Chapter 433: Self-Destruction

Zu An chuckled, saying nothing. He simply lifted her and gently placed her onto himself.

Zheng Dan trembled all over. She had no energy left to blame him and desperately bit her lip, fearing she might make a sound.

Just then, Huang Huihong's voice came from outside: "Miss Zheng, are you alright?"

Zheng Dan's heart skipped a beat. She quickly tried to control her voice to keep it from trembling, replying with feigned calmness, "No... I'm fine. Why do you ask?"

"Oh, it's just that I suddenly heard no sound from inside, and I was worried something might have happened to you, so I asked," Huang Huihong chuckled. After all, he was responsible for supervision, and Zheng Dan was a government official's wife; if anything truly happened and it got out, it would reflect poorly on him.

Zu An immediately protested, "Commander Huang, what kind of talk is that? Am I that kind of person?"

Zheng Dan couldn't help but playfully punch his chest, thinking, *You're definitely that kind of person, you scoundrel!*

She wondered where he got the nerve to spout such nonsense with a straight face. More critically, what if his outrageous behavior actually invited them in? How would they explain that?

Thinking of this, she became extremely nervous, and her body began to tremble uncontrollably.

Zu An's expression immediately turned strange, and he quickly took a deep breath.

Outside, Huang Huihong snorted, "Miss Zheng, if anything happens, just call out to us."

Clearly, he couldn't be bothered with Zu An, nor did he want to provoke this troublesome person. After all, this fellow was too difficult to deal with, always full of strange ideas, and he definitely didn't want to get into trouble.

"Alright, thank you, Commander Huang," Zheng Dan replied politely. At the same time, she couldn't help but playfully hit Zu An a few more times with her small fists, thinking, *This guy is just too much trouble.*

In the prisoner cart following behind, Sang Qian was craning his neck to look in that direction. Unfortunately, he couldn't see anything except for the faint sight of the carriage swaying slightly.

"Stop looking, it's pointless," Sang Hong couldn't help but warn him. By this time, the restrictions on both their mute points had worn off.

Sang Qian gritted his teeth, "Are we just going to let that Zu fellow bully Dan'er like this?"

Sang Hong glared at him, exasperated by his lack of ambition. "At a time like this, you're still thinking about romantic affairs! The top priority is how we can survive this ordeal. As long as we overcome this, with my abilities, I will rise again sooner or later. At worst, I'll find you ten or eight well-bred young ladies to marry then, wouldn't that be better?"

Sang Qian mumbled, "But I still feel Dan'er is the one best suited for me. More importantly, I can't stand seeing that scoundrel Zu look so smug."

Sang Hong was speechless.

This fellow was truly beyond help. His son and he were on the verge of death, yet he was still concerned about such trivial matters.

He completely gave up any illusions about his son, only hoping that Qian'er would be more decisive and not as foolish as her brother.

Gazing in the direction of the capital, a sharp glint flashed in Sang Hong's eyes. Clearly, he was rapidly thinking about something.

***

Unbeknownst to them, the procession passed through a valley. Suddenly, countless stones rained down from above, as if a mountain was collapsing.

"Look out!" Huang Huihong quickly warned everyone, immediately swinging his Soul-Reaping Chain towards the stones in the air.

With a single whip, the stones were often shattered into pieces.

Other Imperial Guards also drew their weapons and began to chop. Most were able to split the stones, but a few unlucky ones couldn't dodge in time and were struck on the head by stones.

The entire procession immediately descended into chaos. Just then, an enormous boulder fell from the mountaintop and hurtled directly towards Zu An's carriage.

Given the boulder's size and weight, if it landed squarely, even if Liu Yao's carriage was incredibly sturdy, it would likely be crushed flat.

Huang Huihong was greatly alarmed. They were busy dealing with the earlier boulders and simply had no time to save the carriage from this one.

At this moment, an invisible, greenish blade appeared out of thin air and struck directly at the massive boulder.

"It's General Wei's blade aura!" many recognized the origin of the blade aura and excitedly shouted.

Although this enormous boulder was massive, how could it withstand a full-force strike from a Ninth-Rank cultivator?

It was directly sliced into two by the invisible blade aura, and the two halves flew to either side, creating a thunderous crash.

