"Wh-what?"
The man asked in astonishment, "What Tuoba Xiangtai?"
"Who are you?"
"Where is Luan'er?"
"What are you doing here?"
Hearing this, everyone snapped back to reality. The person before them was not the Third Prince of the barbarian tribe, Tuoba Xiangtai. But, damn it, the resemblance was uncanny!
Wearing the same plain clothes, possessing the same gentle and refined demeanor, looking like the exact same elegant young master... Even his facial expressions and the sound of his voice instinctively made people think that this was absolutely Tuoba Xiangtai!
The very Tuoba Xiangtai who had thrown the royal court into chaos and imprisoned Empress Xiao Mingzhao!
Alike, too alike, simply too alike!
Ren Tianye was the first to fully recover his wits, though he still sighed inwardly. Just where on earth did Xiao Mingzhao find such a person?
Are we sure this isn't Tuoba Xiangtai's twin brother?
They were practically cut from the same cloth!
Compared to the man in the portrait, you couldn't just say they looked extremely similar—they were exactly the same!
Wei Shuo's heart was also churning with towering waves.
He had never seen Tuoba Xiangtai, nor had he seen this man in the room before. He had only sent people to gather information, obtained a portrait, and coincidentally seen a painting of Tuoba Xiangtai at Xiao Ruyi's place, which was why he was so shocked beyond measure.
But seeing him with his own eyes now, he could barely keep his grip on his sword.
Too similar!
It made him want to treat the man before him as the alien barbarian Tuoba Xiangtai and hack him to death with a single strike!
After a long while, the crowd finally calmed their racing hearts.
Looking again with a clear head, they could spot some clues.
Although the man before them looked incredibly like Tuoba Xiangtai, he probably wasn't his twin brother. If one observed carefully, there were slight differences between him and Tuoba Xiangtai.
This man's nose bridge was a bit straighter, and he seemed slightly taller than the Tuoba Xiangtai in the portrait. However, portraits lacked a strict scale, so it was hard to say for sure; it was just a feeling.
Aside from that, there were more or less some minor differences in their facial features.
However, when combined, at first glance, he instantly made people think of Tuoba Xiangtai.
The most crucial part was...
This person's way of speaking, voice, behavior, and movements... were far too identical to Tuoba Xiangtai's.
It felt like he was a clone of Tuoba Xiangtai!
"Just who are you people?"
"Why didn't Luan'er come? Why did she send you?"
"Luan'er never allows outsiders to enter. How did you get in?"
As he asked, his expression suddenly changed. "What have you done to Luan'er? If you people dared to disrespect Luan'er, I'll fight you to the death!"
His elegant young master persona vanished in an instant as he postured to charge at them. However, before he could even make a move, Wang Ming easily subdued him.
Wang Ming nodded at Ren Tianye.
The meaning was obvious: this man knew no martial arts.
Ren Tianye looked at him and asked, "What is your name?"
The man struggled for a long time without breaking free, looking indignant and furious, but finally huffed out a word.
"Xiangxiang!"
"Wh-what?" Ren Tianye thought he had misheard and asked, "What did you say your name was?"
"My name is Xiangxiang. Are you deaf?"
Ren Tianye: "..."
"I am asking for your real name, your full name, your original name. What is it?"
Xiangxiang immediately replied, "Luan'er has ordered me to change my name to Xiangxiang. From now on, I am Xiangxiang, I must be called Xiangxiang, and all of you must call me Xiangxiang!"
He said this with a hint of arrogance.
This prompted Wang Ming to instantly press a blade against his neck, stating coldly, "Boy, speak properly to our Grand Commandant. Don't reject the face you are given!"
With the blade at his neck, Xiangxiang's expression did not change in the slightest; instead, he grew even more stubborn. "I said, my name is Xiangxiang! Even if swords and axes are brought down upon me, I am still Xiangxiang!"
"Even if you kill me, my name is Xiangxiang!"
"Alright, alright..." Ren Tianye waved his hand helplessly, signaling Wang Ming to lower his sword and release Xiangxiang. "If you want to be called Xiangxiang, then Xiangxiang it is."
"General Wei Shuo, what was his original name..."
