Chapter 446: The Four Guardian Families (1)
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Chen Zhunguang felt a sudden coldness in his heart.
Before he could react, an old woman scurried inside and approached, then whispered something to Chen Jiuhua.
“Snap!”
Suddenly, the jade pendant dropped on the ground. Chen Jiuhua’s eyes widened, and her face turned pale. Her hands started to shake violently.
“For real…!?”
“Absolutely!” The old woman nodded. “Just this morning, I saw the second lady secretly ordering Little Green to buy pregnancy medicine. That Xu Fang is truly Zhan Yunzhe in disguise. All these years, he has been guarding the second lady disguised as a guard.”
“Heavens… by the Heavens!!” Chen Jiuhua’s lips lost color, and she felt a sudden vertigo, almost fainting.
Chen Zhunguang abruptly stood up, his elderly face pale as well.
“Say… say that again?!” He couldn’t believe his ears.
“I, I made sure of it multiple times. It’s him! That young man Zhan Yunzhe, who seduced second lady! I am absolutely sure,” the old woman affirmed.
The more confident she sounded, the more the two of them felt dread in their hearts, and ultimately lost their last sliver of hope.
“It’s over… It’s all over…” Chen Jiuhua instantly understood what would come next.
The Zhang Family, the family that was mysterious and powerful beyond imagination, had warned the Chen Family long ago that they would not tolerate other families tainting their blood. But now that b.a.s.t.a.r.d, Zhang Yunzhe, just got their daughter pregnant.
With how ruthless and monstrous that family was, not only would their daughter be punished with death by a thousand cuts and her baby killed for breaking their family rule, the Chen Family’s power established over a century would…
Both felt a sadness from the depths of their hearts. Their eldest brother didn’t even know the truth yet, and was still busy trying to bring out more treasure to solve his daughter’s problem. What… What would they do now?
Their minds went blank. The old woman was greatly startled by the reaction of their masters, and sneaked off.
After a while, they noticed the old woman had left, so they finally broke the silence.
“What… What if we send them the kid and our daughter?” Chen Zhunguang suddenly thought of something.
“Useless! Did you forget the w.a.n.g Family already? We must abort the child immediately!” Chen Jiuhua’s face showed signs of madness.
“We must discuss this with the eldest brother!” Chen Zhunguang said impatiently.
“Eldest Brother had gathered many strange men, and is still trying his best to take care of Little Bi’s problem. If you tell him the truth right now…”
“We don’t have time to worry about all that.”
Both thought back to the w.a.n.g Family incident—a family as influential as their Chen Family had been exterminated overnight.
They, too, were a buyer of the Zhang Family’s goods, and even had contact with several powerful masters in the provincial capital. But, nothing stopped the complete annihilation of their family overnight.
Compared to the w.a.n.g Family, the Chen Family was far too weak. They would now be punished for tainting the Zhang Family blood as well, and the result would be no different.
“Zhang Yunzhe is a dead man, but he had to drag our family down with him 1 . How despicable of him!” Chen Jiuhua’s voice was filled with hatred.
“Start moving now. Who knows what would happen if we wait!” Chen Zhunguang said with determination.
“Yes.”
***
“Here?” Lu Sheng stood in front of the Chen Family’s gate, and felt strange staring at the two-meter-tall red iron door.
No ordinary family would build such a tall door.
Even discounting the plaque at the top, the thing was two meters tall—was it even designed for humans?
Bie Feihe followed silently. She had removed the mess of a disguise on her. The muscles were fake, the skin was fake, and a pile of something similar to soft jelly was ripped off of her face. She even took off parts of her hair that were a wig.
After taking off her disguise, Bie Feihe turned out to be a young girl with a pretty body. Her chest was full, while her waist and b.u.t.t were slim. The curves over her body were smooth. Everything was pretty, aside from her face that was squashed by Lu Sheng.
Right now, her face was wrapped in a thick layer of bandages, and even made a mold for her nose. Overall, she just looked wretched and pitiful.
Lu Sheng walked in front of her, and strode toward the door after giving the two servants standing guard a brief look.
After a flurry of introductions, the servant went in to inform his master. Soon, someone came to greet him.
“Benefactor!” Chen Qun had cleaned himself up, and somehow could still move around despite the bandage that was wrapped around the stump where his arm used to be. It was as if losing an arm had no effect on him. Lu Sheng had to admit that his willpower was truly impressive.
“Benefactor, please accept my sincerest thanks!” He bowed deeply toward Lu Sheng with tears in his eyes.
Lu Sheng mildly accepted his show of respect.
“Benefactor, please come in, we will be sure to repay your grace!” Chen Qun was clearly very excited, and led the two of them into the Chen Family Mansion.
Obviously, he didn’t notice that the person behind Lu Sheng was Bie Feihe.
“I forgot to say, I am Chen Qun, alternative name Zhongzhi. Benefactor can call me by my alternative name.” Chen Qun squeezed out a smile, and said again, “If not for the master’s grace, my cousin Chen Youjin would have suffered greatly.”
