Sang Qian was completely confused. What the heck were these two talking about? “If you don’t want to eat, then don’t eat. I’m bloody starving.”

Sang Hong gave his son a furious look. “Even Zu An can tell, why can’t you? Are you inferior to him in this area as well?”

Sang Qian was stunned, and at the same time, extremely unhappy. His father had kept on praising Zu An all this while, almost as if he was his son instead. He was totally fed up with this. “Dad, if you like him so much, he can be your son!”

Sang Hong took a deep breath to steady himself.

He really was about to lose it because of his son. He had no choice but to explain, “Use that damned brain of yours for once! How could a small-time chef from a tiny, remote town like this possibly cook such decent food? Not only that, the Embroidered Envoy always inspects our food before it is given to us. Why would a member of the staff be allowed to approach us?”

“Huh?” Sang Qian gave a sudden start. He tossed away the bowl in his hands immediately .

The food on the plate fell onto the floor without incident, but when the bowl of soup scattered across the ground, waves of bubbles appeared across the surface of the spilled liquid. There was clearly poison inside.

“What the hell is this carbonated shit…?” Zu An cursed. He also poured his soup on the floor. Sure enough, bubbles emerged as well. He frowned. These attackers had no sense of honor! They planned to kill everyone! Were they here for him, or for Sang Hong and Sang Qian?

His question soon received an answer. The service staff sneered. “Since you don’t wish to die with dignity, then let me help you out!”

He produced a dagger from the food case and rushed straight at Sang Hong and Sang Qian.

This thrust was exceedingly swift. In an instant, a strong killing intent filled the room, locking onto the father and son of the Sang clan.

Sang Qian’s face drained of all color, and he began to panic. If his cultivation wasn’t sealed, he would never have been scared of this person. Right now, however, he was even weaker than an ordinary person. It was too easy for his attacker to kill him.

In contrast, Sang Hong remained icy calm. After all, he was a powerful eighth rank cultivator. Even though he couldn’t use his cultivation, his extraordinary sight still remained.

He threw the tray of poisoned food towards the service staff. With the staff member’s line of sight blocked by the flying food, he picked up the chopsticks and stabbed them towards the staff member’s neck.

The staff member clutched at his neck, but his carotid artery had already been punctured. Blood gushed out continuously. He was in complete disbelief. He didn’t expect this old man to kill him instead! After all, Sang Hong’s cultivation was currently sealed, so he should have been no different from an ordinary old man.

Zu An gulped. A tiger without teeth was still a tiger! His grasp of timing was just too precise, and he’d killed his enemy as if it had been no big deal. Considering how much he had provoked Sang Qian along the way, if Sang Hong decided to come after him, he might not be able to do a thing.

Sang Hong was also gasping for breath. With his cultivation sealed, that attack had clearly used up all of his strength.

At that instant, the window was broken open, and several people barged in, all of them dressed as inn workers. However, the blades in their hands were all pointed at Sang Hong and Sang Qian.

Sang Qian was a powerful cultivator in his own right. Once the initial shock had faded, he reacted quickly. Even though his cultivation was sealed and he wasn’t able to defeat these opponents, he could still use the various things inside the room to survive, even if it was a desperate struggle.

He had no attention left to spare for his father.

Sang Hong’s previous attack had drained him of most of his strength. He rolled across the ground as his attacker’s blade thrust towards him, just barely managing to escape. However, a second blade was already descending.

His strength was spent, and he couldn’t gather any more in time. There was no way to evade this fatal blade. All he could do was to sigh inwardly. To think that someone like him, who had lived such a domineering life, was actually going to die like this…

A sharp crack rang out. The assassin froze momentarily, and his blade deviated just a hair. He instinctively covered his head and looked behind him.

Zu An raised both of his hands. “Would you believe me if I said that I didn’t do it on purpose?”

That attacker was furious. He was just about to swing his blade at Zu An, but Sang Hong had already recovered. He picked up a fragment of the shattered bowl from the ground and brought it across the attacker’s neck in a clean motion.

