In this chaotic world of vying for power, I can become stronger by marrying a wife.

Su Ming's eyes lit up.

Eight thousand five hundred left!

He strode up to Mo Yuan's corpse and began to skillfully touch it.

Storage rings, cultivation manuals, spirit stones... he stuffed them all into the system space.

Just then, a wisp of black smoke suddenly rose from Mo Yuan's corpse, condensing into a blurry human face.

"Su Ming..." A chilling laugh echoed from that face, "You'll regret killing someone from my Black Fiend Hall..."

Su Ming didn't even look at it, and directly stomped on that face until it was smashed.

"Noisy."

[Ding! Special soul fragment detected. Absorb?]

"absorb."

[Ding! You have gained 500 Luck Points!]

Current balance: 42000 points!

Su Ming nodded in satisfaction and was about to continue looting the corpse when a new notification suddenly popped up from the system.

[Ding! New concubine candidate detected!]

[Target: Princess Xiao Yunyao of the Great Qian Dynasty]

Current favorability: -50 (hatred)

[Hint: The target is currently at a post station thirty miles away from the host and plans to ambush the host tomorrow.]

Su Ming was taken aback for a moment, then smiled.

"Interesting, even the princess of the Great Qian Dynasty is joining in the fun?"

He looked south, a hint of amusement flashing in his eyes.

"Wei Lang, clean up the mess. We'll take a different route tomorrow."

"Ah? My lord, aren't we going to the capital of the Great Qian Kingdom?"

"I will go," Su Ming said, stroking his chin. "But before that, I need to meet a princess."

He was silently calculating in his mind.

How much luck value can one gain by marrying the princess of the Great Qian Dynasty?

Thirty miles outside Qingfeng Town, there is an abandoned post station beside the official road.

The post station was dilapidated, with half of its roof collapsed and withered vines climbing the walls. But at this moment, an elite team was hidden here.

Twenty martial artists dressed in black armor silently crouched and guarded the area. Their auras were restrained, and the weakest among them was at least a fifth-grade cultivator. The three leaders even exuded the unique pressure of fourth-grade cultivators.

In the main hall of the post station, a young girl dressed in a pale yellow martial arts uniform sat cross-legged on a dilapidated armchair.

She was about seventeen or eighteen years old, with exquisitely beautiful features that seemed to have stepped out of a traditional Chinese painting. Her eyes, in particular, were long and narrow with slightly reddish corners, naturally exuding a hint of allure. However, the heroic spirit between her brows and the cold arrogance at the corners of her mouth completely suppressed that allure.

Princess Xiao Yunyao of the Great Qian Dynasty.

"Princess, the soul lamp on Mo Yuan's side has gone out." A black-clad warrior knelt on one knee, his voice low.

Xiao Yunyao opened her eyes, a hint of surprise flashing in her pupils, but she quickly regained her composure.

"Four fourth-rank soldiers and sixteen fifth-rank soldiers, all wiped out?" Her voice was soft, yet carried a sense of oppression. "Su Ming, this is interesting."

The black-clad warrior lowered his head: "Princess, should we retreat...?"

"Withdraw?" Xiao Yunyao sneered. "With me personally taking action, do you think I'd let some peasant escape? Send the order to proceed according to the original plan. Isn't he going to the capital? Then let him stay on this road forever."

No sooner had the words left his mouth than the sound of horses' hooves suddenly came from outside the post station.

Xiao Yunyao frowned, got up and walked to the window, looking out through the broken window frame.

On the official road, a procession was slowly approaching.

Leading the group was a young man riding a tall, jet-black horse, his eyes half-closed as if he were dozing. Behind him followed three thousand soldiers, their ranks perfectly aligned, but judging from their equipment… Xiao Yunyao's eyes narrowed.

The soldiers weren't holding knives or guns, but rather a kind of black iron tube she had never seen before.

"Princess, it's Su Ming's Divine Machine Battalion!" the black-clad warrior said urgently. "What are they doing here? Didn't the intelligence say they would be spending the night in Qingfeng Town?"

Xiao Yunyao stared at the young man with his eyes half-closed, and a sense of foreboding suddenly rose in her heart.

Is this guy... doing it on purpose?

Just then, Su Ming suddenly opened his eyes, his gaze landing precisely on the window on the second floor of the post station.

Their eyes met in mid-air, separated by dozens of meters.

