Visitors from the Profound Formation Division

Wang Deli lowered his bow, a grin spreading across his face.

Behind him followed dozens of armored soldiers, clearly prepared for this.

On the deck, Zeng Shilin stood with his hands behind his back, gazing at the crowd on Water Cloud Island's shore.

When his eyes met Zeng Anmin's across the distance, his brow furrowed deeply.

"Heh."

Zeng Anmin felt a twinge of guilt.

Could what passed between father and son really be called scheming?

Instead, he cast his gaze toward Qi Linxian, who was on the small boat by the shore, and shouted a loud warning:

"Don't let him escape!"

Qi Linxian's face was now dark as thunderclouds; he clearly hadn't expected Zeng Anmin to have calculated everything to this extent.

The atmosphere grew heavy.

"Hmph!"

In an instant, he had already seen through the current situation clearly.

Qi Linxian gave a light snort, his eyes fixed on Wang Deli aboard the ship:

"A crude martial artist, and you think you can stop me?"

He gently shook the feather fan in his hand.

The small boat beneath him suddenly rippled with light—in the blink of an eye, a ring of green patterns enveloped Qi Linxian's surroundings.

"Instantaneous Movement Array!"

When Xuanjing Division Commander Wang Deli saw this, he roared in fury:

"You foxes from the Profound Formation Division! All you know is running—what else can you do?? If you've got the guts, fight me!!"

With that, he leaped up, raising his longbow.

"Chirp!!"

A second arrow flew instantly toward Qi Xianlin.

"Phantom!"

Qi Linxian shook his feather fan again, and the green patterns flashed, wrapping his entire body.

"Puff~"

The arrow pierced through Qi Linxian's body but dealt no damage.

"Young Master Zeng, until we meet again!!"

With a cheerful laugh, Qi Linxian's form began to flicker, his voice already growing indistinct—the next moment, he would vanish.

Just then, a cold snort rang out.

"It's been long since I last fought, and the world has forgotten the might of Confucian Law. How pitiful."

Zeng Shilin's gaze was calm, as if he paid no heed to the vanishing Qi Linxian. One hand behind his back, he stood on the deck.

The river breeze stirred gently, lifting the hem of his robe—a flash of peerless elegance—and a vast, sky-piercing aura of cyan light.

"The Sages say: speak not of strange forces and chaotic spirits."

A boundless voice resounded in everyone's ears.

Zeng Anmin saw the countless streams of cyan light reaching to the heavens, billowing like clouds and mist, thick as mountain fog.

Amid that ethereal cyan aura, his father's figure stood like a great mountain, surrounded by the righteous qi of Heaven and Earth.

In the blink of an eye, it reached the green, ghostly glow around Qi Linxian.

The moment the green light touched the cyan aura, it was like a water droplet meeting the sun—in no time at all, it dissolved and vanished.

"Bam~"

Qi Linxian's form reappeared.

He crashed back onto the small boat in a sorry heap.

He frantically channeled the spiritual power within him, but it was utterly useless.

Then he jerked his head up to look at Zeng Shilin, shock and terror in his eyes:

"Even the spiritual power of my Profound Formation Division..."

"Ignorant child."

Zeng Shilin merely smiled faintly, too lazy to waste words on him.

He glanced at Wang Deli. "Take him."

"As you command!!"

Wang Deli, like a great roc spreading its wings, leaped fiercely across the water's surface, his toes lightly tapping out a few ripples.

"Tap-tap~"

In just two strides, his agile figure had already arrived before Qi Linxian.

Qi Linxian was merely a Seventh-Rank Array Master; bereft of his spiritual power, how could he be a match for the Xuanjing Division Commander?

In but a moment, he had been subdued and captured alive.

Ignoring Qi Linxian's ashen face, Zeng Shilin turned his gaze toward Zeng Anmin on the shore.

Father and son locked eyes.

"And the Black Cat Martial Artist?"

Zeng Shilin asked his son with a faint, knowing smile.

"What Black Cat Martial Artist?" Zeng Anmin blinked, his face full of confusion.

Zeng Shilin's expression froze for a brief moment.

He could hardly say, I used Heart-Questioning on you, and you pointed at the map and said the Black Cat Martial Artist was here.

At that moment, the great ship beneath his feet had already docked.

Zeng Shilin slowly disembarked and walked up to Zeng Anmin.

He first glanced down at Wang Daoyuan's corpse on the ground, his face expressionless:

"Back then, not finishing him off was merely a casual move on my part—a test to see if Prince Jiang's Estate would take the bait."

"I never expected that casual move would become a trump card in your hand."

Zeng Anmin's eyes widened in shock, then he looked at his father in disbelief:

"I thought you spared his life because he was working for His Majesty at the time... out of regard for His Majesty's face."

His father let out a cold laugh: "His Majesty would hardly care about the life or death of such an ant."

Zeng Anmin was stunned for a moment, then looked at his father with admiration, his voice reverent:

"If not for Your Excellency sparing his life back then, we might not have caught this big fish today."

"Governor Sir, your calculations are truly flawless, your wisdom unmatched by mortals! This subordinate is in awe!! Prostrate with admiration!!"

Zeng Shilin slowly nodded, a faint smile appearing on his face as his right hand unconsciously stroked his beard.

As the two were speaking, Wang Deli came striding across the river, dragging the bound Qi Linxian.

"Plop~"

He tossed Qi Linxian carelessly to the ground and reported to Zeng Shilin: "Sir, this bastard has been taken. How should we deal with him?"

"Take him back. Torture him for information."

Zeng Shilin gave Qi Linxian's old face a cold glance, his voice utterly devoid of emotion.

Only then did he turn to look at Zeng Anmin:

"On this wild mountain, there is evidence of Prince Jiang's rebellion."

Zeng Anmin's expression turned serious as he bowed to Zeng Shilin:

"Reporting to Governor Sir, the evidence lies in the valley behind this hill. However, there are some guards in the valley..."

"Mm."

Zeng Shilin nodded slowly, then turned to look at Wang Deli and the dozens of armored soldiers on the deck:

"Move quickly."

Wang Deli accepted the order with a solemn face:

"Yes!!"

With that, he turned to the dozens of guards on the deck and barked: "Form ranks! Up the mountain!!"

"Shwoosh!!"

A formation was set in the blink of an eye. The dozens of soldiers descended from the deck in perfect order, marching in unison as they followed Wang Deli.

That night, Wang Deli led his men to clear out all of Prince Jiang's personnel on the island.

Zeng Anmin followed Zeng Shilin as the group entered the valley.

Several hundred laborers knelt on the ground, trembling in fear.

Beside them lay over a dozen armored corpses.

Wang Deli's gaze was sharp as he watched them.

The dozens of armored soldiers had not lost a single man; their weapons gleamed coldly as they kept everyone on guard.

Zeng Shilin sat on a chair, observing it all.

On the ground, freshly made firearms were laid out in neat rows.

"Prince Jiang's Estate truly harbors wild ambitions."

There were at least two to three hundred firearms.

This single piece of evidence was enough to confirm the charge of rebellion against Prince Jiang's Estate!

Zeng Shilin's voice turned icy:

"Tie them all up and take them back!"

"Yes!"

But just then.

A strange, gentle, somewhat hesitant voice suddenly rang out:

"Um... Qi Linxian... I need to take him away!"

The voice appeared extremely abruptly.

It drew everyone's attention.

"Who goes there!!!"

Wang Deli's face darkened as he turned to look at the source of the voice.