Chapter 52 Playing Dumb
An Ziyang called out, "Father." Seeing that the middle-aged man still did not react, he turned his head to look at Li Miao instead.
"Your Excellency, if you have a grievance with my father, my An clan is willing to offer our entire fortune to erase this enmity."
"However, if Your Excellency insists on drawing swords against us, I, An Ziyang, am not made of clay!"
An Ziyang spoke in a resounding voice, shielding the middle-aged man behind him.
Then, his hand quietly gripped the hilt of the sword at his waist. He kept his eyes on Li Miao, putting on a guarded posture against him, but his feet shifted slightly, bringing the middle-aged man within his own striking range.
He was very clever, and he was exceptionally good at playing the fool.
The Quanzhou An clan possessed a moderate reputation within the pugilistic world of the entire Huguang region. They were considered a relatively prominent newly rising wealthy household and martial arts family in recent years. There were only two people in the household: the head of the family, An Wenjie, and the young master, An Ziyang. This vast family estate had been built entirely by the bare hands of this father and son duo.
Compared to his father's sterling reputation, An Ziyang's reputation was far from pleasant.
His pugilistic moniker was the "Void-Striding Young Master," but behind his back, the people of the martial arts world called him the "Kidney-Deficient Young Master." This was because he was far too fond of "that sort of business." Out of three hundred and sixty days a year, a full two hundred and fifty were spent soaking in brothels. He was either visiting pleasure houses or on his way to visit them, earning a notorious reputation as a dissolute young lord. People in the martial arts world often said the An clan would sooner or later be ruined at his hands.
What the martial arts world did not know, however, was that half of his so-called wandering among the flowers was because he genuinely enjoyed it, while the other half was purely to throw people off the scent and conceal his true motives.
Of the two An father and son, An Wenjie was the face, while An Ziyang was the hidden hand that did the dirty work.
In fact, a moment's thought would reveal the truth: the An clan had only risen to prominence in recent years, and the father and son had started from scratch. An Ziyang had been traveling the rivers and lakes alongside his father since he was twelve years old, making his way to the present day. How could he possibly be a simple person?
After the events of last night, he had already witnessed just what the disguise techniques of the Manichaen Cult were capable of achieving.
In an instant, numerous speculations had already welled up in his heart.
"That Manichaen Cult impostor posing as the top courtesan happened to cross my path—was that really just a coincidence?"
"Or... to throw people off the scent, was I deliberately delayed outside, while they sneaked into my home and replaced the people in my household one by one?"
"Is my father... truly still my father?"
With his thoughts racing like lightning, An Ziyang's heart slowly sank to the bottom of the abyss.
Neither the Manichaen Cult nor the leisurely-mannered, heroically-featured man standing before him was someone he could handle.
How could he carve out his and his father's lives from between these two fierce tigers?
"Father, I will stall him first. Your martial arts are inferior to mine, leave first."
"Remember to take 'that thing' with you."
An Ziyang spoke without looking back.
The middle-aged man remained silent for a moment before saying, "Very well, be careful, do not push yourself."
With that, he began to slowly retreat backward.
Clang!!——
In a flash, An Ziyang drew his sword from its scabbard and directly slashed toward the middle-aged man's neck!
To hell with "that thing"! My An family has never had any such "thing"!
No matter how thoroughly your Manichaen Cult has investigated the foundations of the An clan, you dare not claim to understand everything completely! As long as I speak vaguely about something that seems unseeable in the light, you will agree and say yes first simply because you cannot be certain it does not exist!
You are a fake!!!
This sword strike came out of nowhere, and in the blink of an eye, it was right in front of the middle-aged man.
The middle-aged man abruptly raised his hand, unleashing a "Great Nine Heavens Palm" through the air, intending to shatter An Ziyang and his sword to pieces together!
Whoosh!——
Clang!
The long sword flew out of his hand, embedding itself deep into the ground and vibrating incessantly.
