Chapter 90: Concerns


    Trantor: 549690339


    Nan Lingsha really couldn’t stand these two people anymore.


    It felt as if there was some kind of tacit understanding between them.


    She took another look at Zhu Minng and saw nothing extraordinary about him, yet Li Yunzi seemed to have a special tolerance for him.


    Could it really be because of that dewy love affair?


    “You two continue your eye-flirting, this youngdy will take her leave,” Nan Lingsha stood up, carrying a hint of resentment.


    “Frost, send Ms. Rain… offer her an umbre,” Li Yunzi said, ncing outside the court, seeming to notice the clouds slowly obscuring the bright sky.


    “No need!” Nan Lingsha said irritably. She nced at Zhu Minng’s te with pastries carefully wrapped in a napkin, then petntly wrapped up the pastries, tied them with a delicate and pretty butterfly knot, and gently lifted them.


    “I can’t let all of Star Painting’s pastries benefit him.” With that, she haughtily hummed a little tune, carrying the small pastries as she walked out.


    Zhu Minng, holding a bean cake in his hand, watched Nan Lingsha’s graceful figure leave, his eyes revealing a touch of reluctance.


    Such delicious bean cakes, all snatched away by her!


    He wondered if there were any more left in Li Yunzi’s house. He should pack some to take away when he left.


    “Fourth Miss, your umbre, please take an umbre, or your pastries will get wet,” Frost offered an umbre, quickly following her out.


    True to being Li Yunzi’s maid, she was so clever and intelligent, creating a rxed andfortable atmosphere without any sense of discord.


    “Are there any more? This vor is really good; I haven’t tasted such delicacies in a long time,” Zhu Minng finished thest half of his bean cake, took a sip of tea, and waited until the pastry powder in his mouth waspletely dissolved before asking.


    To be gluttonous, one must also do so with grace.


    “No more,” Li Yunzi said as she gently slid the portion in front of her, which she hadn’t touched much, towards Zhu Minng, probably noticing that he had skipped lunch toe to the Li Imperial Pce.


    “Although you said your mood improved a bit this time, I still feel you are full of worries. Is something troubling you? Tell me, it’s better than keeping it inside,” Zhu Minng said.


    “Okay,” Li Yunzi nodded.


    Zhu Minng was somewhat surprised; his words were intended as a mere courtesy, purely out of concern for Li Yunzi’s condition.


    He hadn’t expected her to be willing to share her worries with him.


    Under normal circumstances, shouldn’t Li Yunzi keep all her troubles hidden within her heart?


    “It’s okay, you eat your food, I’ll talk about mine,” Li Yunzi said softly, seeing Zhu Minng sitting upright and proper.


    “Okay,” Zhu Minng wasn’t too formal.


    “Before the annual celebration, all the generals hoped to return, including the big city-states in the south, which all thought we would surely withdraw our troops before the new year. But in the end, my army guards captured their main city on the day of their celebration, ” Li Yunzi narrated calmly.


    Zhu Minng suddenly felt the pastry get stuck in his throat and quickly poured a cup of tea to moisten it.


    The city-states in the south had been captured?


    All in a winter?


    Even though they weren’t as strong as the Ancestral Dragon City, they shouldn’t have fallen like that…


    These few lightly spoken words left Zhu Minng utterly shaken.


    The celebration—on one side, festivity withnterns and auspicious happiness; on the other side, soldiers at the gate and a country in turmoil!


    Even though he hadn’t witnessed it with his own eyes, Zhu Minng could imagine the soul-stirring scene.


    “Wutu, the army guard will be established, and by summer at thetest, the Wutu Nation will be formed. Zhang Tuo will lead as the city-state’s think tank, with Zheng Yu as city lord, ” Li Yunzi continued her narrative.


    Zhu Minng took a deep breath.


    From Zheng Yu’s letters and the constant news of border wars, Zhu Minng had already sensed Li Yunzi’s ambition.


