Just two days later, several court officials who went out carousing at night encountered assassination attempts of varying degrees. One was lightly injured, two managed to escape, and another jumped into a river stark naked. The assassins didn’t press their attacks; they withdrew after a single strike.
“Since the eunuch faction has made their move, we might as well stop pretending! Let’s fight them head-on!” Several court officials gathered at Grand Preceptor Wang’s residence.
Grand Preceptor Wang stroked his beard.
“I can’t shake the feeling that this isn’t so straightforward. Liu Xian is dead, and the one who replaced him is Wu Shizu. The man was originally a spy by trade and has ruthless methods. But even so, I don’t think he would do something like this.”
“If it wasn’t the eunuch faction, then who else could it be?” The Minister of Rites slammed the table. He was the one forced to flee into the river to save his skin, and the story had already spread.
The room fell silent. Indeed, in this Great Zhou, the only faction capable of opposing them was the eunuch faction.
“To strike a snake, you hit its head. The eunuch faction’s arrogance stems largely from the Emperor’s backing,” Grand Preceptor Wang said slowly.
“Grand Preceptor, what do you mean?” Yang Weilin, the Grand Secretary of the Cabinet, didn’t quite understand.
“Put pressure on the Emperor,” Grand Preceptor Wang said. “With court officials being assassinated—a major incident—does the Emperor think he can just sit back and reap the benefits?”
The others nodded in agreement.
“The original plan to push Prince Qi into power seems unworkable now.”
“That man is a waste!”
The next day at court, the disputes were particularly fierce. Officials kept stepping forward to impeach one another, while others complained to the Emperor, detailing the assassination attempts they had suffered.
But the eunuch faction hadn’t done it, so of course they wouldn’t admit guilt. Thus, both sides broke into a shouting match.
It wasn’t until a man walked into the hall that the bickering came to an abrupt halt.
Fang Zhiyi looked around with a grin. “Oh? Quite the lively scene here!”
Seeing him enter, the Emperor quickly spoke up: “I have already investigated and determined that Prince Qi was unaware of what his advisor did. Given that he is my younger brother and a prince, I temporarily exempt him from punishment.”
The court officials had no objections to this. Their main focus now was to tear into the opposing faction.
“However, since Prince Qi is not entirely free from blame in this matter, I have decided to remove him from all his duties and send him home to reflect!”
Still, no one objected.
Fang Zhiyi, now stripped of power, was of no interest to anyone.
“You and your misplaced kindness,” Fang Zhiyi muttered disdainfully. The Emperor frowned: “Prince Qi, do not be ungrateful!”
Fang Zhiyi flicked his sleeves. “If you’ve got the guts, kill me! Let’s see how you explain it to the late emperor!” With that, he strode out.
His words clearly angered the Emperor.
“This court session is adjourned!” The Emperor rose and stormed off, leaving the two hostile factions staring daggers at each other.
All of this was to be expected. The Emperor was always indecisive and kind-hearted by nature; there was no way he would kill his own brother. Besides, the court officials were too focused on their enemies to pay much attention to Fang Zhiyi’s acquittal.
As soon as Fang Zhiyi returned to his residence, he ordered Li Zizai to summon all the assassins who had once belonged to Ye Chengtian.
Facing the dozens of silent men before him, Fang Zhiyi clapped his hands, and several large chests were carried in.
“I don’t know how Ye Chengtian treated you all before, but let me be clear now.” Fang Zhiyi reached into a chest and grabbed a ingot of silver. “If you’re willing to stay and work for me, I won’t treat you poorly. Those with families, I’ll support them. Those without, I’ll give you whatever you ask for.”
“Anyone who wants to leave can take the silver and go; I won’t hold it against you.”
Silence hung over the group.
Li Zizai frowned. “Do you need the Prince to repeat himself?”
Suddenly, a man stepped forward, picked up an ingot of silver, and looked at Fang Zhiyi.
“Your Highness, I am willing to follow you!”
Li Zizai had already told Fang Zhiyi that Ye Chengtian was exceptionally cruel—he controlled these assassins by threatening their family members and enforced a host of terrifying rules.
“What I despise most is ruling through fear,” Fang Zhiyi said with a sneer.
Li Zizai was a man of action. He had not only found these assassins but also obtained the addresses of their families from Ye Chengtian’s quarters. Before Fang Zhiyi’s release, he had already sent money to the families of these men, following the Prince’s orders.
The assassin who had stepped forward tossed the silver back into the chest.
“Your Highness, I know that Lord Li has already sent silver to my family. That is more than enough! I am willing to serve you to the death!”
With the first man setting an example, the other assassins followed suit.
Fang Zhiyi didn’t look at them. “Don’t worry. I’m different from that bastard Ye Chengtian. Sending money to your families wasn’t a threat. You’re free to take your families and leave.”
Still, no one moved.
Fang Zhiyi smiled. “Then from now on, you are all my brothers. We’ll share good times and bad!”
A pair of burning eyes turned to look at Fang Zhiyi.
The Prince called them his brothers?
In the current state of Great Zhou, it was hard enough for commoners just to survive. If it weren’t for that, who would ever sell their lives to Ye Chengtian? But now, the Prince had given their families money and spoken such words!
Fang Zhiyi looked at those eyes and knew that his first step in winning their loyalty had been a success.
“Li Zizai.”
“At your command!”
“Draw up a roster of all these men, including those who couldn’t come.”
Li Zizai nodded. He naturally knew about the private soldiers who hadn’t shown up.
“Divide them into several departments: Banking, Accounts, Operations, Commerce, and External Relations. I’ll give you the specifics later.”
Li Zizai said nothing. At this moment, he couldn’t quite figure out the Prince.
The Prince had always been greedy for money, yet now he was being so generous. Something felt off.
But then again, maybe there was nothing wrong with it.
Prince Qi had completely withdrawn from court, and no one paid him any further attention. Fang Zhiyi had lost all value. With Ye Chengtian dead, no one was willing to waste any more time on him.
The Ningxi faction and the eunuch faction were at each other’s throats. Liu Xian’s death had pushed their conflict into a boiling point, leaving the Emperor caught in the middle. All he could do was try to maintain a balance, barely keeping Great Zhou running.
Thinking back to what Prince Qi had said, the Emperor could only shake his head with a bitter smile. He didn’t believe that a leisurely prince could help him fight both the eunuch faction and the Ningxi faction at once. Still, it was good that at least his younger brother was out of this mess.
With Ye Chengtian’s death, the Liao Kingdom, which had been biding its time, could only continue to wait.
They had other cards to play, but those were currently hard to control.
To ensure a decisive victory, the Liao Kingdom had to wait.
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.
nce】【Lighthearted Comedy】【Ultimate Gentleman's Novel】【Viewer Discretion Advised for Under 16】 The mightiest human hero, Sharen Morian, is resurrected after a thousand years by his wife—the Demon King. This is not your typical hero-vs-demon-king tale.
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
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."
