Chapter 2002: Conspiracy
Zu An was shocked and asked, “Why are we switching the bride here at the Yin Yang Path? Why aren’t you switching the bride at the Heavenly Devil School?”
Pan Qiaoqiao shook her head and replied, “You think I don’t want a complete wedding? It’s just too hard; Qiu Honglei has too many guards around her.”
Zu An voiced his surprise. “Could it be that the saintess is being detained?” He knew he was taking too big of a risk by saying that. If his words ended up exposing him, that would become a huge problem.
But fortunately, the others didn’t suspect him. Li Feiqing harrumphed and answered, “Of course she’s being forced. I refuse to believe that the saintess would actually like a scoundrel like Fang Long.” He paused for a moment, then added, “I didn’t say that to badmouth you.”
Li Feiqing probably felt that speaking in such a way about someone from the Yin Yang Path in front of an ally from the same place was a bit unreasonable.
Zu An didn’t really mind. He heard Pan Qiaoqiao add, “But she did personally say that she’d agree to this marriage. I was there too. Many people from the Heavenly Devil School heard her.”
Zu An frowned slightly. It seemed that Qiu Honglei had really ended up encountering a problem she couldn't solve.
Wang Cong said, “Don’t think about such trivial things and just move according to plan. The only time the guards will be more lax is once everyone has had their fill of food and drink.”
“Alright.” After discussing all the details, the others left in their respective directions.
…
When they left, Zu An put all of the ki stones into the Brilliant Glass Bead. Then, he unsealed Zhang Zitong’s acupoints and woke her up.
When she woke up, Zhang Zitong’s first reaction was to check her clothes.
Zu An was a bit stunned. He asked, “Are you really that worried about me doing something to you?”
Zhang Zitong’s face reddened. She answered, “It’s not that I’m scared that sir will do something to me, but rather that other people might have. This is a den of evildoers, after all.”
Zu An was speechless. He could only change the topic and give her a summary of what had happened.
Zhang Zitong clicked her tongue in amazement, saying, “I didn’t expect the affairs of the Devil Sect to be so complicated. It seems the various branches also have quite a bit of infighting between them. I feel that this is a good opportunity, though. We can use this chance to completely throw the Devil Sect into chaos. It should be even better if we can make the branches fight against each other.
“By the way, should I leave and scout out the situation with the guards first? That way, it’ll become easier to coordinate with those people when it comes to switching out the bride.”
Zu An shook his head and said, “No, I have other plans.”
“Huh? You’re not going to take advantage of such a good opportunity? What kind of wonderful plan does sir have?” Zhang Zitong asked, sounding really interested.
Zu An didn’t reply and said, “I need to go out on a trip. Stay here and be careful.” After thinking about it for a bit, he took out a talisman and added, “If you encounter any dangers you can't handle, activate this talisman. I'll immediately come to save you.” This was the Yin Yang Path, after all; the place was extremely unfavorable for women. He was worried that something could happen to her.
Zhang Zitong carefully stowed the talisman away. She grinned and said, “Sir really does care about me.”
“I just don’t want you to die mysteriously here for no reason.” Zu An harrumphed.
“Don’t worry. I am a silver token envoy, so I’ll have no problems taking care of myself, at least. Even that Fang Hu who came here earlier is someone I can handle,” Zhang Zitong said while sticking out her chest.
“Who was it that was almost done in by Fang Biao not too long ago? This Fang Hu is much more formidable,” Zu An reminded her.
Zhang Zitong’s face reddened. She said, “That’s because I didn’t expect their drugs to be so strong. Sir, please don’t worry. I’ve already learned from my experience. Their despicable drugs won’t work on me anymore.”
“That’s good," Zu An said with a nod, and then he vanished into the distance.
When she saw him leave, Zhang Zitong took out the talisman and caressed it with her fingers. Her cheeks turned pink. It was impossible to tell what she was thinking, but she suddenly released a long sigh.
…
Meanwhile, after Zu An left the room, he headed straight up the mountain. Along the way, the security was’t as strict as when the new disciples had first gone up the mountain. There were Devil Sect disciples everywhere, and these disciples all had decent cultivation ranks. If any outsiders entered, they would likely be quickly noticed and surrounded. Even so, with Zu An’s current cultivation, he was able to notice them while they were still far away and easily avoid them ahead of time. Together with how quickly he moved, he didn’t alert anyone along the way.
The architecture of the buildings on the mountain was actually extremely complex. In many areas, it was simply like a maze. The reason why that wasn’t an issue for Zu An was that he had secretly left a spiritual imprint on Pan Qiaoqiao’s body. Even though people like her were all well-known figures from the Devil Sect’s younger generation, the difference in cultivation ranks between them and Zu An was just far, far too great. There was no way they would notice his movements.
He continued to search for that weak imprint. Even though he had never been to the Lake of Hatred before, he was still able to accurately locate the Heavenly Devil School.
In truth, Zhang Zitong was right. According to those people’s plans, beating them at their own game would save the most time, but how could he really let Qiu Honglei and Fang Long go through with their marriage? Even if he knew it was fake, he couldn't let it go through!
He quickly found Pan Qiaoqiao. Since he was already in the Heavenly Devil School, he prepared to look for Qiu Honglei. However, he suddenly noticed Pan Qiaoqiao look all around her, seemingly on guard against people following her. Only when she was sure that nobody was following her did she sneak into a courtyard.
