Chapter 177: The Nursery, New Colleagues

Yet this kindness was built on the premise that Li Qingyun had to hide her true self and accommodate them. After all, people from two different eras have many differences; to find common ground with them, she first had to agree with them and become like them.

Interacting with Bai Yu, however, was entirely free of such concerns. They felt much more like contemporaries.

Just like now, the two of them were leisurely sipping red wine, discussing their ideal lives, their plans and aspirations for the future, as well as societal changes.

Instead of dwelling on what the men and children at home were up to, what to eat today, what to drink tomorrow, or the mundane trifles of household budgeting.

Right now, our old Jun is lying low in the village. Although he holds the title of deputy township head, this position is somewhat absurd for someone of his background. With a national-level giant for a father, being a mere township official makes old Jun utterly ashamed to show his face, yet in the capital, he has no choice but to maintain this low profile.

On the twelfth day of the third month in the first year of the Longsheng reign during the Wuyin year, the city of Jishi was breached, and the Yong army put it to the torch. Although the defending general of Jishi relocated the populace to Anze, countless the old and weak who could not flee were left behind, and the casualties at Jishi piled high. The fierce reputation of the Prince of Qi grew ever more formidable, yet upon close inspection, no general massacre of the city had occurred.

The moment he slipped beneath the water, he caught a glimpse of the Pope standing among the elders of the Godly King's Palace, and could not help but pause slightly in surprise. The Pope appeared quite young, at most in his early thirties, clad in a magnificent, loose-fitting blue robe embroidered with a sun.

"I care little for such talk. I have heard that those who utter such words often meet a violent end with no burial ground," District Jie said with a hearty laugh, leaving Ye Fengchun trembling with rage.

"I reckon this is my first time speeding; on one stretch of the highway, I hit one hundred and sixty," Zhang Zhengping said.

Due to the effect of the mountain-guarding array, the climate within the mountains was temperate—neither too cold nor too hot. Spirit birds such as cranes and yellow orioles could occasionally be seen sporting in the woods, and exotic flowers and rare herbs grew densely along the paths, imparting a distinctly celestial atmosphere.

Zhang Debiao threw a punch, and as their fist and claw collided, Sisyphus let out a muffled groan. A trace of blood spilled from the corner of his mouth, the bones in his hand were shattered to dust, and without a single word, he turned and walked away.

The next day, as expected, snow fell incessantly. Li Zhi received news that Li Yuan had issued an imperial decree: because the Prince of Qi had twice attacked Southern Chu, achieved great merits through hard-fought battles, and caused the Prince De of Southern Chu to be mortally wounded, he was appointed as the Grand Minister of Works (Grand Sima/Sikong), along with a set of imperial robes (Gunmian), a golden chariot (Jinlu), twin jade scepters, two thousand catties of gold, two sets of preceding and following fanfare bands, and twenty banjian guards.

This was a high-intensity mental training method that required the cooperation of another mage with powerful spiritual force. It utilized a mental storm to push the practitioner's spiritual power to its absolute limit, leaving just a single breath of it intact, and then seized that precise moment to use the single-breath technique to nourish and expand that remaining spark of mental energy.

"As for Donghua, I have given consent on their behalf," Zhu Jisheng said with a smile. The King of Donghua was still Zhu Juan, who was currently commanding the final operations of the Northern American campaign and naturally had no time to come to Yingtian for a meeting. Nevertheless, Zhu Jisheng still possessed sufficient authority to make decisions on behalf of Donghua.

Afterward, Zhao Qian led his army to garrison Shouchun, posted public notices to pacify the populace, and carried out a series of personnel appointments to strengthen control over the Huaiyang region.

In particular, the Ten Elders among the demon generals were even more suspicious, wondering if Wujin had lost his mind to issue such an order.

Ye Chen offered another greeting only after Chenduomong released him. From the perspective of the attendants in the lobby, this scene was utterly humiliating, but there was no helping it—such was the stark reality, and there was little use in fretting over it.

Her pupils drifted in a dazed haze, her hands trembling as they involuntarily clasped together, gripped by such intense fear that she was utterly terrified.

Qi Ji's Blood-Slaughter Dagger plunged in and was then pulled out, assisting the Blood-Slaughter Sword. Finally, amidst a harsh, grating sound of structural collapse, that piece of bone snapped.

At that very moment, Guan Yu's intuition suddenly flared, and he instantly jerked his head to the side. Almost simultaneously, a short halberd whistled past right before his face.

Chen Yunfeng was merely at the first grade of the Sword Sect, whereas the flood dragon possessed at least the strength of the Sword Sect's peak. With a single slash of his sword, he hastily turned and fled, shooting straight up into the sky.

Fourteenth Lady stood rigidly in the courtyard, her eyes half-closed as she gazed at the drifting maple leaves, no one knowing what thoughts were passing through her mind.

"Four yuan and three jiao? Doesn't that mean a commission of over ten thousand for these three thousand two hundred tons? Isn't that a bit too high?" Liu Jian asked.