"Host, what are you planning to do?" Little Hei rubbed his hands together and asked.
"What time is it now?" Fang Zhiyi took a sip of tea.
"The rebel army has surrounded the city."
"Pfft!" Fang Zhiyi spat out the tea. "Why didn’t you just drop me off on the night I committed suicide?"
Little Hei looked apologetic. "I really can’t choose the timing right now..."
Fang Zhiyi waved him off. "Get lost."
"Grand General!" A eunuch rushed in from outside, breathless. "His Majesty summons you."
Fang Zhiyi followed without hesitation.
In the grand hall, the assembled civil and military officials were as restless as ants on a hot pan, clearly having received the news.
Emperor Shunying, who had not attended court for a long time, walked up with unsteady steps and sat on the dragon throne. His gaze swept over the whispering ministers, and when he spotted Fang Zhiyi, he smiled at him.
Fang Zhiyi quickly bowed slightly.
"The rebels have reached the city walls. What are your thoughts?" Emperor Shunying never minced words.
An elderly minister stepped forward. "Your Majesty, in this old servant’s opinion, we should flee south."
Another official stepped out, flicking his sleeve. "Nonsense! You old fool!"
Fang Zhiyi watched the two of them—representatives of opposing factions—still finding time to bicker even now.
"Your Majesty, it’s not fleeing—it’s a strategic relocation."
Fang Zhiyi sighed inwardly. He had thought this guy had some backbone, but it turned out he just wanted a nicer-sounding term.
Emperor Shunying seemed tempted, but when he instinctively looked at Fang Zhiyi, he saw the firm resolve in his eyes. "Fang, my dear minister, what do you say?"
The entire court fell silent. Everyone knew the emperor placed immense trust in this grand general, though some believed it was a disaster in the making.
Without hesitation, Fang Zhiyi replied, "Your Majesty, I shall immediately mobilize the capital guards to prepare for battle!" As if joking—he had fought wars before, hadn’t he?
His decisive words sent a ripple of shock through the court.
"Absolutely not! The capital guards and imperial troops combined barely number 100,000, and with recent vacancies, we’d be lucky to scrape together 80,000. Meanwhile, the rebel forces outside number over 300,000! Your Majesty, please flee—no, relocate!" A minister dropped to his knees in panic.
"Exactly! Has Grand General Fang lost his mind? How many years has it been since he last fought?"
"I say Fang Zhiyi is just a fool!"
But then Emperor Shunying suddenly barked, silencing the court.
He looked at Fang Zhiyi. "Very well. Fang, my dear minister, the capital is in your hands. From this moment on, every soldier, every resource—from Us to the common folk—is under your command!"
Fang Zhiyi was stunned. Raising his head, he studied Emperor Shunying. This was no weak ruler—this was a wise sovereign! The history he knew had clearly undersold him.
Fang Zhiyi accepted the order and left.
Soon, the capital guards and imperial troops were mobilized. He also dragged over the eunuch in charge of the Mirror Bureau.
Cao Ji forced a smile. Though he usually stood on equal footing with Fang Zhiyi, wartime and the emperor’s extraordinary delegation of authority left him no room for defiance. "Grand General, why have you summoned me? I’ll cooperate fully!"
Fang Zhiyi’s gaze slid past him, settling on a young eunuch trailing behind.
"What’s your name?"
The eunuch trembled. "This humble servant is Gao Liang, General."
Fang Zhiyi nodded, then turned back to Cao Ji. "Eunuch Cao, you’ll have to endure staying with me on the city walls these next few days."
Cao Ji was baffled. "General, I don’t understand."
Fang Zhiyi’s eyes darkened as he stared at the rebel camp outside the walls. "You oversee the Mirror Bureau, correct? Until the rebels retreat, your entire bureau is to remain on high alert. Anyone caught colluding with the enemy—execute on the spot. Anyone showing signs of surrender—execute on the spot. Anyone attempting to flee—execute on the spot."
Cao Ji sucked in a sharp breath, scrutinizing the grand general who had just days ago shared wine and music with him. Was he truly this ruthless? The Mirror Bureau had always been about gathering dirt on officials and arresting dissidents—never something of this scale.
Fang Zhiyi turned, his eyes brimming with killing intent. "Eunuch Cao, do you understand?" This man—Cao Ji—had been the one to collude with the rebels in the original timeline, the one who forced Emperor Shunying to take his own life.
