"What?"
Zhou Xiong's body trembled violently.
"What did you say? Fort Alum Mountain has fallen?"
"Impossible!"
"Absolutely impossible!"
"Fort Alum Mountain has steep slopes strewn with rocky gullies, complete fortifications, reinforced with solidified plaster, plus thousands of firearms and thousands of defenders."
"How could it possibly fall?"
"Besides..." Zhou Xiong clung to reason after reason, refusing to believe the messenger's report: "How far is Fort Alum Mountain from here?"
"Even if it were truly attacked, a single signal flare could have me dispatch reinforcements in an instant. We'd form a pincer attack, and Ren Tianye's army would be doomed to defeat."
"How could it fall?"
"And in such a short time!"
"Go again—reconnoiter and report!"
"If you dare lie about military intelligence again, I'll have you executed on the spot!"
The messenger had no choice but to turn and go investigate again.
But what was there to investigate?
His information came straight from Fort Alum Mountain.
Now the fort was bristling with banners bearing the surname "Zhang"—the flag of General Zhang Shi, under the Duke's command. How could Liu Xu, the garrison commander of Fort Alum Mountain, have lost his mind and planted General Zhang Shi's banners for fun?
"Well... Captain..." the head of the law enforcement squad began, "Do I... do I still go?"
"Go, why not go?" Zhou Xiong's face was terrifying. "The messenger lied about military intelligence—you don't actually believe that, do you? Go at once!"
"Yes, yes, go quickly, go with full fanfare!" Nanny Sun chimed in loudly. "When you reach Fort Alum Mountain, let the Duke's men capture you, and surrender along the way."
"Since you're going on a military errand, even if Zhou Xiong had a hundred guts, he wouldn't dare touch your family at a time like this. This is your chance to carve out a bright future!"
As they say, the older the ginger, the hotter it is. Nanny Sun's casual remark was incredibly practical. In an instant, the squad captain envisioned the entire sequence of events in his mind—how to feign capture, how to genuinely surrender, how to keep up appearances so everyone would think he was still a loyal servant of Pukou City, forcing Zhou Xiong to hesitate...
Zhou Xiong could no longer hold back.
Pointing at Nanny Sun, he said, "Sun Rong!"
"Oh, I heard you—my ears aren't deaf yet!"
"You..."
"What about me?"
"You're delusional. Fort Alum Mountain absolutely cannot have fallen!" Zhou Xiong's chest heaved up and down, but he barely managed to calm himself. "Do you have any idea who Liu Xu's wife, the garrison commander of Fort Alum Mountain, is?"
"What's to ask?" Nanny Sun laughed. "She must be beautiful, kind-hearted, righteous, longing for the light, and eager to serve the Duke—so she simply surrendered."
"Hmph, you were right about the first part, but the rest... is far off the mark. Liu Xu's wife is a member of the League of United Hearts."
Zhou Xiong sneered coldly. "She joined the league years ago and is now a member. She's a primary target for Ren Tianye. You could say she and Ren Tianye are natural enemies, incompatible as fire and water."
"Surrender to Ren Tianye?"
"Absolutely impossible!"
"This is precisely why, despite the strategic importance of Fort Alum Mountain's terrain, I never sent a trusted subordinate there. With Liu Xu's wife there, Ren Tianye can't easily take the fort, and it remains my eternal shield."
"As long as they don't surrender, Ren Tianye's men can never capture Fort Alum Mountain without a trace."
"So Fort Alum Mountain has not fallen!"
This gave Nanny Sun pause, then she smiled faintly. "Zhou Xiong, have you forgotten what your master does?"
"Have you forgotten what I do?"
"With the Demon-Suppression Bureau in place, there are those with insight who can still see the light and turn over a new leaf."
Zhou Xiong cut her off. "Impossible."
"Other people might have that chance, but someone who truly joins the League of United Hearts can never find that enlightenment. Therefore Liu Xu's wife can never reform. Therefore..."
"Fort Alum Mountain has not fallen!"
Admittedly, Zhou Xiong's understanding of the League of United Hearts was deep and accurate. Ke Xunfang, Liu Xu's wife, would never surrender to Ren Tianye or Ren Tianye's subordinate Zhang Shi.
