Oh no!
The familiar alarm sound now made perfect sense to Ye Feng. It simply meant he was in an extremely dire situation—one so severe it threatened his life. This implied that if he didn’t handle Li Mucheng carefully right now, he might have to expend his last life-saving puppet. And with only one left, the consequences of facing danger again would be unthinkable...
"Mu... Mucheng! I have something to tell you!"
A flash of inspiration struck Ye Feng, and the words spilled out before he could second-guess himself.
"I’m not disappointed, I just..."
"Just what?"
Li Mucheng halted her advance, tilting her head as she waited for his answer. It was clear that if his response wasn’t what she wanted to hear, the next moment would plunge him into an abyss.
"I just wanted to say... this whole thing is pointless, Mucheng."
"Hm? Pointless?"
"Yeah!"
Seeing that Li Mucheng was still engaging with him, Ye Feng seized the chance to buy time with his words. If he could just keep her from turning hostile, there might still be a way to escape this place.
"Then... Teacher, what would make it not pointless?"
Though her words were slow, Li Mucheng’s body had already closed the distance between them. Her fingers traced the bandage on Ye Feng’s abdomen, sticky with dried blood, before she abruptly lifted it to reveal the wound beneath.
"If we’re talking about interesting..."
"Who did this to you?!"
Li Mucheng’s sudden interruption left Ye Feng speechless, his carefully prepared diversion crumbling in an instant.
"This... Mucheng, maybe we should get back to the interesting topic?"
"Teacher, I won’t ask a third time. Who. Hurt. You?"
Her gaze locked onto him, sharp and unyielding, all her focus now fixed on the wound.
"It was... an accident."
"An accident?"
Li Mucheng tilted her head slightly, studying Ye Feng’s expression—unchanged, yet unconvincing—before her eyes dropped back to the injury.
"This wound..."
To Ye Feng’s shock, she leaned in, her nose brushing against the bandage as she inhaled lightly. The warmth of her breath against his skin made him grit his teeth to suppress a shudder.
"...Just as I thought."
After a few more delicate sniffs, Li Mucheng straightened up, satisfaction curling her lips.
"Thought what? Mucheng, I already told you—"
"It was that woman, Xie Yuyan, wasn’t it?"
"!!!"
The name sent a chill down Ye Feng’s spine. Before he could react, Li Mucheng’s fingers clenched around the bandage, her murmurs of denial barely audible. Then—
Rip.
The sound of tearing fabric echoed through the room. Ye Feng gasped as pain flared across his abdomen, forcing his eyes shut.
Before him, Li Mucheng admired the sight—the wound’s scab torn open, fresh blood welling up like vivid paint. But her smile faltered as something else caught her attention.
"Teacher... do you remember how you taught me to analyze wounds?"
"......"
When Ye Feng stayed silent, she continued, undeterred.
"First, check if it’s scabbed. That tells you how long ago it happened and how severe it is. Second... yours is clearly a stab wound. So Xie Yuyan must’ve used a blade. And third..." Her voice turned icy. "The scab’s been torn open. Which means after getting hurt, you were... active."
Her hand, cold as death, pressed against the wound.
"Care to explain, Teacher? I’d love to hear the truth~"
"......."
"Tch. Why won’t you cooperate? Wasting my time like this is so... unworthy of you."
With that, she withdrew her hand. The movement startled Ye Feng, his eyes snapping open in alarm.
"What... are you planning?"
"What am I planning?"
Li Mucheng cupped his cheek, her touch deceptively tender, before pressing a kiss to his forehead.
"Taking care of my injured teacher, of course. Only my bandages are good enough for you."
She rose from the bed, offered a curt farewell, and strode out of the iron-barred basement...
......
"Keep the perimeter secure! The young mistress ordered—no one gets near this place!"
In a remote villa, black-suited guards armed with weapons patrolled the grounds, their vigilance unbroken. Among them, a familiar voice barked orders: Ah Fu, his expression grim.
"Understood!"
The guards fanned out in groups of three, their footsteps methodical.
"Sigh..."
Once alone, Ah Fu exhaled heavily, his gaze drifting back to the villa. He was at a loss.
Just yesterday, after Li Mucheng returned to her apartment, she’d summoned him. When he learned of her plan, he’d objected immediately—begged her, even. Forcing Ye Feng’s freedom like this would only make him resent her.
But Li Mucheng's face had been shadowed, unreachable. She had coldly instructed him to prepare, then left no room for argument. When Ah Fu tried to call Li Jing, two men in black materialized beside him. These were Li Mucheng's personal enforcers, answerable only to her—a privilege granted by Li Jing himself. Now, under the guise of "assistance," they shadowed Ah Fu's every move.
He knew. This was surveillance. To stop him from warning Ye Feng or Li Jing.
All he could do now was play along... and pray for a miracle.
"Young Mistress... how did it come to this? If you keep going, there’ll be no turning back..."
ts me of treason?" "Correct. The host must return to the capital and gradually build up influence." "Wait—I have half a million soldiers, and you want me to go back to the capital to 'build influence'?" "Host, you are currently the Northern Garrison General, loyal to the Great Xia Dynasty." "Of course I am loyal to Great Xia! Absolutely loyal!" "But you keep referring to yourself as 'We'..." "Never mind the details! Summon all the regional commanders and military officers! We suspect treacherous officials are manipulating the court! They shall march with Us to the capital and purge the corrupt!" "......"
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
lanned to earn money steadily and take life at a slower pace. But he never expected... his father's remarriage, and the stepmother bringing along a dependent, would completely disrupt his life's plans...
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
