Gu Zhan paid it no heed, slowly drawing out his blade and turning to the last thug, who was now utterly petrified. He said, "I have no patience for this, so if you want to protect your so-called loyalty, I’ll oblige you..."
"I’ll talk, I’ll talk!"
The thug, terrified out of his wits, blurted out, "It was Zhang Peng from South City Embroidered Uniform Guard Hundred Households Office who made us do it! Lord Gu, we were set up too! We really didn’t know your identity. Zhang Peng told us you were an outsider and gave us one hundred taels of silver to kill you.
We’ve done this sort of thing before. After all, if an outsider dies, who cares? At worst, we just lay low for a while. Lord Gu, truly, if we’d known who you were, not for ten lives would we have dared!
When we realized things had gone south, we tried to run, but Captain Chen caught us. Lord Gu, have mercy! I didn’t know it was you—it was all Zhang Peng who set us up, he’s the one who wants you dead..."
The thug was near tears, begging hysterically for his life.
Gu Zhan frowned slightly, looking to Chen Fei. He asked, "Who is this Zhang Peng?"
Chen Fei’s expression turned ugly, and he replied slowly, "My lord, there’s only one Zhang Peng in the South City Hundred Households Office. Strictly speaking, he’s your subordinate. It’s just that you’ve only been at the office a few days—you haven’t had time to meet everyone, so you don’t recognize him."
Gu Zhan searched his memories closely, but found that his predecessor had never interacted with a Zhang Peng from the Embroidered Uniform Guard—there shouldn’t be any deadly animosity between the two.
"Did my father have a grudge with this Zhang Peng?" Gu Zhan asked.
It was the only explanation he could come up with.
Chen Fei’s face darkened further, and he said slowly, "My lord, I’m afraid it wasn’t your father with the grudge, but you yourself."
"Me?" Gu Zhan asked, confused. "I don’t know anything about this."
Chen Fei took a deep breath and said, "My lord, you and Zhang Peng haven’t had direct conflict, but he’s the trusted man of Captain Cao Feng..."
Chen Fei trailed off at that.
But Gu Zhan had already understood what he meant.
Under Gu Zhan as Small Banner, there were four Captains. Cao Feng was one of them, and the most senior among the four.
Originally, after Gu Zhan’s father died, Cao Feng had the best chance of becoming Small Banner. Even if Gu Zhan filled the vacancy, he should’ve started as a regular Warrior. However, because he’d once passed the Scholars’ exam, he was directly appointed as Small Banner.
Suddenly, Gu Zhan saw the truth,
Cao Feng clearly bore a grudge, so he struck ruthlessly—if Gu Zhan died, Cao Feng would claim the Small Banner position himself.
Gu Zhan’s expression grew grim as he pointed at the last thug and said, "Assign someone to watch him—don’t let him die."
With that, Gu Zhan strode out of the interrogation chamber.
Soon after, Chen Fei caught up and asked, "My lord, what are you planning next?"
"Hiring thugs to murder, assassinating a superior—of course, we go get our man." Gu Zhan’s tone was icy: "We’ll grab that Zhang Peng first. By the time we’re done, not even ten lives will be enough for Cao Feng to pay!"
As they walked,
Gu Zhan summoned the system and began to allocate his stat points,
In his mind, the system’s voice rang once more:
[Profound Yuan Skill upgraded to the Second Floor]
[Current Realm raised to Eighth Grade]