Zu An suddenly spoke up. “I’ve agreed to this, but what if young master Shi goes back on his word after I take my turn?”

“Why would I go back on this agreement?” Shi Kun sneered. “With the crown prince here, and so many eunuchs and guards as witnesses, what is there to worry about?”

“Exactly! If he goes back on his promise, I’ll kill him.” The big fatty patted his chest as a promise.

Zu An sneered. If you were born an ordinary person, you might have actually been granted that authority. Unfortunately, you’re a fool, so you don’t wield any real power as crown prince.

Of course, if he wasn’t a fool, he would never have sanctioned this preposterous competition.

Zu An shook his head. “If it was anyone else, I wouldn’t be concerned. However, I’ve heard that young master Shi’s father is the Grand Court Minister of War, one of the venerable Eight Dukes. Even His Majesty needs to show him some respect. There’s nothing we can do to him even if he does shame himself today.”

Shi Kun frowned. “What are you proposing, then? In my opinion, you’re just making a ton of excuses because you’re scared.”

Zu An’s tone was nonchalant. “If you truly wish to compete with me, then let’s swear an oath, with the world as our witness.”

He was always curious as to why the contracts of this world could not be violated. As his cultivation deepened, he gradually understood the workings of natural law. Contracts made under oath often resonated with the natural world, and therefore, there was no way of getting out of them.

Shi Kun found himself in a terrible spot. He had planned to chicken out later, but once he made this oath, he would have no choice but to take his own turn. He knew of the crown prince’s shitty aim, and he really wasn’t looking forward to becoming a cripple as well.

A thought struck him, and he immediately raised his arm and made the oath. In moments, both of them sensed a wave of natural laws entering their bodies.

Shi Kun wasn’t worried, since he’d woven a loophole within his oath. He had only promised that he would also take his turn once Zu An had taken his. He would have to stand against the wall as well, but he could admit defeat before a single knife was thrown.

Either way, Zu An would already be unconscious, thanks to his soul being ripped apart, so he wouldn’t be forced to lick his shoes and pretend to be a dog anymore. He’d have much more leeway once that happened.

He was truly going for broke. For the sake of crippling Zu An, he did not hesitate to place himself in danger.

Seeing that he had sworn the oath, Zu An nodded in satisfaction. He leaned casually against the wall, and even leisurely checked the freshness of the apples. “I’m ready. Please begin, crown prince.”

Little Xu and Little He, who had arranged the apples for him, wore looks of sympathy. Several years ago, the crown prince had decided to learn how to throw knives on a whim. He had placed apples on the bodies of eunuchs as well, and would only stop when he managed to hit all of the apples.

At the crown prince’s level of skill, he would only hit one out of every dozen or so throws, mostly out of sheer luck. Each time, a dozen or so lesser eunuchs would suffer.

If they weren’t hit in a vital spot, they could still recover after a period of recuperation. However, the unlucky ones who were hit in a vital area would die on the spot. This crown prince’s secretary was probably done for. “Hurry up, get out of the way! I’m going to begin!” The crown prince waved the eunuchs away impatiently.

None of the eunuchs dared to stay where they were, and quickly slinked away. The guards also moved as far away as possible. They all stood several zhang away from where Zu An was standing.

Zu An felt his skin tingling. Is this crown prince’s aim so bad that all these people have to stand that far away?

Shi Kun wore a massive grin. He could already picture Zu An’s miserable ending.

Zu An’s gaze fell on the blade in the crown prince’s hands. The feeling of danger grew stronger and stronger, and he did not dare to take them head on, no matter how quick his regeneration was.

There’s definitely something wrong with these knives!

Even though he didn’t know what exactly was strange about these knives, Shi Kun had wanted him to go through with this really badly. This could only mean that he had definitely done something to them. Zu An was not about to face them straight up.

He stared intently at the crown prince. The crown prince’s expression suddenly went blank, then he threw the blade.

