There is a huge house on the south side of Guang'en Square in the Holy City. On the gate of the house is written a big "Li", which is the house of Lushan Gong Li Ren.
Li Ren is the biological uncle of the current emperor and the biological brother of the previous emperor.
Logically speaking, with such a prominent status, he should naturally be a prince.
But Li Ren was granted the title of Duke of Lushan, which was a whole level lower than the prince, and his status was even lower than that of Liang Guogong Xue Guihua.
It turns out that as early as the Guizong period, the crown prince Shaofu Qichong united with the three kings of the Li family to rebel.
Although Li Ren, who was still the emperor's younger brother at the time, was not directly involved, he had always been in contact with Qi Chong, making it difficult to prove his innocence.
He was originally going to be demoted to a commoner, but because the emperor missed his compatriot mother and had been working on clan affairs, he deprived him of the throne and demoted him to the rank of Duke of Lushan.
However, Li Ren had been doing both the work of the Imperial Concubine and Zong Zhengqing at the same time. He worked hard and without complaint, and was recognized by the royal family and highly valued by the emperor, so he stayed in the Holy Capital.
It was not until the emperor died and Empress Dowager Lin came to power that she was worried that the Li family would take action, so she gradually emptied Li Ren's rights.
Later, because of his frailty and illness, Li Ren gradually became obsessed with alchemy and medicine. He indulged in it all day long and became crazy and regrettable.
Because he was addicted to alchemy, he was reprimanded many times by the Queen Mother, but he still refused to change despite repeated admonitions.
In this Xuanmen assassination incident, he also died at the hands of the Xuanmen assassin.
The person who stabbed him to death was a female Taoist boy whom he had taken in for the purpose of refining alchemy. After the assassination was successful, the female Taoist girl had disappeared long ago.
A few days ago, Xu Zun came to Li's Mansion to investigate, not only checking the crime scene, but also the body of the deceased.
The corpse's eyes were scarlet, its lips were purple, and there were ugly sores and scars on its body. It did have obvious characteristics of long-term use of elixirs.
Li Ren had no children, only a daughter and a son-in-law.
However, after all, Li Ren was an imperial uncle, and his family had a large house and nearly a hundred servants.
At this moment, the coffin is still placed in the mourning hall, and Li Ren's daughter and son-in-law are also keeping vigil for him.
They were discussing in the mourning hall. Now that the assassination incident is over, can they apply for burial?
As a result, at this moment, the door of Li Mansion was knocked open, and a group of menacing people rushed in from the outside!
The first person was Cai Kun, the leader of the right wing of the inner guard, and the other was Xu Zun.
After the internal guards rushed into Li's house, they went straight to the mourning hall.
After entering the mourning hall, Li Ren's daughter was about to ask questions, but Xu Zun didn't say anything and led his men to open Li Ren's coffin!!!
Gululu...
As the coffin board was opened, an unpleasant medicinal smell emitted from the temple.
"You...you guys..." The son-in-law asked a few questions deliberately, but he already recognized Cai Kun's identity and was so frightened that he didn't dare to breathe.
"That's right... tsk tsk..." Cai Kun looked at the body carefully and said to Xu Zun, "I have seen Mr. Lushan recently, and this is clearly him!"
"No..." Xu Zun said, "If it is really just a dead person, there is no reason for Bi Sheng to risk his life to protect him!"
"Indeed..." Zhao Yu analyzed from the side, "Think about it, how important is Bi Sheng's position? He controls the world's intelligence. Even so, he has to protect Lushan Gong. Doesn't it mean that Lushan Gong's status is higher than his?
Is it even more important?
"How about..." Zhao Yu reached out to touch the body. Does that mean he wanted to see if the person in the coffin was really dead?
Xu Zun stopped him because Xu Zun had just examined the body a few days ago. The wound on the neck was clearly visible and the body was already smelly. It was definitely a dead body.
Seeing Zhao Yu stretching out his hand, the people in front of the mourning hall were all frightened.
"You..." Li Ren's daughter couldn't bear it any longer and asked in tears, "What are you going to do? My father is already dead, what else do you want to do to him?"
Cai Kun looked embarrassed. Although Mr. Lu was indeed highly suspicious, he would never admit his mistake. There was no doubt that the dead man in the coffin was indeed Li Ren.
