Red Beauty, Fatal Trouble: Liang Xingzhu

Dawn had barely broken when Hill hurried off to find Falan.

He wanted to go to the surface and ask Black Rose about the details.

Falan looked at him speechlessly. "You really do look good when you're gossiping!"

"Gossip is everywhere; everyone talks about it." Hill was perfectly justified. "Don't you want to know how they managed to lose their city? Their city isn't large, but they have three times as many people as Black Rose!"

Adrian smiled and poured him a glass of juice. "Don't rush. I'll go see whether any of them want to head to that Alliance City. If they do, I'll invite them aboard. We need to go check out the situation ourselves anyway."

Hill's eyes lit up, and he nodded happily.

Falan certainly would not easily allow him off the ship. It would be best if the players could come aboard instead. He swiftly arranged the hall.

A U-shaped sofa that could seat more than twenty people stood in the room, with several crystal coffee tables in front of it, laden with juice and snacks.

Finally, a semicircular four-seat booth sofa was arranged at the very front. Falan shook his head and sat down there himself.

Adrian returned not long after leaving.

He said to Falan, "Master, they want to go. Let's descend a little lower. They'll leave the city and come over right away."

Falan summoned the crystal ball again and placed it at the front.

Once the floating ship descended, everyone from Black Rose came aboard.

Hill stood and nodded to them in greeting.

Perfect Baldhead spoke first. "Mr. Hill, we meet again." Looking at Falan seated at the front, he added, "Thank you, Alchemy Grandmaster Falan, for allowing us to travel with you."

Falan nodded. "Make yourselves comfortable. We wanted to go over and take a look as well."

The Black Rose members happily took their seats.

Hill silently counted heads. "Xiao Liuliu, A Deer, Old School Striking King, Cunlü, Qu Qingyan—this is the priest group. I remember there were male priests too; did none of them come? Perfect Baldhead, Demon Sword, Dream Awake, Don't See You, Fang Tianhua, Nan Feng, Idle One, Ababa, Luo Sanquan—these are the knights, the ones who led the Charge during battles. Zi Ling, Myriad-Heaven Net, Vast-Heaven Hammer, Good Girl, Old Man, Nie Xingchen, Romantic Drunk on the Red Dust—these are the swordsman captains. Finally, Rainfall on the Mortal Realm and Qian Yuyu, the two Mages."

Only two Mages had come. Had everyone else flown off on their own?

After thinking it over, Hill still asked, "Did everyone else stay behind to guard the city?"

"Sui Chen stayed behind with some of the knights and priests. The others wandered off to Keslote with the swordsmen. Jijiyaya led the Mages and flew off! They went directly to Alliance City," Xiao Liuliu answered gently.

Falan turned to look at Xiao Liuliu as the floating ship prepared to rise.

Adrian, who had been standing outside the door, hurried in. "Master, someone from William's side wants to board the ship."

The players all turned their heads, excitedly looking at the knights waiting outside. "It's Spencer, William's current captain of the guard!"

"Are they going to Alliance City to supervise the battle? Eunuch Lu really lost face this time!"

"I wonder if they got the original military supervisor killed. If an NPC really died, their merits would probably be deducted down to the bottom, right?"

Hill stood up. This Sky Knight of the Spencer Family was one of William's cousins. After William's original guards had mostly been stationed elsewhere, he had been appointed captain of the newly formed guard unit.

After Falan nodded in agreement, several knights walked in.

Glancing at the players watching them like tigers eyeing prey, Spencer politely greeted Falan. "Good day, Alchemy Grandmaster Falan. Thank you very much for your help."

Falan nodded in return. "Good day, Knight Spencer, and all of you. Please follow Adrian downstairs to rest."

Spencer glanced at the players again, then nodded. "Thank you for the trouble."

Adrian led the group downstairs.

The players immediately erupted into discussion.

"Why did Hill stand up?"

"Isn't an Archmage ranked below a Sky Knight?"

"A Magus and a Sky Knight are the same rank! Mr. Falan didn't even move!"

"This is telling you that Mages will always be the bosses!"

Even Hill, who had not wanted to pay attention to them, glanced at Rainfall on the Mortal Realm, who had said that.

"Bullshit! That's because Mr. Falan is an Alchemy Grandmaster! Boss my ass!" Baldhead cursed.

"Just wait until the arena opens! I'll kill you a thousand times!" Demon Sword cursed as well.

Hill caught the word arena with sharp ears. It seemed this game absolutely would not be ending anytime soon. Measures like an arena, designed to extend a game's lifespan, were already being prepared.

But that topic could wait. Those were matters for the future. What interested him was whether this really had something to do with Lu Huayu.

Under Falan's pained gaze, he rose with a smile. "Please help yourselves to the food on the tables, gentlemen and ladies of the Undead."

Xiao Liuliu stood and replied, "Thank you, Mr. Hill."

"You're welcome. Please sit while we talk!" Hill sat down as well. "The journey is still long, so there's no need to keep up all those formalities.

Besides, I'm truly interested in how Alliance City was lost.

After all, you even defeated a Legendary. How could Alliance City, with more people than you, lose so suddenly?"

Old School Striking King suddenly burst out laughing. "My god! Is this the danger of a femme fatale? The menace of a little white lotus!"

