‘It would be impossible for such an individual to exist!’
Zhang Zhongmou immediately denied this ridiculous line of thought.
If they stayed hidden within Zhang Mansion, then they had to be someone who was at a stage far ahead of him. Otherwise, it would not have been possible.
If they had to hide, they would have hidden inside a secret concealed space.
That idea seemed impossible since there was no change in the space at the moment of the explosion. Therefore, he quickly eliminated that possibility.
‘If not, the individual is far weaker than me. Did I completely overlook the person?’
Zhang Zhongmou dismissed that thought immediately.
If the individual lacked potential, where would the explosion have emerged from?
Based on the current situation, as well as the unusual circumstances, it seemed to him that the night invader was not someone at the Master Stage. Rather, it was someone who was a Sovereign.
Still deep in thought, he walked forward and turned a corner before coming face to face with a young man who had a panicked expression.
“Hm?”
Zhang Zhongmou stopped in his tracks.
Many people passed by the Hidden Scriptures Pavilion on a normal basis, so he did not usually pay much attention to them.
However, this young man had walked there with a very obvious intention. He was heading directly to the Hidden Scriptures Pavilion.
Zhang Zhongmou squinted his eyes and attempted to confirm his suspicions of this man.
‘Mid-stage of Origin Court…’
The more Zhang Zhongmou looked, the more he was suspicious of the individual.
‘The clothes he was wearing…’
‘Was it our own door guard?’
…
Watched, Passive Points +1.
Suspected, Passive Points +1
Suspected, Passive Points +1
“…”
It was nothing but a turn, but the notification bar in his mind immediately refreshed with multiple updated notices.
For someone who had not been noticed in his journey thus far, Xu Xiaoshou was caught off guard.
He had hoped that things would go the most ideal way for him and that the Hidden Scriptures Pavilion would have no guards. In the event that there were guards, he hoped they would have been pulled toward the explosion.
Though the idea was promising, the cold hard reality always turned it around.
Using his Perception to take a look, he could see an elder man levitating mid-air above the peak of the ancient pagoda.
Xu Xiaoshou’s heart almost stopped as he spotted the elder.
‘It seems like trouble always finds me in every corner.’
He thought about his current position. The other man had already spotted him and was keeping an eye on him. If he decided to turn back or retreat, he would have confirmed the man’s suspicions of him.
Xu Xiaoshou bravely stepped forward.
Pit!
Pat!
His footsteps sounded rushed yet helpless. He felt that he was walking deeper into a depth he could not recover from with every step
‘What a tide I am caught in.’
He sighed in his heart, but Xu Xiaoshou did not look up. He forced himself to remain collected as he ran to the entrance to the Hidden Scriptures Pavilion.
“Are you there, senior?”
He called out cautiously like an animal dipping its toes into the water and knocked on the door. “The family head is looking for you! It’s an emergency!”
There was no response from the other end.
The area ahead of him was in a state of tranquility. It was as if the ancient pagoda was devoid of any human presence.
Despite the empty and peaceful appearance…
Watched, Passive Points +1.
Xu Xiaoshou’s heart sank.
He could not see anyone with his naked eye, and he did not dare to activate his spiritual senses to observe the upper area of his surroundings.
His Perception had clearly identified that the old man located at the top had an abrupt change in expression after he called out his statement.
Xu Xiaoshou wondered if he had said something wrong.
Perhaps there was a problem or mistake in his sentence that raised the old man’s suspicions.
Xu Xiaoshou felt his heart miss the next beat. He had always been instinctively smooth with his words. To avoid addressing the individual the wrong way, he had adopted the neutral term “Senior.”
‘Hang on!’ he thought.
‘Senior?’
He realized that the way he had addressed the man was the issue.
His undercover identity was that of a door guard. He should technically know the guardian who was watching over the place.
Therefore, he should not have called the person “Senior.” He should have instead addressed the old man by his title in Zhang Mansion.
Something along the lines of “Elder” or perhaps “Guardian” would have been the more appropriate words to use.
‘I was careless!’
Xu Xiaoshou shut his eyes.
In the meantime, Zhang Zhongmou stared down at the young man from the top of the pagoda.
It was exactly as Xu Xiaoshou had predicted. The moment the young man had addressed him as “Senior,” he knew the young man was an imposter.
Anyone from Zhang Mansion would have addressed him as “Chief Elder” when they encountered him.