Meanwhile, An Ziyang had already retreated behind Li Miao, his face pale and gasping for breath.
"You, you motherfucking Manichaen Cult bastard... This young master almost died."
"Weren't you acting all mighty and arrogant?! Go try your moves against this gentleman over here again!"
Hiding behind Li Miao, An Ziyang panted as he shouted, then cast a flattering, ingratiating look at Li Miao.
"Sir, I am no match for him! Please carve him up for me!"
Li Miao looked at him with a half-smile.
...
"This kid is quite an interesting character!"
Taking advantage of that feigned sword strike, the moment the blade blocked the middle-aged man's line of sight, An Ziyang had abruptly let go, pulled back, and hid behind Li Miao.
Knowing that his father had been replaced and his life or death was uncertain, instead of acting rashly, he had suppressed his anger and terror in the span of a single breath, carving out the only path of survival for himself.
This sharpness of mind, combined with his shamelessness and composure in the face of mortal danger—he was truly promising material.
Li Miao happened to be lacking someone exactly like this among his subordinates.
Someone capable of blending Mei Qinghe, Wang Hai, and Xiao Si—three individuals who were either reckless, ruthless, or scheming—smoothing things over and cleaning up their messes.
At this thought, Li Miao pointed behind him with a finger: "Stand further back."
"Yes, yes, right away."
An Ziyang bowed and scraped, dodging far away in a single flash.
Li Miao turned his head to look at the middle-aged man, sizing him up from top to bottom, but his brows furrowed.
"Ji Tianrui ran away?"
"Your Excellency—"
"Enough, enough, stop pretending. I've already tracked you to your doorstep, do you really think you can muddle your way through?"
Li Miao waved his hand dismissively.
"Your Manichaen Cult truly has no shortage of tricks. First you stirred up a mess with witchcraft and gu poison, and now a disguise technique pops up. Your technique is even more ingenious than that top courtesan's; even I couldn't tell whether you're a man or a woman."
"However, it doesn't make much difference."
A grim, sinister smile appeared on Li Miao's face. "Once I chop you into mincemeat piece by piece, a mere three inches of flesh won't matter anymore."
Before his voice had even faded, Li Miao raised his hand into a claw and grasped outward into empty air.
"I'd like to see just how many Celestial-realm experts your Manichaen Cult has for me to slaughter."
The middle-aged man had already been keeping his guard up against Li Miao entirely. Seeing him make a move, he immediately sidestepped to evade.
To his utter astonishment, the moment his body shifted a mere few inches, a sharp, stabbing pain surged violently from his waist and abdomen!
"A seizing art! True qi leaving the body and materializing! How can it be this fast!?"
He was also someone who had carved his way through life-and-death struggles. Decisive in crisis, he fused his palms into a blade and directly hacked away a large chunk of flesh from his waist and abdomen.
Splash——
Blood spilled everywhere, yet he showed no reaction whatsoever, striking out with a right palm executing the "Great Nine Heavens Palm" straight toward Li Miao!
The momentum was vast and overwhelming, and the overflowing true qi actually tore up all the surrounding bluestone slabs from the ground!
This person was clearly a "X弥" expert no different from Lan Lechuan!
Li Miao let out a cold laugh, shaking away the flesh caught in his claw. Without dodging or evading, he strode forward casually and threw out a punch.
Crossing and Sweeping Fist!
A single horizontal sweep of his fist felt like a heavy lance, bursting through the air with a series of thunderous concussions!
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Smoke and dust billowed, obscuring vision entirely.
Boom!
The middle-aged man had no intention of plunging into the smoke and dust. Stamping his foot heavily on the ground, his entire body soared into the air, intending to leap onto the rooftops and flee.
The moment he left the ground, however, he heard a piercing whistle of wind coming from right above his head.
"Did I say you could leave? Get down!"
Li Miao had somehow appeared directly above him.
