Wang Changlin did not believe Fang Zhiyi would actually dare to kill him. After all, even the late emperor had been wary of the powerful families behind him.
If Prince Qi wanted to become emperor, he would have to win over the aristocratic clans.
At least, that was what Wang Changlin believed.
He had even figured out what leverage he could offer. But Fang Zhiyi had disappeared into the shadows and never reappeared.
It wasn’t until his own son’s head hit the ground that Wang Changlin finally realized—the other man truly intended to take their lives.
“Prince Qi! You will regret this! The powerful families will never let you off! Do you think killing me will solve the Great Zhou’s troubles? Hahaha! Let me tell you the truth—I’ve long had dealings with the Liao Kingdom! I’ll go first today, and soon enough, you’ll follow!”
Several soldiers aimed their spears at him.
“Let me go? Old man, do you still remember the illegitimate son your Wang family once cast out?”
Fang Zhiyi’s voice made the soldiers pause.
“Rest assured. After you die, with my support, he will inherit your position as head of the family.”
“You... you—” Wang Changlin trembled. He had never imagined that such a hidden secret had already been uncovered by Fang Zhiyi.
“Also, the Liao Kingdom? I don’t need to wait for them to attack. I intend to go after them myself. Just watch. You men, remember to hang his head and send it to the frontier in a few days.”
As Fang Zhiyi’s words fell, several spears thrust into Wang Changlin’s chest in unison.
With a brief order, Fang Zhiyi rode his horse toward the capital on his own.
There was still one final step ahead.
Inside the palace, the Emperor sat on the dragon throne, his demeanor calm.
Until a familiar figure slowly walked into the hall and gave a very sloppy bow. “Imperial Brother, I haven’t seen you in days. You’ve grown thinner.”
“Second Son, don’t mock your elder brother like that. Dealing with these people has kept me awake night after night,” the Emperor said with a bitter smile. “Now that you’ve gone this far, what’s your next step? Is it—”
Fang Zhiyi just stared at him.
The Emperor let out a resigned laugh. “Second Son, Father was wrong about you back then, and so was I. In today’s Great Zhou, you are more fit to sit on this throne than I am.”
Though mild in temper, he was no fool. Prince Qi’s maneuvering— orchestrating from the ground up to finally besiege the capital— had exposed the kingdom’s decay and the ugly faces of those so-called pillars of the state.
The Emperor had long realized that no one who reached this point would refuse to take the throne. He had come to terms with it. After all, he had always been a figurehead emperor, just as he was now.
“What nonsense are you talking about?”
Fang Zhiyi’s words caught him off guard.
“Be emperor? Even a dog wouldn’t do it,” Fang Zhiyi spat. “If you like doing the dirty work, you can keep it. I’m not interested. In a bit, issue an edict for me to leave the city and negotiate surrender. I’ll just make a show of it. Then incorporate the rebel army into the imperial troops. Reward who deserves it, appoint officials where needed. Peace under heaven.”
“You actually don’t want...”
The Emperor’s words were cut short.
“Of course he doesn’t want it. And he doesn’t need to.”
A sharp, reedy voice rang out from the side. Then Li Shanxiang stepped out from the shadow of a pillar.
Fang Zhiyi looked at him without surprise.
“Prince Qi, your methods are impressive. I truly admire you. But you’ve been far too careless,” Li Shanxiang said, grinning smugly. “From the moment you helped me become the Grand Director, I was already thinking about a day like this. I just didn’t expect it to come so soon!”
Footsteps echoed outside the hall, and then a troop of the Imperial Guard rushed in.
“How dare you! What are you doing?!” The Emperor’s face went pale.
“Your Majesty, they are the Imperial Guard, here to protect your safety—and to arrest this rebel leader. Rest assured, once Prince Qi is taken, the rebel forces outside the city will retreat,” Li Shanxiang said, but his eyes held no trace of respect.
Fang Zhiyi kept watching him.
