Chapter Ninety-Seven: Have I been cooperative enough with you?

After half a month away, Song Hui returned to the Fu household with a different state of mind.

The house was still the same as when she had left, only everything had long since changed.

As soon as the door opened, Aunt Feng greeted her warmly, her face beaming as she affectionately took Song Hui’s hand.

“Young Madam, you’re back...”

There seemed to be tears in Aunt Feng’s eyes. Song Hui had always felt close to her and could not bear to see her like this, so she clasped Aunt Feng’s hand in return.

“How have you been lately? Is your health all right?”

“Oh... yes, yes, I’m fine. Young Madam, and you, all by yourself...”

Before Aunt Feng could finish, Fu Chen interrupted her. With an expressionless face, he said to Song Hui, “We still have to hurry...”

Now, as long as he also rushed to the edge of the Celestial Abandoned Demon Pit, they would be able to gain temporary safety.

The captain guarding the city gate felt that this man carried himself with uncommon bearing, perhaps someone of great importance, and promptly reported it upward.

Everyone nodded, but the atmosphere still grew somewhat desolate. Although I wore a smile, everyone could see the sorrow hidden deep in my eyes.

Usually, once one had reached a certain level and could control oneself with ease, a master in ordinary combat would not always remain in a damaged state; rather, one would alternate between recovery and damage as circumstances required.

At this very moment, how desperately he wanted to rush straight up. Regrettably, the conditions did not yet permit it. He still had to wait, had to wait a little longer for Dora to return. Only then would be the moment for their group to make a move.

With a thunderous roar, a great wave of blinding heavenly lightning descended from above and struck the barrier atop the mountain.

Then, as he suddenly resumed the slaughter and launched a surprise assault on the Bull-Head and Horse-Face guardians just as he stepped forward, both of them revealed strange smiles.

“Heh heh...” A mocking laugh sounded out as a person appeared out of nowhere: of average build, dressed in an ordinary Daoist robe, with a nondescript face and both hands folded behind his back, which only added to his air of mystery. Of course, the jade flute stuck behind his neck looked rather out of place.

At the time, the emperor of the Han Dynasty did not wish to wage war with the Xiongnu again. Hearing this, he was greatly pleased at heart and immediately appointed Zhang Qing as an inspector, tasking him with investigating the crime of Prince Jiang’s consort for deceiving the sovereign and committing treason, while also bestowing upon Zhang Qing a royal sword with full authority.

As for a certain shop in the Bing district, An Zi had been watching the spectacle with relish, completely unaware of anything happening on Danxia Island. He obediently waited for five years, and when the deadline arrived, he instructed Old Qi to look after the shop, hoisted the rabbit onto his shoulder, and, together with Jinxu Tong, who longed for the free air of the world, hurried toward the Water Spirit Palace.

“Enough nonsense. Hurry up and cut the cloud-pattern chains off me!” The medicine consort grew increasingly agitated, the chains around her body clattering and rattling. After being trapped for so many years, she could finally see daylight again.

Everyone surrounded me happily and showered me with praise. Even I, who had always been thick-skinned, felt a little flushed, and could only quickly ask them to stop and calm down.

“These two great armaments factories, and the hundreds of thousands of Northeastern troops, really do spend money like water,” Wang Yongjiang said, shaking his head.

Zu Ci paid it no mind at all. Smiling, he waved a hand and, with a casual motion from somewhere on his person, produced a prayer mat and sat down with unhurried grace.

Lin Ye could only make a helpless gesture, then tore open a packet of pickled mustard greens and squeezed them directly onto Xue Kai’s plate of plain white rice.

These experiences were so strange and distant to Dong Wanqing, yet at the same time they were exactly what she yearned for.

Chenchen was the happiest one in the middle, looking from Li Bai to Leng Ruobing and back again, his face shining with joy.

When he saw some people restored from their broken state, Wu Fan stepped forward and found himself before a vast plaza, endless as far as the eye could see. Around the plaza stood statues of flaming skulls. This was the Fire Demon Battlefield.

“Hundred-Poison Pills?” Liu Zhen was deeply unwilling. He had once thought of refining Hundred-Poison Pills himself, but he lacked the raw materials. It was not as though he had never been to the Void-Seeking Sea; it was simply something from many, many years ago. Once one held a high position within a sect, one rarely left it.

When emotions burst forth, an actor’s ability to control them, to choose the proper angle of entry so as to seize the audience firmly without making it feel false, is indeed a true test of skill.