With the secret cooperation and propaganda of the Imperial City Command, even in this era of poor communication, the common people came to realize the terror of the Jin invaders. Under his intentional and unintentional promotion, everyone across the nation, even children just a few years old, understood the significance of resisting the Jin.
"Reclaim the Sixteen Prefectures of Yan and Yun!"
"Slay the Jin dogs!"
As the incorporated bandit armies cooperated with the Imperial City Command to eliminate numerous local tyrants one after another, the internal structure of the Song Dynasty gradually unified. The previous phenomenon of orders from above failing to reach the lower levels vanished. For the newly appointed officials filling the vacancies, their first lesson was a guided tour of the Imperial City Guards' dungeons, serving as a stark reminder to keep them in line.
Such massive changes eventually reached the ears of Emperor Huizong of Song, brought to him through the painstaking efforts of marginalized civil officials.
"Nonsense! What war are we fighting? The Great Song is doing perfectly fine, why should we go to war? I was wondering why Fang Zhiyi hasn't been coming around lately. How dare he mobilize the army behind my back?"
However, he only now realized that aside from throwing tantrums at his concubines, he was practically useless.
His orders could not even leave the imperial palace.
Emperor Huizong finally realized, albeit too late, that he had been entirely stripped of his power.
But it was already too late. To his horror, he discovered that the current Great Song could operate smoothly even without him. The Directorate of Ceremonial, which he had nodded in approval to establish, now completely represented the imperial power. Any civil official who voiced dissent was either imprisoned or met a violent end. Over time, almost no one mentioned the Emperor, who was now nothing more than a mascot.
Fang Zhiyi's power had reached its absolute zenith.
Yet, even someone like Fang Zhiyi was currently facing trouble.
"I've always been the one bullying others. Damn it, now I'm the one getting bullied?"
"Major worlds are just like this... The system wouldn't dare act recklessly in the open. After all, the Heavenly Dao can watch the trajectory change, but it won't allow extraneous forces to intervene in its own world."
"Damn it, they actually pulled out guns!!!" Fang Zhiyi jumped straight up. "Chong Shidao even wrote to me saying the spear is the king of all weapons, but damn it, he didn't say it was this kind of gun!" He shook the crude matchlock gun in his hand.
"Now look what's happened. The grand army is blocked at Juyong Pass, and they say the vanguard battalion under Song Jiang has suffered heavy casualties!"
Fang Zhiyi paced back and forth. "I'm always the one shooting others, and now I'm getting shot at?"
Little Hei didn't quite know how to console him and could only remain silent.
On his third lap, Fang Zhiyi suddenly stopped, his eyes locked onto the map.
"Men! Summon Tang Long and the others! No! Summon all the craftsmen!"
"Yes, sir!"
Little Hei asked cautiously, "Have you figured out a solution?"
Fang Zhiyi's gaze remained fixed on the map. "A mere Jin State dares to play technological suppression with me? I've studied the technology of advanced civilizations! I'd like to see what's faster: their production of those crappy guns, or my technological development! Every single mineral vein on this land is memorized right here in my head..."
"Song Jiang! If you can't handle it, step down, I can take them!" The bare-chested burly monk glared with wide, bull-like eyes.
Song Jiang's face was dark. "Juyong Pass is already treacherous. Now that they have this thing called a firearm defending the city, no one can break through."
Wu Song grabbed his twin blades. "I don't believe these Jin dogs have three heads and six arms! Let me go and face them..."
"Halt!" Chong Shidao also frowned. "I have already sent the captured firearm to the Lord. I am sure he will have a countermeasure."
"Just waiting around like this isn't a solution either!" Wang Bing was impatient. "When we marched out, the common people lined the streets to cheer us on, and now we can't even conquer a single Juyong Pass? Isn't this... sigh!"
As they were speaking, someone else hurried into the tent.
"We've investigated it clearly!"
Seeing the newcomer flash the waist tag of the Imperial City Command, Chong Shidao immediately stood up and asked, "What is it?"
"The person providing firearms to the Jin dogs..." He cast an unfriendly glance at the former Liangshan forces. "His name is Shao Jiang! He is currently treated as an honored guest by the Jin marshal!"
The Liangshan men all gasped in shock. This Shao Jiang was actually still alive? And he really defected to the Jin State?
Seeing everyone looking at him, Lu Zhishen quickly clarified, "I knew nothing of this. That night, when he proposed defecting to the Jin State, I knew his mind was crooked. But considering we were brothers after all, I merely parted ways with him..."
"Brother, that night you should have let Erniang chop him down with one strike!" Zhang Qing gritted his teeth.
"Sigh! How was I supposed to know him, that he could actually create something like this!"
While they were at their wits' end, another person galloped over; it was Dai Zong.
Dai Zong looked around the circle and finally knelt before Chong Shidao, who quickly helped him up.
"Marshal, the western army under Guan Sheng and Li Gang has suddenly begun to retreat!"
