At this time, the people digging had worked in the rain for an entire afternoon. Everyone was tired, cold, and hungry.
But Pang Xiao was not willing to stop. He pursed his lips and carefully cleaned the mud and water. He carefully used the dim candlelight to search for clues. He did not want to let go of even a single thread.
Seeing him suddenly search so carefully, the Jinghu Wei also squatted beside him.
"Wang Ye, are we not looking for her?"
Pang Xiao said in a dry voice. "I am confirming if there are any accessories of Sister Yi here. You all look carefully. Not only do we need to find her, we cannot let go of any clues."
"Yes." The four Jinghu Wei received the order and carefully searched in the mud. They really were not willing to let go of any details.
The originally tired Dragon Stallion Army heard the conversation between Pang Xiao and Li Qitian. Seeing Pang Xiao's affectionate and unregretful appearance, they did not feel tired or cold and spontaneously helped.
Li Qitian was currently looking at the several large chests that had just been brought up. In the end, he discovered that most of the chests were empty. There was only a layer of silver ingots on top of the chests. His entire body was deflated.
There was no treasure in this cave!
He was willing to give up the lives of so many Jinghu Wei in order to find the treasure. Now, he was empty-handed. Not only did he expose his intentions, he might be hated by Pang Xiao!
Li Qitian looked at Pang Xiao who was seriously searching in the cave. Seeing him look so crazy, he could not help but grit his teeth and feel nervous.
They had fought together. Others did not understand Pang Xiao's personality, but he understood. This time, he had lost his wangfei. Pang Xiao might not love Qin Yining very deeply, but it had hurt his dignity and involved his reputation. He would not let this matter go easily.
It would be great if Qin Yining could be found. He could also capture him and interrogate him. Then, he would be in the right.
However, if Qin Yining really died like this, not only would there be no evidence, but with these large chests in front of them, he would be suspected of killing his wife for the sake of the treasure.
Qin Yining's father was Qin Huaiyuan, whom he had always wanted to put in an important position. Her husband was also a military general who could intimidate a region. If these two men had a disagreement with him, the consequences would be too horrible to contemplate.
Thinking to this point, Li Qitian felt endless regret. If he had known this would happen, he would have investigated thoroughly before making his move. Now that the cave had collapsed, the dead could not bear witness. Even if he had a reason, he would have no one to speak his mind. On the contrary, he would only invite criticism.
However, when he picked up the silver ingot and examined it carefully, Li Qitian discovered that the silver ingot was indeed made in Dayan, so he felt a little better.
In this way, it was even more proof that the silver came from that batch of treasures.
It seemed that the real treasure might be nearby.
Li Qitian did not hesitate anymore. With a wave of his hand, he instructed the Dragon Stallion Army not to gather here and to also start investigating nearby.
Two hours later, the entire cave appeared in front of everyone's eyes while everyone was busy but not panicking.
There was no treasure, only corpses wearing the uniform of the Dragon Stallion Army and commoner clothing.
After doing a count, Li Qitian discovered that the Dragon Stallion Army he had sent out had been completely wiped out!
Without the whereabouts of the silver and having lost so many people, Li Qitian felt both dejected and angry.
He patted the fake chests beside him. Such a small amount of silver was like a cup of water on a burning cart of firewood when compared to the state treasury and internal funds that were currently in deficit.
He had heard that Pang Xiao had taken out fifty thousand taels of silver for disaster relief? A person like Wang Ye could take out this amount of silver, but as the Emperor, he had not sent any rice or silver for disaster relief. How would others view him?
Pang Xiao cleaned up the entire cave and did not find Qin Yining's corpse, so he relaxed a little.
At least this proved that Qin Yining might not be dead.
Pang Xiao immediately ordered Jinghu Wei and Huzi, "Send people to surround this area. Don't let go of any clues. We must find the Princess's whereabouts!"
"Yes!" Huzi and Jinghu Wei acknowledged and went to carry out their tasks.
Li Qitian saw Pang Xiao's shirtless and muddy appearance and could not help but say, "Come up and rest for a while. Have a cup of hot tea to warm up your body. We still haven't found the Qin Clan, right? Maybe she's still alive. Maybe she's tied up by something important. If you want to find her, you have to make sure that she's fine. "
Without waiting for Pang Xiao to reply, Li Qitian already had a guess in his heart.
Qin Yining might have gone to find the treasure!
It seemed that Pang Xiao's place had to be closely guarded!
Pang Xiao was not in the mood to rest at all. He politely rejected Li Qitian's arrangement and continued to lead people to search around the cave. He even went to the cave where Bing Tang and Ji Yun were hiding to investigate. In the end, there was no sign of Qin Yining's whereabouts.
Pang Xiao expanded the search area and used the borrowed Dragon Legion to cooperate with Jinghu Wei to expand the search area. They searched inch-by-inch and did not let go of any grass or tree, hoping to find some clues.
After a day, Pang Xiao found the heavily injured Jing Zhe, Xiao Xue, Young Man, and Da Han.
They were all unconscious and had been placed in a cave. Their injuries had been treated simply. It was obvious that someone had placed them here.
Pang Xiao's heart pounded. He really wanted to know the situation at that time. However, Bing Tang and Ji Yun had not woken up yet. The four spies were also unconscious.
At this time, the relief funds from the disaster area finally arrived.
Although it was not much, many of the disaster victims had already died. Li Qitian could still afford to feed the remaining people. Therefore, Pang Xiao completely put aside the disaster area matters and focused on finding Qin Yining's whereabouts.
However, after hearing Bing Tang and Ji Yun describe the situation in the cave in detail, Pang Xiao still felt his heart turn cold. Fear engulfed his entire body.
"She was cut by a knife?"
"Yes. In order to protect this servant, the Princess Consort hid this servant behind the box. She said that she could not escape and asked me to survive. She wanted me to find Wang Ye and warn Wang Ye to be on guard."
Pang Xiao closed his eyes. The pain in his heart was like a knife twisting.
Ji Yun weakly described the situation at that time in detail. In the end, she said, "I don't know who was more brave and fierce than the men of sacrifice brought by Second Master Lu. At that time, we were all injured. The cave collapsed too badly. It was pitch black and we could not see anything clearly. We wanted to rush over, but the roof collapsed and blocked the way. At that time, Bing Tang called me and pulled me to hide behind the box. Later, after the cave collapsed, we had no choice but to crawl into the cave at the side. Although there was ventilation and water there, we really could not get out. Fortunately, Wang Ye rushed over and saved this servant."
At this point, Ji Yun's tears fell like rain. "This servant is useless. I did not protect the Princess Consort well. This servant is really ashamed to face Wang Ye."
Ji Yun knelt on the ground in shame and kowtowed repeatedly.
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
