Volume 1, Chapter 53: Returning to the Maiden Home to Stir Up Trouble (Pay a New Year Visit)

Song Wenyue's fever had not yet broken, but she had already regained consciousness.

On New Year's Eve, after being splashed awake with cold water by a few eunuchs, she had not been allowed to change into dry clothes, leaving her to freeze through the entire night in a palace devoid of charcoal braziers.

When the Noble Consort's people found her, they asked a few questions and only sent her back when the palace gates opened.

Cold, hungry, and terrified throughout the night, she developed a persistent high fever upon her return, accompanied by a succession of vivid dreams.

In her dreams, she seemed to glimpse her past life: her third sister had married the notorious Prince Xiaoyao in her stead, while she had severed ties with the Song family and lived out her days as a joyful princess. Even though she remained childless her entire life, every time they met, the light in her sister's eyes grew brighter and brighter.

As for herself, she...

"My academic skills are superior, so you really should yield to me a bit!" Ye Hanxi made a playful face at her without a shred of guilt, chuckling softly.

"Well, Ying, Leixin, and Haoyue are all busy outside, and I am here taking care of you." A look of confusion appeared on Huajun's face.

And so, for that night, Mu Chenyu stayed behind according to her wishes. Meanwhile, Ye Wenqing, who had been waiting at home all along, continuously gazed out the window, watching for the person she longed to see.

One was a child from the foolish Zheng family clan, participating in the clan's grand martial arts tournament for the very first time. Surprisingly formidable, he had stubbornly persevered until now.

Lily muttered inwardly that they could at least be considered friends, yet in Lucifer's mouth, it was reduced to a mere four words: 'just acquaintances.'

At this thought, Xiang Zixi could no longer care about anything else. With a swift motion, she opened the pouch and emptied all its contents out.

Lily felt utterly helpless when it came to Yue Die. Yue Die, much like the snow sprites, was one of Lily's good friends. Her friendship with the snow sprites had been forged fighting side by side in the trenches, whereas her bond with Yue Die had started with a clash—they had become friends only after trading blows.

Upon entering the main hall, Ye Tian and Akui took their seats, and Murong Yun began making introductions. Once the introductions were concluded, she led Ye Tian over to meet several of the key figures of the Murong family.

As for Ning Baobei, although her eyes weren't open, how could she possibly sleep through the immense commotion the two of them were making?

Winding and twisting, descending downward for approximately thirty meters, they finally arrived inside a spacious underground hall.

Clenching her hands tightly into fists, Tsunade's eyes turned a deep, blood-shot crimson, and her voice of fury echoed through the ruins.

"So it was thanks to Su Wan. I never expected to reap such benefits under her command; this is truly an unexpected pleasant surprise." Chen Xin wore a blank expression, but thought to himself in secret.

"What? Someone..." Yun Yue instantly shrank his head back, concealing himself behind the dense foliage of a tree, his eyes scanning the direction of the incoming presence through the gaps in the leaves.

Drawing a steady breath, he readied his bow. Eschewing the arrows rigged with thunderous explosives, he fired a standard arrow directly at the figure lying prostrate on the ground.

None of them could be certain who might be approaching, though in their hearts they hoped it would be their classmates, or better yet, a rescue party.

In the end, this battle would be won by the Duan family; as long as both the Ye and Murong families were annihilated, every sacrifice made would be entirely worth it.

Gu Dian had assumed that Zhang Huai or Yang Chi would be left behind to garrison Yumenguan, yet it turned out to be the obscure and unknown Yang Yin. He wondered what kind of formidable figure this Yang Yin might be.

However, Chen Yiyi was still unable to discern the exact purpose of this formation. Even so, he felt no worry; such an array might be effective against ordinary mortals, but it posed no threat to him whatsoever. Besides, he still possessed the Great Luo Star Disc in his hand, which was why a faint smile touched his lips.

Wu Xinxin and the others were completely blinded, scrambling and crawling in an attempt to escape the range of the smoke, only to be caught completely off guard by the joint attack of Yun Yue and his companion.

The incident was successfully resolved through the intervention of the highest authorities. How could Yang森 dare to accept Song Meiling's money? He promptly declared his intention to return the ten thousand yuan and gift the house free of charge.

Cold light flashed in Xiao Qiang's eyes. Twisting the wrist of Xue Ying—who was clutching a dagger—with ferocious strength, he forced the weapon loose amid a sharp cracking sound, disarming Xue Ying using an empty-handed weapon-snatching technique.

Xiao Qiang still had his military duffel bag slung over his shoulder without letting it drop. He released Wang Kuo's hand, having inflicted no genuine injury upon him at all. By this time, the four individuals who had accompanied Wang Kuo had already charged forward, unleashing their utmost speed and power, yet Xiao Qiang spotted the fatal flaws in their movements with a single glance.

Zhou Qing exhaled a breath of stale air. Just as he was preparing to leave, his heart suddenly gave a violent thump.

"Lieutenant, what is the current situation outside? Is there a strong hope for a peaceful resolution?" asked Powell, the correspondent for the Miller's Tribune.

If he were forced to sit cross-legged here to slowly recover his strength bit by bit, the rate of recovery would be agonizingly and infuriatingly slow.

Perhaps in the eyes of primitive tribesmen, a plastic cigarette lighter held even greater value than inedible and useless gemstones. If it were him when he first arrived—or even the way he was now—he would gladly trade a pile of vibrantly colored stones for a far more useful plastic cigarette lighter.

The white-eyed man set the two of them down separately and barked, "What are you squabbling about? If you dare make another sound, I'll chop off both your hands and feet to feed on, and let you die of the pain!" Hearing this, the two instantly clamped their mouths shut, not daring to draw a single deep breath, trembling like cicadas in winter.

Youcai Ge searched the map for a long time before finally locating the position of the Death Canyon. Nearly half a day of tedious questing had left him somewhat disgruntled. Furthermore, with so many players currently online in the server, he hadn't had a chance to contact anyone else. Everyone was presumably busy with the main storyline quests at the moment; if those weren't completed, players couldn't even leave the novice village.

Seeing that he was powerful and apparently of high status, the man hurriedly confessed honestly: there were nearly two million people left in the city, all of whom were Soul Emperor rank one and two experts, while those who had gone to invade the valley were all rank three and four masters.

In truth, the members of the Qin family were also baffled as to why no one from the Wu family had emerged. They had already been questioning the returning youths in private to find out if something had happened inside.

As soon as he entered the room, he saw his younger brother, Tang Shou, waiting for him with a grave expression, while the other clansmen wore looks of bitter sorrow, as though someone had died.

Chu Tian had not expected to acquire the information he wanted so easily, and it was even provided by the other party free of charge. He had originally thought he would have to pay a certain price to obtain the location of the special metal, but now, remarkably, he had obtained it directly without paying anything at all.

Seeing that Di Xu had taken two steps back and ruffled the neatly smoothed hem of his garment, the nearby stylist hurried forward to tidy it up.

If Xu Zeng truly used the space-time gateway to reach certain crucial planets, he would likely be detected within seconds, whereupon the guardians of those planets would instantly materialize before him.

Su Yutong had also wept into a sobbing mess, constantly blaming herself and wondering why she had ever allowed Niannian to ride the roller coaster.

Jian Jie took a deep breath and lifted her foot, preparing to head toward the exact spot where Tang Jinyu and the others had just vanished. Unexpectedly, she had taken barely two steps when the figure appearing before her eyes caused her to freeze in an instant.