Chapter 983: Confrontation

“What is this?” Zu An was now curious. He opened it up and took a look. He saw eight large words on the title page: ‘Thousand identities, one face; one face, thousand identities.’ All sorts of detailed diagrams followed, analyzing the various parts of one’s face, trunk, limbs, and other areas.

“This seems to be some teaching material for sketching and anatomy.” Zu An was stunned. A small scrap of paper fell out from the booklet. He picked it up and took a look. It contained Thick-Browed Daoist’s notes.

It turned out that because Thick-Browed Daoist’s brows were too conspicuous no matter how he dressed, he would always be recognized on the spot. That only made his reputation worse and worse.

He didn’t mind too much at first, but he found it harder and harder to deal with later on. He had to invest several times the effort to accomplish the same things. That was the consequence of being infamous.

That was why he always wanted to change his appearance, at the very least when he was about to commit some evil deed. That way, no one would recognize that it was him. Unfortunately, the camouflaging techniques of the martial world were full of restrictions. Even if he could change his face, they couldn’t cover up his glaring eyebrows. The only way to deal with that was to shave them off. And yet, he had been so fond of those brows that he couldn’t bring himself to do it.

In the end, after searching everywhere, he had ended up encountering the ‘Thousand Identities’ technique. It was a miraculous secret manual!

𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

It was clearly a manual that needed a lot of luck and enlightenment to cultivate, and yet it didn’t increase one’s cultivation no matter how much one’s mastery of it increased. However, it could make one able to do something not even master rank cultivators could do—change one’s appearance at will.

It was different from the appearance reconstruction techniques that were common in Yi Commandery. Such techniques often needed medicines or other tools to complement them. Furthermore, it was hard to change one’s appearance to the point of being completely identical to someone else.

‘Face of a Thousand Identities’ was different. It didn’t need any medicine or any external help; it only needed one to be skilled in drawing and memorization. That way, one could instantly remember one’s appearance and all sorts of fine details.

Then, one would modify one’s muscles and even bone structure according to the ki transfer technique outlined in the manual, making one’s appearance, physique, and other factors completely identical. Not even those closest to the person one copied would be able to tell the difference.

Unfortunately, the manual’s cultivation difficulty was extremely high. The memorization part wasn’t too bad, as the minds of cultivators were much more powerful than ordinary people. It wouldn’t be too difficult for them to remember some details in the short term.

The key was that drawing was something that completely depended on talent! It was really hard for normal people to reach the level the Face of a Thousand Identities technique needed.

There was one other point of difficulty. Face of a Thousand Identities couldn’t raise one’s cultivation at all, but it consumed a large amount of ki. After all, one needed to constantly maintain the modification of their muscles and bone structure, and such things were maintained through ki. Furthermore, in order to change one’s own body as one wished, the demand on both the quality and quantity of one’s ki was absolutely frightening. Either way, Thick-Browed Daoist definitely hadn’t reached that level just yet.

“No wonder he only used a black cloak and didn’t successfully change his appearance.” Zu An tossed the booklet into the Brilliant Glass Bead. I can turn into a girl now too; that’s way too useful, no matter how you look at it…

He really was incredibly happy with how the day had turned out. He felt fantastic when he thought about his harvest.

Suddenly, there was a large disturbance outside. The voices of the Hub of Freedom’s staff seemed to be mixed in as well. Zu An quickly unsummoned Daji, then lay down himself. Someone barged in as soon as he covered himself.

“Who…?” Zu An pretended to have been roused awake. He crawled up in a daze and looked toward the door. It was as if he couldn’t process what was going on.

Meanwhile, he secretly observed the situation. The cultivation ranks of those who had come in weren’t low. There were several people around Yang Long’s level, and there was another person who was even stronger; his body’s aura was extremely steady. He gave off a deep and immeasurable feeling.

Master rank?

The one who entered had clear triangular eyes that were identical to Sun Ji’s. Furthermore, judging from his age, he was probably Sun Ji’s father, the Yi Commandery’s Minister Sun Xun. He looked around as soon as he came in, his gaze incredibly sharp as it quickly landed on Zu An.

Zu An suddenly seemed to have woken up from his confusion. He roared furiously, “Who are all of you?! All of you better get the hell out!”

Sun Xun’s expression darkened when he heard Zu An’s voice. He remarked, “The young truly don’t fear death.”

