Dragon's Origin

In truth, Wang Sheng was quite perplexed. The series of actions taken by Baoqing Surplus Hall, starting with their participation in the concert, were utterly baffling. He truly couldn't understand how the supposedly shrewd and cunning Old Master Zhu could make such a disastrous decision.

Even if the Red Banner assassin who was incited to attack at the concert had succeeded, let alone the fact that the attempt had failed, the consequences would have been a series of catastrophes. None of the experts present at the time could have escaped, especially those who had already broken through.

But the problem was that Old Master Zhu himself was also in the Royal Grand Theater. If the Red Banner assassin had succeeded, wouldn't Old Master Zhu have directly schemed against himself? Could Old Master Zhu have found a way to stay out of it when everyone else was affected?

This was what Wang Sheng couldn't understand. Old Master Zhu planned this action, but what was his goal? Every action should have a purpose, right? What was Old Master Zhu's purpose? Wang Sheng couldn't figure it out.

Perhaps information asymmetry led Old Master Zhu to underestimate the number of people who might break through, leading him to believe that it would be at most like the last time when a little over a hundred people broke through out of a thousand. One person jumping out to cause trouble would, at most, interrupt some people's breakthroughs, but would mainly bring embarrassment to Wang Sheng. This was the only possible explanation; otherwise, such a foolish action was inexplicable.

What was foolish was not just causing trouble in the Royal Grand Theater. The key was that even if he succeeded, it would only damage the reputation of the royal family. After all, this was the capital's territory, and the failure to protect the Royal Grand Theater couldn't be blamed on Wang Sheng. Besides, there were so many patrol personnel on the periphery. Were the people of Baoqing Surplus Hall all fools?

No! Wang Sheng suddenly realized that Old Master Zhu was doing this to sow seeds of suspicion between Wang Sheng and all parties. Whether it was Wang Sheng or the royal family, anyone who wanted to attend another concert would subconsciously suspect that the others were there to sabotage it.

As long as this seed of suspicion existed, any future business dealings or collaborations between Wang Sheng and the various parties would be conducted with a thorn in their hearts, and there would no longer be such tacit understanding among the parties.

Guessing Old Master Zhu's true purpose, Wang Sheng sneered. How childish! No wonder the Young Master Zhu he personally taught was such a good-for-nothing. The Old Master himself had such childish ideas, let alone the next generation?

Wang Sheng's cooperation with various parties had never been based on genuine trust. Every time, it involved various suspicions and required various confirmations before further cooperation could proceed. Did they really think that Wang Sheng had such a tacit understanding with the major vassal states? Did they really think that Wang Sheng killed so many people from various parties that no one would remember? Or that Wang Sheng was happy to be chased by various parties and could just laugh it off?

It was originally a relationship of mutual suspicion and cooperation, yet he insisted on inserting a thorn of suspicion in the middle. This was just too ridiculous. If the relationship between the two sides was compared to a huge wound on a person's body, Old Master Zhu's approach was like trying to poke a tiny hole with an embroidery needle in that big wound, which was completely meaningless!

Wang Sheng sat quietly in the Duke's mansion, waiting for news from all sides, wondering what the people of Baoqing Surplus Hall were thinking now.

Manager Zhou received the news and immediately led people to seal up Baoqing Surplus Hall in the capital. People from all sides also received the news, but their unanimous action was to go to Worry-Free City. The steward was still in the capital, and no matter which party came to verify, they all received a definite answer.

The major vassal states all had important officials in the capital who could make direct judgments. If the answer from Worry-Free City made everyone still half-doubtful, then when the court sealed up Baoqing Surplus Hall and all the people in the Baoqing Surplus Hall's capital branch disappeared without a trace, all parties no longer doubted and directly confirmed the culprit.

If they weren't feeling guilty, how could all the people in a branch disappear without a trace? If the departure of personnel could be done in a short time, then the disappearance of all the supplies in the branch without a trace was too clean, wasn't it?

News quickly returned to the various vassal states, and the speed of action on all sides was extremely fast. They immediately found the branches of Baoqing Surplus Hall in various places.

To everyone's surprise, the branches of Baoqing Surplus Hall in the major vassal states, like the branch in the capital, regardless of which branch, all the people disappeared without a trace. At the same time, all the supplies of Baoqing Surplus Hall disappeared, leaving nothing behind.

Now, even those who didn't believe Wang Sheng had to believe that Baoqing Surplus Hall had a problem. How could such a large Baoqing Surplus Hall suddenly leave only empty rooms, with people and supplies disappearing without a trace, if not for the cooperation of everyone inside?

This sudden move by Baoqing Surplus Hall was something that no one had expected. They had been open for business just the day before, so how could they suddenly be empty?

Whether it was the royal family or the major vassal states, they were all frantically searching for clues about Baoqing Surplus Hall. It was impossible for such a large group of people to disappear without a trace. Did they even take away the smallest errand boys?

Sure enough, Heaven doesn't disappoint those who put their heart into it. After a thorough search by all parties, a group of people were gradually discovered. These people were the local shop assistants of Baoqing Surplus Hall. They were originally locals and didn't have any super strong cultivation. It would be amazing if Baoqing Surplus Hall really took all these people away.

All parties began to dig out information about Baoqing Surplus Hall from these people as if they had found a treasure, but they were told that when the shopkeeper asked them to eat and drink the day before they were about to get off work, they lost consciousness. They had been unconscious until they were discovered and didn't know what happened.

In fact, that was the case. When all parties discovered these people, they were all concentrated in a room in a remote small courtyard, sleeping soundly. These people were all insignificant pawns, and it was impossible to dig out the movements of the high-level executives of Baoqing Surplus Hall from them.

Like Imperial Treasure Pavilion, which had a lair called Tongxing City, Baoqing Surplus Hall also had a lair, also a city, called Anchang City, which was near the current Qiu State. After the experts of Qiu State discovered that the Baoqing Surplus Hall branch was empty, they immediately rushed to Anchang City. As a result, the entire city of Anchang had become an empty city.

Baoqing Surplus Hall, for some reason, even abandoned its lair. When the news spread, all parties were in an uproar.