

Hundreds of black-clad assassins' bodies were lying in disorder at their feet and in the woods on both sides of the road.

The causes of death varied, but most were killed by a single blow, with the wounds mostly in the throat, heart and other vital parts, clean and neat.

The strong smell of blood almost solidified into substance.

The white figure silently merged back into the shadows around the carriage, just as it had come.

Qu Jinshan walked over to the carriage and whispered through the curtains, "Your Highness, the assassins numbered over three hundred, and all have been killed. Thirteen of our guards were lightly injured, and none of the night watchmen were killed."

Li Lin took a deep breath of the cold, bloody air: "Can you tell the assassin's identity?"

Qu Jinshan shook his head: "Except for the black clothes, they don't have anything to prove their identity!"

"The Night Watchmen left a few people alive, but they all had poison hidden in their teeth. They committed suicide before they could get any information. They must have been assassins!"

Li Lin frowned.

More than three hundred death warriors is a considerable effort. It is not easy to train death warriors.

Who hated him so deeply? The King of Qin? The King of Jin? Or those aristocratic families with ulterior motives?

"Your Highness, please forgive me for being so eloquent," Qu Jinshan said. "Under the current circumstances, even if there are clues on the assassin's body, you cannot be sure whether it is a frame-up."

"Keep going." Li Lin's voice regained its composure, but with a barely perceptible hoarseness. "Be careful. I have a feeling this assassination attempt won't just happen once."

"As ordered."

Li Lin's premonition was accurate.

Or perhaps this was not a premonition at all, but rather the awareness of being an assassin of the Holy Body.

From Fengguo to the imperial capital, a distance of nearly three thousand miles, there were four large-scale assassinations, each more dangerous than the last.

The assassination did not stop until they entered Zhili.

Although there was no assassination attempt, as the imperial capital got closer, Li Lin did not feel at ease at all. The vigilance against unknown dangers weighed even more heavily on his mind.

When the team was ten miles away from the imperial capital, the cavalrymen who were exploring the way ahead stopped.

Li Lin was no longer in the carriage at this moment, but was riding a horse.

Seeing the battle flag fluttering in the distance, he narrowed his eyes slightly and seemed to see the word "Qin" written on it.

As expected, Qu Jinshan quickly arrived on horseback, reporting, "Your Highness, there's a team waiting to greet you. It's the King of Qin."

Li Lin took a deep breath. His relationship with the King of Qin was not good. Moreover, according to legal theory, the King of Qin was the most likely to succeed to the throne, and the person who came was probably not well-intentioned.

Although Li Lin was not sensitive to politics, he knew that unless the King of Qin wanted to rebel, he would never fight with him here.

He took Qu Jinshan and others and left the team, riding towards the team in front.

The King of Qin stood at the front of the team, wearing a dragon robe and no armor.

The troops behind him were palace guards, not Qin troops, so they should not be hostile.

Seeing Li Lin approaching, he sneered, "Fourth brother, are you so timid? You're just going back to the capital, yet you still need to bring so many soldiers with you. Are you afraid that I will harm you?"

Li Lin didn't bother to pay attention to him, dismounted and walked over, getting straight to the point:

"We were delayed on the way. How is the prince?"

The King of Qin sighed slightly: "The situation is not good. We can't enter the East Palace. I guess it will be in the next two days."

After saying that, he looked around and whispered:

"Father issued an edict three days ago to seal off the Eastern Palace. Even the imperial physicians are not allowed to enter or leave. I suspect that the Crown Prince has now..."

Li Lin was shocked when he heard this.

Am I still late?

Or is it that the reason why my father kept it a secret was because he was waiting for me?

"In that case, my second brother should be by my father's side in the palace right now. Why would he come out of the city to pick me up?" Li Lin asked.

The King of Qin frowned and looked at him: "Father's mood is getting worse and worse. Why should I stay in the palace?"

Li Lin sneered, "Second brother, you and I are both rough men. There's no need to be as roundabout as a civil official."

"Let's be frank. The Crown Prince's life is in imminent danger. As the eldest son of the royal family, don't you have any thoughts about that position?"

"Thoughts? Don't talk nonsense! Don't harm me!" The King of Qin showed a panic on his face and lowered his voice, "Fourth Brother, it's true that I am a rough man, but I am not stupid! Who doesn't want to be emperor? If the crown prince is deposed and the other princes are incompetent, I will definitely fight for it!"

"But what's going on now? Even a fool can see that this seat is really that easy to sit in."

Li Lin: ???

No, even you can see it?

So among so many princes, I'm the only fool, right?