I had no real strengths, except being cautious since childhood! (Please subscribe and vote with monthly tickets)

Even officers nearby had long since grown used to seeing Xu Zifeng address himself as a subordinate before Cheng Li, despite holding a higher rank.

After all, who would Master Cheng not dare to hit? He might well beat Xu Zifeng without a second thought.

They had actually guessed right about that. For Li Chen, beating Xu Zifeng was as easy as beating his own son.

Xu Zifeng also understood what Li Chen meant, earning a satisfied nod before Li Chen sent him away, his mind already running wild as he imagined a full-scale war engulfing the empire.

Meanwhile, the carriage of Huyan Lan, Khan of the Northern Region, the train carrying Chu Jingsong, head of the Chu Lineage in the Imperial Capital, and Han Qi, captain of Grand General Han Wu's Personal Guard, were all racing toward Cold Iron Pass along different routes.

A storm was quietly gathering.

Li Chen seemed entirely unaware of it-or perhaps he simply did not care-as he strolled back to his little courtyard in Peaceful Lane.

The moment he stepped through the courtyard gate, he heard Tuoba Anyu speaking softly with another woman inside.

Walking farther in, he saw Tuoba Anyu chatting with an unfamiliar beautiful woman on the stone stools in the courtyard.

When she saw Li Chen return, Tuoba Anyu immediately rose to greet him. With a gentle, faintly ingratiating smile, she introduced the visitor softly. "You're home, husband. This is Sister An Ling, whom I met at the rouge shop today. She's the proprietress of the Worry-Free Tavern here in the pass."

Li Chen swept his gaze over her. The woman looked about twenty-seven or twenty-eight and wore a simple, elegant dress of pale mauve, though it could hardly conceal her voluptuous, graceful figure.

Her cloudlike hair was loosely pinned, and