Turbid World: Martial Arts Master of the Republic of China Era, I Cultivate Immortality!

Chapter 90 A Marvelous Treasure of Heaven and Earth—The Lost Lock, the Abandoned Shackles, and the Rusty Embroidery! (Please Subscribe!)

"Oh my, our Abbot Zhao is actually crying!"

Chu Ruoxi, who had just arrived at the school gate, looked at Zhao Zheng, who was rubbing his eyes, with a mischievous grin. Zhao Zheng stopped rubbing his eyes and said...

"Oh right, she cried. After all, people often say that the squeaky wheel gets the grease!"

Chu Ruoxi paused for a moment, then, realizing she had been teased, rolled her eyes at Zhao Zheng and changed the subject, looking at the female school principal in front of her.

"So all of this was within your expectations. To be honest, did you plan everything out from the moment you arrived at this school yesterday?"

She had intended to use the word "scheming," but then felt it was inappropriate, so she changed her words. As for why she said it that way, it was mainly because everything in front of her seemed to be interconnected.

She suspected that Zhao Zheng deliberately called in newspaper reporters last night to make a big fuss, just so that the rich girls who didn't have bound feet would leave the school because of safety concerns.

To avoid any other problems arising today!

""

After all, being a woman herself, she knew how women would laugh at women who seemed to offer something to laugh at.

"I am not God—"

Zhao Zheng replied, indicating that he wasn't that capable. Chu Ruoxi rolled her eyes in disbelief, then looked curious and asked.

Why did you do that?

She was referring to the more than twenty doctors Zhao Zheng had hired to treat the feet of the female students with bound feet.

"Hmm—for the sake of happiness."

"???"

"Life is full of troubles, and all I'm doing is trying to make myself happier," Zhao Zheng explained.

"Your happiness is truly unique!"

Chu Ruoxi paused for a moment, then gave Zhao Zheng, who seemed completely out of place in the world, the evaluation of "truly unique".

"well enough."

"By the way, the Mirror Ghost issue hasn't been resolved yet, has it?"

Chu Ruoxi suddenly said, noticing Zhao Zheng looking at her, "A woman's intuition tells me this isn't that simple!"

Of course, her certainty wasn't entirely due to a woman's intuition, but rather her consistently accurate sixth sense told her that this matter was not yet over.

Not only was it not over, she even sensed that something sad was about to happen in this matter of the mirror ghost.

Zhao Zheng looked up at the sky, which had darkened again and looked like it was about to rain: "I don't know, maybe it's already been resolved!"

'

He said he was leaving last night, but he didn't actually leave. Instead, he stayed near the girls' school all night.

Unfortunately, that full-length mirror never appeared!

If he weren't absolutely certain he wasn't seeing things, he would have started to doubt that what he was seeing behind Principal Lin was actually a full-length mirror.

"I hope everything is as you say—"

Chu Ruoxi smiled and spoke, and Zhao Zheng nodded. Then he looked in surprise at the two Taoist priests walking side by side not far away.

Good morning, senior brothers!

"Good morning, junior brother! Good morning, Miss Lu!"

"morning!"

The one who spoke first was obviously Master Zhang, and the one who replied sparingly was naturally Master Lu Chengyuan.

Yes, as always, expressionless and cold!

After chatting for a while, Master Zhang and his companion explained why they had come: they were there because of the mirror ghost.

"I spent all night reading books after I got back, but unfortunately I couldn't find any similar mirror ghosts in the temple's records—"

The helplessness on Master Zhang's face disappeared as he entered the school gate, and then he and Lu Chengyuan frowned together.

The two frowned as they looked at the female students' deformed little feet. Zhao Zheng took the lead and walked towards the dormitory where the female students of the martial arts school were located.

"Stop looking, let's go."

"Um----"

Upon hearing this, the three withdrew their gazes, except for Chu Ruoxi, whose eyes flickered, and she quickened her pace, silently arriving beside Zhao Zheng.

