Chapter 982: Face of a Thousand Identities

“Who?!” Thick-Browed Daoist suddenly turned around and looked toward the source of the sound.

A single individual walked over; he seemed quite young. Thick-Browed Daoist sighed in relief. He thought he had been discovered by some powerful cultivator. How high could the cultivation of someone so young be anyway?

Zu An stared at the number 333. He said indifferently, “Truly a botched attempt at framing someone.”

Thick-Browed Daoist’s eyes flickered. He asked, “You’re that 333?” No wonder he had felt a strange sense of familiarity when he heard the person’s voice and saw his build. So it was guest 333.

“Indeed.” At this point, there was no need for Zu An to hide anything. “You went out and committed this crime using my name. Shouldn’t I at least enjoy a share of the benefits?”

“Using your name?” Thick-Browed Daoist roared with laughter. “How much is your name worth? Who would even hesitate to use it falsely? You’re nothing more than a tool for me to deflect blame onto.” His palm struck at the other party’s vitals right after he said that. Since this youngster had seen him in the act, he had to be silenced.

Thick-Browed Daoist had seen how this guest 333 had been bidding in the Hub of Freedom. The highest bid the youngster had placed was close to three million, but he had failed to buy the final item. That meant he had around three million silvers on him, so he was definitely from a wealthy clan.

I didn’t expect the heavens to be so kind to me today, to deliver me such a fat sheep for slaughter! These two batches of resources today should be enough for me to break through into the master rank.

However, his vision blurred. When it cleared, the other party was already somewhere else.

“Sir, you really are heartless. How can you try to kill someone just over a slight disagreement?” Zu An‘s brow furrowed deeply. If it were anyone else, they would already have been finished.

Thick-Browed Daoist was a bit surprised. He hadn’t expected the other party to actually avoid his attack. “No wonder you had the courage to challenge the Sun clan; so you had this strange movement technique to rely on. A pity, however, that a movement technique without the appropriate cultivation is worthless.”

His speed suddenly increased, his body instantly appearing in front of Zu An. Black mist poured out of Thick-Browed Daoist’s palms and surrounded Zu An. He was confident that the air had already become as viscous as water. This time, the youngster wouldn’t be able to get away no matter how brilliant his movement technique was.

But to his surprise, Zu An didn’t show the slightest bit of alarm. He stood in place without dodging at all, remarking as his palm rose to greet the other party, “Why are you so confident that I’ll run away for certain?”

Thick-Browed Daoist frowned. His many years of experience in the world of cultivators told him that something wasn’t right. However, no matter how he thought about it, there was no way the other party could be his match. Besides, this kid dares to trade blows with me?

Not even another cultivator of the same rank would dare to trade palms with me, because a portion of their cultivation might easily be sucked away. This kid is just courting death! A sinister smile flashed across his face. He slammed his palm forward, deciding that he was going to suck the other person completely dry!

The two palms collided. The black mist coming out of Thick-Browed Daoist’s hand completely surrounded the other party as he exclaimed, “Absorb everything!”

“…Huh?” Thick-Browed Daoist’s smile quickly froze on his face. He discovered that he couldn’t suck away even the slightest bit of the other party’s cultivation. He didn’t know what was going on, but he finally realized that something wasn’t right. He quickly jumped backward to try and increase the distance.

Unfortunately, it was already too late. His hand seemed to have been glued in place. He couldn’t move it in the slightest. The young man across from him had a simple and innocent smile on his face as he asked, “Is the absorption you were talking about something like this?”

A black hole appeared in his palm as soon as he said that. Thick-Browed Daoist immediately felt all of his cultivation leave his body like a bursting dam. Even his own absorption of other people’s cultivation wasn’t this fast!

He was horrified, struggling frantically, yet he couldn’t move at all. At first, he was swearing, but eventually, all that remained was begging and pleading. His voice became softer and softer.

All the way until his death, he couldn’t understand why the other party’s cultivation could be so much higher than his despite being so young. Furthermore, the other party’s skill was also clearly more profound than his own… No, it was worlds apart! That was why he didn’t even bother fighting back.

Zu An flung Thick-Browed Daoist’s corpse away. He frowned. He could sense the cultivation swirling within him. He had previously been at the eighth step of the ninth rank, and after absorbing all of Thick-Browed Daoist’s cultivation, he was clearly already at the peak of the ninth rank. He was just a hair away from the master rank.

However, he felt a ruthless bloodiness filling him. He knew that was a result created from Thick-Browed Daoist’s ruthless slaughter of other cultivators. No wonder big sis empress told me not to use the Heaven Devouring Art to increase my cultivation. This kind of cultivation absorption is impure and needs a lot of time and energy to properly digest.

