"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!’"
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.
transmigrates into the world as the sect master of the Heavenly Yan Sect, which is on the verge of being wiped out. He binds a system that grants him cultivation power based on the number of disciples he has: for each disciple, he automatically gains a year's worth of cultivation every single day! Take one disciple: every day he gains 1 year of cultivation power. While others struggle through a year of bitter training, he gets the same just by sleeping through a single night. Take ten disciples: every day he gains 10 years of cultivation power. Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul—he breezes through all bottlenecks without lifting a finger. Take one hundred disciples: every day he gains 100 years of cultivation power. Even a Soul Transformation Venerable before him can’t survive a single blow. Take ten thousand disciples: every day he gains 10,000 years of cultivation power! With a wave of his hand, he topples empires. With a single step, he crushes the sacred grounds of the universe. ... While others fight tooth and nail for secret techniques, Lin Yan casually hands out Nascent Soul-level cultivation manuals as beginner textbooks. While others strain to find talented recruits, Lin Yan opens his doors to anyone—so long as they’re human. In just three short years, the Heavenly Yan Sect went from a backwater sect made up of three crumbling huts to a sacred land that every cultivator under heaven would kill to enter. ... One day, otherworldly demon gods invade, with a million demon soldiers pressing down upon the realm. Lin Yan, yawning, rises from his lounge chair and glances at the system panel: [Current Disciples: 1.28 million] [Daily Cultivation Increase: 1.28 million years] He waves his hand casually, and the countless demon soldiers are reduced to ashes in an instant. “So noisy… interrupting my fishing.”
lities. One day, Qi Yuan was buying groceries when he unfortunately came face-to-face with a monster. Just when he thought he was going to die on the spot, he suddenly heard the monster's thoughts... "This aura, he's definitely not an ordinary master!" "So terrifying, so terrifying." "A fight with my back against the wall, I can't take it anymore." Qi Yuan: Ah, no one told me that my awakened ability isn't telepathy, but rather the stronger my enemies imagine me to be, the stronger I truly become. PS: Zhou Hai in the first chapter is not the protagonist.
young master of the Shen family—a figure of immense power and wealth beyond measure—and awakened the "Destined Ultimate Villain System"! His starting scenario? Running into his icy fiancée who shows up with a mountain-descending divine doctor to break off their engagement. The divine doctor arrogantly taunts: "What does your Shen family have besides a bit of stinking money? You're not even worthy of tying Qingxue's shoelaces!" Shen Fei just smiled. He completely defied the usual script: "Fine, I agree to break off the engagement. Also, notify the finance department to withdraw all investments from the Su family." Minutes later, with its capital chain severed, the Su Group teetered on the brink of bankruptcy! The once aloof and proud ice queen CEO was thrown into utter panic. That very night, she went to Shen Fei's villa, casting aside all dignity to beg and plead desperately... From then on, in this world teeming with Sons of Destiny, Shen Fei embarked on a path of extreme dimensional suppression! A mountain-descending divine doctor? Peerless medical skills? Shen Fei: "Reporting you for practicing medicine without a license! I'll gladly take your ancient medicinal cauldron and twin sister assassins." The Crooked-Smiling Dragon King? Commanding a hundred thousand soldiers with a single order? Shen Fei: "Illegal assembly and suspected treason! Let a fleet of attack helicopters sanitize the area and teach you what the state apparatus really means!" A reborn tycoon? Knows all the golden opportunities of the next decade? Shen Fei: "A trillion in capital to reverse and pump the stock market, making you blow your margin and jump on the very first day of your rebirth!" What Chosen Ones? What bearers of Heavenly Fortune? In Shen Fei's eyes, they're all just chives (i.e., suckers/marks) waiting to be harvested! Shen Fei: "Sorry, but as the Destined Ultimate Villain, I don't play by the rules of honor. I only play the game of dimensional suppression."
