Ambush Killing

At the doorway, Zhang Jian hesitated slightly. Behind him stood a line of maidservants, each carrying a jade tray with her head lowered.

They were not Zhang Jian's personal maids.

None of the Zhang family's young masters had been attended by maids since childhood. This was to prevent them from being corrupted and drained by feminine charms from a young age, or growing weak-willed and lacking in judgment.

Nor did these maidservants dare raise their heads to look around. The Zhang family was extremely strict in this regard.

Zhang Jian looked at the wine and dishes on the jade trays, helplessness flickering in his eyes. Zhang Yi had made him personally deliver the food and wine—his intentions could not have been more obvious.

He was making him use the honey trap.

After a brief hesitation, Zhang Jian stepped over the threshold. Seeing Gu Xiu'er still sitting there with her eyes closed in repose, he spoke first.

"Miss Gu, you seem to be looking quite well!"

Hearing his voice, Gu Xiu'er opened her lively eyes. Her fair, jade-like face remained calm as she said, "Young Master Zhang, it seems Uncle Zhang never taught you how to deal with a young lady in the bloom of youth?"

A faintly mocking smile curved her lips. At a glance, she had seen through Zhang Jian's intentions.

Zhang Jian waved for the maidservants to set down their jade trays.

His gaze settled on Gu Xiu'er. She truly was an intelligent young woman.

The fact that she had escaped alive from Zhang Yi's hands, knowing when to yield and when to bend, showed just how exquisitely clever her mind was.

Zhang Jian had never expected to deceive her.

Against someone so intelligent, only overwhelming strength could crush her openly and majestically.

Zhang Jian smiled. "Miss Gu, you are very clever. Clever people ought to know what will happen next, shouldn't they?"

Instead, a trace of amusement appeared in Gu Xiu'er's bright eyes.

"You needn't waste your efforts on me, Young Master Zhang. You won't get any useful information from me!"

"Your Zhang family has little chance of victory against the double assault of the Upper Origin Sect and the Gu family!"

"At present, the only pieces you have in hand are my senior brother and me. You should know who I am. I am the legitimate daughter of the Gu family head, so I do have some value—but not as much as you imagine. There is much information even I do not know!"

Seeing that Gu Xiu'er had left no opening at all, Zhang Jian immediately knew he would likely get nothing useful from her mouth.

And given Gu Xiu'er's special status, some methods could not be used on her directly.

Gu Xiu'er sat openly at the hu table, using her bamboo chopsticks to pick up the delicious dishes laid upon it. The beauty's every glance and movement was captivating, a feast for the eyes.

Zhang Jian shook his head. "I think precisely the opposite. I have heard a little about the Gu family's situation. Think about it—if our Zhang family were to side with the Yu family, could your Gu family withstand such a loss?"

A lovely smile bloomed across Gu Xiu'er's jade-like face.

"Young Master Zhang, don't try to frighten me with exaggerated threats. Anyone might side with the Yu family, but your Zhang family never could!"

At this, Zhang Jian blinked as he looked at Gu Xiu'er.

He did not ask further. Before a clever person, there was no need to ask too much.

"Gu Xiu'er, Father told me earlier that the Gu family would make an excellent marriage alliance for our Zhang family. I did not think much of it then, but now I have the slightest bit of interest!"

Gu Xiu'er's expression changed. The bamboo chopsticks holding a piece of food nearly froze in midair. Zhang Jian burst into laughter at the sight, then turned and left.

West City, Zhang's Paper Effigy Shop

At that moment, two guests with particularly unusual temperaments arrived at the entrance of the paper effigy shop. When the somewhat stooped Paper Figure Zhang saw them, his expression faltered slightly before he stepped forward with a smile.

"Would the two guests like to buy some paper offerings or spirit money? This little shop has every kind of funeral article you could need, as well as ritual implements personally consecrated by experts from Phoenix Roost Temple. Buy more and receive a discount!"

