Chapter 2458  a.s.sasin!

Lin Mu let the servants do the work this time, as they prepared a pot of good tea.

"Ah! Some nice Jumping Dragon Tea!" the minister recognized it just from the scent. "Looks like we have shared tastes." He laughed.

"Perhaps." Lin Mu replied. "It is good tea though." He nodded.

Apparently, the tea he was drinking was especially grown for the Imperial Family and was exclusive to their gardens. Getting this outside was almost impossible, and while there were other teas that could match its level, it was still a rarity.

The minister talked quite a lot about it and went off on random matters. It didn"t seem like he had come to talk to Lin Mu for anything particular, but just wanted to make a connection with him. "I suppose as a Treasury minister it is one of the things one needs to know how to do," Lin Mu thought to himself.

Since Lin Mu could be considered his superior, it would make sense as to why the minister would want to do this. Plus, Lin Mu had command over the treasury too now and could take things from it as he wished, so it was best for the minister to know about it.

Things would get troublesome for the minister if things kept on disappearing and he didn"t know that Lin Mu had taken them. At the very least, there needed to be some form of rapport between them to ensure things would get out of hand.

"Oh, I heard, Lord Imperator is a gourmand too?" The minister finally asked.

"I do like food." Lin Mu nodded. "Well, if you wish, I can set up an exclusive banquet for you." The minister offered. "While it might not match in value with the Imperial Banquet of the Emperor, I can at least a.s.sure you I can get some new dishes and unique ingredients from all over the world." He stated.

"Oh? That might be interesting." Lin Mu reckoned Little Shrubby would like that too.

"Haha! That"s perfect then." The Treasury minister chuckled, his chins jiggling like jelly. "I"ll get it set up in the next few days." The man said before a servant approached.

"My Lords, would you like us to bring in some snacks?" The servant asked respectfully.

"Is that even a question? Of course we would like that." The Minister said with a wide smile.

"Sure." Lin Mu hadn"t had food made by the cooks here yet, so reckoned it would be a good chance to try.

"It"ll be just a minute." The servant said and quickly sent out a message.

And sure enough, just in thirty seconds, Lin Mu could see a small group of servants bringing out trays after trays of food. While they had said it was going to be "snacks" the servants knew very well that mere snacks wouldn"t be enough for these two individuals. The Treasury minister"s reputation as a gourmand was well known and Lin Mu had also become somewhat famous within the Imperial Servant circles due to the sheer amount of food he had eaten at the banquet before.

The servants were left gobsmacked at how many trays of food they had served. They estimated that the amount of food Lin Mu had eaten might be enough to server over a thousand people at once. And it wasn"t just any normal food either, it was all made from precious materials like rare herbs, Immortal beast meats and more.

As servants, they had to keep all these things in mind when tending to the needs of the n.o.bles, thus they were throughly trained to do it. Lin Mu watched as several new dishes were brought in that he had certainly not seen before and were placed on the table one by one.

But just as he was focused on the tray in front of him, he felt a strange flow in the air. In the next second, he became alarmed and his arm shot out without even looking.

~CLANG!~

"What are you doing?" Lin Mu questioned in a cold voice.

The Treasury Minister was shocked as he saw a thin dagger barely a centimeter away from his head. It was being held by one of the servants, who had an utterly shocked expression. The dagger"s blade was clenched between Lin Mu"s fingers, that were covered in a rocky layer.

"a.s.sa.s.sIN!" The other servants screamed seeing it all.

"YOU!" The Treasury Minster"s expression changed to that of anger as a wave of energy was released from him.

~SMASH~

The man moved faster than one might believe, as his wide palm turned into a blur and smashed onto the chest of the servant.

~CRACK~CRACK~CRACK~

The servant"s chest caved in before she was sent flying into the wall of the courtyard!

The dagger was still held in Lin Mu"s finger, as he watched the minister act. But just as the rotund man was about to move again, he spoke out.

"Wait!" Lin Mu shouted. "We need her alive." He said before disappearing from his location.

~SHUA~

He appeared next to the servant and extended his hand.

"Meld." Restraining the s.p.a.ce around her, Lin Mu lifted her into the air and scanned her body.

"d.a.m.ned Black Ying Empire wretches! They dare try this in the Imperial Grounds!?" The minister was utterly furious.

But Lin Mu looked to be confused. His brows were furrowed as he checked the servant throughly, even probing their Dantian to check for anything suspicious.

"Strange… They don"t seem to be from the Black Ying Empire." Lin Mu stated. "What?" The minister was now confused too.

"I don"t sense the same energy from them." Lin Mu replied, finding the a.s.sa.s.sin to be different.

He remembered feeling it quite easily when he faced the soldiers earlier, so he was sure the servant wasn"t from the Black Ying Empire.

"Are you sure?" The Minister asked in doubt.

"I"ll need to verify." Lin Mu knew it was best to be through. "Little Shrubby, to me!" he quickly sent a message.