Volume One, Chapter 54: The Sister-in-Law and the Younger Brother-in-Law—An Awkward Clinginess?

Qu Pan walked out of the Young Marshal's Mansion in a daze, her mind a tangled and chaotic mess.

Autumn Chrysanthemum hurried forward to greet her, and upon holding Qu Pan's hand, found it icy cold to the bone.

While the Shu and Zhao armies remained deadlocked in the Hanzhong and northeastern Yizhou regions, He Qingzhang, the garrison commander of Yangping Pass, also received intelligence that the Zhao forces in the southern part of Liangzhou in the north were making moves.

Hearing this, Situ Che's mood instantly improved, and his appetite returned with it. Picking up his chopsticks, he prepared to force himself to eat a few bites. Right at that moment, a personal guard came to report that Right Chancellor Li Mingchang was urgently requesting an audience.

Yet if things truly stood thus, should he surrender, should he surrender, or should he surrender? This was indeed a question worthy of deep contemplation.

It took quite a while for me to recover my composure, and my once-stiffened brain gradually regained its capacity for thought.

Without going into details, if it turned out wrong, it was merely a joke. But if it turned out right—if Gao Leng were a renowned entrepreneur—then everyone else would focus entirely on his identity. Since he was merely a reporter, however, all attention would rest squarely on Su Su.

To be honest, Qin Zhou truly could not fathom Nangong Tianyu's intention. From those two words, one could perceive Nangong Tianyu's pride and reserve. In the past, Nangong Tianyu would never have dared speak to him in such a manner, but circumstances were different now. For Qin Zhou, it felt very much like being the fish and the cleaver, leaving him no choice but to be extremely cautious.

Upon hearing this, the battlefield staff officer knew that many matters were not his to probe any deeper. He had already witnessed far too much of the unwritten rules hidden beneath the surface. With a long sigh, he turned around and gave the first salute to General Luo Tang's operational command headquarters.

When they saw the ballistas, stirrup-drawn crossbows, and longbows with sharp arrows aboard the enemy's towering flagship all pointed directly at them, the Shujia Island water bandits could not help but feel terrified by the hedgehog-like offensive posture displayed by the enemy vessels.

"What on earth is this? It seems to be made of iron plating. Can the Zhao army be so extravagant as to use iron-sheathed objects as projectiles for their catapults?" many dodging officers and soldiers asked strangely, looking at the cylindrical objects rolling not far beside them.

Just as he had anticipated, trouble had arrived, and these scumbags had only remembered him when they needed him.

As soon as Zu Long arrived, without waiting for him to speak, the Phoenix directly transmitted her voice to him. At first, Zu Long remained unimpressed, but upon hearing the end, his expression changed drastically. He then began calculating on his fingers, ultimately deducing that the Master's words—stating that the three clans were all forsaken by the Heavenly Dao—were true.

"It is a special crystal that can be extracted from deep within the earth veins. I used to have quite a bit of it, but now I don't have a single one left," Wu Wei explained.

Since that was the case, it was obvious they were not people from the Keyin Da Group, which meant it was now time for their counterattack.

He put the hourglass of time back into his pack, though whether it was a trick of the eyes or not, he thought he saw a few dim and flickering points of light flash and vanish right at the very center of the hourglass.

Chen Hu had a stubborn mouth; despite enduring every available form of torture, he still stubbornly insisted that Chen Liansheng was not murdered by him, and that the land deed had been signed and thumbprinted with Zhao Quan at the beginning of the year. He was as foul and unyielding as a stone in a latrine pit.

"Village Chief, thank you for coming to inform us, but if we brothers leave, will the Tongyou Sect make things difficult for your Teng Village?" Beiming Lei asked kindly.

Sun Wukong's unstoppable "Water-Fire Staff" was caught by a pristine, flawless hand, and the mountain-shattering force of the staff vanished completely. This was the first time since Sun Wukong's debut that his strike had been blocked by anyone.

After a thorough exchange of inquiries, Madam Zhang led Li Yan out of the drawing room, and only then did Zhang You bring up serious business with Zhang Rang.

Finally, the apocalypse arrived. Those who had initially sparked the riots in the city were still trying every possible means to escape, only to discover that figures of water elemental creatures had appeared upon the ocean as well.

"Mutual ambiguity may well have existed, but as for whether there was any substantive relationship, I cannot say for sure," Zhang You remarked casually. In his heart, however, he was thinking of Chen Jingbang, the Left Vice Minister of Rites, whom he had once met. He truly was a fair-faced scholar on par with Old Qian; in terms of sheer demeanor, he was probably a match for Zhang Juzheng.

As a token of appreciation for treating him to rabbit meat that morning, Zoro invited Yisheng to the only restaurant in the village, where they enjoyed an extremely lavish pirate-style lunch.

"Does she look the same as Princess Guren? That certainly is strange, but I have no memories at all. What should I do?" Chu Chuying's mood suddenly plummeted, as if she felt a heavy sense of guilt for not being able to help Sephiroth.

"Clover? I truly never expected that I, Lin Chen, would one day resort to infiltrating by impersonating someone else." Imitating the tiger's voice, Lin Chen produced a sound that was an exact match.

He considered himself a seasoned One Piece fan, yet no matter how hard he tried, he could not figure out who else on this island besides Kuina and Zoro could be deemed by the system to possess equally extraordinary talent.

They surged outward like a tide, causing the two Anbu operatives to freeze for a moment before feeling an immense wave of pressure wash over them.

A Great Swordsman's insights into swordsmanship, an eternally pristine purification robe, a miraculous dojo, and invincible power within that dojo constituted the beginner's gift package bestowed by the system in its early stages.

"In that case, as long as I am not a disciple, it doesn't matter, right?" Yisheng asked thus.

As for Yisheng's earlier warning that he stood no chance of winning against Koushirou, Zoro had long since cast it to the winds.