Before Zhang Shi could say anything, Ruan Fei had already leaped to her feet in excitement and exclaimed admiringly, “General Zhang Shi, you truly are my deputy! This plan of yours is brilliant.”
“Absolutely brilliant!”
“With this plan, how could I fail to secure the position of Grand Commander?”
“How could I fail to overpower Gu Qingyue, Ning Wanqin, and all the others?”
“However…” Ruan Fei paused before continuing, “to defeat Ren Tianye, I’ll need to mobilize an enormous amount of strength. With the forces we’ve recruited so far, we’re definitely nowhere near strong enough.”
“So…”
“If I can temporarily replace Brother Mengyan and command the entire army in his place, then… I’ll have enough strength to defeat Ren Tianye.”
The words Zhang Shi had been about to use to mislead her died in his throat.
He realized that, most of the time, doing nothing was actually far better than making a mess by doing a whole lot of pointless things.
Thus, he transformed himself into a strategist who did nothing but nod. With a face full of admiration, he said, “Miss Ruan Fei, you’ve certainly thought this through!”
“You must temporarily take over the Grand Commander’s position. Only then will you have enough strength to defeat Ren Tianye!”
“Exactly…”
“But replacing the Grand Commander won’t be easy.”
Ruan Fei waved her hand. “That’s simple!”
“As long as Brother Mengyan stops giving orders, I’ll be able to command the army.”
“What?” Zhang Shi was stunned. “You can command the army?”
“Of course!” Ruan Fei replied. “Is that difficult? I think it’s very simple. Anyone who has faith in Brother Mengyan will listen to me. Even if they occasionally refuse, as long as I say it’s Brother Mengyan’s order, they’ll obediently comply!”
“I can completely take Brother Mengyan’s place, can’t I?”
“Of course, those who don’t believe in Brother Mengyan won’t listen to me either, but that doesn’t matter…”
Zhang Shi eagerly cut in, “Exactly! Those who won’t listen to the Grand Commander will listen to me. I’ll listen to you, Miss Ruan, so when all is said and done, they’ll still be listening to you!”
Ruan Fei grew even happier.
Zhang Shi was wonderful. He understood everything instantly!
No, he understood everything without even needing an explanation!
Meanwhile, Zhang Shi—who had understood everything without an explanation—was so excited inside that he was nearly going mad.
If Lord Duke led his army against Zhou Mengyan, victory would already be far from impossible. But if Lord Duke led his army against Ruan Fei…
They could pin her to the ground and beat her with their eyes closed!
Could anything be easier than this?
“Too easy, too easy…”
“Throughout history, every battle to defend the Yangtze has been terrifying to hear about. But this time… it’s too easy, too easy…”
Zhang Shi was practically bursting with excitement inside. Yet in front of Ruan Fei, he restrained himself and said, “Miss Ruan, your judgment is impeccable. We’ll do exactly as you say!”
“I’ll help you defeat Ren Tianye’s army!”
“I’ll help you establish a glorious reputation!”
Ruan Fei’s face was filled with delight. She was just about to discuss the finer details with Zhang Shi when her brows suddenly furrowed, as though she had thought of something.
“Oh no! There’s one more difficult matter!”
“I…”
“I may not be able to defeat Ren Tianye!”
The moment those words were spoken, Zhang Shi grew anxious.
Wait a moment—hadn’t she just been brimming with confidence?
Why had she suddenly changed her mind?
“I’m not afraid of Ren Tianye himself…” Ruan Fei continued. “But the balance between offense and defense has changed. Our navy lost twenty-seven naval commanders at the hands of General Zhang Shi. They were the backbone of the fleet. Without those twenty-seven commanders, our navy isn’t much good anymore.”
“Although General Zhou Buzhang is doing his best to train new officers, how could those trained in such a short time compare with the experience accumulated over so many years? They certainly can’t.”
“But Ren Tianye is different…”
“Ren Tianye has been vigorously training his navy. Its strength must be incredibly formidable by now—frighteningly so!”
“With such a powerful navy, I’m afraid… I may not be able to defeat him!”
Zhang Shi stood there in a daze once more.
This line of reasoning…
Why was it so bizarre?
Lord Duke’s navy had become stronger?
Zhou Mengyan’s navy had become useless?