*Thud!*

The knife hit the apple on Zu An’s head with absolute precision and stabbed into the wall. It’s hilt was still shaking slightly.

A strange silence fell across the entire room, as all its occupants stared at this scene with the same stupefied expression.

“How?!” Shi Kun rubbed his eyes. He thought that his eyes were deceiving him.

The knife was still stabbed straight into the wall, and the reactions of the eunuchs and the guards proved that he wasn’t seeing things.

The crown prince was truly incredibly lucky! Damn it!

This sort of thing had happened before. After about a dozen knives, the crown prince would somehow manage to get one on target.

Shi Kun sighed in relief when he remembered this.

The crown prince threw a second blade, and Shi Kun was stunned by the way he had thrown it. He felt his heart thud. Why is his form so steady?

He whipped around. That knife had landed right between Zu An’s legs, splitting the apple between them cleanly in half.

“Outstanding! The crown prince is amazing!”

Little Xu and Little He had overcome their initial shock. How could they let go of such a perfect opportunity to suck up to the crown prince? They both cheered wildly.

The guards joined in as well. Throwing with such accuracy wasn’t difficult for them, but this was the crown prince! This was a feat worth praising!

Calm down, calm down. This must be a coincidence. Yup, a coincidence. Shi Kun consoled himself continuously, but sweat had already begun to trickle down his temples. None of his self-consolation seemed to be working. His conviction was already starting to waver.

The crown prince flung out two more knives, which struck the apples balanced on Zu An’s right and left arms perfectly. Zu An was untouched! Shi Kun felt as if a bucket of ice water had been emptied over his head. His entire body went limp, and he was unable to support his one weight. He fell into the chair behind him, and even that didn’t seem to be enough. He had to wiggle about several times to prevent himself from sliding all the way to the floor.

“How is this possible, how is this possible…” Shi Kun was panicking inside. It wasn’t just because he couldn’t successfully harm Zu An, though. He was worried about something else as well. Landing one throw could be a coincidence, but how could landing four in a row be coincidence as well?

Could it be that the crown prince was feigning simple-mindedness all along? Was he deliberately putting on such an appearance to fool everyone?

That makes sense. His Majesty is utterly incredible. How can someone like that give birth to an idiot? How could he insist on passing down the throne to him even if he knew that he was an idiot…?

This father and son duo are surely planning something huge!

They deliberately made the son seem foolish in order to bait out any disloyal subjects, so that they could capture them all in one go!

I’m done for! I haven’t been all that respectful to the crown prince all these years, and often played and acted as though he was a fool. The crown prince surely remembers all of this. I’m done for, I’m done for…

Zu An didn’t know that all of this was going on in Shi Kun’s mind. He was the only one who knew the truth.

This crown prince wasn’t hiding anything at all. His intelligence was truly at the level of a child.

This was exactly why he could use the jade badge to temporarily control the crown prince!

The badge was useful against creatures of lower intelligence. Zu An had considered this the first time he had met the crown prince. An ordinary person couldn’t be controlled by the jade badge, but the crown prince was extremely stupid. To a certain degree, he could be considered a lower intelligence lifeform. Zu An was intrigued to know if the jade badge could control him.

He wasn’t able to test this theory out before, but with this huge disaster looming over him, he had to give it a try. It was rather difficult at first, but once he used ‘Befriend a Rich Man’, the crown prince wasn’t as resistant to him. He discovered that he could just about control him, which made him overjoyed. Only then did he agree to take part in this gamble with Shi Kun.

Zu An had used the jade badge to take control of the crown prince just now. In a sense, the one who had thrown the knives wasn’t the crown prince, but him.

Given Zu An’s cultivation, hitting the apples from such close range was easy enough.

Of course, he could only control the crown prince for a short amount of time, but it was already more than enough.

Zu An secretly counted his blessings. He moved away from the wall, removing the knives that were stuck in it and handing them back to the crown prince. Only then did he look at Shi Kun, draped limply in the chair. “Young master Shi, I believe it’s your turn,” he said, a huge smile on his face.