Chapter 1: Disaster at the Door! I See the Killing Blow Coming

“You ungrateful little bastard! I pay to send you to the Imperial Academy so you can learn something and become a pillar of this nation!

“Instead, you spend every day with those wastrels. The only positions you learn are the ones in bed! And now you’re telling everyone you’re going to marry a princess!

“I may not be your father, but I’ll skin you alive today!

“And nobody’s stopping me. Nobody!”

Tai’an, capital of the Great Li dynasty.

One would expect the city beneath the emperor’s very nose to set an example for the realm.

Yet the sun had barely begun its climb when roaring from the Duke of Liang’s residence shattered the morning peace.

It rolled out in waves like muffled thunder, setting the bronze bells beneath the eaves jangling and reducing the household servants to terrified silence.

A man sweeping the corridor froze over his broom, unable to decide whether to advance or retreat. Maids carrying water stopped in their tracks, afraid to move, much less glance toward the noise.

Even the old yellow dog in the rear courtyard tucked its tail between its legs. Without so much as a whimper, it crawled through the dog hole at the foot of the wall and covered its eyes with both paws.

The roaring tore a groggy Li Xuanzhen out of a pleasant dream.

He tried to open his eyes, only for pain to rip through his skull, as though someone were driving steel needles in and out of his brain.

Then memories that weren’t his forced their way into his head.

Instinctively, he tried to resist. It did him no good whatsoever.

Well, if he couldn’t fight it, he might as well embrace it.

…

A short while later, Li Xuanzhen opened his eyes and lost all desire to live.

He had transmigrated.

Seven rival kingdoms held the Nine Provinces of the Central Plains, locked in endless war. Beyond the Nine Provinces, hostile peoples watched for their chance to strike.

He had landed in the Great Li dynasty, fourth among the seven kingdoms.

The late emperor’s accomplishments in civil government and war had surpassed those of all his predecessors. Under him, Great Li had risen from last place to become a substantial power in the middle ranks.

Now, however, the dynasty was passing through its most unsettled period.

Its current ruler was simply too mediocre.

A weak sovereign meant powerful subjects. And powerful subjects began entertaining dangerous thoughts.

The crown prince, the regional princes, the court officials, the frontier generals: every last one loudly proclaimed his loyalty to sovereign and country while secretly working his own abacus.

The great ship of Great Li still appeared to float, but more than half its hull had already been eaten hollow.

The original owner of this body had been the son of Li Xinnian, one of Great Li’s rare scholar-generals.

The man roaring in the courtyard was his uncle, Li Cijiu.

Fifteen years ago, when the boy was three, the Duke of Liang’s two sons had led fifty thousand soldiers north to defend the frontier against the Eastern Hu.

The fighting had been savage enough to blot out heaven and earth. Historians named it the Battle of Shanhai, commemorating the heroes who had died for their country.

Just as Great Li stood on the brink of victory, several tribes serving the Hu Ghost King hatched a plot. They sent a force on a mission from which it was never meant to return, slipping silently through wind and snow around the Mute Mountains to attack from behind.

Li Xinnian had bought his younger brother a path to safety with his own life.

Great Li won, but at a terrible cost.

Li Xinnian, the scholar-general and legitimate son of the Duke of Liang, fell in battle. They had not even managed to recover his body.

When the boy’s mother heard the news, she collapsed into an illness from which she never recovered. A month later, she died in bed.

To repay his elder brother for saving his life, Li Cijiu treated his nephew as his own son and placed enormous hopes in him.

What he had never expected was that this nephew would prove the least promising of the lot.

The eldest legitimate grandson of the Duke of Liang had no interest in books and no love for martial training. At being a wastrel, however, he was an accomplished master.

If he called himself the capital’s second-greatest good-for-nothing, no one would dare claim first place.

The elderly Duke of Liang, Li Zhenbei, had withdrawn from court long ago. Yet he doted on this legitimate grandson above all others, and had once declared that even if the sky fell, it would not touch a hair on the boy’s head.

Then yesterday happened.

First, the boy had announced at the Imperial Academy that he intended to marry a princess.

That evening, he had thrown a lavish banquet at Hundred Flowers House. Anyone who offered him a word of flattery could take a seat, drink his fill, and enjoy a beautiful woman’s company that night.

Every expense went on the Duke of Liang’s account.

Li Xuanzhen’s little display of generosity had cost more than ten thousand taels of fine silver.

Money was not what had made Li Cijiu so furious.

The Duke of Liang might not rank among Great Li’s richest men, but the family possessed a considerable fortune. Several generations could spend freely and never exhaust it.

The problem was that yesterday had marked the tenth anniversary of the late emperor’s death.

Though the dynasty had held no grand national mourning, no one else had dared behave so outrageously.

As one of the Four Pacification Generals, Li Cijiu had naturally heard the rumors.

His Majesty was livid. He had smashed a great many precious pieces of porcelain.

Li Cijiu’s plan was to beat the ungrateful brat within an inch of his life before an imperial edict condemning him arrived. Then he would drag his half-dead nephew to the palace and beg forgiveness.

Perhaps that was the only way to save him.

For all the boy’s disgraceful behavior, he was the only child Li Cijiu’s elder brother had left behind.

With all those memories absorbed, Li Xuanzhen was utterly dumbfounded.

He lay motionless, his thin clothes already soaked in cold sweat.

Unless something unexpected happened, this time next year he would be starting another round of reincarnation.

…

Great Li’s government grew more unstable by the day, and imperial authority stood on the verge of collapse. The crown prince, the princes in their fiefs, and the frontier generals with power in their hands were all beginning to stir.

To shore up his authority, the emperor needed a chicken to kill as a warning to the monkeys: a sacrifice to frighten anyone who dared challenge him.

