Wei Shuo and Wang Ming went to scout first. After confirming there was no danger, they came to report: "Lord Duke, there is a woman inside. She has been dead for quite some time."
"I suppose this is the Third Palace Master, Liu Qingyan."
Ren Tianye nodded, thinking the same in his heart.
After all, this person was named Liu Qingyan, not Liu Ruyan.
If it were Liu Ruyan, he would never easily believe that she would die, but if it was Liu Qingyan...
Then her death was normal.
And in his heart, he also had a clearer understanding and speculation about this Tongxin Alliance.
This Tongxin Alliance should be controlled by three Palace Masters.
Just like how the Palace of Shifting Flowers was controlled by two princesses.
Among them, the Third Palace Master was the dead person before him, Liu Qingyan.
The First Palace Master, without a doubt, must be Liu Ruyan, Great Emperor Ruyan!
As for the Second Palace Master...
What 'yan' would her surname Liu be?
Liu Yunyan?
Liu Xiayan?
Liu Feiyan?
Liu Muyan?
Anyway, she couldn't possibly be named Liu Maoyan (Liu Emitting-Smoke)!
Thinking like this, Ren Tianye leaned in for a closer look. The woman's corpse had been there for a few years, shriveled but not rotten, skin clinging to the bones, but the contours of her face were still somewhat clear.
But precisely because of these contours, Ren Tianye could tell at a glance that this woman's appearance was only ordinary, even... quite a bit worse than ordinary.
"No wonder..."
"No wonder she didn't go to seduce Xiao Jingyuan herself, but pinned her hopes on the Prostitute Empress. Her looks just didn't make the cut."
"She could only hide behind the scenes and act as a strategist."
"But if a mere strategist had such capabilities, then Liu Ruyan's appearance must be absolutely extraordinary. With such skills, there's no telling how much chaos she could stir up."
Ren Tianye almost subconsciously thought this way.
As for why he felt the First Palace Master of the Tongxin Alliance, Liu Ruyan, was a peerless beauty?
He hadn't thought about it.
But he knew that Liu Ruyan had been bad, had been scum, had been miserable, had been poor, had been rich, and had been vicious, but she had never been ugly!
She was definitely a peerless great beauty!
Even when old, she would be a peerless great beauty!
"Lord Duke, the items in the coffin have been taken away by someone. Now there is nothing left."
Wang Ming reported after finishing his search of the coffin.
Wei Shuo was still unconvinced and also felt around the coffin, but sure enough, there was nothing.
Ren Tianye was somewhat disappointed.
His ultimate goal was this Third Palace Master of the Tongxin Alliance. After expending so much effort, he got nothing?
He was unwilling to accept this!
He immediately ordered: "Wang Ming, drag her out of the coffin, strip her, and see if there is anything hidden?"
The ancients placed the utmost importance on respecting the dead, especially scholars like Su Pengcheng and Pei Jingzhi. But at this moment, both men remained silent. Pei Jingzhi even wished he could do it himself.
It was this woman who bewitched the Prostitute Empress, seduced the late Emperor, and placed Xiao Mingzhao, a female emperor of unknown bloodline, onto the throne, causing the Great Yu empire to crumble.
His hatred was like a surging ocean; he simply wanted to do it himself!
Let alone stop them.
Thus, under the efforts of the soldiers, Liu Qingyan was quickly searched thoroughly. Although her personal effects were not found, they did find something useful.
On the back of the plain white wide-sleeved robe she was wearing, something was written.
Wang Ming was afraid of startling Ren Tianye, so he didn't dare to hand it up directly. Instead, he handed it to Pei Jingzhi, who read it out word by word.
"By the grace of Heaven, the Emperor decrees: We regard love as heaven and see romance as supreme. Disliking how etiquette and teachings bind affection, and how hierarchy separates hearts, We specially decree the establishment of the Tongxin Alliance."
"They are permitted to widely spread true love, regardless of noble or lowly status!"
"Officials are not to obstruct them."
"We command that love is paramount. Those who dare to obstruct shall be punished for treason..."
Pei Jingzhi had only read a few words when his face flushed red.
Then it turned pale.
Finally, his body swayed unsteadily.
His face was full of misery.
Tracing the source, the root lay in the imperial palace.
The late Emperor created it, and the female Emperor inherited it.