The attacker clutched at his neck and stumbled backwards. He collapsed.

“Thanks!” Sang Hong gasped for breath as he nodded towards Zu An in gratitude.

“It wasn’t a big deal.” Zu An was stunned. Although this guy looked like an old man, his attacks were so swift and precise! He didn’t give his opponent any room to react. It was no wonder that even the Chu clan, a clan that had prospered for a thousand years, had almost been brought down by him.

He had interfered for two reasons. Firstly, Sang Hong had given him a chance to escape before by stopping King Liang. This could be considered repayment for that favor. The second reason was precisely because of what Sang Hong had said earlier about cooperation. It suddenly struck him that he was headed to the capital, a place that he knew nothing about. There wasn’t a single person there he could rely on, and he didn’t have even the most basic intelligence about what he would face. This made planning anything extremely difficult.

If he could secure Sang Hong’s help, that would solve many of his problems. Getting on this old man’s good side wasn’t a terrible idea.

However, he had no time to think about this right now. The attackers had been mortified by the scene. The leader shouted, “Finish them quickly!’

They began to move more quickly, their attacks growing more vicious than before. One of them even rushed at Zu An, although whether it was because they wanted to kill him or just to stop him from causing any more trouble was unclear.

Zu An wasn’t about to gamble with his life. He ran immediately. Even though he didn’t have Sang Hong’s brilliant sight, he still had his Sunflower Phantasm. He couldn’t use his ki to augment it, but it was better than nothing.

Sang Qian was finally struck by a blade. He had been evading all this time, and although it had been a series of close calls, he hadn’t been wounded until now.

“What happened to the guards outside?” Zu An was horrified. Even though not much time had passed, there was so much noise in the room, and there was no way those outside wouldn’t be able to hear anything. What the heck was going on?

At the same time, something else seemed off. Even though these attackers were fierce, and every blow of theirs was potentially lethal, they did not have high levels of cultivation. This was the only reason why Zu An and the rest were still alive even though their own cultivations were sealed.

None of this added up!

He noticed that Sang Hong’s situation had deteriorated significantly. He had suffered multiple cuts on his body, and it seemed as though he was on the brink of death.

A flicker of light caught Zu An’s eyes. When he was still hesitating, a slim figure suddenly rushed in. There came the clear sound of a blade being drawn. A flexible sword thrust out like a silver dragon, and the entire room was illuminated by a streak of silver light. It was so blinding that almost everyone couldn’t open their eyes.

Zu An squinted, and could vaguely make out a figure moving through the room, as fast as lightning, the flexible sword in their hand slicing across the necks of their attackers. The silver light quickly faded, and the attackers collapsed one after another.

He finally made out this individual’s appearance. This person was dressed as a servant, and wore a worn leather cap. However, the rough clothing couldn’t conceal her graceful figure. Together with her curved brows, small mouth, and fair skin, this was clearly a woman dressed as a man.

He had seen too many examples of this in the dramas of his previous world. He didn’t expect the cross-dressing women of this world to be so careless as well.

With all that figured out, he walked over to her. “Thank you, great hero, for saving our lives. Unfortunately, I don’t have anything precious on me. How about I give you a hug to express my gratitude?”

As he spoke, Zu An reached his arm towards her shoulder. However, his hand froze in midair, because her sword was already pressing against his body. “Why are you such a rascal?” She asked with a frown.

Her voice was clear and sharp. It sounded pleasant, even when it was angry.

Sang Qian was immediately overjoyed when he saw her. He cried out, “Little sis, kill that guy!”

Zu An felt his mind short-circuit momentarily. Little sis?

The young lady turned towards Sang Qian. “What did he do?”

“This fellow bullied your sister-in-law!” Even though Sang Qian hadn’t seen anything, he was still driven mad from the simple fact that they had shared a carriage.

“Then he does deserve death!” The young lady’s face turned cold, and she thrust her sword out.