Zu An’s face grew pale when he saw the hand descending. Just as he was about to evade, a troop of archers rushed out from the Red Cloak Army behind him, and fired a volley at the translucent projection.

The arrows these men fired were wrapped in a layer of red light. The flight of orderly arrows resembled a meteor shower.

Zu An was amazed. This was just like the arrow enchantments in the movies!

The red meteor shower crashed against the translucent hand. The projection was instantly scattered, and the arrows continued to travel forward.

However, they had already exhausted a lot of their power, and were quickly cut down by the imperial guards.

Zu An’s eyes widened. He would never have expected an army to possess such power.

Liu Yao’s expression had grown terribly ugly. His attack had failed spectacularly in front of so many people! He roared in rage and drew his blade. A hundred-meter long streak of blade ki hacked downwards towards the Red Cloak Army. He wanted to completely disrupt this army’s formation!

“Assemble!”

Orders sounded one after another. At once, the men of the Red Cloak Army raised their shields forty-five degrees over their heads. Their small shields swirled with blue radiance, and a giant shield materialized in the sky above them.

Liu Yao’s hundred meter blade of ki had looked incredibly powerful in the beginning, but it immediately paled in comparison to this massive shield.

There was a tremendous boom. The blade of ki shattered into several large chunks, and those chunks broke apart further into smaller pieces.

A circular wave rippled out across the surface of the giant shield, but it remained intact.

Zu An observed this entire process intently. He noticed that this ripple was eventually distributed across each individual soldier’s shield.

Even the greatest power would no longer seem as terrifying once it had been divided several thousand times.

How could Zu An pass up such an excellent opportunity? He glanced at Liu Yao and snickered. “Does General Liu have something else to show us?”

This provocation was just too much. Liu Yao felt as though he was about to implode from anger.

You have successfully trolled Liu Yao for 999 Rage points!

“If you have any skill at all, stop hiding behind your army! Come out and face me!” Liu Yao roared. He could crush this puny shrimp with a single finger, yet he couldn’t do anything if he hid behind an army.

Zu An sighed. “Is it just me or are you really stupid? An expert at the pinnacle of ninth rank wants a young junior to challenge him alone? Is there something wrong with my ears?”

This man had already made it clear that he wanted to bring down the Chu clan, and there was no way he would change his mind even if Zu An was a little nicer. Since that was the case, what was the point in holding back? He would just say whatever it was he wanted to say. That way, he'd be able to vent his frustration, and even earn some Rage points along the way.

“You…” Liu Yao almost choked on his breath. He knew that his demand had been unreasonable, but he’d thrown it out mainly because this kid’s smug attitude had driven his rage to the edge of madness.

You have successfully trolled Liu Yao for 991 Rage points!

Xie Daoyun spoke up at this time. “General Liu, young master Zu has come here mainly out of worry for the safety of Brightmoon Duke and the others. I ask the general to recognize his filial piety and permit his troops to guard the surrounding area.”

Liu Yao gave Xie Daoyun a look. He knew that she was giving him a reason to back down, so his expression eased a little. “You must be Xie Yi’s daughter? I’ve heard about your talent, even when I was in the capital city. You were one of the candidates considered to become the crown princess. We were close to becoming relatives.”

Zu An gave Xie Daoyun a surprised look. He hadn’t expected her to be one of the crown prince’s choices. Didn’t that mean that he’d almost embraced the crown prince’s woman?

Xie Daoyun blushed. “General Liu is joking. This humble one has only shallow learning and ordinary looks. I am not worthy of the crown prince’s kindness.”

She had heard about this before, but everyone in the Xie clan knew that there were too many variables to be looked at when choosing the crown princess. The Xie clan’s background wasn’t illustrious enough to be connected to the crown prince in marriage, so it wasn’t a big deal to them.

Furthermore, with what they knew about the crown prince, she had no desire to be with him even if she were chosen.

Liu Yao continued, “Why is Miss Xie here? I heard that they took a hostage to get into the city. Were you the hostage? Hmph! These people are absolutely out of control! They dare to publicly seize the City Lord’s daughter, and use her as leverage to barge into the city! Speak up if you have any grievances! I and all of these imperial guards will bring you justice!”

He had already made his decision. As long as she gave the word, his subordinates would kill Zu An. If the Red Cloak Army dared to resist, that would be perfect.