    Zhu Minng did not expect that, in just one winter and half a spring, two city-states around Ancestral Dragon City-State would belong to Li Yunzi alone! “Ancestral Dragon City is the foundation, no matter how many cities I capture, once Ancestral Dragon City-State encounters any unforeseen event, the seventeen battles I’ve fought in the past half year would be meaningless,” Li


    Yunzi continued.


    “Lingxiao City has begun to condemn, Sect Pce has begun to obstruct, they see me as a demon, constantly igniting the mes of war, relentlessly causing people to be disced,” Li Yunzi looked at Zhu Minng.


    Zhu Minng refilled Li Yunzi’s tea cup, simrly gazing into her eyes.


    “I can’t see the joy of seizing power from your eyes. You’re not obsessed with power, nor do you care about wealth. What is it you want, can you tell me?” Zhu Minng finally couldn’t help but ask.


    What she truly wanted.


    On thisnd, although the mes of war had never ceased, now half of the wars were instigated by Li Yunzi, and all of them could be described as wars of aggression begun by her.


    Having taken the city-states to the south, and intending for Wutu to dere independence, if Ancestral Dragon City-State also fellpletely under her control, she would possess three major city-states by herself!


    At that moment, Li Yunzi’s eyes finally showed emotion, fierce and sharp as a sword’s re.


    “To establish a nation!” she dered.


    Nation, a word not unfamiliar to the many city-states, but no actual nation existed on thisnd.


    City-states were independent of each other, with no alliances to speak of. Apart from Sect Pce holding some bnce of power, essentially every city-state was its own little kingdom!


    What Li Yunzi wanted was the unification of city-states, to establish a nation!


    Such towering ambition! !


    Zhu Minng felt he had truly underestimated Li Yunzi, having thought she was only reiming her sovereign rights, not realizing she aimed to be the true sovereign of the entirend!


    “So your enemy is actually Sect Pce?” Zhu Minng said with a wry smile.


    “I don’t actually have enemies in the true sense, only obstacles in my path,” Li Yunzi replied.


    “I don’t understand, if you truly want to be the ruler of a nation, you could wait until Wutu prospered, you could slowly consume South Nation, even wait until the situation within Ancestral Dragon City-State was stable, why act now…” Zhu Minng shook his head.


    No, that’s not right. Even though Li Yunzi had been overwhelmingly victorious, even having taken South Nation by surprise, her foundation was unstable, with internal strife and external threats. Before long, she might push herself into a corner!


    She couldn’t possibly have failed to foresee these issues, so why was she in such a hurry?


    To establish a nation, one cannot rush.


    “In taking South Nation, I was injured. This news, those who obstruct me already know, ” Li Yunzi said.


    Zhu Minng’s mouth fell open, but then he stopped himself from responding.


    It was not without reason that Nan Lingsha came at this time—could it also be to probe Li Yunzi’s injuries?


    In that case, Nan Lingsha was ultimately one of Li Yunzi’s obstacles, holding power in the Nan Family. Even if she did not care about power struggles, as long as she was intent on obstructing, Li Yunzi would have a hard time establishing herself firmly in Ancestral Dragon City-State…


    With so many enemies, returning to recover from her injuries, Lingxiao City State would likely not miss this rare opportunity, and Sect Pce would sanction Li Yunzi even more.


    “How is it that you have hardly any guards by your side? It’s far too unsafe, especially since Li Imperial Pce is filled with so many with ulterior motives,” Zhu Minng stood up and looked around the courtyard.


    Even when using spiritual power to sense, Zhu Minng could not feel the presence of any experts by Li Yunzi’s side.


    “Even with a vast army, there are scarcely one or two I can trust. The so-called loyalty, the so-called faith, none can withstand threats and inducements,” Li Yunzi said, her words tinged with a trace of destion.


    Having experienced a fall from grace, and tasting the bitterness of humiliation, she was now clearer than anyone that the so-called support, the so-called loyalty, were all illusory, scattering as soon as a strong wind blew.


    “This…” Zhu Minng, upon hearing this, suddenly felt a pang of sympathy.


    Human nature is indeed such, even in Wutu, providing them a chance at life, yet with better interests, they quickly betray and even scorn.


    Such things had happened before, hadn’t they?