Not only were Xie Changfeng and the others looking forward to burning down the Hongluan Wenyuan Pavilion, but Ren Tianye was actually waiting for it as well.
However, given his status, there was no need for him to be present at the scene. He simply waited in his estate, receiving updates one by one from his personal guards.
"My Lord Duke, the trials are over. Those sentenced to execution at the vegetable market have been sent there, those meant for exile are being banished today, and those to be imprisoned remain locked up."
"My Lord Duke, Lord Su Jin and Lord Xu Sha have gone together to the Hongluan Wenyuan Pavilion."
"My Lord Duke, bad news, something has happened..."
Ren Tianye, who had been reviewing information about Pukou City, slightly raised his eyes in surprise. "Something happened?"
"What is it now?"
The guard, already sweating profusely, replied, "Near the Hongluan Wenyuan Pavilion, there is a group of people. There are about a dozen of them, and they are blocking Lord Su Jin and the others' way."
"They refuse to let Lord Su Jin and his men pass."
"Furthermore, they are holding up banners with slogans like, 'You can burn the books, but you cannot burn the love in my heart.'"
Ren Tianye abruptly stood up.
The surprise in his eyes turned into utter disbelief.
There were still people?
No, how could there still be anyone left?
He had deliberately held his forces back, allowing the Huaian City Love Mutual Aid Alliance to act out, thereby exposing everyone involved so they could all be arrested in one fell swoop.
How...
How could there still be people protecting the Hongluan Wenyuan Pavilion now?!
"Let's go take a look!"
Ren Tianye rose and headed out with his guards.
Meanwhile, Su Jin, Xie Changfeng, Xu Sha, Yun Wanyi, and the others were already covered in cold sweat.
The dozen or so people before them were blocking all the entrances and exits of the Hongluan Wenyuan Pavilion. Some were kneeling and wailing, while others were sitting quietly in a desperate stand, with numerous banners erected in front of them.
Slogans were written across them.
"Love is innocent, faith is immortal!"
"Seeking no power, only preserving good matches!"
"Defending the cultural lineage with our weak bodies, protecting good matches with our devoted hearts!"
"Do not shatter the dream of love, do not chill a devoted heart!"
This scene looked...
Like they were determined to live and die with the Hongluan Wenyuan Pavilion!
Yet, it left everyone horrified.
They were not terrified of these dozen people, but of the situation itself...
They had clearly expended so much effort, tossed and turned for so long, arrested everyone, and found ironclad evidence. How...
Were there still people left?
Clang!
Xie Changfeng drew the sword at his waist. With the cold steel flashing, he strode forward.
"I'd like to see if they really dare to take my steel blade with their necks!"
However, before he even reached them, the people were suddenly gripped by extreme terror and immediately dropped to their knees with a series of thuds.
A chorus of begging ensued.
"My Lord, my Lord, we were wrong!"
"General, we won't dare do it again!"
"General, please don't kill us!"
...
Xie Changfeng was stunned.
Su Jin was stunned.
Xu Sha and Yun Wanyi were stunned too!
Wait, just a moment ago they looked ready to live and die with the Hongluan Wenyuan Pavilion. The steel blade hadn't even touched them yet, and they instantly caved and begged for mercy?
Then what was the point?
Just to disgust people?
Most importantly, where did these people come from?
Xie Changfeng, his sword still drawn, was about to shout a question when he suddenly noticed something wrong with the banners.
Originally, the slogans were as bright as blood. From a distance, one would truly think they were written in blood by these people. But looking closer now, it was obvious they were just written with red paint.
"So, what on earth are these people doing?"
Clang clang clang clang clang clang...
A series of gongs and drums sounded from the right side of the crowd, immediately drawing everyone's attention. Only then did they see a small theatrical troupe suddenly emerge. There were altogether only three to five people, yet in an instant, they struck a pose and began to sing.
There was none of the usual interaction between two actors seen in traditional operas. It was entirely a soliloquy. Two people, using operatic singing styles, each delivered a monologue.
...
"My Lord Duke, that theatrical troupe said, they said..."
"Said what?"
Ren Tianye, riding on his horse, stopped.
"They said..." The guard gritted his teeth and reported, "They said that in your early years, My Lord Duke, you were also deeply obsessed with a beautiful woman. Later, you were dumped, and your love turned into hatred, causing you to take your anger out on all love stories."
"They also said..."
The guard glanced at Wang Ming beside him and continued, "They also said that General Wang Ming writes acrostic poems every day for Cuihua back in his hometown, and that Wang Ming is the real hidden hopeless romantic!"
"They said you betrayed love, and you want to burn down the library just to silence them!"
Wang Ming was momentarily dumbfounded.
"Me?"
"I'm a hopeless romantic?"
"And they said the Lord Duke is a hopeless romantic?"
Ren Tianye's eyes turned cold. Without saying another word, he whipped his horse, picking up speed as he rushed to the scene.
It didn't take long for him to arrive. He saw that Su Jin and Xu Sha's men had already arrested all the troublemakers.
They were currently interrogating them.
However, as if specifically waiting for him, another theatrical troupe suddenly emerged from the left side of the crowd.
There were still only a few people. Some set up to play gongs and drums, others simply arranged the scene, while a man and a woman appeared in the center.
The clothes worn by this man and woman were completely different in style from what everyone else at the scene was wearing. They both wore short-sleeved shirts and long trousers, plain and unadorned, looking clean and neat yet extremely bizarre.
However, in Ren Tianye's eyes, the clothing of these two people made his body jolt in shock!
This man and woman were wearing...
Tracksuits!
Modern sportswear!
...
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."
end. Thus one must continue to cultivate, and become a saint or great emperor, in order to prolong one's life. Chen Xia, however, completely reversed this. Since his transmigration, he has gained immortality, and also a system that awards him with attribute points for every year he lives. Thus between the myriad worlds, the legend of an unparalleled senior appeared. "A gentleman takes revenge; it is never too late even after ten thousand years." "When you were at your peak I yielded, now in your old age I shall trample on you." - Chen Xia
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?”
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...
