The Emperor rarely held a palace banquet, but this time he did so to celebrate the Crown Prince's steady governance of the court affairs. He also intended to announce Shangguan Lin as the new Empress.
At the banquet, Fang Zhiyi locked eyes with Lin Chengze, whose gaze was shadowed with malice.
Little Hei glanced at Fang Zhiyi, then bared his teeth in imitation of Fang Zhiyi's smirk before charging toward Lin Chengze. Lin Chengze's expression shifted from resentment to shock, then disbelief. He first looked down at himself, then back up at Fang Zhiyi.
Fang Zhiyi remained composed, merely smiling at him.
Lin Chengze deliberately moved toward Fang Zhiyi, who also stepped forward slowly. Fortunately, no one noticed them.
"What's wrong? Why aren’t you smiling? Isn’t the world beautiful?" Fang Zhiyi asked.
"You—you knew all along, didn’t you?" Lin Chengze's shrill voice trembled.
"Mhm." Fang Zhiyi shrugged. "Didn’t you say I didn’t understand the beauty of the world? Well, now you’ve experienced it. So, is it beautiful?"
"You—" Lin Chengze's face twisted. "Fang Zhiyi, just you wait!"
He was confident that even if he and Fang Zhiyi had switched places, he could still destroy him. Today, his master would become Empress, and he himself would rise as a powerful eunuch. Unlike Fang Zhiyi in his past life, he wouldn’t show mercy—he would spare none of them.
"Fang Zhiyi, do you really think the Emperor doesn’t know about your Crown Prince faction? Hmph."
The two parted ways—one smiling broadly, the other dark-faced.
After three rounds of drinks, the Emperor stood. "Today, I am pleased to announce something important. I have decided—"
The courtiers fell silent.
"—to appoint Shangguan Lin as my Empress!"
Only a few officials voiced their approval, while the rest remained silent.
The Emperor frowned. "Why such expressions? Are you dissatisfied with my decision?" His gaze flickered toward the Crown Prince, seated nearby, a trace of wariness in his eyes. "I know the Crown Prince has governed well recently, but he has also formed factions for personal gain. I hereby strip him of his regent duties pending further review!"
After all, he was the Emperor—he couldn’t possibly be ignorant of the Crown Prince’s actions.
Aside from Prince Rui, who looked pleased, most ministers remained silent. Behind Shangguan Lin, Lin Chengze smirked inwardly—with the Crown Prince’s faction fallen, Fang Zhiyi was finished.
The Emperor grew furious. "Have you all gone deaf?"
The Crown Prince hastily rose. "Imperial Father... this son obeys—" Before he could finish, Fang Zhiyi stood.
"Your Majesty, I, Fang Zhiyi, respectfully request your abdication."
The words struck like thunder. The Emperor glared. "Do you know what you’re saying? Guards!"
Two imperial bodyguards stepped forward, but before they could take two steps, two other guards pressed blades to their necks.
"You—you dare rebel?" The Emperor panicked.
"I respectfully request Your Majesty’s abdication," Fang Zhiyi repeated calmly. "The people suffer under your rule. As the Son of Heaven, you neglect governance, impose harsh taxes, and stir unrest. Revolts have erupted across the land. Only the Crown Prince has stabilized the situation. Your Majesty, step down for the worthy."
His words were firm. Then, a second person stood—Vice Minister Liu. A third—General Zhenyuan. A fourth, a fifth... nearly every minister present rose.
"We respectfully request Your Majesty’s abdication!"
"You—you traitors! Guards! Guards!" the Emperor shouted. Beside him, Shangguan Lin gaped in shock. Lin Chengze was stunned—how had Fang Zhiyi swayed so many? His own spies had reported only minor, insignificant alliances.
Fang Zhiyi glanced at him and smiled. Playing the spy game? I’m your ancestor.
"Your Majesty, save your breath." Fang Zhiyi stepped forward, patting the Crown Prince’s shoulder to signal him to sit calmly.
"The entire capital no longer stands with you."
The Emperor collapsed onto the throne, drained of vitality. Fang Zhiyi looked at him, Shangguan Lin, and the others. "Since Your Majesty enjoys presiding over harem disputes, you’ll have plenty of time for that now."
Harem schemes? Take your time. By the time you’re done, the throne will have changed hands.
The Crown Prince ascended swiftly. Upon his coronation, he enacted Fang Zhiyi’s proposed tax reductions and launched a sweeping anti-corruption campaign.
It was the usual purge—investigating corrupt officials, confiscating assets—but Fang Zhiyi also ensured Prince Rui couldn’t flee. The influential Xu family, dominant in the tea-horse trade, was another target. To ordinary folk, they were untouchable. To Fang Zhiyi now, crushing them was effortless—no elaborate charges needed.
Prince Rui’s crimes were exposed, including the tragic Xinghua Village massacre. His entire household, save servants, was executed.
The harem became the Retired Emperor’s prison. At Fang Zhiyi’s urging, the new Emperor married Vice Minister Liu’s daughter, Liu Ning, devoting himself to governance. Under his teacher’s guidance, the faltering nation stabilized and flourished anew.
New faces entered the harem—Xu Yan'er, seized from the condemned Xu family, was sent as a maid to the Retired Emperor.
Shangguan Lin stared blankly, dazed by her abrupt retirement alongside the Emperor.
Lin Chengze was shattered. He realized most of his intelligence network had been double agents loyal to Fang Zhiyi. Now blind to the outside world, his status crumbled with the Emperor’s fall.
When he spotted the hollow-eyed Xu Yan'er, hatred flared. He lunged at her, but both, broken, fought to a stalemate.
Eunuchs and maids watched, occasionally commenting.
"Little Hei, do you eat systems?" Fang Zhiyi asked curiously.
Little Hei bared his teeth and shook his head. "No, no."
"Then leave it be?"
"Only option. It’s harmless now." As a harem system, it was indeed useless.
Lin Chengze begged to see Fang Zhiyi, desperate to plead for mercy.
"Fang Zhiyi! I was wrong!" he cried, but no one listened. The harem was lifeless, many servants transferred to new palaces.
When relayed this, Fang Zhiyi laughed.
"He’s not sorry—he just lost the high ground." Tossing a silver ingot to the messenger, he dismissed him with thanks.
A decade later, Fang Zhiyi resigned and left, unsettling the new Emperor and court. Only a deranged old eunuch in the desolate harem muttered, "He’s gone back... he must have gone back..." Gazing toward the distant Xinghua Village, he strained to see the past.
【Prologue: The Beginning of It All – Use holy water to heal the saintess tainted by demonic energy, then converse with her.】 Shen Nian stared at his older sister sipping yogurt, lost in thought. So you’re telling me my sister is the saintess, and yogurt is the holy water? 【Main Quest 1: Brave Youth, Become an Adventurer! Reward: Rookie Adventurer Title.】 【Side Quest 1: Find the Adorable Kitty! Reward: 1000 Gold Coins.】 Shen Nian: "Wait, I’m a high school senior here—did some guy who got isekai’d accidentally bind his system to me?" Hold on, completing quests gives gold rewards? Titles even boost stats? Is this for real? (A lighthearted, absurd campus comedy—not a revenge power fantasy.)
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.
