Book 1 Chapter 37: The Zhang family’s movements; the approaching peril!
Two days ago, on the tenth day after Zhang Yang’s death, in the Zhang family in Luoshi City,
The family head Zhang Zhenshan was sitting in the head position in the hall staring at the five men kneeling in front of him with a cold, stern expression. The look in his eyes was sharp as a blade. Nearly all of those five men were trembling from head to toe, their cold sweat streaming down.
“Humph!” After maintaining this suffocating atmosphere for more than ten minutes, Zhang Zhenshan let out a cold snort. The five kneeling men’s bodies got a shock almost simultaneously. It was obvious they were even more frightened than before.
“You’ve… done very well. Less than ten days, you were able to run so far away in such a short time. It took me so long to find you…” Zhang Zhenshan said in an indifferent tone. It was impossible to tell how he was feeling, but all the people present knew that he could casually kill someone anytime now.
“Tell me, how did my son die? And who killed him?” When these questions were asked, even though his tone was still calm, it could not conceal the sorrow he was doing his best to conceal anymore — how could the pain of losing a son be concealed easily?
The five men kneeling before him were naturally those gangsters who had been knocked unconscious by Bai Yunfei right in the beginning of his attack on Zhang Yang then later run away for fear that the Zhang family would hold them responsible for Zhang Yang’s death. Although they had tried every means possible to flee, in the end they had still been captured and brought back by the Zhang family’s men.
Even the chief of that gang was among these five people.
“Mas… Master, the death of young master Zhang Yang… really had nothing to do with us! That killer specifically came there to target young master. Besides, he is an extremely powerful soul cultivator! We were knocked out to the floor right in the beginning. It really had nothing to do with us! Master, please spare our lives…”
The chief had no choice but to begin to entreat in fear after hesitating for some time. The four people kneeling behind him were so frightened that they did not even say a single word.
“I didn’t ask you about these things!” There was a trace of fluctuation in Zhang Zhenshan’s tone. It seemed he was somewhat impatient.
“Yes, yes… We will tell you everything, master. Hopefully, hopefully you could give us a chance and spare our lowly lives for the moment. We are willing to do our best to help look for young master’s killer!”
“You’re not in a position to bargain!” Zhang Zhenshan’s tone became much more serious. It seemed he could snap and let the fury in his heart explode anytime.
The chief’s entire body trembled once. He did not dare to implore anymore and continued at once: “Yes, yes… That day, the killer suddenly fell down from the roof and knocked out all of us ordinary people with stone tile fragments…”
“What? In other words… none of you saw his face and you don’t know who he is either?” Zhang Zhenshan frowned and said in an ominous tone.
“No, no, actually, I woke up at the last moment, when that man was about to leave, so I heard some things…” The chief hurriedly said again, “That man was alone in the beginning, but a woman appeared at the end of the fight. She seemed to have come to save the young girl captured by us. She and young master’s killer didn’t seem to know each other but in the end they left together!
“That woman said she, she was a disciple of the Green Willow School called… Qiu Luliu. The young girl caught by us is her junior sister Chu Yuhe…” The chief said earnestly, seeming to be trying hard to recall the situation at the time.
“What? Green Willow School?!”
Zhang Zhenshan’s expression changing for the first time, he suddenly stood up and said in a totally astounded tone.
However, after calming down, he immediately frowned again and said doubtfully: “You said she came to save someone? And you kidnapped her junior sister? Humph! If that was really the case, how could you have kidnapped someone from the Green Willow School?! You want to draw the Green Willow School into this to fool me, right?!?”
“No, no! Master, how could I dare lie to you? That woman really said so. I heard it very clearly!” The chief explained hurriedly.
Zhang Zhenshan stared at his expression and thought to himself: “Looks like he’s not lying. It was really the Green Willow School? Qiu Luliu… elite disciple of the Green Willow School, this time she should be out to gain experience, which means the abducted girl is most likely a commoner she just took in for her school. Plus, looks like she was the one who destroyed nearly all the gangs in the city the other night just to look for that girl. If so, everything makes sense now… Even if she was not in league with my son’s killer, they left together in the end so she definitely knows his identity and whereabouts!”
He was planning in his mind but his expression remained unchanged. After regaining his composure, he said indifferently: “You still haven’t told me any specific information about that killer. Is it because you don’t know anything or you don’t want to tell me?”
