Chapter 456: Sister

Sang Qian was bewildered, wondering what the two were up to. "If you're not eating, I will," he said. "I'm really hungry."

Sang Hong shot his son an exasperated look. "Zu An could tell, why couldn't you?" he demanded. "How do you expect to compete with him like this?"

Sang Qian looked utterly confused, and at the same time, quite annoyed. Lately, his father had been constantly praising Zu An's abilities in their conversations, almost as if Zu An were a "child from another family's home," which had pushed Sang Qian's accumulated frustration to its limit. "Father," he retorted, "if you like him so much, why don't you just adopt him?"

Sang Hong was speechless.

Furious with his foolish son, he could only explain, "Don't you even use your brain? How could a mere chef from a remote town prepare such exquisite food that's perfect in color, aroma, and taste? Besides, our food is always inspected by Embroidered Uniform Guards before being served. How could a waiter possibly get close to us?"

"Ah?" Sang Qian gasped in alarm, quickly dropping the bowl in his hand to the floor.

The overturned food was one thing, but the bowl of soup from the plate spilled onto the floor, bubbling thickly. It was clearly highly poisonous.

"Carbonated drink, huh..." Zu An muttered to himself. He also poured the soup from his own bowl onto the floor, and it too began to bubble. He frowned. These assassins had no martial ethics; they were going for everyone's lives. Were they after him, or the Sang father and son?

However, the other party soon provided the answer. The waiter sneered, "Since you won't die with dignity yourselves, allow me to assist you."

With that, he drew a dagger from the food box and lunged directly at Sang Hong and his son.

The strike was swift and fierce, its murderous intent concealed yet firmly locking onto the father and son's life force.

Sang Qian's face paled. If his cultivation hadn't been sealed, he wouldn't fear this man, but now he was less than an ordinary person; killing him would be as easy as slaughtering a chicken for the opponent.

Sang Hong, however, remained calm. After all, he was a distinguished eighth-grade master; although his cultivation was currently suppressed and he couldn't use his power, his sharp eyesight remained.

He directly flipped the food in front of him, sending it flying at the waiter. Then, while the opponent's vision was obstructed by the food, he took a pair of chopsticks from the table and plunged them directly into the assassin's left side of the neck.

The waiter clutched his neck, but his carotid artery had been punctured, and blood continued to gush out. He looked utterly disbelieving, never expecting to be counter-killed by this old man. After all, Sang Hong's cultivation was sealed, making him no different from an ordinary old man at that moment.

Zu An watched from the side, swallowing hard. A tiger, even without its teeth, was still a tiger. The precision and timing of Sang Hong's move, dispatching an assassin as if it were nothing, was astounding. Zu An thought about how he had provoked Sang Qian so much along the way; if Sang Qian had suddenly turned on him, he probably wouldn't have been able to escape either.

Sang Hong was now panting heavily. It was clear that with his cultivation sealed, that single move had drained all his energy.

Just then, the window shattered, and several more figures burst in. They were all dressed as inn servants but held sharp blades, lunging at Sang Hong and his son.

Sang Qian was, after all, a master himself. After the initial panic, he now reacted, and although his sealed cultivation meant he couldn't defeat these assassins, he used various objects in the room to dodge. While his evasion was somewhat clumsy, the assassins couldn't kill him immediately.

Naturally, he had no remaining energy to worry about his father beside him.

Sang Hong, having just expended all his strength, saw an assassin raise a blade to strike. He could only manage to roll awkwardly on the floor to evade, but another assassin's blade was already descending.

His old strength was spent, and new strength had not yet emerged, so he could no longer dodge this fatal blow. He could only lament silently that he, a hero his whole life, was about to die at the hands of petty criminals.

Just then, with a sharp *thud*, the assassin's body jolted, his blade deflected slightly, and he instinctively clutched his head, looking back.

Zu An raised his hands. "Would you believe me if I said it wasn't on purpose?" he asked.