At this moment, a chopping leg-axe was descending through the air, aiming straight for his shoulder!
With the middle-aged man suspended in mid-air and nowhere to leverage his strength, he had no choice but to raise both arms to protect his head and neck.
Boom!
The roof tiles across a radius of several zhang shattered instantly!
With a deafening crash, like a falling meteorite, he smashed straight through the roof and heavily slammed into the ground below.
A mouthful of blood spewed from his lips. He slammed his palm violently against the ground, shifting his body sideways by several feet in a fierce horizontal slide.
Boom!
Li Miao stomped his foot down onto the exact spot the man had just occupied. In an instant, the floor of the entire room exploded violently upward. The ground was heaved several feet into the air before crashing back down.
Nearly half the people in Quanzhou City felt the earth shake slightly, assuming it was merely an earth dragon turning over.
The roof beams snapped, and the entire building instantly collapsed.
In the courtyard, the middle-aged man raised both palms, striking out consecutively toward the ruins!
Great Nine Heavens Palm!
Great Nine Heavens Palm!
Great Nine Heavens Palm!
He battered that pile of rubble until it transformed into a swirling cloud of flying dust.
He dared not close the distance; once Li Miao got close, death was the only outcome.
Yet he was a "Xumi" realm master whose true qi was inexhaustible. Right now, his only option was to widen the distance and play a game of attrition!
He dared not pause for even a split second, continuously bombarding the ruins, hoping to drain some of Li Miao's energy.
Suddenly, however, he heard Li Miao's strange voice coming from directly behind him.
"Who the hell are you hitting?"
His pupils shrank to pinpricks as he spun around with a frantic palm strike!
Only to see, expanding infinitely within his vision, the fist of Li Miao.
————————
Meanwhile, taking advantage of the two combatants being completely preoccupied with each other, An Ziyang had quietly slipped away across several courtyards, running and cursing under his breath the entire time.
"Motherfucker, motherfucker, is this even human?! Is this still Dashuo?!"
"What the hell is this, can you even call this martial arts?! Then what the hell have I been practicing all these years, Frolics of the Five Animals?!"
"When immortals fight, mortals suffer!"
Fleeing into a secluded courtyard, An Ziyang yanked open a door, flipped over a table, tore back a carpet, and pressed down on the floorboards.
Rumble, rattle, rattle...
The floor tiles shifted, revealing a deep, gloomy secret passage.
An Ziyang did not step inside. Instead, he reached out and felt along the edge of the passage mechanism, pulling out a single strand of hair.
He straightened the hair and checked its length.
"As expected, the hair is broken. Someone other than my father and me has entered this secret passage."
"No matter how wondrous that disguise technique is, not everyone can master it, nor is it possible to replace every single person in the residence completely. The other members of the Manichaen Cult must have a place to hide."
"In their rush, they certainly wouldn't have killed my father immediately. Instead, they would keep him alive to interrogate him repeatedly, demanding all the details so they could maintain the disguise without me noticing any flaws. If they needed to lock him away while keeping prying eyes away, there is nowhere else this could happen besides here."
"And my father surely wouldn't have spilled everything at once; he would dole it out bit by bit to buy time. That impostor falling for my bluff proves he didn't have the absolute confidence of having broken my father's resistance."
"With the commotion over there being so huge, the Manichaen Cult members might just prepare to silence him and flee. The Manichaen Cult is an enemy, and the man with terrifying martial arts origins is unknown—he's not necessarily a friend either. My life and death must be held in my own hands."
An Ziyang reached up and tore off all his jewelry and accessories, then ripped a strip of fabric from his robe to tightly bind his clothes to his body. Finally, he kicked off his shoes, stood barefoot on the cold ground, drew his sword, and slowly stepped into the dark passage.
"Father, you and I have weathered wind and rain together through thick and thin; don't you dare go dying an obscure death right here in our own home."
"Hold on, your son is coming to save you."
(End of Chapter)