Zuo Qianqiu was somewhat dazed.
"After the registration, we need to set rules for them. Simply put, draft a public security management law for the martial arts world. I don't want to see any more martial arts vendettas. Even if there is a vendetta, it must go through the registration and approval of the Heaven-Shrouding Guard. Do you understand?"
Zuo Qianqiu froze for a good while before nodding. "Will it work? The martial artists will not submit to discipline; it is already good enough to achieve what we have now."
Fang Zhiyi replied, "I don't know if it will work, but at least I want to try."
Watching Fang Zhiyi leave, Zuo Qianqiu suddenly asked, "My Lord, what about the matter of the Wave-Breaking Blade..."
"He is a bastard, just wrap him in a straw mat and bury him... Hand over his brother's matter to the local county office. If someone drowns while trying to save another, the person who was saved must be severely punished. As for the Zhongshan Sect... deal with it as you see fit."
"In addition, all sects must hand in management fees monthly. I will have Brother Ergou give you the specific amount later. Also... there is one person who is very suitable for the Heaven-Shrouding Guard." He tossed out a slip of paper, and Zuo Qianqiu snatched it in his hand.
Looking at the word "Qijue" on the paper, Zuo Qianqiu swallowed hard. How could he have forgotten this old stubborn mule?
But thinking about it carefully, if Qijue could join, many things would become easier to handle.
After all, this guy had an excellent reputation throughout the entire martial arts world. He remembered that one of his old brothers had once fought a match with him. Halfway through the fight, when Qijue was losing, he suddenly said he had an urgent matter and needed to leave for a while. The old brother let him go without the slightest suspicion. He waited for a full day and night, and Qijue returned to the duel site covered in injuries.
Because of this, they didn't deal a killing blow to Qijue.
"People like you are better off alive than dead."
Of course, this didn't stop Qijue from continuing to look down on them, the members of the Demonic Cult.
Fang Zhiyi returned to his residence, sat down comfortably, and closed his eyes. After a long time, he said, "What, do you need an invitation?"
A figure stepped out from the corner.
"Heh, Brother Fang, you really are amazing. How did you know I was hiding here?"
Looking at that ugly face, Fang Zhiyi chuckled. "Right after you set off, I received the news. Don't forget that although the Heaven-Shrouding Cult is gone, Zuo Qianqiu has taken over their entire intelligence network."
"Damn, that's cheating!" Huang Chao was somewhat indignant.
The two fell into silence. Huang Chao finally opened his mouth. "When I joined the army, under the Great General's care—though I know they were doing it for you, or rather, your silver—my starting point was higher than others. Over the years, relying on the information you provided, even though I haven't made any massive contributions, catching spies and intercepting harassing barbarians has earned me quite a bit of merit."
Fang Zhiyi nodded.
"Originally, I thought that by destroying the Heaven-Shrouding Cult, I would have a respectable achievement to present and could move up the ranks. But I waited for half a year and still didn't receive any commendation from the imperial court. Later I found out that the Great General took all the credit."
His eyes turned somewhat ruthless. Looking at Fang Zhiyi's indifferent expression, he continued, "Before coming here this time, I heard you established a Heaven-Shrouding Guard, is that right?"
Fang Zhiyi nodded; this matter was public anyway.
"Soon, the Heaven-Shrouding Guard will also have to change its name. They won't let you hold onto any bargaining chips," Huang Chao said incisively. "Brother Fang, I am grateful to you, but I must also remind you: you make money for them, so naturally they speak up for you. But right now, you are subtly doing things that could alter the landscape of Western Shu. I'm sure someone has already set their sights on this fat piece of meat."
Fang Zhiyi signaled him to continue.
Huang Chao became agitated. "If it were you, if you were the one controlling these martial arts outlaws, I believe that commoners all over the world, just like you and me, would have a good life. But you're wrong, you are completely wrong!"
"It took me a long time to realize that what truly makes life miserable for the common people is not the martial arts world, but this incompetent imperial court that occupies positions without doing any work!"
"They clearly have the ability to pacify the chaos in the martial arts world, yet they choose to maintain the status quo. They know that commoners die in vendettas, but the government at most just symbolically hangs up a wanted poster for a few days. Is this right? Do you think doing this will change the world? It won't!" He paced back and forth agitatedly. "Soon they will reach out to the Heaven-Shrouding Guard you established, and then secretly control the martial arts world to seek greater profits for themselves."