Before her eyes were Zhao Zheng's slightly red eyes. Chu Ruoxi was stunned for a moment, and inwardly cursed, "What a sentimental child."

"Fine, I'll help you, sister."

Chu Ruoxi's heart stirred, and she began to talk to Zhang Daoshi and the other man to slow down their pace.

To avoid letting the two of them see Zhao Zheng's ugly behavior!

"???"

Still feeling the smell was too strong, Zhao Zheng rubbed his eyes and looked at Chu Ruoxi in surprise at the Bone Scroll state, where Chu Ruoxi's favorability towards him had suddenly increased to 80 points.

To be honest, a woman's heart is like a needle at the bottom of the sea!

Zhao Zheng scrolled the Bone Painting Scroll to the bottom, glanced at Xiulian, and saw that her favorability towards him was still zero. Then he put the scroll away.

As I continued towards the girls' dormitory, I heard more greetings and more respectful voices than yesterday.

Zhao Zheng responded with a smile, and Chu Ruoxi ended the conversation upon seeing this. Only then did Zhang Daoren and the other person approach Zhao Zheng with complicated expressions.

"Junior brother has a heart of great compassion!"

Master Zhang had already learned from Chu Ruoxi that those doctors were invited by Zhao Zheng, and he sighed in admiration. Lu Chengyuan echoed this sentiment with a similar expression of admiration.

"Junior brother, have mercy!"

"really!"

Zhao Zheng, maintaining his pace, nodded. Upon hearing this, Lu Chengyuan's expression clearly froze for a moment, looking at Zhao Zheng with a somewhat blank expression.

Having grown accustomed to Zhao Zheng's way of speaking, Master Zhang chuckled, "Junior Brother Lu, our junior brother here is certainly not a modest person!"

"Um!"

Lu Chengyuan nodded in agreement, his expression returning to its usual expressionless state. Zhang Daoshi didn't mind, and sighed as if he were already used to it.

"I never imagined that although the Great Chen Dynasty is gone, those outdated customs would still exist. If it weren't for you, Junior Brother, I would have thought that the custom of foot binding had ended with the fall of the Great Chen Dynasty."

"It can't be that fast—"

Chu Ruoxi said with a complicated expression, "The Great Chen Dynasty has only been gone for eight months. How could the outdated custom of foot binding have disappeared so quickly?"

Moreover, the remnants of the former Chen dynasty are still plotting to restore their kingdom. Not to mention the disappearance of their outdated customs, she thinks that in some less informed areas, they might still believe that the Great Chen dynasty is still around.

Zhao Zheng didn't speak, but what he was thinking about was the fact that his feet were bound even more severely because he didn't have martial arts skills in his previous life.

That is, the kind of small feet that are clearly severely deformed, but which some people euphemistically call "three-inch golden lotuses".

Although the practice of foot binding in this world is not as severe as in the previous world due to the existence of martial arts, it has still reached the level of mild deformity.

This condition has severely affected their ability to walk, which is the main reason why Zhao Zheng saw some female students walking unsteadily yesterday.

Lu Chengyuan didn't speak, but judging from his furrowed brows, he was in the same bad mood as Zhao Zheng and the other two.

Zhao Zheng and his three companions did not continue the topic of foot binding, but stopped because they had arrived at the dormitory building where the female students of the martial arts school lived.

Zhao Zheng looked at the female students who had been gathered by the female teachers of the martial arts school, and walked up to the two senior sisters who were also cultivators whom he had met once last night. He began to ask if there had been any unusual events in the dormitory building last night.

There was no abnormality, but there was displacement. If Zhao Zheng hadn't retreated quickly, he would have almost been taken advantage of by these two senior sisters.

After the communication ended, Zhao Zheng and the others watched the female students who were heading to the martial arts school leave. Then, they called a female teacher and the four of them went into the girls' dormitory building to start another inspection.

After a while.

Master Zhang and Lu Chengyuan shook their heads. Zhao Zheng looked at Chu Ruoxi, who was staring at him, and shook his head as well, indicating that he still couldn't see anything. The four of them exchanged glances and left the girls' school.