If nothing is found out today, it will be difficult to explain. After all, Duke Lushan belongs to the royal family and is the late emperor's younger brother.
"Steward," Zhao Yu thought of something and hurriedly asked everyone, "Which one is the steward?"
Upon hearing Zhao Yu's question, everyone present looked at each other and shook their heads.
Li Ren's daughter replied: "I saw it just now! It should...should be in the kitchen, right?"
Upon hearing this, Hou Zhen and others immediately rushed towards the backyard...
Xu Zun glanced at the people in the mourning hall, and his eyes suddenly focused on one person.
As soon as he thought about it, he immediately made a calculation and said to Li Ren's son-in-law: "Are you the son-in-law of Lushan Gong?"
"Yes..." The man nodded.
"Okay," Xu Zun said, "Now take me to the place where Lushan Gong makes alchemy. I want to check it out."
"Oh, okay, okay..." The son-in-law stood up, pointed in a direction, and led Xu Zun and others towards the backyard.
Due to the huge area, they walked for a while before arriving at a certain alchemy room in the backyard.
But I saw several alchemy furnaces of different sizes standing in the room, with firewood, coal, and various gold, stone, and medicinal powders piled next to them.
Xu Zun deliberately asked the others to wait outside the door. After leading Li Ren's son-in-law into the alchemy room, he pulled him aside and asked in a low voice:
"Let me ask you, is there any other exit from this room?"
"This..." The son-in-law was puzzled and shook his head repeatedly, "No? This is the only exit!"
"Really, that would be difficult!" Xu Zun pretended to frown, and then suddenly whispered, "Go up to the Xuan to defeat the aliens, and the gods will return to their origin, and the nine gates will be cut off, and the sycophants will be destroyed below."
"This..." The son-in-law was startled and asked quickly, "Sir, what... do you mean by this?"
"Something has happened to the inner guard Zuoge leader," Xu Zun whispered, "I was sent by him to rescue you and transfer you!"
"Sir... Your Excellency..." The son-in-law waved his hand quickly, "Don't be joking. I don't understand what you mean by being led by the left cabinet, or what you mean by transfer..."
Seeing that the other party was not fooled, Xu Zun immediately picked up a tong used to burn the stove and drew a symbol on the powder on the ground.
This symbol was the one that appeared at the house of Ying Rang, the Minister of Industry at that time.
Although Xu Zun didn't know what it meant, he felt that it could be used.
Sure enough, after seeing this symbol, the son-in-law was finally moved, and his eyes betrayed him.
It was obvious that he could understand the meaning of the symbols.
In other words, Xu Zun guessed correctly that Li Ren’s son-in-law was also from Xuanmen!
"The Duke of Lushan has been completely exposed," Xu Zun said, "Nothing will happen to him!"
"You..." the son-in-law swallowed, still pretending to be stupid, "What on earth are you talking about? My father-in-law... has... already..."
"Time is running out," Xu Zun looked outside the door nervously, "This matter has alarmed Lin Chaofeng and the Demon Queen. I have a way to take you out now. If you miss this time, you will never have another chance!"
"This..." The son-in-law was sweating, obviously beginning to believe Xu Zun.
Xu Zun was extremely surprised, because judging from the other party's reaction, he must have been right. That Lushan Duke Li Ren was definitely not dead!!!
If Li Ren did not die and Cai Kun did not identify the wrong person, then there seems to be only one explanation left.
"Hurry up!" Xu Zun looked outside the door again, "I can trick them into the alchemy room later, saying there is a secret passage here or something, and then I will take you to escape through the front door.
"My people are all there, and they have been arranged..."
"You... what can you do?" The son-in-law finally fell for the trick and asked, "The city... the city gates have been sealed, how can I get out of the city?"
"Did you see it?" Xu Zun quickly took out the inner guard token, feinted and said, "This is the gold medal bestowed by the Queen Mother. Since I'm here to pick you up, I can help you get out of the city!"
"This...this..."
"Oh, hurry up!" Xu Zun said anxiously, "Cai Kun is already suspicious of me. If I don't leave, I won't be able to protect myself!"
"Okay... okay..." The son-in-law finally made up his mind and said to Xu Zun, "I will take you to pick up my father-in-law..."
