Besides, Wei Zhao had no bargaining chips in hand at the moment.

The good news was that, with Lin Hongchou's formal return to the Lin family and the official backing of the New Heavenly Palace, the Lin family's divine-armament materials business was thriving, its upward momentum fierce beyond measure.

At least in the matter of divine-armament materials, they truly could give Wei Zhao no small amount of support.

As for the divine-armament synthesis formulas, that was hardly a problem.

They could be bought from the God of Wealth Academy, and they could be bought from the Heavenly Palace Chamber of Commerce as well.

Hearing this, Hao Yan immediately tested whether his own consciousness was under control; discovering that it now was, he at once dashed off to the right, just as Li Daoyi had instructed.

The inner court was almost entirely in Zhang Huaide's grip, yet the emperor knew nothing of it—clear proof of how limited his control over the rear palace was. That Aunt Chen had never once given herself away, so how had she been uncovered so easily?

Before his title was restored, the Prince of Nan'an had lived off his in-laws' charity, and still the couple had been devoted to each other. Who would have thought that when the emperor later remembered him and granted him the rank of prince, everything changed at once.

But just then, Qin Cheng's body suddenly went rigid; he whipped his head around to stare at the empty void behind him, his expression deeply strange.

That move caught me completely off guard. Staring at the vengeful ghosts barely a foot away, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't scared shitless—with this many of them, if each one took a single bite out of me, there probably wouldn't be a scrap of my soul left.

Qin Cheng's figure appeared atop the arena, and those long spikes, like a plague of locusts, blasted a gaping wound open across the ground.

Yun Zhenzi's heart lurched, his eyes filling with dread. Paying no further mind to the departing Hao Yan, he summoned his flying sword and shot straight for the main peak.

Reaching out, she pulled out her phone. When Yu Ruoling saw the number on the screen, her brows knitted; she hesitated over whether to answer.

Within the great hall, with Qin Cheng's body as its center, a raging torrent of flame abruptly erupted.

To think he could, from the faintest traces, deduce the lay of the land and grope his way to the spots and rock strata where a gold-bearing vein might lie.

The man who had been following obediently at her heels out of the mourning hall suddenly collapsed. Mu Nanqing could only shield his head and drop to her knees beside him, her eyes filled with an anxiety she could not begin to hide.

"That's not difficult for me." A blood-red sheen surfaced in Huoshan's palm—not thick at all, but a most delicate layer, like a transparent blade of blood.

The whole process went fairly smoothly; in the end it took only about ten minutes for Jiang Bei to decide outright to buy an adventure pickup truck worth one million nine hundred thousand.

Still, to sell one's own charms just to dig up a bit of information—that wasn't worth it; it smacked far too much of a spoiled young master.

"Yes, our task is a formidable one," Lu Ping said with a smile. Weary as he was, at that moment his smile was radiant indeed.

Guard Zhang breathed a sigh of relief; he had truly feared that hotheaded fool Gu Tianjun would keep stubbornly toughing it out and end up wrecking himself.

Of course, all this was set against those other pieces of news that, while not good, were not too dreadful either.

Who would win and who would lose was plain at a glance. Yun Zhonghe knew well enough that he was no match; unleashing a few more Snake-and-Crane Eight Strikes with the esoteric weapon in his hand, he borrowed the force to fling himself clear of the battlefield, then channeled his inner energy into both legs and, with a few light taps, vanished down the street.

In such a vile environment, even Han Zihan dared not be careless. Once the other's distressing symptoms had eased somewhat, she once more leapt up and flew far from that den of trouble.

Wanqi Yan circulated true qi through both hands and, with his profound cultivation, put on a dazzling display of catching blades bare-handed.

Even Yuan Yi meant to turn and go to the punishment room to take ten lashes, when out of nowhere a hoarse command came from behind him.

Meng Xingchen watched Su Yan walk away, his hands clenched tight, making no move to stop her. At the same time his heart pounded wildly, and a wave of panic washed over him.

The whole bedroom was done in only three colors—black, white, and gray. The gray, oppressive curtains were drawn tightly shut, and the glow of sunset outside could not pierce them at all.

As his body made a complete recovery, Malashenko, who had intended to make early preparations to return to the front lines, unexpectedly received a compulsory order to take leave.