After ninety-nine online romances, I finally met my ex in person when school started.

After hanging up the phone, Zhu Xunchuan walked to the window.

With foreign forces involved, the betrayal of the Pei family's Grand Elder was no longer just an internal clan conflict. It was also a trap, a scheme to lure the enemy into a snare.

A clear, silvery bell rang out from outside the bamboo house. Qu Feiyan had changed into the same black Miao tactical leather jacket she wore the night before, and was carrying two Miao knives.

She entered the room, raising her delicate chin: "All three hundred guards have assembled. The roads are blocked."

Xia Wanying then entered. She changed out of her high heels and put on a pair of extremely expensive custom-made combat boots, with burgundy custom-made trousers that hugged her slender legs.

She held two cups of freshly brewed coffee, handed one to Zhu Xunchuan, and glanced at Qu Feiyan: "Dinghe's security team, with six heavy machine guns, is already clearing the way. Where there's capital, there's no need for you to fight with knives."

Qu Feiyan gritted her teeth, about to argue, when Pei Yanrou rushed over with a first-aid kit. Her eyes were a little red, clearly she hadn't slept well all night.

She walked to Zhu Xun Chuan's side, reached out and grabbed his sleeve, her voice soft and trembling: "Brother Chuan, let's go save my sister now, okay?"

Zhu Xun Chuan grasped Pei Yan Rou's hand in return, his warmth conveying his message: "Yes. Go pick her up and take her home."

Half an hour later, the convoy drove into the depths of the Ten Thousand Mountains.

The bulletproof off-road vehicle rolled over the bumpy dirt road, with towering ancient trees on both sides blocking out the sun.

Ahead appeared a vast expanse of lush green miasma forest, which was the outer barrier of the Valley of Ten Thousand Poisons.

The convoy stopped. A dense, crawling sound came from within the miasma.

Countless brightly colored venomous snakes emerged from the pile of dead leaves, flicking their tongues and blocking the way.

Pei Yanrou was so frightened that she leaned on Zhu Xunchuan's shoulder and covered her eyes with her hands.

Qu Feiyan pushed open the car door and stood on the running board. She took the silver flute from her waist and held it to her lips.

A sharp, piercing flute note pierced through the miasma. Upon hearing the sound, the venomous snakes began to writhe violently, their previously orderly attack formation instantly thrown into chaos.

"Xia Bao, your men can make their move." Zhu Xun Chuan, sitting in the back seat, gave the order through the car window.

Xia Wanying instructed into her tactical headset: "Clear obstacles."

The roofs of the three heavy off-road vehicles in front opened instantly. Six heavy machine guns were then set up.

"Da da da da—"

Deafening gunfire ripped through the forest. Orange-yellow shell casings bounced and fell to the ground. Dense barrages swept directly into the miasma forest, snapping thick tree trunks in two.

Faced with the overwhelming firepower of these heavy weapons, the snakes on the ground had no chance to resist and were instantly reduced to a pile of minced meat.

There were no probing attacks with magical arrays, no pre-battle challenges. The hybrid force of capital and modern military industry displayed an utterly illogical and overwhelming dominance in this primeval forest.

The convoy restarted, crushing the wreckage and heading straight for the heart of the Valley of Ten Thousand Poisons.

On a clearing halfway up the mountain, the Pei family's eldest elder, leading dozens of remaining troops, was cornered by the Qu family's secret guards and Ding and security personnel. A cliff lay ahead, and gun barrels were behind them.

The elder's face was covered in wrinkles.

He held a woman in a white dress, covered in blood, with one hand as they retreated to the edge of the cliff.

The woman's face was obscured by her disheveled hair, but her figure was exactly the same as Pei Yanrou's.

"Back off!" the Grand Elder roared hoarsely, pressing a poison-coated dagger against the white-dressed woman's carotid artery. "Zhu Xun Chuan! If you dare take another step, I'll jump down with your Pei family patriarch! I've already transferred the 1.5 billion; what do you have to fight me with now!"

