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.
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.
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!
saw a female celebrity tied up and stuffed in the trunk! Little did he know, countless cameras were aimed at him at this moment - this was a new type of reality show. The first randomly selected passerby was caught in less than an hour. But when Xu Moru was selected, things started to take an unexpected turn. "Damn, this isn't how the script goes. This Xu Moru is too bold, he's not following the rules at all." "Crap, is this guy taking it seriously?" "The female celebrity has been scared to tears!"
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
