Teng Zijing froze and frowned. He thought Zhou Cheng was about to act like a villain in a play, telling him he was "young, with a boundless future," before moving on to threats and inducements...
Instead, Zhou Cheng abruptly changed tack:
"Let's say you're thirty. Assuming you started practicing martial arts in your mother's womb, that gives you thirty years at most.
"I, Li Chengcheng, possess extraordinary gifts. I am a heaven-sent genius, with the finest resources in the world at my disposal, and I've studied the martial arts of countless schools since childhood. It has been three full years since I formally began cultivating. One year of mine is worth ten of yours. That... isn't an unreasonable claim, is it?"
Teng Zijing listened in utter bewilderment, unable to make any sense of it.
Zhou Cheng gave a soft sigh, as though regretful.
"So why did you think you could successfully take me hostage?"
Before Teng Zijing could react, an enormous force surged into his hand, and the dagger flew out of his grip!
"What?!"
Before he even understood what had happened, his hand was empty, and his entire body went flying sideways like a torn sack.
He crashed through a cluster of tables and chairs, then slammed into the wall with a thud and fell heavily to the floor.
Pain wracked Teng Zijing's entire body. He nearly coughed up blood, feeling as though a speeding carriage had struck him in the street.
Dazed, he struggled instinctively to his feet. Once he regained some ability to think, disbelief and horror flooded his eyes.
Zhou Cheng held the captured dagger between his fingers, deftly twirling it a few times. Its cold gleam traced smooth arcs, as though he were playing with a toy.
Then he casually tossed it aside. With a clang, the dagger landed precisely beside Teng Zijing's feet.
"My offer still stands. If you're not convinced, I can give you another chance." Zhou Cheng stood with his hands behind his back, his tone mild. "If you can harm so much as a hair on my head, I'll let you leave freely with your wife and child."
Teng Zijing paused briefly, then his gaze hardened. Without a word, he flicked the dagger up with his toe and caught it in a reverse grip.
True energy surged through every part of his body. Fueled by conviction and longing, he unleashed unprecedented speed and strength, shooting forward like an arrow loosed from a bow!
He cast everything else from his mind. Only one target remained in his eyes!
Zhou Cheng still stood casually with his hands behind his back, seemingly leaving himself wide open.
With that lunge and thrust, Teng Zijing pushed his potential to its limit. His strength and speed had even begun to approach the threshold of the eighth rank!
He moved so swiftly that even the flickering candlelight beside him seemed unable to keep up!
In a flash, he crossed several yards and closed in on Zhou Cheng. Yet Zhou Cheng still showed no reaction!
The dagger thrust straight toward him, its cold gleam carrying Teng Zijing's resolve!
In the next instant-perhaps even the next fraction of an instant-the tip could pierce his skin and sink into his flesh. Yet Zhou Cheng remained utterly motionless!
Just as the dagger was about to strike Zhou Cheng, Teng Zijing's movements faltered almost imperceptibly-he had hesitated!
In that fleeting moment, his vision blurred again. He barely glimpsed the shadow of a passing palm before an irresistible force slammed into his body!
Bang!
Once again, he flew backward like a kite with its string cut. He smashed straight through the window and landed in the courtyard, flattening a patch of plants and rolling through broken leaves and mud.
Teng Zijing lay on the ground, his eyes vacant.
Zhou Cheng opened the outer study's door, waved the guards away, and strolled toward him at an unhurried pace. Moonlight cast a long shadow behind him.
"Aren't throwing knives your specialty? Why didn't you use them?" Zhou Cheng looked down at him, faint disappointment in his voice. "That strike was reasonably fast, but unfortunately, you hesitated at the last moment. Someone like you has neither power nor influence. Even with a little raw courage, unless you're prepared to stake everything, you won't harm a single hair on my head."
He paused, then continued, "Go back and keep a proper watch on Fan Xian. I've just paid your 'life-saving fee.' You don't understand now, but you will someday."
Then he turned to Chen Quan beside him. "Take him to change into clean clothes. Once he's presentable, let him see his family. Send him out of the residence before three in the morning. As for the broken window, the ruined plants, and the clothes..." He glanced at Teng Zijing, whose face had suddenly lit up. "Make an itemized list for him to take. Have either him or Fan Xian pay for it."
