Inside the military camp at Pukou City.
It was mealtime again.
Unlike before, when there were two meals a day with solid food, the scene had now completely changed.
Only a single watery broth remained.
The soup boiled in such a huge pot was so thin and clear that it could reflect a person's face, and each soldier was restricted to just one bowl.
The dissatisfaction among the soldiers had gradually spread.
One by one, they were sallow and emaciated, but their eyes always shone with a strange light.
More importantly...
The soldiers had begun to frequently gather in twos and threes, whispering among themselves.
"Have you heard? The sweet potato fields at Qingchou Plain and Luofeng Slope have been taken by Lord Duke's men. Our lifesaving sweet potatoes are all gone."
"The grain prices inside the city have skyrocketed too. The quartermaster is my brother-in-law, and he told me plainly: if we go out now, we can't buy any grain at all. Even if we tried to loot, we'd get nothing. We're doomed to go hungry for a long time to come."
"Ah, when will this kind of life ever end?"
"This crappy life will probably drag on for ages. Either reinforcements from Yunjing arrive and beat Lord Duke, or we wait for Lord Duke to enter the city. Lord Duke's side has plenty of grain."
"I can vouch for that. When I was on patrol at the city wall during mealtime, the wind would blow over, and I could clearly smell the aroma from Lord Duke's camp. Ah, so fragrant, with the scent of rice too. Just thinking about it makes my mouth water."
"Ah, soldiers really have a hard life, especially serving in Yunjing. Not only do we have to complete all kinds of love tasks assigned by Yunjing, but now we can't even eat our fill."
"Can't eat our fill? In two more days, we won’t have anything to eat at all. If you ask me, we might as well just surrender to Lord Duke. Lord Duke treats us soldiers well—at least we’d get enough to eat, receive our pay, and have none of this nonsense."
"Brother, keep your voice down. Don’t you know how strict General Zhou Xiong is with discipline? If he hears this, he’ll have your head off immediately."
"Yeah, brothers, muttering quietly is one thing, but don’t spread it around. Otherwise, General Zhou Xiong’s blade shows no mercy."
...
Most of the soldiers were deeply dissatisfied—after all, no one can work on an empty stomach—but General Zhou Xiong’s authority still loomed large. Coupled with his iron-fisted discipline, their discontent remained buried, festering in the shadows, growing more turbulent by the day.
"This is not right!"
General Zhou Xiong came for his routine inspection of the camp. With just one glance, he could see that the atmosphere within the military camp had undergone a subtle yet earth-shattering transformation in a very short time.
"I never expected that even the soldiers I trained myself would have trouble standing by me through this trial..." Zhou Xiong felt a pang of sorrow and frustration.
But more than that, he felt fear of Ren Tianye.
He knew his soldiers—trained by his own hand, their loyalty was unquestionable. In ordinary times, they would have shared hardships with him and faced swords and arrows together.
That this was happening now proved only one thing.
Ren Tianye had won too many hearts!
More than Zhou Xiong himself, the chief commander, had won the hearts of his own men.
"Damn it..."
Thinking this, Zhou Xiong couldn't help but curse aloud: "It’s all Yunjing’s fault, damn idiots! If it weren’t for all those endless love-and-romance demands that have worn the soldiers down in body and spirit, would they be so quick to look over there just because someone offers a few scraps?!"
Cursing aside, Zhou Xiong knew very well what he had to do now.
In chaotic times, harsh punishments were needed!
And this was exactly the moment for them.
His eyes hardened, and he gave an order: "Disciplinary Squad!"
"Here!"
"Patrol day and night. Anyone seen shaking the army's morale will be executed on the spot—no need to inform me beforehand!"
When Zhou Xiong issued this command, his voice thundered across half the camp, startling many soldiers into a shudder. They looked over with despair and helplessness.
The captain of the disciplinary squad felt a pang of reluctance.
But he gritted his teeth and replied, "Yes, General!"
Zhou Xiong turned and left.
His mind never stopped racing.
The situation had already become dire. After losing the support of the city lord, losing popular support, and being hunted by the Pukou City Love Mutual Aid Alliance, he had now finally lost the loyalty of the army he depended on.
Though he struggled to maintain control, it wasn’t a long-term solution.
He had to find a way to get grain!
He had to think of something.
"Zhou Xiong, still haven't seen the situation clearly?"
Back in his residence, a lazy voice sounded from the side. It was Nanny Sun Rong, a former member of the Demon-Suppression Office.
She had long been under house arrest by Zhou Xiong in the mansion. Now, having heard that the last military supply of sweet potatoes in Pukou City had been entirely seized by Lord Duke’s men, she jumped out immediately.
Ha, so you won’t surrender, Zhou Xiong?
You won’t kill me and just keep me locked up?
Fine then. I’ll jump out every now and then to needle you and see who cracks first—you, the young hothead, or me, the seasoned old woman.
