"What? Six thousand men were beaten down by Fang Zhiyi's few dozen people? And over a hundred dead, over two hundred wounded?" The emperor received the news immediately and was startled. Was this Fang Zhiyi really that formidable? He felt an inexplicable pang of regret, though he couldn't tell whether he regretted failing to win Fang Zhiyi over or failing to seize him when he returned to the capital.
"Yes, Your Majesty. I heard that Fang Zhiyi was struck by a stray arrow during the pursuit and has now been escorted away by his men."
But the emperor's mind was full of questions: "Six thousand men couldn't defeat a few dozen?"
"Your Majesty, now is not the time to marvel at this. We need to handle the situation at once!" Prince Min also hadn't expected that that useless Wei An couldn't even keep Fang Zhiyi's few dozen men cornered.
The emperor was still in shock.
"Your Majesty! Wei An's unauthorized action has already spread across the capital. I'm afraid people will think that Your Majesty could not tolerate Fang Zhiyi and sent Wei An to attack him!"
The emperor finally snapped out of it: "Nonsense! It was Wei An who mobilized troops on his own to ambush and kill Fang Zhiyi!"
"But there are already rumors in the city saying that Your Majesty couldn't tolerate Fang Zhiyi, who had just rendered great service..."
The emperor fell silent for a few seconds: "Send men to arrest Wei An! I will have him punished for his crimes!"
After everyone else had left, Prince Min looked at the grim-faced emperor and suddenly spoke: "This situation isn't bad after all. Fang Zhiyi is gravely wounded, and Wei An will be punished..."
"Bullshit! What about my reputation? My reputation?" The emperor paced around in fury, then finally turned to Prince Min, "Amin, send men to pursue Fang Zhiyi and find out the truth. At the same time, send some reliable people to the border to begin taking over the defenses!"
Wei An hadn't even had the chance to share his good news with the emperor and Qingqing before he was thrown into prison. His crimes were proclaimed to the public, with the clear message that everything was done by Wei An on his own initiative and that the emperor would never harm those who had rendered meritorious service.
But the rumors didn't die down; if anything, it seemed someone was deliberately fanning the flames.
The news that "the emperor sent Wei An to assassinate Fang Zhiyi, the border-guarding general" spread from the capital.
Prince Min's spies, after much investigation, finally obtained intelligence.
Fang Zhiyi's wounds were severe — he was at death's door!
Meanwhile, the court's appointed men had successfully entered the border army, using the pretext of sharing Fang Zhiyi's military duties to begin taking over affairs. Now the entire court was waiting for news of Fang Zhiyi's last breath.
But the general sent to take over never actually saw Fang Zhiyi. He only knew that Fang Zhiyi had taken residence at Linguan Pass, where his trusted men guarded him closely, refusing entry to anyone.
Wei An, locked in the imperial prison, looked at He Yinqing, who had come to visit him, with righteous indignation: "They don't dare to stand up for themselves, but they come after me!"
He Yinqing's gaze at him was complicated.
Wei An was truly handsome.
But she truly had no other choice.
Xiao Xiao, who had become her sworn enemy, had found her and laid out her final solution: He Yinqing should enter the palace as an imperial consort, and the emperor would then show leniency toward Wei An.
He Yinqing let out a bitter laugh. So after all that circling around, the ultimate winners were still the emperor and the princess. The emperor had used Wei An's hands to remove Fang Zhiyi, then imprisoned Wei An on charges of assassinating a great general. She would marry Wei An to save his life, and as for Xiao Xiao, she would have Wei An's heart... What a calculated scheme.
The pair of lovers gazed deeply at each other through the prison bars. The sight made the jailer a little nauseated.
"Qingqing, don't enter the palace! For my sake, don't go! I'm not afraid to die! I'm not!"
"I must go. I will plead with the emperor to spare your life."
"Qingqing!"
The emperor was in high spirits, having resolved two major matters at once. But there was one person who irked him: Consort Fang. Ever since news of Fang Zhiyi's grave wounding had arrived, she had refused to leave her quarters. Now she had even hung white mourning silk around her palace — wasn't that just a slap in the face?
So when Fang Yunlan requested to see her brother one last time, the emperor granted it immediately.
It wasn't as if he liked her anyway. Now that Fang Zhiyi had lost his military power and was on the verge of death, what harm was there in kicking her out?
Fang Yunlan left in a pitiful state — one carriage, one maid, one driver, nothing else.
Oh, and Princess Xiao Xiao's sneers and taunts.
But Fang Yunlan looked numb, not uttering a single word in response.
