Li Guanqi looked at Su Qiu, his eyes narrowing slightly as he spoke in a soft voice.
"Do you want to see Changfeng Villa destroyed?"
He had expected the woman to jump at the offer without hesitation, but to his surprise, Su Qiu shook her head.
She let out a soft sigh and answered quietly, "With just you, there is no way to bring down Changfeng Villa. The fact that you sneaked in proves you lack the strength to kill everyone in an open fight. At first, I thought you were sent by Fang Yishan, which gave me a sliver of hope."
Li Guanqi keenly caught the underlying message and immediately asked, "Why did being sent by Fang Yishan mean there was hope? Is Fang Yishan on guard against Fang Zhongnan as well?"
Pausing briefly, Li Guanqi rose to his feet, an aura of supreme confidence shining in his eyes.
"For this question, you only need to nod or shake your head."
Su Qiu looked up at Li Guanqi, her gaze fraught with complex emotions, and gave a slight nod.
The corners of Li Guanqi's mouth curved upward into a subtle, enigmatic smile.
Looking down at Su Qiu, he whispered, "Trust me. One last question."
Li Guanqi slowly leaned in close to her. This assertive proximity caught Su Qiu off guard.
Beneath the hood of his night attire, his striking eyes were pure white, yet they could not conceal the immense confidence etched into his expression.
"Did Changfeng Villa take someone captive?"
Su Qiu frowned slightly at his words. After pondering for a moment, she shook her head and spoke softly.
"I don't know… Even though outsiders respectfully call me the Young Madam, I am an outsider after all. No one would ever tell me about such things."
Li Guanqi nodded and pressed no further. Slipping through the door, he vanished into the dark.
Evading four patrol teams along the way, he returned cautiously to his quarters.
Looking at the soundly sleeping men, he lay back down on the shared kang bed and lit another stick of incense.
Barely three breaths after he lay down, cursing erupted outside the door!
"Damn it all, these idiots are still fast asleep!"
*Bang, bang, bang! Bang, bang!*
"Get the hell up, every last one of you!"
The door was kicked open violently. A burly, bearded man with a sabre strapped to his waist shoved his way inside, his face dark with fury.
The moment he entered, the man twitched his nose, his brow furrowing deeply.
Li Guanqi's heart sank, wondering if the man had noticed something amiss.
Fortunately, more than a dozen grown men were crammed into the room, and the air was thick with the stench of sweat.
One after another, the men woke up. Li Guanqi also pretended to blink blearily as he stirred.
"Ohh… why did I sleep so soundly today?"
"Tell me about it. That was way too comfortable…"
"..."
Everyone clamored as they sat up, but the sight of the dark-faced man at the door instantly snapped them awake.
A jolt ran through them all. This half-step Core Formation man was their commander.
"Li Pei! Are you fucking tired of living?! Don't you know something huge happened in the villa tonight? Still asleep!"
Li Guanqi scrambled to his feet, quickly pulling on his clothes as he spoke.
"Oh, Boss, don't be angry. Haven't the brothers been exhausted these past two days? Once we finally got back, we just slept a bit deeply."
The man could hardly say much more to that, so he ordered them to get up and go on patrol.
Chuckling inwardly, Li Guanqi barked at the others to hurry up.
After assigning the men their patrol posts, Li Guanqi set out on patrol with two subordinates.
Along the way, he feigned receiving an urgent transmission, assumed a grave expression, and hurried off.
His two subordinates suspected nothing, assuming some matter of grave importance had come up.
Li Guanqi walked with brisk, urgent strides, maintaining an entirely normal demeanor within the villa. Many people greeted him along the way.
Knowing none of their names, he ignored them all.
Reaching an empty corner, he changed into his night clothes, gauged the time until dawn, and slipped away into the night.
By morning, when Li Guanqi had already resumed his daytime patrol, no one had yet discovered the shadow-casting stone placed before Fang Yishan's door.
On a sudden whim, Li Guanqi had also left a copy of the stone at the door of Fang Jin, Fang Zhongnan's father.
He had even included a note with it:
*I know everything about you all!*
Returning to the quarters, Li Guanqi followed the bearded commander's orders to head out again to search for the intruders' trail.
Once he flew clear of the villa, Li Guanqi ripped the human-skin mask from his face. A faint, knowing smile played on his lips before he turned and vanished into the vast mountain range.
Pulling out a jade slip, he sent a voice transmission. "Old Ye, how are things on your end?"
Ye Feng replied immediately, "The third brother is currently in secluded cultivation. His primal energy fluctuations are very strong—it shouldn't be long before he breaks through.
"Boss, how are things over there? I didn't dare send you a message the past two days."
After confirming their location, Li Guanqi did not say much over the jade slip and flew straight toward them.
It was nearly midday when he finally found the cave where the two were hiding.
They had dug it out themselves. From behind a crude stone door, violent pulses of primal energy occasionally surged.
Seeing Li Guanqi return, Ye Feng immediately stood up and asked, "How did it go?"
Li Guanqi sat down and recounted the events of the previous night with a smile.
Ye Feng swallowed hard upon hearing the story and could not help but exclaim, "Boss… you've got some nerve!
"Doing that is no different from roasting that second Fang master over an open flame!
"Still… from what you said, Fang Yishan won't necessarily turn on Fang Zhongnan over such a petty matter."
Li Guanqi glanced at Cao Yan, who was on the verge of breaking through in the inner chamber, and replied in a low voice, "Relying on just this will at most disgust Fang Yishan.
"However, it will plant a seed of discord between the two of them.
"As for the rest… we'll have to give it a little push!"
Ye Feng remained thoroughly baffled. "A push? How do we push it?"
*Buzz!*
The spiritual energy of the surrounding world began to grow volatile. Both men immediately glanced toward the cave's depths and darted out in unison.
The spiritual energy within several hundred zhang rushed frantically toward the center of the cave, the fire-attribute spiritual energy growing exceptionally active.
Li Guanqi said softly, "From what I sensed, that second master of the Fang family doesn't feel like someone in the mid Core Formation realm at all.
"His senses were far too sharp! If he were truly just a mid Core Formation cultivator, there is no way he would have noticed my presence.
"Furthermore, I learned a few things from Fang Hao's wife, which leads me to believe the relationship between those two brothers is far from harmonious!
"In that case, we might as well frame the second master for attempting to usurp the position of villa master!"
Ye Feng scratched his head and simply gave up trying to think about it. He felt that if he ever tried to compete with Li Guanqi in scheming, he would probably be plotted into an early grave.
Chapter 215