The route the Grand Emperor took was almost like he had come back specifically to visit old friends and relatives.
But the more it seemed that way, the more uneasy Fang Tianyun and Qian Zhong felt.
What exactly was the Grand Emperor up to?
Why visit all those old geezers? Could it be that the monastery was running low on people, and the Grand Emperor had come back specifically to recruit a few like-minded souls to return and become monks with him?
"Wei Xun wailed until he fainted?" Qian Zhong scratched his head as he listened to the scout's report.
Could it be that the Grand Emperor was insisting that Wei Xun and the others become monks? And Wei Xun was crying because he couldn't bear to leave?
At this point, that seemed like the only explanation that made sense.
Finally, at noon, word came again that the Grand Emperor had returned to the palace.
Fang Qian, sporting a shiny bald head, walked up the steps looking somewhat nervous, entering from outside the hall just like the other officials, moving inward.
Qian Zhong, standing beside Fang Tianyun, spotted Fuhai at once. That old bastard had actually really come back.
A vicious glint flashed in his eyes.
But soon Qian Zhong frowned. Fuhai wasn't following behind the Grand Emperor—he was following behind a... middle-aged man?
Who the hell was that?
As Fang Qian stepped into the hall, the officials knelt in unison, and Fang Tianyun squeezed out a smile and stepped forward: "Greetings, Father!"
Fang Qian was tense: "Uh, all of you, rise! Rise!"
"Thank you, Grand Emperor!" the officials chorused.
Fang Qian glanced back, saw the figure standing at the entrance, and involuntarily swallowed hard.
Fang Tianyun noticed his unease and craned his neck to look as well.
Fang Zhiyi stepped into the hall.
"How dare you! Why aren't you kneeling before the Emperor!" Qian Zhong suddenly shouted.
Whoever this man was, there was no way he outranked the Emperor, right? So using this as a pretext, he could charge this man and Fuhai with gross disrespect!
Fang Zhiyi looked at Qian Zhong, then at Fang Qian: "Well then, shall I kneel?"
Fang Qian's face turned white as a sheet. His legs went weak and he dropped to his knees directly. On this whole journey, there hadn't been a single day when his father hadn't beaten him—the psychological trauma was deeply ingrained.
"Hey? Grand Emperor, I, I was talking about those two..." Qian Zhong was dumbfounded. One shout from him and he'd made the Grand Emperor kneel?
Cold sweat broke out all over his back.
"Father, what are you doing?" Fang Tianyun was also stunned. He instinctively turned to look at Fang Zhiyi, and the courtiers turned back as well.
He looks a bit familiar somehow.
Fang Tianyun furrowed his brow.
"Fang Qian, quite a fine son you've raised, eh?" Fang Zhiyi spoke again.
Hearing this man dare to call the Grand Emperor by his given name, all the ministers were shocked.
"Audacious!" One minister had just stepped forward when an old minister beside him yanked him back hard.
Fang Qian got up and kicked his own son: "Kneel!"
Fang Tianyun was baffled: "Father, have you lost your mind? Did the monks rot your brain? Me, kneel? I am the Son of Heaven..."
"Y-Your Majesty, he, he..." The nearest minister pointed in terror, his hand trembling toward the wall on the left side of the hall.
Hung there were portraits of every emperor since the founding of Great Yong, placed there so that successive emperors could urge the officials to diligence in governance.
Fang Tianyun followed the direction of his finger and looked.
Just one glance was all it took—his eyes went wide.
Wait, was the portrait alive?
Before he could figure it out, Fang Qian's foot arrived again.
"Son of Heaven? Is the Son of Heaven so great? Did the Son of Heaven just pop out of a stone?"
Being kicked in front of all the ministers, Fang Tianyun felt his face burn.
"Father! He just bears a resemblance to the late Emperor—he's not actually the late Emperor! Guards, seize him!" Fang Tianyun shouted.
"Damn you! Who would dare! I know my own father when I see him! This realm almost fell apart because of you! Heaven sent the late Emperor back to life to save Great Yong!" Fang Qian was frantic.
The imperial guards who had run to the entrance looked at each other in confusion.
