Yun Wanyi only felt her head buzzing.
Only one thought remained in her mind.
"How dare they?"
"To slander the Duke like this in his own Huaian City?"
However, she quickly reacted, having almost the exact same thought as Xu Sha: this matter would very likely implicate them.
Then all the efforts they had made before would be destroyed in an instant.
Looking up, she exchanged a glance with Xu Sha, who had slightly recovered. The same thought arose in both their minds.
This matter must be handled properly!
Otherwise, even if the Duke was magnanimous and did not blame them, the many proud and fierce generals under his command would absolutely not let it go easily.
However, before Xu Sha and Yun Wanyi could come up with a plan, they suddenly froze.
Because...
The two of them only belatedly realized...
In front of them were thousands of report letters!
Thousands of them!
Damn it... could they all be reporting the Duke?
Then they were truly finished.
It would be beyond their ability to cover up!
Frightened, the two quickly split up and began opening the thousands of letters before them.
Compared to the first letter they opened, they read the subsequent letters extremely fast, taking in ten lines at a glance, or even a hundred.
A moment later, the two of them would just tear open a letter, glance at it, and toss it aside.
After opening nearly a hundred letters in this manner, they were completely certain.
"The contents of these letters are exactly the same. Aside from gender differences where the complainants call themselves 'this humble girl' or 'this humble scholar', there is no difference in the rest!"
"Yes, it's the same on my end!" Yun Wanyi nodded. "So, it is evident that this is a carefully planned, organized, large-scale reporting campaign."
Speaking of this, Yun Wanyi breathed a slight sigh of relief, and Xu Sha beside her also looked relieved.
As long as it had scale and organization, it was fine.
That meant someone was intentionally causing trouble. There would be a ringleader and an organization, which meant they could be targeted, found, and struck down!
Their fear was that these people all came from Huaian City, were different individuals, yet shared a common attitude. That would be troublesome, indicating that Huaian City had long been in a state of chaotic unrest.
If that were the case, the two of them would definitely not escape punishment, or at the very least, severe reprimands!
"Moreover, the number of people shouldn't be as many as thousands..." Xu Sha, being as meticulous as a hair, had already noticed the clues. "Among the many letters I opened, a lot of the handwriting is very similar."
"Even though I can see they deliberately altered their handwriting, it cannot escape my eyes. I can be absolutely certain that many letters were written by the same person."
"Many people probably even specifically used their left hand, or their non-dominant hand, to write, making the characters look crooked and messy."
Yun Wanyi felt even more relieved and said, "That's good. As long as there aren't that many people, it's fine. However, right now, our Huaian City must immediately show a clear stance."
Xu Sha's gaze suddenly turned stern as he said, "I will give the order right now to trace the source!"
"Hmph, not a single one of these deliberate troublemakers will escape."
"As for the ringleader who dared to spread rumors and slander the Duke, I will chop off his head and hang it at the city gate as a public warning."
Xu Sha wore a ruthless expression, but Yun Wanyi did not find it inappropriate at all. Instead, she nodded and said, "Husband, I will follow your lead in everything!"
...
Next to the City Lord's Manor, a vacant four-courtyard compound had been temporarily requisitioned by the Demon Suppression Division, and Su Jin was working inside.
At the moment, she was passing on her experience to Lu Shuang, who had extremely high talent and was perfectly suited for the work of the Demon Suppression Division.
Blah blah blah...
She was incredibly detailed, explaining one by one the various bewitching monsters, demons, and ghosts she had seen in the Demon Suppression Division, and instructing her on how to handle them.
She was entirely grooming Lu Shuang as her successor.
Lu Shuang had an excellent foundation.
Her main trait was extreme calmness and rationality, allowing her to clearly distinguish between what was a bewitching monster and what was normal love in the chaotic world of romance.
After receiving this knowledge from Su Jin, she benefited greatly.
An hour later, Su Jin stopped her lecture and smiled. "Alright, I've pretty much explained everything I needed to hand over to you."
"Go back, think it over carefully, and absorb it well."
Lu Shuang stood up. "Yes, Lady Demon Suppressor."
Su Jin took Lu Shuang's hand, made her sit down again, and said, "General Zhang Shi will set off for Yuan City tomorrow."
"The City Lord of Yuan City dared to harbor fugitives wanted by the imperial court and refused to open the gates, forcing General Zhang Shi to return and request an imperial decree. There is definitely a problem there."
"Yuan City is also adjacent to Yunjing. There might even be a major problem, most likely another bewitching monster."
"This time, when you go with General Zhang Shi, you must pay close attention and observe carefully. Be a good right-hand woman to General Zhang Shi. In the future, when General Zhang Shi is enfeoffed as a marquis and appointed as a top general, your merits will not be small either."
