With the cunning and craftiness of the Empress's father, the Prime Minister Xue, he would certainly realize the severity of the situation and clearly see that the Mo Family is not without the power to fight him now. Without assurance of victory, he would not dare to recklessly take action against the Mo Family again.
After all, he had spent huge efforts cultivating those death warriors, so if they were all lost here, he would likely face a crisis of having no capable men in the future.
As such, the Mo Family could enjoy a temporary respite for some time.
It was not the Mo Family's style to passively take hits. They would choose the right time to go to the capital and turn the tables!
After confirming that none of the death warriors had survived, Mo Jiuye finally gave the order for the troops to gradually return to Xi Ling Village.
On the way back, the soldiers seemed exceptionally excited.
This was their first time achieving such an easy victory, especially since their enemies were all martial arts masters, yet under their barrage of crossbow bolts, the enemies did not even have a chance to fight back.
Regrettably, Ninth Master had instructed earlier for the soldiers not to use explosives unless absolutely necessary. Otherwise, those death warriors would not even have left complete corpses behind...
Although Meng Huaining did not participate throughout the Mo Family's ambush operation this time, the Mo brothers did not hide their plans from him when they were discussing tactics.
As such, he was very clear about the details of the Mo Family's ambush setup.
Since he was a scholar, he tended to overthink things more. Mo Jiuye and his men had been away for longer than expected. This not only caused worry among the Mo Family members staying behind in Xi Ling Village, even he felt somewhat anxious.
Although it was late into the night, Meng Huaining simply could not rest easy.
After coaxing his delicate little wife to sleep, he tidied himself up and headed towards the entrance of the mountain foot.
Meng Huaining would not rashly go over to check on the situation at Mo Jiuye and the others’ ambush point. He only wanted to wait here to get the news of their return at the first instance.
Standing under the moonlight and listening to the chorus of frogs in the surroundings, Meng Huaining silently stood there for more than two hours.
Finally, just as he was preparing to head back, he heard faint footsteps coming from the direction of the village.
Those soldiers would continue resting up in the mountains, so they still took the same path down that they first came by. The ones appearing before Meng Huaining’s eyes now were only the Mo brothers and Liang Hao and the others.
Not daring to inquire loudly, Meng Huaining walked over to meet Mo Jiuye’s group instead.
“Ninth brother, did everything go smoothly?”
Mo Jiuye nodded. “Yes. Other than their arrival being slightly later than expected, everything else went very smoothly.
Also, I deliberately did not move those death warriors’ corpses, leaving them for the prefectural authorities to handle first thing tomorrow morning.”
Meng Huaining was clever. Naturally, he understood Mo Jiuye’s intentions for leaving the death warriors’ corpses behind.
“Tomorrow at first light when the Prefectural Magistrate discovers so many corpses in his jurisdiction, he will surely order the surrounding county magistrates to come help investigate. I’ll head to the scene then too. I’ll send any updates back at the first instant if there are any developments over there.”
“Mm. With a case of such magnitude occurring, I believe that Prefect wouldn’t dare conceal it and will surely report it to the imperial court.” Having said that, Mo Jiuye walked towards home.
He was cradling Little White in his arms right now. Its body was burning hot, and was becoming increasingly feeble.
He feared Little White would suffer any mishaps and wanted to hurry back for his wife to treat it.
Meng Huaining knew the elder Mo brothers must be exhausted after lying in ambush for several continuous days. He did not intend to disturb them much, satisfied just seeing them return safely.
Although He Zhiran did not doubt the Mo brothers’ ability to defeat enemies, Mo Jiuye had been gone for a good number of days this time. Even with her faith in him, it was inevitable that she would still be concerned.
To prevent being unaware when Mo Jiuye returned, He Zhiran did not rest in the space with the kids these past couple of days. Also, she tended to be a light sleeper, able to hear even the slightest sound outside.
Just after feeding the two little ones, she heard footsteps at the door. Very quickly, the room door was pushed open.
Knowing his wife’s habit of being a light sleeper, especially when he was not home, Mo Jiuye softly said the moment he pushed the door open, “Ranran, I’m back.”
He Zhiran promptly sat up. “Husband, how did things go?”
Mo Jiuye strode over to her side.
“Ranran, things went very smoothly. I’ll tell you the details later. Take a look at Little White first, it’s injured.”
“Little White is injured? Let me see quickly.”
At the end of He Zhiran’s words, their family of four along with Little White appeared in the space.
The two little ones continued sleeping soundly in their cribs. Rice Ball liked them a lot and would take the initiative to watch over them without its masters needing to instruct it. This spared He Zhiran a lot of trouble.
Whenever she walked too far away, even if the little ones woke up, Rice Ball would immediately run over to notify her.
She brought Mo Jiuye and Little White to the medical room. After examination, He Zhiran felt somewhat more at ease.
She first fed Little White some glucose for it to swiftly recover its strength.
Then she redressed its wounds while explaining to Mo Jiuye at the same time.
“Little White has an infected wound which led to its fever. Its current weakness is probably due to excessive blood loss from the wound. I’ll apply medication on it later and nurse it for several days. It should be fine.”
For the Mo Jiuye couple, Little White was a great contributor that had helped them tremendously recently.
Moreover, they thought very highly of this little fellow’s loyalty. Neither wanted any mishaps befalling it.
Fortunately, after He Zhiran applied medication for Little White, its temperature soon recovered to normal. It was just somewhat feeble for the time being.
Animals inherently possessed regenerative capabilities. It was believed that Little White would quickly recuperate.
...
The Mo Family resolved this crisis inexplicably. The family enjoyed temporary peace.
The Prefectural Magistrate, however, was scared witless.
People of ancient times did not have much nightlife and generally cultivated the habit of sleeping early and waking early.
Many commoners would get out of bed before daylight. Especially during this season, many vegetables grown in their family gardens were already ripe. To earn a bit of money, farmers would carry their vegetables early into the city to sell.
The official road where the Mo Family massacred the Empress’ death warriors last night was also a necessary route for many commoners entering the city.
And so, the Prefectural Magistrate was roused from his sleep before daybreak by people creating a din, with crowds of commoners continually coming to report a case, saying that over a hundred corpses were discovered on the official road leading towards Yun City.
The Prefectural Magistrate was still dazed with sleep then. He felt this was an enormously ridiculous joke.
But with more and more people coming to report the case, he could no longer disbelieve it even if he wanted to.
The Prefectural Magistrate rushed to the scene with his men, paling with fright upon arrival.
This was way more than just over a hundred dead. At least over two hundred...
He was just a minor Prefectural Magistrate. How could he have seen such a major case before?
The Prefectural Magistrate promptly sent men to notify the county magistrates of the surrounding counties to come assist in investigations.
Having gotten early notice of the matter, Meng Huaining was well prepared.
After splitting off from several uncles, he rushed to the Yamen to wait for the Prefectural Magistrate's men coming to notify him. As a result, he was the first county magistrate to arrive at the scene. His only purpose was to not miss any slightest details and updates.
