The families were all locked up together.
Dozens of lanterns were also delivered along with them.
When Wei Lin discovered the abnormality of the lanterns, he completely lost his mind.
That night, Wei Lin attacked the Xiao and Liu families but gained no advantage. Fortunately, the guarding soldiers intervened, or he would have been beaten to death.
On the second night, Wei Lin became smarter. He used broken tiles to kill two members of the Xiao family. The soldiers quickly carried the bodies away.
In the latter half of the night, two brand new lanterns were delivered.
The Xiao family was in agony, and an emotion named fear began to spread among the crowd.
On the third day, the Xiao and Liu families began to blame the Xue family as the root cause of all this misfortune. The Xue family naturally refused to accept this, leading to a quarrel between the two sides.
On the third night, a large-scale conflict erupted. The families fought in a chaotic brawl. The guarding soldiers did not intervene. Whenever someone was beaten to death, they would just come in to drag the body away, and then eunuchs would deliver lanterns at midnight.
Such an environment and such methods kept these families on edge. Some had even begun to lose their sanity.
They were merely imprisoned here, provided with ample food and drink, every meal featuring meat, as if Fang Zhiyi only wanted to torture them in this way.
But now, the one suffering the most torment was Wei Lin. Unlike the other three who still had family, he now had sunken eyes and seemed completely broken. Even Xue Wanqiu, who had always admired him, did not want to get close. This was not the Brother Wei she remembered.
Fortunately, she still had choices—Xiao Ce and Liu Yan.
Moreover, she did not believe Fang Zhiyi would truly kill her.
Half a month passed in a row. They seemed to have grown accustomed to this life. Wei Lin was utterly lifeless, like a zombie. Liu Yan had become sharp-mouthed and monkey-cheeked, his face etched with greed. Xiao Ce had also grown much more irritable, even blaming everything on Xue Wanqiu. Xue Wanqiu still held on. She would not be defeated by such things. Since she had transmigrated into this book, it meant she was the protagonist, and protagonists always overcome adversity!
An eerie peace persisted.
But the food provided grew less and less.
Xue Wanqiu rebuked the eunuch delivering the meals discontentedly: "You tell Fang Zhiyi it's impossible for him to make me yield using such methods!"
The eunuch glanced at her, revealing a strange smile: "His Majesty is very busy. He has no time to wait for you to yield."
Xue Wanqiu naturally didn't believe it. She still thought it was all just Fang Zhiyi's despicable tactics.
The eunuch bared his yellowed teeth: "The food is less because you haven't had any deaths recently." With that, he turned to leave but was suddenly grabbed.
Wei Lin, who seemed already dead, stared at him: "Deaths? You said deaths?"
The eunuch broke free with a jerk: "Heh, you're a clever one."
He left with a sinister laugh, leaving a room full of bewildered people.
Until another person reacted, rushing to a corner and starting to vomit violently.
Then a second, a third.
Xue Wanqiu's face turned deathly pale. She understood why Fang Zhiyi imprisoned them here yet provided so much meat every meal, and why that meat had a peculiar, unpleasant smell.
"Demon! He's a demon!" Xue Wanqiu finally broke down, vomiting and crying out.
Fang Zhiyi learned of this news but paid it no mind. In the original plot, Xue Wanqiu could have spared the people in this palace, but didn't she choose to kill them all? He was merely doing the same, only his methods were slightly more extreme.
What could he do? Who made you the protagonists? If he couldn't touch you, couldn't he touch those around you?
Yin Tao had recently been subconsciously keeping her distance from Fang Zhiyi. This senior was too ruthless. Lately, she had nightmares every time she closed her eyes. Fortunately, the Empress Dowager and the Eldest Princess had her move in to live with them, otherwise Yin Tao estimated she would be waking up frightened at night.
"Third Brother, you... you..." The Fourth Prince stammered several times but couldn't finish his sentence. He felt a kind of fear towards Fang Zhiyi's actions. Although emperors were all ruthless, Third Brother was clearly ruthless to a somewhat perverse degree. Was this hatred born from love?
He better keep his distance too.
He had also figured it out. Third Brother had merely given him a way out. Otherwise, he wouldn't have recalled the border troops. Probably on the very night of the rebellion suppression, there were still his men around. If he had shown the slightest hint of rebellion, he might have been turned into a lantern too.
"Don't rush." Fang Zhiyi was busy drawing something.