Wei Shuo had looked up Xiangxiang's background, so he certainly knew. However, before Wei Shuo could answer, Xiangxiang flared up in anger again, "Are you insulting me?"
"You want to change my name?"
"Let me tell you, keep dreaming!"
"I am Xiangxiang! In this life I am Xiangxiang, in the next life I am Xiangxiang, and when I die, the name Xiangxiang must be carved on my tombstone!"
Ren Tianye: "..."
Fine, the name wasn't important anyway.
It was just that the crazed look of this man, fiercely protecting the name given to him by Xiao Mingzhao, was somewhat different from the Tuoba Xiangtai that Ren Tianye knew.
But he quickly understood.
This was the Tuoba Xiangtai in Empress Xiao Mingzhao's heart, or rather, the version of Tuoba Xiangtai that she imagined.
Having realized this, he lost much of his interest in this Xiangxiang and bluntly exposed his true identity.
"It seems Xiao Mingzhao treats you quite well to have specifically bestowed a name upon you. It's just..."
A half-smile played on Ren Tianye's lips. "I wonder if you are aware of what kind of person you are in Xiao Mingzhao's heart?"
"Luan'er's husband, of course!" As soon as Xiangxiang mentioned this, his arrogant air returned. "I am Luan'er's husband! The timing just isn't right at the moment. Luan'er said that one day, she will let me appear openly and honorably before everyone!"
"Holding her hand, telling the people of the world!"
"That I, Xiangxiang, am the person Luan'er loves the most!"
These words were shouted deafeningly loud, echoing through the roof tiles with quite an extraordinary momentum.
It demonstrated the extreme confidence in his heart.
However, Ren Tianye immediately poured a basin of cold water over him.
"You are overthinking things."
"As far as I know, you, Xiangxiang, are merely one of Empress Xiao Mingzhao's many body doubles. Moreover, you are the double who most resembles the man Xiao Mingzhao truly loves: Tuoba Xiangtai..."
Reaching this point, Ren Tianye's heart suddenly stirred.
Looking at Xiangxiang again, he suddenly felt like he had found a treasure!
In his plan to make Tuoba Xiangtai kill the Empress, he had used quite a few methods to pressure Tuoba Xiangtai, but none of them had yielded great results in the end.
Through the subtle clues in the memorials from the Imperial Chen Estate, he could see that the relationship between Tuoba Xiangtai and Empress Xiao Mingzhao was deteriorating. Tuoba Xiangtai was becoming increasingly unreasonable, sticking closer to Xiao Mingzhao and controlling her even more strictly.
Therefore, his ongoing plan was to wait for the time to ripen, wipe out the barbarian army outside the capital, drive Tuoba Xiangtai mad with rage, and then have Tuoba Xiangtai wield the knife.
Now, this plan remained unchanged.
But...
He could add a little spice to it!
If, while destroying the barbarian army outside the capital, he also sent this Xiangxiang over to Tuoba Xiangtai...
Ren Tianye was instantly thrilled.
Xiangxiang was also agitated at this moment. He immediately let out a roar and said angrily, "Nonsense! You're talking nonsense! How is that possible?"
"The person Luan'er loves the most is me!"
"How could I possibly be someone else's substitute?"
...
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!"
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.”
e vast world of cultivation, where he becomes the master of the Heavenly Ruins Sacred Hall, a dying old man with barely a tenth of his former cultivation remaining. He is immediately confronted with a deadly crisis: his subordinates have rebelled, and his protectors are forcing him to abdicate. At the critical moment, the system descends from the heavens: [Ding! The host has been detected facing a life-or-death crisis. The system is now officially activated!] [As a gift, you have received the Supreme Beginner’s Pack and awakened the ultimate cheat: ten thousand years of pure cultivation essence every second!] Yin Tianjue: “Wait… ten thousand years of cultivation every second? That’s six hundred thousand years a minute, and in one day… I can’t even calculate it. Either way, I’m already invincible!” You’re a peerless prodigy rarely seen in ten thousand years? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. You’re an undying ancestor who has guarded a sacred land for countless ages? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. You’re the strongest chosen one, blessed with heaven-defying destiny? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. From this day forth, I have only one thing to say: “I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. Now, how exactly are you supposed to deal with that?”
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."
