"Who?"
Ning Wanqin cried out in alarm.
Shen Moyan also cried out in shock.
"Zhang Shi?"
"Are you out of your mind?"
"Little Fei, don't you know who Zhang Shi is?"
"He's a total killing machine!"
"What's more, he has a distinguished record of crushing enemy strongholds and sweeping all before him under Ren Tianye's command. There's no way he'd ever surrender!"
Faced with Ning Wanqin and Shen Moyan's questioning, Ruan Fei remained utterly confident. "You two, you can't judge a person just by their surface appearance."
"I might not be an expert in this, but there's one thing I know for sure: that is, Zhang Shi has been deeply unfulfilled under Ren Tianye's command!"
"It's true that he crushed enemy territories and swept across the northern frontier, his achievements should have been earth-shaking. But after he arrived in Yunjing, every single military operation he tried to carry out was suppressed by another general under Ren Tianye, Wang Ming."
"I ask you all, under such circumstances..."
"Could Zhang Shi ever be content with that?"
"Could Zhang Shi ever live a good life?"
Ruan Fei's words were no empty boast, and for a moment, both Ning Wanqin and Shen Moyan began to ponder over the logic of what she said, and the possibility of turning Zhang Shi to their side.
Ruan Fei added, "What's more, this whole idea was put forward by Lord Gu Qingyue. When has a suggestion from her ever been wrong?"
Ruan Fei obviously held a great deal of admiration for Gu Qingyue, and her eyes lit up as she continued, "Back when Lord Gu Qingyue was in the capital, the Female Emperor was trapped in the Imperial Chen Mansion, the imperial court had no ruler, and the whole realm was in chaos. It was her who stepped forward, raised her voice, and came up with a single plan to bring Her Majesty the Empress back."
"You two must remember that incident, right?"
Ruan Fei's eyes were practically sparkling with reverence. "Lord Gu Qingyue proposed summoning all the fierce generals from across the realm to the capital, using military force to pressure the situation. It was exactly because of that plan that Her Majesty the Empress was able to return and take charge of the government!"
"If not..."
"Her Majesty the Empress would have been nothing but a long-dead skeleton inside the Imperial Chen Mansion by now."
"Lord Gu Qingyue is so far-sighted, and her courage is admirable. How could we not be utterly captivated by and willing to follow a suggestion she has put forward now?"
Hearing these words, Shen Moyan was completely bewildered, and felt that something was very wrong. It was true that Gu Qingyue had rescued the Female Emperor, but she had also brought Ren Tianye and his ferocious, wolf-like army all the way from the northern frontier to the capital!
But in Ruan Fei and Ning Wanqin's eyes, they only saw the fact that the Female Emperor had been saved. Ning Wanqin immediately stood up, her face full of excitement.
"Little Fei, you're right!"
"How could we not trust a suggestion put forward by Lord Gu Qingyue?"
"Since that's the case, there's no more need to waste words."
"We'll do exactly as Lord Gu Qingyue proposed... win General Zhang Shi over to our side. When that happens, Little Fei, you'll have a fierce and valiant general under your command. Not only will you be able to stand up to the Grand Commander's wife, you'll also weaken Ren Tianye's forces. It's simply killing two birds with one stone!"
With Ning Wanqin's full support, Ruan Fei grew even more exhilarated. She tightly grasped Ning Wanqin's hand and said excitedly, "Sister, you get me better than anyone!"
"Of course I do!" Ning Wanqin said. "The only thing is... we need to discuss carefully how exactly we're going to win General Zhang Shi over."
"Do we still need to send people to the Jiangbei Fortress Group again, to persuade him to defect to us?"
Ruan Fei shook her head. "We don't need to do that right away. First, we should write a letter to General Zhang Shi. If he shows any interest, then we send people to meet him."
"But..."
"General Zhang Shi is no ordinary man. A man who can crush enemy strongholds and sweep across the northern frontier surely has his own pride. When we send the letter, we should also bring some gifts to show our sincerity to him."
Ning Wanqin agreed wholeheartedly. "That's exactly the right thing to do!"
"For a general as illustrious and awe-inspiring as General Zhang Shi, who strikes fear into the hearts of people all across the realm, we need to prepare extremely generous gifts. Little Fei, what exactly do you plan to offer him?"
"Gold and silver money?"
"With General Zhang Shi's status and vision, ordinary gold and silver would probably never move him, right?"
Ruan Fei felt more than ever that Ning Wanqin was a true kindred spirit, every single word Ning Wanqin said hit right at what she was thinking, making her extremely happy. "Sister Wanqin, of course ordinary gold and silver would not be enough."
"Besides, neither of us has that much of it on hand anyway."
"So what we need is a sum of gold and silver so stunning that General Zhang Shi would be shocked the moment he sees it."
"This..."
"is the second thing I wanted to talk to you about."
"That is, I want to ask Sister Wanqin to come with me to visit Sister Shen Zhian, and ask her to be generous and put together a sum of gold and silver that will make anyone who sees it gasp in amazement."
Ning Wanqin suddenly realized that this was what Ruan Fei had been leading up to, but when her good sister was in need, as the soft, sweet treasure of her group of close female friends, she would of course never say no.