"Isn't Liang Xingzhu more of a green tea?" A Deer asked sincerely.

"A little white lotus! The kind that's best at pretending to be weak. The 'how could I live without you' type!" Cunlü replied. "Green tea is more like me."

"Pah, you're just slutty!" Old School Striking King sneered.

"Oh my, still better than being a shrew like you." Cunlü smiled.

The men fell completely silent.

Hill thought about it and said nothing. They would get to the point eventually. Only Falan, who was listening in, did not look particularly pleased.

Xiao Liuliu brought the conversation back on topic. "They're an Alliance City made up of five families. One of them is the Allure Family, whose leader is Lu Huayu. He has a girlfriend named Liang Xingzhu, and they were supposedly planning to marry. She belonged to another family called Grudgekeeper.

Grudgekeeper was originally ranked eleventh in merits and had no choice but to merge with Asking Sword, Young Wanderer Under Heaven. Asking Sword was fourth in merits.

That was how Liang Xingzhu joined Asking Sword.

She was a girl who spoke gently and handled matters thoughtfully, and she was very popular in Asking Sword. Within a month, she became a family manager."

Old School Striking King interrupted, "Bullshit. That idiot Asking Sword leader had his eye on her. The future guild leader's wife—oh, what a miserable man."

Xiao Liuliu gave her a helpless look. "Asking Sword is on good terms with us. Can you leave them a little dignity?"

Cunlü said with a grin, "In other words, Young Master is good in every way except that he's blind!"

The men all laughed beside them. This juicy gossip had probably given them plenty of entertainment since last night.

Xiao Liuliu waited until they finished laughing before continuing. "To help Lu Huayu obtain control of the Alliance, they contacted the Doomsday Family nearby.

But Doomsday could not simply interfere for no reason and offend so many families.

So Allure wanted to create some chaos, then have Lu Huayu step forward and invite Doomsday to settle the turmoil.

With powerful outside support—and support they themselves had invited because they failed to deal with matters properly—only Lu Huayu, who was friendly with Doomsday, would have the final say in Alliance City afterward."

She took a sip of juice with a smile.

Baldhead continued, "The five families defended in rotation. The knights and Mages would receive notifications the moment they logged in, telling them when to stand at which position.

That idiot Young Master thought Liang Xingzhu spent a long time online and was meticulous, so he had that woman distribute Asking Sword's rotation schedules."

Cunlü interjected, "He was just blinded by lust. There were so many old members he could have used, but he insisted on handing it to a woman who had joined the guild only a month ago."

"But she'd been in Grudgekeeper for quite a long time!" Romantic Drunk on the Red Dust suddenly interjected.

Hill silently glanced at him. How had they managed to hide such huge gossip until now?

Seeing Hill look at Romantic Drunk on the Red Dust, Baldhead said with a grin, "When Romance saw it, did Mr. Hill see it too?"

Hill nodded. "I heard their conversation. Was that girl a spy from the beginning?"

Baldhead laughed. "We weren't on good terms with Grudgekeeper and wanted to watch the show, so we kept it secret. The ordinary family members didn't know either.

By the time we learned that Grudgekeeper had merged into Asking Sword, it was too awkward to say anything.

We thought that woman would at most leak a few secrets. We never expected her to do something this big."

Xiao Liuliu continued, "When Asking Sword and the previous family were changing shifts, she directly deleted the roster and logged off.

By the time Young Master found out, he was already panicking. By the time he found his own copy of the schedule, three Legendaries had already charged in from the other side.

During their rotation, they were supposed to place the Elemental Crystals themselves during their own defense period.

The Mages were in complete chaos. The commanders reacted a little too slowly, and they failed to control the defensive magic array properly. Two Legendaries smashed it apart together.

The other families weren't online, so of course they could not defend it on their own.

They say William's military supervisor saw that things were going badly, directly destroyed the Mage Tower, and left.

No one knows whether anything happened to him yet. If he died, all five families in Alliance City would have their merits reset to zero."

Hill shook his head. "Then Lu Huayu didn't end up well either, did he?"

"Exactly!" A Deer laughed herself silly. "He really dug his own grave. That's what they mean when they say plans can't keep up with changes, hahahaha!"

With the five families rotating shifts and scheming against one another, it was no wonder the Noble Coalition had targeted them.

That Legendary had probably noticed it after observing for a day and informed Dionysio long ago.

It should have been a great merit, but instead it could only offset the mess left by the Legendary who had carelessly died at the hands of the Black Rose Family.

"Did you tell them about Lu Huayu?" Adrian asked after returning and sitting beside them.

"Of course!" Baldhead said righteously. "We couldn't let our friends not know how they died, could we?"

Hill felt that anyone capable of becoming a family leader had rather thick skin. He had gone there to gloat, hadn't he?

Sure enough, all his family members booed him. "Give it a rest! Young Master hates you!"

"He directly asked Young Master in our public channel whether he knew Liang Xingzhu was Lu Huayu's fiancée," Qian Yuyu, who had not spoken until then, told the curious Hill.

Even Falan looked at Perfect Baldhead in surprise. That skin was truly thick beyond compare.

The contract was finally signed.

I don't know what to say. I can only offer my most heartfelt thanks to all the readers.

Also, please allow me to deeply bow to the fans who came here from ljj for me. Thank you for following me to Qidian despite the trouble.

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