Ruyue's face was deathly pale, matching that of the young duke, Lu Jun. After all, Ruyue had seen it with her own eyes: her son had killed Ren Tianchao!
Although she couldn't figure out how it had happened in that brief moment, her son was holding a knife, and Ren Tianchao had tumbled out of the carriage, covered in blood...
This was an undeniable fact!
This left Ruyue feeling weak all over, and just like the young duke Lu Jun, she collapsed to the ground.
Ren Tianye kindly helped her up and sighed, "Originally, I didn't want to make things difficult for the young duke, but I have no choice. My brother's life is still a life!"
"Since ancient times, a life must be paid for a life!"
"Lu Jun killed my beloved brother, so I must kill Lu Jun to avenge him!"
"No, don't..." Ruyue shouted in a panic. Beside her, the young duke Lu Jun also snapped back to his senses and hastily begged for mercy: "Please don't, please don't, General Ren. I... I didn't mean to. I didn't want to kill Tianchao..."
"Tianchao and I have been good friends since childhood. I, I, I didn't want to kill him."
"General Ren, I beg you to spare my life!"
Ren Tianye completely ignored the young duke Lu Jun's clamoring. Instead, he looked at Ruyue, who immediately pleaded profusely, "Don't kill my son, please don't kill my son..."
"Does your heart ache so much for your son?" Ren Tianye said. "There isn't entirely no way out."
Ruyue's eyes instantly lit up, feeling a glimmer of hope. Then she heard Ren Tianye say leisurely, "Whether or not I kill your son depends on your performance!"
My performance?
Ruyue instantly thought of certain things, and her face couldn't help but flush slightly. "I... I... no matter what, I can be considered your aunt."
"Then that's even better!"
...
A single horse galloped furiously, heading straight for the Fuguo Duke's Mansion.
The messenger quickly stated his purpose.
Lu Qing, who was listening to his butler's report while searching everywhere for Ruyue to no avail, immediately refused in a cold voice: "Tell the messenger that this general will not see anyone from Ren Tianye."
This was the strategy set by Gu Qingyue, the Prime Minister, and himself when Ren Tianye was still leading his army on the way to the capital.
They would first show Ren Tianye some attitude to dampen his spirit, and then invite him into the city. This way, Ren Tianye would be easier to control.
Right now, Gu Qingyue hadn't given him a reply yet, so he couldn't be bothered to see Ren Tianye's people!
Besides, he didn't know where Ruyue had gone. He was anxious, angry, and somewhat resentful.
It was just a trivial matter, so why did she have to disappear?
He had even less mood to see anyone sent by Ren Tianye.
"Master..." the butler said cautiously. "The messenger also asked me to show you something..."
Before the butler could finish, Lu Qing rudely interrupted him and said coldly, "Does this general lack such petty gifts? Tell Ren Tianye to give up!"
"No, Master..." the butler hastily said. "It's a lock of beautiful hair."
"Looking at it, it seems somewhat like Madam's hair."
"What?" Lu Qing's expression instantly changed drastically. He snatched the lock of hair, took one look, and immediately confirmed it. "Where is the messenger?"
"Master, he has already left, but he left a note asking you to go out of the city to General Ren Tianye's army camp for a chat..."
Before the butler's voice faded, Lu Qing had already dashed out. By the time the butler finished his last word, Lu Qing was already at the gates of the Fuguo Duke's Mansion. He vaulted onto his horse, whipped the horse's flank as if his life depended on it, and furiously galloped away.
Currently, all the military forces in the capital were under his control. The soldiers at the north gate did not dare to stop him, allowing him to smoothly reach Ren Tianye's army camp.
Someone had already been ordered to wait for him.
He was immediately led toward one of the main tents.
During this process, despite being surrounded by Ren Tianye's army of a hundred thousand, Lu Qing showed not a trace of fear on his face. Even when asked to dismount and surrender his weapons, he didn't even frown.
No matter what, Lu Qing's courage was quite formidable!
Thus, upon reaching the main tent, Lu Qing lifted the door flap and walked in.
He saw Ren Tianye, who was currently eating.
The last time they met was in Yunji City.
Ren Tianye had defended Yunji City, dealing a massive blow to his seventy thousand imperial guards who were besieging the city. There were many casualties, and when they retreated, they even had to leave behind seventy thousand sets of equipment.
This resulted in his southern pacification campaign ending in defeat.
Of course, Lu Qing did not regret it.
