Chen Xiang had never liked dealing with incompetent fools. In the past, his stepmother’s son was precisely such an utter incompetent—idling about as a wastrel all day long, doing nothing but causing trouble.

But later, this fool who had annoyed him beyond endurance died at his hands without a complete corpse. Those buzzing people who couldn’t do anything except open their mouths to tell you what to do and how to do it—they all deserved to die.

Yet the fool standing before him now, who annoyed him so much he wanted to draw his blade at every moment but was forced to endure—he truly had no way to deal with him.

Xing’an sprayed saliva everywhere, practically like a watering can that wouldn’t stop talking. Yet the Imperial Guard Commander before him seemed to hear nothing at all and was actually spacing out with a straight face. This made him so angry that he slammed his hand fiercely on the table, startling Chen Xiang back to his senses. Only then did he put his hands on his hips and say furiously, “Are you even listening to people?! The man escaped, he escaped! Hurry up and chase him! Do you know who this person is, do you know what use he has?! If he gets away, I’ll make you all…”

He quickly couldn’t continue. The person before him was staring at him coldly, that gaze so gloomy it made him afraid—even more afraid than when facing his uncle. Only then did he belatedly recall this person’s identity and realize that this person was not one of his household’s servants or thugs who could be beaten or scolded. He couldn’t help but swallow.

Only when he finally stopped talking did Chen Xiang turn his head expressionlessly to look at a man dressed as a Commandant beside him and ask in a deep voice, “Liu Yong, why did you fail?”

Those he had sent out were all skilled men within the Imperial Guard, all who had come down with him from the battlefield, all with plenty of blood on their hands, who fought as if their lives meant nothing. Even so, they had actually allowed a censor to be intercepted?

Commandant Liu immediately knelt down to report, “This subordinate is incompetent. Originally we planned to rest for the night and wait for you to come handle the handover tomorrow morning. Who knew the civilian residence where we were staying would suddenly have an incident? At first there was only one group of black-clothed men, which we handled quite easily. But later, somehow another wave arrived. Back and forth, there were at least three separate groups. Looking at them, they also weren’t all one group. We don’t even know which group managed to snatch him away.”

So many people had their eyes on this censor. Chen Xiang said nothing, his fingers tapping on the tabletop producing dull sounds.

But Xing’an couldn’t help jumping up again. “It’s because you’re incompetent! Imperial Guards indeed—you couldn’t even beat the others!”

Liu Yong’s clenched fists made cracking sounds. He wished he could smash this fellow to smithereens with one punch—if this fellow hadn’t been jumping around earlier, clinging to the Imperial Guards and refusing to let go, they wouldn’t have been unable to operate freely and watched helplessly as the person was snatched away.

Chen Xiang glanced at Xing’an with a gloomy gaze, then turned and strode into the room with large steps.

The room was indeed very messy. Stools and chairs were toppled everywhere, and the windows were all wide open, still letting in much cool breeze at the moment.

With a leap of his body, he quickly jumped out through the window and landed on the ground, carefully observing the traces for a while.

The soil in the capital suburbs was soft. If there was no rain or someone deliberately destroyed them, footprints could often remain for several days. That group had left in a hurry. He also knew his own men—they were definitely not such useless incompetents, and wouldn’t have given others the opportunity to clean up the scene.

He crouched down and measured the footprints for a while, his gaze following that row of deepest and most obvious prints. “Liu Yong, take ten men and pursue from the west. Yang Xian, take ten men and go north. Everyone else follow me!”

Everyone had already arrived in succession and immediately responded in unison with overwhelming force.

“If there’s resistance, kill without question!” Chen Xiang swept his gaze over all of them and coldly gave the order. “Especially that fellow we want—if you can’t catch him alive, make sure he can never speak again!”

Xing’an, who had been preparing to give them instructions and was about to open his mouth, suddenly swallowed back all his words. Seeing that Chen Xiang was about to leave, he hurriedly called out, “Hey, hey, hey! Then what should I do?!”

“Go back and find Chief Steward Xing. Have him coordinate with the Ministry of War—all city gates under martial law, everyone entering the city tomorrow will be strictly inspected!” Chen Xiang finally stopped and glanced at him. Seeing that Xing’an seemed unconvinced, he said coldly, “Don’t make me say it a second time! If anything goes wrong with this person, not only will your uncle have problems, you won’t be able to survive either!”

Xing’an touched his own neck and involuntarily shivered. The words of rebuttal actually didn’t come out of his mouth. Only after Chen Xiang and his group had walked so far they couldn’t be seen did he irritably knock each of his attendants on the head one by one. “Didn’t you hear?! Quickly take me back to the city! If anything happens to me, you bastards won’t be able to survive either!”

Chen Xiang’s group moved like ghosts. In half an hour they had already pursued six or seven li. His trusted aide Yang Yi asked him somewhat hesitantly, “Elder Brother, this entire area is full of civilian residences. Could they have hidden the person somewhere?”

Anyway, they shouldn’t dream of entering the city. At every city gate were their trusted men. Once someone entered the city, they would immediately receive news. The fear was that those people had concealed the person in a civilian residence—that would truly be as difficult as finding a needle in a haystack.

The footprints ended here. Chen Xiang raised his hand to stop everyone and turned back to look at a civilian residence ahead of him that still had its lights on.

“Search!” He ordered Yang Yi to lead men inside, but he himself circled to the back door and indeed saw several horses carrying people galloping away.

It was here! He quickly used his lightness skill to leap onto a tree, and in the blink of an eye covered a large section of road, pursuing relentlessly from behind.

Before long he had already approached the last horse. Using his feet to push off from the tree for leverage, he leaped toward that horse and landed on its back.

The person on the horse was not alarmed either. Slapping both hands on the saddle, they also leaped up. The two instantly exchanged several moves in midair.

Such powerful martial arts! Chen Xiang was secretly shocked in his heart and used even more force. Leaping up, his feet kicked that person over a dozen times in succession, and he struck that person’s back with one palm.

Yet even so, that person only slowed their movements slightly, landed back on the horse’s back and sat steady, then raised their hand and threw some kind of bottle.

Chen Xiang instinctively reached out to catch it. The bottle instantly exploded, spraying out many things that stung his eyes so badly he couldn’t open them for a moment.

By the time he had furiously cleaned his eyes and could see again, he could only distantly see those people instantly scatter into the woods, each person going in a different direction.

A diversion tactic! He suddenly realized, fiercely slammed his palm against a tree trunk, and turned back to rush toward that civilian residence.