Thousand Fragrance City.
Outside Thousand Fragrance City, battle flags waved as killing sounds rose.
A ghostly black dragon of illusion danced over the Nanyun Black Cavalry.
With a dragon's roar, it terrified tens of thousands.
This black dragon was the embodiment of the Black Cavalry Army's military soul.
"Kill!"
Empowered by the military soul, the Black Cavalry Army wore black armor as they drove their warhorses, sweeping away all resistance.
The waving battle flags were stained with viscous blood.
"Defend Thousand Fragrance City!"
"Brothers, fight to the death with these Nanyun beasts!"
Before the iron hooves of the Black Cavalry, the Liuyang Dynasty's army retreated steadily.
A general responsible for defending the city, pierced by many blades with blood streaming from his armor, still commanded the remaining 20,000 soldiers at the city gates, weapons in hand, defending to the death.
Facing the peerless Black Cavalry, the soldiers' faces were filled with resentment.
The city gate forces were under King Qi.
Although they had rebelled and followed King Qi,
when the nation was endangered by invasion,
they still stepped forward without hesitation.
Knowing they couldn't win,
they fought to the end.
To buy time for the citizens to evacuate,
they sacrificed themselves without regret.
Before the Black Cavalry, two middle-aged men gazed coldly at the struggling city defenders.
They were Nanyun Kingdom's famous generals Lian Qing and Qi Hui, deputies under Murong Liao.
Today their Black Cavalry Army had already taken ten counties bordering Nanyun under Murong Liao’s leadership.
As the vanguard, they led the Black Cavalry Army to plunge deeper, hoping to seize more Liuyang territory.
"Futile resistance."
Lian Qing coldly laughed at the defending general, nocking his bow to shoot.
A terrifying arrow instantly pierced through the general's skull.
"General!"
"Damn you, brothers, fight these bastards to the death!"
Seeing their commander killed, the soldiers did not retreat but charged suicidally at the Black Cavalry.
On the city walls, Liuyang citizens watched the defending troops with tearful faces.
"Run!"
"Escape Thousand Fragrance City quickly!"
On the walls, Liu Heng, magistrate of Thousand Fragrance County, urged the citizens to evacuate.
With no army left,
the forces King Qi had stationed here were all fighting the Nanyun Black Cavalry outside.
Thousand Fragrance City could fall at any moment.
"Magistrate Liu, we're not leaving. We will stay with Thousand Fragrance City!"
"That's right, Magistrate Liu. At this time of national crisis, we Liuyang citizens will not retreat!"
"This is our hometown, we're not leaving. We would rather die!"
The passionate youth on the walls yelled, weapons in hand.
"You...you all..." Liu Heng was extremely anxious.
"Alright, since this is so, I will stay with you all to the final moment. We shall die with honor!"
Liu Heng was deeply moved by the citizens' loyalty.
Every citizen had a duty when the nation rose or fell!
That even commoners could be so dutiful,
how could he, an imperial father and mother official, abandon them?
Although he was utterly disappointed with the royal court.
"Father!"
At this time, a gentle, refined-looking woman ran up onto the city walls.
She was Liu Heng's daughter, Liu Lingxi, a famous talent of Western Province.
Behind her were some handmaidens carrying luggage.
"Lingxi, why are you here? I told you to leave!" Liu Heng said anxiously.
Liu Lingxi watched the soldiers falling ceaselessly under the Black Cavalry's iron hooves and slowly shook her head.
"Father, I'm not leaving. Since everyone is staying, how can I leave alone?!"
"Lady Liu, you should go quickly!"
"Yes, with your talents, you shouldn't stay here waiting to die with us crude folks."
"That's right, Lady Liu is our city's gifted lady, you shouldn't remain here..."
The citizens began persuading Liu Lingxi to leave.
But Liu Lingxi slowly shook her head. Her mind was set. She would not abandon everyone.
With the nation in peril, the citizens did not flee but defended to the last.
As the magistrate's daughter, how could she alone abandon everyone and flee?!
So she would stay with them all to the final moment.
Even if it meant death, she had no regrets.
Liu Heng understood his daughter and sighed without arguing further.
Now everyone was prepared to fight the Black Cavalry to the death when the city gates fell.
"Roar!"
A dragon's cry drew everyone's gazes. Their expressions turned extremely ugly.
The military soul empowered every Black Cavalry soldier.
Each of them erupted with formidable power.
Their jet black armor emitted an ink-black aura,
like a tide of steel sweeping away the remaining city troops.
"Pfft..."
"You Nanyun...beasts...just you wait... the Beiliang Army...will arrive soon...your arrogance...won't last long..."
The last soldier, leaning on his weapon, gave a final mocking laugh at the Black Cavalry before him.
Hearing "Beiliang Army", Lian Qing's eyes narrowed as a cold look flashed across them.
Drawing his blade, he moved to finish off this soldier.
"No!"
"Damn you...charge out and fight them!"
"Don't be rash!"
Seeing the last soldier about to be killed, the citizens on the walls roared furiously, tears flowing ceaselessly.
