It wasn’t until Li Zizai left the capital that Zhu Hongcai finally appeared before Fang Zhiyi once more.
“Your Highness, Li Shanxiang has an urgent matter to report.”
“Speak.”
“He says... Wu Shizu has detected his moves and is sending men to investigate him. If we don’t act quickly, Your Highness may be exposed.”
Fang Zhiyi chuckled. “This eunuch dares to threaten me, does he?”
Zhu Hong hesitated for a moment. “Shall I, Your Highness...” He made a cutting gesture.
Fang Zhiyi shook his head. “That won’t do... This matter can’t be solved simply by killing. If we want to control the eunuch faction, we must work through their own people.”
“Go make preparations first. Tell Li Shanxiang he’ll soon sit in the seat of the Grand Director.”
“As you command.” Zhu Hong bowed and withdrew.
In the palace, Wu Shizu listened to his subordinate’s report with a dark expression.
“His Highness, our agents have discovered that the young eunuch beside Li Shanxiang has been in contact with people from Ruyi Workshop.”
“Ruyi Workshop? Isn’t that Prince Qi’s establishment?” Wu Shizu narrowed his eyes. “So Li Shanxiang’s backbone is this Prince Qi? He’s already lost his power—what else does he want?”
Though he had been occupied dealing with the harassment of the Ningxi Faction, Wu Shizu had also noticed Li Shanxiang’s suspicious movements. He had refrained from acting against Li Shanxiang for now, precisely to identify who was supporting him from the shadows. According to his intelligence, Li Shanxiang didn’t have enough money to grease palms at every level.
Wu Shizu was no fool. After a moment’s thought, he burst into laughter. “Prince Qi, Prince Qi... I didn’t expect your ambitions to run so deep. Thinking you can take me on? Do you really believe this Grand Director lacks the energy to deal with vermin like you?”
He rose to his feet. “Since it’s clear, we can move now.”
“Grand Director, you mean...”
“Arrest all these rebels from Li Shanxiang’s lot! Gather our men, and we’ll march to Prince Qi’s mansion!”
“Grand Director, Prince Qi is His Majesty’s own brother...”
“So what if he’s His Majesty’s brother?” Wu Shizu gave a sinister laugh. “Since ancient times, treason has been a grave crime. No one is spared execution except the Emperor himself. Besides, His Majesty has never gotten along with Prince Qi.”
If it came to it, not even Prince Qi was safe—if the current Emperor were too troublesome, swapping him out for another would be nothing more than a casual chat.
“Yes!” Wu Shizu’s trusted subordinate replied. He turned to leave, but paused at the doorway, shouting to the eunuch on guard. “Quickly muster the men! The Grand Director wants to—”
His words cut off abruptly.
A moment later, he looked down in shock at the small knife plunged into his chest. Then, disbelief filled his eyes as he stared at the ashen-faced, trembling young eunuch before him.
Wu Shizu turned and saw his trusted subordinate still standing frozen at the door. Annoyed, he snapped, “What are you gawking at? Waiting for me to do it myself, eh?”
Then he saw his subordinate collapse to the ground.
The young eunuch bolted, shouting as he fled, “Wu Shizu, you dog eunuch! You castrated mongrel!”
“Seize him!” Wu Shizu roared in fury. How dare someone kill his man right in front of him, and then rub salt in his wounds by mocking his very condition!
The guards inside the chamber immediately gave chase.
“Bastard! Even my own people have been bought off!” Wu Shizu seethed. “Li Shanxiang, you’ve got some nerve! Do you think money from Prince Qi can stand against me? Drag him back here—I’ll flay him alive myself!”
He turned to the few stunned eunuchs nearby. “What are you standing there for? Get the troops! If Li Shanxiang escapes, you’ll all lose your heads!”
“Grand Director...” One of the eunuchs suddenly looked up.
Wu Shizu saw him draw a short blade from his robe.
“What are you doing?” A bad feeling crept over him.
Another eunuch also produced a knife. “Grand Director, don’t blame us. They offered far more than you ever did.”
Only then did Wu Shizu realize he had fallen into a trap. In his rage, he had sent all his guards away, and now...
“Aren’t you afraid of losing your heads?”
One eunuch stepped forward to shield Wu Shizu. “Are you rebelling? Do you even know whom you serve?”
His answer came in the form of a dagger thrust into his stomach.
“Grand Director, if you don’t die, our families will. If you die, our families will receive a generous reward...”
The eunuch who had struck slowly pulled his blade free. Wu Shizu realized, to his horror, that the eunuch who had remained silent had also been stabbed to death by someone beside him.
“Help!” he cried, trying to run.
But the red-eyed eunuchs lunged at him, stabbing again and again into his back.
Elsewhere, Li Shanxiang fidgeted nervously. “Are you sure I shouldn’t be there?”
The man seated across from him shot him a cold look. “Stay calm, Eunuch Li. Our master instructed that you cannot be present at this moment. If you are, the Directorate of Ceremonial, the Surveillance Bureau, and the Capital Command will all point fingers at you.”
Li Shanxiang knew this well—if word got out that he had killed his own superior, who would ever respect him? But right now, anxiety gnawed at him. He had only meant to urge Prince Qi, yet Prince Qi had immediately arranged for action!
“Everyone knows we’re at odds. Once he’s dead, any fool will know I’m involved!”
The scout shook his head. “Don’t worry. We’ve arranged everything. Haven’t you forgotten, Eunuch Li? There are people who hate Wu Shizu even more than you do.”
Li Shanxiang looked at the composed scout with suspicion. He could no longer gauge the full extent of Prince Qi’s power.
“Wu Shizu had a spy planted by the Ningxi Faction in his midst. We’ve identified that person. Once Wu Shizu dies, the eunuchs who took our bribes will pin the blame on that spy. The Directorate of Ceremonial, the Surveillance Bureau, and the Capital Command will then turn their wrath against the Ningxi Faction.”
The scout remained calm. “As they tear each other apart, you can have the allies you’ve cultivated push you into power, Eunuch Li. All will go as planned.”
“Right, right,” Li Shanxiang said, nodding twice. He turned and went out to murmur orders to his men, who then left on his command.
Soon, a report came rushing in: Wu Shizu was dead!
The eunuch who had assassinated Wu Shizu was killed on the spot. According to other eunuchs, before his death, the killer claimed he was sent by the Ningxi Faction. The Directorate of Ceremonial moved swiftly—in just half an hour, they discovered letters exchanged with the Ningxi Faction hidden in the assassin’s room.
When the Ningxi Faction heard of Wu Shizu’s assassination, they were overjoyed and began planning to seize the opportunity to crush the eunuch clique. But their celebration was cut short by the shocking news that followed.
“What? We killed Wu Shizu? That’s a joke, isn’t it?”
e school belle recognized by the whole school, a genius girl from the kendo club. She also has a hidden identity, the youngest legendary demon hunter. Chen Shuo just transmigrated and found himself turned into a weak, helpless little vampire. He was caught by Su Xiyen and taken home at the very beginning. Since then, Chen Shuo's life creed only had two items. "First, classmate Su Xiyen is always right." "Second, if classmate Su Xiyen is wrong, please refer back to item one." Many years later, Chen Shuo, who had turned back into a human, led a pair of twins to appear in front of all the vampires to share the secret of how he turned back into a human. "It's simple, I tricked a female demon hunter into becoming my wife!"
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!
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?!
] [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!"
