Chapter 436: Self-Destruction

Zu'an chuckled without speaking. He simply picked her up and slowly settled her onto himself.

Zheng Dan trembled all over. She had no energy left to scold him and desperately bit her lip, terrified of making a sound.

Just then, Huang Huihong's voice came from outside: "Miss Zheng, are you alright?"

Zheng Dan's heart skipped a beat. She quickly forced her voice not to tremble, feigning calmness as she replied, "No... I'm fine. Why do you ask?"

"Oh, it's mainly because it suddenly went quiet inside, and I was worried something might have happened to you," Huang Huihong chuckled. After all, he was responsible for security, and Zheng Dan was a high-ranking official's wife. If anything truly happened, it wouldn't reflect well on him.

Zu'an immediately protested, "Commander Huang, what kind of talk is that? Am I that kind of person?"

Zheng Dan couldn't help but lightly punch his chest. *You scoundrel, it would be strange if you weren't that kind of person!* She wondered where he got the nerve to spout such nonsense so brazenly. More importantly, what if his arrogance actually led to them being discovered?

Thinking of this, she became extremely nervous, and her body began to tremble involuntarily.

Zu'an's expression instantly became odd, and he quickly took a deep breath.

Outside, Huang Huihong snorted coldly, "Miss Zheng, if anything happens, just call out to us."

He clearly couldn't be bothered with Zu'an and also didn't want to provoke this troublemaker. After all, the fellow was too difficult to handle, always coming up with strange ideas, and Huang Huihong didn't want to bring trouble upon himself.

"Alright, thank you, Commander Huang," Zheng Dan replied politely, while also unable to resist lightly punching Zu'an a few more times. *This guy is too much trouble.*

At this moment, in the prisoner cart following behind, Sang Qian was craning his neck to peer towards the carriage. Unfortunately, apart from vaguely seeing the carriage shaking slightly, he couldn't see anything.

"Stop looking, it's pointless," Sang Hong couldn't help but remind him. By this time, the restrictions on their mute acupoints had worn off.

Sang Qian gritted his teeth tightly. "Are we just going to let that Zu fellow bully Dan'er like this?"

Sang Hong glared at him, exasperated by his lack of ambition. "At a time like this, you're still thinking about romantic affairs! Our top priority is how to get through this ordeal. As long as we survive this, with my abilities, I will rise again sooner or later. What's wrong with marrying ten or eight noble ladies then?"

Sang Qian mumbled, "But I still feel Dan'er is the most to my liking. The main thing is, I can't stand seeing that Zu fellow acting so smug."

Sang Hong was speechless. This fellow was truly hopeless. *We're almost dead, and he's still concerned about such trivial matters.* He completely gave up hope for his son, only wishing Qian'er could be more decisive and not as foolish as her brother.

Looking towards the capital, Sang Hong's eyes glinted, clearly indicating he was deep in thought.

Unbeknownst to them, the group passed through a valley. Suddenly, countless stones rained down from above, as if a mountain had collapsed.

"Look out!" Huang Huihong quickly warned everyone, directly whipping out his Soul-Hooking Chain to lash at the falling stones.

With a single whip, stones would often shatter into pieces. Other imperial guards also drew their weapons and began to chop. Most were able to split the rocks, but a few unlucky ones couldn't dodge in time and were struck on the head by stones.

The entire procession immediately descended into chaos. Just then, an enormous boulder fell from the mountaintop, heading straight for Zu'an's carriage. Given the boulder's size and weight, if it struck, even Liu Yao's sturdy carriage would likely be flattened.

Huang Huihong was greatly alarmed. They were busy dealing with the previous large rocks and had no time to save the carriage from this one.

At that moment, an invisible azure blade appeared out of thin air, directly slashing at the massive boulder.

"It's General Wei's blade aura!" many recognized the origin of the blade aura and shouted excitedly.

Though the boulder was enormous, how could it withstand a full-power strike from a ninth-grade cultivator? It was instantly sliced in half by the invisible blade aura, and the two halves flew to either side with a loud crash.