Wait… Zhou Mengyan’s forces had been a navy from the very beginning. Even though they had lost twenty-seven naval commanders, Zhou Buzhang could select and train replacements from among them. They would soon be ready.
Moreover, their quality would certainly not be poor!
After all, they had spent years fighting on the water. They were naturally far more familiar with naval warfare.
Lord Duke’s navy, on the other hand, had originally consisted of northern landlubbers. No matter how much effort Lu Chaosheng put into training them, at most he could make them look like sailors within a few months. It was absolutely impossible for them to become a truly battle-hardened navy!
But Ruan Fei had managed to think about the matter in the exact opposite way.
“What an extraordinary way of thinking!”
“One can’t help but admire it!”
That was how Zhang Shi judged it inwardly. Yet he knew that he absolutely had to dispel Ruan Fei’s doubts. Only if he could persuade her to replace Zhou Mengyan as commander of the navy would Lord Duke’s forces be able to sweep through the opposition like a broken dam.
He said, “Miss Ruan, how about this… Let’s think of another strategy. We must find a way to stop Ren Tianye from attacking and turn our disadvantage into an advantage!”
“Yes, yes, yes!” Ruan Fei immediately replied. “General Zhang Shi, that’s exactly what I mean. We need to think carefully and figure out how to deal with Ren Tianye’s navy!”
Zhang Shi was frantic, but the more anxious he became, the less capable he was of coming up with a good idea. Suddenly, he caught sight of a treasured sword resting nearby. It was the sword Zhou Buzhang had left behind.
The sight brought Zhou Buzhang’s face to mind.
Zhang Shi specialized in swift, fierce attacks; he was a man of the saddle. Zhou Buzhang, however, was a man of the ships. If Zhang Shi couldn’t think of a solution in such a short time, perhaps Zhou Buzhang could.
He said, “Miss Ruan, please wait a moment!”
“I’ll be back shortly.”
Before long, Zhang Shi returned, with Zhou Buzhang—who had also hurried back—following behind him.
On the way, Zhang Shi had already explained the entire situation to his trusted aide, Zhou Buzhang, and asked him to come up with a solution.
Zhou Buzhang remained perfectly calm.
After taking his seat, he first bowed to Miss Ruan before saying, “Miss Ruan, this matter is actually quite easy to resolve!”
“Oh?” Ruan Fei asked in delight. “How is it easy?”
“With a single strategy, we can render Ren Tianye’s navy completely unable to display its strength, while allowing our army to fight exactly as it would on land!”
As he spoke, Zhou Buzhang smiled. “If we fight as we would on land, then our General Zhang Shi is famous for his swift, fierce tactics—a force that once shook the grasslands and swept away all opposition.”
“How could a mere Ren Tianye stand against him?”
Ruan Fei grew excited again and leaped to her feet.
“General Zhou Buzhang, tell me! Quickly, tell me…”
Only then did Zhou Buzhang begin to explain.
“On the great river, the tides rise and fall, and the winds and waves never cease. Since our navy is inferior, we naturally need to avoid those conditions. Therefore…”
“We can arrange large and small ships together, linking either thirty or fifty in a row. We connect their bows and sterns with iron chains, then lay broad planks across them.”
“When the time comes…”
“Men will be able to cross, and horses will be able to walk!”
“Traveling upon such a bridge, even if Ren Tianye’s navy is unrivaled beneath the heavens, so what?”
“It will be nothing to fear!”
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."
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?”
pression Bureau] Transported to a fantasy world overrun by demons and monsters, Gu Qingfeng becomes a jailer in the Demon Suppression Prison of the Great Yan Dynasty's Demon Suppression Bureau. From this point on, bizarre cases frequently occur in the Demon Suppression Prison, once known as hell on earth and infamous for its gloomy, terrifying atmosphere! Why do the demons and monsters in the prison wail miserably every night? Why has the corpse demon, capable of transforming into various beauties, donned black stockings and switched careers to become a foot massage therapist? Why has the eye demon, expert in soul-snatching and illusions, turned into a VR headset? Why is the fox spirit performing otaku dances? Are all these occurrences a twisted expression of demonic nature, or a descent into moral depravity? After peeling away layer upon layer of mystery, all clues ultimately point to a jailer named Gu Qingfeng. Gu Qingfeng: "Hehehe... My dear demons and monsters, whose card shall we flip today?"
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.