"Perhaps the Mirror Ghost really did disappear because of the ghost baby's remains. After all, according to what the principal said last night, the appearance of this Mirror Ghost was clearly aimed at the martial arts school—"

Seeing the somewhat somber atmosphere, Zhao Zheng, who had just walked out of the martial arts school gate, suddenly smiled and spoke. Master Zhang smiled and echoed his words.

"That's right, the Mirror Ghost should disappear—Hmm? Junior brother, why are you heading west? Aren't you coming with us to the martial arts school for instruction?"

Master Zhang and Chu Ruoxi looked at Zhao Zheng with surprise and doubt. Zhao Zheng looked at the three of them strangely and said...

"What am I, a teacher on temporary assignment, supposed to teach?"

Besides, he himself hasn't even learned all the skills a Taoist priest should know, so how dare he teach others?

If we actually teach them, wouldn't that be misleading their children?

"————" ×3

"Okay, that's all, bye!"

Seeing the three of them instantly become unhappy, Zhao Zheng chuckled and said, of course, he didn't actually leave.

Instead, he went with the three to the martial arts school, met with Cheng Qingqing and the others, gave them some instructions, and then left.

Time flies. Five days later, on Wednesday, August 22, at 7 p.m., at the main gate of Xiqiao Girls' School.

"It seems you were overthinking the mirror ghost issue. Five days have passed; the mirror ghost should have truly disappeared completely."

Chu Ruoxi smiled as she walked out of the school gate and looked at Zhao Zhengdao beside her. She saw that Zhao Zhengdao just nodded and didn't say anything. She wasn't annoyed at all, but said it as if it were a normal occurrence.

"I accompanied you to the girls' school again tonight, aren't you going to thank me properly?"

Chu Ruoxi's words were full of teasing, and Zhao Zheng nodded and said directly, "I'll treat you to a drink later!"

"No, I'm not interested in women!"

"."

"

Chu Ruoxi was stunned for a moment, then suppressed her anger and glared at Zhao Zheng, before letting out a cold snort.

Zhao Zhengquan pretended not to see the woman who couldn't argue with him, and looked up at the increasingly dark night sky.

"Hurry up, the sky looks like it's going to pour rain soon — okay, stop glaring at me, I'll treat you to dinner later, alright?"

"Is it just the two of us?"

"Bring your son along, it'll be more exciting!"

Zhao Zheng looked at Chu Ruoxi, who was still trying to seduce him, and said something. Chu Ruoxi was stunned for a moment and glared at Zhao Zheng.

"roll!"

After saying that, she stormed off, leaving Zhao Zheng to purse his lips but keep up with her at the same pace.

After a while, Chu Ruoxi returned angrily, then left again after saying, "I'm still a virgin."

"???"

Are you sure you are—

Okay, some people are just naturally gifted!

However, he didn't understand where Chu Ruoxi's previous resentment, like that of someone who had been cheated on by a scumbag and a divorced mother, came from!

The misunderstanding didn't last long!

As the saying goes, a woman's heart is like a needle at the bottom of the sea; just a few minutes later, Chu Ruoxi returned with a dark face.

Then she began to recount her love story!

Chu Ruoxi's love story is simple, basically nothing much to say; it's just that her childhood sweetheart couldn't compete with the new girl who appeared out of nowhere.

Chu Ruoxi, the junior sister, lost to the scheming junior sister who suddenly appeared out of nowhere, and then she began her twelve-year single life.

I forgot to mention, Chu Ruoxi is thirty years old this year!

To be fair, Zhao Zheng felt that Chu Ruoxi's unrequited love didn't count as romance, just like a simp's love isn't true love.

A simp's love is only meant to move himself!

"Actually, the main reason I talked back to you was because you and he both look pretty boyish—" Chu Ruoxi continued.

He also mentioned his recent boxing career, which he started a few months ago because of his bad temper, but Zhao Zheng felt it was actually okay.

After all, Chu Ruoxi is quite skilled at boxing, and she only boxes at handsome men like him.

