A farmer has a shrewish wife; he's busy making money every day.

"That's probably what happened."

There were only two people in the tent.

Lu Chuci sat on a wooden box, his throat dry from talking. He took out his water pouch and tilted his head back to drink a mouthful.

Water trickled down his jawline and into his collar. He casually wiped it away and looked at Mu Ying, who had no expression on his face: "Did I make myself clear? Do you have any more questions about the cooperation?"

The commander of the Imperial Guards knew a little about cultivators, so it was easy for Lu Chuci to explain the whole truth to him.

Mu Ying leaned against the pillar, his hands and feet bound. He had been quietly looking at the ground, but upon hearing this, he raised his eyelids slightly.

Is this how you treat your business partners?

Lu Chuci smiled and straightened up: "Stop talking nonsense. Don't treat me like a fool. If I untie you, you'll ask me to release your pressure points, and then you'll take the opportunity to escape. As the commander of the Imperial Guard, I know that you can't just surrender."

Mu Ying's lips twitched slightly, seemingly in mockery, before he lowered his eyes again.

"Are you planning to keep this stalemate going?" Lu Chuci asked him.

"I'm asking you, a few months ago in the capital, a large number of officials had their assets confiscated, right?"

"Sitting here, can't you see anything wrong with this?" Lu Chuci asked.

Mu Ying remained silent for a moment before saying, "You have no evidence."

Lu Chuci took a breath: "The evidence I have here is beyond your comprehension!"

The glass inkstone can prove it, but if Mu Ying shows it to him, he will only think that it's just something he found to fool him.

Lu Chuci glanced outside the tent: "Give us a little more time, and we'll present you with the evidence with both hands."

Mu Ying said calmly, "We'll talk about that later."

"Young General!" A soldier ran in to report, "The troops outside the city are demanding that we release their commander before sunrise tomorrow morning, or they will immediately begin their attack on the city!"

Lu Chuci's forehead twitched: "Okay, I understand. You can go down now."

After the soldier left, he immediately looked at Mu Ying: "Did you hear that? There's no time left!"

Mu Ying still looked half-dead: "This is something you should be worried about."

"Do you think I'm worried about ourselves? You should think back to how well I tethered you just now." Lu Chuci was almost laughing in anger, her tone hardening. "If I could take you down in a second, how long could your men last against me?"

Mu Ying's expression finally changed.

He deliberately avoided thinking about the scene when he was captured; it was too humiliating, and he had never experienced such a shameful moment in his life.

"So what? You're only relying on the power of a cultivator. If it were just a physical fight, you would have no chance of winning against me," Mu Ying said in a deep voice.

Lu Chuci suddenly laughed.

The laughter annoyed Mu Ying: "What are you laughing at?"

"Laughing at you."

"I'm just asking you what you're laughing at me for?" Mu Ying asked impatiently.

Lu Chuci laughed for a while before slowly speaking: "Laughing at you, the only way to save face is with a 'what if'."

"Commander, there are no 'what ifs' in this world. The suffering I've endured to achieve my current strength is no less than yours, and may even be far greater!"

Lu Chuci's smile was somewhat cold: "A loss is a loss. I didn't know our commander was such a sore loser."

"You!" Mu Ying was clearly hit where it hurt again.

"What do you mean, 'you, you, you'?!" Lu Chuci interrupted him without any politeness. "Please put away your arrogance and use your brain. Now is not the time for you to save face. If your brothers rush in because of your stubbornness as the commander, how many people will get hurt?"

“Even though I don’t want to hurt them, I can’t let them hurt my men. In that case, neither side will benefit, and the demons will actually gain the advantage. Don’t you agree?”

Lu Chuci placed his hand on his knee and tapped: "The Martial Emperor... who is also the patriarch of the Ghost Clan, is also planning something like this."

"It would be best if you could take us back, but if we fight and both sides are injured, and he then uses the people in the city to blackmail me, I will be completely powerless to fight back."

The Martial Emperor inherited the ruthlessness of the Ghost Clan and learned human cunning, always able to devise solutions to maximize his own interests.

"Haven't you noticed that a lot of 'newcomers' have joined your team?"

As soon as Lu Chuci said those words, Mu Ying's thick eyebrows furrowed.

If Mu Ying could rise to the position of commander without even being able to detect the people planted in his own ranks, he might as well just resign.

He knew these people were not right, but after investigating further, he found that they were related to Emperor Wu. He initially thought that Emperor Wu did not trust him and wanted to send in some of his own people.

Later, after those people did many arrogant things, Mu Ying finally realized that something was wrong.

But he still didn't think that Empress Wu had any major problems.

The most important thing in his line of work is loyalty. The Imperial Guards are directly under the Emperor, and no matter how arrogant he is, he is wholeheartedly devoted to the Empress.

Mu Ying remained silent, which infuriated Lu Chuci.

"That's called blind loyalty!" he growled. "You'll be loyal until all your brothers are dead and not a single ordinary person remains in the entire human realm before you're satisfied!"

"The Ghost Clan has already made its move! On your way here, you must have heard that he's using the pretext of organizing an event to gather people from all over the country in the capital. You don't actually think he has the leisure to go to such lengths just to make things a bit more lively, do you?"

An emotion was slowly rising in Mu Ying's eyes, but he suppressed it, like a pool of black sludge that couldn't be dissolved.

"You!" Lu Chuci stood up abruptly, looking at Mu Ying with a puzzled expression.

He had never met such a difficult person!

Aren't you supposed to be smart? Aren't you supposed to be capable? Why are you so stubborn? Can't you even understand such an obvious principle?

Mu Ying's fingers twitched, and his eyelids trembled.

He had actually come to believe it, but he still couldn't get over his own conscience.

He never imagined that being turned by the rebels and betraying the Martial Emperor would happen to him.

There's no denying that he's stubborn; he's really finding it hard to take this step.

Lu Chuci pursed her lips, exhaled, took a step forward, grabbed his collar, and raised her hand to wake him up.

Ye Qingxue's voice suddenly came from outside the tent.

“It’s no use, he can’t wrap his head around that.” Lu Chuci turned around and saw Ye Qingxue striding in from outside, looking at Mu Ying, “You want evidence, then I’ll give you evidence.”

After saying that, she took another step inside and turned to look out.

A figure slowly walked over and appeared at the entrance of the commander's tent.

“Madam Guan, you just said you know this commander, so why don’t you talk to him?”