Liu Yao shot straight into the sky, touching the mountain wall a few times mid-air before leaping directly to the top of the valley. Then, sounds of clashing weapons and fighting came from above, but they quickly turned into screams. After a short while, complete silence fell.

By this time, Prince Liang had already led his men to Zu'an's carriage. He directly pushed open the door to find Zu'an and Zheng Dan sitting upright, each at an end. Seeing Zu'an unharmed, he breathed a sigh of relief. If anything had happened to this fellow, the Emperor's wrath would be immense.

He suddenly noticed Zheng Dan beside him, thinking that the Sang family had indeed found a good daughter-in-law, truly more beautiful than flowers. *But why was her face so red?*

Just as he was about to ask, Liu Yao flew down from above, carrying several captives. Judging by their terrified expressions, they had clearly been badly frightened.

"Who are you people, and who sent you?" Prince Liang quickly asked.

The pressure from a Grandmaster was immense; the few men immediately lost their composure and stammered, "We are from Black Wind Stronghold. It's just that Zu'an killed our Chief, Chen Xuan, which made our lives very difficult. We heard he was being escorted through here this time, and a group of brothers clamored for revenge for our Chief, so we set this trap. Who knew you... you would be so powerful..."

"Black Wind Stronghold?" Prince Liang was taken aback. Someone nearby quickly leaned in to brief him on the stronghold's background.

"With your cultivation levels, you dared to openly attack the imperial guards?" Liu Yao, standing by, was somewhat amused. After their brief encounter, only a few were even at the fourth rank.

"When we fought against the official army before, they didn't seem this powerful," the men replied frantically. They recalled how, with their Chief leading them, they always managed to make the Moonbright City officials suffer. They never imagined that without their Chief, they would be reduced to such a miserable state. *It's all Zu'an's fault for killing our Chief!*

Rage value from Black Wind Stronghold members: 233,233,233...

Zu'an was speechless. Chen Xuan had died previously, and no one had been able to find Black Wind Stronghold's lair. *Wouldn't it have been better for them to keep a low profile? Why did they have to come and throw their lives away, causing the entire stronghold to be annihilated? Your Chen Xuan was only a sixth-rank cultivator, yet you dared to attack an army with a Grandmaster and ninth-rank experts. What were you thinking?*

Seeing that no more information could be extracted, Liu Yao simply snapped the men's necks and tossed them aside. "Continue the journey!"

Such a minor disturbance was not worth their further attention.

After the procession continued its journey, Sang Hong spoke from the prisoner cart, "Qian'er, what did you learn from this incident?"

"That Black Wind Stronghold overestimated themselves?" Sang Qian replied. He recalled having dealt with Black Wind Stronghold members before. Unfortunately, with Chen Xuan's death, these fellows had become a disorganized rabble, their fighting strength severely diminished.

Sang Hong shook his head, lowering his voice. "Not just you, but even Prince Liang and Liu Yao overlooked an important clue. The Black Wind Stronghold members just mentioned they *heard* Zu'an was being escorted through here. Who told them? And why did they trust that information so much?"

Having just experienced the chaos, it was noisy everywhere now, so he wasn't afraid of these words being overheard.

Sang Qian was startled. "Father, are you saying there's a mastermind behind this?"

"Naturally," Sang Hong sneered. "They might have wanted to use these cannon fodder from Black Wind Stronghold to test the waters, probe our strength, and then make further plans."

Whether it was Prince Liang or Liu Yao, though their cultivation was high, they weren't adept in military matters or known for their strategies. When the army entered a dangerous place like a valley, they only sent scouts for a hasty check and didn't anticipate the danger from above. In his view, this was a very elementary mistake.

And they also ignored the clue mentioned by Black Wind Stronghold... It seemed many unexpected things would happen on the journey ahead.

Noticing the smile on his father's face, Sang Qian was puzzled. "Father, what are you so happy about? If their defenses are weak, won't we suffer too? We've made many enemies over the years. What if someone takes this opportunity to target us? Wouldn't we be finished?"

"What do you know?" Sang Hong scoffed. "If they were too clever, where would our opportunity be?"