However, the carriage driver still dared not say more.
After all, this gentleman was his customer, and a generous one at that.
He respectfully attended to the side, waiting for the gentleman inside the carriage to finish tidying up. This tidying took a full two hours before the carriage curtain was lifted again.
The carriage driver felt his eyes suddenly widen.
The gentleman from before had completely changed.
To be precise, he had transformed from handsome and dashing to exquisite!
Yes, exquisite!
Utterly exquisite!
He wore a suit of gilded scale armor embedded with jade, polished to a mirror-like shine. On his shoulders were beast-headed spouts, buffed to a gleam. His jet-black hair was tied high and secured firmly with a gilded crown, every strand at his temples combed into perfect submission.
His complexion was fair and smooth, his lips a moist, even hue.
The carriage driver could only sigh in admiration.
"Is this a general who stepped right out of a painting?"
But then, he felt something was off.
What general would dress like this?
Especially—generals all wore helmets, but the two things on this man's head...
They were utterly baffling!
"What's wrong? Why are you staring at me?"
The customer asked, and the carriage driver quickly replied, "Nothing, nothing at all. It's just that you, sir, seem extraordinary. Might I ask what business you have in Pukou City?"
The man smiled faintly and said, "It is fate that you drive my carriage today. Since Pukou City is just ahead, I suppose I can tell you."
With that, he puffed out his chest proudly, like a triumphant general returning from battle. "I am none other than Pei Wugou, specially appointed as Marquis Jingyi by the Prince of Yunjing."
"Summoned by imperial decree from the Prince of Yunjing, I have come to Pukou City to take down that worthless Zhou Xiong and hold the city in his place."
The carriage driver gasped and began to kneel.
But suddenly, he found it suspicious.
He half-knelt, then stubbornly straightened up again.
He asked, confused, "General, you are a general sent by the Prince of Yunjing? But... you came alone?"
"No soldiers?"
"Even if no soldiers are following, shouldn't you at least have an attendant?"
"You... you wouldn't be making up this identity to avoid paying the fare, would you?"
Hearing this, Pei Wugou did not take offense. Instead, he first pulled a silver ingot from the carriage and tossed it to the driver before saying, "I have been emulating the Prince of Love of Yunjing, living in seclusion in the wilderness, seeking true love, for five years now. I have long been away from the quarrels of the court."
"This time, it is only because the court's royal guards found me with the imperial decree that I have agreed to return."
"But since the decree has arrived, I must show some face to the current Prince of Yunjing."
"However..."
A gentle expression appeared on Pei Wugou's face. "I have already found the one I love. I wish to spend a peaceful, stable life with her, and I do not want her to know my true identity, lest it ruin the relationship I have worked so hard to build."
"So..."
"I have come alone!"
"First, I will take command of Pukou's forces."
"Then, in seven days, I will defeat Ren Tianye."
"After that..."
"I will return to the wilderness and spend the rest of my life with my beloved."
The carriage driver's mouth fell open. Every word left him bewildered.
The excuse he gave was...
Damn absurd!
But—this was Yunjing. Maybe it was normal here?
Still...
The carriage driver felt that this Marquis Jingyi might be underestimating the Lord Duke sent by the court. That Lord Duke's army was formidable. Could this marquis really repel them in just a few days?
Still, the driver dared not argue.
After all, the fare had been paid—overpaid, even.
He would just attend to the man carefully and deliver him to Pukou City.
So he knelt again and flattered him for a while.
Pei Wugou finally nodded with satisfaction. "Ah, after suddenly vanishing like this, I wonder how worried my beloved must be!"
"Time is of the essence. I must defeat Ren Tianye quickly and return to her side."
With that, he climbed back into the carriage.
The driver flicked the reins and headed toward Pukou City.
Though the driver did not understand the ways of nobles, he could tell that this Marquis Pei from Yunjing was in a hurry.
So...
He had to drive faster.
So as not to delay the marquis's important business.
They sped along, cutting the usual travel time by a third, until they finally reached the gates of Pukou City. The driver announced, "Sir, we are at the foot of Pukou City."
"Shall we head into the city now?"
He was about to drive through the gates when Pei Wugou's voice came from inside the carriage.
"Wait a moment!"
"What is it, sir?"
"Stop the carriage for now."
"Yes, sir!" The driver was puzzled but dared not ask further. He stopped the carriage and helped Pei Wugou out.
Pei Wugou stood on the carriage step, first glanced at Pukou City, then said, "It has been five years since I last led troops. For our first meeting, I must make sure they know my authority."
"Driver, bring me some clean water."
"I... wish to wash up."
The driver was taken aback.
He had just heard the man talking about showing his authority, and had been wondering what he would do... and suddenly he wanted to wash up?
Wait—what did washing have to do with authority?
And...
Hadn't he already tidied up just a while ago?
His face, his clothes... even the finest opera troupe would bow down and call him their master. Why wash again?
And most importantly...
Hadn't he said he was in a hurry?
That's why the driver had pushed the horses so hard to get here on time.
And now they were stopping—just to waste time?
The driver's mind swirled with questions, but he dared not voice a single one. He just handed Pei Wugou the water and attended to the marquis from Yunjing's washing.
To his surprise, the marquis washed extremely carefully.
He freshened up with incredible attention to detail.
So much so that, once again, a full two hours passed.
Only then did he finish.
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...
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!
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?!
] [Lone Wolf, No Male Gaze] [Protagonist is pursued early on; extreme protagonist-stans, stay away!] The "Carnival Paradise" descends and slowly devours the real world in the form of a game. By chance, Zhu Yan awakens the talent [Roleplay], becoming one of the first beta players. He thought he could develop safely, but after clearing the first instance, he is branded by humanity as the chief culprit behind the game's spread—a traitorous villain. A villain? Who would ever... become one! He'll be the villain! From then on, Zhu Yan is not only a player but also a lackey for the Carnival Paradise. Between the straight path and the crooked path, he chooses the con. With his left hand, he dons the villain's mantle, staging scenes within instances, infuriating players who decry him as a despicable traitor, all while the game happily promotes him. With his right hand, he joins the non-human organization "Fangcun Mountain," which opposes the Carnival Paradise, transforming into a mysterious player who slaughters game bosses, earning cheers of "Long live the expert!" from fellow players. Gradually, Zhu Yan rises to become an S-rank human player in Fangcun Mountain's archives, while also being the Carnival Paradise's certified top game Boss. But when the final war erupts and both major factions place their hopes in him— Players tag his various aliases: "Experts, this offensive depends on you." The Carnival Paradise's supreme Boss throws an arm around his neck: "Bro, you're the iron, I'm the steel; you can't let me down again!"
