Chapter 767: What Surprise?!
"Zhang Yaqian, what mysterious surprise are you going to give me?"
"Hehe, Brother Shen, you'll have to guess," Zhang Yaqian chirped, wrapping her arms around Shen Anyu's neck. Her eyes sparkled, and a lovely blush bloomed across her cheeks.
"Let you guess?" Shen Anyu adopted a thoughtful expression, tapping his forehead lightly before shaking his head. His gaze settled on Zhang Yaqian's delicate, palm-sized face. "How about a hint?"
"Hmm, a hint, you say..." Zhang Yaqian gently bit her pink lower lip. A flicker of shyness crossed her features, making her seem hesitant to speak.
"Understood." Shen Anyu's eyes darted to her mouth, and a knowing smile spread across his face.
"Eh? Brother Shen, what did you understand?" Zhang Yaqian asked, surprised. She hadn't even given him a clue yet.
The corner of Shen Anyu's lip curled into a mischievous grin. He leaned in and whispered something directly into her ear.
"Brother Shen, you... you're such a dirty old man!" Zhang Yaqian's face instantly flushed a deep crimson. She balled her hand into a small fist and tapped his shoulder lightly, her starry eyes a mixture of feigned anger and genuine shyness.
"Slander! My dear Zhang Yaqian, you can't slander me like that!" Shen Anyu declared with an air of mock righteousness. "I'm not old."
Zhang Yaqian covered her mouth, unable to suppress a chuckle.
"Then what did I say?" Shen Anyu blinked, his expression turning impossibly roguish.
Her face still burning, Zhang Yaqian bit her lip again, suddenly finding herself at a loss for words.
"Ahem." Just as the young couple was lost in their own world of whispers, a light cough sounded from the side.
Zhang Yaqian instantly snatched her arms from around Shen Anyu's neck, lowered her head, and stood obediently to the side, her cheeks feeling as hot as a furnace.
An Zhiyue shot Zhang Yaqian an amused look before turning to Shen Anyu with a hint of annoyance. "Shen Anyu, you can't bully Yaqian. This girl is so good and well-behaved."
A strange expression flickered across Shen Anyu's face. 'Well-behaved?' Zhang Yaqian's demure, graceful lady act was just that—an act. Underneath, she was a cunning fox, a vixen with a mind as sharp as any blade. Just that afternoon, she had managed to trick her own best friend, Ling Qingcheng, and had run Shen Anyu ragged several times over.
Even An Zhiyue, a woman of high status and power within the Special Department, hadn't seen through Zhang Yaqian's true nature. One had to admit, her pure and beautiful appearance was a truly masterful disguise.
It wasn't that beautiful girls were inherently better at deception. It was simply that if an unattractive person tried to deceive you, you wouldn't be inclined to believe them in the first place. But people were more than willing to be fooled by a pretty face; how many lovesick fools dreamed of being led on by the goddess of their affections?
As the classic saying went: Why doesn't she deceive others? Because you're not worthy of her deception.
Someone as exquisitely beautiful and seemingly pure as Zhang Yaqian was adored even by other women. In a game, her charm stat would be maxed out. Even those foreign powerhouses, Brother Leopard and Skinny Monkey, men accustomed to a world of women, had been frozen in their tracks by the sight of her.
And of course, there was Xiao Fan, the so-called Child of Destiny. He had practically radiated envy and resentment, allowing Shen Anyu to plunder his destiny value at a breakneck pace.
[Ding! Child of Destiny Xiao Fan is seething with envy. Destiny Value plundered: +8888!]
[Ding! Child of Destiny Xiao Fan is consumed by jealousy. Destiny Value plundered: +6666!]
...
In just a few moments, Xiao Fan had provided tens of thousands of destiny points. However, the returns were diminishing. This level of stimulation was no longer enough.
Unless, of course, it involved Xiao Fan's own girlfriend and fiancée, Xia Mengmeng.
Shen Anyu exchanged a few pleasantries with his aunt, An Zhiyue, and formally received his Special Consultant's medal and the associated rewards. Afterward, he prepared to bid farewell to both her and Zhang Yaqian.
An Zhiyue was burdened with many tasks and didn't press them to stay. She mentioned that the next major priority was investigating the complete annihilation of Yanxia's Yu Clan.
"Although Yanxia's Yu Clan didn't have a good relationship with our An Clan or the Shen Clan, they still made contributions to the country. Now that they've been wiped out, it has sent shockwaves through the world. This matter must be thoroughly investigated, and the perpetrators must be brought to justice," An Zhiyue said, her expression turning grim.
While she held no particular fondness for the Yu Clan, given their past conflicts, the sheer horror of their extermination was obvious. This was one of Yanxia's super-families, a clan with immense influence. If they could wipe out the Yu Clan, what was to stop them from targeting the An Clan or the Shen Clan next?
