"Brother Lin, why do you seem a little distracted?"
The speaker had bright, captivating eyes and a graceful figure.
She was Jiang Limeng, a prodigy at the Inner Palace level from the Sheng Kingdom.
The Sheng Kingdom was no ordinary country.
Both were Dao-Subordinate states, but the Zhuang Kingdom was a nail driven into the Western Border by the Jing Kingdom.
A nail, yes—but it only rubbed shoulders with Yong, Luo, Mo, Cheng, and the other states. It would never dare drive itself into the Qin Kingdom.
Even when the Qin Kingdom brazenly "borrowed its territory" to ambush and kill Zuo Guanglie, the Zhuang Kingdom could only endure it in silence. Afterward, it had to ask for a few benefits as consolation.
It had no way to refuse the Qin Kingdom, and Yujing Mountain would never have asked it to do so.
The Sheng Kingdom, by contrast, was hailed as the foremost Dao-Subordinate state. It had fought a pitched battle with the Mu Kingdom right in the Northern Domain!
If the Zhuang Kingdom was a nail that could barely hurt an opponent and was not particularly obedient, so it needed to be driven in with a hammer, then the Sheng Kingdom was a Steel Saber.
In the hands of the Jing Kingdom, it had been swung at the Supreme Royal Court!
The standings of these two states among the Dao-Subordinate states were naturally worlds apart.
Still, the Zhuang Kingdom of today had won a great victory over the Yong Kingdom and made its name across the Western Border. It was advancing toward becoming a regional power. Though it could not compare with a country like the Sheng Kingdom, it still enjoyed more prestige than the other small states.
Lin Zhengren and Jiang Limeng had also met in the Yellow Millet