Chapter 668: Guiding Light
Translator: Pika
King Qi looked at Zu An’s figure. A Golden Token Eleven suddenly appeared as soon as he arrived at the capital. After all, all these years, the Embroidered Envoy always only had ten golden token members and they were selected after strict requirements. This Golden Token Eleven seemed to have come out of thin air. He couldn’t even find out anything about him even with his information network.
Furthermore, after Cheng Xiong’s case erupted, he looked into this matter and saw that Cheng Xiong previously suspected Golden Token Eleven. Then, after Zu An entered the imperial prison, those assassins immediately changed what they were saying. Their confessions were the last straw that took down Cheng Xiong.
Even though he didn’t think that it was too likely, he still had someone look into it in private just in case.
He was thinking about the Phoenix Nirvana Sutra as well. Even though Zu An said that it didn’t grant immortality, he definitely wouldn’t believe him so easily. The only way he would be sure was if he grabbed a copy and took a look at it himself.
The reason he called Zu An over was precisely to get the Phoenix Nirvana Sutra out of him. However, after several meetings with him, he understood well that Zu An wasn’t someone easy to deal with. Furthermore, with the crown princess sheltering him like this, he couldn’t go too far, or else he’ll incur the emperor’s dissatisfaction.
Then how was he going to get the Phoenix Nirvana Sutra out of him?
King Qi suddenly thought of something. He recovered his usual composure again.
…
Meanwhile, the crown princess saw that Zu An returned. She quickly walked over and said with a quiet voice, “Did King Qi do anything to you?”
Zu An said with a bitter expression, “Do you think King Qi is the type who will pat you on the shoulder and it seems like nothing much, but a few days later, all of your blood vessels will explode?”
The crown princess was stunned. She subconsciously replied, “He is a grandmaster, so he probably can do that…”
Zu An’s expression became even more ugly when he heard what she said.
“Did King Qi make things difficult for you?” The crown princess' face changed as well.
Zu An shook his head. “He didn’t, he only asked me some questions.”
There were many things that wouldn’t help even if he told her. Would she get revenge on King Qi for him?
But he still expressed his gratitude. “Thank you, crown princess, for saving me. If you didn’t show up, I might have been finished today.”
Regardless of whether it was the Devil Sect’s assassins being exposed or King Qi’s questioning, both would lead to a bad ending.
The crown princess voiced her approval. “You don’t need to think too much about it either. I am not doing this specially to save you. If it was any other subordinate who was loyal to the crown prince, I would do my best to save him too.”
Zu An couldn’t help but chuckle. King Qi’s earlier words were already effective. This woman was scared that he would have any unrealistic expectations about her.
He said with a smile, “The crown princess empathizes with the officials. We all understand.”
The crown princess nodded. “We’re heading back to the eastern palace before King Qi finds you alone and seizes you again.”
Zu An was rather troubled. “I won’t be going back with the crown princess. I still have some matters I haven’t finished taking care of.”
He had to clean up the imperial palace’s side, or else everyone would start suspecting him.
“What else do you need to take care of?” The crown princess was curious.
Zu An thought for a bit, and then he said, “His majesty requested something of me.” He wasn’t entirely lying. Infiltrating the Devil Sect was what the emperor ordered of him, right? Even if he found out afterwards, he didn’t have to worry about it.
The crown princess was quite surprised. She gave him a few more looks. This kid gained his majesty’s favor too?
Yup, I do need to do my best to rope him in.
…
When the crown princess’ group left, Zu An pulled Piao Duandiao and Jiao Sigun behind. “I won’t thank you guys since we’re bros. We’ll go to the government brothel when there’s some free time, my treat.”
Piao Duandiao’s eyes that were covered in dark circles lit up. He said with a laugh, “Sounds good!”
Even though his back was already about to break from how often he visited that place, if someone else was paying, why would he refuse?
Jiao Sigun couldn’t help but say, “This is where you’re wrong. Since you already said that there is no need for thanks, then why are you inviting us to…”
Piao Duandiao cut him off before he even finished his sentence. “All you need to say is whether you want to go or not!”
Jiao Sigun seemed conflicted, but in the end he still couldn’t help but say, “I want to!”
“If you want to, then just shut up.” Piao Duandiao smacked him in the back of the head, and then he smiled towards Zu An. “Then it’s decided! We’ll meet up when we have some free time.”
Zu An chuckled. It was as if he was back with those friends of his from his past world… Pah, was I this type of person before?
