Zhou Zhi's voice echoed like thunder within the prison, leaving everyone temporarily stunned and frozen in place.
The only person present who wasn't dumbfounded was Xu Qin.
Her eyes were fixed intently on Ren Tianye.
In an instant, a vibrant gleam burst forth in her gaze.
This... this was the perfect domineering prince of her dreams!
Right, that general with the scarred face was this prince's subordinate? Didn't that mean the fine steed, Snow Qilin, could also be considered this prince's property?
So...
She hadn't found the wrong person!
She had just taken a slight detour.
This was heaven's test of her love. Fortunately, heaven did not let down those who persevered; she had finally waited for her moment.
Thus, the moment Zhou Zhi's words fell, Xu Qin lunged forward like a fierce beast trying to break out of its cage.
She cried out eagerly, Your Highness, Your Highness! I was the one who injured your horse, but I am willing to compensate. I have already asked my mother to sell our family's assets and borrowed money from relatives and friends.
I know that this is still far from enough.
But I, Xu Qin, am a woman of noble character. I would never back out on my debts. How about this...
I am willing to work for you as your personal servant!
Until I have paid off the debt in full!
If Zhou Zhi's stubborn attitude just now had left everyone bewildered, Xu Qin's words directly struck fear into their hearts.
Wang Ming, Zhang Shi, and Xie Changfeng—those belonging to the ranks of military officers—instantly rushed forward.
As the saying goes, when the master is humiliated, the subjects must die!
To allow some nonsensical woman to insult the Lord Duke right under their noses!
They deserved death!
However, before they died, they would make sure this Xu Qin died first!
The three burly men possessed extraordinary martial skills.
The moment they struck, they effortlessly pinned Xu Qin down. Some slapped her face, others restrained her, and they didn't forget to deliver a swift kick to the back of her knees, making Xu Qin fall to the ground with a heavy thud.
Insolence!
Right at that moment, Zhou Zhi let out a sudden roar.
This is a prison, a place where the law is paramount. Miss Xu Qin is merely filled with a yearning for love. What do you think you are doing?
Besides, what is wrong with what Miss Xu Qin said?
She should be highly praised...
Before Zhou Zhi could finish his sentence, Zhang Shi, who was already bewildered and holding back a bellyful of anger, dropped Xu Qin and delivered a flying kick from the side.
This kick deeply captured the essence of the Ren family army.
Not only did the foot fly, but the person flew as well.
With a loud crash.
Zhou Zhi performed a perfect mid-air parabola, slamming heavily against the wall before sliding down.
He looked completely deflated!
Ren Tianye looked at him with a mild gaze. You're quite brave, aren't you!
As long as the word 'love' is involved, you dare to act recklessly and unstoppably, using Yunjing's laws to judge my imperial court's cases!
Heh. If Huaian City had not yet returned to the imperial court, I wouldn't hold it against you. But now... do you still not understand whose laws you must obey?
Looking at Zhou Zhi, who lay on the ground still wearing a resolute expression as if he had done nothing wrong, Ren Tianye surprisingly felt no anger in his heart.
It was as if he had seen too many similar incidents; his psychological endurance had been forged to a terrifyingly strong level.
Instead, a strong sense of absurdity enveloped his mind.
He could have been a good official who served the country and the people, but now he was so deeply infected by twisted logic and heresies that it had penetrated his bones and was impossible to eradicate. It was likely he had committed countless crimes because of it.
For such a person, physical means were the best solution.
He announced loudly, Three days from now, at the vegetable market, Zhou Zhi, and...
His gaze swept over Xu Qin, And this woman.
They are to be beheaded in public!
The new City Lord of Huaian, Xu Sha, will personally supervise the execution.
The Demon Suppression Division will oversee it!
Invite all the citizens of the city to watch!
They must attend!
Su Jin, representing the Demon Suppression Division, was about to agree when Pei Jingzhi beside him spoke up first: Lord Duke, your subordinate has a suggestion. I wonder if I should speak it?
Speak!
Lord Duke, I believe we could hold a public trial in three days to determine the crimes of Zhou Zhi and Xu Qin, and have the entire city watch.
This way, they will understand what the true laws of the land are!
Ren Tianye nodded and said, Permitted.
We will do just that.
Also...
Ren Tianye glanced at Zhou Zhi again and said indifferently, The Hongluan Wenyuan Pavilion is the source of spreading these twisted heresies. In three days, while convicting these two...
Burn down the Hongluan Wenyuan Pavilion!
Such a place must be erased from Huaian City, and from the entire world!
He spoke the word erased with absolute resolve.
In truth, Ren Tianye did not object to people reading romance novels. However, places like the Hongluan Wenyuan Pavilion, which used official endorsements for sheer fabrications to bewitch the public, had to be abolished!
Resolutely abolished!
However, Ren Tianye did not expect that after he said this, Zhou Zhi, who had just been lying on the ground unable to get up, would suddenly act as if he had been injected with chicken blood.
With a kip-up, he jumped straight to his feet.
His eyes were bloodshot.
No, no, the Hongluan Wenyuan Pavilion cannot be burned!
Absolutely not!
Under no circumstances!
Zhou Zhi actually bowed his back in a rare display of submission, his voice carrying a hint of pleading. Lord Duke, you cannot burn it.
Those are not just books; they are the righteous path that generations of us in Huaian City have fought for.
So many books, so wonderful!
They are the dreams of every young boy and girl in Huaian awakening to love. Just like me—back then, it was because I recited 'Woman, you have successfully caught my attention' in the courtroom that I was appreciated and promoted all the way to where I am today, in charge of a city's penal laws.
Inside the Hongluan Wenyuan Pavilion...
Is the truth of our Huaian!
Zhou Zhi shouted himself hoarse, his voice echoing in the prison. Yet, the crowd fell into a collective silence. Only, that silence was deafening!
This man is beyond saving...
Wang Ming muttered softly, then immediately added, No, he was beyond saving a long time ago!
No one paid any more attention to Zhou Zhi. Ren Tianye and his entourage quickly left, leaving behind only the people from the Demon Suppression Division to clean up the mess. Zhang Shi also followed them out.
Following behind Ren Tianye, he just felt his head buzzing as many memories involuntarily surfaced in his mind.
Ever since he started following the Lord Duke in their uprising, it seemed... he had seen quite a few similar incidents. But after a trip to the grasslands, he seemed to have forgotten.
This had caused things to go wrong at every turn.
It wasn't until this time, when they took Huaian City almost without bloodshed, that he finally understood a little.
And right now, Zhou Zhi's absurd persistence made his thoughts seem a bit clearer.
Is this... the true nature of Yunjing?
So, to conquer Yunjing more smoothly, we need to... understand these things?
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
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)
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.
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!
