Free Web NovelChapter 369: Chapter 284: Trip to Mu Country (3)
Su Ze used his Eye of Truth, spreading his Perception Tentacles throughout the entire Zhao Family estate to search for useful information.
The Zhao Family had already fallen. After Zhao Yuanyi’s death, a string of charges were pinned on him: abuse of power, dereliction of duty, corruption and bribery, forming cliques for personal gain...
Not a single charge was a false accusation.
And the cause of his death was ruled a suicide out of fear of punishment.
Su Ze quickly swept the entire Zhao Family estate with his Perception Tentacles but found nothing of value.
He then went straight to the main hall on the first floor of the primary residence, pushed aside a statue in the living room, and punched the floor, smashing a large hole in it.
"There’s a secret underground room here?" Mr. Ya asked in surprise.
Su Ze nodded. "The outside of the secret room is plated with a material that blocks Spiritual Power. An ordinary person would never find it, and only a handful of people in the Zhao Family even knew it existed."
The entrance to this secret room could be opened with a password, but Su Ze suspected that Zhao Yuanyi might have changed it, so he just decided to force his way in.
After smashing the hole, Su Ze didn’t jump into the secret room. Instead, he sent his Perception Tentacles inside, and the entire situation within immediately appeared in his mind.
The place had clearly been ransacked. Everything of value had been taken away. He didn’t know if the King of Mu had sent people to do it, or if the Zhao Family themselves had.
Inside the entire secret room, apart from some tables, chairs, and cabinets, only a few photographs on the wall remained.
They were all photographs of Zhao Lingxiao, from childhood to adulthood...
Su Ze’s brows furrowed. He had noticed something was off.
Zhao Yuanyi was a bit obsessive-compulsive. He would always insist on arranging these photos in chronological order, but now their order was a mess!
’Was this intentional? Or did someone else mess up the order of the photos?’
’No one would be that bored. This means it could be a message left by Zhao Yuanyi...’
Su Ze tried assigning numbers to the photos based on their original chronological order and then applied them to the current arrangement, which gave him a string of digits.
’Is this... a phone number?’
Su Ze wasn’t sure, but he decided to try calling it.
He dialed the numbers of the suspected phone number.
The call went through. After several rings, someone on the other end picked up.
"Who is this?" the voice on the other end of the line asked.
The voice sounded slightly familiar to Su Ze, so he didn’t answer right away.
"Young Master?" the voice probed.
"I’m not your young master. Zhao Lingxiao died a long time ago," Su Ze finally said.
Hearing Su Ze’s voice, the person on the other end let out a sigh of relief and said, "The Zhao Family is no more, so it doesn’t matter if you’re the real young master or not. The Master left something for you. If you want it, go to locker number 3 at the east entrance of Qinggu Mall. The password is..."
Su Ze memorized what the person said, also noting that he referred to Zhao Yuanyi as "Master." Usually, Zhao Yuanyi’s subordinates would call him "Minister," while members of the Zhao Family would call him "Patriarch" or "Old Master."
The only ones who called him "Master" were the few death-sworn retainers Zhao Yuanyi had secretly trained.
Their strength might not have matched Zhang Fantie’s, and they were mostly Cocoon Stage evolvers, but every one of them was fiercely loyal. They obeyed only Zhao Yuanyi’s commands and always hid in the shadows, handling his dirty work.
Even Zhao Lingxiao himself had very little contact with those death-sworn retainers, having only met them a few times.
Su Ze asked, "Did Zhao Yuanyi give you any other instructions before he died?"
"The last time the Master contacted me was to instruct me that you might contact me through this number, and that I should give you the message I just did. Not long after that, I heard the news of the Master’s death." The voice on the other end paused, then continued, "I suspect the Master was under surveillance afterward, so he didn’t dare contact me again, to avoid exposing me."
Seeing he couldn’t get any more information, Su Ze hung up the phone and immediately headed to Qinggu Mall with Mr. Ya.
Qinggu Mall was the largest and most bustling shopping center in Capital Qinggu City. The crowds were an endless stream. Su Ze and Mr. Ya were both in disguise, blending in unnoticed among the people.
Su Ze found locker number 3. He spread his Perception Tentacles to confirm there was no ambush nearby before walking up, entering the password given by the Zhao Family’s retainer, and successfully opening the locker.
Inside the locker was only a file folder, nothing else.
Su Ze raised his hand, placed the folder into his Storage Ring, and immediately left the locker area with Mr. Ya. They didn’t go far, just found a coffee shop inside the mall and got a private room.
Su Ze tore open the file folder and found a notebook inside. He opened it to the first page and saw two photos pasted there.
The one on the left was a photo cut from a newspaper. It showed the King of Mu as a young man. At the time, he was enrolling in the Muguo Royal Academy, and as the Crown Prince, he was the center of attention, signing an autograph for an admiring female classmate.
The photo on the right was a printout of an image from the internet. Five years ago, Mu Country had experienced a natural disaster. The King of Mu went to the site personally to console the victims and inscribed a message on a plaque.
Viewed separately, there was nothing wrong with either photo. But when placed side-by-side, it wasn’t hard to notice that the young King of Mu was holding the pen with his left hand, while the middle-aged King of Mu was writing with his right.
Zhao Yuanyi had added a note: "I’m afraid not many people remember that the King of Mu was left-handed in his youth." fгeewebnovёl.com
Further in, there were eight or nine more sets of photos, all highlighting differences between the young King of Mu and the present-day one.
Seeing this, Su Ze finally understood. The King of Mu had really been possessed!
And Zhao Yuanyi, having accidentally discovered this, was silenced by the King of Mu.
