Translator: CKtalon
After entering the yard, Wang Lu’s expression turned solemn. “Do you know that you are in grave danger now?”
Zhou Wen nodded. “I know.”
“Why are you still here when you know? Do you feel uncomfortable if you don’t get beaten up for a day?” Wang Lu rolled her eyes at him.
“I didn’t plan on coming here like this.” Zhou Wen originally planned on using the Invisibility Cloak to enter the Imperial Capital, preventing others from knowing that he had been here.
But now, he was carrying a huge log. It was useless even if he was invisible. The Invisibility Cloak couldn’t cover such a huge log. Anyone would know that something was amiss when they saw a log floating in midair.
“I’m afraid you still don’t know the current situation. If it was just the bureau finding trouble with you, that would be fine. With your abilities and me acting as your informant, it shouldn’t be difficult to deal with it. However, the person who wants to touch you isn’t just the bureau. There’s also the real master of the capital, the Xia family. It’s easy for you to come to the Imperial Capital, but I’m afraid it won’t be easy for you to leave,” Wang Lu said.
“Why does the Xia family want to deal with me?” Zhou Wen asked in puzzlement.
He didn’t have any deep feud with the Xia family, so there was no reason for them to kill him, right?
“The intricacies are very complicated. I’ll get my grandmother to tell you later.” As Wang Lu spoke, she walked towards the main room.
“Grandma, I’ve brought a friend,” Wang Lu shouted into the hall as she walked.
“Crazy girl, just come. What are you shouting for?” A voice came from the backyard and an old woman walked over.
The woman looked quite old. Her hair was already white, but for some reason, there weren’t any wrinkles on her face. She looked very elegant, and it was easy to guess that she must have been a beauty when she was young.
“This lad is the Zhou Wen you often mention, right?” the old woman said as she sized him up.
“When did I? It’s just that he owes me so much and hasn’t paid me back that I occasionally mention him. I’m afraid that I’ll forget the debt,” Wang Lu said as she tugged the old woman’s arm.
“I see.” The old woman smiled at Zhou Wen and said, “Lad, you look so young. Why did you get yourself in debt? Furthermore, your debtor is a female student. Don’t tell me you want to be a freeloader?”
“Grandma Wang, it’s not like that.” Zhou Wen wanted to explain.
However, before he could finish his sentence, he was interrupted by the old woman. “But it doesn’t matter. Our Wang family doesn’t have much of anything else, but we have plenty of money. There’s no way to spend it all eating. Just treat it as doing a good deed and come often to have a bite. It doesn’t matter if you stay here. Our Wang family happens to be lacking a live-in son-in-law...”
“Grandma, what are you talking about?” Wang Lu’s face flushed red. “Zhou Wen is only my classmate. It’s not what you think.”
After a pause, Wang Lu added, “Grandma, you must already know about Zhou Wen’s situation. Tell him how dangerous his current situation is.”
Upon hearing Wang Lu’s words, Grandma Wang retracted her smile. “Let’s talk inside.”
Zhou Wen followed them into the hall. Wang Lu gestured for him to sit down before she brewed tea for them all.
“Grandma Wang, I heard from Wang Lu that the Xia family wants to find trouble with me, but I don’t have much of a grudge with the Xia family. Why are they targeting me?” Zhou Wen couldn’t help but ask.
Grandma Wang nodded and said, “The crazy girl is right. The Xia family might really attack you. You shouldn’t have come to the Imperial Capital.”
After a moment of silence, Grandma Wang continued, “The crazy girl is willing to bring you here because she doesn’t treat you as an outsider. So I won’t say things meant for outsiders. What I’m about to say next is just speculation. It’s not necessarily the truth. So don’t take it too seriously.”
“Grandma Wang, don’t worry. I’m not a talkative person,” Zhou Wen said.
“It’s fine even if you are talkative. Anyway, I won’t admit to what I said today, nor will the Wang family.” Grandma Wang said with a smile, “According to my guess, the reason the Xia family is targeting you isn’t because your teacher was Wang Mingyuan, nor is it because you crippled the Xia family’s juniors’ Essence Energy sea in the Holy Land.”
“Then what’s the reason?” Apart from these two reasons, Zhou Wen really couldn’t figure out what connection he had with the Xia family.
Although Demonic Neonate’s demonic sword was snatched from Xia Xuanyue, Xia Xuanyue herself didn’t know that it was done by Demonic Neonate. The Xia family shouldn’t pin the blame on him.
Grandma Wang said with a strange expression, “If there’s a reason, there’s only one. You are too talented.”
Zhou Wen was slightly taken aback. He found it difficult to believe that the Xia family wanted to kill him just for this reason.
There were many talented youths nowadays, and he wasn’t the only one. Even if the Xia family were to suppress the other wealthy families, it shouldn’t have to resort to such means.
After all, the dimensional zones’ seals weren’t stable. The six families alone probably wouldn’t be able to withstand the dimensional army. To suppress the local factions would only make them appear short-sighted.
As if she had seen through Zhou Wen’s thoughts, Grandma Wang continued, “In the past, there were precedents of geniuses disappearing or encountering accidents in the Federation. Furthermore, there has been more than one incident. Similar incidents happened every once in a while. It’s fine if it’s just ordinary geniuses, but most of these geniuses are targets that the various families focused on grooming. With the protection of the various families, it’s almost impossible for them to take such a huge risk. Yet, something happened to them.”
“In Luoyang, you should know that there’s a Li family in Luoyang. The Li family once had a talented youth. His talent wasn’t inferior to the current Overseer An, but before he truly grew in strength, he died because of some problem,” said Grandma Wang with a sigh.
“You mean that the disappearance of these geniuses has something to do with the Xia family?” Zhou Wen had already heard Li Xuan mention the matter regarding his elder brother’s demise.
However, Li Xuan had learned about it from Li Mobai. He never expected Grandma Wang to know about it.
Grandma Wang declined to comment and continued, “In the past, our Wang family also had such a genius. Similarly, he died because of some matters. That matter looked like an accident, but I didn’t think it was that simple. Therefore, I secretly did investigations, but I didn’t manage to find anything. However, during this period of time, I discovered something. The accidents of those young geniuses seemed to have something to do with the Xia family.”
“Is the Xia family resorting to every means possible, to the point of attacking their competitors, just to consolidate their forces?” Zhou Wen frowned.
“This is also what I found strange back then. The Xia family didn’t target their opponents who had conflicts of interest with them. They seemed to be only interested in those outstanding geniuses and didn’t differentiate between friend and foe. Therefore, when I investigated in the beginning, I was also confused and didn’t think about the Xia family. Later, after investigating for a long time, I realized that it appeared to be the Xia family behind this matter,” Grandma Wang said.