"When you're boxing—when you're provoking a handsome man like me—have you ever gotten hit by him?"

Zhao Zheng asked curiously, and Chu Ruoxi looked puzzled and speechless. She glared at Zhao Zheng, who was talking about feelings but asking if she had been beaten.

She desperately wanted to crack open the other person's skull to see what was inside, but she figured it was probably impossible—

Chu Ruoxi, who didn't want to fight Zhao Zheng, rolled her eyes and said irritably, "Do you think everyone is like you?!"

"???"

No, what do you mean?

Zhao Zheng narrowed his eyes, about to speak, when a questioning voice suddenly rang out: "Junior Sister, who is this pretty boy?"

The scene was too melodramatic and clichéd, and Zhao Zheng frowned the whole time as he watched Chu Ruoxi immediately move closer to him.

And then, about five meters away from him, appeared a pale-faced young man who looked to be in his thirties, a handsome man who had lost his "young" title but still possessed three-tenths of his good looks, namely Chu Ruoxi's senior brother Ni Haoran.

What do you think?

Chu Ruoxi smiled and took the initiative to put her arms around Zhao Zheng's arms as she spoke to her senior brother, Ni Haoran.

After saying that, she spoke softly, but her joy was palpable, to Zhao Zheng: "He was dumped by that wretched woman a few days ago, so he remembered to come to me—"

"I'm starting to understand why you've been following me around these past few days," Zhao Zheng muttered to himself, then thought to himself, "Human hearts are treacherous."

Hmm? That's certainly treacherous!

Zhao Zheng glanced at the bandaged arm and looked at Ni Haoran, who looked disbelieving and about to speak.

After thinking for a moment, he reached out and patted Chu Ruoxi's plump buttocks right in front of Ni Haoran.

Then, ignoring Chu Ruoxi's blushing face and the furious glare she was giving him, he put his arm around Chu Ruoxi's slender waist and said to Ni Haoran.

"Do you understand?"

"You—Junior Sister, I know how you feel about me. He must have been someone you sent to deliberately annoy me, right—"

Ni Haoran uttered words that Zhao Zheng found too melodramatic. He frowned as he looked at the murderous intent flashing in Ni Haoran's eyes.

"You—you're thinking of killing me?"

"I wish I could tear them apart—"

Ni Haoran's eyes, filled with anger and killing intent, closed as a sudden burst of brilliant golden light appeared. Just as he realized something was wrong, he subconsciously activated the Seven Killings Technique of Sword and Shield.

When you put your arms forward to block!

Thud! Thud—

Almost simultaneously, two muffled thuds and a scream rang out from behind Ni Haoran and from his mouth.

Chu Ruoxi, barely able to make out her surroundings, saw Ni Haoran being punched twice by Zhao Zheng and flying towards her, making her curse inwardly at the petty man.

Then he moved his feet!

It wasn't her who fell, but Ni Haoran who bumped into a big tree. However, he was tough and quickly stood up and turned around, looking at Zhao Zheng with a wary and aggrieved expression.

He gripped a pale blue shield formed from his inner energy in his left hand and a short sword in his right, shouting at Zhao Zheng.

"What kind of hero attacks by sneak attacking!"

"Your sword and shield are good, they're mine—"

Zhao Zheng, whose body was surrounded by golden light, had a strange expression for a moment. He refused to say anything more and stopped imitating the other party's technique with his myriad methods.

There's nothing wrong with it; what I said was a bit strange!

With a slight movement of his feet, Zhao Zheng's body moved with the flow of the water, disappearing from the spot like a ghost along with the suddenly vanishing golden light.

Thump! Thump! Thump! There was no difficult fighting process, only Ni Haoran being completely crushed after being punched more than a dozen times, his eyes devoid of any killing intent.

Thud—

A sound accompanied by the cracking of bones and the whooshing sound of Ni Haoran being sent flying backwards rang out, just as Ni Haoran was trying to use his lightness skill to adjust his posture so that he could land safely.