Su Ming grinned, revealing a set of white teeth.

Then, he raised his hand.

Xiao Yunyao's pupils contracted sharply. She saw that the young man was holding a black iron tube in his hand, with the mouth of the tube pointed at the post station.

"Everyone, retreat—!"

boom!

The rocket, trailing a long plume of flame, accurately struck the second floor of the station.

The shockwave from the explosion instantly tore the entire building apart, sending wood, bricks, and human fragments flying into the sky amidst flames.

Just before the explosion, Xiao Yunyao used her lightness skill to leap out of the window, but the aftershock still threw her away, causing her to crash heavily into the snow.

She struggled to her feet, a trickle of blood oozing from the corner of her mouth, her eyes filled with shock and anger.

The three fourth-grade cultivators also fled in a sorry state, but half of the twenty fifth-grade martial artists died on the spot.

"Su Ming!!" Xiao Yunyao gritted her teeth, and a terrifying aura belonging to the peak of the fourth rank erupted from her body.

Su Ming jumped off his horse, dusted off his hands, and slowly walked to a stop ten meters in front of her.

"Xiao Yunyao?" Su Ming looked her up and down, clicking his tongue in amazement. "The Ninth Princess of the Great Qian Dynasty, I've long admired your name. However..."

He changed the subject, his smile turning playful: "Your ambush technique is a bit off. Hiding in this abandoned post station, you didn't even bother to conceal yourself, and you kept your presence completely hidden, as if you were afraid I wouldn't find you?"

Xiao Yunyao wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth and sneered, "Enough nonsense, you won't be leaving this official road today."

"Really?" Su Ming stroked his chin. "Then you'd better step up your game, Wei Lang!"

"arrive!"

"Maxim, serve him."

Da da da da—

More than a dozen heavy machine guns opened fire simultaneously, and a dense barrage of bullets poured out like a torrential rain.

Xiao Yunyao's expression changed drastically. She tried to dodge using her movement technique, but the terrifying barrage of bullets gave her no space at all.

The three fourth-grade cultivators erected their protective true energy to withstand the bullets, but their true energy was being consumed at a visible rate.

"Damn it! What kind of sorcery is this?!" one of them roared.

Su Ming said lazily, "This is called firepower coverage. You cultivators wouldn't understand."

He snapped his fingers.

Wei Lang understood immediately, took out a Thunderclap Bomb, and threw it precisely at the feet of the three fourth-grade cultivators.

boom!

Amid the explosion, the three were blasted backward, their protective inner energy completely collapsing.

Xiao Yunyao watched helplessly as the people she had brought fell one by one, and for the first time, she felt the emotion of "powerlessness".

She is at the peak of the fourth rank, only one step away from the third rank, and is almost invincible among the younger generation of the Great Qian Dynasty.

But at this moment, she couldn't even get within ten meters of Su Ming.

"Surrender." Su Ming's voice suddenly rang in her ear.

Xiao Yunyao turned her head sharply, only to find that Su Ming had somehow gotten behind her, with an ancient-looking longbow resting on her neck.

"You..." Xiao Yunyao's pupils contracted, "When did you...?"

"From the moment you first dodged," Su Ming smiled innocently, "Your Highness, while your movements are fast, your trajectory is too predictable. My greatest skill is calculating trajectories."

Xiao Yunyao gritted her teeth, ready to fight to the death, when she heard Su Ming continue:

"Don't move. The arrow on my bow is poisoned. It won't kill a fourth-rank official, but it will leave you weak for three hours. Then..."

He leaned close to her ear and whispered, "Three thousand grown men, in the middle of nowhere, guess what will happen?"

Xiao Yunyao froze, a hint of humiliation and fear flashing in her eyes.

"You dare!"

"What wouldn't I dare to do?" Su Ming shrugged. "Anyway, your Great Qian wants to kill me, so I'm just defending myself and taking a princess with me. It's perfectly reasonable."

He released the bowstring, and the arrow grazed Xiao Yunyao's neck before landing on a tree trunk in the distance.

"However..." Su Ming turned to face her, his smile becoming meaningful, "I'm the kind of person who prioritizes maximizing my own interests. If I kill you, I'll offend the entire Great Qian; if I let you go, I'll gain nothing. So..."

He extended his hand: "Let's cooperate, Xiao Yunyao."