"The soldiers are all ready to mutiny. Haven’t you noticed? Your every step is surrounded by whispers, but the moment you draw near, the noise vanishes."
"What do you think those whispers are about?"
"And some of those whispers are from people close to you. That captain of the disciplinary squad you trust so much—I’ve seen him plotting with others."
The captain of the disciplinary squad immediately jumped up.
A triple denial.
"No!"
"It wasn’t me!"
"I didn’t do it!"
Nanny Sun shot him a sidelong glance. "Whether you did it or not, you know in your heart. And if you know, do you really think Zhou Xiong can’t see it?"
She paused, then turned to Zhou Xiong, whose strained face had already begun to crack. Smiling, she said, "The grain issue is a matter of life and death. Logically speaking, you, Zhou Xiong, are a capable man—you’ve held Pukou City as tight as an iron bucket."
"So how did you let someone cut off your lifeline?"
"How curious."
"In just a few days, all the sweet potato fields supplying Pukou City fell into Lord Duke’s hands. How did he manage it?"
"Oh, I see... Lord Duke is a man of destiny, fated to sweep all before him—anyone who meets him surrenders, anyone who encounters him yields. You’re the only fool who still thinks he can defy Heaven’s will, huh!"
Nanny Sun’s words were sharp, each one stabbing straight into Zhou Xiong’s heart, nearly shattering the composure he had barely maintained over the past two days.
He was truly furious too!
The sweet potato fields outside Yunjing were bad enough, but the ones at Qingchou Plain and Luofeng Slope... how had they fallen in the blink of an eye?
He hadn’t even had time to react!
His heart was bleeding; he could cry but had no tears!
Fortunately, Zhou Xiong’s will was hard enough. He forced himself to keep his composure and bit out through clenched teeth: "Only in the midst of chaos does a true hero reveal himself!"
"The greater the crisis, the greater the opportunity to make my name and achieve glory for Yunjing... Nanny Sun, save your petty schemes."
He turned his head and fixed a burning gaze on the disciplinary squad captain. "Now, I’m reassigning your duties. Hand over command to the deputy captain and lead a detachment to Fanshan Fort."
"Fort Alum Mountain is the shield of our Pukou City, and grain has always been stored there. Go immediately to its garrison commander and order him to dispatch the provisions. Remember—do not bring your family; go at once!"
The captain of the enforcement squad, helpless, accepted the order. He knew that Nanny Sun’s words had already sown a seed of doubt in Zhou Xiong's heart, but aside from carrying out the command, he had no other choice.
Just as he was about to set off, a messenger stumbled in, out of breath.
"Report!"
"General!"
"Fort Alum Mountain has fallen!"
e, Immortal Body, Transmigration, System, Progression Fantasy, Academy Setting, Third-Person Perspective. Alternate Title: Transmigrating into a High Martial World and Reading Live Comments. Bad news: I transmigrated. This is a terrifying high-martial world, and my original, pathetically weak body fell into a coma and never woke up. Good news: I got a Popularity Points system upon arrival. I can see live comments and even create an unkillable alternate identity. Starting out, the alternate identity has all stats at 1. The system tells me that to grow stronger, I must participate in the plot, gain popularity points to allocate stats and grow stronger, and ultimately awaken my original body. And so, carrying my original body on my back, I officially entered Huaqing Academy, where the story's protagonist resides. From that moment on, Chen Guan kicked the original plot to pieces. Live Comments: [Doesn't anyone find this mysterious coffin guy creepy? He can summon indescribable grey misty hands.] [Is this guy a hero or a villain? What kind of onion became a spirit?] [By the way, does anyone know who's in the coffin? Shouldn't the debt for saving his life be repaid by now?] [According to unofficial histories, the person in the coffin was Chen Guan's first love. Their love was once passionate and earth-shattering, but they were separated by life and death due to worldly circumstances. What a star-crossed pair.] ... Years later, the world knew of a demon god born from a coffin, shrouded in grey mist, impossible to gaze upon directly. His foremost divine emissary often wielded a scythe, reaping lives like the god of death. As war approached, facing former friends and a boundless sea of enemies, Chen Guan merely raised his scythe. "Would you like to dance as well?"
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?!
lan, the Luo family, tracked him down - along with the babies in their arms. Mo Xuan stared pensively at the paternity test results from over a dozen top institutions, both domestic and international, showing a 99.99% match between himself and the two baby girls. At 23, Mo Xuan, a doctoral student, had become the father of two three-year-old children. The kicker? The mothers weren't even the same person! He gradually realized he was being lured step by step into an elaborate trap designed by these two yandere sisters. "Be good, little Xuan. Sister's life belongs to you entirely." "Brother, if you try to run away, I'll have no choice but to tie you up." Mo Xuan: "Do whatever you want, ladies. I give up."
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!
