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.
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.
pression Bureau] Transported to a fantasy world overrun by demons and monsters, Gu Qingfeng becomes a jailer in the Demon Suppression Prison of the Great Yan Dynasty's Demon Suppression Bureau. From this point on, bizarre cases frequently occur in the Demon Suppression Prison, once known as hell on earth and infamous for its gloomy, terrifying atmosphere! Why do the demons and monsters in the prison wail miserably every night? Why has the corpse demon, capable of transforming into various beauties, donned black stockings and switched careers to become a foot massage therapist? Why has the eye demon, expert in soul-snatching and illusions, turned into a VR headset? Why is the fox spirit performing otaku dances? Are all these occurrences a twisted expression of demonic nature, or a descent into moral depravity? After peeling away layer upon layer of mystery, all clues ultimately point to a jailer named Gu Qingfeng. Gu Qingfeng: "Hehehe... My dear demons and monsters, whose card shall we flip today?"
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."
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?!
