"Your Highness!" Leng Shaobai looked at the man before him.
Fang Zhiyi turned to look at him. Leng Shaobai did not avoid Fang Zhiyi’s gaze. Li Zizai furrowed his brow, about to speak, when Fang Zhiyi clapped his hands and laughed, "Good!"
"I like that look in your eyes." Fang Zhiyi stepped closer and warmly patted Leng Shaobai on the shoulder.
But in the next moment, his hand suddenly shifted momentum, striking straight toward Leng Shaobai’s temple!
Leng Shaobai judged the move in the blink of an eye, ducking to dodge, but Fang Zhiyi’s attack didn’t stop. Leng Shaobai had no choice but to raise his arm to block. After three consecutive moves, sweat broke out on his forehead. Ye Chengtian had never mentioned that the Prince Qi possessed such hidden skills!
Standing nearby, Li Zizai was equally stunned.
As Fang Zhiyi’s palm transformed into a fist, smashing straight toward Leng Shaobai’s chest, Leng Shaobai knew clearly: if that blow landed, he would surely die on the spot!
But then he made a move that even Li Zizai hadn’t anticipated. Leng Shaobai threw himself flat onto the ground, rolling several times before scrambling back up, dirty and disheveled.
Though it wasn’t the most dignified escape, it allowed him to dodge Fang Zhiyi’s heavy punch.
"Your Highness! This humble one’s life belongs to you, and you may take it if you wish. But may I know why I must die?" Leng Shaobai steadied his breath and asked with clasped hands.
Fang Zhiyi raised an eyebrow. "Why would I want your life?"
"But just now, Your Highness—"
"Li Zizai recommended you as head of the Action Hall. As your prince, I had to test your skills myself," Fang Zhiyi said with a grin. "Get up. To dodge three moves is no small feat, and you even avoided the fourth. A pity, though—you didn’t strike back."
"Your Highness, this humble one is a death warrior by trade; naturally, I dared not raise my hand against you."
Fang Zhiyi’s face turned cold. "Death warrior? Death warrior? Are you treating my words as hot air?"
"Huh?"
"I said before: you are all my brothers in arms!"
Leng Shaobai froze for a moment, then lowered his head.
"I had intended to send something to your family, but Li Zizai told me you have none left."
Leng Shaobai raised his eyes. "My parents died young, and my only brother starved to death. With nowhere else to go, I drifted onto the streets and was eventually taken in by Ye Chengtian."
"Do you hate it?" Fang Zhiyi suddenly asked.
The question came out of nowhere, catching both Leng Shaobai and Li Zizai off guard.
"Your Highness... hate what?"
Fang Zhiyi let out a cold laugh. "Hate this world. Hate those officials who take pay but do nothing. Hate those cruel clerks who extort the people. Shouldn’t you hate all that?"
Leng Shaobai gritted his teeth but said nothing.
"I’m just letting you know what I aim to do," Fang Zhiyi’s voice lingered in Leng Shaobai’s ears. "I want to restore clarity to this world. By then, no one will starve to death, no one will be bullied, and no one will have to sell themselves into servitude as a death warrior just for a mouthful of food."
Leng Shaobai didn’t fully grasp what this prince meant to accomplish, but he understood one thing: His Highness was a man of great ambition.
"Leng Shaobai is willing to go through fire and water for Your Highness!" He suddenly dropped to one knee.
Fang Zhiyi quickly helped him up. "That’s too much, too much. No need for all that ‘fire and water’ nonsense. From today on, you will be the head of my Action Hall. Are you willing?"
Leng Shaobai nodded.
"Your Highness, what do you need me to do?"
Fang Zhiyi flashed a sly smile. "What? Why, spend money, of course."
"Huh?"
---
The shops on the outskirts of the capital had all been bought by Ye Chengtian back in the day, staffed entirely with his own people.
But on this day, when a regular customer walked in, he asked in confusion, "Hey? The owner changed?"
A clerk who was sweeping the floor turned around and gave a stiff smile. "Yeah, changed. The old owner had trouble back home and sold the place."
Nearby, another clerk quietly covered a smear of blood on the wall.
Ye Chengtian’s shops weren’t all clustered together, so the sudden change of hands barely drew any attention.
Fang Zhiyi’s first step had gone off without a hitch.