“That men was really very careful and didn’t mention his identity at all. I’m, I’m really not hiding anything. Master, if you find someone from that Green Willow School, you’ll definitely know who he is. Please spare my lowly life, master!” The chief entreated miserably.
Right at this moment, a fearful, trembling voice came from behind him: “Mas, master… I, I know some information about that killer’s identity…”
“Oh? Quickly tell me!” Zhang Zhenshan frowned and said in a stern voice.
“Before, before killing young master, that man said something…” This man did his best to search his memory for a while then intermittently recited the conversation between Bai Yunfei and Zhang Yang before the latter’s death that day.
Zhang Zhenshan listened in silence all along, but the bodyguard standing beside him became more and more surprised. At the end of the recitation, his face was already full of disbelief — this was none other than one of the two men who had captured Bai Yunfei and brought him into the Coliseum before.
When that man had finished talking, this bodyguard hesitated for a while then clenched his teeth. Not daring to conceal anything, he walked to a place in front of Zhang Zhenshan and said in a low voice: “Master, I think I know who that man is…”
After that, using a low voice, he told Zhang Zhenshan everything he knew about Bai Yunfei, including how Bai Yunfei had offended Liu Meng in the beginning, how Zhang Yang had ordered him to bring Bai Yunfei into the Coliseum by force, how Bai Yunfei had fought in the Coliseum, and what had happened to Uncle Wu and Xiao Yu’er.
“What?It’s that man?!” After listening to his account, Zhang Zhenshan said with a totally shocked expression, “It’s unexpectedly him… But how is this even possible? At that time I also saw him on the street and I got a faint impression that he was merely a weak commoner. Could it be that second young master Zheng helped him? Impossible, second young master Zheng wouldn’t have done so much for a commoner he hadn’t known before. Or… he had a lucky encounter and became powerful?
“Forget it, let’s ignore these things first. Now that I know his identity, it’s already enough!” Temporarily putting aside the doubts in his mind, Zhang Zhenshan raised his head to stare at that man and said indifferently with an ice-cold expression: “So this means you watched that man kill my son without doing anything and then continued to lie on the floor playing possum?”
That man was rejoicing that he himself had provided useful information and was feeling that in the end he should be able to save his own life, so when he heard such words from Zhang Zhenshan, his expression immediately froze. His entire body then quivered and his heart was filled with endless terror. He waves his hands repeatedly in panic and said in a trembling voice: “No… That’s not true. Master, I…”
“Humph! Worthless trash, go apologize to my son now!” Zhang Zhenshan simply did not let him finish what he was saying. In an instant, his expression became extremely hostile, as if the man in front of him was his son’s killer.
A blur then flashed across everybody’s eyes and Zhang Zhenshan appeared in front of that man. He reached out his right hand, grabbed the man’s neck and lifted him up into the air effortlessly.
A mass of cold air then spread out from his body. It was definitely not just a feeling of coldness. Instead, it was a real mass of ice-cold air. The temperature in the hall suddenly dropped and everybody cold not help trembling once.
A visible white mist then appeared around Zhang Zhenshan’s right hand. The man Zhang Zhenshan was holding in mid-air was struggling nonstop and because he was being held by the neck his face had become very red. Now his face unexpectedly turned pale slowly and became covered with thin ice patches bit by bit. Eventually he stopped struggling, his hands dropping down powerlessly.
Zhang Zhenshan loosened his grip and this man immediately fell to the floor. His body was obviously very stiff, as if he had been frozen to death in a world of ice and snow!
“Idiot…” The chief secretly sighed as he looked at the corpse of this man. Even though his face was full of terror like the other people’s, there was still a vague trace of… happiness on it.
Zhang Zhenshan swept his eyes over the remaining four people and said coldly: “As for the four of you, I’ll spare your lowly lives for now. If you contribute substantially to the search for that man, then I won’t kill you. Otherwise… you’ll be buried with my son!”
He lifted his head and instructed the subordinates beside him: “Immediately make a portrait of that man and find out who he really is then mobilize all the forces and men to carry out a search for me! Every city, every town, every village… Even if you have to turn over the entire Qingyun Province, you must find out where that man is for me!!”
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