Chapter 171 - 120: Clues Brought by Bai Ziqing!!

Chapter 171: Chapter 120: Clues Brought by Bai Ziqing!!

"I have tracked the fugitive’s aura to Dongshan Commandery. However, the crowd here is chaotic, so the Tracking Bamboo’s indications aren’t very clear..." Bai Ziqing sighed, complaining to Zeng Anmin. "I originally thought he would travel through the wilderness to bypass the County City, but to my surprise, he just traveled in a straight line the entire way."

Hearing this, Zeng Anmin subconsciously frowned. "Dongshan Commandery?" A hint of surprise flashed in his eyes. "How far is Dongshan Commandery from the Capital City?"

"One thousand three hundred miles."

He thought, "Good heavens."

"Are you saying that in two days, you and that fugitive covered over five hundred kilometers?" Zeng Anmin asked, finding it somewhat unbelievable.

"What is a kilometer?" Bai Ziqing’s puzzled voice came through.

"Don’t worry about that for now." Zeng Anmin took a deep breath. "Are you certain you’ve been heading south the entire time without deviating?"

"No deviations." Bai Ziqing’s voice was firm.

Zeng Anmin’s brows furrowed deeply. "He hasn’t changed direction and is traveling in such a hurry. No matter how you look at it, this doesn’t seem like fleeing for his life... His actions seem more like he has some objective to complete within a limited time frame..."

This was too strange. If a fugitive truly wanted to flee for his life, his first reaction absolutely shouldn’t be accelerating in a single direction. He would definitely take numerous actions to confuse his pursuers.

"That makes sense," Bai Ziqing muttered thoughtfully after hearing Zeng Anmin’s words. After a long moment of contemplation, he asked, "Then what do you think his objective is?"

Zeng Anmin’s face was full of question marks. He thought, "Why ask me everything? If I knew everything, why would I be miserably studying at the Imperial College every day?"

He took a deep breath. "How should I know? Go investigate it yourself!

"I’m hanging up!"

With that, he cut off the supply of Vast Righteous Qi to the Jade Pendant.

"Who could understand my pain? I’ve basically become someone’s lackey," Zeng Anmin grumbled as he tidied his chair, opened his door, and lay down in his room. Exhaustion washed over him, and he peacefully fell asleep.

For two consecutive days, Zeng Anmin spent his time teasing Qin Wanyue at the Imperial College or casually shooting the breeze with Liu Xian. Life was incredibly carefree.

The only fly in the ointment was the constant stream of students running to him for advice on calligraphy copybooks, which annoyed him quite a bit.

In truth, he had entered the Dao through Qin Shoucheng’s "regular script." It was just a coincidence that he had written the character "min" in the Wild Grass script when he entered the Dao. This led to Qin Shoucheng mistakenly believing he had founded a brand new school of calligraphy.

Although he still infused "intent" into his Wild Grass script now that he had entered the Dao of Calligraphy—meaning his secret wouldn’t be exposed—this unearned, empty fame left him genuinely frustrated.

What left him even more speechless was that, aside from the Imperial College students, scholars from Qi Lin Academy would also occasionally visit him. They would always open with lines like:

"Are you the Zeng Liangjiang who has recently shaken the Capital City?

"Are you the righteous official of the state praised by the Crown Prince?

"Are you the Zeng Anmin who created the new ’Wild Grass’ style?"

As a result, Liu Xian had now become Zeng Anmin’s official spokesperson, solely responsible for dealing with those literati who came admiring his reputation. These cultured scholars brought no meaningful change to his life—only disturbances. It was incredibly aggravating.

"I can finally understand why Marquis Wu said, ’I do not seek to be known among the feudal lords, but only to survive in chaotic times.’" Zeng Anmin rode his small roan horse, CLOP CLOP CLOP, down the tranquil street.

Today, after class ended, he had spent a full two hours just dealing with the students who came to see him. By the time he rode out, it was already evening. The streets were dead silent.

"If anyone else comes to visit in the future, just tell them to get lost!" Zeng Anmin muttered, feeling thoroughly exasperated. He had wasted four hours without accomplishing any real work, entirely focused on entertaining those students. "And that guy who said he’d treat me to the Imperial Music Bureau... you’re all talk and no action, damn it!"

"Gritting his teeth" wasn’t enough to describe Zeng Anmin’s current mood. This sixteen-year-old body was simply too restless.

