“What’s wrong?” The Solitary Eight looked at her.

Qiu Honglei recalled the figure that had just flashed across her vision, and she grew suspicious. “Test the food.”

The Solitary Eight weren’t clueless newborn hatchlings, and quickly caught on. One of them took out a needle to test out the food, but the needle did not change color. It hadn’t detected any poison.

Zu An was speechless at the lack of knowledge in these backwards civilizations. Silver needles only detected sulfides. The only way the silver needles would react is if the container that stored the poison wasn’t air-tight, allowing some sulfides to appear in the arsenic.

Many poisons don’t even contain any sulfides! A silver needle won’t cut it!

“Something’s not right. There is definitely something wrong with this food,” Qiu Honglei said decisively.

The rest of them turned to look at Solitary Wood. Zu An was curious. Why were they looking at him?

The green-haired man—Solitary Wood—placed his little finger into the soup and licked it. He closed his eyes, as if in deep thought. A moment later, he said with an icy voice, “‘Monarch’s Loyalty’! I might not have been able to detect it without Lady Saint’s warning!”

Zu An was stunned. So, wood element cultivators have an affinity with poisons! Thank goodness Snow didn’t try to poison me back then…

“What?!” The others’ expressions grew dark. Solitary Lightning was even more furious. In a flash, she seized the waiter who had served them.

The waiter drew a dagger from inside his sleeves when he realized that he had been exposed. Unfortunately, he was no match for a powerful Solitary Eight member from the Devil Sect. Solitary Lightning grabbed his throat. “Speak! Who prompted you to do this?!”

Unfortunately, she used too much strength, and he was choked to death instead.

“Trash!” Solitary Lightning tossed his corpse aside, and went after the other waiters in the inn.

They began to flee when they realized that something wasn’t right. Unfortunately, there was no way they could outrun the Solitary Eight.

The fight in the inn was over almost before it had begun. Most of the waiters were killed on the spot, but the few that were captured ended their own lives by breaking the poison pills stored within their teeth.

“They’re all deathsworn soldiers!” The Solitary Eight were stunned. Whoever commanded such deathsworn soldiers was no ordinary power. “Who dares to target us?”

Qiu Honglei coldly issued an order. “Search the other areas of the in.”

Solitary Wind, Fire, and Metal headed out to search the tavern. They returned in a moment, shaking their heads. They had found nothing.

Qiu Honglei scanned her surroundings. The other guests of the inn had fled, leaving behind a huge mess. She frowned. “Forget it, there’s no sense in chasing after them. Go out and buy some food. We will prepare our own food and rest here for the night. We set out tomorrow morning.”

“What? We’re still staying here for the night?” Solitary Wind’s voice was overflowing with worry. “What if our enemies attack again?”

Qiu Honglei shook her head. “I don’t believe they have the ability to make another move. It’s already dark outside, and if we set out again, we’ll have to sleep outside. We can take advantage of this inn and get some rest.”

When the Solitary Eight dispersed, Zu An said with a frown, “Have you already figured out our attackers’ identities?”

Qiu Honglei smiled. “I should be asking you that question. It seems like they’ve gone through quite the effort to rescue you.”

“Rescue me?” Even though Zu An had his suspicions, he wasn’t certain.

“Of course it was to rescue you! Speaking of which, those two beauties seem to care about you a great deal. They haven’t given up yet. No… they shouldn’t have had the time to move so many men. It is most likely the Sang clan’s young miss who planned this,” Qiu Honglei mumbled to herself.

“How can you be so sure?” Zu An asked curiously.

“Because I saw Sang Qian just now.” Qiu Honglei smiled. If she hadn’t noticed him all of a sudden, they might have been poisoned already. ‘Monarch’s Loyalty’, huh? It seems they’re quite formidable, managing to get their hands on such a precious poison.

“Sang Qian?” Zu An frowned. Did that fellow do it on purpose? He probably revealed himself because he doesn’t want me to be saved.

His expression darkened considerably. He and Sang Qian were enemies to begin with, so he already knew that Sang Qian wanted to kill him. But if you’re going to do it, then do it openly! Why do you have to resort to despicable methods, and send so many people to their graves? This made Zu An extremely angry.

He came from a civilized world, after all. This was the first time he had seen so many people die for his sake, and he felt awful inside.

Even though these people had died at the hands of the Solitary Eight, he didn’t blame them. They had their own mission to carry out, after all. This was a world where the strong preyed on the weak—it was either kill, or be killed. Each person had to rely on their own skill and ability. That was just the way it was.

