83: Chapter 83 Past Events

In the study of the Prime Ministers Mansion.

Hearing his eldest son's hesitant and wary words, the Prime Minister not only showed no alarm, but his eyelids lifted slightly, and he let out a sneer of utter disdain.

"This child is indeed capable of forbearance; he has spent over a decade playing the fool while bearing the reputation of the capital's number one playboy."

"But, in the end, he is still a youth with a reckless heart; he lacks sufficient patience."

He casually crumpled the wasted sheet of rice paper into a ball and tossed it into the wastebasket beside him, his tone filled with the composure of someone in total control:

"The Four Seas Academy has only just opened, yet he couldn't wait to reveal his martial arts talent before the eyes of the entire world."

"The tallest tree in the forest will be destroyed by the wind. By showing off so impatiently, I fear..."

The Prime Minister stopped speaking abruptly.

He did not continue, but within his cloudy, old eyes—which had seen the rise and fall of the imperial court—a cold, murderous intent shone through without reservation.

The young man was stunned for a moment, then immediately reacted.

He walked quickly to the desk, lowered his voice, and asked tentatively: "Does Father mean that since he has exposed himself, we should simply..."

At this point, the young man raised his right hand and made a clean, swift horizontal slicing motion across his own neck.

The Prime Minister glanced at him, then shook his head, saying earnestly:

"Jin'er, your temper is still too rash, too impatient."

"This kind of root-and-branch extermination cannot be rushed. Once we rush, our Prime Ministers Mansion will become the mantis that tries to block the chariot for others!"

The young man frowned, pondered for a moment, but remained completely puzzled.

He lowered his head and humbly asked for guidance: "This child still does not understand."

"If the Zhenguo Marquis Mansion truly has a successor, it is the greatest threat to our Prime Ministers Mansion! Since he is a future disaster, why does Father not take advantage of the fact that his wings have not yet hardened? Why not send death warriors directly to strangle this Chen Shanzhi in the cradle to eliminate future trouble once and for all?"

The Prime Minister looked at his son, who appeared so humble, and a flicker of imperceptible appreciation flashed in his eyes.

Aside from having a penchant for murder and being a bit rash, his eldest son had inherited his true mantle in all other aspects.

The Prime Minister did not speak but walked over to the grand armchair and sat down.

He picked up a teacup, took a sip, and suddenly threw out an unrelated question:

"Jin'er, do you still remember how... Chen Yun and his wife died over a decade ago?"

Chen Yun was Chen Shanzhi's biological father, the brilliant successor of the previous generation of the Zhenguo Marquis Mansion!

The young man suddenly raised his head and blurted out subconsciously: "Wasn't it you, Father, who secretly..."

The words had barely left his mouth when the young man saw the Prime Minister's mocking expression.

His heart trembled, and he said in surprise: "Could it be that the one who killed Chen Yun back then... was not someone sent by you, Father?"

The Prime Minister shook his head, then nodded gently:

"Yes, and no."

"After Chen Yun and his wife quelled the rebellion of the Demon People back then, although they achieved a complete victory, they also suffered extremely severe internal injuries."

"It is true that I secretly instructed someone to leak their secret route back to the capital."

"However..."

The Prime Minister's gaze became extremely profound:

"The people who actually intercepted and killed them on the road were not sent by me! To be honest, to this day, your father does not know who the divine expert was back then, who had such great capability to have killed them both silently halfway there!"

Hearing this, a layer of cold sweat seeped out on the young man's back.

You must know that the Chen Yun of those days was a top-tier expert who had truly stepped into the immortal stele heaven rank!

The Zhenguo Marquis Mansion having two individuals on the heaven rank made countless noble families in the capital envious to the point of bleeding.

Even if Chen Yun was severely injured at the time and his strength was greatly reduced, to ambush and kill a dignified heaven rank expert silently in the wilderness... In the entire Great Jiang Dynasty, the forces capable of doing this could be counted on one hand!

And among these forces, the Martial Artists who could deploy combat power of this level were all famous figures on the immortal stele heaven rank!

As long as a powerhouse of this level made a move, it would be impossible to hide it from the eyes of Chen Yun's trusted guards.

But what was strange was that the ambush succeeded perfectly!

It was said that the opponent achieved a one-hit kill, without any hesitation.

After succeeding, they fled thousands of miles away like a ghost.

After the incident, none of Chen Yun's guards could identify which expert from the heaven rank the attacker was!

What does this mean?

It means that the person who made the move was either a terrifying force hidden deep in the Jianghu that had never appeared before! Or, it was a dark piece that a major power had kept hidden for countless years!

As the Prime Minister, he had naturally used his intelligence network to investigate secretly over the years.

But the result was nothing, not even a single clue.

This matter became a thorn in his heart.

After all, there was an unknown force, completely beyond his control, lurking right beside him. Who could sleep soundly with that?

The young man on the side heard this, and his mind finally turned around, he gasped and said:

"So, Father means..."

"For these past ten years, there has actually been a hidden force that fears the Zhenguo Marquis Mansion even more than we do?"

"Now that this kid, Chen Shanzhi, has suddenly revealed martial arts talent in the Academy that is no less than his father's, those people in the dark must be even more anxious to get rid of him than our Prime Ministers Mansion?"

The young man looked at the Prime Minister with confusion:

"It's just that I really cannot figure out, who on earth are these people? Why would they fear the Zhenguo Marquis Mansion even more than our Prime Ministers Mansion? Even risking offending the imperial court to exterminate the Chen family?"

The Prime Minister put down the teacup and shook his head:

"Your father does not know who they are either."