Liu Yao directly shot into the sky, tapping the mountain wall a few times on his way up, then leaped directly to the top of the valley.

Then, the clanging of weapons and sounds of fighting came from above, but these quickly turned into screams. After a moment, everything fell silent.

By this time, King Liang had brought his men to Zu An's carriage. He directly pushed open the carriage door, revealing Zu An and Zheng Dan sitting upright, each at one end of the carriage.

Seeing that Zu An was unharmed, he breathed a sigh of relief. If something had happened to this fellow, the Emperor's wrath would be immense.

He suddenly noticed Zheng Dan beside Zu An, thinking, *The Sang family certainly found a good daughter-in-law; she's truly more beautiful than flowers.*

But why was her face so red?

Just as he was about to ask, Liu Yao had already flown down from above, holding several captives. Their terrified expressions showed they had clearly just been scared witless.

"Who are you, and who sent you?" King Liang quickly asked.

The might of a Grandmaster's pressure was overwhelming, and those few people immediately lost their composure, stammering nervously, "We're from Black Wind Fortress. It's only because Zu An killed our Great Chief Chen Xuan, making our lives very difficult now. We heard he was being escorted through here this time, and a group of our brothers were clamoring to avenge our Great Chief, so we set up this trap. Who knew you... you were so powerful..."

"Black Wind Fortress?" King Liang was stunned for a moment, as someone nearby had already whispered the origin of Black Wind Fortress into his ear.

"With your cultivation levels, you dared to openly attack the Imperial Army?" Liu Yao, who was standing by, found it somewhat amusing. After their recent exchange, hardly any of them were Fourth-Rank cultivators.

"When we fought the official army before, they never seemed this strong," those few people answered frantically. They recalled how, with their Great Chief leading them, they had always managed to get the Moonbright City's official army into trouble. Who knew that without their Great Chief, they would fare so miserably.

They blamed Zu An for killing their Great Chief.

Rage points from Black Wind Fortress members +233 +233 +233...

Zu An was speechless. Chen Xuan had died earlier, and everyone had been unable to find Black Wind Fortress's stronghold. *Couldn't you have just kept a low profile? Why did you have to come deliver yourselves to your deaths, causing Black Wind Fortress to be wiped out?*

*Your Chen Xuan was only a Sixth-Rank cultivator. Yet you dared to attack an army with a Grandmaster and Ninth-Rank experts overseeing it. What were you thinking?*

Seeing that no more information could be extracted, Liu Yao directly snapped the necks of those few people and tossed them aside, saying, "Continue the journey!"

Such a minor disturbance was hardly worth their further attention.

After the procession resumed its journey, Sang Hong said from the prisoner cart, "Qian'er, what did you learn from this incident?"

"That Black Wind Fortress overestimated themselves?" Sang Qian replied. He recalled having dealt with people from Black Wind Fortress before. Unfortunately, with Chen Xuan's death, these fellows had become a disorganized rabble, their fighting capabilities degenerating too much.

Sang Hong shook his head and lowered his voice, "It's not just you; even King Liang and Liu Yao overlooked an important clue. Those Black Wind Fortress people just mentioned that they *heard* Zu An was being escorted through here. Who exactly told them, and why did they trust that person's words so much?"

After the recent chaos, it was chaotic everywhere now, so he wasn't afraid of these words being overheard.

Sang Qian was startled, "Father, are you saying there's a mastermind behind this?"

"Of course," Sang Hong sneered. "They probably wanted to use these cannon fodder from Black Wind Fortress to test the waters, to probe our strength, before making further plans."

Whether it was King Liang or Liu Yao, though their cultivation was high, they were not skilled in military strategy, nor were they known for their cunning. The army entering such a dangerous place like a valley was only briefly scouted, and they failed to prepare for the danger from above. In his view, this was a very amateurish mistake.

Coupled with overlooking the clue mentioned by Black Wind Fortress...

It seemed that many unexpected things would happen on the journey ahead.

Noticing the smile on his father's face, Sang Qian was puzzled. "Father, what are you happy about? If they're poorly guarded, won't we suffer along with them? You know, we've offended quite a few enemies over the years. What if someone takes this opportunity to come after us? Wouldn't that be the end of us?"

"What do you know?" Sang Hong snorted. "If they were too smart, where would our opportunities come from?"