163: Chapter 163 The Mysterious Code

The next evening, Lu Cheng followed in Zhou Jinan's car to the Qian Family Manor.

The entire manor was built against the mountain; everything from the foot of the mountain to the mountainside was the territory of the Qian Family.

The main building was a seven-story silver-white structure, its outer walls embedded with bands of Source Power lights...

The annex buildings extending from both sides were each the size of a standard family's main residence, with front and back gardens, artificial lakes, open-air banquet plazas, and independent helipads, all stacked layer upon layer up the mountain.

The banquet plaza was directly in front of the manor's main building.

The plaza floor was paved with solid blocks of white Source Stones, with pale golden fluorescent moss embedded in the crevices that would glow faintly when stepped on.

These things were all money...

Not to mention anything else, just those strips of Source Power lights cost nearly a thousand per meter...

The main entrance steps were covered with a red carpet, and twenty waiters in uniform stood on both sides.

The men were all in black suits, and the women in white qipaos, each wearing a golden "Qian" character badge on their chest, smiling.

Three receptionists from the Qian Family stood at the end of the red carpet, checking invitations one by one.

The leader was a middle-aged man in his fifties, wearing a navy blue Tang suit with a palm-sized golden "Qian" character embroidered on his left chest.

His gaze swept over person after person, his fingers swiping on a terminal light screen, and he occasionally uttered a few polite pleasantries.

It was Zhou Jinan's turn.

Zhou Jinan handed over three invitations.

The middle-aged man took them, flipped open the covers, and glanced at them.

The perfunctory, polite smile he had been wearing instantly switched to a deeper one.

The wrinkles at the corners of his eyes bunched together, his eyebrows curved downward, and even the tone of his voice dropped by two degrees.

"Distinguished guests from the Zhou Family, forgive my lack of courtesy."

He handed the invitations back with both hands and specifically took another look at Lu Cheng and Su Wan behind Zhou Jinan.

"Are these two distinguished guests accompanying Young Master Zhou?"

Zhou Jinan nodded.

"Please, this way, please."

The middle-aged man stepped aside to clear the way and gestured to a waiter nearby.

The waiter immediately trotted over, bowing as he led the way.

As Lu Cheng stepped onto the stairs, his peripheral vision swept over the middle-aged man's face.

The other party was still smiling.

But those eyes turned half a circle beneath the smile lines, quietly sizing up the two "accompanying guests" behind Zhou Jinan.

Lu Cheng withdrew his gaze and followed into the main gate of the Qian Family's main building.

The moment he passed through the gate, the music, car sounds, and the footsteps of the waiters outside were all cut off behind him.

Inside the banquet hall was another world.

The vaulted ceiling was at least fifteen meters high, with a giant crystal chandelier hanging in the center.

On both sides of the hall were rows of buffet tables, with silver trays piled with various foods Lu Cheng couldn't name.

Waiters carrying champagne trays wove through the gaps in the crowd, their footsteps light and soundless.

The air was filled with the scent of wine, flowers, and some kind of very faint woody incense, mixed together in a sweet, stuffy way.

There were at least three or four hundred guests, yet it didn't feel crowded at all.

Most of the men wore formal suits or traditional long robes, and the women were all in evening gowns, adorned with pearls and jewels.

Some were whispering by the buffet tables while holding wine glasses, while others stood in the center of the hall, talking loudly, their laughter carrying over through several layers of people.

Everything looked very normal.

But Lu Cheng stood in place for three seconds, his brow furrowing.

Su Wan had leaned to Lu Cheng's side without him noticing.

Her lips beneath the brim of her hat barely moved, her voice pressed extremely low.

"Where are the people from the Ancestral Lineage?"

Lu Cheng's gaze followed hers as he searched the crowd.

Those he could recognize in the crowd, wearing the Qian Family badge, were all from the branch families and collateral lines.

He didn't see a single person from the Rong City Ancestral Lineage.

Qian Shuying was the eldest daughter of the Ancestral Lineage, and the message Chu Xiuxiu sent said she had been brought back.

Yet in this brightly lit hall filled with clinking glasses, her figure was nowhere to be seen...

If this got out, the Qian Family, as the host of this banquet, would definitely be criticized.