The Hub of Freedom’s men also entered just then, led by Chubby Senior. However, he no longer had his earlier pride. Instead, his expression was one full of flattery as he asked, “Minister Sun, which wind brought your respected self here? Could it be that there has been some kind of misunderstanding here?”

Tang Tian’er and the others followed behind him; Tang Tian’er had the same sweet and professional fake smile as always. She snuck a glance at Zu An, a bit of confusion flickering through her eyes. Why was he able to wake up so quickly?

But after thinking for a bit, she realized that Sun Xun had slammed the door, so how could he not wake up from such a loud disturbance? Furthermore, the constitutions of those from the ocean races were different from humans, so she didn’t think too much about it.

“A misunderstanding?” Sun Xun sneered. “My Ji’er was killed. Are you saying I shouldn’t be looking for the murderer?”

“What?! Something happened to young master Sun?” Chubby Senior asked.

“Did you not know of it?” Sun Xun stared at him with sharp eyes. “The whereabouts of guests should be absolutely confidential when they enter and leave the Hub of Freedom. Guests have no way of knowing how other guests leave. You’re the only ones who know how each person has departed from this place.

Chubby Senior immediately defended himself. “I am being wronged here, Minister Sun! Our Hub of Freedom has operated for so many years, and we have never done anything contrary to our guests’ interests! This is the basis our establishment is founded on! Furthermore, young master Sun has purchased something from the auction that he has not even fully paid for, so he owes us money. Would we not be losing out on a lot if we harmed him?”

“What?” Sun Xun’s brow rose. The temperature of the entire room immediately dropped.

Chubby Senior could only brace himself and hand over the debt note. He gave Sun Xun a rough recount of what happened, then asked, “May I ask if that jade pendant is still with the young master?”

Sun Xun harrumphed and said, “It was already taken away a long time ago.” He gave the debt note a glance. Sure enough, it was his son’s handwriting. There was even his own personal seal.

Sun Ji had already contacted him about that through a special channel. He had rushed over to receive his son when he received the message, but he hadn’t expected to still be a step too late.

Chubby Senior’s eyes twitched when he saw Sun Xun put away the debt note, but he knew that there was no chance of them getting the money back as well. In that case, he might as well let the money help them avert disaster, or else the other party might just redirect their anger toward the Hub of Freedom.

Sure enough, after Sun Xun put away the debt note, he didn’t act out against the Hub of Freedom and instead looked at Zu An, asking, “You are that 333?”

“I am,” Zu An got up and said indifferently.

“Arrest him!” Sun Xun ordered. A group of people rushed at Zu An.

Zu An quickly shot Chubby Senior and Tang Tian’er a look, asking, “Is this how the Hub of Freedom treats their guests?”

Chubby Senior was a bit hesitant, but Tang Tian’er spoke up first. “Minister Sun, may I ask why you are arresting him?”

At the same time, she transmitted some words to Chubby Senior through ki, simply stating that there were so many guests watching. If they didn’t do anything, the Hub of Freedom’s reputation would be done for, and they would even lose their connection with the ocean races. Chubby Senior had a huge headache. But what she said made sense, so he quickly rushed out to stop them.

Sun Xun’s eyes narrowed as he asked, “What, is your Hub of Freedom going to defend the perpetrator who killed my Ji’er?”

Chubby Senior and Tang Tian’er were stunned. Chubby Senior asked, “He is the one who killed young master Sun? There has to be some kind of mistake, no?”

“One of our men wrote that 333 was the killer before his death. What, could it be that you think I would lie about this?” Sun Xun snapped impatiently. If not for his reservations toward the one behind the Hub of Freedom, he would have already razed the entire place to the ground to accompany his son to the grave. He wouldn’t have the patience to say so much at all.

Zu An spoke up just then. “Absolute nonsense. I was in this room the entire time, and Miss Tang can serve as my witness. How could I possibly have gone out and killed someone?”

The eyes of the onlookers landed on Tang Tian’er when they heard that. They were all thinking, The stunning hostess actually kept guest 333 company? Do jade token guests really receive treatment that great?” The other jade token guests felt awful. They were also jade token guests, so why didn’t they enjoy such benefits?

Now that she was being stared at that way, even though Tang Tian’er was usually confident and unrestrained, she still blushed. But as matters stood, she could only say, “Just now… I really was with him.”

She couldn’t say she had knocked him out, right? Doing something like that to a jade token guest would be a tremendous scandal for the Hub of Freedom!