Chapter 602: Birds of a Feather! So the Third Devotee Is This Kind of Person Too! A Big Shot! The Zhou Family’s High-End Setup!

“Daoist Master, you must be careful. This man is deeply scheming, his words cannot be fully trusted,” Mr. Jinyan cautioned.

“It’s fine. They’re all just clay chickens and tile dogs[1],” Li Yanchu said with a smile.

Mr. Jinyan was taken aback.

Young people these days really do speak with confidence!

Still, this one was strong enough to back it up.

He offered a few more words of advice, and also arranged with Minghe to play a few more games of chess when they had the chance.

To be safe, Li Yanchu struck Zhou Yushu unconscious with a chop of his hand, then stepped forward to Xiahou Zhen’s side.

At this moment, Xiahou Zhen’s soul seemed to have suffered a heavy blow, swaying back and forth. Li Yanchu sent a stream of spiritual power into him, helping stabilize his primordial spirit. Only then did Xiahou Zhen calm down.

“Who exactly are you, sir? And why meddle in such idle affairs?” Xiahou Zhen asked in a low voice.

Li Yanchu pointed at the unconscious Zhou Yushu.

“You trafficked people, your crimes are heinous. I’ve already learned the full details from his mouth. Now I’ll have you confirm the story. If you dare deceive me, I’ll grind your bones to dust and scatter your ashes, leaving your soul with no peace!”

Xiahou Zhen was speechless as he glanced at the unconscious Zhou Yushu. The man’s face was swollen like a pig’s head; clearly he’d been beaten badly.

Xiahou Zhen let out a sigh and laid out everything he knew without holding anything back.

Zhou Yushu believed Xiahou Zhen to be a fickle, untrustworthy man. And didn’t Xiahou Zhen likewise think Zhou Yushu was nothing more than a scheming, spoiled young aristocrat? Without having gone through life-and-death trials, even if he had some cleverness, it was nothing but petty cleverness.

Xiahou Zhen was convinced he wouldn’t be able to endure this young Daoist’s brutal methods and would definitely spill everything. So he, too, honestly confessed to everything.

The accounts given by the two matched almost perfectly.

“How long have you been with Shanhai Tower?” Li Yanchu asked.

“Thirty years already. The Zhou family traffics people every year and trades them with the demon clans. From what I know, it should also involve a certain big shot in the capital,” Xiahou Zhen said.

He dropped a bombshell.

“Who is it? Do you know?” Li Yanchu asked.

“Only the Zhou family head, Zhou Yunding, and the Grand Devotee truly know the details. Daoist Master, you can capture them and question them directly,” Xiahou Zhen said.

Li Yanchu’s lips twitched slightly.

These people... damn, they really don’t care about the Kingdom of Qian. They sell you out the moment they feel like it, without blinking an eye. Once they’ve wrecked themselves, they’re terrified their teammates might survive just fine, so they have to drag everyone along, hand in hand, down the road to the Yellow Springs.

Li Yanchu took Zhou Yushu with him, as well as Xiahou Zhen, whose magical powers had been sealed. From his bosom, he produced the Heaven-Earth Demonbane Godshuttle. This was the flying artifact that the heir of Prince Qing had once seized.

Once he infused it with his magical power, the shuttle transformed into the shape of a small boat. He took Minghe, Zhou Yushu, and Xiahou Zhen and swiftly soared into the sky, becoming a streak of light heading toward the Zhou family’s estate.

Xiahou Zhen’s eyes widened in shock.

Who is this young Daoist? To think he has such a powerful flying artifact.

His curiosity about Li Yanchu’s origin surged.

Soon, they arrived at the Zhou family estate in Linjiang County. Li Yanchu retracted the artifact, and the four of them slowly descended, directly entering the Zhou property.

“Who’s there?!”

The Zhou family outwardly appeared to be ordinary wealthy merchants, benevolent and respectable. But in truth, they were tightly controlled within, with numerous overt and covert guards.

