King Yan didn’t act against Zu An immediately. Instead, he turned to Yan Xuehen and said, “Fairy Yan, your honored sect’s Li Changsheng was not with the rest of your people when the chaos took place on Violet Mountain. I have not yet seen him. I wonder if the fairy has an explanation?”
Yan Xuehen said calmly, “My senior brother has always liked to act alone. I do not know where he is.”
“Is that so? Then where has the fairy G.o.ddess been all this time? Why did you come out of the secret dungeon?” King Yan asked with a smile. It wasn’t often that he got to talk to Yan ?Xuehen. Now that he had a proper reason to do so and she couldn't refuse, the ?feeling really was great.
Yan Xuehen frowned slightly and replied, “I merely came to check on Violet Mountain’s situation when I sensed something was off. Then, a powerful suction force suddenly appeared in the air and I was taken in. I naturally ended up in the secret dungeon too, that’s all.”
Zhao Yuan, who was standing off to the side, then said, “Golden Peak was sealed by the Righteous Sun Sect’s mountain protecting formation at the time. None of us officials were able to enter, so how were you able to?”
“How would I know? Either way, it must have just been a coincidence,” Yan Xuehen said calmly.
“Fairy Yan, if you continue to refuse to cooperate with us, do not blame us for adopting more forceful methods,” King Yan said seriously.
Yan Xuehen was too beautiful, and she had enjoyed great prestige for many years. He naturally had to treat her with a different att.i.tude than how he treated Guan Chouhai. However, since this matter was related to an ambush on the emperor, he didn’t dare to act too carelessly.
“Who among the daoist sects doesn’t know that the Righteous Sun Sect’s w.a.n.g Wuxie was one of her bootlickers? It wouldn’t be all too surprising for him to have told her some secrets,” a voice suddenly said, seemingly wanting to cause chaos.
Yan Xuehen shot that person a glare, and yet couldn't really do anything to her.
King Yan and Zhao Yuan followed the source of the sound. They saw that an ordinary-looking woman was the one who had spoken. They asked, “Who are you?”
However, that woman looked away, clearly not wanting to respond.
Yun Jianyue didn’t care about offending the other side. She had Ah Zu at her side, and King Yan was secretly colluding with the Devil Sect to begin with, anyway. She didn’t even have to change her outfit in front of him.
King Yan scowled. He was about to act when Zu An suddenly said, “King Yan, General Zhao, long time no see.”
King Yan and Zhao Yuan both narrowed their eyes. They sized him up with ambiguous smiles. The reason they had been ignoring him all this time was because they knew this brat was the trickiest of all to deal with. Who would have thought that he would take the initiative instead?
“So it was Sir Zu! Oh, right, should I now call you the Fiend races’ Regent?” King Yan replied with a sneer.
“While I’m on this side, of course the human race comes first,” Zu An said. He remained calm as if he didn’t notice the ridicule in King ?Yan’s voice at all.
“The human race comes first?” Zhao Yuan remarked with a cold snort. “I recall that your distinguished self suddenly escaped our monitoring and went missing on the day of the ceremony. Eventually, you seemed to have run all the way to Golden Peak. I am actually quite suspicious as to whether you joined in on the ambush; perhaps you were even one of the main conspirators.”
The women frowned slightly, thinking, This guy seems to have ?some hostility against Ah Zu… things will be more difficult now.
Zu An replied nonchalantly, “An ambush? Don’t tell me General Zhao believes that anyone in this world is capable of killing his majesty?”
Zhao Yuan choked before replying, “Of course not. His majesty’s might is unparalleled. Who could possibly be his match in this world?”
“Then what are you all so worried about, that you’re investigating this so severely?” Zu An asked with a shrug.
“There are always some people who are not scared of death and dare to oppose his majesty’s glory,” Zhao Yuan said with a sneer. “King Qi took the lead in colluding with the daoists and Buddhists to conduct an ambush against his majesty. From the looks of things, it seems that ?even the Fiend races joined in on the plot.”
Xie Daoyun’s heart was beating nervously. That ?was clearly alluding to her big brother Zu’s ident.i.ty as a Regent of the Fiend races. If he was involved too, things boded ill.
“Big brother Zu has nothing to do with the ambush! I can attest to that!” Xie Daoyun exclaimed, her little face turning red.
Her education had taught her to always behave as a wise and virtuous lady, so she rarely spoke lies. And yet after she met big brother Zu, she seemed to have started lying all the time, and it was always for his sake… When she thought about how big brother Zu always bet it all with his lies, she wondered whether she was being influenced too.
“The academy’s Miss Xie?” Zhao Yuan responded, stunned. “According to what we know, you were in charge of examining the safety of the formations around Violet Mountain, and yet such huge negligence occurred. Even your own name h as not been cleared, and yet you are still in the mood to testify for others?”
Xie Daoyun’s face paled when she heard that. She was more worried about bringing disaster upon everyone in her clan.
Zu An stood in front of her and said, “General Zhao, there’s no need to scare the young lady. How could a formation on that scale be something she could have foreseen beforehand?”
Zhao Yuan knew that he was speaking the truth, but there had to be someone to take responsibility for what happened.
“That is why I am inviting everyone back for an investigation. I hope you will not make things too hard on me,” Zhao Yuan said. He harrumphed, and the Guerilla Warfare Army all placed their hands on the handles of their weapons as if they were ready to attack at any time. The others in the area immediately became nervous.
Zu An didn’t even give those people a look; instead, he stared at King Yan and Zhao Yuan, saying, “It’s already been some time since you two have come up here, and yet all I’ve seen is that you two care a lot about finding some scapegoats to get yourselves out of trouble. I haven’t seen a single sign of concern for his majesty’s safety.”