Fortunately, the love-lorn protagonists were too wrapped up in their romantic drama to pay attention to the already out-of-the-picture Fang siblings. Fang Yunlan's numbness didn't last long, either.
That was the message Fang Zhiyi had left her before he departed.
Find a way to escape on your own. If you can't, just wait to die.
The man who took over the military command was Prince Min's nephew. Before he arrived, Prince Min had instructed him to take over as quickly as possible and to break up Fang Zhiyi's loyal units, dispersing them to other garrisons.
Li Xiang had expected the border army to be a tough nut to crack, but to his surprise, the orders he sent to the officers did not meet any resistance. They all accepted their reassignments and left for their new posts.
After finishing that business, Li Xiang began to ponder Fang Zhiyi's condition. People kept saying he was on his last legs, yet he just wouldn't die. Li Xiang had gone to visit him twice. The area was guarded by Fang Zhiyi's personal soldiers, and given the man's reputation, Li Xiang didn't make a fuss. He saw Fang Zhiyi lying weakly in bed, looking as if he might pass at any moment — but no matter how long they waited, he didn't die.
By now, though, it hardly mattered. The border army had been reorganized, and Li Xiang had placed his own trusted men in key positions. Even if Fang Zhiyi suddenly rose from the dead, he couldn't stir up any trouble.
At least, that's what Li Xiang believed.
That's what everyone believed.
The female lead's romance plot pressed on. Wei An had saved his life but lost his noble title. He was resentful, and worse, he was no longer allowed in and out of the palace. He couldn't see Qingqing, and his heart was breaking.
He Yinqing in the palace felt the same. What she had dreamed of was a life with one man alone, not becoming an imperial consort.
Melodrama struck again. The princess, eager to win Wei An's favor, secretly smuggled him into the palace, bringing Wei An and He Yinqing together. The two even planned to elope, but their scheme was exposed. The emperor flew into a rage, and to protect Wei An, Xiao Xiao went so far as to invoke the Empress Dowager, breaking openly with the emperor.
Prince Min continued playing the devoted suitor. Losing to the emperor stung, but he could accept it — but losing to Wei An? He would never tolerate that.
Just as the capital was in chaos, urgent news arrived from the border.
"What? Li Xiang is dead?" Prince Min was shocked.
Li Xiang's personal guard, his face covered in blood and grime, reported: "General... the general was beheaded by soldiers under his own command! Fang Zhiyi — Fang Zhiyi has rebelled!"
"What?!"
The news of Fang Zhiyi's rebellion raced into the palace, bringing the lovers' melodrama to a halt.
The man who was supposedly at death's door had come back to life? Was this a joke?
"That's not right. The border army has been resupplied with court-appointed men. How did he..."
nce】【Lighthearted Comedy】【Ultimate Gentleman's Novel】【Viewer Discretion Advised for Under 16】 The mightiest human hero, Sharen Morian, is resurrected after a thousand years by his wife—the Demon King. This is not your typical hero-vs-demon-king tale.
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."
e, Immortal Body, Transmigration, System, Progression Fantasy, Academy Setting, Third-Person Perspective. Alternate Title: Transmigrating into a High Martial World and Reading Live Comments. Bad news: I transmigrated. This is a terrifying high-martial world, and my original, pathetically weak body fell into a coma and never woke up. Good news: I got a Popularity Points system upon arrival. I can see live comments and even create an unkillable alternate identity. Starting out, the alternate identity has all stats at 1. The system tells me that to grow stronger, I must participate in the plot, gain popularity points to allocate stats and grow stronger, and ultimately awaken my original body. And so, carrying my original body on my back, I officially entered Huaqing Academy, where the story's protagonist resides. From that moment on, Chen Guan kicked the original plot to pieces. Live Comments: [Doesn't anyone find this mysterious coffin guy creepy? He can summon indescribable grey misty hands.] [Is this guy a hero or a villain? What kind of onion became a spirit?] [By the way, does anyone know who's in the coffin? Shouldn't the debt for saving his life be repaid by now?] [According to unofficial histories, the person in the coffin was Chen Guan's first love. Their love was once passionate and earth-shattering, but they were separated by life and death due to worldly circumstances. What a star-crossed pair.] ... Years later, the world knew of a demon god born from a coffin, shrouded in grey mist, impossible to gaze upon directly. His foremost divine emissary often wielded a scythe, reaping lives like the god of death. As war approached, facing former friends and a boundless sea of enemies, Chen Guan merely raised his scythe. "Would you like to dance as well?"
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.
