Chapter 1041: Encircled

Zu An immediately focused his attention when he heard that. Looks like this trip was worth making after all.

Unfortunately, the voice was a bit hoarse and strange, as if that person were intentionally altering his voice.

“Would any of you here be able to feel at ease if Zuo Su weren’t dead?” The black-robed individual sitting farthest out spoke up just then in a slightly mocking tone.

Zu An frowned. He really couldn’t understand why these individuals would cover themselves up hat way, even modifying their voice. Don’t tell me these people can’t even distinguish between each other here?

But upon closer inspection, he still saw some differences. Even though they wore black robes, the patterns on their sleeves and collars were different.

The decorative designs on the one seated farthest away were white. The designs on the one to his left were orange, and the designs on the person to his left were red. The other two individuals’ decorative designs were blue and yellow.

What do these colors represent? Zu An wondered.

But what made his expression become even more grave were those people’s cultivations. Even though it was hard to determine their exact cultivations, there were at least two master rank cultivators, as well as two who were at the peak of the ninth rank. Even the weakest one was around the mid stage of the ninth rank. That was ignoring the fact that all of them had their own unique skills and abilities.

Had all of Cloudcenter Commandery’s most powerful experts gathered today or something?

Zu An thought sarcastically, I better not set up random flags here, or else I might just end up losing my life here.

The room entered an awkward silence. It was clear that they were merely showing hypocritical concern toward Zuo Su’s death. They didn’t really care.

A while later, the yellow-patterned man who had his back to Zu An spoke out to smooth things over. “Enough, enough. None of us wanted such a thing to happen. Right now, our highest priority should be to think about what we do now that Zuo Su has died. What do we do about the power vacuum in the Civil Affairs Manor?”

The red-patterned man spoke. “Hmph, Xu Yu has now taken control over the Civil Affairs Manor. The power vacuum has long been filled in already.”

Zu An thought to himself, Looks like Xu Yu wasn’t with these guys after all. There was at least someone he could trust in Cloudcenter Commandery, at least for now.

“It doesn’t matter. Xu Yu isn’t someone too skilled at social interaction. He doesn’t have many people directly under him either. He isn’t too big of a threat to us,” the blue-patterned man said. His voice sounded aged, clearly not belonging to a youngster.

The orange-patterned man also added, “Xu Yu came from a poor background. He doesn’t have any powers behind him, so there’s no cause for worry.”

Zu An was stunned. That person’s posture was straight and upright, making him seem familiar. However, he couldn’t think of who that person was at all.

The white-patterned man tapped on the table and said, “Find a chance to try and rope in Xu Yu. It’s best if we can make him one of us.”

The blue-patterned man released a forced chuckle and said, “That guy is smug and self-righteous. It’s not as if we’ve never tried to rope him in before, but unfortunately, it went right over his head.”

“That means the method was wrong. If he’s human, he has a weakness. A more direct method might suit him more. For example, wasn’t Zuo Su also stubborn at first? But in the end, he was convinced by us all the same.” The white-patterned man harrumphed.

“What you say makes sense. I’ll think about it more,” The yellow-patterned man replied in a low muffled voice.

“Compared to roping in Xu Yu, there’s another issue I’m more concerned about.” The white-patterned man slowly rotated his body, as if he were looking at everyone present. “Why was Zuo Su captured? Furthermore, the Imperial Envoy clearly didn’t capture him for no reason. They also sent out men to capture some related officials. Why does the Imperial Envoy know such detailed information?”

After some hesitation, the yellow-patterned man said, “The second in command of the imperial envoy, Zu An, visited Zhenyuan Bank and fetched a chest someone else stored there previously. Soon afterward, Sang Hong decided to start arresting people. I fear something might have been recorded in that chest.”

The others’ attention turned to him when they heard that. The red-patterned man said sinisterly, “So in the end, it was your people who leaked out this secret?”

Zu An was alarmed. He hadn’t expected them to actually talk about him! It seemed this yellow patterned black robed man was someone from the Zhenyuan Merchant Group. The question now was who. Judging from the current situation, even if he wasn’t the leader, he was definitely one of the highest-ranked members of the merchant group.

The yellow-patterned man waved his hand and said, “Of course not. If it really had been us who leaked it out, why would I dare to say that here? That chest was something someone stored in our bank a while ago. Our bank’s rules are that we never peek at our customers’ belongings. That’s why this ended up happening.”

“Who was the one who deposited that chest?” the orange-patterned man asked.

“I’ve already sent someone to look into it. It was a little beggar who came to store it with us…” The yellow-patterned man was cut off by several people before he even finished his sentence.

“A beggar came to store something precious in your bank and you didn’t even think of it as suspicious?” The others stared at him, clearly blaming him for what had happened.

