"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!"
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...
saw a female celebrity tied up and stuffed in the trunk! Little did he know, countless cameras were aimed at him at this moment - this was a new type of reality show. The first randomly selected passerby was caught in less than an hour. But when Xu Moru was selected, things started to take an unexpected turn. "Damn, this isn't how the script goes. This Xu Moru is too bold, he's not following the rules at all." "Crap, is this guy taking it seriously?" "The female celebrity has been scared to tears!"
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!
ose... to cooperate with the protagonist! Shen Yuan: I have a system! Protagonist: What? System: Holy crap, you're just spilling it out like that? Shen Yuan: Let's team up, we'll split the system rewards! Protagonist: Fifty-fifty split? Shen Yuan: No way! Protagonist: What!? I'm the one getting beaten up, and I don't get half? Shen Yuan: Forty-sixty split, I get forty, you get sixty! Protagonist: Deal! Big brother, come on, hit me! As long as it doesn't kill me, beat me like you mean it! Shen Yuan: Don't worry... I will definitely protect all of you! No one but me can lay a finger on you! Guard our Heaven's Chosen Ones! I'm the only one allowed to bully them!
