Something Was Strange About This

Late at night, in a side room in the rear courtyard of the chancellor's estate.

Gu Chenfeng sat cross-legged on his bed, breathing evenly and remaining motionless, seemingly fast asleep.

At the same time, on the Enlightenment Platform in the Phantom Martial Divine Ruins.

Gu Chenfeng held his fists together as though embracing a full moon, bending his knees into a squat.

His body rose and fell rhythmically, as though he were riding a galloping horse.

At that moment, a faint gray sheen spread across Gu Chenfeng's skin, clearly outlining every muscle.

Though he maintained a standing stance, he gave off the oppressive sense of a fierce tiger poised to spring.

Suddenly, Gu Chenfeng opened his eyes.

Whoosh...!

Moving as swiftly as a leopard, he leaped off the Enlightenment Platform.

As he charged forward, his fists struck like the wind.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

After a fierce series of punches, the gray hue covering Gu Chenfeng's body abruptly deepened.

His muscles bulged, and his entire body swelled a size larger.

He suddenly unleashed a Sun-Shaped Straight Punch.

Boom!

Even the air gave a faint explosive crack, the wind from his fist whipping fiercely...

A short while later.

On his bed, Gu Chenfeng opened his eyes and exhaled a scorching breath, a light sheen of sweat on his forehead.

He looked somewhat exhausted, but could not conceal his excitement.

Only a few short days had passed since he returned to the chancellor's estate from the Rare Beast Garden, yet he had made tremendous progress again.

His Iron Armor Art had reached the peak of its first layer, the gray armor realm, and he was about to enter the iron armor realm.

His physical conditioning had finally caught up with the strength of his blood and qi.

His martial cultivation had also advanced again, reaching six stars in the meridian-opening realm.

Moreover, Gu Chenfeng was now practicing Internal and External Cultivation.

In terms of speed, strength, and explosive power, he should have surpassed martial artists of the same rank.

Unfortunately, while staying in the chancellor's estate, Gu Chenfeng had no chance to fight, so he did not know exactly how strong he was.

But for now, he needed to keep his head down and grow stronger without revealing his abilities.

When danger arrived, he would unleash everything at once.

He would catch his enemies completely off guard.

Besides, the feeling of his strength soaring every day was genuinely becoming addictive.

Today, however, Gu Chenfeng had no choice but to pause his cultivation.

His Clearheart Pills and Spirit-Nourishing Potions were almost entirely depleted.

Previously, he had bought ten Clearheart Pills and plenty of Spirit-Nourishing Potions at the Myriad Treasures House.

But cultivating on the Enlightenment Platform consumed far too much mental energy.

Especially now that he was practicing Internal and External Cultivation, the expenditure had multiplied.

Furthermore, Gu Chenfeng had discovered something else.

External cultivation arts like the Iron Armor Art could not rely solely on the Enlightenment Platform's support.

After all, physical transformation was not something enlightenment alone could determine.

He also needed supplementary potions to speed up his cultivation.

In short, he could not stop taking his medicine!

Gu Chenfeng rubbed the space between his brows.

"Looks like I need to visit the Myriad Treasures House again."

He looked out the window. The night was deep.

Gu Chenfeng took his last dose of Spirit-Nourishing Potion.

Instead of cultivating again, he settled down for a good sleep.

Over the past few days, Gu Chenfeng had cultivated almost without sleep or rest.

Although the Clearheart Pills and Spirit-Nourishing Potions restored his mental energy,

this grind-yourself-to-death approach to cultivation was ultimately harmful to his body. Occasionally, he needed to relax completely.

Yet Gu Chenfeng's sleep turned out to be anything but pleasant.

He dreamed that the three-year deadline had arrived and Leng Xingye had descended once more.

Once again, on the Enlightenment Platform in the Phantom Martial Divine Ruins, that woman pinned him down and brutally battered him.

Not only was he utterly powerless to resist, he was even on the brink of death.

In his dream, a cold, disdainful smile curled Leng Xingye's lips.

"You little scrub. If you're that bad, practice more!"

"Fuck!"

Gu Chenfeng suddenly sprang upright, cold sweat soaking the back of his clothes.

