"Precisely."

Zhang Baiyu nodded. "After all, we laid so much groundwork beforehand. The plans are all ready-made."

"Elder Yuehua gets to shine, takes the lion's share, and doesn't have to worry about being bullied by someone bigger. I can't think of a single reason she'd refuse."

Wei Zhao cracked his knuckles and pondered for a moment. "It makes sense on paper, but we'd best prepare a fallback just in case that woman decides to burn the bridge once she's crossed it."

The two talked for a while, working out every key detail...

At one point, some fool who must have had his head caught in a door wrote—of all things—"Maike Lighting: We Give You Back the Light."

One glance was all Bai Xue needed to know: he had used that blade to slowly saw through the ropes binding him, then locked the door from the inside and cut open the great artery in his neck. It was suicide.

He spoke lightly, with utter naturalness, his face wearing an impeccable expression. That faint smile, like the man himself, made it impossible to look away.

Before knocking on Zhou Zhengming's 'door,' I finally talked myself into staying calm, into keeping my composure, so I wouldn't lose my footing in front of him.

At this point, how should I put it—I still wasn't sure what good would come of this. I could live without it, but if the other party was Zhang Minglang, I figured it wouldn't feel so bad.

What Xie Cunhui had said before was always ambiguous and loaded with implication, making it hard to tell whether he was friend or foe. But now my mind was clear: he was the type who would spare no effort—and no 'expense'—laying out schemes to get what he wanted. Meticulous, astonishingly patient, and thoroughly hypocritical. We were never cut from the same cloth.

Since I could watch the livestream on my computer too, I hadn't originally planned to join the crowd at the barbecue place. But I'd barely watched for a few minutes before my stomach betrayed me with a complaint. No help for it—I grabbed my keys and headed off to the barbecue joint to get some takeout for a midnight snack.

The underground chamber on Ruthless Island lay at the very center of the island's interior, yet it served as the secluded training ground for top-tier figures like Ao Wuming and Zhu Bajie. Now that Mu Xifeng had returned, the place naturally belonged to him.

Having just slain this Golden Immortal, Young Master Mu did not pause for even a breath. With his time acceleration running at triple speed, he instantly became a blur invisible to the naked eye, weaving among the remaining five late-stage True Immortal cultivators. Then came a series of crisp 'crack-crack' sounds that made the scalp crawl, and those five late-stage True Immortals croaked without so much as a whimper.

"Boss Ding, you're the one who should be treating us, welcoming the new blood." Several young people suggested this with a laugh, and it seemed Ding Jun got along famously with his subordinates.

As he spoke, he flipped his hand, and a pair of hooked claws appeared in Estia's grasp, glowing with a vivid red light. One look was enough to tell they were far from ordinary.

With that, the man waited on the platform. A long while passed before one cultivator took a fancy to some items on the gilded stone pedestal and traded a bottle of Spirit-Nourishing Pills—usable by Foundation Establishment cultivators—for quite a few treasures. After that, no one else showed any interest, and Mu Yuan had no choice but to step down from the platform, rather disappointed.

Wanyan Aguda made it back safe and sound to the Anchuhu River—the seat of the Wanyan tribe.

The whip-net descended slowly, carrying a bone-piercing chill. Yet just as everyone assumed Wu Hao would be forced to reveal himself, Murong Qianlong's eyes flickered, and the corners of her lusciously red lips curved upward ever so slightly.

How could he possibly look like a county magistrate? Every inch of him radiated unbridled arrogance, fused with an innate nobility.

But just as Ferrick and those fanatics were caught off guard, Bai Sen had already vanished from where he stood and reappeared behind one of the zealots. Activating a throw, he hoisted the zealot in the radiant armor clean off the ground and hurled him backward. After a brief one-second charge, he spun around and landed a kick on the zealot still airborne.

Back in Suzhou, Song Jiang was overjoyed to learn that Lü Fang's injuries were severe but not fatal. He left Lü Fang in Suzhou to recuperate, took his leave of Gao Qiu, and prepared to march through the night without pause toward Changxing.

The four spirits conjured by the Four Symbols Thunder Formation, bearing the dread majesty of heaven, kept assaulting and tearing at the Demon God's body.