Chapter 086: Fugitive Slave

Lu Yuchang resides in the deep palace and doesn't know much about Li Pu.
He only knows that Li Pu is a descendant of the first Duke of Wei, a student at the Imperial Academy, and was brought into the palace by Empress Shang because of his distinctive appearance, to serve as a stand-in for the empress.
But Li Pu, who could create strategic war poetry, only had the rank of a young student, which surprised Lu Yu.
Based on his previous performance, Lu Yu thought that Li Pu was at least at the level of a scholar.
In fact, both Guan Qing and Wu Anyue were equally surprised, but they had seen more outrageous scenes, such as witnessing Li Pu propose a new Grand Path divine sermon, so they were not surprised anymore.
"My knowledge is still shallow, I wasted many years in the Imperial Academy before."
Li Pu wasn't embarrassed and admitted it openly.
Anyway, that was all his predecessor's problem and had nothing to do with him. He just needed to work hard from now on.
"Is my learning shallow? Have I wasted my years? Are you kidding me?"
Lu Yu widened his eyes upon hearing this and thought that the guy was being falsely modest.
Meanwhile, Wu Anyue couldn't help but chuckle and thought to herself:
"He must have wanted to hide his strength and bide his time, but now he can't keep it a secret anymore."
Shangguan Qing didn't feel like mocking Li Pu.
Because after ruling out Dragon's suspicion, there was a high probability that Shangguan Zhishou was the mastermind behind the assassin.
Several people including Lipu are aware of this fact.
But Lipu didn't say anything, and both Wu Anyue and Lu Yu seemed to forget about it.
Shangguan Qing, on the other hand, felt ashamed and didn't know how to face Lipu.
"Li Pu, I'm...sorry."
Suddenly, Shangguan Qing stopped walking and apologized.
Wu Anyue and Lu Yu were not surprised and did not say anything, waiting for Li Pu's response.
李普被上官晴突然的道歉弄得微愣，随即呵呵一笑：
“又不是你的错，你道什么歉？”
“你不是跟上官府断绝关系了嘛！”
"What does it have to do with you that Shangguan Zhishou did something wrong?"
After receiving intelligence from Longming, Li Puyi has basically confirmed that Shangguan Zhishou is Chen Daozhen's superior at [Daizong].
If Shangguan Zhishou is the "Daizong", it means that he has been undercover in Chang'an City for more than fifty years as a Daoist Immortal.
The unfortunate events in Li Pu's family, which led to the premature death of two generations, are likely to be the result of Shangguan Zhishou's plot.
This grudge has grown big.
But as Li Pu said, grievances have their cause, and the evil done by Shangguan Zhishou is not related to Shangguan Qing.
Shangguan Qing fell silent.
The Great Zhou Dynasty had a law of collective responsibility, where the debt of the father was paid by the son, and if the head of a household committed a crime, the entire family could be punished.
She doesn't feel truly innocent.
Just like this morning, Shangguan Qing received a letter from her mother and hurried to their appointment.
How could she truly cut ties with her family?
Her surname is Shangguan, and that's the original sin.
Shangguan Qing even felt that she was no longer qualified to hold the position of internal supervisor.
"Teacher, what do you want to do next?"
Wu Anyue knew that Shangguan Qing was in a bad mood and took the initiative to break the deadlock.
“我要去找一下妹妹，知会她一声。”
李普坦然说道。
对于李知微的人身安全，李普还是挺重视的。
虽说, 李知微是大周武道院院长罗天齐的弟子，自身实力也不差, 安全很有保障，但明枪易挡暗箭难防，李知微要是毫不知情，容易遭人暗算。
For this decision, Wu Anyue and the other two naturally did not object.
The Great Zhou Martial Arts Academy is not far from the National Academy, and the group arrived quickly by carriage.
However, to Li Pu's surprise, Li Zhiwei was not at the Martial Arts Academy at the moment, and even the dean, Luo Tianqi, was not there!
"Kong Li and Luo Tianqi are both nowhere to be seen, I can't shake the feeling that something is off,"
Li Pu muttered under his breath.
Next to him, Lu Yu frowned upon hearing this.
He also felt that something was not right.
Gu Bao
It was normal for Kong Li to leave the National Academy, but it was well known that Luo Tianqi liked to stay at home. Why isn't he here today?
Could it be that something unexpected happened?
Lu Yuxia subconsciously glanced at Wu Anyue and quietly decided that if there were any sudden dangers, he would risk his life to ensure the empress's safety.
As for the others, he could only lend a hand if he had the spare capacity.
