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!
...
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?!
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!
shall grant"] ["Inscribing the glory of our race upon tombstones"] ["All that is threatened, I shall protect"] How his younger sister sees her brother: A brother who only makes eye contact once a day, mostly fading into the background as he tinkers with who-knows-what in his room all day. Their life paths should have remained largely separate. Until one day. Su Qi created an equipment card for his never-met "online girlfriend." His sister fell into silent contemplation upon receiving the "white stockings." [Card can be upgraded] [Upgrade by fulfilling any of the following conditions] [Condition ①: Consume one hundred higher-tier cards] [Condition ②: Complete one 'Heart-Pounding Adventure'] What constitutes a Heart-Pounding Adventure? [Heart-Pounding Adventure (Beginner Level): Equip the card and invite 'Su Qi' to admire it.] [Heart-Pounding Adventure (Easy Level): Equip the card, invite 'Su Qi' to touch it, and analyze the equipment's texture.] [Heart-Pounding Adventure (Entry Level): Equip the card and invite 'Su Qi' to...] [Heart-Pounding Adventure (Challenge Level): Freely combine the words 'Brother' 'Out' 'Brother' 'Me' 'Please' into a complete sentence...] "Please help me analyze both teams' mistakes in this match, brother..." His sister exhaled in relief—surely... surely there couldn't be anything more difficult? [Heart-Pounding Adventure (Suicide Mission Level): Sneak a peek at the names of the galgames in 'Su Qi's' hidden E-drive folder]
] [Lone Wolf, No Male Gaze] [Protagonist is pursued early on; extreme protagonist-stans, stay away!] The "Carnival Paradise" descends and slowly devours the real world in the form of a game. By chance, Zhu Yan awakens the talent [Roleplay], becoming one of the first beta players. He thought he could develop safely, but after clearing the first instance, he is branded by humanity as the chief culprit behind the game's spread—a traitorous villain. A villain? Who would ever... become one! He'll be the villain! From then on, Zhu Yan is not only a player but also a lackey for the Carnival Paradise. Between the straight path and the crooked path, he chooses the con. With his left hand, he dons the villain's mantle, staging scenes within instances, infuriating players who decry him as a despicable traitor, all while the game happily promotes him. With his right hand, he joins the non-human organization "Fangcun Mountain," which opposes the Carnival Paradise, transforming into a mysterious player who slaughters game bosses, earning cheers of "Long live the expert!" from fellow players. Gradually, Zhu Yan rises to become an S-rank human player in Fangcun Mountain's archives, while also being the Carnival Paradise's certified top game Boss. But when the final war erupts and both major factions place their hopes in him— Players tag his various aliases: "Experts, this offensive depends on you." The Carnival Paradise's supreme Boss throws an arm around his neck: "Bro, you're the iron, I'm the steel; you can't let me down again!"