He simply had absolutely no favorable impression of Ren Tianye. He gave a slight cold snort and then fixed his gaze on the woman standing with her back to him in front of Ren Tianye's desk.
Dressed in plain clothes, with a graceful figure, she was standing respectfully to the side. She was either handing over a face towel or presenting a spittoon, serving him with the utmost gentleness.
This sight made Lu Qing fall into a daze for quite a while!
"Sigh, if only this were Ruyue."
"Then I wouldn't have gotten into those pointless arguments with her!"
Thinking this, Lu Qing took large strides up to Ren Tianye. Just as he was about to speak, his body suddenly froze. He shockingly realized that the woman from just now was actually Ruyue!
No, how could it be Ruyue?!
But it really was Ruyue!
Lu Qing took another look, and he broke down!
Completely broke down!
His brain buzzed, his hands and feet turned ice-cold, and his body went limp, nearly collapsing to the ground.
Soon after, all this weakness erupted.
It was replaced by his earth-shattering roar: "Ren Tianye, you are insolent! I give you the time it takes to drink a cup of tea to release Ruyue!"
Ren Tianye smiled, nodded, and said, "Alright. Ruyue, you are free. You may go!"
"No!" Ruyue said loudly. "General Ren, I won't go. I won't go. I absolutely refuse to go!"
At this moment, Lu Qing felt the little bit of strength he had finally recovered vanish into thin air once again. This time, he truly couldn't stand steadily.
He fell straight to the ground.
Tears directly streamed from his eyes as he said, "Ruyue, Ruyue, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, it's my fault!"
"I shouldn't have failed to understand you!"
"I shouldn't have misunderstood your intentions!"
"I shouldn't have driven you away in anger!"
"But please, you absolutely must not abandon me like this!"
"Come back with me, okay?"
"After we go back, I'll do whatever you say. Even if you want the stars in the sky, I'll pluck them down for you!"
"Don't be mad at me anymore. Come back with me!"
Ruyue shook her head, but said, "That's not what this is about. It's my son, Lu Jun. He killed Ren Tianchao!"
"If I don't stay behind to atone for his sins, my son will die."
Lu Qing furrowed his brows.
He felt it was unlikely. How could Lu Jun kill Ren Tianchao? The two had always had a decent relationship; how could he possibly kill Ren Tianchao?
There must definitely be some misunderstanding here.
He opened his mouth and said, "Ruyue, this must be a trap set by Ren Tianye. This person has a very wicked mind."
Pausing, he looked at Ren Tianye and said coldly and directly, "Ren Tianye, this general can give you an opportunity to explain yourself, and you had better satisfy this general."
"Otherwise, you won't be able to bear the consequences!"
Before Ren Tianye could reply, Ruyue hastily said, "Lu Qing, you have misunderstood General Ren."
"My son really did kill Ren Tianchao!"
"I saw it with my own eyes!"
...
lity and could only live as an ordinary mortal. He only wished to live a peaceful life. Yet he didn't know— The dog he adopted, because it ate his food, became a legendary demon king. The kitchen knife he casually forged became a peerless divine weapon, causing numerous experts to fight desperately for it. The young disciple he took in became an immortal lord that led an era, due to cultivating the techniques Ye Feng taught him. Even the skeletons he looked down on the most were ominous demon kings that suppressed countless worlds. Many years later, looking at the void shattered with a punch, Ye Feng murmured to himself: It turns out the peerless kings were myself all along...
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
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!
close your eyes and open them again, only to find yourself transmigrated into the role of a villainous male supporting character. Readers familiar with urban wish-fulfillment novels know that it is only through the relentless antics of the villainous male supporting character that the plot between the male and female leads can progress. As the villainous male supporting character, Long Aotian not only has to bully the female lead, harass the second female lead, and flirt with the third female lead, but he also has to go all out to antagonize the male lead. In the end, when his body is discovered, he is still clutching half a moldy fried dough stick in his hand. Fully aware of the plot, Long Aotian is determined to change his fate, starting with the female lead! In the beginning, the female lead lacks confidence: "Big brother, I hope I didn't scare you?" In the middle, the female lead treads carefully: "Brother Long, please don't hit me, okay?" Later on, the female lead becomes coquettishly clingy: "Aotian, it's time to pay the 'public grain' tonight." Long Aotian's legs go weak, and he feels like crying: "I taught you to be thick-skinned, not shameless!"