As two people entered, the Fourth Prince was surprised: "Eldest Brother? Second Brother?"
The two looked at him with complex expressions, their gazes towards Fang Zhiyi tinged with fear. Clearly, Fang Zhiyi had already approached them earlier, and they had also heard about what Fang Zhiyi had been doing recently.
Almost all the officials and generals who were close to Wei Lin had been beheaded.
"Previously, a wise man calculated that our dynasty was destined for this calamity, but if I had told you, you might not have believed me," Fang Zhiyi said.
The brothers looked at each other, full of suspicion.
"So I could only handle it myself. But today, the source of trouble has been eliminated. Naturally, we brothers can speak frankly and openly."
"Excellent!" Fang Zhiyi suddenly let out a long breath, then waved his hand. Two eunuchs immediately stepped forward, each grabbing a side, and held up the drawing he had just made.
The drawing captured the eyes of the three brothers.
"This... this is a map?" The Fourth Prince widened his eyes. "How come I've never seen it?" The only maps he had seen were of the Northern and Southern Dynasties.
Fang Zhiyi smiled: "This is a world map."
"World?"
"I... encountered a foreign merchant some days ago. He traveled around many countries and told me many interesting things. And then... I got this idea." Fang Zhiyi watched as his brothers stared fixedly at the map. "We are here. How much land do you think we actually have?"
All three of them widened their eyes in shock. The Northern Dynasty was actually only this tiny?
"Fourth Brother, the fiefdom I promised you is here." He pointed to a location on the map—a vast territory, no smaller than the Northern and Southern Dynasties combined.
"Hiss..." The Fourth Prince drew a sharp breath of cold air.
"Eldest Brother, look here." Fang Zhiyi tapped another area on the map.
Several hours later, the Eldest Brother slumped into a rosewood chair: "Seeing this map today, I finally realize how insignificant we are."
The Second Brother eagerly pressed Fang Zhiyi: "Third Son, no, Your Majesty, are you serious? The people there have black skin? And there are long-nosed beasts?"
Fang Zhiyi nodded, showing no impatience. He could also see that these brothers had previously wanted to become emperor simply because there were no other options. But today, after his brainwashing, their interests had instantly shifted.
The Eldest Brother's eyes shone when he heard they could build ships and sail the seas. He had been confined for too long and was going stir-crazy.
The Second Brother was more like a geographer, constantly studying the map and occasionally asking questions.
Only the Fourth Prince was calculating the matters of becoming an independent king.
end. Thus one must continue to cultivate, and become a saint or great emperor, in order to prolong one's life. Chen Xia, however, completely reversed this. Since his transmigration, he has gained immortality, and also a system that awards him with attribute points for every year he lives. Thus between the myriad worlds, the legend of an unparalleled senior appeared. "A gentleman takes revenge; it is never too late even after ten thousand years." "When you were at your peak I yielded, now in your old age I shall trample on you." - Chen Xia
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."
e, Immortal Body, Transmigration, System, Progression Fantasy, Academy Setting, Third-Person Perspective. Alternate Title: Transmigrating into a High Martial World and Reading Live Comments. Bad news: I transmigrated. This is a terrifying high-martial world, and my original, pathetically weak body fell into a coma and never woke up. Good news: I got a Popularity Points system upon arrival. I can see live comments and even create an unkillable alternate identity. Starting out, the alternate identity has all stats at 1. The system tells me that to grow stronger, I must participate in the plot, gain popularity points to allocate stats and grow stronger, and ultimately awaken my original body. And so, carrying my original body on my back, I officially entered Huaqing Academy, where the story's protagonist resides. From that moment on, Chen Guan kicked the original plot to pieces. Live Comments: [Doesn't anyone find this mysterious coffin guy creepy? He can summon indescribable grey misty hands.] [Is this guy a hero or a villain? What kind of onion became a spirit?] [By the way, does anyone know who's in the coffin? Shouldn't the debt for saving his life be repaid by now?] [According to unofficial histories, the person in the coffin was Chen Guan's first love. Their love was once passionate and earth-shattering, but they were separated by life and death due to worldly circumstances. What a star-crossed pair.] ... Years later, the world knew of a demon god born from a coffin, shrouded in grey mist, impossible to gaze upon directly. His foremost divine emissary often wielded a scythe, reaping lives like the god of death. As war approached, facing former friends and a boundless sea of enemies, Chen Guan merely raised his scythe. "Would you like to dance as well?"
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.