Fang Zhiyi swept his eyes around the room. Whoever he looked at quickly averted their gaze—his stare carried too much pressure.
The old officials each had different reactions: some were excited, some were bewildered, and some were terrified.
"This is the Great Yong I handed over to you? So many of you, drawing salaries from the state, spending all your days discussing which restaurant has good food and which girl is pretty?"
His voice echoed through the hall.
Fang Tianyun was starting to get scared.
A ghost in broad daylight? No wonder his father had become a monk—those bald bastards must actually have some real power, huh?
Then Qian Zhong suddenly shouted: "The Grand Emperor has been deceived by a villain! Your Majesty!"
Fang Tianyun snapped back to his senses.
"Guards!"
Fuhai immediately moved to protect Fang Zhiyi.
"Who would dare!" A furious roar, and suddenly another contingent of imperial guards surged in from outside the hall.
Leading them was Wei Xun's son, Wei Wenzhong. After Wei Xun stepped down, his son had taken over the position.
He strode into the hall, glanced at the bald Grand Emperor, then looked at Fang Zhiyi, hesitated for a moment, and dropped to one knee: "Your servant Wei Wenzhong has arrived on orders!"
"Wei Wenzhong, are you rebelling!" Qian Zhong bellowed.
Wei Wenzhong was also muttering to himself. When the Grand Emperor entered the palace earlier, he'd received a message from home—his father had said that no matter what, he must protect the person beside the Grand Emperor, even if it cost him his head!
He'd always been simple-minded. Since his father said to do it, he just did it!
"Me, rebelling? The Wei family followed the late Emperor to eliminate the Sima clan, and our loyalty is as clear as day! How dare a eunuch like you falsely accuse me!" Wei Wenzhong was indignant.
Soon, more people came rushing over, but seeing the guards at the entrance, they didn't dare enter the hall. They could only anxiously make gestures toward those inside.
"Let them in." Fang Zhiyi said calmly, then walked forward on his own, not even looking at Fang Tianyun once, step by step up the dais. As he drew near, Qian Zhong retreated several steps in fright.
The people outside slipped through the gaps and found their respective targets, muttering hurriedly.
But as the officials listened, their eyes went wide, and they kept stealing glances in Fang Zhiyi's direction.
Fang Tianyun felt something was wrong. What the hell was going on? He steeled himself: "Seize him! This man is impersonating the late Emperor! Drag him out and execute him!"
"I'll execute your grandmother!" Fang Qian jumped up and smacked him, and as if that wasn't enough, he took off his shoe and started whipping him with it.
The once-formal court had devolved into something resembling a street market.
"When I first established the Eastern Depot, I meant for it to oversee the realm. I never imagined that, in your hands, it would become this." Looking down at the chaos below, Fang Zhiyi spoke.
Everyone turned to look.
"Master, it's all my fault!" Fuhai fell to his knees with a thud.
Fang Qian knelt as well: "Father, I, I..."
Some old ministers knelt down after him: "Late Emperor! Oh, Late Emperor!"
The quick-witted among them immediately shouted: "Long live the Late Emperor!"
Once someone took the lead, the others followed in shouting, and the only two still standing were Fang Tianyun and Qian Zhong.
Qian Zhong knew that whether this matter was real or not, if things continued like this, he was in serious trouble!
"Your Majesty! They're clearly trying to deceive you!" he wailed.
or! A blessing for those who struggle with love, a guidebook for dating novices. Quickly match with your dream goddess! Complete walkthroughs earn rewards, and perfect walkthroughs unlock limited achievements!】 Shen Yi, an ordinary office worker, accidentally downloads a mini-game called Dating Simulator. The mini-game is simple: randomly search for dating targets, simulate dates, and receive rewards upon successful confession. Rewards include but are not limited to money, attributes, and skills. The higher the evaluation, the better the rewards, with perfect ratings unlocking mysterious achievements. Shen Yi plans to use this mysterious mini-game to continuously pursue targets and improve himself, making his life better and better. ...... However, after several successful walkthroughs, Shen Yi suddenly notices something strange - the targets he previously simulated dating seem to be searching for him in real life?
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?!
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!
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