During the backward flight, he suddenly realized that someone had caught him with their hand. Just as he turned his head to see who the hero had come to his aid, he saw Zhao Zheng's calm face.

"No more killing intent? Very good, it seems I won't have to take another life!" Zhao Zheng said calmly.

As he spoke, he helped the somewhat unsteady Ni Haoran to his feet and patted him on the shoulder: "There won't be a next time!"

As soon as he finished speaking, *smack*

The sound of his knees hitting the ground was accompanied by a slight cracking sound. Ni Haoran knelt on the spot for a long time until Zhao Zheng walked away with Chu Ruoxi in his arms and a heavy rain started to fall. Only then did he cough up a mouthful of blood and emerge from his stiff state, his face flushed red.

There was no anger in his eyes, nor the murderous intent he had shown before; only fear remained, the fear that made him quickly get up and leave!

Monster! This is a monster!

Ni Haoran, recalling how Zhao Zheng, a ninth-grade cultivator, had easily defeated him, a seventh-grade cultivator, like a pushover, fled quickly despite his severe injuries.

As for Chu Ruoxi, she was just a woman; once she's gone, she's gone!

Meanwhile, several hundred meters away, on the Ping'an River pontoon bridge, which was half-submerged due to the rain, Zhao Zheng looked at Chu Ruoxi, whom he had accidentally pushed into the river, with no remorse.

After accidentally pushing her into the river twice in a row, he finally said with a smile, "See you tomorrow, Sister Ruoxi!"

"snort!"

Soaked to the bone, Chu Ruoxi scrambled onto the pontoon bridge, glaring angrily at Zhao Zheng who had disappeared into the downpour. However, knowing she was in the wrong, she wasn't angry.

After all, she was the one who plotted against Zhao Zheng first, but she had no choice because she couldn't beat Ni Haoran, so she had to resort to this tactic.

Just then, she looked at Zhao Zheng, who had suddenly turned back, with a puzzled expression, and lowered her head to apologize, "I'm sorry—"

thump-

"You, surnamed Zhao, have gone too far!"

Chu Ruoxi, who was once again punched into the river by Zhao Zheng, glared at him. Zhao Zheng ignored Chu Ruoxi and, sensing something, raised his head to look in the direction of the Western Girls' School.

Chu Ruoxi gripped the edge of the pontoon bridge angrily, raised her head and glared at Zhao Zhengdao: "I've already apologized, and you still hit me—"

"Shut up, don't say a word!"

"."

'

You've really gone too far!!

Chu Ruoxi glared at Zhao Zheng, who used his toe to lift her chin and shut her up, but her gaze followed Zhao Zheng's gaze.

In her eyes, several hundred meters away, there was a Western Girls' School hidden by trees and not clearly visible. She frowned, pushed Zhao Zheng's toes aside, and used the momentum to get onto the pontoon bridge.

"Something happened at the girls' school?"

"have no idea----"

"???"

Thud—

Chu Ruoxi, who had been slapped to the east bank by Zhao Zheng, had just stood up and was about to glare at Zhao Zheng when her cheeks quickly turned bright red and her legs began to tighten unconsciously.

"you----"

"Alright, go home and play on QQ Space. We'll talk about dinner when I get back!" Zhao Zheng waved his hand without turning his head.

"you----"

Chu Ruoxi's cheeks were flushed, and she stood on the shore with her legs tightly pressed together. She stomped her feet in anger, turned around, and disappeared into the dark and rainy night.

On the other side, Zhao Zheng, who had already reached the other side, stopped and looked down at the water that had suddenly risen above his knees.

Looking at the floodwaters, which remained untouched by the mud and did not soak his clothes, Zhao Zheng turned around and saw the pontoon bridge submerged in the water.

His gaze swept down to the villages downstream, and with a slight frown, he said, "Senior brothers, let's split up!"

As soon as he finished speaking, two Taoist priests appeared not far from him, each holding an invisibility talisman. One was surnamed Zhang, and the other was surnamed Lu.

"Junior brother, why don't we wait for our senior uncles to arrive before we talk about it? The principal and the others aren't here today—" Master Zhang said with a wry smile.

