Astral Apostle - Chapter 516 - Discord and Suspicion (1)

In the next few days, rumors spread throughout the Dragon King Stronghold.

It was rumored that because the Heavenly King Stronghold could only keep turtling up, they felt that there was no hope of winning. Therefore, there were already leaders who abandoned the dark and joined the light. They secretly surrendered to Chen Feng and secretly transmitted military intelligence, which caused his side to recently win many battles.

However, this person’s identity was a secret. Only the leaders of the Dragon King Stronghold who participated in the military discussion knew who the person was, but they kept it a secret and did not mention it to outsiders.

Not all the people in the Dragon King Stronghold who participated in the military discussion were generals and soldiers, but there were also leaders who were in charge of all kinds of daily matters. They were usually under the jurisdiction of the Supervisory Hall.

Among them, there was a leader who was ranked at the bottom. His name was Niu Qi. His martial arts were crude, but he was proficient in animal husbandry. He was usually in charge of livestock rearing, slaughtering cows, sheep, and other matters. He served within the Supervision Hall.

This person only cared about what was in his cup, and it could be said that he did not like anything without wine. He was an alcoholic, but had an easy-going personality. He was familiar with his subordinates and often drank and played together.

On this day, the other two leaders of the supervision hall held a banquet at their house. They claimed to have brought out the good wine that had been passed down in their family for many years to show their filial piety to their leader and invite Niu Qi to a banquet.

Niu Qi did not suspect anything and rushed over to attend the banquet.

The three of them toasted each other, drinking and eating meat.

After the two small leaders kept persuading him to drink, Niu Qi drank happily. Not long after, he drank two jars. His eyes were sleepy, and he was spouting nonsense with his tongue wide open.

Seeing that Niu Qi was 70 to 80% drunk, the two leaders looked at each other and deliberately chatted with each other.

“Speaking of which, the stronghold has been spreading rumors that someone from the enemy is seeking refuge here. I wonder if it’s true.”

“Hmph, in my opinion, it’s most likely a fool spreading rumors. Think about it, the Heavenly King Stronghold has already been recruited. With an official position, why should they still surrender to the Green Forest? Wouldn’t all their previous efforts be in vain?”

“What do you mean by that? Are you calling me a fool?”

The two of them chatted one after another, their tone becoming more and more aggressive, almost arguing.

Niu Qi hurriedly pulled the two of them back and stuck out his tongue.

“What’s there to argue about? Don’t ruin the harmony.”

One of the small leaders turned around and pretended to be curious. “Leader Niu, do you think this is reliable? Could it be that a leader of the Heavenly King Stronghold really defected to us?”

“The Chief said it himself. He even said that there was a letter as evidence. How can it be fake?”

Niu Qi replied without thinking.

“There’s really such a thing? I wonder which enemy leader did this and what they’re after.”

“Sigh, a person like Chief Niu is qualified to participate in the meeting. He definitely knows. I wonder if you can give us some pointers to satisfy our curiosity.”

The two sub leaders sang the same tune and looked at Niu Qi eagerly.

It was just nice that Niu Qi had drunk too much wine and had the intention to show off.

“Who else could it be? It’s naturally Xiang Tianjie, who caused a ruckus in An Lin Prefecture with Chief. He’s old friends with Master and has long been convinced.”

“So it’s him.”

“That makes sense.”

The two leaders were shocked and exchanged glances with each other.

The three of them drank for a while more before Niu Qi fell completely drunk. The two leaders sent him home and helped him to his futon.

Niu Qi was sleeping soundly, snoring away without a care.

The two sub leaders did not disturb him and quietly took away the token of the Supervisor Hall. Then, they returned to their house, took out the bag that they had long packed, and went out. They borrowed the token to deal with the patrolling guards and left the stronghold overnight.

The Dragon King Stronghold had taken over the majority of people from the Three Flood Dragons of Huyang. Among them, there was naturally a mix of good and bad. There was no lack of people who had been bribed by the Imperial Court long ago. After changing factions, they hid in the Dragon King Stronghold as the eyes and ears of the Imperial Court.

These two sub leaders were such spies. When they found out that someone in the Heavenly King Stronghold had colluded with the enemy, they were eager to make a contribution. Therefore, they targeted Niu Qi and lured this person to slip up after drinking to obtain information.

Many of the current Dragon King Stronghold were inherited troops. There were many of them, so it was unrealistic to distinguish them one by one. It was inevitable that spies would appear.

Moreover, with the style of the Dragon King Stronghold, it was too easy for others to plant spies. It was impossible for them to check the household registration of every lackey like the Imperial Court.

Zhou Jing knew this situation very well. He could only ensure that there were no spies among the core higher-ups.

However, only those dying strongholds would not have spies. There was no such thing as a completely unified force in the world. Everyone was the same, so it was a good opportunity to make use of them.

…

In the Heavenly King Stronghold Army.

Lu Longchuan was racking his brains to think of a way to break through the enemy.

At this moment, a messenger suddenly ran over.

“Report! The patrolling soldiers have discovered two suspicious people. They claim to be spies planted by the Imperial Court in the Dragon King Stronghold and specially betrayed the stronghold. They claim to have confidential matters to report to the commander!”

Lu Longchuan was stunned for a bit, before his curiosity got the better of him and nodded.

“Bring them over.”

Not long after, the soldiers escorted the two sub leaders to the central tent.

When the two of them saw Lu Longchuan, they hurriedly bowed and went straight to the point.

“Greetings, Commander Lu. The two of us were once under Tan Peng before we transferred to the Dragon King Stronghold. In fact, we report to the Martial Inspectorate and act as spies among the bandits. We’ve been hiding and not making any movements, but recently, we’ve obtained some important news, so we specially came to report it to Commander Lu.”

Lu Longchuan did not comment and asked solemnly,

“What secrets?”

“Recently, there have been rumors in the Dragon King Stronghold that an enemy leader has colluded with the enemy, so we specially asked around…”

The two leaders explained the process in detail before finally announcing the name of the Fourth Seat, Xiang Tianjie.

Hearing this, Lu Longchuan’s expression changed drastically. He was furious and suddenly slammed the table as he stood up.

“What a great villain, how dare you try to sow discord here and ruin my brotherhood? Men, take down these two people and push them out to be killed!”