He stared at Fang Zhiyi. "You're already deep in this vortex, do you know that? No matter how hard you try, you won't be able to climb any higher. What they want are people like you and me to do their bidding, not people to make decisions for the imperial court."
Fang Zhiyi let out a long breath. "Go do it."
Huang Chao was stunned for a moment. "What did you say?"
Fang Zhiyi smiled. "You didn't come here just to lecture me, did you?"
Huang Chao's expression changed. His long military life made him exude a murderous aura.
"The imperial court has already issued an order for me to go to the capital for debriefing, bringing the martial arts registry I compiled." Fang Zhiyi rubbed his eyes. "By then, there will be an assassination attempt against me. Of course, it will be fake, but in order to protect me and the things they want, someone will need to protect me."
Fang Zhiyi stared blankly at Huang Chao. "Do you understand?"
Huang Chao did not respond.
"What is the fastest way to launch a coup?" Fang Zhiyi stood up, speaking as if discussing the most ordinary thing in the world. "Kill all the key figures in the shortest amount of time."
Huang Chao silently bowed to Fang Zhiyi, then turned to leave. He had already gotten what he wanted.
From behind him came Fang Zhiyi's parting words. "You know, you can't be the emperor. The people of the world won't submit to you. If you sit on that throne, you will forever only be a rebel."
Huang Chao slowly turned his head, as if making an extremely difficult choice.
Fang Zhiyi suddenly smiled. "There's no need to be too serious. There is also a saying in the martial arts world: people have always judged heroes by their success or failure. Just like the destroyed Heaven-Shrouding Cult, if it had won, it would be an orthodox sect; the loser is the unforgivably wicked Demonic Cult."
He gently patted Huang Chao's back. Huang Chao turned around and bowed deeply to Fang Zhiyi, his previously conflicted eyes now firm.
Watching his figure disappear into the night, Fang Zhiyi sighed, "The wind is rising."
Little Hei also mimicked his nod, agreeing, "Crazy."
Everything went exactly as Fang Zhiyi had predicted. When setting off for the capital, he encountered a series of attacks. The attackers had no distinguishing features and were highly skilled. Although repelled by the Heaven-Shrouding Guard, they would always return in full force.
This also caused the convoy to be unable to move forward, so Fang Zhiyi applied to the capital for a military escort, specially emphasizing that he had a very important registry in his hands.
The imperial court agreed to this request directly without much thought. Many people were waiting for Fang Zhiyi's arrival in the capital, and they didn't think much of such a demand. Naturally, this task fell onto the active-minded Huang Chao.
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."
he colors of other people’s emotions. Light red meant anxiety. Gray meant exhaustion. Orange meant excitement. Yellow... meant repression. At the same time, he could gain unlimited control over one of those colors. Pale cyan: relaxation. Using this ability, he started offering “two-yuan hugs,” spending an afternoon exchanging emotional-color experiences with others. Then came his final female customer of the day— a girl whose emotional color was pure black... —— A week later, Xu Chuan had become skilled at using pale cyan—Relaxation—treating it like a bottle of menthol balm whenever he needed it. That was when he discovered he had unlocked another unlimited emotional color: Purple, the color of fear. So these emotional colors refresh every week? Fine, I take it back—I’ll never call you useless again... —— Much later, after Xu Chuan had accumulated countless emotional abilities, one night, he suddenly found himself inside someone else’s dream. There, he could use the emotional colors he possessed to paint. And in her dream, he painted her a shower of pink shooting stars, spreading across the depths of the night sky...
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.
e school belle recognized by the whole school, a genius girl from the kendo club. She also has a hidden identity, the youngest legendary demon hunter. Chen Shuo just transmigrated and found himself turned into a weak, helpless little vampire. He was caught by Su Xiyen and taken home at the very beginning. Since then, Chen Shuo's life creed only had two items. "First, classmate Su Xiyen is always right." "Second, if classmate Su Xiyen is wrong, please refer back to item one." Many years later, Chen Shuo, who had turned back into a human, led a pair of twins to appear in front of all the vampires to share the secret of how he turned back into a human. "It's simple, I tricked a female demon hunter into becoming my wife!"
