The other party also saw his face at the same time and stopped her attack. With a hint of surprise and joy in her tone, she exclaimed, “It’s you?”

The intruder had a beautiful oval face and an exquisite ponytail tied with a blue butterfly knot. Who else could it be other than Qiao Xueying?

“What brings you here to the Chu clan? Could it be because you missed me?” teased Zu An. Despite his casual tone, he was actually quite perplexed, as it seemed unlikely that she would come here, after having betrayed the Chu clan.

At the same time, he noticed that her face was slightly redder than usual.

Qiao Xueying also snapped out of her daze and exclaimed, “Q-quick, call for Brightmoon Duke!”

“What’s wrong?” Noticing the horror in her voice, Zu An quickly helped her up, scanning the surroundings warily.

“It’s useless. I just received intelligence that Brightmoon Duke isn’t in the manor anymore,” said a teasing voice. Following that, an old man suddenly appeared on top of the manor wall. He stood with his hands behind his back in a leisurely manner, and he eyed Qiao Xueying coldly, like a cat preying on a mouse.

“Shi Lezhi!” exclaimed Zu An in astonishment. Even though the latter had tried to mask his appearance, he was still able to recognize the other party right away.

The old man was stunned as well. His face darkened “How did you recognize me?” he demanded.

Zu An pulled Qiao Xueying behind him and replied with a smile, “No matter how you try to disguise yourself, you can’t hide that scummy aura around you.”

Shi Lezhi sucked in a sharp breath.

You have successfully trolled Shi Lezhi for 598 Rage points!

“You sure have a sharp tongue. However, you’ll soon understand that this is not a world where words matter. You’ll regret having been born with that mouth of yours!” sneered Shi Lezhi coldly.

Zu An looked at Shi Lezhi intently, then scoffed, “Do you really think that I’m a mere third rank cultivator,, just because I’ve always concealed my true strength beneath my cheerful expression? Did you think that I would dare to provoke all of you if that was all I possessed? Since that’s the case, I shall cast aside my disguise and reveal my true strength to you!”

Zu An’s disposition caused Shi Lezhi’s eyes to narrow warily. He immediately gathered his ki and put up his guard. There was some sense in what the other party had said. It made no sense for a third rank cultivator to maintain such a high profile, and anyone else in his place would have died many times over by now.

To be honest, the things that had happened inside the dungeon made no sense to him and Shi Kun. They couldn’t understand why the army of third rank and fourth rank cultivators they had dispatched to kill Zu An would end up getting wiped out. 

That shouldn’t have been possible.

Putting that together with Zu An’s words, Shi Lezhi suddenly found himself wondering if Zu An was actually a hidden expert who was intentionally suppressing his cultivation so as to mislead those around him.

Now that he thought about it, Zu An had managed to sever Shi Kun’s weapon with a single strike. Had he not interfered, there was a good chance that Shi Kun might have been killed.

How could a third rank cultivator wield such power?

Putting aside a third rank cultivator, even a fifth rank cultivator couldn’t hope to defeat Shi Kun in a single blow!

All of the evidence suggested that Zu An was indeed hiding his strength.

Could he be a sixth rank, seventh rank, or even an eighth rank cultivator?

Shi Lezhi’s complexion darkened. If Zu An had actually managed to reach that level at such a young age, he would undoubtedly grow to become a powerhouse in the future.

Qiao Xueying also looked at Zu An in astonishment, wondering if the latter really was a hidden expert. The novels which she read together with Chu Chuyan often had a similar plot, such as the prince of some country feigning to be an ordinary worker, or some incredibly powerful sword immortal disguising himself as a mortal to court a woman… 

Could he be one of these as well?

As she pondered these possibilities, Zu An suddenly grabbed her hand and took off. “Why are you daydreaming? Run!”

He immediately activated Grandgale, moving them tens of meters away in an instant.

Both Qiao Xueying and Shi Lezhi were equally speechless.

The huge contrast between her expectations and the stark reality caught Qiao Xueying completely off guard, leaving her in a daze. Shi Lezhi also took a moment to realize what was actually going on. Just the thought that he had been fooled into putting his guard up against a third rank cultivator—mere trash!—left him feeling deeply humiliated.

“You bastard, I’ll slice you into pieces!”

You have successfully trolled Shi Lezhi for 1024 Rage points!

With a powerful step, he charged toward Zu An as fast as an arrow loosed from a taut bowstring. To his astonishment, even though he, as an eighth rank cultivator, should have been able to move much faster than a third rank cultivator, he was actually unable to catch up with his quarry!

How can this be possible?!

Shi Lezhi was astonished. Could that fellow possibly have been hiding his true strength?

Meanwhile, Zu An kept running, yelling continuously, “Help, help! A madman is after me!”

His voice echoed far and wide, swiftly drawing attention to himself.

Qiao Xueying’s lips spread in a slight smile. All this while, she had scorned Zu An for not having any dignity. It was only now that she realized that these nifty tricks he resorted to were actually oddly effective. At the very least, the guards of the manor were rushing toward him.

When two of the guards saw them, they immediately drew their swords and demanded, “Who are you?”

“I am your young master! That man behind me is the intruder who crept into the Chu clan!” shouted Zu An.

Shi Lezhi was dressed completely in black, which made it obvious that he wasn’t a good person. So, the guards quickly rushed forward to stop him, demanding, “Who are you?”

