Ye Chengtian smiled, knowing everything was going according to his plan.
"Didn’t you hear me? Drag him out and execute him!" His eyes were full of smug satisfaction. This Li Zizai had always looked down on him, always getting in his way—he deserved to die long ago!
Li Zizai looked up at Fang Zhiyi in surprise, then lowered his head again with an air of resignation.
The two guards felt a twinge of pity. After all, Li Zizai was their superior. But the prince had previously ordered that Ye Chengtian was to be treated as if he were the prince himself.
"Brother Li, you had to offend anyone but that Ye guy..." one guard muttered, shaking his head with a sigh.
Ye Chengtian urged them, "Hurry up!"
"What are you doing?" Fang Zhiyi spoke again.
Everyone turned to look at him. One guard stammered, "Prince, we, we’re just—"
Fang Zhiyi frowned and pointed at Ye Chengtian. "I mean, drag this man away and cut off his head!"
"Huh?" Ye Chengtian was stunned. "Prince, why? What did I do wrong?"
Fang Zhiyi looked at him with mild amusement. "You didn’t do anything wrong? You’ve been ordering me around. Are you out of your mind? You’ve been bouncing around like a fool all day, trying to steal the spotlight!"
"Prince, I am utterly loyal to you—"
"Rules must be strictly enforced. I’d say you’ve forgotten your place. Are you all deaf?" Fang Zhiyi spoke again. The two guards exchanged glances, immediately let go of Li Zizai, and grabbed Ye Chengtian by the shoulders. "Mr. Ye, sorry about this!"
They had long been fed up with Ye Chengtian.
"Prince! Prince!" Ye Chengtian panicked.
Fang Zhiyi smirked. "Mr. Ye, fare you well."
Seeing that the prince had not changed his mind, the two guards dragged Ye Chengtian away. Though Ye Chengtian was quick-witted, he was no match physically and couldn’t break free.
"Prince! I have methods that can help you seize the throne..."
"Cut out his tongue!" Fang Zhiyi shouted. The guards acted swiftly. A scream followed, and then silence from outside.
Fang Zhiyi finally turned to Li Zizai, who was dumbstruck. "What’s your deal?"
Li Zizai took a moment to react, then knelt on one knee again. "I, I just thought that to requisition grain, we could just drive the farmers away. But Mr. Ye said no one should be left alive... I..."
Fang Zhiyi cut him off. "Ridiculous! This is my princely estate, not the Ministry of Justice or the Supervisory Court! Who gave him the authority to order executions? If this is how things are done, what’s the point of the nation’s laws?"
Li Zizai was completely bewildered. He’d thought the prince never contradicted anything Mr. Ye said—so why this sudden change...
Fang Zhiyi waved his hand again. "Oh, by the way, later go withdraw some silver and hand it over personally to those farmers. I took their land, so of course I have to pay for it—double the price!"
Li Zizai couldn’t believe his ears. "Prince, you mean... pay them?"
Fang Zhiyi glared at him. "Of course! What else? I have plenty of money!"
In the outer courtyard of the princely estate, many people stared in disbelief at Ye Chengtian, his mouth covered in blood. What had happened to Mr. Ye?
Just then, a guard drew his blade to strike, but someone shouted, "Stop!"
"How dare you lay a hand on Mr. Ye?"
It was the estate’s steward, Steward Hu. He rushed over, first helping up the dying Ye Chengtian to examine him, then cried out in alarm, "What have you done? Don’t you know that Mr. Ye is the prince’s advisor?"
"Steward Hu, it was the prince who ordered us to—" one guard started to explain.
"Shut up!" Steward Hu was clearly furious. "You all know the prince—he just says things in anger! You’ve caused a huge disaster! Wait here!"
He hurried off to find Fang Zhiyi.
But before he could get far, he saw Fang Zhiyi walking out from the inner gate.
"Prince! They cut out Mr. Ye’s tongue!" Steward Hu quickly reported.
Fang Zhiyi glanced at him in slight surprise, then looked around. Nearly half the estate’s staff had gathered.
"Oh," Fang Zhiyi replied simply.
Steward Hu grew frantic. "Prince, call a doctor quickly! And make sure these two men are severely punished!"
Fang Zhiyi ignored him and addressed the crowd. "I admit I lost my temper earlier. But since I’ve already given the order..."
His deliberate pause was telling.
Sure enough, someone immediately stepped forward. "Prince, Mr. Ye has done great service to the estate—you can’t kill him!"
"That’s right! Prince, I humbly beg you to spare him!"
"Prince, I’m willing to be punished in his place!"
Steward Hu lowered his voice. "And, Prince, Mr. Ye was recommended by Grand Preceptor Wang. Injuring him now would offend the Grand Preceptor."
Fang Zhiyi raised an eyebrow in surprise and turned to look at Li Zizai behind him.