Some enraged youths grabbed weapons, ready to charge out, but were stopped by Liu Heng.
Although Liu Heng was also furious, he could not let the citizens charge to their deaths in vain.
Beside him, Liu Lingxi's eyes were red as hatred toward the incompetent royal court welled up in her heart for the first time.
If not for the court's uselessness and the emperor's ineptitude,
how would their troops have been reduced to this?
How would their territory have fallen into enemy hands?
"Hmph!"
Lian Qing gave a cold snort. The more furious the Liuyang people were, the more delighted he felt.
Liuyang would sooner or later become Nanyun's territory.
But just as Lian Qing's blade was about to fall on the soldier,
an arrow shot with extreme speed suddenly shattered his sword.
Lian Qing was shocked and quickly looked in the other direction, his expression instantly turning grim.
In the distance, amidst rolling dust, terrifying bloody killing intent shot into the sky.
The previously clear horizon was instantly shrouded by black clouds under this horrifying aura...
Lian Qing and Qi Hui beside him waved their arms.
The Black Cavalry turned, the ink-black dragon rising again, seemingly responding to the terrifying aura.
On the city walls, Liu Heng and the citizens were also shocked by this sudden development.
All eyes turned towards the billowing dust.
Amidst it, battle flags waved heroically in the wind.
The fluttering banner clearly bore the words "Beiliang Army"...
. As long as he maintains the villain image and follows the plot to the grand finale, he can obtain generous rewards and return to the real world. So Gu Chen'an entered the role and began to act as a scumbag villain, but who would have expected that the female leads could hear his inner thoughts. Miss Su from the Su family was shocked: "I originally thought Gu Chen'an was a scumbag, but I didn't expect he turned out to be a gentleman! What? You said I have to call off the engagement? I definitely won't, I'll piss you off!" Bai Yuan Tian was dumbfounded: "Young Master Gu is usually unreasonable and a complete brat, but he actually calls me little sweetie in his heart? What, Young Master Gu even said he likes me?" As the female leads' images collapsed more and more, the plot also collapsed with it. Gu Chen'an looked at all this chaos. "Ladies, don't aggro me, if you keep this up the male lead really will stab me, I still need to survive to the grand finale!"
rowess are unmatched, commanding a million-strong army! Yet, the Emperor wants to depose him for the sake of a false prince? Hold on, are you throwing me into some female-oriented romance plot? How can I tolerate this? With a grand wave of his hand—the Nine Clan Extraction Technique! Slander the Emperor? Very well, all of you shall die! ... The False Prince: "Although I am not the biological son, Father and Mother love me more. The throne should be mine!" The Female Lead: "Qin Xiao, you are the Emperor, and I am a commoner. If you wish to marry me, you must abdicate. Otherwise, you will never have me!" The Empress: "After we divorce, you must give me half the empire!" The Transmigrator Consort: "You worthless Emperor, why should I kneel to you? All men are equal—I advise you to be kind!" The Great General: "The enemy general is my childhood sweetheart. For her sake, I willingly abandon the frontier defenses!" The Retired Emperor: "Although Yu'er was adopted, I prefer him. Qin Xiao, you should abdicate and let him become Emperor!" ... Very well! So this is how you want to play? Facing this twisted world of female-oriented tropes, Qin Xiao grins and raises his hand to unleash—the Nine Clan Extraction Technique! I am the Emperor. Why would I bother reasoning with you? Seal the gates! Leave none alive!
transmigrates into the world as the sect master of the Heavenly Yan Sect, which is on the verge of being wiped out. He binds a system that grants him cultivation power based on the number of disciples he has: for each disciple, he automatically gains a year's worth of cultivation every single day! Take one disciple: every day he gains 1 year of cultivation power. While others struggle through a year of bitter training, he gets the same just by sleeping through a single night. Take ten disciples: every day he gains 10 years of cultivation power. Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul—he breezes through all bottlenecks without lifting a finger. Take one hundred disciples: every day he gains 100 years of cultivation power. Even a Soul Transformation Venerable before him can’t survive a single blow. Take ten thousand disciples: every day he gains 10,000 years of cultivation power! With a wave of his hand, he topples empires. With a single step, he crushes the sacred grounds of the universe. ... While others fight tooth and nail for secret techniques, Lin Yan casually hands out Nascent Soul-level cultivation manuals as beginner textbooks. While others strain to find talented recruits, Lin Yan opens his doors to anyone—so long as they’re human. In just three short years, the Heavenly Yan Sect went from a backwater sect made up of three crumbling huts to a sacred land that every cultivator under heaven would kill to enter. ... One day, otherworldly demon gods invade, with a million demon soldiers pressing down upon the realm. Lin Yan, yawning, rises from his lounge chair and glances at the system panel: [Current Disciples: 1.28 million] [Daily Cultivation Increase: 1.28 million years] He waves his hand casually, and the countless demon soldiers are reduced to ashes in an instant. “So noisy… interrupting my fishing.”
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