The assassin was enraged. Just as he was about to swing his blade at Zu An, Sang Hong had recovered, grabbed a shard of a broken bowl from the ground, and swiftly slashed it across the assassin's neck.

The assassin clutched the front of his neck, stumbled backward, and finally collapsed heavily to the floor.

"Many thanks!" Sang Hong panted, nodding gratefully at Zu An.

"It was nothing," Zu An replied, dumbfounded. This guy usually looked like a harmless old man, yet when he acted, he was so quick and precise, leaving no chance for survival. No wonder the Chu clan, a family with a thousand-year history, was almost wiped out by his series of attacks.

Zu An had intervened to save Sang Hong for a few reasons. First, Sang Hong had helped him by blocking Prince Liang, allowing him to escape, so this was repaying a favor. Second, it concerned the cooperation Sang Hong had just mentioned. He suddenly realized that on his journey to the capital, he was unfamiliar with the place, had no allies, and lacked even basic information, making many of his plans impossible to execute.

With Sang Hong's assistance, many difficulties would be resolved easily, so he took the opportunity to do him a favor.

However, he had no time to ponder these things now. The assassins, clearly startled by the previous display, heard their leader shout, "Finish them quickly!"

So, those few attacked with noticeably more ferocity than before. One even broke off to attack Zu An, though it was unclear if they genuinely intended to kill him or just prevent him from interfering.

Zu An dared not gamble and quickly scattered, dodging. While he didn't have Sang Hong's keen eyesight, he possessed the marvelous footwork of the "Sunflower Phantasm" technique. Although his qi flow was currently sluggish, making it difficult to achieve the full effect, it was still better than nothing.

For instance, Sang Qian had already taken a knife wound, while Zu An had dodged for quite a while. Though each dodge was perilous, he remained unharmed in the end.

"What's going on with the guards outside?" Zu An wondered with alarm. Although the incident hadn't lasted long, such a commotion couldn't have gone unheard by those outside. What exactly was happening?

At the same time, he found it strange that while these assassins attacked fiercely and lethally, their cultivation wasn't particularly high. Otherwise, with their own cultivation sealed, he and the others would have been killed long ago.

Everything felt unsettlingly strange!

He noticed Sang Hong becoming increasingly disheveled, with several knife wounds on his body bleeding profusely, looking like he could die at any moment.

A gleam flickered in Zu An's eyes. Just as he was hesitating, a slender figure suddenly rushed in. With a crisp *clang* of a sword, the soft sword in their hand moved like a silver dragon emerging from the sea. The entire room was illuminated by a dazzling silver light, almost blinding.

Zu An squinted, vaguely seeing the figure move like lightning. The soft sword in their hand continually swept across the necks of the assassins. Soon, the silver light faded, and the assassins collapsed heavily to the floor.

Only then did he clearly see the person's appearance. They were also dressed as an inn assistant, wearing a tattered leather cap. However, their coarse linen clothes couldn't conceal their slender figure, and with delicate eyebrows, small lips, and fair skin, it was clear this was a woman disguised as a man.

Having seen too many such scenes in historical dramas in his previous life, he hadn't expected people in this world to be so unconvincing when cross-dressing.

So, he casually walked over. "Thank you, hero, for saving our lives," he said. "Unfortunately, I have nothing to offer right now. How about I express my gratitude with a grateful hug?"

As Zu An spoke, he casually reached out to put a hand on her shoulder. However, his hand froze halfway, as the soft sword in her hand was already pressed against him. She frowned and said, "Why are you so shameless?"

Her voice was clear and crisp, melodious even when she was angry.

Sang Qian, seeing her from the side, was overjoyed and immediately cried out, "Sister, kill this fellow!"

Zu An's heart skipped a beat. *Sister?*

The young woman turned to Sang Qian in confusion. "What did he do?" she asked.

"This guy bullied your sister-in-law!" Sang Qian exclaimed. Although Sang Qian hadn't actually seen anything, the thought of them sharing a carriage made him feel incredibly frustrated.

"Then he deserves to die!" The young woman's pretty face turned cold, and she prepared to thrust her sword forward.