No wonder his predecessor ended so badly—almost no one around him was truly loyal.
Meanwhile, Ye Chengtian opened his eyes weakly, filled with smugness and resentment.
"Li Zizai!"
"I’m here!" Li Zizai snapped to attention.
"Call your men."
Li Zizai scanned the area. "Estate guards, present!"
At once, more than twenty guards stepped forward. "Present!"
Li Zizai clasped his hands toward Fang Zhiyi. "Prince, everyone is here. What would you have us do?" He glanced worriedly at the two guards standing nervously beside Ye Chengtian.
Fang Zhiyi waved dismissively. "Kill everyone who pleaded for Ye Chengtian. Since they hold him in such high regard, I might as well grant their wish."
"What?"
Fang Zhiyi’s voice turned cold. "What’s the matter, Li Zizai? Do you think my words carry less weight than Ye Chengtian’s?"
"I obey, my prince!" Li Zizai replied at once.
Steward Hu’s face filled with disbelief. "Prince, you can’t do this! We are all your people—"
"Five taels of silver for every kill," Fang Zhiyi raised a hand.
Li Zizai didn’t hesitate. He raised his blade and struck. The scene fell silent for a moment. Steward Hu, clutching his throat, stared wide-eyed and collapsed.
Then chaos erupted. Seeing their leader act, the twenty-odd guards drew their swords. They had long been sidelined by Ye Chengtian and held a grudge.
"You rebel against your superior!"
"You deceived the prince!"
"You oppress the people!"
"You collude with corrupt officials!"
"You harbor private assassins!"
"You meddle in state affairs!"
With every step Fang Zhiyi took, several men fell. By the time he reached Ye Chengtian, Ye Chengtian’s eyes were wide with terror. He had never imagined this greedy, worthless prince could be so terrifying!
He had been so close!
"Your crimes deserve death." Fang Zhiyi stared at him with a grin. "Don’t worry. After I kill you, I’ll go confess to the emperor. After all, I can’t just go around killing people indiscriminately."
end. Thus one must continue to cultivate, and become a saint or great emperor, in order to prolong one's life. Chen Xia, however, completely reversed this. Since his transmigration, he has gained immortality, and also a system that awards him with attribute points for every year he lives. Thus between the myriad worlds, the legend of an unparalleled senior appeared. "A gentleman takes revenge; it is never too late even after ten thousand years." "When you were at your peak I yielded, now in your old age I shall trample on you." - Chen Xia
nd fell into a coma while saving his younger sister from an out-of-control car. He became a vegetable. No one knew that his consciousness had crossed into a world of cultivation. Over the course of sixty years, he began as the lowest kind of mine slave, struggling to survive amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood. By sheer chance, he eventually obtained the complete memories of a fallen Immortal King. Alchemy, medicine, formations, feng shui, physiognomy, artifact forging… Every great inheritance of the cultivation world was now his. But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that ten full years had passed in the modern world. To pay for his treatment, his father had sold the family’s shop and house, leaving himself covered in lasting injuries and illness. His mother had cared for him day and night, and more than half of her hair had already turned white. His younger sister, who had been only fifteen back then, was now twenty-five. To help repay the family’s debts, she had been forced to lower her head and put on a smiling face in places of glittering lights and endless revelry. Only then did Chen Xuan understand that what he had lost was not merely ten years. He had lost the life his entire family was meant to have. The good news was that he had brought back the memories of an Immortal King’s entire lifetime. The bad news was that his soul had returned alone—his cultivation had not come with him. Spiritual energy was scarce, resources were depleted, and the modern world still had firearms, surveillance, capital, and laws. If he wanted to protect his family, break free from everyone’s control, and become truly invincible beneath the heavens, he would have to start all over again.
s the Eldest Princess, renowned for her cold and aloof detachment, became the most docile of lambs, obeying his every command without question. But when the final move was played on the chessboard, as Gu Chenghan seized everything and ascended on the verge of apotheosis, that very Princess suddenly embraced him from behind, her tone carrying a dependence never heard before: "Wait... you haven't yet... commanded me to love you forever." Gu Chenghan froze abruptly. She... hadn't been hypnotized?! ... [The Eldest Princess's Diary] [When my soul was extracted, becoming the sole spectator outside my own shell] [At first, there was overwhelming fury, until I saw] [How he used my sword to effortlessly shatter my inescapable doom] [How he wielded my authority to eradicate fatal conspiracies I had never even detected] [Like a deity, he rescued me from the deep mire I was trapped in] [If not for those annoying vixens, he and I would be a match made in heaven] [I think I am ill, gravely ill] [My deity should belong to me alone] ... "Hypnosis? Oh, it succeeded, my dear Master." "Only this time, it's my turn to hypnotize you."
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
