To be honest, he hadn’t seen the emperor in a long time. To avoid trouble, he had handed over all affairs without a second thought. Fang Zhiyi believed that with those people in place, the court could keep running on its own.
As for himself, he had simply chosen to kick back and slack off.
But as with most historical tales, when the once-gentle emperor tasted true imperial power, the so-called brotherly bond with Fang Zhiyi no longer mattered much.
Just as Fang Zhiyi returned to his residence, a eunuch hurried over.
“Prince Qi, His Majesty has issued a decree!”
Fang Zhiyi stood casually and offered a perfunctory bow.
The eunuch frowned. “His Majesty says: I hear Prince Qi’s business has grown enormously. The Great Zhou is now in ruins and awaiting revival. We hope Prince Qi will prioritize the nation’s interests and repay the silver owed to the national treasury.”
Fang Zhiyi raised an eyebrow. “Fine.”
Even the eunuch hadn’t expected him to agree so readily.
Little Hei watched the eunuch leave and mocked him again. “Well, well, you slaved away to put him on the throne, and now he’s turning on you.”
“That was only a matter of time,” Fang Zhiyi said without much surprise. Given everything he had revealed, any emperor would be wary of him.
But the next day, Fang Zhiyi’s mood soured.
Zhu Hong, the director of the Surveillance Bureau, had died of lung disease. His funeral arrangements were already handled before anyone even informed Fang Zhiyi.
Fang Zhiyi tapped the chessboard in front of him, sighed after a long silence, and said, “Little Hei, learning to be good is hard, but learning to be bad is easy. He’s so impatient that he’s already purging his rivals.”
Seeing his dejection, Little Hei grinned. “Isn’t this something you’re used to?”
“True. Once you recover a bit, we’ll leave.”
But over the following six months, piece after piece of news frustrated him.
Li Wenlong was recalled to the capital for an official post—a promotion in name, but actually a stripping of his military power. Li Zizai was directly demoted to a company commander for violating military regulations. Fang Zhiyi’s gray-market enterprises were cracked down on by the court; his money houses were forced to close, and Old Dog vanished without a trace. Leng Shaobai was dismissed from his post for offending the emperor’s majesty, though he didn’t mind much. He simply packed up and returned to the prince’s residence, declaring he’d be happy to sweep floors if Fang Zhiyi fed him.
Fang Zhiyi could already feel it—this was the repayment from the emperor he had helped to the throne.
As a gesture, the emperor also showed him favor: first sending him a retinue of guards, then bestowing on him the title of Prince Anle, along with a thousand acres of fertile farmland.
The message was unmistakable—stay quiet and stay put.
Fang Zhiyi didn’t respond to any of it. He had never wanted the throne in the first place.
But human nature can be laughable sometimes.
Fang Zhiyi thought he could wait in peace until he left. Then a message landed on his desk.
Recognizing the familiar handwriting, he chuckled. “That Zhu Hong is pretty clever—he already learned how to fake his death.”
Leng Shaobai grumbled, “I should have listened to them from the start and just put you on the throne. None of this would have happened…” His eyes were suddenly drawn to the note.
“Your Highness, get out of here now! I’ll protect you!”
Fang Zhiyi smiled. “What’s the point?”
“Isn’t this madness? You stay inside your gates all day, and they’re impeaching you for oppressing the people, monopolizing power, and forming cliques! This is pure slander! I see now—this emperor has lost his mind!”
Just then, a squad of armored soldiers entered the prince’s residence.
“Your Highness, please come with us.”
Leng Shaobai’s face turned cold. He immediately grabbed a blade and stood in front of Fang Zhiyi. “Are you all out of your minds? Without Prince Qi, where would the Great Zhou be today?”
The leading commander didn’t reply directly. “I am merely following orders. Please don’t make this difficult, Your Highness.”
Fang Zhiyi frowned. “Back to the imperial prison? I’ve already been there once…Really…”
Despite his words, he cooperated and walked forward. He planned to leave anyway, so he didn’t care. He knew the emperor would at most imprison him—out of face, he wouldn’t dare kill him.
Leng Shaobai immediately followed, steadfast in declaring he would go wherever the prince went. The soldiers didn’t stop him.
As they exited the residence, Fang Zhiyi looked up at the sky. The weather was fine, so bright the sunlight stung his eyes.
A carriage not far away caught his attention. The curtain was lifted just a crack, revealing a pair of phoenix eyes fixed on him.
Fang Zhiyi paused, then burst into laughter. “So that’s how it is! Now it all makes sense! Ha!”
The leading commander turned around, confused. Could the prince have lost his mind?
Seeing him laugh, the woman in the carriage stopped hiding. She lifted the curtain fully and, helped by her maid, stepped down.
As she approached, the commander first looked puzzled, then dropped to one knee. “Greetings, Empress!”
The other soldiers followed suit.
But the empress ignored them. Instead, she narrowed her eyes at Fang Zhiyi. “You seem to know who I am.”
Fang Zhiyi grinned. “One look and I could tell. That hairstyle isn’t from around here.” He pointed to her hair and her exaggerated eye makeup.
“Heh. Then let me send you off with clarity.” The empress smiled back. “Remember those people you interviewed? I was there too.”
It dawned on Fang Zhiyi. He looked closer and finally recognized her.
“The one who couldn’t even pull off playing innocent?”
At that remark, her face darkened. She stepped closer and lowered her voice. “So what? Back then, I thought you would seize the throne. Who knew you had such small ambitions? But it doesn’t matter—I only wanted to marry the Son of Heaven, no matter who that was.”
She leaned in and whispered the last part. “If you weren’t a time traveler, I might have spared you.”
The next moment, she cried out and stumbled back, blood suddenly seeping from her forearm.
“You hid a weapon and tried to assassinate me!” she exclaimed dramatically, pointing at Fang Zhiyi. “Kill him!”
Fang Zhiyi found it absurd that she had wounded herself.
The soldiers hesitated for a beat, then moved to obey. They all knew the emperor doted on his empress. If she was hurt, who knew how furious he would be?
“Your Highness, I’m sorry—let me land a few blows, at least to show His Majesty when I report,” the commander said, still mindful of Fang Zhiyi’s status.
Leng Shaobai immediately touched his blade.
But Fang Zhiyi ignored him and just watched the transmigrator empress with amusement. “Did your husband ever tell you that this prince is pretty good at fighting?”
The empress shot him a puzzled look.
Fang Zhiyi raised a hand, made a gun shape with his fingers, and aimed at the commander with a “bang” gesture.
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!
] [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!"
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?!
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!"
