Chapter 158: The Ice Sculpture Competition

The deeper one ventured into the Northern Territory, the sparser the population became, though it was not entirely uninhabited.

That day, guided by the jade slip map, Bai Yuening arrived at a tribal settlement situated within a massive glacial valley.

Rather than a city, it resembled a colossal fortress built from countless layers of thick ice and hard rock. Its architectural style was rugged and utilitarian, completely different from the pavilions and terraces of the Central Plains.

Before they even drew close, a wave of bustling noise washed over them, contrasting sharply with the usual silence of the snowfields.

Feng Shiyun began to grow anxious. There was simply no help for it; the situation was truly unfavorable to her. Had she not deployed the majority of her manpower to the Flying Eagle Gang's other enterprises, she would never have been put in such a passive position—one careless move and the entire game was lost.

Mo Qi was momentarily stunned by his chilling gaze and silently stepped back... yet she secretly raised her eyes to look at me.

"Damn it, can you speak properly for once? Look at the occasion—can't we save the showing off for when we get home?" As soon as Yang Dong finished speaking, before the opposite man Dai Wei could reply, Du Lisong immediately found he could no longer stand by and watch.

Zhang Chuhan said this because, after all, their last meeting had been five years ago, and that had been their very first encounter, with not much time spent together.

Coming quietly and leaving quietly, Hu Cheng would not take away even a single cloud. Spotting a deserted section of the road, he agilely leaped from the vehicle.

"Damn it, where is my pig-slaughtering knife? Today I'm going to slaughter you for sure!" I grabbed a knife and dashed toward the tiger. Human patience has its limits... Bring me my bird!

The succession of the imperial throne was a mortal affair to begin with... Besides, given the crown prince's vicious temperament, those who genuinely supported him certainly could not be many. As long as Feng Wuji and Feng Wushang joined hands and planned carefully, there was little doubt they could unseat the crown prince.

Without needing to look, Shangguan Rong on the platform naturally knew who it was. He turned his face, his eyes filled entirely with resentment.

"There are no other ways right now anyway, you go ahead and decipher it!" I said with understanding. After all, we were not professionals, and for certain matters, we needed to look up some reference materials to find answers.

Wei Changfeng smiled, knowing that Bai Qi was praising him, implying: If we can achieve a great victory every time we get this tired, I'd rather be tired. This conveyed that Wei Changfeng possessed extraordinary strategic insight and had won yet another battle.

For government agencies, sometimes losing money was not the main concern, but saving face was paramount. As long as face could be preserved, losing a bit of money was nothing and came quite naturally.

Zhao's expression changed instantly. Tian Xuanyun, noticing this anomaly beside her, hurriedly asked for the reason. Zhao did not answer, but instead urged her anxiously to rush to the other end of the red thread to trace the whereabouts of the Orchid Emperor. Though she did not know why, seeing her sister in such a panic, she suppressed her curiosity and went as instructed.

Just as the words fell, the telephone on Galen's desk rang. He picked it up, and after a few seconds, his expression grew gloomy.

The hope that had just barely been born was thus shattered. Such a secret treasure must inherently contain a self-destruction formula; if one attempted to coerce Fairy Helixian, it would inevitably force her to abandon the treasure and destroy the evidence instead.

Hearing these words from the Dragon Sleeve, Feng Wu fixed her gaze on him, as if trying to pierce straight into his heart.

The sea of people was densely packed, numbering in the thousands. That strange figure moved forward silently, like a man cleaving through a raging sea. The hundreds of men behind the shield were all sturdy giants and military elites. At that moment, shouting until their voices were hoarse, a thousand men tried their utmost to push with their shoulders and bodies, yet it was like dragonflies trying to shake a pillar—completely unable to stop the man's advance. Their formation was squeezed and compressed continuously, on the verge of collapsing at any second.

The clash between the Supreme Lord and the Saint Jieyin was fraught with glinting blades and flashing swords, fighting until the heavens and earth turned dark. One must know that a battle of words was no less fierce than real combat with genuine blades and spears; on the contrary, it was even more perilous.

Li Yu dismounted and bowed in greeting. One had to show a bit of respect to this general well past fifty, especially since he revered this old general's father even more—that was the pillar of Zhao State for several decades, the other protagonist of the "Harmony between General and Prime Minister," the former Chancellor Lian Xiangru.

Sha Jin took a deep breath and hefted a twelve-foot-long broadsword into his hands. On a snowy New Year's Eve amidst the bitter winds of the twelfth lunar month, on this very last night of the Jisi year, who could be arriving uninvited in the frontier wilderness?