What Li Pu didn't know was that Li Zhiwei was outside the square of the Dali Temple in Chang'an City, watching the excitement.
The Dali Temple is one of the three law departments of the Great Zhou Dynasty, responsible for major criminal cases.
Today, the Dali Court is going to try a large number of escaped slaves, most of whom are descendants of demons and barbarians.
Many slave owners who have "lost" their slaves have come to the outside of the Dali Court today, waiting for the court to punish those escaped slaves, then reclaim their "property", bring them home, and give them a second round of education.
以往大理寺抓回逃奴都是这样处理的。
很多被抓回来的逃奴，下场往往十分凄惨，被打死、饿死的不在少数。
但没有人会同情他们。
除了其他妖蛮后裔……
Li Zhiwei still wears a white dress, with a veil covering her face, holding a long sword, looking at the hundreds of escaped slaves surrounded by yamen guards in the square in front of the yamen with a complex expression.
Most of the escaped slaves were dressed in rags and carried unique symbols of demon and barbarian descendants, such as cat ears, beast claws, or horns on their heads...
All the escaped slaves were trembling with fear, for they knew that being imprisoned in the Dali Temple prison would not endanger their lives, but once they were returned to their original slave owners, their fate would surely be dismal.
If those slave owners were all good people, then the slaves wouldn't have to escape.
Running away and being caught may result in death, but staying put doesn't necessarily guarantee survival either.
"Little Miss Li, don't forget our goal for today. Don't let your sympathy get in the way."
"You can't save everyone!"
Next to Li Zhiwei, a masked woman in red clothes with extremely curvy figures spoke softly.
The mature voice of the woman in red sounded at least twenty years old, and her exposed eyes were very charming, obviously not a simple person.
Li Zhiwei didn't even look back, and coldly transmitted his voice:
"Hu Qingqing! Don't speak recklessly, let alone mention my surname. Otherwise, I'll kill you first!"
"Oh my! Little sister, your temper is still so fiery!"
Name Hu Qingqing, the woman in red smiled and passed on the message, "I'm sorry for not communicating through the mind transmission earlier."
"You're not my sister, stop lying and attaching yourself to me, I'll still cut you down!"
Li Zhiwei warned again in a cold voice.
Hearing this, Hu Qingqing couldn't help but fall silent.
She felt that Li Zhiwei's sense of superiority was a bit too strong.
Everyone is a half-demon and also the fragrance master of the New Heaven Society. Her qualifications are obviously older than Hu Qingqing, so what's wrong with calling herself an elder sister?
I can't accept this.
It turns out that both Li Zhiwei and Hu Qingqing are descendants of the demon barbarian and members of the resistance organization New Heaven's Will. Additionally, because both of them have formidable strength, they are both small leaders at the level of "fragrant masters".
Above the incense master is the hall master, and above the hall master is the leader of the entire society.
The leader of the Xintian Society is shrouded in mystery, and very few people have seen his true face.
Even Li Zhiwei is unsure of who the leader of the society is.
Li Zhiwei joined the New Heaven Society purely because the organization has been rescuing the miserable fate of the demon slaves, which coincides with her ideas.
As for other things, Li Zhiwei did not think too much about it.
While Li Zhiwei has Hu Qingqing by his side, who was originally the head of a large merchant firm in Chang'an City, and also has demonic bloodline.
For unknown reasons, Hu Qingqing also joined the New Heaven Society and became the incense master. She has worked with Li Zhiwei many times to rescue important members of the society.
At this time, there were two children among the group of captured runaway slaves in the Dali Temple Square, whose identities were particularly important and were the targets of Li Zhiwei and Hu Qingqing's rescue.
As for the others, although the Xintian Society also wanted to rescue them all, this is within the city of Chang'an, near the Dali Temple. How could they have such capability?
Hu Qingqing was afraid that Li Zhiwei would suddenly develop sympathy and cause trouble for herself, so she spoke up to remind her.
As a result, Li Zhiwei was not easy to talk to, and Hu Qingqing was instead angrily scolded, naturally feeling extremely depressed.
At this moment...
Next to them, some slave owners who were preparing to reclaim their runaway slaves suddenly became excited and started discussing:
"Brothers, have you heard? The current Minister of Works, Lord Di Feng, is coming to inspect the Great Court of Dali today..."
"I hear that Lord Di has a golden gaze and an unbiased approach to handling cases. If these runaway slaves have committed any wrongdoings, they surely cannot escape his scrutiny."
"Today promises to be an exciting show!"