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 wasn’t likely for here to come here after having betrayed the Chu clan.

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

Qiao Xueying also finally snapped out of her state and exclaimed in astonishment, “Q-quick, call the Brightmoon Duke out!”

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

“It’s useless. I just received intelligence that the Brightmoon Duke isn’t in the manor anymore,” a teasing voice sounded. Following that, an old man suddenly appeared on top of the manor’s wall. His hands were placed leisurely behind him, and he eyed Qiao Xueying coldly as if 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 also astonished. His face darkened as he said, “How did you recognize me?”

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

“…” Shi Lezhi.

You have successfully trolled Shi Lezhi for +598 Rage!

“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 before scoffing, “Just because I’ve always concealed my true strength beneath my cheerful expression, you really think that I’m a mere third rank cultivator, huh? Did you think that I would dare to provoke all of you if I only have that much? 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 against the other party. There was some sense in what the other party had said. It indeed made no sense for a third rank cultivator to maintain such a high profile, and anyone else in his place would have already died many times over by now.

To be honest, the happenings in 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 impossible.

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

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

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 hit!

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

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

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

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

Could he be the same as well?

It was then that Zu An suddenly grabbed her hand and ran away. “What are you dazing off for? Run!”

He immediately activated Grandgale and instantaneously moved tens of meters away.

“…” Qiao Xueying.

“…” Shi Lezhi.

The huge contrast in her expectations and reality caught Qiao Xueying completely off guard, such that she fell into a daze. Shi Lezhi also took a while before he finally realized what was going on. Just the thought that he had been fooled into putting his guard up against a mere trashy third rank cultivator left him feeling deeply humiliated.

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

You have successfully trolled Shi Lezhi for +1024 Rage!

With a powerful step, he charged toward Zu An with a speed as fast as a released arrow. To his astonishment, even though his speed as a eighth rank cultivator should have been much faster than that of a third rank cultivator, he was actually unable to catch up with the latter!

“How could this be possible?!”

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

Meanwhile, Zu An continued screaming as he ran, “Help, help! A madman is after me!”

His voice echoed far and wide, swiftly drawing attention here.

Qiao Xueying’s lips crept up. All this while, she had scorned Zu An for not having any dignity, but it was only now that she realized that the nifty tricks he resorted to were actually oddly effective. At least, the guards of the manor were indeed rushing toward him.

When the two guards saw them, they immediately drew their swords and siad, “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 it, producing a crisp cracking sound. Just like that, the two guards breathed their last.

Zu An felt his goosebumps rising all over his body.

One must know that those two guards were at the third rank too, but they were killed like helpless sheeps!

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

So, he desperately ran away with Qiao Xueying in his hand, but once the effect of Grandgale ran out, it turned out that Qiao Xueying was the faster one of them. As a result, it turned into 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 a taste of her, so he went easy on her. Yet, it ended up creating an opportunity for Qiao Xueying to get away.

He thought that she would run to the academy to seek help, but with a feint, she ran 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 for him to fear anymore.

Even so, he still didn’t want to alarm the Chu clan wherever possible, so he disguised himself first before continuing to give chase. Yet, who could have thought that Zu An would do exactly what he wanted to avoid?

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

A vicious glint flashed across Shi Lezhi’s eyes. With things having 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 still didn’t want to get into any direct confrontation with the Chu clan just yet, so it was likely that he would be abandoned if he were to get caught here.

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

The truth was that Chu Zhongtian and Qin Wanru were worried about the news of Chu Chuyan’s illness leaking, so they intentionally sealed off this area and instructed them not to come in no matter what happened.

So, even if the guards in the outer perimeters of the Chu clan noticed a commotion here, they dared not to barge in given the Master and Madame’s orders.

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

All of a sudden, a bellow sounded not too far away. Qin Wanru stared at him with her phoenix eyes from a distance away.

The effects of the medicine had receded, resulting in her regaining 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 fell asleep. Naturally, she wasn’t convinced by that excuse, but not even in her wildest imagination could she have imagined that her own daughter would actually drug her and gang up with one another 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 astonishingly realized 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 out to call Bao Youlu over to take a look.

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

When she saw Zu An holding the hands of another beautiful woman, she immediately felt rage rush into her head.

Very well, Zu An. It has just been moments before my daughter fell into danger, but you have 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!

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 attempt 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 as she questioned, “Who are you? How dare you barge into our Chu clan!”

Shi Lezhi’s eyes immediately lit up. Looking at 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 occasion, he would surely do whatever it took to snatch her over so that he could toy with her.

Unfortunately, he had already recognized the other party’s identity. Knowing that she was the wife of the Brightmoon Duke, he could only toss the idea out of his head. At the same time, he felt a little jealous of the Brightmoon Duke too.

It’s no wonder why he didn’t take in a concubine all of these years. Such a beautiful wife would be more than enough to suck him dry, so 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 would be put at a disadvantage due to being unguarded, Zu An immediately warned her with a shout, “Be careful, he’s an eighth rank cultivator!”