Zu An was immediately a little upset. He took a step forward, putting himself in front of the carriage. “Hello? I just saved you guys. Even if you aren’t deeply grateful, would it hurt for you to say ‘thank you’?”

The woman in the carriage did not reply. She clearly wasn’t willing to speak with a man she didn’t know.

The old driver smirked and said coldly, “Countless men have tried to approach our Madam on all sorts of grounds. Quite a few of them even employ cheap tricks to make themselves look like heroes.”

He revealed a mouthful of yellow teeth. One of his front teeth was missing, which made his smile even more striking.

Zu An was momentarily stunned, but quickly realized that the old driver had misunderstood him.

Doesn’t this young woman inside have too big of an ego? Just how beautiful do you have to be for people to do such things for you?

Their carriage looks ordinary, so I don’t think their clan has much money. Although, there is a saying that beauties arise amidst the peasantry…

However, he quickly shook his head to dismiss this thought. The truly beautiful ones had  probably been snapped up by bigwigs and sent to serve in their chambers a long time ago. Why would they be living like this?

After all, this world of cultivation was ruled by strength. He refused to believe that any expert would leave a stunning peasant beauty alone.

The departure of Qiu Honglei and Yun Jianyue had left him feeling terrible, and he was in no mood to argue with these folk. He waved his hand impatiently and said, “Whatever. Forget it. My good intentions have been treated like horse dung. Just get out of here.”

The driver chuckled. He had been through his fair share of such events. This person’s reaction was similar to several others who had been exposed. Seeing that the lady riding inside had no other orders for him, he flicked the reins and prepared to leave.

Suddenly, a loud voice rang out. “Halt!”

The driver’s brows climbed. He’d apparently underestimated this brat. It seemed like he had other plans. He steadied the reins to see what other tricks he wanted to play.

When he turned around, though, he was greeted by a cloud of dust. A group of men on horseback had galloped over. The one in the front stopped in front of Zu An and looked over the scene. With a look of horror, he turned around and reported, “General, Black Ice has been seriously injured! He might not survive!”

“What?” A young man urged his horse forward.

The eyes of the surrounding onlookers lit up. This young master was truly handsome and outstanding.

Several girls covered their mouths and whispered among themselves when they saw his lavish robe embroidered with gold, his golden waistband adorned with decorations of dragons and phoenixes, his finely-combed long hair, and his sharp eyes. Judging from their starstruck expressions, they had just added another entry into their list of potential husbands.

The driver with the missing tooth could not contain his shock. He quickly said to the one inside the carriage, “Madam, I’m afraid we might have misunderstood what’s going on. The new arrival is King Qi’s heir. He seems to be targeting that fellow.”

The woman inside acknowledged him gently, but said nothing more.

Zu An frowned. He glanced at the startled horse next to him. The horse’s body was jet-black, with the exception of one hoof, which was as white as snow. No wonder it had been named Black Ice.

At this moment, though, it didn't look as powerful as before. Instead, it was foaming at the mouth. Its eyes were bloodshot, and its body was swaying from side to side.

Zu An subconsciously loosened his grip. The horse could no longer stand, and crashed to the ground, its entire body twitching. It was obvious that it wouldn’t survive.

“What’s going on? I had to use a fair bit of strength to stop it, but it shouldn’t have been enough to kill it,” said Zu An in confusion.

“Hmph! You’ve killed Black Ice in front of so many witnesses, yet you still dare to contest this claim?” The young noble glowered at him from atop his horse. He wasn’t the one who had spoken, though. It was the cavalryman beside him.

His attitude made Zu An bristle.  “Your horse was trampling through the street causing injury, and you’re here making bogus accusations? Is this a lawless country?”

Now that he was a member of the imperial court, he obviously had no need to bring up the law, but he was definitely on the side of right this time.

The handsome young master on the horse finally spoke. “Where are these injured people you speak of?”

Zu An pointed at the chaos in the street behind him. “The speeding horse rammed into many people’s booths. I’m sure there are plenty of injured people there.” 

“Is that so?” The young noble raised his voice. “Which one of you has been injured by the actions of our horse earlier on? Please come out so I can compensate you.”

He said this three times in succession. Each time, there was no response.

He slowly turned back towards Zu An, an amused smile resting on his lips. “You’ve seen for yourself that no one was injured by my horse. Instead, you’ve just killed this young master’s horse. This is definitive proof. Do you have anything else to say?”

Zu An immediately caught on to what was happening. These common people were afraid of bringing trouble upon themselves. This young master was someone they could not afford to offend. His cronies were glaring menacingly at the crowd, which made them afraid to retaliate against him.

He didn’t blame these people. This was just human nature.

He pointed at the carriage nearby. “The speeding horse did not only charge at those on the street. It charged at them too. If I didn’t stop it, their carriage would have been completely destroyed, and everyone in it would have died.”

The young noble looked at the carriage he was pointing at. It was shabby in appearance, and didn’t look like it belonged to a rich household. He grew even more relaxed and fixed the carriage with a haughty stare. “Is that true?”

The threatening expression in his eyes was clear.

Zu An frowned. This guy was clearly using his status to pressure them. Wow, I actually ended up getting caught in a deliberate car crash scam today.

He thought that the carriage driver would look after his own hide like the others. Instead, he cracked a grin and said, “That’s correct. That crazy horse was charging straight at us and almost frightened our Madam.”

He didn’t back up Zu An’s claim that the carriage and the people inside would have perished. However, no one else here noticed this.

The young noble looked at him, then looked away just as quickly, as though he felt disgusted by staring at this ugly man even a second longer. “Didn’t you make it out all right? Who knows if you’re all in on this together?”

The driver with the missing tooth chuckled, but didn’t say anything else.

Now that Zu An knew that these people were here to start trouble, he gradually calmed down. So these are the so-called influential bigwigs of this world, huh? They’re quite good at twisting the truth. Unfortunately, none of you can compete with me in terms of shamelessness.

That young noble looked at Zu An. “Black Ice is a military horse,” he said coldly. “It has achieved great things on the battlefield, and has a permanent post in the Ministry of War. Do you know how big a crime killing a military horse is?”

“Nope,” Zu An replied indifferently.

I really want to see just what kind of show you’ll put up for me. I’m someone who has spoken with people such as the emperor, King Qi, and Yun Jianyue. 

This situation confronting him wasn’t the least bit panic-inducing, and force hardly seemed necessary.

The cavalryman next to the young noble immediately said, “Killing a military horse is a huge crime. At the very least, you’ll be exiled. If it is a military horse with a rank in the army, it can even be considered a capital offence.”

Zu An laughed. He looked at that extravagantly dressed young master. “You want me dead, all because a deranged horse tore up this entire street? You bastards are truly vicious.”

The young noble’s expression grew cold. No one had ever dared to speak to him this way, not since he was a young boy.

You have successfully trolled Zhao Zhi for 444 Rage points!

Zu An’s eyes narrowed. So this kid’s surname is Zhao, huh? Anyone with the surname Zhao had a high chance of being part of the royal family.

The cavalrymen took turns to berate him. “Outrageous! You dare speak so rudely to our general?”

“General? Then do you all know who I am?” Zu An walked with his hands behind his back. After refining the auras of an Earth Immortal and a Grandmaster, he was stronger than he had ever been, and his aura of confidence was sure.

“Hm?” The driver with the missing tooth was surprised.

“What is it, Uncle Fu?” The Madam inside enquired in her pleasing voice.

The driver chuckled and said, “Madam, this kid seems to have some guts.”