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!"
...
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.”
lities. One day, Qi Yuan was buying groceries when he unfortunately came face-to-face with a monster. Just when he thought he was going to die on the spot, he suddenly heard the monster's thoughts... "This aura, he's definitely not an ordinary master!" "So terrifying, so terrifying." "A fight with my back against the wall, I can't take it anymore." Qi Yuan: Ah, no one told me that my awakened ability isn't telepathy, but rather the stronger my enemies imagine me to be, the stronger I truly become. PS: Zhou Hai in the first chapter is not the protagonist.
ive and Ruthless] Before his transmigration, Ye Xuan was playing a game called "Severing Emotions to Attain the Dao." The game's core wasn't about leveling up by fighting monsters, but about conquering various "bad women" with wicked personalities and cold, fickle natures. There was only one method to conquer them: stay unwaveringly by their side, then die at a critical moment, driving them to madness after losing the protagonist. The higher their level of regret, the higher the player's score. To dominate the server, Ye Xuan conquered all the bad women. In the early stages, he showered them with boundless tenderness, only to choose to sacrifice himself for them later, making them weep bitterly and drown in regret. Among them were: Xia Lengyue, the unfaithful immortal wife who chased after powerful men and discarded her husband like trash. Ye Qingcheng, the Demonic Venerable of the Joyous Union Sect, who appeared pure and innocent but was, in reality, promiscuous. Wu Lingxiao, the Empress of the Great Xia Dynasty, who lusted after men and loved maintaining a harem. Bai Qiangu of the Endless Demonic Sect: a bloodthirsty mass murderer. However, when the protagonist transmigrated into the game world, he made a horrifying discovery. Eight hundred years had already passed. The bad women he had conquered had now each become deities and revered ancestors. Faced with the endless stream of toxic women coming for him, Ye Xuan could only rely on his god-tier acting skills to carve a path of survival through this world of treacherous women.
young master of the Shen family—a figure of immense power and wealth beyond measure—and awakened the "Destined Ultimate Villain System"! His starting scenario? Running into his icy fiancée who shows up with a mountain-descending divine doctor to break off their engagement. The divine doctor arrogantly taunts: "What does your Shen family have besides a bit of stinking money? You're not even worthy of tying Qingxue's shoelaces!" Shen Fei just smiled. He completely defied the usual script: "Fine, I agree to break off the engagement. Also, notify the finance department to withdraw all investments from the Su family." Minutes later, with its capital chain severed, the Su Group teetered on the brink of bankruptcy! The once aloof and proud ice queen CEO was thrown into utter panic. That very night, she went to Shen Fei's villa, casting aside all dignity to beg and plead desperately... From then on, in this world teeming with Sons of Destiny, Shen Fei embarked on a path of extreme dimensional suppression! A mountain-descending divine doctor? Peerless medical skills? Shen Fei: "Reporting you for practicing medicine without a license! I'll gladly take your ancient medicinal cauldron and twin sister assassins." The Crooked-Smiling Dragon King? Commanding a hundred thousand soldiers with a single order? Shen Fei: "Illegal assembly and suspected treason! Let a fleet of attack helicopters sanitize the area and teach you what the state apparatus really means!" A reborn tycoon? Knows all the golden opportunities of the next decade? Shen Fei: "A trillion in capital to reverse and pump the stock market, making you blow your margin and jump on the very first day of your rebirth!" What Chosen Ones? What bearers of Heavenly Fortune? In Shen Fei's eyes, they're all just chives (i.e., suckers/marks) waiting to be harvested! Shen Fei: "Sorry, but as the Destined Ultimate Villain, I don't play by the rules of honor. I only play the game of dimensional suppression."