If it was a few decades earlier, every person in Zhang Mansion would have addressed him as the “Family Head.”
‘What Senior…’ Zhang Zhongmou thought.
‘Ha!’
The imposter had failed terribly in his attempt to draw him out.
Zhang Zhongmou smiled chillingly. He did not move a single muscle as he continued to watch the young man.
From his perspective, the young man could be placed there as bait.
It was hard for an individual with such weak potential as him to be the one responsible for the explosions.
He watched the young man for a prolonged period of time, yet the young man did not make a move to push the doors open and enter into the pavilion.
The young man’s behavior frustrated him.
‘Could it be that this rascal’s goal was not the Hidden Scriptures Pavilion?’
‘If not, what is he actually planning to do?’
As he returned to his thoughts, he caught a glimpse of the young man beneath him looking up suddenly.
The glowing moonlight illuminated his face. His fearsome expression and wide smile were on full display for all to see.
‘Is he smiling?’
This was Zhang Zhongmou’s knee-jerk reaction.
He quickly realized that there was something amiss about the entire situation.
The rascal was an Innate Stage, so it would have been difficult for an individual of that stage to detect his presence.
The wide smile on his fearsome face caused Zhang Zhongmou to connect all the previous bizarre occurrences to the young man below him.
‘Is there a possibility that this young man was the criminal behind the explosion?’ he thought.
He was able to evade the tracing and tracking by every person in Zhang Mansion, and he almost had fooled Zhang Zhongmou. He must have had the help of…
‘Cultivation of The Art of Disguise?’
Zhang Zhongmou felt a chill run down his spine. This was a man who could cause such a huge scene and also disguise and conceal himself naturally in his line of sight.
‘How powerful is his real potential?’
Despite being at the peak of the Sovereign Stage, the young man before him had a high chance of being at the Cutting Path Level.
He stopped his thoughts there. Zhang Zhongmou could no longer sit still where he was. He stood up. With a mixture of anger and shock, he confronted the young man.
“Who are you?”
…
His method was successful.
As he watched his notification bar refresh at a crazy speed after being questioned by Zhang Zhongmou, he knew that his battle tactic had succeeded.
As soon as the old man discovered him and decided to go with the flow as a scheme to continue observing him from the top of the pagoda…
It occurred to Xu Xiaoshou that if he were to follow his original plan, he would have sunk deeply into a passive position.
The best outcome in this situation was to wait until he had crumbled into dust or walk through the entrance and be taken out by the old man in one strike.
Therefore, he decided to add to the old man’s scheme and remove himself from his undercover character as the door guard.
He wanted the old man to perceive him as the individual who was responsible for the massive explosion.
However, this was a dangerous plan.
Only under this immense pressure would he be able to work harder and come up with a new scheme. At that time, he would be able to preserve his life right under the old man’s eyes.
Xu Xiaoshou was not only unwilling to fight, but this situation was out of his depth.
He could always ask Xin Gugu to come out, but the current state of matters was not favorable.
Zhang Mansion not only had the famed Zhang Taiying, but it also had the old man who was before him as well as the beauty he had bumped into who was headed toward the eastern courtyard.
There were three great Sovereigns.
If he was caught in the act, he would face the consequence of death.
Xu Xiaoshou changed his gears quickly on the spot. He looked up and pulled his lips apart. He delivered a chilling smile.
It all seemed to go according to his plan. The old had thought too much into the situation.
As long as he did not deliver the first strike, he was already halfway to success.
…
The old man moved about in the air above him. Xu Xiaoshou did not bother to conceal his Innate Stage presence.
In the sky above Xu Xiaoshou, the old man’s gaze was changing as well.
His eyes portrayed emotions of fear, a subtle mixture of suspicion, and the look of having many unanswered questions.
Xu Xiaoshou stared directly at Zhang Zhongmou. He tried to steady his heartbeat to the slowest normal pace, and he put up his best fearless face.
He wondered how he should talk to assert dominance against an individual of the Sovereign Stage.
Xu Xiaoshou was panicking internally.
Suddenly, the figure of the masked Saint Servant appeared in his mind.
‘Maybe if I…’
Xu Xiaoshou held on for a while longer. He was still hesitant to enter.
He waited for a long while until hints of annoyance could be seen emanating from the old man’s eyes. He finally spoke while maintaining his smile.
“I didn’t think your eyes were so sharp, small fry. You found me.”