Now, after more than a hundred years, was this world of Great Yu still a normal world?
Could the Tongxin Alliance, bearing an imperial mandate, still be considered an ordinary martial arts faction? I am afraid they have already spread throughout the entire world, becoming too big to fail and impossible to clean up!
He, Pei Jingzhi, had actually devoted half his life in loyalty to Great Yu.
How laughable, how sorrowful, how lamentable!
Su Pengcheng, Wang Ming, and Wei Shuo also had faces full of shock.
Even Ren Tianye was dumbfounded.
This freaking... was the imperial edict issued by that dog Xiao Jingyuan!
An imperial edict issued to the Tongxin Alliance!
With this edict, hasn't the Tongxin Alliance reached the heavens?
After so many years of development, Ren Tianye could almost imagine how massive the Tongxin Alliance's power must be.
"So this is the source!"
He sighed, and then his heart skipped a beat.
It is over.
With the Tongxin Alliance's level of pollution, he was afraid he would have to conquer the world all over again. Otherwise, although he seemingly controlled the whole world now, his decrees actually couldn't be passed down at all.
Moreover...
The female Emperor had been deposed. Once these people from the Tongxin Alliance knew that their vision of building a great harmony in the world through the female Emperor had come to nothing, they would probably... soon plunge the world into great chaos.
"Damn it, after tossing about for so long, it was all for nothing."
Ren Tianye was somewhat frustrated.
He let Wang Ming handle Liu Qingyan and continue searching to see if they could find any new clues, while he returned to the Duke Ren's Mansion, pondering what to do next!
He pondered for several days in a row, and there was only one conclusion...
Fight!
Conquer the world all over again!
Just like Cao Cao back in the day!
The King of Wei was able to declare himself Emperor because the world was conquered by him!
Having made this decision, he needed to prepare the army and horses.
At this time, Su Jin from the Demon Suppression Division happened to come to report: "Lord Duke, the matter concerning the female Emperor Xiao Mingzhao has been mostly investigated. From the current clues, combined with the confession of the Liu family, there is a high probability that Xiao Mingzhao is not of imperial blood."
Ren Tianye nodded: "Continue to collect evidence. Either we don't announce this matter, or if we do, it must be an ironclad case."
"Yes!"
"By the way, how is Pei Jingzhi lately?"
Su Jin's eyes sharpened: "Pei Jingzhi is performing very well. Following the Demon Suppression Division, he has personally killed two Love Demons. He has seen blood on his hands, and his gaze is more ruthless than before."
"Also, Pei Jingzhi submitted a strategy to adjust the structure of the Demon Suppression Division and flesh out its details. This subordinate thinks it is very well written and requests the Lord Duke to review it."
Ren Tianye took it and saw that in the strategy written by Pei Jingzhi, he retained the two main Demon Suppression Envoys, one primary and one deputy. Under the Demon Suppression Envoys, three core divisions were established.
They were the Emotion Detective Division, the Emotion Severing Division, and the Emotion Purging Division.
Under the three divisions, four major institutions were set up: the Emotion Chasing Bureau, the Emotion Suppression Prison, the Emotion Banning Terrace, and the Emotion Breaking Court.
This completely perfected the organizational structure of the Demon Suppression Division.
And it proposed the core tenet of the Demon Suppression Division.
"Private affections are as light as a feather; the state is as heavy as Mount Tai."
"Those who throw the world into chaos for the sake of love and romance shall be executed by anyone and everyone."
"If the Love Demons are not eradicated, discipline cannot exist; if obsessive desires are not cut off, the nation cannot be at peace!"
...
Ren Tianye read through them one by one and was quite satisfied.
Pei Jingzhi really was a treasure. He could be moved wherever he was needed, and the key was that he did a good job.
"Lord Duke, there is one more thing..." Su Jin showed some hesitation, knelt on the ground, and was about to speak.
At this moment, the startled cry of a messenger soldier suddenly rang out from outside the door.
"Report!"
"Tongguan has fallen. Lin Zixiao's army is less than a hundred miles from the capital!"
...
world slacker. But a genius female disciple just had to get clingy, insisting that he take her as a disciple. Not only that, she was always making advances on him, thoroughly disrupting his peaceful slacker life...
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."
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...
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?”