A glance outside revealed that the sun was already sinking behind the western hills.

He had slept for almost an entire day.

That woman really left quite a shadow over my mind.

Gu Chenfeng wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and silently clenched his fists.

Leng Xingye, just you wait. In three years, this young master will turn the tables and take charge!

He hurriedly got up, washed, and ate, then prepared to go to the Myriad Treasures House to buy medicine.

Unexpectedly, a servant arrived with a report.

"Young master, Young Master Ouyang requests an audience."

"Ouyang Cai? Show him in."

Soon, Gu Chenfeng met Ouyang Cai in the main hall of the chancellor's estate.

After several days apart, Ouyang Cai had shed all the dejection he had shown at the Rare Beast Garden. His brows danced with excitement, and his face was smug.

Upon seeing Gu Chenfeng, he reached straight into his robes and pulled out fifty thousand taels in banknotes.

"Third Young Master, here. This is to pay you back."

Gu Chenfeng was somewhat surprised at the banknotes.

"I never asked you to repay me. Besides, I only paid off forty thousand taels of your gambling debt."

Ouyang Cai thumped his chest and replied breezily.

"The extra ten thousand is interest. You helped me vent my anger, Third Young Master. How could I shortchange my own brother?"

Hearing that, Gu Chenfeng wasted no more words. He took the banknotes and tucked them into his robes.

"Did you go out robbing houses?"

Gu Chenfeng was curious. Even if Ouyang Cai was the son of the Minister of Revenue,

after losing tens of thousands of taels at once, he should have thanked heaven and earth if he escaped punishment at home. How could he still be so lavish?

Ouyang Cai chuckled.

"That's exactly what I did. Except the house I robbed belonged to the Zhang Lineage!"

Gu Chenfeng's eyes lit up.

He had been absorbed in cultivation these past few days and truly knew nothing about events outside.

After some questioning, he learned that, following his guidance that day, Ouyang Cai

had returned home and told his father, Minister of Revenue Ouyang De, how he had been swindled.

The minister had only one son, Ouyang Cai, whom he usually doted on.

Upon learning that his son had been set up and publicly humiliated,

and that they had even tried to accuse the Ouyang Lineage of embezzling from the national treasury, he flew into a rage.

Thus, the very next day, Ouyang De used a Ministry of Revenue audit of taxes in the Imperial Capital as his pretext.

He requested an imperial decree to deploy constables and soldiers, then launched a sweeping crackdown throughout the Imperial Capital.

Any business found evading taxes would be severely punished.

Of course, although this was supposedly a comprehensive investigation, there were plenty of hidden intricacies involved.

After all, which merchant able to operate in the Imperial Capital lacked connections and tricks? None of their books could have been entirely clean.

Thus, with the Ministry of Revenue deliberately targeting them,

the businesses belonging to the Minister of Personnel's Zhang Lineage received "special attention" during the crackdown.

Restaurants, pawnshops, silk shops... Every business belonging to the Zhang Lineage was visited overnight.

The fines they paid were staggering.

Some of that money entered the national treasury, and some went toward greasing palms up and down the ranks.

Naturally, another portion flowed into the Ouyang Lineage's pockets.

Ouyang Cai's pockets had swollen along with them.

After hearing Ouyang Cai's account, Gu Chenfeng could not help laughing.

He had previously considered using the Ouyang Lineage's influence to restrain the Zhang Lineage.

He had never expected the Ouyang Lineage to deliver so spectacularly.

Although an attack of this magnitude could not shake the Zhang Lineage's foundations, it could still strip off a layer of their skin and make them ache terribly.

Ouyang Cai said excitedly, "Third Young Master, this really was satisfying! Come on, let's celebrate at the Thousand Beauties Pavilion.

"You have no idea. There's a courtesan there who's not only as beautiful as a celestial maiden, but also excels at the zither, chess, calligraphy, and painting. She's renowned as the 'Imperial Capital's foremost virtuoso.'

"She's the goddess of countless men's dreams. Let me take you to see her."

The Thousand Beauties Pavilion was known as the Imperial Capital's finest brothel. Any woman who earned the title of "virtuoso" there was naturally extraordinary.

Yet Gu Chenfeng shook his head firmly. "I'm not interested in those dens of flowers and pleasure."