Having given his instructions, Zhou Cheng let out a careless yawn and turned to leave without sparing Teng Zijing another glance.
Clutching his agonizing chest, Teng Zijing forced himself upright.
He could feel an exceptionally condensed strand of true energy locking tightly around his heart meridians. His seventh-rank cultivation could not shift it in the slightest.
For now, however, he merely took it as Zhou Cheng's means of controlling him. He had no attention to spare for it; all he wanted was to see his wife and child immediately.
"What's the rush?" Chen Quan came over and brushed the dust from his shoulder, his tone carrying the teasing air of someone who had been through it himself. "If you don't clean yourself up, won't seeing you covered in dust and looking this bedraggled only make your family worry? His Highness... may have a somewhat twisted sense of humor, but he really does right by his own people."
He lowered his voice and offered a kindly reminder. "Serve His Highness well. In time, you'll understand what a rare honor this is, and what an extraordinary... opportunity."
Looking at Teng Zijing now, Chen Quan felt as though he were seeing his former self.
Fortunately, he and his brother had knelt quickly enough back then and known which way the wind was blowing. They had not been "played with" as brutally as Teng Zijing.
At three in the morning, after a brief reunion with his wife and child, Teng Zijing endured the pain of parting and reluctantly stepped out of Prince Cheng's Residence.
His mind was heavy and his steps slow, but much of his anxiety had finally eased.
His family's safety was the greatest comfort of all.
Glancing back at the residence's silhouette, crouching like a great beast in the darkness, Teng Zijing knew that somewhere behind those high walls, a pair of eyes must also be watching in his direction.
He forced his tangled thoughts into order and headed toward Count Sinan's Residence along the Capital's silent avenue.
He had not gone far when a figure suddenly raced out of a dark street corner ahead, nearly colliding with him.
"Hey! Old Teng! It really is you!" Fan Xian stopped, panting. Recognizing him in the hazy moonlight, he sighed in relief. "You changed clothes. I almost didn't recognize you! Are you all right?"
For a moment, Teng Zijing could not quite bring himself to meet Fan Xian's burning gaze.
Finding him on the road to Prince Cheng's Residence in the middle of the night, how could he fail to understand why Fan Xian was there?
"As long as you're all right! That's what matters!" Fan Xian braced his hands on his knees, gasping for breath. "There wasn't a soul on the streets at this hour. I couldn't even find someone to ask for directions! To find Prince Cheng's Residence, I had to break into someone's home and ask the people inside. It took me ages to stumble my way here!"
The guilt in Teng Zijing's eyes deepened. Fan Xian treated him with sincerity, yet he had no choice but to spy on him.
They slipped into a darker corner of an alley. Fan Xian lowered his voice. "You... went to Prince Cheng's Residence?"
Teng Zijing fell silent for a moment, then finally nodded.
He knew Fan Xian was exceptionally perceptive. Many things would be difficult to hide, if not impossible.
Besides, the compensation list Zhou Cheng had given him before leaving, itemizing all the damaged property, had explicitly stated that either he or Fan Xian could pay.
The implication could not have been clearer: His Highness did not care in the slightest whether Fan Xian learned what had happened.
Teng Zijing briefly recounted his nighttime infiltration of Prince Cheng's Residence, how he had been forced to "take Prince Cheng hostage," and how easily he had then been subdued.
When Fan Xian saw the list of damaged property, his eyes widened, and he nearly jumped with fury.
"Despicable! Shameless! What kind of person does this? Making me pay someone to spy on me? That bastard has gone too far!"
He cursed fiercely, but when it came to actually refusing, he could not do it.
Ultimately, Teng Zijing's predicament had arisen because of him. As long as it helped Teng Zijing, he would... pay the money!
After venting his anger, Fan Xian quickly calmed down and recalled another detail Teng Zijing had revealed. "You said... Prince Cheng's martial cultivation is very high? How high?"
Teng Zijing's expression was grave. "I suspect Prince Cheng is at least eighth rank, and possibly... ninth rank. I couldn't last a single exchange against him. He struck twice, and neither time could I even see him move."
"Eighth rank? Ninth rank?" Fan Xian frowned, finding it hard to believe.
He himself was eighth rank. He reckoned that even if he fought Teng Zijing, he could never make his attacks completely impossible for the other man to follow.
