The court lackeys of the eight-hour workday

Chapter 362 Zheng Qi
"What--"

The stinging pain in his palm surged instantly. Since he had cultivated the protective true qi of "Mysterious Vision", he had not experienced such pain for decades!

Zheng Anqi's gaze suddenly shifted to his palm.

The longsword trembled in his hand.

hum-

Zheng Anqi's pupils suddenly contracted.

With this tremor, the longsword slowly sliced ​​through his protective inner energy, and the blade touched his palm... leaving a wound on his hand!
"Do you think... I would appear before you without any certainty? Do you think that after killing so many of my fellow disciples and carrying the blood feud of Penglai on my shoulders, I would so easily throw away my own life?"

A cold, emotionless female voice rang out.

Before he could finish speaking, Zheng Anqi suddenly let out a cry of pain!
Blood splattered!
The longsword pierced through his palm and went straight for his face!
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Forty-eight years ago.

The merchant ship moved slowly forward on the sea, its keel pressing against the seawater with a low, muffled thud. The vibrations traveled to the bottom of the cabin, waking a mouse.

It crawled out from among the debris, cautiously scanned its surroundings, and then crawled forward.

Snapped!
Zhizhizhizhi——

A fair, slender, and scarred hand suddenly grasped its body and lifted it up.

It struggled fiercely, tearing and biting at the hand, even ripping off a piece of flesh the size of a fingernail—but the hand did not budge an inch.

A pair of bloodshot eyes appeared before it.

Then came a delicate, cracked pair of lips, and slowly opening teeth—which bit down on its head.

bang.

The sounds of chewing and swallowing, accompanied by suppressed retching, echoed in the cabin. Warm blood flowed into his throat, bringing a touch of warmth to his nearly exhausted body.

After swallowing the last bits of the rat's remains, the girl slowly propped herself up, hid back in the pile of debris, closed her bloodshot eyes, and fell into a deep sleep.

She seemed to be dreaming about something, and her body began to tremble involuntarily.

"Father, Mother... Penglai..."

"Ying! Zhou!"

The soft voice gradually hardened like cast iron in the dream.

Forty-five years ago.

Inside the water fortress, several corpses lay on the ground, their blood seeping into the earth along the veins. The young girl sheathed her sword and looked at the burly man sitting in a tiger-skin chair before her.

"Boss, with my martial arts skills, is it even possible for me to join the gang?"

The burly man stroked his chin and suddenly burst into laughter.

"Of course, of course! With your martial arts skills, young lady, you are more than qualified to sit in the third-highest position in my water stronghold!"

"We swear a blood oath, and from this day forward, you will be the third-in-command of this water stronghold!"

The girl slowly walked up the platform and sat in the chair to the right of the big man.

Hundreds of bandits below shouted in unison.

"Third Master! Third Master! Third Master!"

The girl remained expressionless, her grip on the longsword unwavering.

Forty years ago.

The tall body, now headless, lay on the ground.

The young woman, now fully grown, gritted her teeth, struggled to crawl to the door, inserted her long sword into the latch, and then slowly slumped down on the floor by the door.

Faint sounds of discussion could be heard outside the door.

"This time, the Third Master has no choice but to comply. The First Master specially bought muscle-relaxing powder from the Tang Clan and aphrodisiacs from Green Willow Manor. Even top experts would fall for it!"

"It's a pity that the Third Leader is so beautiful, yet she's always cold and indifferent to the First Leader... If she had given in to the First Leader earlier and handed over her martial arts skills, the First Leader wouldn't have been so ruthless."

"Why think so much? Since the leader has already turned against us, after he's done enjoying himself, he'll definitely interrogate the third leader about his martial arts skills... Maybe we can even do it, hehe!"

The young woman glanced at the headless corpse on the ground, and the last trace of emotion vanished from her heart.

She used her internal energy to gradually expel the toxins from her body.

Thirty-six years ago.

