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!
...
tions: attribute allocation, analysis, proficiency, and simulation. Specializing in mechanical alchemy, from crafting sorcerous battle armor to handcrafting mechanical maidens, his mechanical legion conquers endless realms... Relying on his wits, he begins with a student-teacher romance, wins over a female director, enslaves a female assassin and a underworld queen, becoming the husband of a Grand Duchess... He enslaves the Goddess of Magic from the divine realm, developing his power simultaneously in both the Wizard World and the Realm of Gods...
't think I'm that capable, I'm just trying my best to stay alive. I've been kind all my life, never did anything bad, yet worldly suffering spared me not one bit. The human world is a nice place, but I won't come back in my next life. A kind young man, who wanted to just get by singing, but through repeated deceits and betrayals, has gone down an irredeemable path.
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!
lity and could only live as an ordinary mortal. He only wished to live a peaceful life. Yet he didn't know— The dog he adopted, because it ate his food, became a legendary demon king. The kitchen knife he casually forged became a peerless divine weapon, causing numerous experts to fight desperately for it. The young disciple he took in became an immortal lord that led an era, due to cultivating the techniques Ye Feng taught him. Even the skeletons he looked down on the most were ominous demon kings that suppressed countless worlds. Many years later, looking at the void shattered with a punch, Ye Feng murmured to himself: It turns out the peerless kings were myself all along...