Taking a deep breath to suppress the irritable thoughts in his mind, Zeng Anmin tugged at the small roan horse’s reins, walking slowly along the streets of the Capital City.

Today happened to be the first of April. The weather in the Capital City grew warmer by the day in April. A gentle breeze blew past, tossing a lock of hair across Zeng Anmin’s forehead. On the street, there was only the sound of the small roan horse’s hooves.

Suddenly, Zeng Anmin felt all the hairs on his body stand on end. An aura of death made his body freeze.

He thought, "What is that?!"

With no time to think, Zeng Anmin instinctively ducked low against the horse’s back.

BANG!

A flash of cold light shot toward where his neck had been just a moment ago with extreme speed. Due to his evasion, the cold light flew past him and embedded itself deeply into the adjacent wall.

Although it was only a fleeting glimpse, an intense sense of crisis welled up in Zeng Anmin’s heart.

"Who goes there?!"

His body subconsciously vaulted off the horse. With a graceful flip, he landed squarely on the ground. Without any hesitation, he abruptly dodged, found a small alleyway along the nearby wall, and swiftly vanished into it.

After entering the alley, he didn’t pause for a moment, sprinting madly into the darkness.

THUMP THUMP THUMP.

His heart pounded violently in his chest.

That flash of cold light had been a Hidden Weapon. Though he had only caught it in his peripheral vision, Zeng Anmin acutely sensed that the speed, power, and even the shape of the weapon felt incredibly familiar.

He thought, "Where have I seen it before?!"

Zeng Anmin greedily sucked in a huge breath of air, suppressing his internal panic as he struggled to adjust all of his bodily functions.

The opponent was definitely a master! The only reason he had managed to luckily dodge that fatal Hidden Weapon was because the attacker didn’t know that, aside from being a Confucian Cultivator, Zeng Anmin was also a Martial Artist! Although he was nominally in the Seventh Grade Visualization Realm, his true combat power rivaled a Sixth Grade Void Realm Martial Artist!

"Divine Sense solidified, perceiving everything, able to sense the enemy’s weaknesses in an instant... that is the Void Realm!" Otherwise, that single Hidden Weapon would have killed him on the spot!

A Hidden Weapon master...

A figure suddenly surfaced in Zeng Anmin’s mind. It was the mysterious person who had abruptly appeared that night when Bai Ziqing was hunting down Prince Qi!

It was too familiar! It had to be that person!

Dangerous gleams flashed in Zeng Anmin’s eyes.

"This person’s Hidden Weapon Technique is stronger than mine. In terms of hidden weapons alone, I’m afraid I am no match for him." Bai Ziqing’s voice from that night echoed slowly in Zeng Anmin’s ears, making his heart sink even further.

Bai Ziqing was a Fourth Grade Martial Art expert! If even he admitted inferiority to this person’s Hidden Weapon Technique, then this attacker’s Realm was likely no lower than Bai Ziqing’s! Although he didn’t know the name of the Fourth Grade Realm, he currently only had the combat power of the Sixth Grade!

That was a gap of two full major Realms!

He thought, "How am I supposed to fight this?!"

Very quickly, Zeng Anmin analyzed his current situation.

TAP, TAP, TAP.

Slow footsteps gradually advanced into the alley.

No matter how fast Zeng Anmin ran, he could still hear those tapping footsteps drawing closer and closer! He was already running with everything he had!

Finally, a wall loomed in front of him. It was the city wall of the Capital City. He couldn’t climb over it. It was a dead end.

He thought, "How can I get out of this?!"

Zeng Anmin pressed his lips tightly together. At this point, running was no longer an option.

Then there was only...

His Dan Feng eyes narrowed slightly, glinting with a hint of killing intent. He turned around and looked toward the slowly approaching figure under the moonlight.

Although it was blurry, he could vaguely make out the details. The person wore a bamboo hat and emanated an extremely mysterious and tyrannical aura. With just one glance, Zeng Anmin was absolutely certain.

This was the same mysterious person he and Bai Ziqing had encountered that day—the one who had massacred Prince Qi’s entire family.

TAP, TAP, TAP.

The person approached step by step. Finally, they stopped at a distance of nearly twenty paces from Zeng Anmin.

"Zeng Shilin’s son, Zeng Anmin?" the person asked. Their voice was hoarse, carrying a trace of uncertainty.