However, Sang Qian was the one to blame for these deaths. Serious killing intent surged within him.

He had made up his mind. He was going to take that man’s life the next time they met, no matter what. He would no longer show consideration for Sang Hong.

It took him a while to finally calm down. When he did so, he said in a low voice, “I want to ask you for a favor.”

“As long as it’s within my abilities, sure.” Even though Qiu Honglei had noticed the sudden change in him, she didn’t know what had triggered him to act in this way.

“I want to bury these men and let them rest in peace.” He looked at the corpses strewn about the place. His tone was extremely sad.

Qiu Honglei felt troubled. “I didn’t bring any servants along with me, and I don’t believe the Solitary Eight will be willing to do that.”

Zu An shook his head. “It’s all right. I’ll do it myself.”

“Why?” Qiu Honglei was rather surprised. She didn’t understand why Zu An would do this.

“Even though I don’t know them personally, they died trying to save me. This is all I can do for them,” Zu An said quietly.

Qiu Honglei fell silent.

She was the saint of the Devil Sect, and someone who had enjoyed a high status from as far back as she could remember. Even in the two years she’d spent in the Immortal Abode on an undercover mission, she’d had endless servants at her disposal, to order around as she saw fit. This was something that she’d never had to worry about.

She wasn’t the only one in the world like this. The noble elite of this world and other powerful cultivators did not grasp the concept of human equality. Many people weren’t even human in their eyes—just slaves, servants, or pawns.

That was why she hadn’t understood Zu An’s reaction at first. However, as she watched him dig one grave after another in the rear courtyard and then carefully bury those deathsworn soldiers, something changed within her, and she was extremely moved.

“I’m sorry,” Qiu Honglei apologized. In a way, these people had died because of her.

Zu An shook his head. “They wanted to poison all of you, so it was inevitable that you would kill them. That is why I don’t blame you for it. Instead, there’s only one person to blame.”

Qiu Honglei was an intelligent woman, and she immediately understood what he meant. “You’re talking about Sang Qian, aren’t you?”

Zu An didn’t reply, but went about burying the corpses, his face deathly serious. Then, he found a board and began carving. “A grave for loyal men, set up by Zu An.”

Qiu Honglei watched Zu An’s lonesome figure. It suddenly occurred to her that she didn’t actually understand this man at all.

...

Elsewhere, the Sang family members, Pei Mianman, and Zheng Dan were fleeing for their lives. They knew that there was no way they could defeat the Devil Sect now that they had been exposed.

When they were finally in the clear, Sang Qien gave Sang Qian an angry look. “Why?”

“What do you mean, why?” Sang Qian seemed to be trying too hard to look natural.

Sang Qien said, “If you hadn’t shown yourself to Qiu Honglei, they would never have realized that they were being poisoned. There would have been no need for those deathsworn soldiers to sacrifice themselves! Do you know how much our Sang clan invested to nurture them?”

Sang Hong’s expression was dark as well. The Sang clan wasn’t as established as many of the other clans, and they didn’t have as many deathsworn soldiers. These few were more or less all they had.

Sang Qian said disapprovingly, “I didn’t foresee that this would happen either! How am I supposed to know that woman Qiu Honglei would be sharp enough to notice me?”

Pei Mianman was furious. “Did you do it on purpose? You’ve wanted to kill Zu An from the very start!”

Zheng Dan’s eyes became as cold as ice, leaking out a hint of killing intent.

Sang Hong’s voice also grew heavy. “Qian’er, you’ve really disappointed me.”

I don’t care if you want to kill Zu An, but did you have to do it now? You’ve even cost our clan so many deathsworn soldiers!

Being vicious and merciless is all well and good, but stupidity cannot be tolerated.

Sang Qian erupted in fury. “Fine, fine, fine! It’s all my fault! Since all of you think that Zu An is so great, then go make him your big brother, and make him your son! I’ve had enough!”

He turned around and ran off. Sang Hong subconsciously took a step after him, but he let go of the idea. Instead, he stopped Pei Mianman and Zheng Dan from pursuing him as well.

Sang Qian’s figure quickly vanished from sight.

He ran at full speed, getting angrier the more he ran. He stopped at the edge of a cliff and yelled out curses at Zu An, venting all of his anger and frustration.

You have successfully trolled Sang Qian for 999… 999… 999…

Just then, he heard a bewitching female voice. “Handsome young man, I take it you know Zu An?”