If Teng Zijing's account was accurate,
that meant... Prince Cheng, Li Chengcheng, might very well be a Ninth-Rank Expert!
Anything higher? Fan Xian did not even entertain the thought!
That was simply impossible!
"Ninth rank after three years of cultivation? Who does he think he's fooling?"
Fan Xian judged by his own experience. He had cultivated Overlord True Energy since childhood, with an expert like Wu Zhu beating him day and night to aid his training. After all the hardship and suffering he had endured, he had only barely broken through to the eighth rank after witnessing Wu Zhu's fight with that mysterious Ghost-Faced Man.
The divide between the eighth and ninth ranks was enormous.
Never mind going from nothing to ninth rank in three years-even advancing from eighth to ninth rank in that time would mark someone as a genius who could astound the world!
"I don't want to believe it either, but according to the rumors, Prince Cheng really didn't practice martial arts in his earlier years," Teng Zijing added.
Fan Xian also recalled how, on his first night in the Capital, his father Fan Jian had mentioned that Prince Cheng had set his heart on martial arts, only for His Majesty to force him onto a scholarly path. Only in recent years had Emperor Qing gradually begun leaving him to his own devices.
But reaching ninth rank in three years still could not be explained by talent alone.
Unless he has cheats, there's absolutely no way! Fan Xian thought.
Suddenly, inspiration struck. He asked Teng Zijing, "Do you think Prince Cheng might have been practicing martial arts since childhood, and that this supposed scholarly path was just a smokescreen Emperor Qing put out?"
"A smokescreen?" Teng Zijing still did not understand.
Fan Xian's eyes grew colder. The more he thought about it, the more plausible it seemed. He murmured to himself, "There have always been rumors of a hidden Grandmaster in the palace. If Prince Cheng is ninth rank, could he be that Grandmaster's personal disciple?"
Fan Xian's thoughts raced. Teng Zijing did not interrupt, merely clutching his still-aching chest and quietly listening to his analysis:
"With personal instruction from a Grandmaster, resources supplied by the full might of the imperial family, and exceptional talent... reaching ninth rank at his age wouldn't be entirely impossible."
"Does His Majesty know? Of course he knows! This entire thing might even have been arranged by our emperor!"
A glimmer of realization flashed in Fan Xian's eyes. "I think... I've glimpsed part of the truth.
"At court, the Crown Prince and the Second Prince are locked in a bitter struggle, yet His Majesty has always stood aside without favoring either.
"Prince Cheng misled me before with his talk of 'tempering the Crown Prince.' I really thought His Majesty had his sights set on the Eastern Palace.
"Now it seems I was completely wrong! The one His Majesty has truly favored all along is Prince Cheng! Letting the Eastern Palace and the Second Prince fight merely hides Prince Cheng's brilliance and buys him time to build his strength."
The more he spoke, the clearer it all seemed. "No wonder His Majesty gave the third prince the title the Former Emperor held before ascending the throne! That was clearly a hint all along, with a deeper meaning behind it!"
After pondering his words, Teng Zijing also seemed to grasp it. "No wonder Prince Cheng sees the Capital as a great chessboard and everyone in it as pieces. His apparent indifference to power is probably all an act! Only someone intent on contending for the throne would see people and events from that perspective!"
Fan Xian and Teng Zijing believed they had pierced Zhou Cheng's disguise and glimpsed Emperor Qing's true arrangements. Once their initial excitement faded, however, more immediate concerns weighed heavily on their hearts.
"Oh, no..." Fan Xian suddenly grimaced. "I think I seriously offended our 'future emperor' tonight!"
Nothing had happened between him and Si Lili, but who would believe that?
He had already prepared to grit his teeth and take the blame over Si Lili. He had even mentally braced himself for a "heavy blow" in the future. But now that he had uncovered the truth beneath Prince Cheng's disguise, it was as though a warning sign reading "danger" had appeared over his head!
Thoroughly offending an idle prince and thoroughly offending the future ruler of Qing, the supreme sovereign of the realm, were entirely different matters with entirely different consequences.
And then there was his "Drumstick Girl"...
He no longer hoped Zhou Cheng would help. He only prayed that his own troubles would not drag that girl into the maelstrom as well.
"Normally, I ought to go to Prince Cheng's Residence first thing this morning and humbly beg forgiveness..."
Before you continue