Unfortunately, barely after they said those words, Shi Lezhi grabbed their necks and twisted them, producing a crisp snap. Just like that, the two guards breathed their last.

Zu An felt his goosebumps rising all over his body. 

Those two guards had been at the third rank as well, but they had been slaughtered like helpless lambs!

While Zu An did possess some unusual abilities that made him far stronger than an ordinary third rank cultivator, he knew that, were he to be caught by an eighth rank cultivator, he would only last a second or two at most.

So, he continued on his desperate flight, holding tightly to Qiao Xueying’s hand. However, once the effects of Grandgale ran out, it turned out that Qiao Xueying was the faster one. As a result, it became Qiao Xueying dragging him along instead.

Shi Lezhi’s eyelids twitched. He had received an order from the young master to nab Qiao Xueying alive so that the young master could have his way with her, so he’d gone easy on her. However, it ended up creating an opportunity for Qiao Xueying to get away.

He had assumed that she would run to the academy to seek help, but while she feigned going in that direction, she ended up running toward the Chu Manor instead.

His fear of Chu Zhongtian made him hesitant to give chase, but all of a sudden, he received news that Chu Zhongtian had left the city in a hurry. With that, there was nothing left for him to fear.

Even so, he still didn’t want to alarm the Chu clan as much as possible, so he disguised himself first before continuing to give chase. There was no way he could have expected that Zu An would create the exact situation that he desperately wanted to avoid.

Had it been any other cultivator, he would have strangled him before the other party could let out a squeak. For some reason, though, Zu An’s burst of speed actually outmatched his own, even though he was already giving it his all.

A vicious glint flashed across Shi Lezhi’s eyes. Now that things had come to this point, he had no choice but to quickly take down Qiao Xueying and kill Zu An so as to limit the disturbance. Otherwise, if news were to spread that he was here, it could cause a great deal of trouble.

It was true that the Shi clan didn’t fear the Chu clan, but the issue was that he was merely a guest elder in the Shi clan. At this moment, the patriarch of the Shi clan was not ready to enter a direct confrontation with the Chu clan just yet, so it was likely that he would be abandoned if he were to get caught.

Meanwhile, sensing that Shi Lezhi was getting closer and closer, Zu An began to panic. Aren’t there usually a lot of guards in the manor? Why did it take so long for just two of them to appear?

The truth was that Chu Zhongtian and Qin Wanru had been worried about the news of Chu Chuyan’s illness leaking out, and intentionally sealed off this area, instructing the guards not to approach no matter what happened.

So, even if the guards along the outer perimeter of the Chu clan had noticed the commotion, they dared not barge in, given the Master and Madam’s orders.

“Zu An, what are you shrieking over there for?”

A sudden bellow sounded from not too far away, where Qin Wanru was staring at him with her phoenix eyes.

The effects of the drug had receded, and she regained her consciousness. She was a little perplexed as to why she would suddenly lose consciousness, but both Chu Chuyan and Chu Huanzhao insisted that she had overworked herself and fallen asleep. Naturally, she wasn’t convinced by that excuse, but not even in her wildest imagination could she have conjured up the scenario in which her own younger daughter had drugged her, then ganged up with her older sibling to dupe her.

After that, Chu Chuyan told her that she was feeling a little better, a piece of news that Qin Wanru was skeptical about. She thought that her daughter was just consoling her.

However, when Chu Chuyan held her hand, she realized with astonishment that her hand was much warmer than before. At the same time, she noticed that Chu Chuyan’s complexion also looked much better than before. So, she quickly rushed to call Bao Youlu over to take a look.

However, before she could leave the room, she heard a commotion outside. Instruction Chu Huanzhao to stay with her older sister, she headed outside to take a look.

When she saw Zu An holding the hands of another beautiful woman, she immediately felt a rush of anger.

Well, well, Zu An. Just mere moments ago, my daughter slipped into danger, and yet you’ve already hooked up with another woman outside? Do you think that our Chuyan and the entire Chu clan are pushovers?

You have successfully trolled Qin Wanru for 999 Rage points!

Zu An immediately pointed to the person behind and shouted, “An intruder has snuck into our Chu clan with malicious intentions in mind!”

He didn’t expose Shi Lezhi’s identity out of fear that the latter would resort to a massacre after being cornered.

Qin Wanru frowned upon hearing those words. She looked behind Zu An and immediately spotted the masked Shi Lezhi. Her eyebrows shot up and she demanded, “Who are you? How dare you barge into our Chu clan!”

Shi Lezhi’s eyes immediately lit up. As he took in the curvaceous woman before him, he couldn’t help but murmur, “What a bountiful woman!”

Had he met with such a beautiful woman on any other occasion, he would surely have done whatever it took to snatch her so that he could toy with her. 

Unfortunately, he already recognized who she was. With the knowledge that she was the wife of Brightmoon Duke, he could only toss the idea out of his head. At the same time, he felt a little jealous of Brightmoon Duke as well.

No wonder he never took in a concubine all these years. Such a beautiful wife would be more than enough to suck him dry. There’s no way he would have any energy left for any concubines.

Sensing the other party’s disrespectful gaze, Qin Wanru roared in fury, “You’re courting death!”

She raised her palm to attack Shi Lezhi.

Worried that she had left herself unguarded and would be at a disadvantage, Zu An immediately shouted out a warning. “Be careful, he’s an eighth rank cultivator!”