She nodded. "Fine, let's make time to go see Sister Shen Zhian together, and ask her to be generous with us."
"That amount of gold and silver might be hard for other people to gather, but for Sister Shen Zhian, a powerful woman who can casually create commercial miracles, it's as easy as turning over her hand."
"With our relationship as fellow leaders of the All-Women Army, she would never be stingy with us."
Ruan Fei was overjoyed. "Exactly right!"
"That's exactly what I was thinking."
"We go visit Sister Shen Zhian, two things will be accomplished: one is to get her to ask General Zhou Buzhang to come out of retirement, and the other is to get her to provide the gold and silver we need to give to General Zhang Shi!"
The two of them settled on this plan after a few short exchanges, both of their faces glowing, as if they could already see the glorious future unfolding in front of their eyes.
General Zhou Buzhang returning to service, General Zhang Shi defecting to their side, the Grand Commander's wife being defeated and forced to return to Yunjing, the All-Women Army surging forward to hold the Yangtze River line of defense, Ren Tianye unable to advance a single step further south!
What a grand, magnificent scene that would be!
Just thinking about it made their hearts race with excitement.
They chatted for a while longer, and when Ruan Fei saw that it was getting late, she said her goodbyes and left. She had not walked far after exiting Shen Moyan's tent when she ran straight into someone hurrying over.
It was no other than the Grand Commander's first wife.
Ruan Fei was in such a great mood that she could not resist walking over to her. She first put on a fake, polite bow and said, "Madam, it's already so late. Where are you off to?"
"Looking for the Grand Commander?"
"The Grand Commander has been exhausted for days, and today he executed General Zhao and General Qian. He's resting in his tent right now, you shouldn't go bother him, okay?"
"If you upset the Grand Commander, that's not good for him either. As women, we can't be so lacking in tact, can we?"
The Grand Commander's first wife already had a terrible look on her face, and being taunted by Ruan Fei out of nowhere made her face turn livid. She gave Ruan Fei a cold glare and said, "I must have been blind in the past to have ever funded a thing like you."
"Even if I raised a dog, at least it would know to wag its tail at me. You ungrateful creature, not only have you been ruining the relationship between me and my husband, you even dare to spout nonsense about military affairs?"
"I think you're asking to die!"
The Grand Commander's first wife held enormous power, and had never regarded Ruan Fei as anything more than a trivial clown. But Ruan Fei had provoked her over and over again, and even a tolerant person could no longer put up with it.
She immediately shouted, "Guards! Come slap her in the mouth!"
"Understood!"
Two elite soldiers rushed out one after another.
Seeing that the situation was turning badly for her, Ruan Fei immediately shrieked at the top of her lungs, "Madam, I was wrong! I was wrong! All I did was accidentally bump into you and say a careless word, how could you possibly want my life over that?"
Her yell was so loud and resounding that in almost the blink of an eye, Zhou Mengyan came bursting out of the Grand Commander's tent not far away, shouting, "Stop right there!"
"Madam, what on earth do you think you are doing?"
"Even if Little Fei offended you, she is a clerk personally appointed by me... no, a general personally appointed by me. How dare you carry out arbitrary private punishment in the military camp? Do you think I, the Grand Commander, do not exist at all?"
nd fell into a coma while saving his younger sister from an out-of-control car. He became a vegetable. No one knew that his consciousness had crossed into a world of cultivation. Over the course of sixty years, he began as the lowest kind of mine slave, struggling to survive amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood. By sheer chance, he eventually obtained the complete memories of a fallen Immortal King. Alchemy, medicine, formations, feng shui, physiognomy, artifact forging… Every great inheritance of the cultivation world was now his. But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that ten full years had passed in the modern world. To pay for his treatment, his father had sold the family’s shop and house, leaving himself covered in lasting injuries and illness. His mother had cared for him day and night, and more than half of her hair had already turned white. His younger sister, who had been only fifteen back then, was now twenty-five. To help repay the family’s debts, she had been forced to lower her head and put on a smiling face in places of glittering lights and endless revelry. Only then did Chen Xuan understand that what he had lost was not merely ten years. He had lost the life his entire family was meant to have. The good news was that he had brought back the memories of an Immortal King’s entire lifetime. The bad news was that his soul had returned alone—his cultivation had not come with him. Spiritual energy was scarce, resources were depleted, and the modern world still had firearms, surveillance, capital, and laws. If he wanted to protect his family, break free from everyone’s control, and become truly invincible beneath the heavens, he would have to start all over again.
lities. One day, Qi Yuan was buying groceries when he unfortunately came face-to-face with a monster. Just when he thought he was going to die on the spot, he suddenly heard the monster's thoughts... "This aura, he's definitely not an ordinary master!" "So terrifying, so terrifying." "A fight with my back against the wall, I can't take it anymore." Qi Yuan: Ah, no one told me that my awakened ability isn't telepathy, but rather the stronger my enemies imagine me to be, the stronger I truly become. PS: Zhou Hai in the first chapter is not the protagonist.
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?”
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."
