Chapter 1665 - The Mantis Stalks the Cicada, Unaware of the Oriole Behind!

The manservant was startled at the voice. He immediately sensed that something wasn’t right. As someone who had frequented this shop for more than a year, he was incredibly familiar with the shopkeeper’s voice, and this was not it.

But then the manservant looked down and saw the man’s dark palms and shriveled fingers, and immediately felt his heart thump.

The shopkeeper spent every day making rice tofu, and after being immersed in rice milk and rice residue, his hands were fair and delicate, not rough and coarse, and certainly not like the hands he now saw.

“Wait, you’re not Shopkeeper Liu! Who are you!?”

The manservant’s heart shivered as he suddenly raised his head, but what greeted him was a lethal palm. At almost the moment he had spoken, ‘Shopkeeper Liu’ had suddenly reached out and seized his neck.

“Foul brat, you’re just a manservant, but you’ve got a rather fast reaction!”

‘Shopkeeper Liu’ raised his head, and while his face was identical to the real deal, it was suffused with an evil and savage aura.

Crack! Before the manservant could react, the man’s fingers clenched, immediately breaking his neck.

After doing all this, the man passed his hand over the manservant’s face, and a moment later, the manservant’s face was peeled off and put on as a mask by that man.

The man dressed in the manservant’s clothes and then silently left the store. Passing through the various streets, he traveled to Zhangchou Jianqiong’s residence. In the entire process, no one was alarmed, and no one in the residence realized that the manservant had been switched out for another person.

……

The back garden of Zhangchou Jianqiong’s residence was home to scattered flowering shrubs and ponds, which complemented the flying arches and eaves of the galleries and bestowed a refined and ancient atmosphere to the entire place.

According to the laws of the Imperial Court, all official residences for those of the second rank and above were designed according to a standard set down by the court.

But at this moment, Zhangchou Jianqiong’s back garden had a row of new wooden racks, upon which peonies and chrysanthemums grew, all of them brimming with life.

Zhangchou Jianqiong was standing in front of a wooden rack, a small medicine hoe in one hand and a watering pot in another as he tended to his plants.

Zhangchou Jianqiong had a serene expression. At the start, he truly had been rather uncomfortable in his estate, but as the days went on, he had slowly come to appreciate this calm lifestyle.

Zhangchou Jianqiong meticulously loosened the soil in the pots and removed any weeds, finishing off with a sprinkle of water. The sight of these energetic plants relaxed Zhangchou Jianqiong’s mind.

It’s about time to prune the leaves, Zhangchou Jianqiong suddenly thought to himself as he gazed at the lush plants.

Unbelievably, the mighty Minister of War and former Annan Protector-General, a man who had spent most of his life on the battlefield, was now living a leisurely life of watering plants and pruning leaves.

“Bring me the shears!” Zhangchou Jianqiong suddenly called out.

“Yes, Milord!”

A gardener came up and bowed as they offered a pair of metal shears with both hands.

Zhangchou Jianqiong reached out for the shears without turning his head, but a moment later, schlick! Whoosh! There was a gust of wind as two sharp blades suddenly protruded from the fingers of the ‘gardener’, gleaming with the blue luster of poison.

The gardener had a bizarre expression as he swept the two blades across Zhangchou Jianqiong’s palm. This was so abrupt that Zhangchou Jianqiong was caught completely off guard. There was a cold gleam of light, and a bloody wound was cut across his palm. The gardener immediately backed away now that he had succeeded, creating distance between him and Zhangchou Jianqiong.

“Just who are you?”

Zhangchou Jianqiong held his wrist as he backed away, his face paling.

This gardener had been a member of his estate responsible for taking care of the garden, though he was now tasked with assisting Zhangchou Jianqiong as he did his own gardening. As this was an employee of his estate, Zhangchou Jianqiong had not been vigilant and had never imagined that the gardener would attack him.

But given the move he had just made, this clearly wasn’t the gardener he remembered.

“Heheh, Lord Zhangchou, we meet again!”

The gardener gave a sinister chuckle from several dozen feet away. His hand reached to the edge of his face and pulled, immediately revealing a completely different face: sinister, savage, and brimming with a dangerous energy.

“It’s you!”

Zhangchou Jianqiong grimaced. He immediately recognized this man as one of his would-be assassins from before.

“Lord Zhangchou, waiting for your guards? Don’t waste your time. I’ve already taken them all out!”

