Chapter 1961: Assault
Zu An spent a while heading northwest until he suddenly sensed something. He looked at the ground and saw two figures dressed in the outfit of the academy’s students. Thus, he landed in front of them and asked, “Who are you?”
The two figures had ordinary appearances that wouldn’t stand out on a bustling street. Their clothes were tattered, and there were traces of blood on them. It looked as if they had just been through a battle. Their faces were pale, and their breathing was erratic. That suggested they had sustained considerable injuries.
“We're students from the academy. Who are you?” the two asked, staring at him vigilantly while clutching their weapons tightly.
Zu An’s eyebrows shot up. He replied, “I'm the libationer. I'm here to investigate the bizarre happenings on Copper Gong Mountain.”
“You’re sir libationer?” the two of them asked, heaving a sigh of relief. They quickly greeted him with a bow before exclaiming, "Sir libationer, please save us!”
“How did you get injured?” Zu An asked. The situation here was so bizarre that every piece of information was vital.
The two of them exchanged gazes and replied, “We encountered a purple monster. The monster was formidable, and we weren’t a match for it. We only got away thanks to our defensive artifacts.”
“What did the monster look like?” Zu An asked.
“It’s purple from head to toe, resembling a ghost from the picture books.”
“It’s cloaked in a purple flame. We couldn’t hurt it no matter how we attacked it.”
…
The two of them took turns describing the monster they had encountered.
Zu An concluded they had bumped into a Purple Flame Ghost too. It looks like there’s more than one Purple Flame Ghost on this mountain. It must have been difficult for them to escape from the monster. As expected of students from the academy, though.
He initially wanted them to seek refuge with Ji Xiaoxi and the others, but he had already flown a considerable distance away, so it could be hard for them to find Ji Xiaoxi and the others in this fog. His conscience would be pricked if they bumped into another Purple Flame Ghost along the way and lost their lives. Thus, he said, “I’m going to investigate the situation. Come with me. I’ll escort you out of the mountain once I’m done."
The two students exchanged gazes before bowing to Zu An and exclaiming, “Thank you, sir libationer!”
Zu An nodded, thinking, I should inform the academy to stop sending students here. He asked, “What are your names?”
“I'm Wang Zhao.”
“I'm He Lu.”
The two replied with a bow.
“What?” Zu An exclaimed, feeling goosebumps. Those were the names of the students’ comrades! Weren’t they supposed to be dead?
“What’s wrong, sir libationer?” the two students asked, sounding perplexed by Zu An’s reaction.
“It’s nothing,” Zu An replied.
Is it possible that the situation was so precarious that Yao Fang and the others didn’t have time to check on them, and the two had some artifact that allowed them to fake their death? They might have waited for the Purple Flame Ghost to leave before sneaking away.
Otherwise, it would mean Yao Fang and the others were lying.
Zu An was filled with doubt, but he didn’t express that aloud. He made his way northwest with the two students. Neither of them was strong enough to fly, so he brought them along by grabbing their shoulders.
Soon, he heard noises ahead. Taking a closer look, he spotted human silhouettes wandering the area just ahead, as if searching for something. Zu An headed straight toward them.
“Who is it?” the people ahead called out, noticing them and drawing their weapons.
He Lu and Wang Zhao heaved a sigh of relief and exclaimed, “It isn’t the monsters!”
Zu An assessed the group before him. Most of them were dressed in constable uniforms, and they stood in a formation around an old woodcutter. Their bodies were trembling, and their faces looked exceptionally pale. Zu An recalled his conversation with the Embroidered Envoys in the nearby town. They must be Woodcutter Zhang and the constables investigating the case.
“Who are you?” the head constable asked, warily eyeing Zu An and the two students.
“We're students from the academy. This is our libationer. He’s formidable!” Wang Zhao said.
“Paying respects to sir libationer!” the head constable greeted Zu An along with his subordinates.
Zu An eyed their tattered uniforms and asked, “Were you in a battle earlier?”
The head constable nodded, replying, “We were. Powerful monsters have appeared here recently, and my brothers and I thought we were dead meat. Thank god you’re here, sir libationer. It looks like we’re saved.”
Zu An was perplexed. He said, “I bumped into one of the monsters too, and it was powerful. You got away with just mild injuries?”
While the academy’s students were respectful to him, they were top prodigies coming from all over the country. They wouldn’t pale much in comparison to the past Chu Chuyan and Pei Mianman.
Six students from the academy encountered the monster together, and they suffered huge losses in the fight. These constables are much weaker than them, but they got away with mild injuries?
The head constable was stunned. He replied, “It could be because the monster was injured. It also helped that Woodcutter Zhang is familiar with the area, so we were lucky to survive the ordeal.”
“What were you looking for?” Zu An asked as he scanned the surroundings, but he couldn’t find anything noteworthy.
“We noticed there was a severely injured monster that was isolated from the rest. We intended to bring it back in hopes of being rewarded for it, but we couldn’t find it despite spending half a day searching for it. We figured the monster had escaped, so we decided to head back first," the head constable replied.