Zhang Yaqian was also aware of the incident—the impact had been too massive to ignore. She asked with genuine curiosity, "Aunt, who could have possibly done something like this? Wiping out the entire Yu Clan?"
"The primary suspect is the Young Master of the Tianshi Sect, Zhang Zhiyun. This was stated personally by Yu Guannan, the only surviving direct descendant of Yanxia's Yu Clan, so it should be accurate. However, Zhang Zhiyun has since fled, presumably fearing punishment, and his whereabouts are unknown. The Tianshi Sect refuses to cooperate or reveal his location. We've had no choice but to issue a nationwide major arrest warrant."
An Zhiyue let out a cold snort. The Tianshi Sect was truly getting brazen! They barely paid the Yanxia Special Department any mind, relying on their self-proclaimed status as leaders of the cultivation world and the fact that many of their disciples held high-ranking positions within the Department itself. Their arrogance was insufferable. Sooner or later, the Tianshi Sect would be brought to heel and taught to abide by the law.
"Zhang Zhiyun..." As An Zhiyue uttered the name, a complex look flickered in Zhang Yaqian's clear, starry eyes.
Her older brother, her childhood friend. She had already severed all ties with him after he'd attempted to assassinate her man, Shen Anyu. But she never imagined that Zhang Zhiyun was capable of something as monstrous as annihilating the entire Yu Clan.
"Aunt, why would Zhang Zhiyun exterminate the Yu Clan?" Zhang Yaqian couldn't help but ask. Though she no longer cared for the man himself, a sliver of worry remained—not for him, but for the possibility that he might return to seek revenge on Shen Anyu.
'I knew it,'she thought, a cold resolve hardening within her.'The last time at Jinxiu Mountain Villa, when he came to kill him, I should have let Brother Shen finish the job. I should have let him kill Zhang Zhiyun and eliminate the threat for good.''Brother Shen is still too kind. How could he let Zhang Zhiyun go just for my sake? If you don't pull out the roots, the weeds will only grow back stronger...'
A shadow passed through Zhang Yaqian's bright eyes, and she bit down lightly on her lip. In her heart, nothing was more important than the safety of her man.
An Zhiyue heard her question. If it were an outsider asking, she naturally wouldn't have said a word. But for her good nephew's girlfriend, she could offer a few details.
"As for why Zhang Zhiyun wiped out the Yu Clan, we're still investigating. The Tianshi Sect, Zhang Zhiyun, and the Yu Clan had no major grudges to speak of. To suddenly annihilate them... the motive is unclear. However, I have my own conjectures. It's possible Zhang Zhiyun is cultivating some demonic or evil art, because the blood of every single Yu Clan member was drained from their bodies."
"The Yu Clan Patriarch, Yu Guanying, his brother Yu Guanxiong, and seven hundred and twenty-three other members of the main family... as well as their blood relatives in other cities... they all died the same way: completely exsanguinated."
"The Yu Clan's guards, however, were simply killed. Their blood was left untouched..." At this point, An Zhiyue's expression grew heavy with solemnity.
In the days following the massacre, one by one, other influential members of the Yu Clan in different locations were killed, their bodies discovered in the same horrifying state. But the guards and retainers at their residences were merely slain, not drained.
An Zhiyue and the other high-ranking officials of the Special Department speculated that Zhang Zhiyun was cultivating a terrifying demonic art, and that the Yu Clan possessed some kind of special bloodline. To be able to single-handedly exterminate the Yu Clan, the power Zhang Zhiyun displayed was already comparable to a top-tier Celestial. Now, empowered by such a malevolent technique, it was hard to imagine what his strength had become.
The entire affair had placed immense pressure on the Special Department. As the Inspector for the Jiangnan region, An Zhiyue was in charge of the investigation and apprehension, and another Celestial from the Department had been dispatched to assist her.
Fortunately, Zhang Zhiyun had soon gone to ground and vanished without a trace. If the deaths had continued, especially those of such prominent figures, the leaders of the Special Department would have been facing an unmatched crisis. Even so, the extermination of the Yu Clan was already a catastrophe of shocking proportions.
Throughout the entire conversation, Shen Anyu's expression remained perfectly calm, as if he were listening to a story that had nothing to do with him. He hadn't killed a single member of the Yu Clan. That was the absolute truth.
Zhang Zhiyun killed them. What did that have to do with him?
At most, he had just... nudged him a little. He had merely suggested that the members of the Yu Clan were descendants of ancient immortal masters, and that their essence blood could aid in the cultivation of the Yin Corpse Devil Swordplay and suppress its demonic nature.
, he had already accepted Yu Guannan's request and was prepared to help her avenge her family and continue the Yu Clan's legacy.
Shouldn't the deceased members of the Yu Clan be thanking him in the afterlife?
The departed members of the Yu Clan: Thank you so much!
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