The gardener smugly smiled.

“You dare!”

Zhangchou Jianqiong’s expression turned ice-cold.

“Heheh, it’s different from last time. You’ve already taken my bone-rotting poison. This sort of poison spreads very easily and is meant specifically for use against peak Great General experts. This poison should have reached the center of your chest by now, and in just a few seconds, it will be able to seep into your blood, and you won’t be able to use any of your power.”

The man in black coldly smiled, looking at Zhangchou Jianqiong like he was a corpse. It was not without reason that he had backed away and begun chatting with Zhangchou Jianqiong. As time went on, the poison would spread and intensify.

In their last ambush, not only had they failed, Zhangchou Jianqiong had easily escaped while killing one of their experts, so they had been forced to resort to this plan.

“Bone-rotting poison!”

Zhangchou Jianqiong instantly paled, but the disguised man in black was done with conversation. He lunged at Zhangchou Jianqiong and then vanished out of existence like he was a ghost.

Void Movement Technique!

In a flash of light, the man reappeared behind Zhangchou Jianqiong. Rumble! Space trembled as black flames swept toward Zhangchou Jianqiong.

The peonies and chrysanthemums were burned to ash along with their pots as the black flames engulfed them.

Boom!

In panic, Zhangchou Jianqiong thrust out a palm, immense energy exploding forward. The man in black was pushed back more than a hundred feet, slamming into the thin trunk of a plum tree and obliterating it.

On the other side, Zhangchou Jianqiong was swallowed up by the black flames, but a moment later, fwoosh! The black flames suddenly disappeared.

Zhangchou Jianqiong was completely unharmed!

“How could this be?!” the man in black cried out in alarm, not daring to believe his eyes. He refused to believe that Zhangchou Jianqiong possessed the power to send him flying with overwhelming power and be completely immune to the Fire of Mara, all while suffering from the effects of the bone-rotting poison!

“Hmph, what’s so incredible about it?” Zhangchou Jianqiong coldly said. He charged forward, and a moment later, a vast wave of golden light hurtled toward the man in black.

After traveling several dozen feet, the golden torrent divided into two majestic waves, each more than a dozen feet tall as they converged on the center. This golden energy seemed to crackle with thunder and lightning, and it seemed like even steel would be crushed into scrap by this power.

“Ah!”

The man in black couldn’t help but shriek. His face grimacing, he immediately shot backward, barely managing to avoid Zhangchou Jianqiong’s strike.

The two golden waves collided with a metallic clang. The surrounding wooden racks, pots, ponds, fake mountains… all of them were pulverized, their remains sent flying in every direction.

“Wait! You’re not Zhangchou Jianqiong! Who are you?”

The man in black, having repositioned himself around a hundred feet away, stared with narrowed eyes at Zhangchou Jianqiong, his expression grim.

They had fought with Zhangchou Jianqiong not long ago, so he knew that this was not the sort of Stellar Energy Zhangchou Jianqiong possessed, nor was this his fighting style.

“Haha, of course I’m not Zhangchou Jianqiong. You gutless scoundrels who can only attack from the shadows, I’ve been waiting for you!”

Standing in the devastated garden, ‘Zhangchou Jianqiong’ sneered. The Stellar Energy on his face shifted, and the man in black could only stare in shock as that determined and dignified face transformed into another.

“You!”

The man in black was stunned by the youthful face now before him.

“The Child of Destruction!”

They had prepared long and meticulously for this operation, but not even if they were beaten to death would they have believed that when they were disguising themselves and infiltrating the Minister of War Residence, the Zhangchou Jianqiong they had been after was actually someone else in disguise.

Not in their wildest dreams had they imagined this!

“You dregs of evil, you truly get everywhere!” Wang Chong coldly said. The only people who used the title ‘Child of Destruction’ to refer to him were those mysterious men in black. It was one thing if they targeted him, but Wang Chong could not tolerate them stretching their hand into the Imperial Court!

“You’re here now, so why not make yourself comfortable? In any case, you won’t be leaving the Minister of War Residence!”

Wang Chong’s eyes exploded with killing intent. Boom! A stream of energy locked onto the nearby man in black.

At the same time, in twin explosions of energy, two powerful energy vortices transformed into miniature models of the sun and moon.

Since his identity was revealed, Wang Chong no longer had to keep hiding his abilities, so he swiftly activated his Great Yinyang Heaven Creation Art.