Lu Cheng tapped his knuckles lightly against the seam of his trousers.

Zhou Jinan put down his champagne glass and leaned his lips close to Lu Cheng's ear.

"Look up."

Lu Cheng looked up at the stage at the front of the hall.

The stage was half a person's height, covered with a dark red carpet, and the background was a fifteen-meter-wide giant screen displaying rolling holographic images of the Qian Family's century-long history.

On the right side of the stage stood five people in dark formal wear, whose cultivation level was at least the Hua Hai Realm...

These people stood in the shadows on the side of the stage, neither speaking nor moving, their gazes locked onto the crowd below.

Suddenly, the lights in the hall dimmed by half.

All the crystal slices on the chandelier dimmed simultaneously, and the banquet hall fell into a semi-bright, semi-dark, dim yellow tone.

The sound of conversation came to an abrupt halt.

Everyone turned their heads to look at the stage.

An old man in his sixties walked up from the side of the stage; he wasn't holding a microphone, but when he spoke, his voice filled the entire banquet hall.

"Ladies and gentlemen."

He wore a dark gray long robe with a golden "Qian" character badge on his left chest that was one size larger than everyone else's.

His hair was graying, but he was in excellent spirits, his back straight as a rod.

Zhou Jinan whispered in Lu Cheng's ear: "Qian Congrong, head of the South Sixth District branch family, an old acquaintance of my family."

Lu Cheng's gaze fell on Qian Congrong's face.

When the other party smiled, the expression in the depths of his eyes was bizarre...

If Lu Cheng had to describe it... it looked like someone standing in a slaughterhouse inspecting goods...

Seeking Good Fortune and Avoiding Bad Luck also had a slight reaction to him...

"Thank you, distinguished guests, for honoring us with your presence at the Qian Family's centennial celebration."

Qian Congrong cupped his hands and bowed to the crowd below in a full circle.

"I know that everyone coming tonight is giving the Qian Family face.

So tonight, the Qian Family has also prepared a little token of appreciation for everyone."

He raised his hand and snapped his fingers.

Dark golden Source Power patterns lit up simultaneously on the four walls of the hall.

Those patterns spread along the walls like blood vessels, climbing from the floor all the way to the vaulted ceiling, weaving into a translucent light net around the entire banquet hall within a few breaths.

A seal.

Lu Cheng's eyelid twitched.

This was the highest-level Source Power seal; once activated, it isolated the inside from the outside—people outside couldn't get in, and people inside couldn't get out.

Someone below the stage let out a very faint sound of disturbance, but it was quickly suppressed.

Qian Congrong said with a smile: "Don't be nervous, don't be nervous. This is preparation for the upcoming activities.

After all, tonight's activity... is not convenient to be disturbed from the outside."

He snapped his fingers again.

The floor in the center of the stage suddenly split open, and a lifting platform rose from below.

On the platform sat a glittering golden pool.

The pool was about two meters long and wide, and about one meter high, cast entirely from some kind of golden metal, with densely packed Source Power circuits carved on its surface.

At each of the four corners of the pool crouched a toad, each toad holding a copper coin in its mouth, with the square hole in the center of the coin facing the inside of the pool.

A line of large seal script characters was carved on the pool wall.

"Pool of Ten Thousand Wishes."

Qian Congrong walked to the side of the pool and tapped the pool wall, the humming sound of the metal vibrating echoing several times through the hall.

"Century Golden Covenant, Pool of Ten Thousand Wishes.

This is a rule passed down by the Qian Family ancestors."

"The centennial celebration is not just the Qian Family's affair; it is also a hope that all families who have had dealings with the Qian Family can realize their wishes!"

He waved to the crowd below.

Two teams of waiters walked in from the side doors, each holding a silver tray with neatly stacked thin golden sheets.

Each Golden Covenant leaf was about a palm long, two fingers wide, and thin enough to let light through.

The surface was covered with dense inscriptions, with Source Power flowing slowly through the lines.

The waiters wove through the crowd, handing the Golden Covenant leaves to the guests one by one.

Lu Cheng had one stuffed into his hand.

The Golden Covenant leaf felt warm to the touch, and the sense of Source Power on it was very strange—not the temperature of pure metal, but more like the heat of a living thing.