"What? The order I gave them was to..." Chong Shidao suddenly paused. "Is there an order from the imperial court?"
Dai Zong nodded, pulling a letter from his chest and handing it to Chong Shidao.
After reading it, Chong Shidao remained silent for a long time before finally ordering, "The entire army will make camp. No one is to go out and engage the enemy!"
Wu Song asked, "Marshal, what is..."
"The Lord has ordered. The lethality of those firearms is limited, and he has countermeasures, but he needs time... And during this period, we only have one mission."
He glanced around at the crowd. "Defend to the death! We absolutely cannot let the Jin invaders advance even an inch!"
"State Preceptor, State Preceptor, you truly are a noble benefactor to our Great Jin!" The ruler of the Jin State walked smilingly into Shao Jiang's mansion. At this moment, Shao Jiang was very relaxed, leaning in the embrace of one beauty while enjoying being fed by another.
"That Song army doesn't dare continue their attack now; they can only halt where they are."
"Hahaha, they were always weak and useless!" Shao Jiang laughed. He had suffered greatly to defect to the Jin State. If not for relying on his system, he probably would have died on the road.
"I wonder if the State Preceptor could speed up the progress of manufacturing the firearms a little." The ruler's face was full of greed, and a flash of disdain crossed his eyes as he looked at Shao Jiang. "Once we have enough firearms, our Jin State can destroy Liao and conquer Song!"
"These are divine artifacts... It's not like they can be produced at a moment's notice. Go back and wait, I will do my best."
The ruler's face twitched, but he still backed out with an apologetic smile. He even sent someone to deliver a few more beauties, making Shao Jiang so delighted that his eyes narrowed into slits.
"Host, your progress toward domination is a bit slow," the system prompted.
Shao Jiang was impatient. "I know, I know. You have to eat a meal one bite at a time. If I hand the technology over to them, these people will definitely kill me. I have to keep this technology firmly in my own hands... When the time is right, I'll make my move, playing the oriole behind the mantis stalking the cicada!"
He thought for a moment. "However... the materials you provided me are all so complicated, like a history book of weapon evolution."
"Host, you need to study more."
"I got it." Although Shao Jiang answered this way, seeing the newly arrived beauties, he immediately became joyful again. Having been miserable for so long, enjoying himself a little wasn't too much to ask, was it?
Unlike Shao Jiang, who guarded his knowledge like a secret treasure, Fang Zhiyi directly imparted the entire process to Tang Long and the others. He then urged them to start working, setting off an industrial trend in the Song Dynasty, an era primarily known for its poetry and literature.
However, not a single piece of information leaked out, because the Imperial City Guards had doubled the number of their patrols! The Jin spies had absolutely no chance to uncover anything before they were suddenly captured and made to completely disappear.
During this time, the previously warring Song and Jin armies fell into a stalemate. The Jin army hurled insults outside the camp every day, making Wu Song and the others struggle to suppress their anger. However, because Chong Shidao kept them in check, they did not cause any major disasters. Just as Fang Zhiyi had predicted, relying on those firearms, the Jin army could do nothing to them for the time being. Following that, Chong Shidao even ordered the entire army to retreat, simply stationing them in a small city not far away to face the Jin army from a distance. Both sides wanted to devour the other, but both were biding their time.
Right after Shao Jiang led some craftsmen to produce another batch of matchlock guns, the ruler of the Jin Kingdom immediately ordered these divine weapons to be sent to the frontline to break through the Song army's defense lines and launch a full-scale offensive!
The Song army was already weak to begin with. With these firearms, the Jin Kingdom would surely beat them into submission once again, perhaps even wiping out their entire nation!
The Imperial City Guards, operating undercover within the Jin Kingdom's sphere of influence, sent back news of the enemy's unusual movements. Fang Zhiyi was not surprised at all. Calculating the time, it was already approaching the historical timeline of the Jin invasion of the Song.
"The grand world is indeed rigorous, tsk," Fang Zhiyi chuckled.
Chong Shidao, standing to the side, looked at him. The other generals were also looking at him. No one spoke; everyone was waiting for Fang Zhiyi's orders.
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."
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.
s + Rent Collection Wealth】 At the start, he inherited a rundown house in the urban village from his grandfather. The house had no tenants, but the moment he was diagnosed with a terminal illness, a self-proclaimed empress from the Tianxuan Continent arrived as his first tenant. Ye Chuan soon discovered that with every new tenant moving in, not only did he receive massive daily payments, but he also obtained unique items related to their backgrounds. 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Tiger Strength Pill—dramatically enhances physical power!】 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Deer Blood Pill—significantly boosts vitality!】 …… From that day on, all sorts of bizarre tenants began appearing in the house: the empress from Tianxuan Continent, an apocalyptic sorceress from the Magic Realm, a mysterious scientific girl who fell through a spacetime rift… Every single day, he received strange, powerful items and endless money. Then one day, he suddenly realized—he had become invincible. Enough, enough! Stop giving me more!
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...
