He Piaoliang gave a cross little snort. "You'd best be ready to pay up when you lose."

"You really think I'd lose to him?"

Hu Suan had been lounging about with that devil-may-care air of his, but at these words his brows knit at once.

A man, told to his face by the woman he had set his heart on that he was not the equal of another man—who under heaven could swallow that?

"So long as you don't turn into a sore loser when you lose, that's all."

Li Sansheng felt a rush of warmth at the sight of the Professor, for the Professor was the first he had ever known; it was the Professor who had brought him into private equity, who had told him that this trade opened onto a vast and boundless world.

The moment Fang Heng's figure appeared, the eyes of those middle-aged men flickered; moments later the water mirror vanished without a trace, and the Yun clan folk in the great hall all fell silent.

The Azure Origin calmed the mind and spread through the Mud Pill Palace. All things fell still, and only the sound of spiritual qi coursing through the great acupoints remained, faintly resonant as a dragon's cry.

This time, in the story-world, only the final mission was plainly mandatory; the rest could be taken up or left alone at will.

An Innate Ninth Stage cultivator, yet relying only on his own strength in concert with Xuan Qing, had slain a Void Fourth Stage existence—it looked simple, but everyone knew the cost of it must have been staggering.

As he spoke, Shenyin's finger made a single point, and with a hum a water mirror appeared in the great hall, and within that mirror was the figure of Fang Heng.

Suddenly the memory froze, and in that instant he understood why he had felt the impulse to take out the "Treasured Codex."

Liu Yiran frowned and pressed the answer key; the voice on the line, familiar and gentle, said that he ought to have watched the news at noon—so, his uncle had come all the way to Hangzhou, and he did not mean to play the host, to treat his uncle to a meal and a cup of tea? He had fallen out with the Liu family—was he going to fall out with his uncle as well?

"No... his surname is Zhao, and mine is Zhao too—we're kin, that's why we're close." Zhao An said hurriedly. Zhao An had his own reasons for drawing near Zhao Tinghua, and he had no wish for Li Qingge to stir up trouble.

Huo Bao was beside himself with delight, alight with excitement: this jade lotus pedestal had condensed wholly into form, like a work of art carved from a single flawless piece of jade.

"Don't give me that—it's only because you wouldn't strike the killing blow that I had to finish him off. Don't you know how formidable Steal the Heavens and Change the Sun and Shift the Stars and Move the Pole can be?" Zhang Junbao drained his cup in one go as well. "I won't come up short of you. Let's go."

All these martial artists wanted to catch Tang Ming, but each also knew that once others learned he had caught Tang Ming, he would become the target of every eye; so nearly all of them concealed their identities and faces against every contingency.

Unable to guess the girl's identity, and with that alluring, fiery figure of hers and a face half-hidden like a lute player peeking from behind her instrument, Ye Yan grew only more curious as to what the girl under that black cloth actually looked like.

On the first floor of the Pill Pagoda, Qin Yang paced a room in restless agitation, while Ning Yuxian, wholly at ease, sipped her tea.

Beneath the Primordial Lord of Heaven's placid expression, his heart was a raging sea; in an instant, countless thoughts rose and perished.

Some days earlier, Jian Chen and Guo Chuanzong had passed through Yicheng Commandery and indeed had a fight with three men of the Broken Sword Alliance—one of them none other than Grandmaster Sanjue, guarded by the Golden Bell Shield.

Ma Ling'er's brows relaxed; plainly she was more or less satisfied. "That you could fight your way through the Tower of Death all the way from the start is no small feat. Your internal injuries are severe, and your power is scattering." With that she tapped her toe and retreated several paces.

The subordinate had followed Geng Chang for years, and Geng Chang trusted him somewhat; he did not make things too difficult for him—also because in all the surrounding country, apart from the Ma family's power, there was truly no one who could threaten the main force at Wulong Gully. It seemed that striking the Ma family's garrison at Zhuma Fort before the migration had been the right move.