If Li Xuanzhen was right, he would soon be the chicken beneath the imperial knife.

What a fantastic transmigration.

Other people arrived as princes, ministers, great generals, or the chosen sons of destiny.

He opened his eyes as the capital’s foremost wastrel, then immediately became a chicken awaiting slaughter.

Footsteps outside drew closer. Clutching his splitting head, Li Xuanzhen hurriedly jumped out of bed and dropped to his knees.

The door creaked open.

Li Cijiu, eyes red with fury, stopped short at the sight of his kneeling nephew.

The brat had never been this obedient before.

Had he finally realized what a monstrous disaster he had caused?

Truth be told, the sight of Li Xuanzhen looking so pitiful drained half the anger from Li Cijiu’s heart.

It also brought back the past. Without his brother’s sacrifice, Li Cijiu would have been nothing but dry bones beneath the earth by now.

He snorted. “Well, you little bastard? Anything to say for yourself?”

Li Xuanzhen hastily cupped his hands, his voice full of sorrow. “Uncle, I’ve been wronged.”

“Wronged?” Li Cijiu’s eyes bulged. He pointed at his nephew and roared, “Who was spouting that outrageous nonsense at the Imperial Academy yesterday?”

Li Xuanzhen’s mouth twitched. “I was, Uncle.”

Li Cijiu snorted again. “And who threw that banquet at Hundred Flowers House last night?”

“Also me, Uncle.”

With the boy admitting everything, the anger that had subsided flared right back up.

“Do you know what day yesterday was?” Li Cijiu demanded.

Li Xuanzhen nodded. “I do.”

“Then how did you dare behave like that?”

Li Xuanzhen sighed. “Uncle, I did it to attract His Majesty’s attention.”

What? On purpose?

For a moment, Li Cijiu could not make sense of that.

He stared at his nephew as though meeting him for the first time.

Usually, the boy’s entire face advertised wine, women, and debauchery. Today he knelt perfectly straight. His face was a little pale, but his eyes were startlingly clear.

Seeing his uncle’s stunned expression, Li Xuanzhen quickly cupped his hands again.

“Uncle, I may have behaved disgracefully in the past, but I’ve never committed any truly wicked act.

“Someone goaded me into saying those things yesterday. I had no choice but to go along.

“And at Hundred Flowers House, someone set a trap for me.”

Li Cijiu frowned and snorted. “Set a trap? What for?

“Because you shut your ears to the outside world and devote yourself entirely to the pleasure quarter?

“Because you’re an expert on brothels?

“Or because you have such a talent for squandering money on banquets?”

He finished with another heavy snort, making Li Xuanzhen shrink into his shoulders.

But what was done was done. Even a sound beating would solve nothing now.

Li Cijiu sighed. “Get up first. The floor’s cold.”

Warmth stirred in Li Xuanzhen’s chest. He rose and saluted.

“Uncle, I believe whoever set the trap wasn’t really after me. They have something else in mind.”

Li Cijiu’s brow furrowed again. “Hold on. What exactly do you mean, something else?

“Wasn’t yesterday’s disgrace supposed to make you suffer?”

Li Xuanzhen gave a cold laugh. “I’m merely a wastrel of the Duke of Liang’s household. I can’t bring peace to the nation with scholarship or secure it with military prowess.

“Unless they had nothing better to do, why would those people bother with me?

“As for why someone would target me, I do have one bold suspicion.”

Tired of the brat’s suspense, Li Cijiu snorted. “Stop fucking babbling and spit it out!”

Li Xuanzhen ducked his head again and hurriedly saluted.

“I believe someone has designs on our entire household.

“Why else go to so much trouble to frame me?

“A wastrel like me isn’t worth that sort of effort, especially a scheme this underhanded and carefully concealed.

“I don’t care about my reputation, Uncle. The people behind this do.”

An entire row of question marks might as well have appeared above Li Cijiu’s head.

Honestly, he hadn’t understood a word.

He was a military man. He liked things straightforward. All these twists and turns were beyond him.

Li Xuanzhen went on, his voice cold. “Both incidents yesterday, insulting the princess and insulting the late emperor, were carefully arranged against the Duke of Liang’s household.

“I’m a decent soul at heart. Someone deliberately tempted me into saying I would marry the princess.

“And I didn’t arrange that banquet at Hundred Flowers House, either. Someone used my name.”

Li Cijiu’s gaze sharpened.

He had to admit it: the brat’s reasoning did make a certain amount of sense.

What sort of place was the Imperial Academy?

What sort of outrageous boast was marrying a princess?

And how important was the tenth anniversary of the late emperor’s death?

Taken separately, those three things might still be explained as a drunken wastrel’s indiscretion.

But all of them had converged, and all had landed on Li Xuanzhen.

This was no mere debauchery. It was a conspiracy.

Someone had deliberately placed a knife in the emperor’s hand, then shoved Li Xuanzhen beneath the blade.

“In that case,” Li Xuanzhen said, “I might as well turn their own scheme against them.”

Li Cijiu answered with undisguised scorn.

He knew exactly what his nephew was like. The boy could chase women better than anyone, but aside from wine and sex, there was nothing in that head of his.

Even his place at the Imperial Academy had been…

Ah, what a disgrace to the family.

Li Xuanzhen merely gave a cold laugh. “If they’re playing dirty, then I’ve got nothing to fear.

“I’ll show them what Great Li’s most ruthless strategist can do.”

What?

Li Cijiu blinked in astonishment, his mind failing to catch up.

Those did not sound like words his disgrace of a nephew could produce.

Could it be…

Had all that drink yesterday actually cooked the boy’s brain?

Before Li Cijiu could ask another question, a shrill voice rang out within the Duke of Liang’s residence.

“An imperial edict has arrived!”