Until news arrived: Fang Fengqi had declared himself emperor in the south, keeping the state title of Li. Because they had a new monarch, the people of the Li state fought so fiercely.
Teng Shuchang was both shocked and furious. Fang Fengqi? Wasn't he in the capital?
He couldn't figure it out no matter how hard he tried. He immediately sent someone back to the capital to inquire about the situation. The news he received astonished him: shortly after Grand Commandant Yi took over, Fang Zhiyi got drunk again, ran into Fang Fengqi, beat him up in the street, and threatened to drive him out of the capital. And Grand Commandant Yi actually agreed to it!
He had heard about Fang Zhiyi severing ties with his son earlier and considered it a trivial matter, so he immediately had Fang Fengqi driven out. Consequently, Fang Fengqi vanished.
"Bastard!" Teng Shuchang slammed the table and cursed. "This jerk has ruined everything!"
Previously, although he allowed Fang Zhiyi a certain degree of freedom, many matters still had to pass through his own hands. Frankly, he never trusted Fang Zhiyi. But as soon as his nemesis, Grand Commandant Yi, arrived, he actually hooked up with Fang Zhiyi, that stray dog?
"I'm going to impeach him!" Teng Shuchang's roar echoed out of the tent. "Fooling around with that puppet every day—is he trying to get my southern expeditionary army killed?"
Outside the tent, two deputy generals suddenly exchanged a glance, their eyes holding a profound meaning.
But Fang Zhiyi was still useful. Teng Shuchang immediately ordered his subordinates to bring Fang Zhiyi over. He wanted to see if the Li dynasty's army dared to strike their former emperor!
To his surprise, however, the men he sent returned very quickly.
Empty-handed.
"Where is Fang Zhiyi?" Teng Shuchang's eyes blazed with fury.
"Well, Grand Commandant Yi said that Emperor Fang cannot leave right now; he has too many affairs to handle." The subordinate looked uncomfortably at the ground.
"Bastard! What time is it now? What affairs does he still need to handle? Have they forgotten that Fang Zhiyi is just a puppet emperor?" Furious, he immediately dispatched more men.
But this time, not only did Fang Zhiyi not show up, but the men sent were also detained.
"Are they trying to rebel?" Teng Shuchang's eyes widened in anger.
"To answer the general... because he entered the palace wearing a sword, Grand Commandant Yi ordered his men to apprehend Deputy General Guo."
"Good, very good!" Teng Shuchang laughed out of extreme anger. "I will go personally. I want to see just how capable this Fang Zhiyi is. A sovereign of a fallen nation actually managed to have a general under my command detained!"
He admitted that Fang Zhiyi had some skills, but he hadn't forgotten the fact that Fang Zhiyi was merely a pawn.
Teng Shuchang temporarily left the encampment and rushed toward the capital. He barged straight into the imperial palace. Fang Zhiyi wasn't there, so he stormed over to the bank. Sure enough, he found Fang Zhiyi there, looking at him with a bewildered expression.
"Fang Zhiyi, come with me, won't you?"
Fang Zhiyi paused for a moment, then nodded. "Sure."
Teng Shuchang hadn't expected Fang Zhiyi to be so compliant and was momentarily taken aback.
But just as he was about to leave with Fang Zhiyi, his horse was blocked.
Grand Commandant Yi stood ahead, smiling alongside several officials of the Mang dynasty. Teng Shuchang's anger surged. "Get out of the way! If you delay military matters, I will submit a memorial to impeach you!"
He was already at odds with this Grand Commandant Yi; seeing him now, he felt like eating him alive.
Grand Commandant Yi, however, was unhurried. He slowly raised the imperial edict in his hand. "General Teng, receive the edict, will you?"
Although extremely reluctant, Teng Shuchang had no choice but to dismount and listen obediently.
"Teng Shuchang, you have nurtured the enemy to elevate your own status, refusing to engage the rebels in a decisive battle. You even attempted to interfere in local government affairs and intercept tax revenues, living a life of extravagance and dissipation. You are hereby ordered to be stripped of your command immediately, demoted to a garrison commander, and the southern expeditionary army shall be handed over to someone else!"
