Chapter 169 — Infiltrating the Chase Family

"Afraid not. We have rules here—no casual entry allowed." The man in black waved his hand. They had seen tourists like Yu Heng before—in fact, they ran into a few every month—so they were quite used to it.

Yang Puqi's Eastern features put them even more at ease, for the more he looked the part, the more Yang Ce resembled a tourist out for a stroll.

"Ah, that's really a shame then." Yang Mo spoke with some helplessness, shaking his head and turning back toward the car. But the instant Yang Ce turned, he whipped back around and, with four swift chops, struck each of the four men in black at the base of the neck. The four of them collapsed silently to the ground.

These four were, in the strict sense, experts—otherwise Old Chase would never have put them in charge of guarding the first checkpoint. But they had let down their guard against Yang Ce, and Yang Juehuan was simply too fast; that was how they fell prey to him in an instant.

Though Yang Shuoxuan was not afraid of a head-on confrontation, for one thing it would waste time, and for another, if the commotion grew too loud, Yang Ce feared it might draw the attention of the next sentry post.

That was why Yang Ce chose this silent method. After the four collapsed, he pressed a sleep-inducing acupoint on each of them to keep them from waking anytime soon.

That done, Yang Ce dragged three of the bodies into the roadside bushes to conceal them, then stripped off the fourth man's outer garment and threw it over his own shoulders. From the trunk he fetched a trench coat and put it on the man in black.

He tossed the man headfirst into the back seat of his own car, then got in himself and, in an instant, used his supernatural ability to transform into the man in black's appearance.

Yang Ce started the car and drove on toward the Chase family castle. Sure enough, he had guessed right—there was another sentry post not far ahead.

At their signal, Yang Ce stopped the car and stuck his head out the window.

"Zakos, is that you?" The man in black clearly recognized the face Yang Ce had assumed, and he spoke in Italian.

"It's me. Look here, I caught a sneaky fellow on the way and was just about to report him to the head of the family for handling," Yang Shuo replied in Italian, then gestured toward the unlucky wretch in the back seat.

"Oh, I see. Then you'd best get going," the man in black said, waving him through with an easy sweep of his hand, letting Yang Ce drive past.

At the several checkpoints after that, Yang Ce used the same trick and sailed through without the slightest effort, meeting no resistance at all, which put him in excellent spirits. He really owed this ability to that little girl Su Ya; if not for her, he would never have known he had it.

He parked the car behind a cluster of boulders not far from the castle and hid it there before getting out, though by then his appearance had already shifted into Zhou Tianxiang's likeness.

Yang Ce had seen Zhou Tianxiang in Songjiang, so he knew what the man looked like. Once the transformation was complete, he stripped off the black clothes, revealing his own garments underneath, and strode boldly toward the castle.

At the castle's main gate, the guards were about to stop him, but then they looked more closely and saw that the newcomer was none other than the family's butler, Zhou Tianxiang. Though they found it odd that Butler Zhou should have left the castle at some point, they still greeted him with respectful courtesy: "Good day, Butler Zhou."

Yang Yu nodded, said nothing more, and walked straight into the castle.

What had happened to Zhou Tianxiang was known only to two people: the master of the castle, old Cha Ce, and Zhou Tianxiang himself. No one else in the castle had any idea.

The real Zhou Tianxiang was at that moment shut up in his room, stewing in his troubles, so the appearance of Yang Cen's counterfeit Zhou Tianxiang drew little attention. After all, there was no chance of running into the real one.

Yang Ce walked grandly through the castle and casually summoned a servant.

Zhou Tianxiang was the direct superior of these servants, so the one who was called over hurried to him in fear and trembling and asked cautiously, "Butler Zhou, is something the matter?"

"Have you seen the master?" Yang Yanchuan asked.

"The master? Isn't the master always in his room?" The servant blinked, then answered hastily.

"Which room of his?" Yang Ce asked, feigning indifference. A man like old Cha Ce would naturally have many rooms—a study, a bedroom, and so on. "During the day, isn't the master always in his study? The one at the very end of the upstairs corridor," the servant said, though puzzled, not daring to ask questions, only answering truthfully.

"Mm," Zhou Tianxiang nodded, then said, "All right, then. Get back to your work."

"Yes, Butler Zhou." The servant acknowledged the order and went back to his duties. Who would dare pry into Butler Zhou's business?

Yang Ce had easily coaxed out old Cha Ce's whereabouts and could not help shaking his head. The management in this castle was far too lax—not a shred of vigilance anywhere.

Little did he know, Yang Juehuan's appearance had been a singular exception. Ask yourself: apart from Yang Ce, who else could possibly impersonate Zhou Tianxiang? Appearing in the castle wearing Zhou Tianxiang's face, it was only natural that no one would suspect a thing.

Following the servant's directions, Yang Ce went upstairs and arrived at the door of old Cha Ce's room. He knocked.

"Come in," came an old man's voice from within. What startled Yang Mo somewhat was that the man spoke Chinese—the same Chinese as young Cha Ce. But then, recalling that old Cha Ce was also of the yellow race, it was hardly surprising that he spoke Chinese.

Yang Ce pushed the door open and walked in—and of course, the instant he entered, he reverted to his own true face.

Old Cha Ce was completely off guard; after all, an ordinary person could never have gotten into his castle. He was at that moment staring at a set of data on his computer.

Regarding the Black Butterfly assassin organization that his son, young Cha Ce, had mentioned to him, old Cha Ce had looked into it after returning. His family, the Cha Ce family, was the world's third-ranked assassin organization, and so enjoyed higher query privileges on the assassin platforms; he had gone straight to the Black Butterfly organization's most recent missions.

They had only one assignment, but that single assignment alone was enough to shake the entire assassin world: to assassinate the head of an armed faction in the war-torn countries of North Africa. They had dared to take on such a mission—and had actually completed it.

Old Cha Ce was dumbstruck. Even he would not have dared take on such an assignment lightly. One misstep, and not only would there be no commission—he would lose his wife and his troops into the bargain, with his own people dying out there.

Looking at the earliest stage of the assignment, he saw that it had actually been designated for the "King of Assassins" to carry out, which struck old Cha Ce as somewhat amusing. The King of Assassins had retired from the world for several years now—how could he possibly come out to take this mission? But how had the assignment later fallen into the hands of the Black Butterfly organization, and why had the client confidently let a newly established, nameless organization take it on? Old Cha Ce was intensely curious.

Old Cha Ce was also one of those who knew the inside story of the King of Assassins, and he knew what a formidable existence the King was. So for the client to have first designated the King of Assassins, and afterward entrusted the task to the Black Butterfly organization, seemed strange no matter how he looked at it.