Zu An replied, “As the crown prince’s great tutor, there is indeed a need for the crown prince and princess to be respectful towards you when you are teaching.”

The fatty to the side nodded his head stupidly in agreement. “Exactly, exactly!”

The crown princess’ brows furrowed. She was happy with this fella’s performance a moment ago, but this was all he had? Furthermore, the crown prince’s dumbness really was tiring.

Only King Qi alone remained quiet. With his status, he obviously knew that this person had more to say.

Sure enough, Zu An continued, “But King Qi is no longer a teacher before and after the lesson. There’s a reason why there is a difference between a ruler and his ministers. At those times, shouldn’t you be greeting the crown prince with respect when you see him?”

King Qi’s brows rose. This fella had quite the sharp mouth. However, this indeed left him in a tricky situation.

Zu An immediately looked at the crown prince. “Your highness crown prince, has your class with King Qi finished for today?”

The crown prince scratched his head and rplied in a feeble-minded manner. “I think so. Are you going to play with the frogs with me outside?”

When he saw the crown princess’ face darken, Zu An thought to himself, like hell I’ll catch frogs with you. The bit of competency I barely managed to accumulate was almost done in by you!

He cleared his throat and calmed himself down before saying, “Since the classes have already finished, then it should be King Qi’s turn to show the crown prince respect.”

When he saw that King Qi was expressionless, he added fuel to the fire. “King Qi seems unwilling to pay respects to the crown prince. Could it be that you have thoughts of taking his place?”

King Qi’s face finally showed a change in expression. Even though the struggle between the crown prince and himself over the throne could no longer be stopped, they still looked amiable on the surface. This wasn’t something that should be brought out into the open at all.

You have successfully trolled Zhao Jing for +666 Rage points!

He was finally truly angered. He gave Zu An a cold look. In that instant, Zu An felt as if he fell into a frozen lake, as if he might die a second later.

Is this the power of a grandmaster… Zu An had a bitter smile on his face. What the hell was he doing? He was clearly already a cheat-like existence among those his age, yet he ended up provoking the number two cultivator in this world.

He was scared badly by the emperor not too long ago. Yet now, he was being pressured by King Qi.

King Qi was surprised when he saw that Zu An remained unfazed, his expression calm. After all, under this type of distance, normal cultivators couldn’t withstand his pressure at all. Most of them would be kneeling on the ground right now. He wanted to teach this sharp mouthed brat a lesson this way and also shave off some of the influence his words just won him. However, he never expected that this would actually be useless!

With his pride as a grandmaster, if a junior survived his attacks once, then with his status, he shouldn’t make another move. However, King Qi was also a politician who valued practicality. That was why he decided to release his pressure again. This time, he wouldn’t hold back at all and would rather make sure this fella learned a harsh lesson.

But right at this time, the crown princess stood in front of Zu An. Even though her expression was a bit pale, she still raised her head and said, “It hasn’t been long since he arrived at the eastern palace, so he does not understand many of the rules. I ask that King Qi be magnanimous if he has offended you in any way.”

Zu An was surprised when he saw the frail figure in front of him. After all, the crown princess always hated his guts, yet now, she actually stood in front of him!

King Qi gave her a look and chuckled. “The crown princess speaks too seriously. Why would this king lower myself to his level?”

Then, he turned towards the fatty next to him. “Crown prince, do you want me to greet you respectfully?”

The crown prince quickly waved his big hands. “No need, no need.”

He was always a bit scared of this teacher of his. He didn’t dare make him bow towards himself.

The crown princess gave him an angry glare. She really hated this stupid and cowardly side of him.

But she also knew that King Qi’s status was different. Pressuring him wasn’t a sensible decision.

After experiencing this disturbance, King Qi didn’t feel like staying here any longer. With his status, continuing to target Zu An would lower his status too much. He quickly found a reason to bid the crown prince and princess farewell.

The crown princess wanted this huge headache to leave as soon as possible. She naturally didn’t keep him.

When King Qi was about to walk out of the door, he paused by Zu An’s side. He said indifferently, “Sir Zu, you’re quite something.”