Lu Sheng made a few sounds as his reply. This made Chen Qun even more excited since he a.s.sumed that was how the masters of Jianghu acted in the first place.
Chen Qun led the two of them to an already prepared feast. Afterward, after much talk, they finally convinced Lu Sheng to stay at the Chen Family, which would become Lu Sheng’s temporary residence.
Now that the Chen Family didn’t have the Coral Bowl anymore, there weren’t as many masters coming and going as before. However, the Green Coat Inn was not as fortunate. Several battles over the next few days all happened there, causing severe damage. Not only that, the fact that the masters of Jianghu fought immediately after their meal and refused to even pay made innkeeper Jin very anxious.
Lu Sheng didn’t have anywhere else to go, anyways, and the Chen Family Mansion was naturally a better choice than the inns. Chen Qun’s father also received him, and thanked him many times, then brought Lu Sheng on a tour of the family’s gardens.
With the warm reception he got from Chen Qun, he decided he might as well live in the Chen Family’s residence for a while. As he settled in, he also walked around the city every day, trying to find the hidden ground. As long as he found the hidden ground, he would find the Universal Ward Column.
That was one of the ways one could find the Universal Ward Column.
Since Chen Qun witnessed Lu Sheng’s power, and felt that he owed him on top of that, he sent in precious items almost every two, three days, be it delicate food or precious wine. One time, Lu Sheng unconsciously spent some time admiring the decorative guzheng, and the next day someone sent him several music scores thought to be lost as well as a fine guzheng made from yew wood.
Time flew by. Soon, two weeks had pa.s.sed.
Lu Sheng didn’t find anything close to a clue despite multiple searches. He even met the second lady, Chen Jiabi, but for some reason, her mysterious disappearances had long since stopped. She just looked like an ordinary pregnant woman at the moment, and offered no help.
He started to get annoyed too. During this time, the Black Vulture Gang sent more people to secretly meet Bie Feihe, but still no one dared to fight Lu Sheng.
Bie Feihe tried to escape too, though every time Lu Sheng would capture her again before she could go far.
Lu Sheng tried to use the Chen Family’s influence to locate the hidden ground as well, but to no avail.
The group of disciples led by Chen Qun he’d saved visited frequently, however. One time, Chen Qun accidentally showed that he wanted to become Lu Sheng’s disciple.
But Lu Sheng directly refused.
However, since Lu Sheng lived and ate at the Chen Family and Chen Qun acted so properly, Lu Sheng decided he could give him a few pointers.
With his perception and experience of someone that neared a Grandmaster, even a few pointers improved Chen Qun’s power ma.s.sively, which made him admire Lu Sheng even more.
The rest of the Chen Family also heard that their young master that lost an arm managed to invite a mysterious master to temporarily live in their mansion. Everyone, including the elders in charge of the family, all carefully paid respect to Lu Sheng.
Without any sign of clues for so long, Lu Sheng thought of leaving. After all, he couldn’t spend all his time in the Chen Family.
Just then, however, something happened.
***
“Snap.”
Lu Sheng slowly placed a piece to the left of the board.
Chen Qun tightened his brows, and thought for a while before picking up his own piece. He was about to place it when…
“Bam!!”
Abruptly, a huge boom came from outside the door, which seemed to have come from the Chen Family Mansion’s main entrance.
He was so startled he dropped the piece. He hurriedly stood up and looked back, but then remembered the door was several walls away and he couldn’t see anything.
He then looked at the Lu Sheng’s calm face, and respected him even more.
“Teacher, forgive my impatience,” he said embarra.s.singly.
“No…. some interesting people just showed up. Let’s call it a day.” Lu Sheng’s normally calm face showed signs of enthusiasm.
That not only made Chen Qun blank out, but even surprised Bie Feihe, who was watching the two play go.
Both thought that Lu Sheng had to be a senior master that hid himself in the bustling city, though he probably didn’t like to be noticed, and hence wasn’t as famous as some other so-called masters. Just what could make such a master smile? Both were very curious.
Before the two of them could talk, Lu Sheng walked out. He intended to investigate what caused the sound.
Both followed closely behind him.
As soon as they left the courtyard and entered the garden in front of the mansion, the three of them saw that the mansion door had been shattered.
Three tall men with thin faces covered in white robes slowly walked inside the garden.
“Family Head Chen, come out. You must give us an acceptable answer regarding Zhang Yunzhe,” the thin man in the lead said slowly. Even though he looked young, his voice had the strange quality of sc.r.a.pping like metal.
The Chen Family’s head and several other family members stood in front of the three men, their faces solemn. Family guards rapidly arrived and surrounded the three men.
“Elder Zhang Hong… We, the Chen Family, truly did not know about this. This was an accident. I beg you to be considerate. We have captured all the suspects already…” The Chen Family Head tried to act as submissive as possible, and was basically begging.
“Ha!” Suddenly, a cold laugh interrupted the Chen Family Head. The leader’s eyes turned cold. “Who are you to tell me what to do?”