Volume 1, Chapter 31: Hoist with One's Own Petard

In fact, he had sensed several powerful auras here before this. Although the fluctuations were extremely subtle, they did not escape his notice.

Yun Feng smiled. After all these years, he could finally put a small regret in his heart to rest; the promise he once made was finally due to be fulfilled.

The child seemed to have found the spot where Wang Xiaochu had died. He groped along the ground, retrieved the black necklace, and held it tightly to his chest, sobbing uncontrollably.

He used to have the Empress to back him, but now she lay bedridden, nearing her end. Who else could he rely on?

The prince had not been favored by the Emperor since his birth; his name had not even been recorded in the Imperial Jade Genealogy, meaning he held no formal rank. Yet, he was indeed a prince, and his mother had named him Zhe.

Shi Yi looked at Lu Tong’s state, filled with worry. "Lu Tong, Lu Tong, where did you go? I was worried sick!" she asked with concern.

"I told you not to push yourself. As soon as you see you’re about to be shot down, get into an escape pod immediately," Xiao Menglou said, his brows furrowed in worry.

Wang Xuanlong hurriedly channeled his True Dragon Essence to dodge, but a sharp energy emitted from the Blood Dragon’s Fang stopped him in his tracks, as if he were bound by it.

"What is going on! Why are Star-Breakers everywhere?" Valentine, caught in a tense firefight with hundreds of Star-Breakers, shouted in agitation upon hearing these reports.

She lowered her head, remaining silent as she continued translating the secret dispatches received that morning. These were messages sent from Nanjing, either to inform Zhu Yourong or to request his approval. They generally contained no major state affairs, dealing primarily with matters of the Imperial family.

The Qing officers and soldiers were inclined to believe the broadcasts and leaflets of the Ming army. For a long time, the Northern Qing court had lost all credibility; whatever the court propagated, the soldiers below would disbelieve it out of habit, regardless of the content. The Southern Ming’s propaganda, however, was always far more objective, and the Northern Qing soldiers treated it as authoritative information.

"Haha, Xuande, do not shame me so," Li Yi said, though he was secretly delighted.

As I flipped through the pages, I accidentally caught a line in the *Classic of Burials*: "If the malevolent influence is broken and the bubble is unjust, the two complement each other; approach them accordingly."

It was a setup—everything was a setup. Ye Shaoyang shook his head helplessly. When he explained the situation to the group, hearing that they had to pass by the stone sarcophagus made their faces turn green—greener even than the water in the pool.

"Department Head, the surrounding area here was in the way, so I organized it into the cabinet next to us, meow," Rin said, gently patting the desk with her hands.

"Kill! The time has come to serve our master." A warrior stepped forward, took a black pill, and swallowed it without a second glance.

Ye Shaoyang nodded and asked no further questions. He instructed Wu Haibing to strengthen school patrols and suggested stationing guards outside the North Gate, strictly forbidding anyone from approaching the ghost road on the mountain, lest they go and never return.

If the Ming army withdrew from Shanxi, the Great Qing would compensate them with the Hanzhong Basin, the Qinling Mountains, and the entirety of Northern Shaanxi.

Liang Jing tilted his head to look at me. I stared wide-eyed, scrutinizing the expression on his face. He lowered his gaze to my fingers. I thought he might be moved, but to my surprise, he reached out and plucked the ring from my hand.

"So that’s why I could always sense their auras but could never find which planet they were on! I see!" The Northern Emperor was no longer surprised; he had already experienced such formations in the Fire Cloud Cavern.

"The Northern Emperor and his group were ambushed midway; their whereabouts are now unknown..." Heavenly Lord Li Jin looked anxious. They had just found a lead, and now this had happened.

He had already given up on the matter, but he hadn't expected Tang Ningning to be so capable as to conceive Ziche’s child on the very first try. He had already notified Elder Tang; it was impossible for the Elder to watch his grandson just vanish like that.

She used to be quite innocent; even after sleeping with Yu Jiahe, she didn't dare to look at "that thing," partly out of shyness and partly out of fear.

Xiao Qingtong slowly took out her phone. After hesitating for a long time, she turned it on and sent a text to Yin Xiu: Are you asleep?

Did she look like the type of person driven by carnal desire? Especially now, when her parents had only recently passed away, and she hadn't even recovered from her fever?

Li Qiang paced back and forth hesitantly. Specifically, he had no pressing need to see this predecessor puppet-emperor; it was merely curiosity driving a subconscious desire within him.

Consort De opened her eyes. At forty, she was well-preserved and looked no more than thirty-something, appearing mature and composed.

"...I don't know about that, but I want to go back and take a look." He had no other thoughts.

"Xuan'er, tell Auntie, are you unhappy?" Chen Yu had not spent much time with Xuan'er; she had simply kept him company and let Rouyuan and the others play with him, hoping to make him happy. It was December, and Chen Tao and Chen Bo were no longer attending the academy, so there were more people around the house to play with.

But this did not mean the southernmost tip of Nanling was desolate. On the contrary, the Nanling section of the Nine Provinces' border met the Southern Wilderness on one side and the East Sea on the other. Whether it was the Southern Wilderness, known as the boundless home of ten thousand beasts, or the East Sea, known as the azure treasure basin, both possessed countless resources.

The Huaxia players did not respond, yet every one of them was skeptical. You, a dignified Fuso sect leader, claim you don't even have the antidote for the poison your subordinates are using on such a large scale? Do you really take us Huaxia players for fools?

"Alright, wifey, let's go to sleep." Nangong Linyi pulled her close, wrapped his arms around her waist, and held her from behind. He had grown accustomed to holding Ouyang Yingqi like this every night.

Tsk, tsk, tsk. Judging by the shift in his form of address, it seemed Yamato Sakito understood perfectly well that a strong dragon could not defeat a local snake.

The four men heard this clearly. They looked at the purple-gold light emitting from Kusakabe Kaori’s hand and realized this was the second piece of purple-gold equipment—a powerful piece of priest gear.

"Why wouldn't it be possible? Based on my experience, this is absolutely possible," the editor-in-chief immediately retorted.

Gao Jianfu’s ideas were more direct. The guiding ideology of the Tongmenghui was the Three Principles of the People, not the sovereignty of gods, and the current appearance of a peaceful and prosperous age was a mere facade. The more such a facade existed, the more it required people to use their lives and blood to awaken the masses.

Wang Yuyan and A'Zi were startled out of their reverie. Seeing the pursuers about to reach them, Wang Yuyan dared not hesitate any longer and hurriedly grabbed A'Zi’s hand, dodging to the side.

The Western restaurant served ordinary Western-style breakfasts. Old Man D sat in the corner across from them and waved. He wore a duckbill cap and was dressed like an ordinary old man out for his morning exercise.