In the deserted mountains, the sounds of clashing weapons echoed continuously!

"You, you are not from Yingzhou! You are from Penglai!"

The man shouted in alarm and anger.

"I... I'm begging you, for the sake of my fellow disciples, for the sake of my wife and daughter, please don't kill me!"

The wounds kept reopening on his body, and looking at his expressionless opponent, the man gradually despaired.

"Since we're from the same sect, why did you attack me?"

A cold female voice rang out.

"Because you forgot Penglai." With a horizontal slash, a head flew off.

Before the headless corpse could fall, the woman stepped forward and grabbed his heart meridian. She released her true energy, sweeping it across his dantian—seizing a tiny wisp of true energy.

A thin wisp of protective true energy, as thin as a cicada's wing, gradually appeared on her arm.

Twenty-three years ago.

The woman rolled out of bed and slowly put on her clothes.

The man on the bed looked at the beautiful body before him, his heart swaying, and he reached out to take the woman's hand.

puff.

Blood gushed from the man's mouth. He glanced at the long sword piercing his chest, opened and closed his mouth a few times, and slowly collapsed onto the bed, lifeless.

The woman sheathed her sword and touched her lower abdomen with her left hand.

“It’s already happening… Yingzhou has discovered that someone is hunting down people from Penglai, and they could trace it back to me at any time. I could die at any moment.”

"After I die, someone needs to take my place and continue to avenge Yingzhou."

The woman glanced at the corpse on the bed and turned to leave.

twenty years ago.

The woman stood on the roof, coldly looking down into the courtyard.

Xue Bangzhu was standing in the courtyard, her face full of struggle. She suddenly spoke.

You're here, aren't you?

"You were my fellow disciple... You killed me because I stopped seeking revenge and forgot my hatred, right?"

The woman on the rooftop had no expression and did not respond.

Her gaze settled on Xue Bangzhu's lower abdomen, where there was a faint condensation of blood and qi.

This reminded her of a young voice.

"Mother! Mother!"

"Mom, could you tell me another story? I promise I'll go to sleep quietly after you tell me, okay?"

The woman watched as Xue Bangzhu kept asking questions in the courtyard, his voice getting lower and lower until it gradually turned into pleading.

"I can die... but please let my child live, okay? Even if you take her away and let her join you in revenge... just let her live, okay?"

The woman stared at Xue Bangzhu expressionlessly for a long time before turning and leaving.

Fifteen years ago.

"Master Shi, this is Eunuch Cun Dong, a powerful and influential figure in Nanjing. Why don't you pay your respects?"

The woman stepped forward and bowed to the ground.

"Greetings, Father-in-law."

Cun Dong sat in the chair and glanced at her.

"I'll handle any official troubles you might encounter in the future. Taking 60% of your gold and silver isn't unreasonable, is it?"

The woman spoke with utmost respect.

"Not too much."

five years ago.

The woman beheaded the man from Yingzhou in front of her with a single sword stroke, but she herself was also seriously injured and fell to the ground. After catching her breath for a moment, she barely managed to stand up and chased after him in one direction.

A moment later, she saw Zheng Yi running forward through the reeds, crying as she went.

She watched Zheng Yi run away expressionlessly until she completely disappeared from sight.

"Don't ever appear in front of me again."

As if the last lingering attachment had been removed, and as if the last trace of emotion had been severed, the woman walked toward Nanjing without the slightest hesitation.

"time is limited."

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Time returns to the present.

The longsword, honed forty-eight years, pierced Zheng Anqi's face.

Zheng Anqi bit the sword tip with his teeth. In his shock and anger, he mustered all his strength and struck the woman's chest with a full palm strike!

Bang!
Blood spurted from her mouth, and the woman flew high into the air.

She suddenly remembered her name, a name that hadn't been called in decades, a name she herself had almost forgotten.

Zheng Qi.

Hate is like fragrant grass; though cut down, it grows back again.

(End of this chapter)