How could visiting a brothel feel better than cultivating? he thought.

Ouyang Cai was not surprised by Gu Chenfeng's refusal.

"Heh, you're afraid Her Highness the princess and Miss Shangguan will find out. That's why you won't go, right?"

Gu Chenfeng could not be bothered to explain. "All right, if there's nothing else, you can leave. This young master has proper business to attend to."

At that, Ouyang Cai remembered something else.

"Third Young Master, now that you mention it, there really is something.

"Did you know? During this tax crackdown in the Imperial Capital, the Ministry of Revenue also flushed out a group of strange people."

"Strange people?" Gu Chenfeng grew a little interested.

"Strange how?"

Ouyang Cai said, "They used a silk shop as a front, but secretly kept plenty of weapons inside. They also raised insects in various jars and bottles."

"When the Ministry of Revenue's constables discovered their secret, those people immediately attacked and killed quite a few of them.

"They were skilled fighters, all martial artists. Some could even command insects to kill people, and they fought their way straight out of the encirclement.

"Later, the Imperial Guard was dispatched to hunt them down, only to discover that someone had already attacked them. Every one of them had bled from all seven orifices and died on the spot.

"Third Young Master, isn't that strange?"

As he recounted the incident, Ouyang Cai's face showed both fascination and horror.

Little did he know that Gu Chenfeng's gaze had already shifted several times, though he concealed it well.

Feigning surprise, he asked, "Something like that happened? Did you find out where they came from?"

Ouyang Cai replied, "My father didn't tell me the details. He only said they probably came from the Northern Frontier."

Gu Chenfeng's eyes narrowed slightly. Inwardly, he was already almost certain.

The two assassins who had attacked him at Great Wilderness Ridge that day,

even if they did not belong to this group, were surely connected to them.

Perhaps this could lead him to the true culprit.

But if, as Ouyang Cai said, all these people had died suddenly, there seemed to be nowhere to begin.

Unwilling to give up, Gu Chenfeng asked, "Were there any other clues at the scene, or any other discoveries?"

Ouyang Cai shook his head. "The case has already been handed over to the Court of Judicial Review and the Ministry of Justice. The scene has been sealed off too, so I don't know."

Gu Chenfeng sighed inwardly. He would probably have to ask his eldest sister to help investigate.

As he was thinking this, Ouyang Cai suddenly slapped his forehead.

"Third Young Master, let me show you something."

With a mysterious air, he pulled a transparent crystal vial from his sleeve.

Gu Chenfeng's attention was immediately drawn to a thumb-sized beetle inside. Its body emitted a soft white glow, as though carved from white jade.

"This is...?"

Ouyang Cai lowered his voice. "Third Young Master, after the incident that day, I got curious and took some guards from our estate to inspect the scene.

"Heh... Then I found this insect in a corner of that silk shop."

Gu Chenfeng stared at the insect in the crystal vial and tilted his ear to listen for a moment, his expression growing increasingly strange.

"It certainly is unusual, but why did you catch it? Why didn't you hand it over to the Court of Judicial Review?"

Looking a little embarrassed, Ouyang Cai said, "It's only an insect. What difference does it make whether I hand it over?

"Besides, it's quite pretty. Maybe some young ladies from good families will like it.

"If I follow your example, Third Young Master, and give it to a girl I fancy,

"wouldn't that give me an excuse to visit the insect and spend more time talking to the girls?"

Gu Chenfeng was left dumbfounded.

This fellow had secretly caught the insect because he, too, wanted to learn the art of "keeping fish."

Fine, imitate a beauty's frown like an ugly girl if you must, but at least find a cute Origin Beast!

Getting a gu worm-such twisted tastes. Was he planning to give it to the Slit-Mouthed Woman?

Seeing Gu Chenfeng's strange expression, Ouyang Cai also realized something was wrong.

"Third Young Master, why are you looking at me like that? Is there something strange about this worm?"

Gu Chenfeng did not answer. He stared at the worm in the bottle, listening to the faint hissing coming from within.

Then a peculiar voice surfaced in his mind.

"Let me go, you two bastards!"

"Master, come save me! Kill them-kill them all!"