When he saw that there was no one around him, he quickly went back inside the imperial prison. He had to somehow wake up those jailers, and then pretend to have just woken up as well.
Those jailers blinked their eyes when they saw that the prisoners were gone. All of them began to panic.
“This is a clan eradicating sin…”
All of them mumbled to themselves. The leader quickly rushed over to sound the alarm.
Zu An grabbed him. “What are you doing?”
That jailer quickly said, “Obviously contacting the other imperial guards to search for the criminals.”
Zu An said, “Are you sure that’s what you want to do? Once this gets out of hand, then all of your possessions will be confiscated and your entire family will be eradicated!”
“But if we don’t immediately issue a report, then it’s the same result…” That prison head was sullen.
Zu An said, “All of us are responsible for the escape of the criminals today. None of us will be able to live once the higher ups issue blame.”
The prison head grabbed his clothes. “Sir Zu is experienced and knowledgeable. Please tell us if you have any suggestions.”
Zu An said, “How about we send some people to see if the criminals have done anything yet?”
The prison head was stunned. He quickly sent out some of his men to investigate. Soon afterwards, there was information that came back. “The palace is peaceful. Nothing seems to have happened.”
Zu An sighed in relief. Looks like Sun Luzhen and the others have already escaped.
That prison head was confused. “But how could that be? Why would the escaped prisoners not make any sounds?”
“I know!” Zu An pretended to have suddenly realized something and drew the prison head’s attention. He pulled him to a corner and said, “Do you remember those golden armored guards that just barged in?”
Because of his conversation with King Qi, he found out that King Qi knew about the events of the prison. As such, there might be eyes in the prison. That was why he had to talk to this prison head privately to prevent more information from reaching King Qi’s ears.
“Were there? I don’t remember.” The prison leader scratched his head in confusion. His brain felt extremely foggy. He just couldn’t remember.
Zu An criticized some of the jailers and said, “How can you remember nothing? They are King Qi’s men. Your men tried to stop them from barging in, and then they were knocked out.”
“Huh? I think I remember a bit about what you are saying. I was pretty angry too. What happened afterwards…” The prison leader felt like his head was about to explode, yet he still couldn’t figure anything else out.
Zu An sighed. Worries Be Gone really could make one forget. However, it didn’t completely erase the memory, but rather broke up the memories into fragments. If there were enough reminders, they can still remember some things. That was why after telling them half-truths just now, the prison leader finally remembered that King Qi’s men came.
He continued and said, “Who do you think could possibly rescue these criminals in such a crazy way, furthermore not alarm any of the guards?”
That prison head was alarmed. “Are you talking about King Qi?”
He remembered that these criminals insisted that they were working for King Qi as well. Could it be that King Qi was saving his own people? Or perhaps he was silencing them?
Zu An immediately took a step back. “You said that, not me.”
That jailer jumped in fright and quickly said, “I… I was only speculating! I don’t dare to slander King Qi.”
Zu An walked over and put his arm around this jailer’s mouth. “We’re all bound to the same ship now. Since King Qi rescued those people, we don’t need to make this a public affair. Let’s just secretly report this. The higher ups will deal with it how it should be dealt with.”
The prison head hesitated. “But we will still be punished for our negligence…”
“Are you stupid? Think about who the other party is for a minute! It’s freaking King Qi, his majesty’s own brother! Would his majesty really investigate him over this matter? This matter will definitely remain unsettled indefinitely. Since no one is going to investigate, then we haven’t committed any crimes.” Zu An explained.
The prison head’s eyes lit up. “Sir Zu is the guiding light that shows us the way! If it wasn’t for Sir Zu, all of us would have been dead many times over.”
Zu An had a gloomy look on his face. Is this how a guiding light is supposed to be used?
But he still warned repeatedly, “This matter is extremely important, so do not tell anyone else about it. The more mouths, the more things get out of hand. Once the court’s nobles find out, it’ll be a bloodbath. At that point, his majesty cannot keep the peace even if he wants to and we’ll be done for.”
The prison head patted his chest and said, “Of course I know that! Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone about those things. As for my fellas over there, I have a way to shut their mouths too.”
“Then that’s good.” Zu An left the imperial prison in a better mood. The only thing left to take care of now is bringing Yun Jianyue out of the palace.
Sigh, to be honest, I really want to keep living with incredible beauty…
While he was feeling some regret, he suddenly felt something and looked behind him. Unfortunately, there was no one there.
Is there someone following me? Or was that just me being paranoid?