“Don’t look at me like that, Prince Qi. You wanted to use me, and I was using you too.” Li Shanxiang dropped all pretense. “If I’m not mistaken, the Ningxi faction is finished by now, isn’t it? And right now, both the Imperial Guard and the Capital Garrison are under my control. Did you not expect that? You thought I was completely loyal. I played along while you dealt with the Ningxi faction—I was building my own power behind your back!”
He even walked triumphantly down the steps.
“Rebel Fang Zhiyi attempted to assassinate the Emperor and was killed by the Grand Director Li Shanxiang. Hahaha!”
Fang Zhiyi looked around.
“Don’t bother searching. Zhu Hong is already down there ahead of you. Did you think the Surveillance Department was under your control? I’ve known your every move!”
“Zhu Hong and his men are dead now. Before you made your move, I had already sent a secret order to call in the Yuxi reserve forces. They will reach the capital within three days. By then, your peasant army will be finished. The Great Zhou remains the Great Zhou!”
“Li Shanxiang! How dare you!” The Emperor was burning with rage.
Li Shanxiang feigned a bow. “Your Majesty, I am acting for the sake of the Great Zhou, for the sake of your empire.”
“I do not need you to act for me! Have you eunuch factions done any less underhanded deeds?”
“Your Majesty, just sit on your throne and leave the rest to me. Otherwise...” Li Shanxiang finally showed his true face.
“Ahem...” Fang Zhiyi coughed twice. “Say, may I add a word?”
“Speak. Let the Grand Director see if you are afraid in your last moments!”
“Why do you think I came here alone?” Fang Zhiyi asked a question that seemed entirely out of the blue.
“Why?” Li Shanxiang was puzzled. Did Fang Zhiyi have some hidden plan?
“Because I’m very good at fighting.” Fang Zhiyi’s face turned grim.
The next moment, he moved. With a hand like a blade, he struck a guard in the throat, while his other hand snatched the guard’s saber.
“Pointless struggle! Kill him!” Li Shanxiang shouted. These men had been handpicked for their absolute loyalty to him, all to await this very day.
Though Fang Zhiyi’s people had secretly seized control of the eunuch factions, the men actually in the posts were still eunuchs, giving Li Shanxiang a chance to strike back.
But then Fang Zhiyi suddenly shouted, “One thousand taels! For the head of Li Shanxiang!”
Li Shanxiang froze. The Imperial Guards froze too.
“Playing these games at death’s door?” Li Shanxiang laughed in disbelief.
Then Fang Zhiyi yelled again, “Three thousand taels!”
The guards exchanged strange glances.
“Arrest Prince Qi, and receive a hundred gold pieces!” Li Shanxiang sneered.
“Five thousand taels! A thousand taels per slash!”
The hall fell dead silent. Five thousand taels? The annual expenses of an ordinary family were less than two taels of silver!
Li Shanxiang panicked. “Do you think he will let you live? Kill him, and I, the Grand Director, will give you whatever money you ask for!”
But then—Li Shanxiang never expected this.
“Arrest Li Shanxiang! Promoted three ranks in a row, and I will personally bestow a title!”
Li Shanxiang spun around in shock. The Emperor himself had joined the bidding?
with countless casualties. As a top-tier gamer, Liu Xuan volunteered to join the fight, intending to dominate with his skills, but instead he obtained the hidden class: [Pacifist]. Unable to attack. Unable to use active skills. Fortunately, with each level gained, he acquired a new passive skill. And so, armed with a body full of passives, Liu Xuan slaughtered his way through the battlefield of ten thousand races! [You attacked Liu Xuan] [You gained the debuffs: 'Poison', 'Fear', 'Burning', 'Bleeding', 'Freeze', 'Silence', etc.] [Your attack speed has been reduced by 99%] [Your armor and magic resistance have been reduced by 99%] Warriors of the Ten Thousand Races: How the hell am I supposed to fight this?!
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."
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!"
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.
