Chapter Ninety-Two: A Dream of Mortal Life, Part Nine

In the depths of winter, the group saw a man holding a folding fan. He was not especially handsome, and he was rather short; the sight of him waving a fan in his hand looked faintly absurd.

Liu Chundao had long since understood most of the enemy’s defenses. What he lacked was enough troops to carry out his plan.

Although he knew that the longer he remained here, the greater the danger would become, Li Ziyuan had now truly fallen into a position where he could neither fight his way through nor escape. It was the very predicament he had always tried to avoid, the one he least wished to face. Trapped in this impasse, he was all but at a loss.

Under the astonished gazes of the crowd, Fu Can stepped forward in a single stride, his aura revealed without the slightest reservation, torrents of mysterious dao resonance surging outward madly.

“This would mean Feng Xuan is not capable of matching Helian Wanyun’s blade,” someone said. “Would that not make a laughingstock of the whole world?” At this, the platform below erupted in an uproar.

With Bable awake, everything Ding Huo had done was now exposed. After hearing Bable’s account, Xu Fu understood that Ding Huo had first killed Bable, then caused Bable to be devoured by the parasitic body. Xu Fu knew that once Ba Tianlei learned of this, he would never spare Ding Huo.

At most, his superiors would criticize him for violating policy and physically punishing soldiers. They were all men who led troops; they understood the difficulties of command. So long as things were not taken too far, a few words of reprimand would be the end of it. Just as when Li Ziyuan once had a belt in his hand and was about to whip He Huizhang on the bare backside, no one said he had done wrong.

Seeing that Lin Xiaoli did not catch her signal for help, Lin Baifeng had no choice but to steel herself and step forward alone. “Do you know,” she said, “that murder comes with a life for a life?” Not everyone could bear to watch their father die before their eyes while the murderer stood right in front of them and feel nothing at all.

Winter nights were always cold. So was the world of men. When Yang Lian’er returned to the palace, she found Wang Nianchen standing inside with Noble Consort Xiang, waiting for her. Her face was puffed up, plainly swollen with anger.

But now there were no wounds on Qing’er’s body. That ruled out the killer having hurled a hidden weapon from below the stage. In other words, Qing’er had already been poisoned before going up; only after she stepped onto the stage did the poison take effect.

A single roar rang out, and the foul being howled, shaking grasses and trees for hundreds of miles around into withering collapse. Birds streaked across the sky, beasts sprang in alarm. Most directly, both the armies of Tianjiang and Senyu halted in unison, stunned by the force of that cry.

Cheng Rongjian need not be mentioned. Between him and her, there was not even the kind of easy familiarity she had with Guo Shu.

“What’s so satisfying about that? Back then I was frantic. I truly wished the injured one had been me, not Yuxin,” I said honestly, describing what had happened at the time.

So now, no guardian beast would choose such a method anymore. That left only two.

“Let’s wait. Once they start fighting, we’ll climb over the wall on the other side and run,” He Yunlong said to Ma Ruisu, pointing toward the wall in the opposite direction.

A moment later, the car was driven away. Watching it recede into the distance, I could not help but laugh out loud. I figured Wu Yan would have his hands full now; he would absolutely have to spend quite a lot of breath explaining things properly to that girl in the purple dress. Amusing—truly amusing.

He was now level fifteen. Killing a black bear had only given him ten percent experience; reaching level sixteen would not be easy. Bears were not like deer, so plentiful that you could kill them at will. It seemed leveling in this game was truly difficult, and this was with Lao Jiu possessing extraordinary skill and near-divine archery. For other people, once they passed level ten, progression would be even harder.

Her heart felt heavy, yet at the same time terribly hollow. Her mind was blank, exhausted to the point that she no longer wished to care about anything. She only wanted to fall down and sleep until the end of the world.

Looking at her like this, Lu Yan had already become very serious in his reminder to Le Qi. If it were not for these matters, how could he have waited here in the first place? But now there was little benefit in dwelling on any of it, so he had no choice but to speak of the present troubles.

Only then did he resemble the Yuanwu monarch spoken of by others: cold, ruthless, and resolute. I could not imagine his features, but his eyes must surely have shone with a chilling brilliance, like a snow wolf on the steppe, bearing a bloodthirsty gaze.

“We also want to go out and look around. We haven’t settled on any specific plan yet. We have no objections to your itinerary, so it’s decided: once you finish your business in Xiping Prefecture, we’ll set out together,” Mr. Ren said, bringing the matter to a close.

At that moment, however, most people could not see the image. They could only wonder what had happened, all turning toward the place that had stirred the winds and clouds tonight, and had once again become the center of everyone’s attention.

Fang Jing and Jiang Shaowu each stood one hundred meters from the starting point. Though they were on the same line, their moods were different. Fang Jing believed in Chenfeng with complete and utter conviction, while Jiang Shaowu was uneasy and anxious.

Gao Chong had people summon the main figures—Qian Jichen, Zhao Yi, and the Deng siblings—to discuss together what needed to be done during this period.

I widened my eyes. Of all the equipment on me, only the waist ornament was not a gold-tier item, and this time he had actually given me a divine-grade item. Damn it, was this not trying to make me happy to death?

Yet as soon as I appeared inside the space warship, I discovered that the Gurun soldiers there had all turned panicked.

Tian Jia said nothing. She only touched the hair at her temple, looking somewhat troubled. Tomorrow Prince Chang’an would come; if she did not meet him, that would be one thing, but if they did meet, would she have to change into men’s clothes again?

The more places Qian Mu had traveled, the more deeply he understood the inconveniences involved. Even speaking with officials was somewhat difficult, especially with those who had heavy local accents or were from the south. The Qian family was in business, so its younger members had to understand most dialects: Wu and Yue speech, Cantonese, Minnan, and Hakka.

Fortunately, this fellow had no magical artifact on him for resisting conversion; otherwise, it would have taken more trouble.

“What? Afraid? Did you not suspect that this elixir had a problem? Since that is so, I will give you a chance,” the emperor said, staring at Noble Consort Xiang with an expressionless face.

Meng Xiong, dressed in plain clothes, walked casually down the street. Vendors called out one after another along the roadside, and the sight of such prosperity brought a smile to his face. To be able to preserve such a flourishing city in an age of warfare throughout the realm, the Zhuge family’s painstaking efforts in Qingzhou over the past dozen years had not been in vain.