Zu An was surprised, and decided to go and see what kinds of schemes this woman was up to. He secretly entered the courtyard. For some reason, there weren’t many Devil Sect disciples inside.
Suddenly, he heard some strange sounds, followed by a man and a woman’s conversation.
“You’ve really become sexier and sexier…”
“Master, you’re so amazing! My soul is about to ascend because of you~”
…
Zu An was stunned. How could he still not know what was going on when he heard Pan Qiaoqiao’s assertive words?
His divine sense quickly scanned the area. An elder dressed in embroidered robes was holding the enchanting Pan Qiaoqiao. The two were wrapped around each other like snakes and engaging in intense 'interactions'.
Zu An immediately felt as if he were in the middle of a storm. Just before, in that room, this woman had been talking about how much she liked Fang Long, and was willing to take such a huge risk to become his new bride. And yet she'd immediately run off to do this with another man?
How can she face Fang Long? How can she face all of those people who believed her? On top of that, judging from their conversation, it sounds like these two are master and disciple. What a villainess!
He didn’t have any interest in eavesdropping on their business. Either way, it was that Fang guy’s green hat. He was about to leave when the elder in the room suddenly asked, “How is the plan going?”
Zu An was surprised. He could only stop and continue to listen for the time being.
“Pft… Mmm, that stupid brat Fang Biao already agreed, but we had no choice but to pay twenty chests of heaven-grade ki stones to make him agree. Master, you have to compensate… Ah!”
“Sure, sure, sure. Your master will compensate you right now. All you’ve done for your master is worth far more than these heaven-grade ki stones.”
“You’re so annoying~”
Zu An was completely speechless. This woman really was incredible. She'd immediately doubled what she used up.
The intermittent conversations continued from time to time.
“Who has joined in thus far?”
“The Freedom Path’s Li Feiqing and the World Path’s Wang Cong. However, the Treasure Hunter Path’s Fatty Hu doesn’t seem to be too interested.”
“Hmph, the Treasure Hunter Path has already declined. That Fatty Hu is only interested in tombs and female corpses. The saintess’ beauty has nothing to do with him.”
“You’re so annoying! How can you think about that Qiu girl when you’re with me right now?”
“Who says I want her? I was just mentioning her.”
“Hmph, you can’t hide it from me. Your body clearly became a bit more excited when you were talking about her.”
“Ahem, that was something else… Regardless, we don’t need to worry about Fatty Hu. The Treasure Hunter Path isn’t that relevant now anyway.”
“Then I’ll go and ask around the Secret Path and Pear Path to see if anyone else will join. As for the Unfeeling Path’s Ding Xia, I wouldn’t dare to ask him. That person is so cold, and the way he looks at me isn’t as if he's looking at a pretty woman, but rather at a corpse.”
“Ding Xia is Lu Sanyuan’s precious disciple, and his cultivation is around Qiu Honglei’s. The only thing he's interested in is his master, and he has no interest in any other plans. You don’t need to look for him.”
“Oh, what does master really want to do? I’m a bit confused even now.”
“Heh, I just want to use this chance to gather some of these risk-takers and root them out in one go. Otherwise, they might not fall for anything so easily in the future.”
“Master is full of clever schemes after all. However, once that slut Qiu Honglei is swapped out, does master plan on kindly accepting her?”
“That’s not something you need to worry about. There’ll be people to deal with it when the time comes.”
…
Zu An could more or less guess the elder’s identity from their conversation. He was most likely Yun Jianyue’s junior brother, the Devil Sect’s Elder Xi. It seemed that he was scheming something big, but Wang Cong and Li Feiqing were completely in the dark about it. He likely wanted to use the chance to beat down the other factions’ strength so he could stand out alone. However, would a trifling elder really have such great ambitions?
As he continued to listen, he discovered that the two of them didn’t talk about anything else meaningful, and were only immersed in their passion. He thus quietly left.
…
Zu An decided to find Qiu Honglei next. After circling the Heavenly Devil School, he grabbed a few Devil Sect disciples for questioning. There was nothing they wouldn’t say in front of Daji.
Soon after, he arrived at a secluded courtyard he'd found out about from the information he gathered. Suddenly, he heard beautiful music being played on a flute; however, it seemed to carry a hint of frustration and sadness. Zu An was really happy, because he could tell that it was Qiu Honglei’s flute music.
However, he wasn’t in a rush to go in, because he discovered that there were countless guards present. The security was even tighter than when he had been heading up the mountain before. On top of that, many of the hidden guards even had warning tools. If they detected an enemy, they would immediately be alerted, so there was no way for even those with high cultivation ranks to secretly infiltrate this place.
Even so, that was no issue for Zu An. He summoned Daji; now that she had nine ranks of cultivation, though she couldn't restrain the highest-level cultivators, these guards were easy enough to deal with.
The guards quickly noticed a woman in fluttering white clothes slowly approach. They held their weapons with nervous expressions, and the hidden sentries prepared to sound their alarms. And yet, when they saw her appearance, all of them were stupefied. How could there be such a beautiful woman in this world? More importantly, there was a kind of unique charm to her appearance that made others unable to help but cherish her, want to protect her, and do anything for her. The white-clad woman gently stroked the lute in her arms. Invisible sound waves spread out, and the guards' expressions became blank.
“Who’s there?!” several voices suddenly cried in alarm. A few female disciples ran out from inside.
Unfortunately, Daji’s skills were useless against women! When those disciples saw the situation in the courtyard, their expressions changed. They immediately fired warning arrows into the air.
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