Li Yanchu brought the two men and Minghe inside, immediately alerting those within.

Whoosh, whoosh, Whoosh!

Figures dashed out. There were martial experts, Buddhist and Daoist cultivators, even members of the demon clans. Their cultivation systems varied, but all were highly trained, suffused with lingering resentment.

They were all assassins of the Shanhai Tower. Even the Zhou family’s servants, concubines, gatekeepers, and accountants were Shanhai Tower operatives.

An unremarkable Linjiang County wealthy family could wield strength comparable to a full sect, especially with the Zhou family Old Ancestor, a Yang Spirit expert, present. The Shanhai Tower, this underworld force, had already surpassed many well-known Daoist sects and monasteries.

A seemingly ordinary servant lunged forward, holding a lightning talisman in each hand.

He was a Daoist disciple.

Crack!

Lightning sparked from his hands.

Li Yanchu glanced at him, frowning slightly before he struck out with a palm and unleashed the Divine Astral Hands.

The seemingly ordinary servant was immediately sent flying backward. He crashed into a courtyard wall, bringing it down with a thunderous crash, and fell to the ground. No one knew whether he was alive or dead.

Meanwhile, the two lightning talismans he held never even ignited.

The surroundings suddenly shifted, and an accountant flipped through his ledger as if controlling a compass. He was a feng shui master.

The Zhou family estate contained hundreds of formations of varying sizes, and as a feng shui master, he could manipulate part of their power.

Li Yanchu took a step forward.

Crack!

The feng shui formation shattered without warning.

The accountant’s eyes widened, and he said, “Careful. This person is not simple.”

No ordinary person could destroy a feng shui formation in a single step.

Suddenly, an old man who’d been sweeping the yard had his skin turn a sickly blue black, and his body grew massive, so much so that his clothes burst apart. A thick stench of death radiated from him.

In the blink of an eye, he transformed into a jiangshi, a combat-capable one at that. With a low roar, he lunged at Li Yanchu.

Charging in to attack alongside him was a kitchen maid who controlled countless thin threads, all of them dripping with blood. There were also two guards possessed by summoned spirits, their strength soaring to terrifying levels. And two young attendants who pulled out military crossbows. The bows glimmered with a blue light and strange formations, clearly marking them as magical artifacts.

In the blink of an eye, a deadly net of attacks came crashing down like the sky and earth themselves were closing in. On the ground, another person grabbed Li Yanchu by the ankles, trying to pin him in place.

Li Yanchu thought to himself,

From the outside, this Zhou family looked ordinary... but inside, it’s a whole other world.

This wasn’t a mere wealthy family of Linjiang County. It was clearly a major cultivation sect.

He had just stormed into a sect’s stronghold, but Li Yanchu’s cultivation was extremely high, and his decisiveness in combat unmatched.

With a sharp tug, he yanked the figure from the ground. The person was plain-looking, almost indistinguishable from the others; he had a face that blended into the crowd.

Li Yanchu threw him with force, and the man collided with the silver jiangshi elder. The old man’s two fingers shot out together, his sharp nails like ten short blades.

The strike came at blinding speed. Li Yanchu used his qi to suppress the young man’s power, rendering him immobile in midair.

His body was nearly pierced by the elder’s nails. But at the last moment, the elder retracted his hands, and the two collided.

Even the robust silver jiangshi was sent tumbling across the ground. It looked up in astonishment at the young Daoist.

“Who... exactly is this person?”

1. “Clay chickens and tile dogs” (also rendered as “clay chickens and tile hounds”) is a Chinese idiom. Literally, it refers to chickens molded from mud and dogs made of tiles. Figuratively, it is used to describe things or people that are impressive in appearance only, possessing an empty reputation with no real substance, or that are utterly fragile and unable to withstand a single blow.

The idiom originates from Romance of the Three Kingdoms by Luo Guanzhong, chapter twenty-five, where Guan Yu uses it to describe Yan Liang’s subordinates, meaning that despite their reputation, they were unworthy of their name and easily defeated. ☜