Chapter 53: Princess Taiping Punishes Lady Qiu

The casual remark about wanting to be someone else's mother made Lady Cui bite her tongue so hard that she had to clench her fists in secret, enduring a surge of fury for a long time before she managed to suppress it.

Back in her youth, she had caught sight of Xiao Hongjing at a poetry gathering, wholly absorbed in playing the zither with an air of incomparable elegance. His rendition of the ancient melody "Clear and Serene" had left the entire assembly spellbound, and the sight of him plucking the pipa with bare toes evoked the image of an ethereal immortal. His untamed, romantic bearing possessed the quintessential grace of the renowned scholars of the Wei and Jin dynasties. From that very moment, her heart was hopelessly ensnared, deeply infatuated and inextricably bound to this man, leading her to initiate numerous encounters.

This place feels even more terrifying to me than the ancient ruins. Stretching as far as the eye can see, there is only a dark sacrificial altar and nothing else—merely black earth beneath and a black sky above.

Zhang Fan was already hovering in mid-air, forming hand seals and chanting incantations. His golden sword shot forth, instantly multiplying into nine golden flying swords that soared into the sky. Each of the nine swords then split into nine more, dividing and multiplying over and over again until the entire firmament was filled with golden flying swords. After a single revolution, they all emitted a crisp, resonant hum simultaneously.

Later on, when he wanted to repay my kindness, I jokingly told him to go become a prime minister, and he actually took it seriously. Borrowing five hundred taels for travel expenses, he headed straight to the imperial capital, and on his very first attempt, he passed the imperial examinations as the top scholar.

The remaining men had been loudly and cheerfully discussing the latest gossip within the Haicheng political circles, but at these words, they fell abruptly silent for two full seconds, all turning their gazes toward her.

Hearing this, I was utterly shocked! How could this possibly be? Only a few months ago, I had actually lived in this village. I had even spoken with them and helped them catch ghosts! Was the coroner mistaken, or was this matter truly that bizarre?

If he dared to turn a slaughterhouse into a private execution ground right in Haicheng, wouldn't he act even more lawlessly on this private island where there were no outsiders at all?

The Tan family had already been put through the wringer, and since the incident they caused back then was quite a scandal, it had severely impacted their political careers. They had no desire whatsoever to investigate who had ultimately played such a malicious prank on Tan Fei; they simply wanted the matter to be swept under the rug and laid to rest.

The more Huang Dong spoke, the more agitated he became, eventually shouting at the top of his lungs as his emotions spiraled out of control. He cried out loudly, venting his pent-up feelings, and only after a long while did he slowly calm down.

Upon arriving in the netherworld, I bypassed Meng Po and skipped seeking out Judge Cui, heading straight for the Palace of Yama.

Ruan Shu sneered, momentarily tossing her phone aside before starting the engine and driving toward Fu Lingyuan's villa. No matter what, the issue of her unwarranted dismissal had to be clarified today. Furthermore, she needed to reclaim her identification documents, and the matter of their divorce definitely needed to be brought up once more.

"Wu Xuanming, are you really still alive?" Hearing those words from Wu Xuanming, Yingzi was instantly overwhelmed with emotion. Throwing caution to the wind and entirely forgetting her own identity, she threw herself recklessly into his arms.

Zhang Long had barely exerted himself just moments ago, so Shanhugang had no grasp of Zhang Long's true martial arts prowess. Had he been aware of it, he most likely would not have spoken in such a manner.

Mo Wuyin stroked his long white beard and said with a grimace, as if he had a toothache, explaining that if the baleful and resentful energies within Nie Chen's body were to erupt, even he would find it immensely troublesome.

"Too critical? How is it critical? To think there wasn't even time to report this to me?" The department head's expression darkened slightly with displeasure.

What she had just said was merely meant as a warning to the other party; in truth, she had never killed anyone in her life, nor had she ever contemplated doing so.

After all, when it came to wealth and top-tier education, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, boasting thousands of senior faculty members, was undoubtedly second to none nationwide. As for connections, the vast majority of the country's affluent second-generation heirs pursued their advanced studies right here, so it was simply impossible not to cultivate a powerful network of contacts in such a place.

"Puff, puff"—Wang Nanshan and the others were riddled with bullets within a single second, bleeding profusely as they collapsed to the ground, dead beyond a doubt.

"Brother Ma, why are you here?" Ma Kongyun's identity was classified, and since Bai Sha and the others were present, Zhang Long had no choice but to address him by the alias Brother Ma.