Lu Shuang was very clear about these things. Now that Su Jin specifically pointed them out, she immediately expressed her gratitude.
She talked with Su Jin for a while longer. Seeing that Su Jin looked somewhat exhausted and knowing that she was working hard with Lord Pei Jingzhi to perfect the laws of the Demon Suppression Division, which was no easy task, Lu Shuang did not dare to disturb her any further.
She stood up, excused herself, and left.
Just as she was about to go out the door, she saw a Demon Suppression Guard rush in hurriedly and report, "Lady Demon Suppressor, our temporary office of the Demon Suppression Division stationed in Huaian City has suddenly received a massive amount of mail."
Su Jin rubbed her brow and asked, "A massive amount of mail? Have they all been opened?"
Su Jin's tone was a bit tired when she said this. After all, she was assisting Xu Sha in investigating the case of Xu Qin and Zhou Zhi, which also involved opening the Demon Suppression Division's public reporting channels.
Over the past two days, given how many reports Xu Sha and Yun Wanyi had received and how much criminal evidence they had verified, her workload was certainly just as heavy.
Furthermore, she still had other matters to handle.
"A portion has been opened..."
The Demon Suppression Guard said, "It's just, very strange..."
"Those letters are not reporting Xu Qin and Zhou Zhi, but... they are letters to the Duke!"
Su Jin's spirit suddenly jolted. "Bring them here!"
"Yes!"
In a short while, the Demon Suppression Guard brought all the thousands of letters over.
The strength of the Demon Suppression Guards was much greater than that of the clerks in Xu Sha's City Lord Manor. A few guards quickly stacked the letters neatly.
Moreover, they had thoughtfully opened them one by one, saving Su Jin the step of tearing open the envelopes.
Seeing such a massive amount of work, Lu Shuang did not leave. She watched from the side, and upon receiving a signal from Su Jin, she immediately leaned in and began reading them one by one.
Unexpectedly...
They were all reprimanding contents!
Contents reprimanding the Duke!
"Duke, you are human too. Do you not understand love? You killed Lord Zhou Zhi and Xu Qin, and now you want to burn down our Hongluan Wenyuan Pavilion. What is the difference between doing this and the Queen Mother of the West tearing apart the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl?"
"Duke, you simply do not understand. The domineering empresses and peerless princes depicted in the books have saved countless ordinary boys like me. They gave us spiritual solace and the courage to face the world. What right do you have to strip that away?"
"Duke, is the destruction of the old and establishment of the new that you speak of just a cold world devoid of love? Do you want us to live in such a world from now on?"
"Lord Duke, you hold immense military power and monstrous authority, while we are but a group of brothers and sisters yearning for love and romance. Instead of wiping out bandits and bringing peace to the people, you come here to burn our books. Is this truly destroying the old to forge the new? Or is it simply... bullying the weak?"
"Lord Duke, my mother has been bedridden for three years. Her only spiritual pillar has been listening to me read stories of domineering princes. She smiled and said that in her next life, she wants to experience a romance just like those. Lord Duke, must you deprive her of even her dying smile?"
"Lord Duke, do you not know that the books you are about to destroy have taught us kindness, bravery, and patience? Once you ignite the torch in your hand, we will be forced to live in a world where even dreaming of love is a sin."
"Lord Duke, what you are burning is not just books, but human decency and warmth!"
...

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."

y came from. The chests contained supplies, currency, class-change scrolls, skills, talents… and even godhood! The laws of the world were completely rewritten. This became a world where everyone gambled with their fate! Some people, despite having nothing, opened a divine artifact and rose to the top, eventually ruling the world. Others went bankrupt, opened nothing but worthless junk, and leaped from skyscrapers in despair. Lin Ye arrived in this world from another reality, utterly bewildered. “What is going on? Why is everyone a gambling addict?!” “Opening chests? No way. I refuse to gamble. I’ll start with myself!” Until— On his first chest, he obtained a Mythic Talent: Void Incarnation! He could become completely intangible, pass through all things, and reduce everything to nothingness! … On his fiftieth chest, he obtained a Mythic Weapon: Blade of Karma! With a single slash, karma shattered, twisting the universe and overturning the myriad phenomena of creation! … On his ninety-ninth chest, he obtained a Mythic Divine Treasure: Primordial Purple Energy! It could split open the heavens and earth, create all things, and evolve countless worlds with a single thought! Lin Ye: “Now that I think about it… shouldn’t someone have told me that every chest is guaranteed to contain something Mythic?!”

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...

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?”