"I am indeed a corrupt official," Fang Zhiyi nodded.
"Hah, and a capitulationist too."
Fang Zhiyi shook his head. "But I am not a capitulationist."
"Oh? Wasn’t it you who ceded territory and paid reparations every time we negotiated with the Hu people? Fang Zhiyi, have you had too much to drink?" someone mocked.
Fang Zhiyi smiled faintly. "Young General Wei drove the Hu people back beyond the old capital. Today, the Hu envoys came, and I was not in court. So, gentlemen, what do you think the outcome will be?"
The crowd fell silent.
"You overestimate me too much. These secret guards watch me day and night—do you think the Emperor doesn’t know about my corruption? When I eliminate dissenters, do you think I don’t need the Emperor’s approval? When I cede land and pay reparations, do I, Fang Zhiyi, even have the authority to slam the table?"
Someone immediately stood up and pointed accusingly. "Fang Zhiyi! Stop spreading your poisonous lies here! How dare you shift the blame onto His Majesty! I—I’ll cut you down!"
He looked around for his sword but forgot he was now just an old farmer.
"You’re not fools. You just refuse to believe that your Emperor is the root of all this," Fang Zhiyi sighed.
The crowd erupted in anger.
Duke Wei suddenly coughed. "Everyone, sit down."
They all gave the old duke some face. Once the room quieted, Duke Wei spoke. "My son has been fighting the Hu people all this time, and it was Fang Zhiyi who supplied him with provisions and arms. Knowing he had no one else to rely on, my son privately asked me to disguise men as merchants to deliver the supplies."
He gave Fang Zhiyi a deep look. "But I must ask the Chancellor to choose his words carefully. My Wei family has always been loyal. We do not wish to hear anything against His Majesty."
Fang Zhiyi smiled and nodded. "I invited you all here today to ask for one thing."
He stood. "On the lands occupied by the Hu people, our citizens suffer worse than death—slaughtered at best, eaten at worst. Surely you’ve heard."
A heavy silence fell over the room.
"Do you not feel ashamed, leaving the restoration of Great Yan to a single young man from the Wei family?"
"If you hadn’t interfered back then, why would we have retired to farm?" someone snapped.
Fang Zhiyi looked at him. "And if I hadn’t, what difference would it have made?"
"I know you all despise me. Even now. But things are different today. I have money now, and money means war. You are all free men. The question is—can you old generals still wield your blades?"
His tone was laced with mockery. "Or are you all inferior to a young Wei?"
"What did you say?!"
"Fang Zhiyi, though we’ve retired, we remain subjects of Great Yan. The Hu have retreated. Raising a private army now would be no different from rebellion!"
Fang Zhiyi sat back down. "The Hu have retreated? Are you all living in a dream?"
Just then, Fang Zhiyi’s trusted aide, Abao, hurried in. Glancing at the gathered men, his heart pounded.
"Sir! The Emperor has agreed! He’s ceded the entire north to the Hu, plus three million taels in reparations. He’s ordered the Wei army punished, and—and..."
Every eye in the room widened.
"And what else?"
"He’s handing Wei Kaiyuan over to the Hu for execution!"
The hall fell deathly silent.
"How… How could the Emperor be so blind?"
"We won! Why would he do this?"
"Old Wei? Old Wei?"
Duke Wei snapped out of his daze and turned to Fang Zhiyi. "Since you foresaw this day, Chancellor, what do you propose?"
"March into Hu territory and wipe them out—every last one."
A collective gasp filled the room.
"As for the Emperor, I’ll keep him placated. You needn’t worry."
Silence again. On one side, their loyalty to the throne. On the other, Yan’s land and its suffering people.
"At the very least, I know Wei Kaiyuan does not deserve to die."
Duke Wei slammed the table. "Chancellor Fang, you said you’d provide funds and arms. Do you stand by that?"
Fang Zhiyi pointed to his head. "On my life."
"Good! It’s been too long since I last took the field. Let’s see if my blade still cuts."
One by one, they stood. Fang Zhiyi raised a cup of tea in salute. As they drank, unseen hands slit the throats of several hidden guards.
"Chancellor Fang, we’ll settle our grievances later. But this time—don’t stab us in the back!"
Someone threw down the threat before leaving.
Duke Wei stared at the dead guards, wanting to speak, but in the end, only sighed.
"Chancellor, you may have gone too far," Shen Xun said hesitantly. He was beginning to find Fang Zhiyi harder to read.
"Too far? There’s further yet to go. Abao."
Abao scurried over. Fang Zhiyi studied him—a man neither good nor bad, but fiercely loyal. In the original tale, he went unmentioned, yet he followed Fang Zhiyi into exile and died beside him on the road.
"Here’s the key to my vault. From now on, you’ll liaise with these generals. Give them whatever they ask for. If it’s not enough, I’ll find a way."
"Y-yes, sir." Abao trembled as he took the key, sensing the weight of history in his hands.
Li Li emerged slowly from behind a screen.
Looking at the two young men, Fang Zhiyi smiled. "It seems I’ll be dragging you both down with me."
Li Li clasped his hands. "At your service, Chancellor!" Like Shen Xun, he was straightforward, but these days had shown him that Fang Zhiyi wasn’t the man everyone thought.
After all, what kind of villain sends his only son to the front lines?
Of course, he didn’t know Fang Zhiyi had always taken a hands-off approach with his "cheap son."
"Rest assured, I’ll secure you both a bright future."
In the palace, the Emperor paced anxiously.
Had he conceded too much? The thought of parting with three million taels made his heart ache. If only Fang Zhiyi were here! Really, it was just a son’s death—was it such a big deal?
After much deliberation, he decided to summon Fang Zhiyi.
After all, the handover of reparations would require Fang Zhiyi’s touch. He needed to set him straight.
Perhaps due to the Hu envoys, the palace guards were more vigilant than usual. Fang Zhiyi entered calmly, surprising the Emperor. Had he come around so quickly?
No matter.
The Emperor rattled off a long list of demands, and Fang Zhiyi nodded at each. Relieved, the Emperor dismissed him with a wave.
At a corner, Fang Zhiyi spotted Li Li leading a patrol. Their eyes met, and Li Li gave a slight nod.
Fang Zhiyi smiled.
In a dungeon, several blindfolded eunuchs were dragged in.
When the cloths were torn away, they saw Fang Zhiyi before them.
"Chancellor Fang, what is the meaning of this?"
"Sir, this is no time for jokes. We must return for roll call!"
Fang Zhiyi pulled up a stool. "Do you want to die?"
lity and could only live as an ordinary mortal. He only wished to live a peaceful life. Yet he didn't know— The dog he adopted, because it ate his food, became a legendary demon king. The kitchen knife he casually forged became a peerless divine weapon, causing numerous experts to fight desperately for it. The young disciple he took in became an immortal lord that led an era, due to cultivating the techniques Ye Feng taught him. Even the skeletons he looked down on the most were ominous demon kings that suppressed countless worlds. Many years later, looking at the void shattered with a punch, Ye Feng murmured to himself: It turns out the peerless kings were myself all along...
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!
【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.)
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.