"But this time..."

A sharp light suddenly appeared in the Prime Minister's eyes:

"It is a good opportunity for us to catch their tail."

...

On the other side.

Four Seas Academy, Martial Arts Arena.

With the changes in the rankings on the hidden dragon ranking, the smoke of battle on the arena finally settled.

Tang Liu was carried off on a stretcher by the Academy's medical staff like a pile of mud.

Under the gaze of extremely strange eyes, Chen Shanzhi leisurely patted the dust off his brocade robe and strolled back to the Heaven Class viewing area.

As soon as he sat down beside Tang Xiaowu, before he could say anything to tease her, a pair of soft, small hands carrying a faint fragrance grabbed his arm impatiently.

"Chen Shanzhi, are... are you okay?"

Tang Xiaowu's pretty face, as succulent as a peach, was filled with tension and worry at this moment.

Her beautiful eyes scanned his chest and arms rapidly like a little radar.

She was terrified that he might have suffered some internal injury when he withstood Tang Liu's "Turtle King Eight Fists" just now.

Seeing this girl so nervous about him, Chen Shanzhi felt even more comfortable than drinking iced Sprite.

This girl, after seeing with her own eyes that he had beaten Tang Liu to the point of life or death, her first reaction was not to care about Tang Liu's life or death, but to worry about whether he was injured!

It seems that after these few days of Dual Cultivation guidance under his "generous teaching", and after he finished cultivating that first turn, Tang Xiaowu, this girl, had completely turned to his side, both in body and heart.

As expected of the ultimate white moonlight in the game, once she identified someone, this favoritism could sweeten a person to death.

However, Chen Shanzhi also knew in his heart.

According to the favorability settings in the eroge, Tang Xiaowu's "pure love warrior" persona is the hardest to deal with.

Don't look at how she is obedient to him now, but the favorability is at most stuck at 99%.

To break through this last 1% threshold of full favorability, to make her completely let go of the defense in her heart, and accept his scumbag behavior of surely having many women in the future, still requires an extremely critical turning point.

So now, he can only boil the frog in warm water and take it slow.

Putting away those messy thoughts, Chen Shanzhi's mouth hooked into a wicked smile, and he backhanded Tang Xiaowu's soft, boneless little hands, holding them tightly in his large palm.

"What? Are you so worried about your husband?"

Chen Shanzhi leaned forward slightly, his burning breath intentionally hitting her earlobe.

His thumb was extremely restless, gently rubbing and playing with the back of her delicate hand.

"Who... who is my husband..."

Tang Xiaowu was stiffened by this sudden intimate action, and her earlobes turned red instantly.

If it were before, she would definitely have struggled desperately like a bristling little cat.

But at this moment, she only twisted her wrist symbolically and let Chen Shanzhi hold it softly.

Two alluring red clouds flew quietly on her cheeks.

She lowered her head like a wronged little wife, her beautiful eyes pretending to look at the Martial Arts Arena below.

In reality, her heartbeat was already fast, like a beating drum.

Chen Shanzhi chuckled and did not push his luck.

He leaned comfortably on the back of the chair, playing with the beauty's jade hands while watching the upcoming martial arts performance with great interest.

...

As time passed.

The names on the immortal stele battle list lit up and dimmed one by one.

Soon, it was Tang Xiaowu's turn to play.

According to the data originally recorded on the immortal stele, Tang Xiaowu was only at the strength of Xuanguan Seven Apertures.

And the opponent matched to her was named Fan Yueze.

He was also a Martial Artist in the Heaven Class with Xuanguan Seven Apertures, using a long spear.

Fan Yueze stood on the arena, looking at the delicate and beautiful civilian goddess opposite him.

The corner of his mouth curled up, thinking of showing off and being chivalrous.

Who would have thought that after Tang Xiaowu got on stage, she seemed to be stimulated by Chen Shanzhi's consecutive Breakthrough of three apertures, or perhaps she didn't want to be too far behind her man.

"Buzz!"

Her True Qi, which was originally suppressed at Xuanguan Seven Apertures, suddenly erupted!

The thick pressure of Xuanguan Eight Apertures instantly pressed towards Fan Yueze!

"Holy crap? Why is it also Xuanguan Eight Apertures?"

Fan Yueze was so scared that the long spear in his hand almost fell to the ground.

The result was without suspense, Tang Xiaowu only used one move.

Like a ghost, she got close to Fan Yueze's blind spot.

She slapped him unconscious with one palm and won easily.

When Tang Xiaowu walked off the arena with light steps like a lotus flower emerging from water, and sat back down beside Chen Shanzhi, the students on the surrounding stands were completely numb.

"This damn... this pair of dog lovers, they are definitely doing this on purpose, right?"

"One pretended to be five apertures, one pretended to be seven, but as soon as they got on stage, they were both Xuanguan Eight Apertures!"

"Is it popular now for couples to hide their strength in groups to bully the commoners? Are you not leaving a way for us single dogs to live!"

Amidst the sour sounds of envy and hatred from the crowd, this long opening martial arts performance was finally coming to an end.

Above the sky, the phantom of the immortal stele erupted with extremely dazzling golden light again!

Two names, like two scorching suns, collided fiercely in mid-air, turning into two beams of light reaching the sky, shooting directly at the center of the arena!

[Lu Yuchen vs. Xing Zhige]

The moment this line of large characters appeared, the air in the entire Martial Arts Arena seemed to freeze.

Lu Yuchen, ranked fifth on the hidden dragon ranking, vs. Xing Zhige, ranked sixth.

The collision between Martial Artists at the Xuanguan Peak had finally begun!