The carriage had just left when a fast horse arrived right on its heels.
Before the rider even reached the front of the Yuchen Estate, he tumbled off his horse.
"Report, report, report quickly to the Third Prince! The imperial guards have joined forces with the border army to slaughter our forces in the Jingbei Camp! Our barbarian army can no longer hold on. I beg the Third Prince to send reinforcements quickly..."
Before he could finish speaking, the blood-soaked barbarian fainted.
The guards at the gate of the Yuchen Estate were instantly shocked.
They had already sensed the situation outside the city, but they hadn't expected it to be this severe. Immediately, some went to treat the man, while others went to report to Tuoba Xiangtai.
However, after running all the way in one breath, panting heavily and finally reaching the inner courtyard of the Yuchen Estate, the guard abruptly stopped at the door, not daring to enter. He was so anxious that his heart ached, but he knew that any man who dared to enter this door would be killed by His Highness the Third Prince.
His life was a life too!
Losing his life just to deliver a message? What a huge loss!
He could only wait anxiously. Fortunately, Tuoba Xiangtai in the inner courtyard sensed the changes outside the capital and strode out from the inner door. The barbarian guard then hurried forward to report.
Upon hearing this, Tuoba Xiangtai's expression changed drastically.
"The imperial guards and the border army are joining forces to slaughter us? They are trying to destroy my foundation!"
Tuoba Xiangtai knew very well that the over thirty thousand barbarians outside the city and the ten thousand barbarians outside the Yuchen Estate were his foundation. Only with these people could he control Xiao Mingzhao and stay with Xiao Mingzhao at all times.
Right now, the large army outside the city was being attacked. Once they were completely annihilated, it would be equivalent to losing his right and left arms. In the future, the only person he could rely on in this capital would be Xiao Mingzhao.
No, it could even be said that he might no longer be able to control Xiao Mingzhao, make Xiao Mingzhao completely adapt to him, and thus be with Xiao Mingzhao lifetime after lifetime.
At this moment, he didn't even consider that it was Xiao Mingzhao's idea. After all, following the last incident, Xiao Mingzhao had been very obedient. Coupled with the fact that he had placed the Yuchen Estate under even stricter protection, to the point where not even a fly could get in, it certainly couldn't be Xiao Mingzhao's idea.
Thinking this way, he immediately gave an order: "Pass down my command. Reorganize the entire army. First, mobilize five thousand cavalry and immediately head out of the city to rescue the army outside."
Just as this order was passed down and the guards went to assemble the soldiers of the Yuchen Estate, the gift sent by Ren Tianye was brought before Tuoba Xiangtai.
"Third Prince, this was just left in front of the Yuchen Estate's gate by someone who said it was a gift from Ren Tianye to Your Highness!"
Tuoba Xiangtai frowned slightly.
His impression of Ren Tianye was extremely poor!
What good thing could a gift from Ren Tianye possibly be?
However, since it had been delivered, no matter what, he had to open it and take a look. With a single glance from him, the personal guard nearby immediately drew his waist sword and slashed down at the hood, the blade flashing.
The strength and accuracy of this sword strike were controlled with extreme precision. With one slash, the hood was split in two without harming the person inside in the slightest. Even the ropes binding the person were completely severed.
Revealing a... handsome and clear face.
And the person who came had been deliberately dressed in clothes that Tuoba Xiangtai had once worn. Now, standing there...
Compared to Tuoba Xiangtai... their figures were similar, and their facial features were identical!
Instantly... the guard could no longer hold the sword in his hand! With a clang, it fell to the ground!
"This, this, this, this..."
Tuoba Xiangtai also widened his eyes.
At this moment, he felt as if he were looking in a mirror!
The person in front of him... instantly gave him an extremely absurd feeling.
This... how could he look so much like him?
No, they were too similar, weren't they?!
Could it be that his queen mother had once been involved with another man and left him a blood brother?
Xiangxiang's reaction was much stronger than Tuoba Xiangtai's.
After all, he had long known from Ren Tianye that he was favored by the Empress Xiao Mingzhao because he was Tuoba Xiangtai's substitute. Xiao Mingzhao had also put him through various training to make him more and more like Tuoba Xiangtai.
Seeing Tuoba Xiangtai now, he was already mentally prepared.
But the surging waves in his heart were not the least bit weaker than Tuoba Xiangtai's.
It was this person!
It was this Tuoba Xiangtai!
The person Luan'er had made him imitate was this very man!
It turned out that all his love had just made him a clown!
"You are Tuoba Xiangtai?"
Xiangxiang asked coldly. There was an indescribable flavor in his tone, and an even more indescribable feeling in his heart. It was a mixture of anger, grievance, and a somewhat strange, twisted mindset.
"Who are you?" Tuoba Xiangtai did not answer, but instead asked a question of his own.
Normally, Xiangxiang would definitely state his real name, but at this moment, Xiangxiang only wanted to see Tuoba Xiangtai meet a bad end. He immediately said, "My name? I forgot it long ago. Now..."
"My name is Xiangxiang!"
"Luan'er gave it to me."
"Luan'er even built a palace for me in the capital, called the Jinghua Palace. It is quiet and elegant, I don't know how many times better than this Yuchen Estate. She stays with me day and night, deeply attached to each other, inseparable!"
"Tell me, who am I?"
Boom! It was like a clap of thunder exploding above Tuoba Xiangtai's head.
Tuoba Xiangtai's wide eyes widened even further.
His eyeballs almost popped out of their sockets.
His brain was buzzing, his heart was panicking, and his hands were trembling.
He almost couldn't stand steady.
He asked tremblingly, "You, you and Luan'er are deeply attached?"
"Your name is Xiangxiang?"
"You, Luan'er built the Jinghua Palace for you?"
"You, you..."
"What? You don't believe me?" Xiangxiang acted with a dashing demeanor. He reached into his sleeve and took out the folding fan he carried with him, which Ren Tianye had not taken away.
His posture was dashing and leisurely. His white clothes, untainted by dust, seemed to shine brilliantly under the lamplight. His face was calm, his expression serene, making him look like an elegant young master in a chaotic world.
He even had the leisure to stride behind the desk and sit gracefully on the tiger chair. At this moment, he gently waved the plain fan in his hand. The fan surface was half-open and half-closed, revealing a landscape painting within the ink stains.
In the painting, there was a lone pine in a cold courtyard, a cold moon hanging by the window, the pine's shadow slanting over the front steps, a crescent moon hanging at the corner of the eaves, and only sparse lanterns seen outside the courtyard, reflecting on half of a vermilion door.
The words inscribed on it were: Holding a fan to comfort the long night, accompanying me through the passing years!
Tuoba Xiangtai's body shook violently. He had a fan exactly like that too!
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!
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.
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?!
ine. During your journey, you save an abandoned baby girl and become her elder brother】 【You rely on each other, becoming each other's support】 【At the end of the simulation, you shield the now-grown girl with your life, sacrificing yourself to block numerous demonic cultivators. You die, and the light in the girl's eyes fades】 …… 【Second Simulation: You are transported to a world where steam and magic coexist】 【You immerse yourself in the study of magic, obsessed with its research. One day, while out, you encounter a half-blooded demon girl wandering the streets. You take her in as your student】 【You teach the demoness what it means to be human, show her the beauty of the world, and nurture her into a miracle that surpasses even the gods】 【At the end of the simulation, you die of old age in front of the nearly immortal demoness due to your mortal lifespan】 …… One simulation after another, one encounter after another. Xu Xi suddenly felt something was off: "Wait, you said you're coming to the real world to find me?"