“Thank you, King Qi, for your praise.” Zu An’s attitude was extremely respectful, with nothing that could be picked from his attitude. He didn’t want the other party to find any reason to act against him.

King Qi stopped breathing for a moment. Am I praising you right now?

He harrumphed, and then left with a brush of his sleeves.

Once he left, everyone in the eastern palace sighed in relief. It was way too suffocating just now.

Even though King Qi was the crown prince’s great tutor, he only came occasionally. It was usually the lesser tutor who taught the crown prince. That was why most of the people in the eastern palace were the crown prince and princess’ men.

Zu An greeted the crown princess under everyone’s looks of admiration. “I greet the crown princess.”

As for the crown prince, he already dragged the eunuchs with him to play around. He wasn’t in the mood to pay him any attention.

The crown princess looked at her idiot husband, and then at the man before her. She sighed. Forget about Sir Eleven, the crown prince can’t even compare to this fella!

She quickly sorted out her thoughts and showed Zu An a smile. “Thank you Sir Zu for what you did today.”

“As a subordinate of the eastern palace, I naturally need to help the crown princess with her troubles.” Zu An also directly left out the crown prince.

Everyone knew that the real head of the eastern palace was the crown princess. No one felt that this was unsuitable.

The crown princess’ expression eased up even more. She was clearly happy with the loyalty this man showed. “You should take note of your own safety in the future.”

She was warning him about King Qi’s revenge.

Zu An smiled and said, “With the crown prince and princess’ fortune and protection, I believe that I’ll be fine.”

The crown princess said with a look of disdain, “You only know how to say pretty words. What kind of fortune do I have?”

Zu An said with a deadly earnest expression, “The crown princess will become the mother of this empire. How can you not be blessed with fortune?”

The princess’ maid was stunned when she saw how shaken up the crown princess was. Weren’t this fella’s words a bit too flirtatious?

But what was even more shocking was that the crown princess didn’t seem annoyed at all. I only took a few days off. Is there something that happened in the time that I was gone?

Zu An took this chance to say, “Crown princess, I’m taking some time off to visit the imperial prison.”

“Imperial prison?” The crown princess frowned. “Why are you going there?”

Cheng Xiong’s case was already settled. The criminals there were already meaningless for her.

Zu An replied, “I am going to interrogate those assassins further to see if I can get some more information about him.”

The crown princess knew that he was talking about King Qi. She replied, “Fine. However, even if you find out something, do not act rashly and discuss it with me first.”

When Zu An left the palace, the princess’ maid Rong Mo couldn’t help but ask with a hushed voice, “Your highness, why are you treating that brat so well? Didn’t you find him really annoying before?”

The crown princess sat down leisurely and took the tea her maid brought over. Then, she said slowly, “I do not mind an annoying person, what I mind is an incompetent one. Even though this Zu An is quite annoying, he is a talented individual. I just happen to lack someone like that under me.”

The main forces in the struggle against King Qi were his majesty’s trusted aides, the Liu clan behind the empress, as well as her own father. However, she had too few trustworthy men under her.

In her opinion, King Qi wasn’t the only enemy. Once she defeated King Qi, she had to worry about the empress’ family.

Even though her first meeting with Zu An was quite disagreeable, he has done quite well later on. Having someone like him on her side would definitely be of great help.

Sigh, it’s all the crown prince’s fault for being so useless. I have to take care of everything.

…

Meanwhile, King Qi was slowly drinking tea in another gazebo within the palace. A golden armored imperial guard troop quickly arrived and greeted him. “We greet King Qi. We await your orders.”

Even the Left Guard General was under King Qi’s faction. Placing some of his men in the guards was too easy.

King Qi stared at the golden fish swimming about in the lake nearby. He smiled and said, “Invite Zu An here.”

How many years has it been since someone dared to provoke him like this?

The last time seemed to be a few years ago. There were some guards who acted arrogantly because they were the crown prince’s personal guards. In the end, didn’t they all turn into heads inside of wooden boxes?

Regardless of whether it was his status or the fact that he was a grandmaster, he definitely wasn’t someone a nobody can humiliate.

Furthermore, many of his subordinates were furious at Cheng Xiong’s case. They needed something to appease them. It was this kid’s fault for being so unsightly.