The SUV door was pushed open.

Upon seeing the woman in the white dress on the cliff edge, Pei Yanrou burst into tears. She broke free of the bodyguards' restraints, crying and trying to rush forward: "Sister! Don't hurt my sister!"

Zhu Xun Chuan strode over from behind, grabbed Pei Yan Rou's waist with his left arm, and pulled her tightly into his embrace. "Don't go over there."

Pei Yanrou clutched Zhu Xun Chuan's trench coat with both hands, her body trembling with sobs: "Brother Chuan, please save her, please save her, I'll do anything you say..."

Xia Wanying and Qu Feiyan stood on either side of Zhu Xunchuan. Neither of the two highly intelligent women spoke, but they warily stared at the Grand Elder on the edge of the cliff.

Zhu Xun Chuan coldly sized up the pitiful "Pei Yanyu" who was looking at him with pleading eyes. The woman's eyes were filled with extreme panic, and even a hint of submissive pleas.

Zhu Xun Chuan's lips curled into a mocking smile.

The eldest elder of the Pei family, believing he had the upper hand, continued to shout, "Get out of the way! Prepare a helicopter; we'll release them once I'm safe!"

Zhu Xun Chuan ignored his threat. He released Pei Yan Rou, reached inside his trench coat with his right hand, and pulled out the pistol that Gu Qing Han had given him before leaving the capital.

Release the safety, load the gun. Raise the arm.

The dark muzzle of the gun was not pointed at the Grand Elder, but directly at Pei Yanyu, a woman in a white dress with tears streaming down her face, standing on the edge of the cliff.

Pei Yanrou's eyes widened, and her breath caught in her throat. The Grand Elder was stunned.

"Bang!"

Gunshots echoed through the valley. The bullet struck the woman in the white dress precisely between the eyebrows.

There was no blood splattering.

With a dull cracking sound, the incredibly realistic woman in the white dress exploded right at the edge of the cliff, turning into a pile of intricate wooden parts and silicone fragments scattered all over the ground.

That's the Pei family's unique puppet-making technique!

The elder stared in horror at the wooden fragments he held in his hand. He realized that his trump card had been a joke from the very beginning.

"I froze all the overseas bridging funds last night." Zhu Xun Chuan put down his gun, his tone indifferent. "You're trying to buy your life with thin air."

The voice just fell.

From the depths of the Valley of Ten Thousand Poisons, a steady and powerful sound of footsteps echoed.

Xiao Bai silently leaped down from the height, and with a swift dagger, severed the tendons in both of the elder's legs, causing him to kneel on the ground.

The fog dissipated.

A tall, aloof figure slowly walked into the arena.

She wore a commanding black high priest's robe, the hem embroidered with ancient serpent totems in gold thread. In her hand she held a black and gold serpent staff, a symbol of the Pei family's supreme power.

This stunning face was exactly the same as Pei Yanrou's, but their temperaments were worlds apart. She lacked the soft, dependent nature ingrained in her younger sister; instead, she possessed the cold, arrogant demeanor of someone in a position of power who controlled life and death.

The real Pei Yanyu makes her appearance.

In the past three years, she has made decisive moves in the Hundred Thousand Mountains and secured her position as the head of the Pei family.

She wasn't trapped at all; the surrounding collapse was merely a coordinated operation by her and Zhu Xunchuan to lure out the family's internal traitor and the foreign forces involved.

The arena was utterly silent. Xia Wanying narrowed her phoenix eyes, Qu Feiyan gripped her Miao sword tightly, and Pei Yanrou leaned against Zhu Xunchuan, staring blankly at her approaching sister.

Pei Yanyu walked to the center of the field. She did not look at the traitor wailing on the ground.

Those deep, cold peach blossom eyes locked onto Zhu Xun Chuan.

She slightly raised her delicate chin, parted her red lips, and spoke in a cold and arrogant voice, yet with a hint of trembling that she had suppressed for two years at the end of her sentence.

"Xun Chuan, we've finally met."