"Your Highness, everything is handled," Leng Shaobai said, stepping before Fang Zhiyi and respectfully presenting a stack of ledgers with both hands. Fang Zhiyi waved dismissively, and the scribes he’d selected to manage accounts took them away.
"How is it? Getting used to things?"
Leng Shaobai smiled. "Yes, as you instructed. Those willing to talk were negotiated with—those who weren’t, we dealt with. Many of Ye Chengtian’s former men accepted our bribes and sided with us. As for the stubborn ones who refused to join or hand over their accounts, I had the brothers... take care of them."
Fang Zhiyi nodded. "Well done. Go collect a thousand taels of silver to distribute among the brothers."
"Thank you, Your Highness!" Leng Shaobai immediately bowed.
"What’s there to thank? The brothers earned it." Fang Zhiyi gazed into the distance. "The takeover is just the appetizer. The real trouble comes next, and I’ll need the Action Hall to pull its weight."
"To the death!"
"There you go again. ‘To the death’? Can you die a thousand times, or can I?"
"...Uh."
---
In Fengyang County, near the southwest, a new pawnshop named Lucky opened its doors. On the very first day, trouble showed up.
A few local thugs sauntered in.
"Shopkeeper, where you from, eh?" The ringleader, One-eyed Dragon, lounged uninvited into a chair.
The shopkeeper’s face was expressionless. "The capital."
"Oh, the capital!" One-eyed Dragon’s tone dripped with mockery. "Then do you know our rules here in Fengyang?"
The shopkeeper shook his head. "I don’t."
"Then let me tell you." One-eyed Dragon leaned forward. "If you want to do business here, you pay me silver every month. Got it?"
The shopkeeper still shook his head. "No I don’t. I already paid my rent."
One-eyed Dragon’s face darkened. "You don’t get it, huh? You’re being pretty damn ungrateful!"
The thugs spat out their threats and left.
The shopkeeper paid them no mind. He just silently went about his work, occasionally pulling out a little booklet and studying it, as if memorizing something.
That night, in a small house in town, One-eyed Dragon drank wine with two of his friends, ranting about the day’s events. "That bastard was too cocky! Did he just brush me off?" He smacked the table. "I thought he had some backing, but the boss said he’s just an outsider!"
"We’ll mess him up tomorrow!"
"If they don't bleed some silver, the boss can make sure they never leave Fengyang County!" With that, One-eyed Dragon slammed the table again. Clearly, his boss had sent him to make trouble.
But just as the group was bragging, a sudden knock came at the door.
"Who’s there?" One of the thugs cursed under his breath and stomped over to open it. But the moment he pulled the door open, he froze solid.
"Skinny Monkey? Who is it?"
] [Lone Wolf, No Male Gaze] [Protagonist is pursued early on; extreme protagonist-stans, stay away!] The "Carnival Paradise" descends and slowly devours the real world in the form of a game. By chance, Zhu Yan awakens the talent [Roleplay], becoming one of the first beta players. He thought he could develop safely, but after clearing the first instance, he is branded by humanity as the chief culprit behind the game's spread—a traitorous villain. A villain? Who would ever... become one! He'll be the villain! From then on, Zhu Yan is not only a player but also a lackey for the Carnival Paradise. Between the straight path and the crooked path, he chooses the con. With his left hand, he dons the villain's mantle, staging scenes within instances, infuriating players who decry him as a despicable traitor, all while the game happily promotes him. With his right hand, he joins the non-human organization "Fangcun Mountain," which opposes the Carnival Paradise, transforming into a mysterious player who slaughters game bosses, earning cheers of "Long live the expert!" from fellow players. Gradually, Zhu Yan rises to become an S-rank human player in Fangcun Mountain's archives, while also being the Carnival Paradise's certified top game Boss. But when the final war erupts and both major factions place their hopes in him— Players tag his various aliases: "Experts, this offensive depends on you." The Carnival Paradise's supreme Boss throws an arm around his neck: "Bro, you're the iron, I'm the steel; you can't let me down again!"
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."
nto another world, I bought a slave for the first time, never expecting the silver wolf girl to be so cute... Lin Feng: I know it's cold, but you don't have to sneak into my bed! Yuna: Just sharing body warmth, if you dare do anything naughty, I'll definitely...
