Worthless 017

Her confidants were utterly baffled.

Seriously, lady, what are you trying to do now that we've reached this point? Hurry up and force Fang Congyun to commit suicide, then take the princess hostage and rule the world!

But they could never guess what a heartbroken, love-struck fool was capable of doing.

Fang Congyun apologized with a face full of remorse, reminiscing about the past with her and talking about how his hands were tied. Jian Xiaoyu was moved.

She was actually moved!!!

In the split second she loosened her grip, the hidden imperial guards struck, snatching the hostage from their hands.

What immediately followed was a storm of blood and gore.

Even as she was subdued, Jian Xiaoyu still held out hope for Fang Congyun, right up until she realized she had been deceived once again.

But it was too late.

Fang Zhiyi was busy working while listening to Little Hei's description, grinning from ear to ear.

"So basically, this woman, Jian Xiaoyu, instantly turns into a formidable boss when she leaves Fang Congyun, but her weakness is that she just can't face her old flame."

"That's really hard to understand." Little Hei felt like he had just watched a terrible movie.

"It's not that hard to understand. There are plenty of tropes like this in movies, and sometimes reality is even more absurd than fiction."

"Makes sense."

"But we need to speed things up now... I really didn't expect that even after all this, Fang Congyun could still get back on the path to becoming the emperor. Tsk tsk, the will of the heavens is truly ridiculous."

Sure enough, a little over a month later, news spread across the world that Fang Congyun, with the princess's support, had married into the royal family and proclaimed himself emperor.

Immediately after came the purges. Several noble families who had opposed Fang Congyun were bathed in blood.

To consolidate his power, Fang Congyun established an agency directly under the emperor's control called the Supervisory Department. Its members were all Battle Qi warriors of the seventh tier or higher. Their role was to monitor the entire realm and report any anomalies directly to Fang Congyun.

"By the way, what level is Fang Congyun at now?"

Little Hei thought for a moment. "Approaching the ninth tier."

"Oh, that's pretty badass."

"Even though he's mostly been active in the capital, he's faced perilous situations several times, and he inexplicably breaks through his bottlenecks... That's just how his plot armor is set up, there's no reasoning with it."

Fang Zhiyi frowned. "This guy is definitely not someone to be trifled with."

The very guy he was talking about was currently enunciating three words, syllable by syllable: "Fang! Zhi! Yi!"

The men he sent out had captured his dear second uncle and the rest of the Fang family. They were all locked up in the heavenly prison, suffering torture alongside Jian Xiaoyu.

But just as Fang Congyun was spouting harsh words, a noble family patriarch who was also imprisoned there revealed a secret.

"Your eldest brother is not dead! That corpse back then wasn't Fang Zhiyi! The late emperor knew, and I know too!"

Fang Congyun's thoughts instantly flashed back to that time, when his family was driven to a dead end. He returned to the palace, pondered for a day and a night, and finally pieced together the truth he could surmise.

Fang Zhiyi was the one hiding behind the scenes, pulling the strings!

The anger and hatred in Fang Congyun's heart began to burn fiercely.

But where could this eldest brother be hiding?

Two Supervisory Envoys complained the whole way as they headed to Yicheng.

"This dump, the roads are garbage, and there are woods everywhere!"

"Stop complaining. Who told us to be so weak?"

"I heard that Gu family or whatever is in Yicheng. I'm going to take my anger out on them later!"

One of them narrowed his eyes. The new emperor had noticed that the Gu family hadn't paid their taxes in a long time, and they were here this time to hold them accountable.

However, when they stood at the city gates, both of them looked up in unison. The city guards seemed to have known they were coming and had closed the gates early on.

"You up there! If you know what's good for you, open the gates immediately! If you delay imperial business, your heads won't be enough to pay for it!"

They thought this threat would make the other party see sense, but the person who poked his head out looked them up and down for a moment and said, "Get lost."

"????"

When had the two envoys ever suffered such an insult? Even if they were the worst in the Supervisory Department, they were still powerful experts who could walk sideways anywhere in the world. Exchanging a glance, they channeled their Battle Qi and leaped high into the air.

"You're asking for death!"

But as they flew up, they saw the people above aiming some bizarre contraptions at them.

"You think jumping high makes you special?" Bold Wu's face was full of disdain.

"You..."

In the capital city of Shangjing, Fang Congyun sat on the imperial throne with a gloomy expression. He didn't know why, but he kept recalling the face of his useless eldest brother, haunting him like a ghost.

Yet, despite searching everywhere, there was no trace of Fang Zhiyi.

A palace servant rushed in from outside. "Your Majesty! Bad news! The envoys from the Supervisory Department, they, they..."

Fang Congyun frowned. With a mere wave of his hand, the servant clutched his own neck and collapsed limply to the ground, his face full of disbelief.

"So noisy."

He then looked at the two people who walked in behind the servant. One was the Supervisory Envoy he had sent out, but he looked incredibly battered and was even missing an arm. The other was a stranger, covered in filth from head to toe.

"Your Majesty! We met with resistance in Yicheng! Li Wei exploded and died on the spot. I barely managed to escape with my life!"

Fang Congyun's expression turned even uglier. Just as he was about to make a move, the envoy hurriedly said, "But I found him!" He used his only remaining hand to shove the filthy man. "Hurry up and greet His Majesty!"

The man hastily fell to his knees, kowtowing like pounding garlic.

"Who are you?"

"R-replying to Your Majesty, my name is Gu Xiaojia! I'm from the Gu family in Yicheng!"

Fang Congyun was slightly confused.

"A man named Fang Zhiyi led a bunch of commoners and occupied the Gu estate. He, he even locked up my father! I've tried everything over the years to no avail. If I hadn't taken the chance to crawl out through a drainage ditch this time, I'm afraid..." Gu Xiaojia's voice trembled. "Your Majesty, please seek justice for my Gu family!"

Fang Congyun only asked, "Who did you say?"

"Me, Gu Xiaojia."

"I am asking you, who occupied the Gu estate? Who!" He suddenly grew furious.

Gu Xiaojia was badly startled and quickly answered, "Fang, Fang Zhiyi. I don't know where he came from, I just know his name is Fang Zhiyi. He was in the timber business in Yicheng, but later, later they..."

Gu Xiaojia didn't know much. He only knew that Fang Zhiyi and his people had tools capable of fighting against Battle Qi, called tech guns or something.

"They also said, also said..." Gu Xiaojia looked at Fang Congyun with some fear.

"Said what?"

"Said that even if you became emperor, you're still nothing but a piece of trash!"

The armrest of the dragon throne instantly cracked, and the oppressive aura of a supreme expert swept through the entire room.

"Oh, big brother, big brother, why did you have to jump out?" Fang Congyun was smiling, but his smile was completely twisted. "You schemed and plotted, but so what? Aren't you still just a piece of trash?"

"Pass down my orders. Gather the troops. I shall personally go to Yicheng and pacify the rebels!"