As Fang Zhiyi had predicted, the mutually antagonistic Guo and Huang once again found themselves at odds over the administration of the Spring Examination. Neither even considered asking the emperor to mediate; instead, they secretly set traps for one another.
The Huang family's men collected entry fees at the city gates from scholars arriving for the exam, only for the Guo family's men to immediately play the righteous heroes and brawl with the Huang soldiers. Even trivial matters like providing accommodation for the scholars became pretexts for their clashes. For a time, brawls broke out all over the capital. The patrolling city guards didn't dare intervene, pretending they saw nothing at all.
The cheating lists provided by the Huang family, who had taken bribes, were stolen in the blink of an eye by the Guo family's spies. What followed was a barrage of mutual mudslinging and verbal abuse.
A perfectly good Spring Examination turned into a complete joke. More than half of those sitting in the examination hall were there through connections. The invigilators stared straight ahead, while scholars getting up to peek at their neighbors' papers did so as casually as if they were dropping by for a visit.
However, halfway through the exam, another squad of soldiers charged in and began arresting people without hesitation, citing examination fraud. The examiners knew this was the Huang family arresting the Guo family's cronies, so they could only continue to look the other way. As a result, the Guo family's men also arrived in the afternoon, this time arresting the Huang family's cronies.
The entire examination hall was noisier and more chaotic than a vegetable market.
The Young Emperor only heard about this after the exam had concluded. The conflict between Guo and Huang had deepened significantly. They stood far apart from each other, looking as though they were ready to come to blows just by exchanging a glare.
"Then, then is this Spring Examination considered a failure?" the Young Emperor asked cautiously, a tone perfectly fitting his persona.
"Hmph! If the Grand Marshal hadn't interfered and arrested innocent candidates, we wouldn't have made such a laughingstock of ourselves in front of the world's scholars! How will they ever trust the imperial court again?" Huang Huaili immediately unleashed his ultimate move.
Guo Qianyue was not to be outdone: "Lord Huang, I had evidence for every arrest I made. It's one thing for you to let people in to cheat, but you even had them bring their tutors directly inside? Isn't that going too far?"
"You're spouting nonsense!"
"You have no respect for your own age!"
"You..."
"Grand Marshal, Chancellor, what, what should I do? With the Spring Examination turning out like this, it's our face that's being lost," the Young Emperor asked timidly.
The two mortal enemies glared at each other. Huang Huaili had some fondness for the Young Emperor, considering he had spoken up for him before. "Your Majesty, there are still some candidates who managed to finish their papers. They are currently being reviewed by the Ministry of Rites." He shot a sidelong glance at Guo Qianyue. "This incident was caused entirely by certain people acting on their own authority and handling matters unfairly. Rest assured, Your Majesty, I will handle this matter properly and absolutely will not let the world make a joke out of Your Majesty."
"Who are you talking about?"
"I'm talking about you."
Watching them start attacking each other again, the Young Emperor couldn't help but glance at Fang Zhiyi. The Grand Tutor was truly amazing to have predicted all of this!
Fang Zhiyi felt a bit smug inwardly. Kidding aside, the tricks these guys were playing were just the leftovers of what he used to do.
"Grand Tutor, you said they would let me preside over the review of those exam papers. Is that true or false?"
"It's nine times out of ten a certainty. After all, this was a massive embarrassment. They both want to save face, so wouldn't you make the perfect scapegoat? That way, even if news of this Spring Examination farce spreads, it will be blamed on you, the emperor, for giving blind orders. It will have absolutely nothing to do with them."
"That's too much."
"We want them to go too far." Fang Zhiyi looked at him. "Think about it. Once the waters are muddied this time, who stands to benefit?"
"Commander Guo? No, his connections were all arrested by Chancellor Huang's soldiers... But Chancellor Huang's connections were also taken away by Commander Guo's men... I can't figure it out."
Fang Zhiyi raised his hand and flicked him on the forehead.
The Young Emperor covered his forehead, looking utterly aggrieved.
"You."