The key was that this person’s cultivation had the resentment, killing intent, and other negative attributes of his victims mixed in. It would only do more harm than good for tempering Zu An’s soul.

But he couldn’t be bothered with all of that right now. The little creatures he had set around him as guards had already detected a group of people approaching quickly. As such, he grabbed Thick-Browed Daoist’s corpse and left.

…

Soon after Zu An left, a group of men arrived at the scene of the crime. The most eye-catching feature of the middle-aged man at the very front were his triangular eyes, identical to Sun Ji’s. It was obvious that they were related.

His eyes flickered a bit. They appeared to always be scheming something. He had seen the scene even from far away. Alarmed, he had immediately leapt over.

“Ji’er!” His howl of grief and anger tore through the entire forest.

His subordinates rushed over one after another. They were all horrified when they saw the scene. How many years had it been since someone dared to challenge their master? Furthermore, they had killed Minister Sun’s son! This was a grudge that wouldn’t end until one side was completely wiped out!

Those investigating the scene reported, “Minister, Sir Yang left behind some clues before he died.”

The middle-aged man with the triangular eyes was naturally Xiang Minister Sun Xun. He walked over to Yang Long’s side and looked at the number 333 written on the ground. He glowered as he exclaimed, “What is the meaning of this?”

“It might be a guest number from the Hub of Freedom. The young master had just left the Hub of Freedom.” There were sharp individuals among the subordinates, and one of them quickly provided his analysis.

Sun Xun’s expression was icy. “Go! We’re heading to the Hub of Freedom!”

Even though the location of the Hub of Freedom was mysterious, that was only for ordinary guests. He was someone with real authority in Yi Commandery, so how could he not know where the Hub of Freedom was?

It was just that his relationship with the Hub of Freedom’s management was quite good, and they had given the higher ups quite a sum. That was why the higher ups just turned a blind eye to everything. But now that his son had been killed, how could he possibly hold back his anger?

…

Meanwhile, Zu An returned to his room. Daji was still on guard under her covers, but that ended when she saw him. When he saw that, Zu An couldn’t help but remark with a sigh of admiration, “Do you really not have a soul?”

Unfortunately, the other party was still like a machine, staring calmly at him without responding in the slightest.

Zu An was completely helpless. He could only take out the pouch he had gotten from Thick-Browed Daoist. As for the corpse itself, he had already dealt with it on the way back. This was an age of cultivators, so any random use of the ice or fire element was enough to destroy any bit of evidence.

Zu An sighed in relief when he saw the jade pendant. He now had some hope for big sis empress’ Milk of Purple Frost.

He held the jade pendant in the center of his palm. Its patterns were quite strange, as if it were some kind of abstract map. But if it was a map, with the Hub of Freedom’s resources, why hadn’t they uncovered anything? He couldn’t figure it out no matter how he thought about it. He put the jade pendant away and looked over the other things.

“Oh, the Immortal Beheading Knife!” he exclaimed. It was an unexpected surprise. Sun Ji had purchased the Immortal Beheading Knife previously, and Thick-Browed Daoist had seized it, but it had ultimately ended up in Zu An’s hands. He now had five of them in total. He wondered what kind of miraculous effects there would be if he pieced together nine of them.

He then continued to look through the pouch, but he didn’t find what he was looking for. He couldn’t help but curse. “These two don’t even have a single tael of silver added together? Just how freaking poor are you guys?!”

Back in the capital, he hadn’t felt any financial pressure, as most essential expenses, as well as even cultivation resources, had been covered by the court. The money he had saved up from Brightmoon City even made him feel rich.

But only after that auction experience did he realize how poor he was. The road of cultivation was a bottomless pit…

Soon afterward, however, he realized that Sun Ji had spent everything to buy the Immortal Beheading Knife and the pendant containing the clue about the Milk of Purple Frost. It only made sense that he had nothing left.

An independent cultivator like Thick-Browed Daoist was used to killing for money. Even if he had any money, he would have already converted it into resources to be used. He had probably already used up all of the cash he had during the trip to the Hub of Freedom, and gone over just to scout out fat sheep for slaughter.

“Why am I so unlucky…” Zu An muttered. He only found some pills, weapons and other stuff that was pretty valuable in the world of warriors. But for someone like him who was from the empire’s Imperial Palace, he really didn’t care much about such trifling toys.

“Hm? What is this?” He suddenly discovered a yellowed booklet. It gave off an ancient feeling.

“Face of a Thousand Identities?” When he saw the words on the booklet, Zu An immediately knew that it was an extraordinary item. If the paper material was that old, it should have turned to dust at his touch; and yet, when he touched it, it didn’t feel like paper. Instead, it felt like a special material that was unaffected by water or fire.