But...
Ke Xunfang and Liu Xu, the garrison commander—
had divorced.
"Joyous divorce!"
Inside a room at Fort Alum Mountain, Ke Xunfang held the legal document of their consensual separation and jumped up in excitement again.
It had been a few days since she and Liu Xu divorced, but every time she saw the paper, she got thrilled. Always before her eyes, a golden road stretched forward—leading either to a domineering prince in her fantasies or a knight in shining armor.
"The only pity is..."
"My lifelong best friend A Ning has been missing these past few days. I can't share this with her right away. Oh, I was able to divorce Liu Xu because A Ning urged me to come to my senses—she's the true hero! How can she be unfindable?"
"Where has she been these past few days?"
Thinking this, Ke Xunfang decided to search again.
Fort Alum Mountain was only so big. Even if her best friend A Ning were a needle, she couldn't disappear into the sea.
So she stepped out of the room.
A few steps later, she felt something was wrong.
—Something was off on this mountain.
She strode out into the courtyard and looked toward the edge of the mountain. She was stunned.
Now she knew what was wrong.
—Why were there so many soldiers on Fort Alum Mountain not wearing the uniform of Pukou City's army?
She looked closer.
"Isn't that Ren Tianye's troops? The League of United Hearts always talked about them—why are they on Fort Alum Mountain?"
"Wait, no..."
"Are they Ren Tianye's men who conquered the fort?"
"Impossible! Fort Alum Mountain is so easily defended and hard to attack; how could it be captured so easily? Even if it were attacked, there would have been noise."
"Not a single sound?"
Ke Xunfang strained her mind, trying to piece it together.
Luckily, the situation wasn't too complex for her to grasp.
She gasped. "Did Liu Xu surrender?"
"Right, Liu Xu surrendered!"
"Excellent. Liu Xu knew full well that I'm a member of the League of United Hearts and that I'm his sworn enemy, yet he dared to surrender to Ren Tianye?!"
"This is outrageous!"
"Liu Xu, how dare you!"
e vast world of cultivation, where he becomes the master of the Heavenly Ruins Sacred Hall, a dying old man with barely a tenth of his former cultivation remaining. He is immediately confronted with a deadly crisis: his subordinates have rebelled, and his protectors are forcing him to abdicate. At the critical moment, the system descends from the heavens: [Ding! The host has been detected facing a life-or-death crisis. The system is now officially activated!] [As a gift, you have received the Supreme Beginner’s Pack and awakened the ultimate cheat: ten thousand years of pure cultivation essence every second!] Yin Tianjue: “Wait… ten thousand years of cultivation every second? That’s six hundred thousand years a minute, and in one day… I can’t even calculate it. Either way, I’m already invincible!” You’re a peerless prodigy rarely seen in ten thousand years? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. You’re an undying ancestor who has guarded a sacred land for countless ages? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. You’re the strongest chosen one, blessed with heaven-defying destiny? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. From this day forth, I have only one thing to say: “I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. Now, how exactly are you supposed to deal with that?”
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!
s the Eldest Princess, renowned for her cold and aloof detachment, became the most docile of lambs, obeying his every command without question. But when the final move was played on the chessboard, as Gu Chenghan seized everything and ascended on the verge of apotheosis, that very Princess suddenly embraced him from behind, her tone carrying a dependence never heard before: "Wait... you haven't yet... commanded me to love you forever." Gu Chenghan froze abruptly. She... hadn't been hypnotized?! ... [The Eldest Princess's Diary] [When my soul was extracted, becoming the sole spectator outside my own shell] [At first, there was overwhelming fury, until I saw] [How he used my sword to effortlessly shatter my inescapable doom] [How he wielded my authority to eradicate fatal conspiracies I had never even detected] [Like a deity, he rescued me from the deep mire I was trapped in] [If not for those annoying vixens, he and I would be a match made in heaven] [I think I am ill, gravely ill] [My deity should belong to me alone] ... "Hypnosis? Oh, it succeeded, my dear Master." "Only this time, it's my turn to hypnotize you."
world slacker. But a genius female disciple just had to get clingy, insisting that he take her as a disciple. Not only that, she was always making advances on him, thoroughly disrupting his peaceful slacker life...