Zu An nodded, saying, “It’s dangerous here. You shouldn’t linger around.” How was the monster injured? Did it bump into Ji Dengtu? That old rascal sure is a sneaky one. I didn’t expect him to be able to severely injure that monster.
“What else did you find on the mountain?” he asked. He noticed that the fog was getting thicker, and it carried a tinge of purple. It felt awfully oppressive. We should be in the depths of Copper Gong Mountain now. I wonder how far away from Shadowmoon Lake we are.
“We didn’t find anything else. Just one monster was enough to nearly wipe us out,” one of the constables replied fearfully.
Zu An nodded and asked, “Where did that monster escape to?”
“That side,” the constable said as he pointed in a direction. “Sir libationer, are you going to capture that monster?”
Zu An nodded. Since I’m already here, I should get to the bottom of the matter, or else my heart won’t be able to rest at ease. This is simply too bizarre.
“We’ll show you the way,” the head constable said. “We've been here for several days now, so we’re familiar with the area. It’ll also be safer for us to stick with you.”
“All right,” Zu An replied. They probably won’t be able to leave the mountain alive like that. It’ll be safer to keep them with me. We can head down the mountain with Xiaoxi and the others afterward.
Zu An took the lead, and Wang Zhao and He Lu stood beside him. The constables spread themselves thin, with Woodcutter Zhang at the center. The fog got increasingly thicker, to the point it became impossible to see more than a few meters away. Even Zu An could only extend his divine sense to around a hundred meters away. He couldn’t help but lament about how his unique cultivation method lacked the capabilities of true earth immortals like Zhao Han and the others.
If he were here, Zhao Han would have been able to extend his senses farther away.
That being said, he had received many unique abilities from his keyboard too. Even if he wanted to nitpick, he had to admit that he had received the better deal.
All of a sudden, he heard a rustling noise. He immediately flashed a hundred meters ahead. There was no monster there, however, only a single page hanging on a tree branch. It appeared to have been torn from a book, and there was blood on it. Zu An picked up the page to take a look. It detailed a steamy scene from an erotic story.
“Sir libationer, did you find anything?” the others rushed over and anxiously asked.
“It’s nothing. It was just the wind rustling,” Zu An said as he quietly stowed the page into his clothes with his back turned to the others.
“Sir libationer, why don’t we leave this mountain first? We're getting creeped out,” He Lu and Wang Zhao said, gulping down their saliva.
“All right.” Zu An nodded.
Just then, a scream of agony echoed from behind.
“Woodcutter Zhang!” the head constable exclaimed in horror. They had been too anxious to catch up with Zu An, so they'd left Woodcutter Zhang behind.
Zu An went back to where they were, faster than the others. There, he found Woodcutter Zhang lying in a puddle of blood. He scanned the surroundings, but there was no one else in the vicinity. The culprit had already gotten away. He then walked up to Woodcutter Zhang and flipped his body over, hoping to check on his injuries and see whether it was possible to save him.
A sinister smile suddenly appeared on the face of Woodcutter Zhang. He opened his mouth, and a shadow shot toward Zu An’s face. It was even faster than the blades of the Shadow Group’s assassins. However, a golden flash of light sliced the shadow in two. Only then did Zu An see that it was something similar to a face-hugging insect. Its tentacles squirmed continuously on the ground.
“What are you doing, Woodcutter Zhang?!” the head constable roared in anger as he rushed over and swung his blade down on Woodcutter Zhang.
However, the blade suddenly changed its trajectory toward Zu An’s neck, and rapidly accelerated until it was many times faster.
Bam!
The head constable was sent flying like a sandbag. He crashed onto the ground so heavily that his bones fractured. The other constables quickly drew their blades and charged at Zu An too.
However, Zu An rolled up his sleeves and unleashed his ki. The blades of the constables immediately twisted like fried dough sticks, but the attack didn’t just stop there. The arms they held their blades with began twisting as if they were toys, and the sheer momentum sent their bodies spinning many times in midair before they collapsed on the ground. That single attack had incapacitated all of the constables.
“There’s something wrong with those constables!” He Lu and Wang Zhao exclaimed as they rushed over to Zu An’s side with looks of horror.
Zu An glanced at the ‘face-hugging insect’ on the ground, muttering, “I wonder what this is…”
Just then, Wang Zhao and He Lu each drew out a dagger and plunged them into Zu An’s back. A vicious glint flashed through their eyes.
Zu An sighed, remarking, “You finally couldn’t hold it in anymore?”
The two of them were taken aback. Why is he fine despite having been stabbed?
They quickly pulled out their blades, only for their eyes to nearly pop out of their sockets. To their horror, they realized their blades had shattered into fragments. Only the handles remained intact.
“How is his body so tough?”
The two of them were suddenly sent flying by an immense force that completely shook their bodies up, rendering them incapable of mustering any strength.
“W-When did you notice it?” the two of them asked as they stared at Zu An in disbelief.
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