Even though the number of imperial guardsmen was small, their strength was not. This also gave them an avenue to involve the City Lord’s own troops.

Even if they ultimately lost, it would still be easy enough for him to escape afterwards. The Red Cloak Army could absorb his attacks by relying on their formations, but they couldn’t prevent his escape.

Meanwhile, fighting against the Imperial Guard and the City Defense Army would be an offence serious enough to warrant the eradication of a clan. There would be nothing left for him to be worried about, and he would have completed the task he’d been given.

No one could have predicted that Xie Daoyun would smile at him and say, “Thank you General Liu for your good intentions. Ah Zu and I are friends. He didn’t actually kidnap me.”

When he heard this, Chu Yucheng nudged Chu Hongcai and whispered, “Bro, why the heck do so many girls like him? He’s surely not as attractive as me, and my body is so much better than his.”

Chu Hongcai gave his bucket-like build a look and sneered. “Do you have no self-awareness at all?”

However, the scene from the Immortal Abode appeared in his mind again. Back then, Qiu Honglei had seemed so full of affection for Zu An. He immediately felt heartbroken.

The other Red Cloak Army soldiers looked at each other in dismay as well. After all, Chu First Miss was already the equivalent of a fairy in their eyes, yet she had ended up marrying someone they had never even heard of.

Quite a few of them had looked into this mysterious young master, and had obviously heard of his various affairs. They weren’t expecting the City Lord’s esteemed daughter to give up so much for him! Just what was so good about this fellow?

In contrast to their curious and interested expressions, Liu Yao’s expression had gone completely dark. “Miss Xie, do you know what you are saying?”

Xie Daoyun smiled and said in a refined and courteous manner, “This junior is fully aware of her actions.”

Liu Yao was appalled at how stubborn she was. Is the Chu clan already on King Qi’s side? I have to report this back to the empress as soon as possible.

Seeing his lack of a reply, Zu An said, “We want to meet Master and Madam. I hope General Liu will grant us this favor.”

Liu Yao felt like his eye sockets were splitting. This brat was going too far!

You have successfully trolled Liu Yao for 666 Rage points!

At that moment, a bright and clear laugh rang out. “Brightmoon Duke hasn’t been convicted of anything yet, so I believe he is not a criminal. It’s perfectly reasonable and fair for family members to wish to see each other.”

A group of riders were headed in this direction. The one in the front was none other than the City Lord of Brightmoon City, Xie Yi. At his side was a man who was even prettier than a woman; none other than Xie Xiu.

“Dad!” Xie Daoyun called out with joy at their arrival.

Xie Yi gave her a look. “Get over here already. Hugging another man like that… are you trying to start a scandal?”

“Oh…” Xie Daoyun lowered her head in guilt and stuck out her tongue. Then, she said quietly to Zu An, “Ah Zu, I’ll take my leave.”

“Okay. Thank you for today,” Zu An replied with a smile.

Xie Daoyun’s face went red. She quickly walked over to Xie Yi’s side.

Seeing how his sister was acting, Xie Xiu couldn’t help but give Zu An a look. I wanted to be your friend, but it seems you want to be my brother-in-law?

Then again, when did my sister start getting along with him?

Liu Yao spoke as well. “So, it’s City Lord Xie! Why have you come?”

Xie Yi smiled. “I heard that some misunderstanding had taken place, so I came here to have a look.”

“What sort of misunderstanding could there be? Since Zu An is considerate enough to offer to secure the surrounding area, I’ll leave it to him.” Liu Yao suddenly smiled. Now that Xie Yi was clearly standing with the Chu clan, he knew that, if he insisted on a fight, he would be the one that would be losing out. There was no need to persist with this any longer. Either way, once there was concrete proof, they could slowly settle the debts owed by the Chu clan and Xie clan at their leisure.

Zu An was stunned at his instantaneous transformation. He thought that he was already shameless enough, yet compared to these old foxes, he was clearly still lacking! There was no way he would be able to change appearances that quickly.

However, since the other party had backed down, there was no reason for him not to abuse this fact. “General Liu, why couldn’t you have said that earlier? If you had, I wouldn’t have had to use my virtue to convince you.”

Liu Yao flew into a rage. “What did you say?!”

You have successfully trolled Liu Yao for 666 Rage points!