"Me?"
"Think about it. Since their well-connected cronies couldn't successfully finish the exam, who are the ones that did finish?" Fang Zhiyi stood up. "Poor scholars from remote areas, descendants of fallen noble families, and maybe even self-taught scholars..."
"What do these people have in common?"
He looked at the Young Emperor, who hemmed and hawed for a long time without coming up with an answer.
"They have no backing, dummy. The imperial court is full of their people, but these scholars have no backing. That is to say, they will only have eyes for the Emperor. If you give them enough signals, they will become your people."
The Young Emperor's eyes lit up. His own subjects?
"But don't get happy just yet. If you really do that, Guo and Huang will quickly realize something is wrong, and then, you know." Fang Zhiyi poured cold water on his excitement. "Even without passing the Spring Examination, their cronies can still enter the imperial court. Otherwise, did you think they would need your nod of approval?"
"Then, Grand Tutor, why did you say it benefits me?"
"It does benefit you. What you need to do now is plant a few nails."
"Nails?"
"When the results are announced, do exactly as I say. Symbolically offer these successful scholars a few inconspicuous official posts, and throw the rest to... Chancellor Huang to decide."
"Give them to Chancellor Huang again? Commander Guo will want to kill me." The Young Emperor hesitated a little.
"If you do nothing, he'll want to kill you even more."
"But..."
"Do you know what a sunk cost is?" Fang Zhiyi asked.
The Young Emperor shook his head honestly.
"The more you invest, the harder it is to pull out. That's exactly Huang Huaili's mindset right now. The first time you added weight to his side, he accepted the favor, and then the Black Armor Guards saved you once. That was his investment. Then came the administration of the Spring Examination. Although Guo Qianyue snatched half of it away, he still has to appreciate the gesture. What you need to do now is make him feel that you subconsciously favor his side, and he will continue to invest in you." Fang Zhiyi glanced at two eunuchs whispering to each other not far away. "Those two eunuchs are also the Huang family's people."
"The more he invests in you, the more unable he will be to extricate himself. And because of this, you will be safer. Even if Guo Qianyue wants to make a move against you, he won't allow it."
"I think I understand, Grand Tutor."
"You understand my foot. Write down your reflections before dark, recite them to me, and then burn the paper."
"Ah?"
"Otherwise, skip dinner."
"Oh..." The Young Emperor felt a bit gloomy, but he listened anyway.
Just as Fang Zhiyi had said, the few scholars selected by the Ministry of Rites were somewhat terrified. Meanwhile, Guo and Huang, despising each other as they did, paid them no mind at all. Ultimately, they would use their own methods to promote their respective cronies anyway. These current candidates were merely putting on a show for the world.
Sure enough, when the Young Emperor proposed a few dispensable positions and looked to Huang Huaili with an expression of seeking advice, Huang Huaili was amused. This Young Emperor truly understood nothing at all. However, seeing the Young Emperor's pleading gaze, he still felt quite a bit of satisfaction.
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
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.”
grated, and just when he finally managed to get into an elite academy, he discovered that he actually had a system, and the way to earn rewards was extremely ridiculous. So for the sake of rewards, he had no choice but to start acting ridiculous as well. Su Cheng: "It's nothing but system quests after all." But later, what confused Su Cheng was that while he was already quite ridiculous, he never expected those serious characters to gradually become ridiculous too. And the way they looked at him became increasingly strange... (This synopsis doesn't do it justice, please read the full story)
lity and could only live as an ordinary mortal. He only wished to live a peaceful life. Yet he didn't know— The dog he adopted, because it ate his food, became a legendary demon king. The kitchen knife he casually forged became a peerless divine weapon, causing numerous experts to fight desperately for it. The young disciple he took in became an immortal lord that led an era, due to cultivating the techniques Ye Feng taught him. Even the skeletons he looked down on the most were ominous demon kings that suppressed countless worlds. Many years later, looking at the void shattered with a punch, Ye Feng murmured to himself: It turns out the peerless kings were myself all along...