Lu Chengyuan said "Okay", tossed the small wooden box he was carrying to Zhao Zheng, made a water escape seal with his hands, and transformed into a streak of green light, throwing himself into the flood and heading towards the downstream village.

"well----"

Master Zhang sighed and said nothing. He simply took out a tattered wooden sword from his robes, but as soon as he handed it over, he noticed that Zhao Zheng's figure in front of him was becoming blurry.

Watching the afterimage left by Zhao Zheng, Master Zhang's hand froze in mid-air for a few seconds. He sighed with his brows furrowed, turned to look downstream, and with a few steps, his figure disappeared.

Outside the gate of the Western Girls' School!

Zhao Zheng suddenly appeared, but he did not go in immediately. Instead, he took out a piece of paper from his pocket.

A piece of paper with writing constantly popping out!

Xiulian, a native of Ping'an County, Tianjin, was born on the eighth day of the third month of the third year of the Guangxu reign. Her father, Shen Shude, was a scholar who obtained his official rank through donation during the Tongzhi reign. He later resigned from his official post and went into business. He amassed a fortune by operating a salt transport business in the old town of Anping County and purchased a house in the northwest corner of the town.

—Her mother, née Wang, was from a prominent family in Baoding Prefecture. She was well-educated and reasonable, but frail and sickly, and passed away when Xiulian was six years old. Xiulian was her only daughter, intelligent from a young age. Her father doted on her, hiring tutors to teach her, including classics such as *Admonitions for Women* and *Biographies of Exemplary Women*—and also allowing her to read poetry and other miscellaneous books. As she grew older, she became quiet and reserved, rarely smiling, only enjoying dressing in front of the mirror, sometimes remaining silent for half a day.

—In the twenty-first year of the Guangxu Emperor's reign, her father betrothed her to the son of a wealthy merchant in Tianjin. Before the marriage, the groom died of the plague. Xiulian was nineteen years old at the time, and according to custom, she should have remained a widow. Her father asked her what she wanted, and she simply lowered her head and said, "I leave it to Father to decide—"

The handwriting suddenly disappeared, and in its place appeared Daoist Tianyi, who was in the old house. He spoke quickly with a grim expression.

"Ah Zheng, go back. This matter is no longer something you can handle. This person is neither human, nor demon, nor ghost; she is no longer within the Three Realms and Six Paths—"

The scene abruptly ended. Zhao Zheng patted the telepathic recorder in his hand, which had a poor signal. Finding that there was still no signal, he carefully put it away and looked at the quiet girls' school road in front of him.

"Zombies aren't even in the Three Realms and Six Paths—"

After saying that, Zhao Zheng reached out and pushed towards the girls' school gate, but he couldn't budge it. He raised an eyebrow and looked at the tattered-looking iron lock that had been put on the gate at some point.

A common iron lock covered in red rust!

As he reached out and touched the iron lock, a series of twisted and insane sounds emerged, pouring into Zhao Zheng's ears like demonic chants.

"Xiulian, being able to remain a widow for a man is a blessing you've accumulated over many lifetimes! Don't take your good fortune for granted!"

"Your face is for your man to see. Now that your man is gone, your face is gone too! What's the point of you looking in the mirror? What right do you have to look in the mirror every day?"

"Xiulian, now that your chastity arch has been erected, three generations of your Shen family have walked with their backs straight because of you!"

"What? That farmhand looked at you? And you looked at him too? Your eyes met? If they did, that's treachery! Treachery in heart is treachery too! The moment you had that thought, you've lost your integrity!"

"Didn't you see the story in the 'Biographies of Virtuous Women'? There was a widow who, after someone touched her arm, took a knife and gouged out a piece of flesh! If someone saw your eye, wouldn't you gouge it out too?"

"Xiulian, do you think we locked you in the room as punishment? We were saving you! Those eyes and mouths outside could devour you alive!"

