Chapter 1685: Code Names

The two of them jumped in fright. Qiu Honglei quickly pushed Zu An away. She normally always carried herself in a flirtatious manner, but she was now incredibly embarrassed.

Zu An was also a bit embarrassed. What the heck is this? No wonder they always say that a rabbit doesn’t eat the grass by its own burrow! As expected, that easily leads to problems…

Fortunately, he was quite thick-skinned and quickly calmed down, saying, “So it was big sis Yun, haha… I was actually just worrying about you.”

Yun Jianyue was a bit annoyed, but she knew that getting angry here was meaningless. It was completely normal for lovers to kiss each other. She couldn't just run over and tell Honglei ‘my disciple, I actually have an affair with your man’, right?

She replied with a snort, “Don’t worry, I won’t die anytime soon. But you seem to have wrapped up your work pretty quickly, hm? You cleaned up Zhang Jie’s forces so quickly.”

Zu An chuckled in embarrassment and said, “Zhang Jie was a court official, after all. There was no way for him to build an entire fort for himself like King Yan.”

Furthermore, with the help of City Lord Liao Ling, his trusted aides had all been detained before they could even react. That was why they hadn’t repeated the fiasco with King Yan this time.

“Aren’t you quite the little genius here? King Yan was praising you the entire time after returning,” Yun Jianyue said. She couldn't help but smile when she thought back to what had happened. Suddenly, she added, “Right, Honglei, give him that thing we found.”

Qiu Honglei seemed to snap out of her daze. She took out a small paper slip and gave it to Zu An.

“What is this?” Zu An exclaimed, his expression changing a bit as soon as he received the paper strip, because he could sense that the material was different.

It was high quality paper that wasn’t easily damaged by water or fire. The booklets each Embroidered Envoy carried with them were all made out of this paper, recording their missions and other clues. The special material was meant to guard against damage. Among the Embroidered Envoy, these booklets often served a similar purpose to his previous world’s blackboxes.

For example, if something strange happened to the Embroidered Envoy, the problem could often be identified by checking the booklet. That was often the case when two Embroidered Envoys were working together. If one died and one lived, and the deceased’s booklet showed signs of tampering and other traces, that companion would be suspected. That was a way to keep Embroidered Envoys in check by setting them against each other.

Qiu Honglei replied, “This is something King Yan Manor obtained from their investigation earlier. Back then, Golden Token Seven died too mysteriously, so King Yan sent his men to investigate the cause. There’s no lack of capable individuals in the king manor. One of them followed all sorts of clues to find this strip of paper Golden Token Seven found.”

Zu An thought to himself, No wonder we didn’t find any useful clues from Golden Token Seven’s remaining possessions. They were probably all collected by King Yan Manor first.

He opened the slip of paper and saw a string of strange names recorded on it. Many of them had some circles drawn around them. It was clear that these names had left Golden Token Seven quite frustrated.

“Stranger, salted fish, servant, tomato, stone, old lady-killer, malva nut, chick, landowner…” Zu An read off as he memorized the contents of the strip of paper. He was a bit stunned. “These are…?”

These things that had been recorded seemed like totally random nonsense. If it hadn’t been recorded in Golden Token Seven’s booklet, the paper would have just been thrown away as trash.

Yun Jianyue shook her head and said, “We don’t know either. But it clearly has a significant relationship with Golden Token Seven’s death.”

Zu An examined the contents again. Some of the items looked like things one would find in a food market, while some were materials. Were there some names too? He didn’t know what kind of hidden message Golden Token Seven wanted to record. He couldn't figure out the code at all.

Qiu Honglei quietly said, “I’ve actually heard a rumor that there’s a group of mysterious people planning to go against that damn emperor. These might be the nicknames of those people.”

Yun Jianyue was shocked. She asked, “How come I didn’t know about that? Why didn’t you tell me about that before?”

Qiu Honglei’s face heated up as she said, “I only learned of this by accident two days ago. Zhao Lu told me about it to get closer to me, but I don’t know if it’s true or not.”

Zhao Lu was King Yan’s grandson, the son of King Yan’s heir Zhao Huang. He was the most famous hedonistic son in all of Yi City.

Zu An thought, Qiu Honglei really does have astonishing charm after all! Even King Yan’s heir, who was used to seeing beautiful women, was completely infatuated.

“Is it possible that he was just deliberately misleading us?” Yun Jianyue asked, still upset that her precious disciple had forgotten her master because of a man. She had actually told Zu An something so important first.

