Chapter 99: No Clues

The bottle was raised, stained with blood. Si Yao shoved the man directly against the wall, the bloody bottle held high, its sharp tip pressing against his neck—until Bai Yu's shout halted her.

Si Yao parted her lips coldly: "Dare to be unruly again, and I'll twist your arm off."

With that, she discarded the bottle and wiped her bloodied hand on the man's clothing. Then she turned her gaze to Bai Yu.

...

"I never imagined you'd be so frail—just one bout of rain, and you've been ill for two months." Today was Yuan Xiao's birthday, and Guan Hongyan carried a cake to Yuan Xiao's office, where, seeing her rosy complexion, she naturally knew she had recovered.

But King De was still alive, and without real power surging through the court, this contest could not yet be considered truly begun.

The moment she saw someone lunge at her, Su Jing was startled and hastily retreated. Acting on her instinct for self-defense, her hand instantly drew the butterfly knife tucked behind her back.

The Kingdom of Fanyu would not invade without cause, and Leng Xia's arrival seemed to be a vanguard move. Though Lü Chuhe never concerned himself with affairs of state, this involved his feelings for his senior brother—and that he could not ignore.

Hearing the children's innocent words, Shang Xufeng laughed heartily, and the three years of pent-up bitterness in his heart dissolved like smoke on the wind.

"What do you plan to do?" Yelü Chen gazed at her frost-cold eyes, a nameless misgiving rising in his heart—a single glance was enough to strike fear.

"Lily, the reason I came to find you is that I want to see Third Uncle. Yesterday, I called the people over there, and they said that as long as it doesn't affect the exhibition's normal proceedings, you can come along and help." Yuan Xiao spoke with a hint of guilt—yesterday she had refused flatly and mercilessly, and today it had become a matter of a single phone call.

She took a deep breath, and as she turned around, she caught sight of him embracing Zhao Lanyi as he walked slowly away—no pause, no turning back. All the people around her withdrew along with the halo she ought to have worn, her gaze growing blade-cold inch by inch, her countenance gradually dimming into lusterless shadow.

Wang Shuwan laughed with a gloomy little chuckle, muttering to herself at the mirror at her heavily made-up reflection. On the dressing table, she casually picked up a gold hairpin carved with a phoenix and tucked it into her chignon. The dark circles under her eyes betrayed just how poor her mental state truly was.

"Your Majesty is discerning—indeed, she is the junior sister of Prince Jingqi, Qing'er." Zhong Qing, who had been idly listening to these official and courteous words, never expected the conversation to veer toward her. Her figure gave an abrupt shudder. She fixed Yuchi You with a look as though she had swallowed a fly. The man was actually playing hardball.

Zhong Qing stared fixedly into the distance until that green figure vanished from sight. She felt as though she had seen such an ethereal silhouette somewhere before, yet could not recall where. Suddenly turning her head, she found Yuchi You calmly watching her.

As for the Overlord God, his mind had originally been sound—it was merely that most of his spirit was consumed with suppressing the wills of the deities he had devoured, leaving him unable to divert attention to other matters.

The Wudang disciples all thought it merely a commemorative Zhenwu Divine Sword, yet in the hands of the Night Revival Society, it possessed such fearsome power.

The clinking of chains rang out, and the cell door opened. "Move," a jailer said, grabbing Zhong Qing's arm and yanking her up. Once a person came to this place, even if they survived, there was little hope of ever rising again—so they naturally showed Zhong Qing no mercy.

Not knowing that this child was of the Zhao family was one thing; now that they knew, how could they rest easy giving only a bit of money and leaving everything else unattended?

As for the Americans, the idea they offered was for the U.S. authorities to step in and broker a ceasefire between the two sides for several years, after which they could settle the matter once and for all.

The fat man's body came to a halt at the very instant Wu Ming's staff struck him, and Wu Ming, who had just run around to the other side intending to swing his club again, sliced clean through empty air.

The Austro-Hungarian army also swelled from 270,000 to 800,000, Italy expanded from 200,000 to 350,000, and yet the land forces of both Austria and Italy were inferior in quality to those of Germany and France. In the end, America too responded to the escalating tension in Europe by expanding its military from 34,000 troops to 160,000.