"You think foot binding hurts? That's good! Pain is what reminds you that you're a woman! If it doesn't hurt, you're being unruly! If you're unruly, you're not human anymore, and you can't protect this facade of virtue!"

"Xiulian, remember this: a woman's life is all about chastity. As long as you are chaste, you are alive; if you lose your chastity, you are as good as dead, and as a wandering ghost!"

"Your father locked you up for your own good! This body of yours doesn't belong to you alone; it belongs to the entire Shen family, to that dead man, to the memorial archway, but it's not yours at all—"

"You're not allowed to look in the mirror anymore. If you look in the mirror too much, your heart will become wild, and if your heart becomes wild, you'll lose everything."

The monstrous sound that would probably kill an ordinary person instantly, but Zhao Zheng felt nothing at all.

Well, not entirely. To be honest, he found it quite noisy!

Zhao Zheng picked at his ear, then stretched out his right hand, palm open, revealing a handleless pair of scissors made entirely of brass, covered with fine cracks, and with nicks on the blade.

The second item on the list of wondrous items of heaven and earth is the broken shackles!

Holding scissors and a chisel.

clang-

The tattered iron lock that should have broken didn't break; instead, it clicked open and fell to the ground with a thud. Zhao Zheng frowned slightly and looked at the broken shackle on his right hand.

"This is yours!"

The broken shackles hummed slightly, then detached from Zhao Zheng's right hand with a whoosh, transforming into a sharp golden streak that pierced the iron lock on the ground.

But the iron chain tumbled away, and the broken shackles, trembling violently as they were driven into the ground, trembled incessantly. It pulled itself out and began to chisel away at O.

Clang! Clang! Clang—

Two streaks of light, one gold and one black, collided continuously between heaven and earth. Zhao Zheng made a hand seal with his right hand, and as his energy subsided, four more lines of text appeared on the Bone Scroll.

Breaking the Shackles' favorability towards you: 100.

Yi Suo's favorability towards you: 0.

Feijia's favorability towards you: 0.

Nie Xiu's affection level towards you: 0.

"We—will win!"

Even if the enemy outnumbers us!

Zhao Zheng spoke, and then reached out again to push open the rusty gate of the Western Girls' School, which was no longer locked with iron locks.

When he pushed open the gate of the girls' school, a new line of text suddenly appeared in the status bar of the unclosed Bone Scroll.

At the same time, a piece of moon-white foot-binding cloth about three feet long flew out from the girls' school, with densely packed small gold characters faintly visible on the cloth.

Upon closer inspection of the small print, one sees girls crying because their feet were no longer bound, girls weeping with joy.

Jie Fuling's affection level towards you: 100.

The situation of one against three was instantly reversed to two against three. Just as Zhao Zheng, who was inside the school, saw the school gates slam shut, a figure suddenly crashed into him.

At the same time, the status of the Bone Scroll was refreshed again.

Duanliao's favorability towards you: 0.

Deadlock's favorability towards you: 0.

Fuso's favorability towards you: 0.

No, buddy, it turns out you're the enemy!

Zhao Zheng stared blankly at Chu Ruoxi, who was about to lead him out of the Western Girls' School, when suddenly his vision went black.

As his consciousness faded into darkness, a series of indistinct female voices rang out, a voice that Zhao Zheng perceived as belonging to a woman of roughly different ages.

"Father, I look in the mirror every day just to see if the locked-up me is still alive. I'm afraid I'm already dead—"

"Dad, the me in the mirror ages faster than the me outside the mirror. Is it because life is harder over there than here?"

"Dad, I'm starting to not recognize the person in the mirror anymore. The way she looks at me is like she's looking at a stranger. Maybe—she's the real me, and I'm the fake one—"

"Father, when Feng Da looked at me back then, I didn't look away, because in his eyes, I felt like I was a person—"

"Father, you keep saying you'll guard it, but what exactly are you guarding? A stone? A dead person you've never seen? Or a lifetime of unseen days—"

"Father, I can't gouge out that eye. It's still growing in my eye, deeper than flesh. Father, I want my mirror. Father, I feel like—"