Qiu Honglei shook her head slightly and said, “I still have this degree of discernment in my opinion. Furthermore, Zhao Lu definitely doesn’t have the ability to scheme like that. King Yan Manor’s people were all alarmed as of late, so they were all busy thinking about how to free King Yan. That’s why they weren’t as careful about these kinds of secrets.”

“It looks like King Yan’s side managed to find out quite a lot,” Yun Jianyue said, sounding a bit dissatisfied. They were clearly allies, and yet the other side had hidden something so important from her.

Zu An was still staring at the names. His first reaction when he heard the information was to believe it, because he had also noticed that there was a crisis brewing amid the seemingly peaceful world. Furthermore, if it were to be directed at Zhao Han, the Fengshan Ceremony was the best chance. However, Zhao Han had the most powerful cultivation in the entire world. Would they really be able to defeat him?

Who could have given someone the name ‘salted fish’? Did they come from the Ocean races?

What about ‘tomato’? Did they like to eat tomatoes or something?

As for that ‘old lady-killer’, just who was it wjp was so shameless as to take on that kind of name? He was probably some edgy narcissist.

Besides that, the term ‘chick’, in a certain place, had an entirely different and rather humiliating meaning in hookups.

…

As Zu An looked through the names, he more or less guessed their intentions. As dealing with Zhao Han was such a huge thing, they didn’t dare to reveal their real names, lest they end up paying a disastrous price. That was why they referred to each other with nicknames instead.

Previously, he had thought that Golden Token Seven was silenced because his investigation had resulted in knowledge of King Yan’s rebellion. Now, it seemed he had found out about something even more terrifying, and that was why he was killed. He wondered whether Zhang Jie was a part of the name list.

The three then discussed who these individuals could be. After all, anyone who wanted to go against the emperor had to be a big shot. After thinking about it for a while, they ended up looking at Violet Mountain’s nine daoist sects.

“Do you still remember that batch of gunpowder I told you about? My investigation showed that they went missing near Violet Mountain,” Yun Jianyue said.

“Do you think Wang Wuxie is included here?” Zu An asked as he thought of something. One nickname seemed to match his personality.

“Indeed, if these people really wanted to go against Zhao Han, Violet Mountain’s Fengshan Ceremony would be the best chance. Furthermore, Violet Mountain is Wang Wuxie’s territory. Without his involvement, there would be no way of accomplishing these things.”

Zu An nodded. He thought of what Xie Daoyun had mentioned before. The academy’s Yan Xiangu had been worried that Wang Wuxie might be disloyal, so he had secretly sent Xie Daoyun to see if there were any killing formations set up. It seemed Wang Wuxie was indeed the most suspicious one.

Apart from him, Zu An felt that King Qi definitely took up another slot. After all, there was no one who wanted to defeat Zhao Han more than him.

…

While they were discussing those things with each other, on the distant Violet Mountain, Wang Wuxie was cultivating in Pure Yang Palace. For some reason, he just couldn't calm himself down. There had been all sorts of things happening recently around Violet Mountain. Emptiness Isle’s missing disciple still hadn’t been found, so they couldn't hold the final round of the great competition either…

Suddenly, a disciple reported, “Sect master, a White Jade Sect disciple came to deliver a letter.”

Wang Wuxie was stunned. Then, he suddenly became a bit excited and said, “Hurry and invite them in!”

If it had been any other sect, he naturally wouldn’t act like that. But White Jade Sect had… that person. That ridiculously beautiful figure appeared in his mind.

A White Jade Sect disciple stepped forward and said, “Greetings, State Teacher. This is Sect Master Yan’s personal letter. I hope State Teacher will read it.”

“Yan… Sect Master Yan?” Wang Wuxie repeated, his heart rate even speeding up a bit. He hadn’t expected Yan Xuehen to take the initiative to contact him!

In that instant, he was surprised and suspicious. After all, it wasn’t in line with Yan Xuehen’s personality at all. However, he became a bit scared soon afterward. Could it be that Yan Xuehen was writing with the intent to completely break off relations…? There was actually a chance of that.

When he opened the letter, he discovered that he had never been more nervous in his life. His hands shook slightly as he took out the letter. However, that beautiful and elegant handwriting was indeed Yan Xuehen’s…

When he finished the contents, his nervous expression suddenly changed to one of mad joy. He said, “Go back and tell Sect Master Yan that this king won’t disappoint her.”