"Understood, understood." Cao Ji turned to Gao Liang. "Well? Go!"
Gao Liang nodded and scurried off.
The Mirror Bureau resembled the Eastern Depot from Fang Zhiyi’s original world’s history—just far less competent.
The rebels did not attack but instead camped outside, seemingly in no hurry. That night, a letter reached Cao Ji through the Mirror Bureau’s agents. Smiling obsequiously, Cao Ji handed it to Fang Zhiyi.
Fang Zhiyi made no effort to hide it, opening it right in front of him.
As expected—the surrender ultimatum.
Little Hei didn’t know this part of the plot, but Fang Zhiyi had pieced it together: Cao Ji had already made contact with the rebels through the Mirror Bureau’s spies outside.
Meanwhile, in the court, the ministers had not gone home but continued pressing Emperor Shunying to relocate south.
"Your Majesty, even if Grand General Fang is a peerless warrior, we cannot possibly resist such overwhelming numbers!"
"Your Majesty! Fang Zhiyi harbors treasonous ambitions!" A minister rushed in, distraught. "My family tried to flee the city for safety, but Mirror Bureau agents stopped them—and slaughtered them all!"
"What?!" The court erupted in shock.
"Their leader said it was the grand general’s order! I beg Your Majesty for justice!" The old minister prostrated himself, weeping uncontrollably.
Another official seized the moment. "Your Majesty, Fang Zhiyi may already be in league with the rebels! If we don’t leave now, it’ll be too late!"
"Exactly! If he opens the gates to surrender, we’ll be lambs to the slaughter!" someone else cried.
Emperor Shunying simply sat there, watching them silently.
A eunuch stumbled in, panic-stricken. "Your Majesty! Disaster! The grand general has opened the city gates—the rebels are pouring in!"
Emperor Shunying’s face paled. "What did you say?!"
The court dissolved into wails. Some began calculating how best to surrender to save their lives, while others turned and fled outright.
As the rebel vanguard surged through the gates, Cao Ji finally relaxed, grinning. "Grand General Fang knows which way the wind blows. Even under the new regime, we can still enjoy power and pleasure together."
Fang Zhiyi smiled back. "Right? No point fighting a losing battle."
But in the next instant, his blade flashed—and Cao Ji’s head tumbled from his shoulders, his smile still frozen in place as it rolled down the ramparts.
"Close the gates! Archers, fire!" The inner gate of the barbican slammed shut. The soldiers who had opened the gates suddenly turned on the rebels behind them, while archers lining the walls rained down arrows like a storm.
The rebels below were dumbfounded. Hadn’t Fang Zhiyi surrendered? Why the sudden betrayal?
Little Hei watched the carnage, then glanced at Fang Zhiyi. "Host… you’re not surrendering?"
"There’s a line of poetry—ever heard it?" Fang Zhiyi asked, staring at the rebels falling in waves below.
"‘To repay my lord’s golden trust on the tower, I draw my jade dragon sword—and die for him!’"
for mindless slaughter, this isn't for you.] My name is Ye Shu, and I'm a transmigrator. It seems I'm supposed to be the protagonist, but that feels pretty unlikely. This world has been invaded by a system. The antagonists on the other side have suddenly become pure, flawless saints. The female leads have been force-fed the so-called "original plot," making them think they've been reborn. Now, everyone thinks I'm scum. Including the old lady in my ring. And here I am, in the Monster Beast Mountain Range, braising pork. To put my situation in perspective— It's as if, the moment Xiao Yan stepped into the Monster Beast Mountain Range, the Soul Emperor already knew he would become the Flame Emperor, and Yao Lao had been turned to the enemy's side. I have nothing right now. Oh wait, that's not true. I do have a white-haired loli child-bride who's the Heavenly Dao, and her only skill is acting cute. So, tell me guys... what are my chances of making it to the end?
grated, and just when he finally managed to get into an elite academy, he discovered that he actually had a system, and the way to earn rewards was extremely ridiculous. So for the sake of rewards, he had no choice but to start acting ridiculous as well. Su Cheng: "It's nothing but system quests after all." But later, what confused Su Cheng was that while he was already quite ridiculous, he never expected those serious characters to gradually become ridiculous too. And the way they looked at him became increasingly strange... (This synopsis doesn't do it justice, please read the full story)
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."
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.