Entering the shop, the two guests glanced over its layout. One of them, a handsome middle-aged man with a fair, beardless face, said, "We aren't buying ritual implements, but we are still here to pay."

Paper Figure Zhang frowned at those words.

The handsome middle-aged man said in a deep voice, "We want to make a deal with you, Senior. We want to buy a life—one person's life!"

Paper Figure Zhang looked at the visitor as though he had said something utterly incomprehensible. "What is this guest talking about? This old man does not understand at all!"

The blue-robed scholar beside the handsome middle-aged man lightly flicked the folding fan in his hand. His gaze rested calmly upon Paper Figure Zhang. "I heard that in Shanyang Commandery, there was once an extraordinary folk master named Zhang Chuan. His paper-cutting art was divine. He roamed freely between the paths of yin and yang, cutting paper into soldiers and manipulating souls and spirits, striking terror into all who saw him. No small number of martial experts died at the hands of that folk master!"

"Unfortunately, twenty years ago, he suffered a family calamity and was pursued by his enemies, forcing him to flee all the way to Fengyang. The Gu family also spent great effort before finally confirming that this master had remained in the small place known as Fengxi County!"

Hearing the blue-robed scholar recount his life story as though it were a family treasure, Paper Figure Zhang frowned.

"What exactly do you want?"

Paper Figure Zhang turned around. In an instant, the paper child at the entrance and the tall paper figures throughout the shop all turned with him, staring at the two men.

At that moment, blood seeped from where the paper figures' eyes should have been, gradually forming pairs of illusory crimson pupils. It was as though vicious ghosts had been bound within them, ready to choose their prey and devour them.

Both men were visitors from Fengyang Commandery. The incomparably handsome middle-aged man was the Westwind Swordsman, Wang Yuanlang.

The other was an expert invited by the Fengyang Gu family, named Ji Ming. Wang Yuanlang addressed him as Mister Ji and had always treated him with considerable respect.

It had also been through Ji Ming's methods that they had found this extraordinary man, Zhang Chuan.

Faced with such eerie changes, Wang Yuanlang felt a chill spread through his entire body. Instinctively, he gripped the sword at his waist as his innate astral qi was forced to emerge naturally.

The paper effigy shop seemed to suddenly darken. Crimson flashed into being, bringing with it immense terror.

"Why should you be angered, Senior? I heard that your rule is that, so long as the reward is generous enough, you do not choose your tasks!"

The blue-robed scholar gently waved his folding fan. Countless tiny scriptures densely covered its green ribs, while faint heavenly music flowed from within, tearing open a thread of darkness.

When Paper Figure Zhang saw the jade fan in the blue-robed scholar's hand, his gaze shifted. He lowered his head in thought, then stopped what he was doing.

Wang Yuanlang quickly waved a hand. Someone outside the shop immediately carried in a large crimson wooden chest.

"We would not dare neglect your rules, Senior!"

Paper Figure Zhang merely glanced at it, and his expression softened slightly. "All good things. You two are truly generous!"

"Who do you want dead? I am quite curious—given the skills of you two, who in Fengxi County could possibly resist you?"

Paper Figure Zhang looked over, his gaze now deep and shadowed. His eye sockets seemed to contain nothing but a sea of bloody red.

"Poison-Hand Zhang Yi!"

"A member of the Zhang family?"

Paper Figure Zhang shook his head. "No."

His words were absolute.

"Why?" Ji Ming's gaze flickered. "Is it because the Zhang family possesses dragon-and-tiger aura?"

"No reason. No means no!"

Ji Ming frowned. "What if we only investigate?"

"What difference is there between investigation and assassination?"

Paper Figure Zhang sneered.

Investigation was no less an act of hostility. No overlord would tolerate a rude investigation, and if any secret were uncovered, it could easily forge a deadly enmity.

"Of course there is a difference. Because for an investigation, we will still pay the same price! And we will add one more piece of information!"

"The whereabouts of your young grandson!"

Ji Ming gave a dark, gloomy smile.