Qingzhou and Xuzhou

616 Qing and Xu

After hearing Gongsun Bowang's introduction, Zhang Mingshu's brows knitted tightly. He knew the Murong Family's arrival might bring no small amount of trouble to the Zhang Family. After pondering for a while, he said, "Mr. Gongsun, are there any other forces that want to get involved?"

On a personal level, Zhang Mingshu did not want to cooperate with the Murong Family. However, the gap between their strength was enormous. If they offended them too deeply—or even if their own family merely said something that displeased them—the Murong Family might directly vent their anger on the Zhang Family.

Although the Life Book had not issued a direct warning, Zhang Mingshu already felt a faint unease deep in his heart.

Gongsun Bowang nodded. He knew that it was not only the Gongsun Family whose reputation in this region was mediocre. Other families, such as the Murong Family and Yuwen Family, were not welcomed either.

"All the major families nearby have already gotten involved. There are no other suitable partners to the north, so you can only look south," Gongsun Bowang reminded him.

"The Han Family?" Zhang Mingshu began calculating. The Han Family had already entered into quite a few partnerships with the Zhang Family. However, their strengths were not equal, and many of those partnerships only involved the most superficial and simplest aspects.

They simply could not cooperate as deeply as the Zhuge Family and Han Family did.

The same applied to Evil Dragon Island. Both sides had been launching an offensive there during this period, while the Zhang Family could only watch from the sidelines. Their strength was insufficient to support fighting on multiple fronts at once.

Thus, the Zhang Family could only follow behind and drink a little of the soup from the spoils there. By