"This commoner would not dare," Fang Zhiyi said.
The Emperor finally rested his gaze upon him. "Your perception is quite good, and you are very clever to have actually shaken off the trackers I sent. What a pity... Did you really think this remote southwest could offer you sanctuary?"
"This commoner merely... wanted to buy some time," Fang Zhiyi smiled.
"I have also helped you deal with your family's affairs. Now, tell me about what you owe me, about these things." He stood there, an invisible, overwhelming pressure sweeping through the entire laboratory.
"Your Majesty doesn't seem very surprised to see these?" Fang Zhiyi tilted his head.
Though the Emperor was smiling, his eyes revealed a hint of murderous intent, as if he felt Fang Zhiyi was asking too many questions.
Yet Fang Zhiyi was completely unafraid, meeting his gaze directly.
After a long while, the Emperor suddenly shook his head. "Remarkable courage. It's a pity you are destined to be unable to cultivate Douqi, otherwise you would have died just now."
Fang Zhiyi smiled.
"I once saw an ancient tome. The descriptions within were somewhat fragmented, but incredibly novel. I originally thought it was just the wild imagination of some scholar, but then I inadvertently came across some... strange items." He patted non-existent dust from his sleeve. "I just didn't expect that a piece of trash like you could find this... bizarre place. Don't tell me you just happened to be here by coincidence."
With that, he stared at Fang Zhiyi. "Tell me what you know, and I will spare your life."
Fang Zhiyi's hand subtly hid behind his back. This slight movement was instantly detected by the Emperor, a peak-stage Douqi warrior.
With just a slight movement from the Emperor, Fang Zhiyi felt a surge of power rush at his face. Immediately after, a sharp pain struck his wrist, and his entire arm went numb. In the next moment, the device he had just assembled fell into the Emperor's hands.
The Emperor held the square box in his hand, examining it closely.
"What secrets are there left in this world that I do not know..."
Fang Zhiyi's eyes suddenly turned cold. "Old Ghost, do you want to live or die?"
The Emperor was taken aback by this question, his narrow eyes glaring at Fang Zhiyi. "Are you insulting me?"
Just as he spoke, the square block in his hand suddenly generated a massive suction force.
"You bastard kid! Just you wait!"
That was the remnant soul in the jade pendant screaming. It shouted, but it didn't dare to stop for a second. One must know that the Emperor's Douqi level could obliterate it ten times over. In comparison, it was much more willing to listen to Fang Zhiyi's talk about reconstructing a physical body.
After all, it had truly seen those strange contraptions.
"What kind of hidden weapon is this!" The Emperor tried to shake off the object in his hand, but the square block clung tightly to his palm, even sinking into his flesh. He could feel his Douqi rapidly draining into the small device.
At this moment, a tremendous panic surged into his heart. He felt a mix of shame and anger. As an Emperor, he had never panicked once. Even when he personally killed his eight brothers for the throne, and even murdered his own uncle, he had never felt a trace of panic.
"You actually plotted against me!"
Fang Zhiyi visibly breathed a sigh of relief. He had been gambling, and clearly, he had won.
"What do you mean I plotted against you? You snatched it yourself, alright?"
The Emperor's originally youthful skin began to show wrinkles as his Douqi drained away. His face rapidly aged, and his black hair began to turn white.
"Ah!!!!!!"
His furious roar echoed out through the narrow door. The four imperial guards outside exchanged glances and rushed in without hesitation.
What they saw was a sixty-year-old man struggling in agony, while the trash of the Fang family looked at them with a face full of mockery, playfully shaking a small gadget in his hand.
"First experiment. Thank you all for participating."
A massive burst of energy suddenly exploded.
The injured commoners outside stared dumbfounded as a brilliant white light suddenly pierced through the narrow doorway. Everyone was utterly stunned.
After everything went completely silent, Li San was the first to rush over, followed closely by the others.
Several charred corpses lay on the ground, completely unrecognizable from their original appearance.
"Young Master!"
"Young Master Fang!"
They were in a panic. They had thought today would be their day of death, but the sudden turn of events left them entirely baffled.
"Pah, pah." In the messy laboratory, a figure covered in dirt and ash crawled up from behind a table. "Damn it, if this lab wasn't sturdy enough, this blast power... tsk tsk."
"Young Master Fang!" Seeing that he was unharmed, the crowd couldn't help but grow excited.
After the excitement came fear.
The Emperor was dead. He died inside this room they had dug out, taking four imperial guards down with him.
No one would dare believe such a fantastical tale, but they had no choice but to believe it.
Bold Wu's injuries were a bit more severe. Clutching his chest, he spoke with a tone of regret: "It's a pity this place is ruined..."
Li San looked at him, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. "Is this really about the room being ruined?"
Fang Zhiyi patted the dust off his body. "What does it matter if it's ruined? Tomorrow I'll take you guys to find a new, better place."
Little Hei looked entirely displeased. "Don't plagiarize the fruits of my labor!"
"Oh, come on, don't be a stranger. What's yours is mine, and what's mine is still mine."
"Huh?"
The task of calming everyone down was very simple, because they had truly witnessed Fang Zhiyi, an ordinary person, take out five top-tier experts.
Even though they didn't know what method he used.
"Science," Fang Zhiyi said.
They had heard Fang Zhiyi mention this word before, but no one had ever taken it seriously. Today, however, they attached extraordinary importance to it.
"Can we learn it too?" someone asked, while the others also looked on with full expectation.
Seeing their expressions, Fang Zhiyi held back a smile and nodded. "Of course, all of you can."
The crowd cheered with joy.
"It's over, a bunch of nuclear-powered donkeys have just been born," Little Hei said with a sigh.
"Don't make it sound like I'm tricking them." Fang Zhiyi rolled his eyes at it, then turned to look at the jade pendant he had just dug out of his hand. "Old Ghost, how was it?"
After a long time, the remnant soul replied with a trembling voice, "Great hero, no, Teacher, from now on I will take you as my master!"
As the primary eyewitness, it had tangibly felt the power of this so-called science for itself—a power that could instantly obliterate several masters! If it had tried to absorb their Douqi on its own, it would have been swatted to death before it could even make a move. But through Fang Zhiyi's design, it had actually achieved such a feat!
Never mind calling you a teacher, I'd even acknowledge you as my adoptive father!
"Let's put that aside for now. Were you cursing at me earlier?"
The remnant soul fell silent for a moment. "Um, I didn't... I..."
"Young Master Fang, what should we do next?" After the rejoicing, Li San asked the crucial question.
Fang Zhiyi stroked his chin. "With the Emperor gone, the world will fall into chaos... and our opportunity has arrived." He glanced at these rebellious fellows. "To succeed, we must first build momentum, and to build momentum, we have to learn how to package ourselves."
The crowd was completely baffled.
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.
. As long as he maintains the villain image and follows the plot to the grand finale, he can obtain generous rewards and return to the real world. So Gu Chen'an entered the role and began to act as a scumbag villain, but who would have expected that the female leads could hear his inner thoughts. Miss Su from the Su family was shocked: "I originally thought Gu Chen'an was a scumbag, but I didn't expect he turned out to be a gentleman! What? You said I have to call off the engagement? I definitely won't, I'll piss you off!" Bai Yuan Tian was dumbfounded: "Young Master Gu is usually unreasonable and a complete brat, but he actually calls me little sweetie in his heart? What, Young Master Gu even said he likes me?" As the female leads' images collapsed more and more, the plot also collapsed with it. Gu Chen'an looked at all this chaos. "Ladies, don't aggro me, if you keep this up the male lead really will stab me, I still need to survive to the grand finale!"
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.”
