CHAPTER 169: CHAPTER 169: NO, THE PRICE MUST GO UP

The officials inspected carefully but found no letters on this waiter, so they waved him off.

"All right, you can go."

With this command, Pei Shu’er felt as if granted amnesty and quickly left the inn.

When she had walked about ten meters away, a sharp shout came from behind her.

"Something’s wrong, how could a mere waiter easily afford half a tael of silver!"

"You, stop."

Unless she was foolish, there was no way she would stop.

Pei Shu’er immediately ran for her life.

The officials behind her kept chasing relentlessly.

Pei Shu’er ran into a maze of alleys. She entered a space, fed the waiter an antidote, and used a silver needle to stimulate his acupoints to help him regain consciousness quickly.

Just as the waiter was about to wake up, Pei Shu’er immediately tossed him out of the space.

The noise she created was somewhat loud, and those government officers who had already walked far away noticed the commotion.

They immediately headed over.

Then, they saw the waiter sitting on the ground, looking at them innocently.

Pei Shu’er sighed; there was no way around it, she had to set up the waiter who often sneaked into her room to rummage through her things.

At least now he served some purpose.

The officials grabbed the waiter, their faces cold.

"Come with us to the government office. You must be an accomplice of the Jade-faced Young Master."

After that, they finally stopped pursuing Pei Shu’er. There were no longer any officials here.

Meanwhile, in the space, Pei Shu’er changed into a new outfit.

This time, she donned a black training suit, disguising herself as a dark-skinned Jianghu person.

Now, she needed to find some organizations in the Capital, remnants of the previous dynasty who had always wanted to overthrow the Emperor.

They had been active in the Capital but never found an opportunity.

Pei Shu’er quickly went to make contact and negotiate cooperation with them.

If anyone would betray the War King, it wouldn’t be these people.

Because they would rather see the Emperor make mistakes, causing chaos so they could seize the throne during the disorder.

She naturally had to make good use of these people, lest she waste such a valuable resource.

These people were very helpful. When they heard about the plan to break the War King out of prison, their eyes were filled with joy.

Their condition was simple: if the prison break succeeded, they wanted the War King to join their organization.

These people were shrewd. With the War King’s current popular support, if he joined their organization, they might even be able to rally more public support.

Pei Shu’er nodded in agreement; after all, she wasn’t her true self now.

Now, any deception... cooperation was beneficial.

Besides, even if they succeeded, the War King wouldn’t really join them.

It’s impossible.

With this settled, she went to the Heavenly Mechanism Pavilion.

This was the biggest intelligence organization in the Jianghu, where one could post tasks, request assistance in finding people, and hire suitable task-takers.

In other words, the organization also served as a middleman.

A man wearing a fox mask, with a tall and clear figure and clear, gentle voice, greeted Pei Shu’er.

"Sir, please state your purpose."

Pei Shu’er said, "I wonder, if I need fifty experts here, how much would it cost?"

The man smiled, "It depends on the task."

Pei Shu’er’s eyes hardened, "A prison break."

The man showed no surprise; instead, he picked up an abacus from the table and calculated quickly.

"For ordinary prisoners, it would cost ten taels of silver per person, fifty people would be five hundred taels."

He then looked at Pei Shu’er.

"May I ask, sir, who is the target?"

Pei Shu’er raised an eyebrow, staying silent.

The man chuckled, "If the target is ordinary, the cost would be less. But if it’s someone of great importance, like the War King, the difficulty is significant."

"Currently, every faction is watching closely for tomorrow’s execution, there’s no way the Emperor would let this chance slip by. Also, the timing is too rushed."

Pei Shu’er frowned, "Is it impossible?"

The man shook his head, "No, it’ll just cost more."

Seeing Pei Shu’er fall silent, the man laughed softly.

"It seems you’re planning to break the War King out of prison."

Seeing Pei Shu’er’s face darken.

The man smiled, "Rest assured, our Heavenly Mechanism Pavilion follows strict rules; customer requests will not be disclosed."

"Otherwise, we wouldn’t have grown to our current scale."

Only then did Pei Shu’er nod, "Yes, it’s the War King."

The man said, "For the War King, it’s thirty taels per person. Accordingly, the experts’ martial arts will be better, and the success rate higher."

Pei Shu’er said, "I want obedient experts, ones who will follow my orders."

The man nodded, "Rest assured, sir."

Pei Shu’er placed a deposit of 500 taels of silver and signed an agreement with the man, promising to pay the remaining 1000 taels after success.

The man said, "Please wait a moment, sir. I will immediately find experts for you to review."

Pei Shu’er nodded, "Before that, I need a map of the Capital’s defenses, the troop formations, and a map of the prison."

The man smiled and nodded good-naturedly, providing her with all that.

Just for this, Pei Shu’er spent an additional 50 taels.

The speed at which she was spending made her somewhat anxious.

Fortunately, she still had the 5,000 taels of silver given by Tang Zan.

The man quickly went to a rear courtyard, activated a mechanism, walked through a long passageway, and entered a completely different courtyard.

In this courtyard, there was a man dressed in mysterious black sitting at a table.

He wore a white fox mask covering the upper half of his face, propping his chin with a perfectly shaped hand while looking at the city defense map, exuding an overwhelming presence that made people dare not look directly.

The man in white looked up at the man in black.

"Pavilion Master, Bai San has something to report."

The man in black raised his head, revealing a handsome lower half of his face, his aura cold enough to seemingly freeze everything around him.

"Speak."

Bai San bowed his head, "Just now, someone came to the Heavenly Mechanism Pavilion seeking fifty experts to break the War King’s prison."

The man in black raised an eyebrow, feeling an extremely odd sensation.

"Take me to have a look."

Bai San nodded and led the Pavilion Master to the rear hall of the Heavenly Mechanism Pavilion, where there was a hole to observe the people involved in the transaction.

He noticed that opposite them was a small Jianghu person, who looked rather gallant.

He was a bit curious about when his father befriended such a Jianghu person.

Moreover, they were willing to spend 1500 taels of silver, which wasn’t an ordinary friendship.

And this Jianghu person gave him a familiar feeling for some reason.

But in his memory, there was no one similar to this Jianghu person.

Tang Zan said, "Give it to him."

After saying that, he sat in the back hall, carefully observing the person.

However, the person’s behavior was so impeccable that he couldn’t pinpoint the source of his sense of familiarity.