Su Wan looked down at the Golden Covenant leaf in her hand, her brow slightly furrowed.

There was something wrong with this thing.

On the stage, Qian Congrong's voice continued to ring out.

"Please write down the thing you most want to obtain in the future on the Golden Covenant leaf."

His smile widened a little.

"Wealth, power, longevity, breakthroughs in cultivation, family prosperity... you can write whatever you want."

"After writing, you only need to infuse a little Source Qi to activate the Golden Covenant leaf, and then throw it into the Pool of Ten Thousand Wishes."

"This is the Qian Family's century-old tradition of the prayer ceremony."

Qian Congrong spread his arms, his voice rising.

"Everyone knows that for a century, the Qian Family has relied on 'credibility' and 'covenants' to establish the clan. Tonight, inviting all distinguished guests to make wishes together is to let everyone witness..."

"Witness a new century for the Nanling Qian Clan!"

As his words fell, there was a round of applause from below.

Some people had already picked up the special engraving pens handed over by the waiters and started writing on the Golden Covenant leaves.

Lu Cheng stared at Qian Congrong on the stage.

The other party was smiling, and there was a very eager light in the depths of his pupils, like a fisherman watching a school of fish swim into his net voluntarily...

Lu Cheng believed that those who could come to participate in this event were not fools...

That no one thought there was a problem... would be strange...

Of course... it was also possible that he himself was looking at people with colored glasses, which was why Qian Congrong seemed problematic in his eyes.

Lu Cheng's gaze crossed over Qian Congrong and looked at the five people in the shadows on the side of the stage.

Lu Cheng withdrew his hand, clutched the Golden Covenant leaf in his palm, and felt the Source Power flowing on it.

A faint sense of malice came from it.

He immediately put the golden leaf into his system space, turned around, and pressed his lips almost against Su Wan's ear.

"Don't write."

Two words, the voice so low that only Su Wan could hear.

Su Wan's ear itched, she took a step back, turned her head away to avoid looking at Lu Cheng, and conveniently tucked the Golden Covenant leaf into her sleeve.

Lu Cheng took another look at Zhou Jinan.

Zhou Jinan was wiping his glasses with a handkerchief; after wiping them, he put them back on and tapped his fingers lightly on the edge of the frames.

He saw the signal.

The three of them slowly retreated a few steps to the side of the hall, and when they stood still again, they were already on the periphery of the crowd.

Lu Cheng looked around.

The Source Power seal covered the entire banquet hall; the walls, floor, and vaulted ceiling were connected into a single, dark golden light net without any blind spots.

Seventeen surveillance cameras were distributed on the vaulted ceiling and walls, each a military-grade multi-functional probe that could simultaneously scan heat sources, heart rates, and facial micro-expressions after being boosted by Source Power.

Two waiters in uniform stood at the main entrance of the hall and at each of the three side doors.

But their posture betrayed them.

Heels together, toes splayed at thirty degrees, weight on the balls of their feet...

All of them were trained experts... they should also be around the Meridian Opening Realm.

They were guards planted in the banquet hall.

Under these circumstances, slipping out silently was basically impossible.

Zhou Jinan walked to Lu Cheng's side, as if casually picking up a glass of wine, but his sleeve lightly brushed the back of Lu Cheng's hand.

A black mask, as thin as a cicada's wing, fell into Lu Cheng's palm.

"Stick this on your face; it can temporarily change your facial features and aura fluctuations."

Zhou Jinan's voice was very low, and he still wore the smile he had when exchanging pleasantries with others.

"After you go out from here, turn left; at the end is the restroom.

Someone is waiting to meet you inside; he will knock three long times and two short times... You open your mouth and forcefully say 'Hmm~', then knock three times to respond to him... This is the secret code."

Three question marks couldn't help but pop up over Lu Cheng's head...

What a bizarre way to make contact...

Zhou Jinan added another sentence.

"Su Wan and I will stay here to attract attention. You move quickly; the people from the Qian Family's main lineage are not in the banquet hall, but... they must be in this manor... otherwise, they wouldn't have specifically attracted everyone to come."

Lu Cheng turned around and walked towards the side door along the edge of the crowd.