Teng Shuchang sprang up at once. "Nonsense!"
Grand Commandant Yi glared at him. "Teng Shuchang! You are disrespecting the ruler!"
"I... when have I ever nurtured the enemy or intercepted taxes?"
Grand Commandant Yi chuckled. "You can submit a memorial to prove your innocence." He paused. "However... I think you should just accept it, General."
Teng Shuchang left, grinding his teeth in fury.
What exactly had happened?
After pondering for an entire night, he suddenly recalled a scene from that day. When he had left and glanced back, he saw Fang Zhiyi and Grand Commandant Yi walking away with their arms around each other's shoulders.
Fang Zhiyi! He suddenly realized the crux of the issue. Could he have been wrong? Had Fang Zhiyi never surrendered at all?
Going from a streak of victories to a sudden demotion, Teng Shuchang began to seriously reflect on the series of events that had occurred.
He arrived at a shocking conclusion: Fang Zhiyi hadn't surrendered! He was faking it!
Teng Shuchang took immediate action. He had to prove his innocence! Everything was a scheme cooked up by Fang Zhiyi and that guy surnamed Yi! He prepared to mobilize the troops, but the city's garrison commander stopped him.
"General Teng, troops cannot be mobilized lightly right now. It would be bad if the rebels attacked," the commander said, neither obsequious nor supercilious, though a hint of arrogance laced his tone.
Looking at his former subordinate, Teng Shuchang realized something in his heart.
Sure enough, when he sent someone to the front lines to deploy troops, the succeeding general turned a deaf ear. Teng Shuchang's heart went half cold.
His memorial of self-defense couldn't be delivered either. Teng Shuchang didn't know this; after sending it out, he tried to investigate privately. He first sought out his hidden informants, only to find that they had long forgotten about keeping an eye on Fang Zhiyi and were spending their days gambling with local thugs.
Furious, he drew his sword and killed two of the thugs on the spot. But what greeted him next was his arrest by his own people.
It took less than a month for Teng Shuchang to fall from a grand general to a prisoner.
At this moment, he finally understood. The current Li capital was no longer the Li capital of the past. That puppet emperor had woven a web of interests, tying all the officials of the Mang dynasty together. Even many of his own military subordinates had accepted bribes from Fang Zhiyi, and some officials and generals even held shares in Fang Zhiyi's businesses.
No wonder—making a move against him was tantamount to touching everyone else's money bags!
Teng Shuchang also finally realized that Grand Commandant Yi alone couldn't have impeached him. But what if his deputy generals were included?
He laughed aloud in his cell. They were wrong, all of them were wrong!
Fang Zhiyi wasn't some sovereign of a fallen nation; he was out to bring down their nation!
But no one listened to him, and no one even paid him any mind.
Even a few old fogeys within the Mang dynasty had received silver notes presented by Grand Commandant Yi and others. To them, war was war, but factional struggles still had to be fought. Although this Fang Zhiyi was good at making money, he had no power, no reputation, and no troops otherwise, so he was hardly a threat. What they truly feared was Teng Shuchang achieving the great merit of destroying the Li state.
Thus, the battle-hardened Teng Shuchang was inexplicably locked up.
Meanwhile, in Fang Zhiyi's tavern, several full tables of people were drinking and conversing merrily.
"Brother Fang's method is effective! Too effective."
"It'll be even easier to make money in the future, won't it? Now that our own people are guarding the checkpoints, doing business with the south will be much smoother."
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."
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.”
Cheng's father told him he was getting remarried—to a wealthy woman. Cao Cheng realized his time had finally come: he was about to become a second-generation rich kid. Sure, it might be a watered-down version, but hey, at least he'd have status now, right? The wealthy woman also had four daughters!! Which meant, starting today, Cao Cheng gained four stunning older sisters?? But that wasn't even the whole story... "My name is Cao Cheng—'Cheng' as in 'honest, smooth-talking gentleman'!"
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?