King Yan was alarmed. He cupped his hands to the heavens and said, “We are naturally worried about his majesty’s safety, and we even pray for his wives and children to live in blessing day and night. However, we need to investigate right now…”
However, halfway through his sentence, he realized how calm Zu An had been all this time. He asked, “Don’t tell me you know where his majesty is?”
“Of course I do,” Zu An replied.
Now, King Yan, Zhao Yuan, and some others’ expressions changed. They asked, “Where exactly is his majesty?”
Zu An pointed behind him and said, “That secret dungeon we just came out from.”
“Where is he? Why hasn’t he appeared yet?” King Yan and Zhao Yuan hurriedly asked.
“Of course he die… ahem, he pa.s.sed away inside,” Zu An said, almost messing up his wording.
“What?!” the others exclaimed.
The expressions of those on Golden Peak turned pale when they heard that. In all these years, Zhao Han had been a deity-like being in their eyes. Even though there had been an ambush on Golden Peak and he was missing, no one had doubted that he would soon return. Now that they learned of Zhao Han’s death, many of them even felt as if the heavens were collapsing.
Zhao Han stared at Zu An and asked with a trembling voice, “Was it you who harmed his majesty?”
Chu Chuyan and the other women had strange expressions. They thought, This guy really guessed spot on.
“Are you mad? How would I possibly have that ability?” Zu An retorted impatiently.
Zhao Yuan laughed in embarra.s.sment. He felt that what he said was a bit ridiculous too. No one would believe him if he said it anywhere else.
Zu An continued, “Right, his majesty entrusted me with the task of a.s.sisting the government and taking charge of a.s.sisting the crown prince in becoming the new emperor.”
Chu Chuyan and the others’ eyes widened. This guy really doesn’t hold back with his lies! He was clearly the one… If the emperor’s spirit were in the heavens right now, and he was watching this, he might just come back to life out of anger!
King Yan and Zhao Yuan had strange expressions. Giving the throne to the crown prince was expected. But for Zu An to a.s.sist in ruling…
“Does Sir Zu have any proof of what he says?” King Yan asked gravely. However, his tone still became more polite.
“The situation was dire and there was no time to create a written pledge.” Zu An harrumphed. “Is the king implying that I am falsifying an imperial decree?”
Yun Jianyue rolled her eyes, thinking, Are you not?
Zu An thought to himself that he could take out the Human Emperor’s Seal, as that would be more convincing than anything else. However, that item was a treasure. If it was exposed, it would most likely have to be handed over. As such, it was better to keep it on him for now and see how the situation developed.
King Yan’s expression changed. Even though that was what he was thinking, he didn’t dare to admit it on the surface. He said, “Sir Zu has misunderstood. This matter is so unimaginable that it would be better to investigate the entire process first before we could dare to come to any conclusions.”
Zu An replied with a scowl, ?“What, are you going to lock me up and interrogate me too?”
“Um…” King Yan and Zhao Yuan exchanged a look. They could both see the misgivings in each other’s eyes.
No one could say for certain whether Zu An was telling the truth. Even though there was no way his majesty would let someone with a Fiend race background aid in the rule of the empire, what if he really had been the only one left at his majesty’s side back then? There would have been no one else Zhao Han could find to entrust anything to.
Furthermore, this brat had the ident.i.ty of Regent of the Fiend races, so they couldn't really kill him here. His majesty was now gone too, so wouldn’t the Fiend races have a perfect reason to start a war?
Just then, several tightly grouped footsteps resounded. A group of soldiers ran over, and the two generals at the front shouted, “So it was Sir Zu!”
They were none other than the Armed Escort Army’s Deputy Generals, Zhang Zijiang and w.a.n.g Bolin.
“Brother Zhang, Brother w.a.n.g!” Zu An replied with a smile.
He hadn’t expected these two to still dare to greet him in such a situation. After all, he was caught up in a huge whirlpool of public opinion right now. Whether it was his status as the Fiend races’ Regent or the suspicion that he had a role in the ambush, they weren’t burdens an ordinary person would dare to get caught up in.
Zhao Yuan asked with a serious expression, “What are you coming up here for? We are still handing out rewards and punishments right now!”
Zhang Zijiang said with a smile, “We heard that our Sir Zu came back and wanted to have a look. Do not worry, General Zhao; we will quickly return to our patrol.” Even though that was what he said, he and his subordinates didn’t budge an inch.
The two of them had encountered a lot of bad luck too. Now that something had happened to his majesty, the Armed Escort Division who was in charge of his safety immediately fell into an unfortunate situation. If not because their strength was still needed to subdue the daoist sects, their group would likely have already been locked up.
Even if they had earned some achievements, they would be investigated and handled like criminals. All of their hard work throughout their lives had put them in their positions, so who would be willing to give up just like that? In that case, they had to seize the moment and find some chance to turn the situation around.
They had all despaired at first, but when they heard that Zu An had come back, they immediately sought out their pillar. After all, their Armed Escort Army troops were gra.s.shoppers on the same line as Zu An.
When he saw that these Armed Escort Guards seemed to be standing against the Guerilla Warfare Army to an extent, Zhao Yuan’s expression darkened. If they really fought, the situation could be hard to clean up.
Even though this brat Zu An looked as if he didn’t have much cultivation, who knew what kinds of abilities he was hiding? Furthermore, Yan Xuehen was clearly standing on his side. A grandmaster’s strength couldn’t be underestimated. On top of that, there were still Chu Chuyan, Lou Wucheng, and the other daoist experts. Xie Daoyun also represented the academy’s strength. There were also those two ordinary-looking women who had clearly changed their appearance. The auras coming from their bodies weren’t weak.
If they really fought…
Suddenly, another group arrived on Golden Peak. Zhao Yuan and King Yan were startled. Regardless of who it was, it would be enough to tip the scales.