The yellow-patterned man said with a forced smile, “The things that are stored in our bank all more or less have some dark history. It’s a common occurrence to have some beggars help people store certain things. After all, we only care about the key, not the person who deposits the items.

“We’ve looked into it these past two days, and we finally found out who that little beggar was. According to the descriptions, the one who deposited that chest with us should be Chen Zhou.”

“Chen Zhou!” The others released hushed cries of alarm. They clearly all knew the person.

Chen Zhou was just an ordinary guard, and yet so many big shots knew about him. That was something unprecedented.

“I didn’t expect him to have left behind this trump card!” The white-patterned man slammed the table. He suddenly added, surprised, “The Imperial Envoy was carrying out a bunch of arrests yesterday; the related individuals were all promptly dealt with. Which one of you did that?”

The others were about to reply when a light suddenly appeared in the center of the round table.

Zu An thought to himself, Not good!

It had originally been a cloudy night with low visibility, making it an excellent day to remain undercover. But just then, for some reason, the clouds had ended up scattering, revealing the moon behind them.

Moonlight scattered down. Zu An worried that his silhouette would be exposed by the window and instinctively crouched down. But everything had happened too suddenly, and he had forgotten that the hole he had secretly made in the window was still there. The moonlight was shining straight through that hole.

The reason why the people there were acting all mysterious was precisely to avoid having their identities exposed. That was why even though they were already having a meeting indoors, there had been no lights, and they had remained in the darkness. How could they not know what had happened when they saw the streak of light?

There’s someone here!

Zu An knew that he couldn’t continue hiding. He kicked off and tried to leave. However, a vicious streak of sword energy flew out, and the window and door instantly shattered into pieces. A flying sword had already begun homing in on his waist.

“Han Fengqiu!” Zu An had fought with that person before and immediately recognized the sword. He brandished his palm, striking the flying sword away. Then, he summoned Grandgale to instantly move a large distance.

He could deal with a single master rank cultivator, but encountering two master ranks and so many other powerful cultivators together, together with the Zhenyuan Merchant Group’s security that might arrive at any time, was a situation he had no choice but to flee from.

He debated using the imperial edict to bring forth the emperor’s power and obliterate the group. However, even though the emperor’s imperial edict was powerful, it also took a long time to prepare.

When he was being escorted to the capital by the Embroidered Envoy, the Embroidered Envoy Huang Huihong had died before he could even use his imperial edict.

The people in the room were all experts among experts. They definitely wouldn’t give Zu An the time to use the emperor’s power.

The trees in front of Zu An suddenly grew crazily, turning into thick brambles that rushed upward, blocking his path. He had no choice but to stop. There was a flaw in his instantaneous movement technique, which was that it couldn’t disregard spatial interruptions.

The plants and flowers on the ground began to wrap around him. The leaves that were usually smooth and sleek were now full of spiky thorns, stabbing at Zu An’s body. Under the moonlight’s illumination, he could see that the thorns were gleaming blue. They were clearly poisonous.

Unfortunately, Zu An’s body was tough, and he was immune to poison anyway. He smashed straight through the thorns and charged through.

Just then, a massive golden brick appeared right in front of him, above his head, slamming down with the weight of a mountain. Anyone hit by the brick would be instantly crushed into a bloody paste.

Zu An quickly evaded off to the side, but a pair of multicolored eyes suddenly appeared in front of him. His body instantly went rigid. It was probably the fiend race cultivator Kong Qing’s work!

Zu An immediately knew it was a spiritual attack. Pei You had most likely been controlled by the same skill before. Huh? Why is the power not as great as I imagined it to be? he thought. But he still didn’t dare to treat it carelessly. He summoned Hundredwarble to retaliate.

Meanwhile, the black-robed person’s eyes shone. He was about to use his power to destroy his target’s mind when he suddenly sensed that the other person’s body had also begun flickering with a multicolored glow.

“Huh? The lord’s aura?” the man exclaimed. His momentary hesitation made it so that before he could even deliver the killing blow, the other party’s Hundredwarble retaliation arrived. He couldn’t help but groan, cursing, “This brat has no sense of honor!”

The white-patterned man looked at him with a frown, clearly confused as to why he had failed. However, he didn’t dare to delay his own attacks. His hands immediately rose upward.

Zu An evaded off to the side after using Hundredwarble to retaliate. The giant golden brick instantly crashed down on his previous position. A massive rumbling noise echoed through the place. All of the Zhenyuan Merchant Group’s houses began to sway back and forth. The golden brick had smashed open a huge crater in the ground.

Zu An was about to leave, but he found that the air around him had suddenly become incredibly cold. A layer of frost instantly covered his entire body. In the blink of an eye, he was frozen in a block of ice.