143 Family

Inside the valley lay a tranquil bamboo grove.

Bamboo leaves swayed, making a rustling sound.

A woman sat before the door of a bamboo house, weaving cloth.

She was exceedingly fair of face, dressed in a plain white robe. Her long, jet-black hair fell loosely over her shoulders, and her skin was as smooth and tender as snow, seemingly capable of being broken by a mere breath.

She was a true beauty—her countenance peerless, her features exquisite and dignified, and her temperament extraordinary, like something out of a poetic painting.

She seemed completely oblivious to the battle raging nearby that threatened to spill over toward her.

However, although Linghu was not famous from the start like some of the other teachers in the school, she was not a whit behind them when it came to being difficult. She habitually concealed herself year-round beneath a voluminous cloak, and whenever any teacher plotted to play pranks on the students, she was invariably the first one to arrive on the scene.

Gong Mingyu looked at the dozens of people before him. Though dealing with them would be effortless for both him and Gu Chen, he wished to avoid a large-scale riot, so he offered a grinning, apologetic smile.

Whenever a studio was on the verge of bankruptcy or closure—provided it had any connection to gaming, manga, or film and television—Delia had to take the initiative to learn about the studio members and their past works.

With every breath, terrifying power erupted directly, and the Black Phoenix unleashed its might once more toward the direction where Hela was located.

The emergency communications between the floors had all been severed, sealing each level into an isolated, independent chamber. Though the SNJ Heavy Industries building was ultra-modernized, once Kaguya-hime, acting as the main artificial intelligence, suffered an anomaly, people discovered that all external signals from the ground had been blocked.

This was a scarlet Ganoderma lucidum, resembling a blood-red diamond in its entirety, dazzling with radiant halos. Born from absorbing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, it emitted a faint, refreshing fragrance.

The past events recounted by the teapot were already mostly understood by Yi Liuling. It was essentially that the teapot, wishing to weaken a certain faction's influence, had used his own mistress, Ji Duo, as a pawn, fabricating a story about an illegitimate child in order to transfer power to his fiercely loyal father-in-law.

"This really is a terrible experience." Rooney scratched the back of his head with an embarrassed expression and sat down. Just as Claire thought Rooney was about to interrogate him, unexpectedly, Cristiano took the initiative to bring the matter up. If Cristiano hadn't spoken, Claire would certainly have had to take the initiative to explain after the match.

Yet if anyone insisted on asking whose fan she was, she would undoubtedly declare herself a fan of Claire Lee. After all, that same Claire Lee—to whom she had not yet spoken a single word—felt much closer to her on an emotional level.

Although he knew that Gu Chen was well aware of these rules, Qin Yong, as a subordinate, still felt it necessary to report on them.

Upon returning to the barracks, everyone took their seats and began to deliberate and analyze the recent combat. The Venerable of Disregard and the Indulgent Six also rarely wore expressions of difficulty; the two old mischievous figures stopped smiling, sighing and shaking their heads instead, never having imagined that Tu Xuanzhong's martial arts would be so formidable.

Hearing this, Qin Junxi smiled and cast his gaze toward the road, ending his bantering with Qing Ya.

Just as there were no truly righteous bandits in this world, the Beggars' Sect of the mid-Ming Dynasty, in modern parlance, operated more like local tyrants, scam artists, or mobs engaging in extortion against the wealthy or the prosperous. Of course, there was also another avenue: making a living by accepting payment to eliminate disasters for others.

"Could this be the legendary Heaven-grade technique, condensing the Dragon Thorn with spiritual power?" Liu Qing proved himself the most exceptionally talented descendant of the entire Liu clan, instantly recognizing this Heaven-grade technique, the Dragon Thorn, at a glance.

As he said these words, Qin Junxi caught a flash of pain darting through Duan Hanxin's eyes.

Punch after punch rained down, and the already fragile glasses were smashed until the frames shattered and the orbits burst. Rallying the meager spiritual energy left in his body, Lei Yu unleashed the Shattered Jade Palm, sending the man plunging straight down the cliff.

No matter how long one lingered here, and no matter what one did within this place, one could never truly feel this sort of bone-chilling cold.