If you don't give up, I'd like to be your adoptive father.

Chapter 1165 The Oppressive Force of Emperor Huhai
During his first time-traveling experience, Jiang Lu only adapted to his new identity, but not to the court structure of the new world.

Having died a tragic and inexplicable death once, Jiang Lu finally experienced firsthand the cruelty of power struggles.

"Your Highness, news has arrived from Sand Dune: Emperor Wu is suspected to have passed away."

Jiang Lu awoke once again at Edison's anxious calls.

This time, unlike before, he didn't waste a lot of time agonizing over whether it was reality or an illusion.

He first closed his eyes and carefully sorted through the extra memories in his mind.

Then he sent out trusted confidants to thoroughly investigate the Dune Incident. And then, before he could make his next plan, Emperor Tom had just returned to Xianyang when he was given a cup of poisoned wine and put to death.

He didn't even have the chance to shout in grief and indignation like last time, because he didn't even know that the "imperial wine" he drank was poisoned.

This was a gift of wine at the young emperor's coronation banquet! Tom is going too far.

He dared to poison his elder brother in such a situation.

"I am not reconciled!" Jianglu's ghost wailed above the palace.

"Your Highness, news has arrived from Sand Dune: Emperor Wu is suspected to have passed away."

The third time, he was more cautious.

Emperor Wu's death was probably not unexpected; it was simply a natural consequence of his lifespan ending. After all, given his strength, no one could assassinate him.

But I only investigated the matter of the dunes a little, and Tom couldn't tolerate it and immediately wanted to kill me. Could there be a problem with the edict of succession?
Jiang Lü became suspicious and stopped openly investigating the Sand Dune Incident, instead focusing his attention on the main participants in the incident.

The Imperial Chancellor Li Si—no, I mean Bismarck!
Unlike Li Si, Bismarck was known as the "Iron Chancellor," possessing a pair of Hunyuan Wuji Thunderbolt Hands, and ranked fourth on the "Tianwu Ranking."

Li Si doesn't have that kind of strength.

But he was soon summoned to the palace and given a death sentence.

Just like the first time, he committed suicide with several brothers by drawing their swords.

Jiang Lü was enraged and shouted, "You want me dead? No way! I'll kill you bunch of bastards first!"

He went on a killing spree in the palace, but was still defeated by the Minister of Justice.

Besides him being torn apart by chariots, his entire family was crushed to death—run over by chariots.

After his eighth time-traveling experience, Jiang Lu finally realized one thing: the new emperor Tom was a cold-blooded, ruthless, and shameless fool. No matter how much Jiang Lu tried to curry favor with him, the man was determined to kill all the princes.

"Your Highness, news has arrived from Sand Dune: Emperor Wu is suspected to have passed away."

Before Edison could finish speaking, Jiang Lu, who had just transmigrated, waved his hand to interrupt him, saying, "No need to say more. Emperor Wu was poisoned by Tom. Bismarck and the Grand Eunuch Mongo were his accomplices. They are the sinners of the Gamba Empire. I want to set things right."

This time, he's going to take the initiative!

Edison was stunned, then asked in surprise, "How did Your Highness know?"

"Emperor Wu appeared to me in a dream! He also told me that after his death, Tom deliberately bought more than a dozen baskets of abalone at the market and put them in the car to cover up the stench."

Seeing that Edison was still skeptical, Jiang Lu directly told him where Tom bought abalone, how many baskets and how many kilograms in total.

This was all publicly available information that he had investigated in his previous life.

The fact that it was spoken aloud in this lifetime has become a prophecy.

"Now go immediately to the Northern Legion and find Crown Prince Columbus, and let him know about this. Bismarck and Mongo have forged an imperial edict, changing the one that should have passed the throne to him to Tom, and they also want to execute him and all our brothers."

Tom is a ruthless scoundrel; he's trying to ruin my Gamba Empire!

Then Edison and he died that afternoon in an assassination attempt by men in black.

—Damn, the palace and the capital are both controlled by Bismarck and Mongo? They even have spies around me?

Jiang Lü died unwillingly, but with even greater fighting spirit, he embarked on his ninth time travel.

"Your Highness, news has arrived from Sand Dune: Emperor Wu is suspected to have passed away."

"Don't talk nonsense! How could Emperor Wu be dead? Gather the troops, I'm going out of the city to hunt!" Jiang Lü impatiently interrupted Edison.

Then, he gathered his trusted men and tried to escape with their families, but they were stopped by the general guarding the pass and all of them were killed.

—To accomplish great things, one must be ruthless and heartless!
Jiang Lü grew up amidst suffering. On the tenth occasion, he did not bring his family or inform his less skilled retainers.

Without the burden of baggage and the elderly and children, he led an elite force, bypassing the main roads and traversing mountains and valleys, finally arriving at the Northern Army and meeting his elder brother, Lumb.

"Why won't you believe me? Listen to me, lead the troops back to the capital. If I'm lying, you can kill me." Jiang Lü was furious.

He told Columbus about the dream in which Emperor Wu appeared to him, the weight of the abalone, and the forged edict from Mongo, but Columbus wouldn't listen and insisted on committing suicide.

"A person can only rely on themselves!"

During his twentieth time travel, Jiang Lü coldly watched his elder brother commit suicide.

After he dies, kill the messenger who demanded that General Mike of the North also commit suicide with a single sword stroke.

"Your Highness, I am willing to accompany you to the capital!" Mike knelt on one knee, expressing his temporary submission.

"Let's go, let's go to the capital!"

Jiang Lü led an army of 500,000 back to the capital.

They swept through everything in their path, and no one could stop the empire's strongest army.

He ascended the throne, stepping over a pulp of flesh and blood.

Beneath the steps, the new emperor Tom cried and revealed the truth of the Dune Coup.

Jiang Lü's heart remained as still as water, undisturbed.

"Exterminate their entire clan!"

He issued orders with ruthlessness, then led his mighty army to ruthlessly suppress uprisings across the land. Finally, five years later, he exhausted the empire's lifeblood, suffered defeat, and died.

He saw faces that were both unfamiliar and somewhat familiar.

"Ying Wu, is that you?"

He met his "second brother"—a brother born to his mother.

"Brother, it's me. How many points did you get?"

Ying Wu showed no excitement or thrill at all about seeing his brother again after so many years; his face was filled with only curiosity.

"What score?"

Jiang Lu was in a daze for a while before forcibly suppressing the glorious years of the "Gamba Empire" and recalling his first life.

"Oh, I'm participating in the 'Examination of Wise Kings' presided over by Grand Tutor Yu. I was just now taking the first test?"

"Master Yu's supernatural powers are truly astounding! I can hardly distinguish between reality and illusion. I almost thought I had actually traveled to the Gamba Empire."

After a moment of confusion, Jiang Lü recalled his final defeat and death, and in his despair, he seemed to see a "settlement screen" flash before his eyes.

"I got 85 points," he remembered.

"Wow, Your Majesty, you not only passed, but you scored 25 points more! That's amazing!" Ying Wu exclaimed in shock.

Jiang Lu looked around at the dimly lit space, where only the two of them were. "What's your score? Where are we? Where's everyone else?"

"The second stage is the 'group stage,' which might be in groups of three to five. If we're going to form teams, of course it'll be the three of us brothers. They're over there~~"

Ying Wu pointed ahead.

What was once a hazy gray scene suddenly revealed dozens of blurry figures when he pointed.

Then, Ying Wu looked ashamed and mumbled, "I only got 51 points, I failed."

“Brother Wu, why did you get such a low score? I went through dozens of times before I finally passed the first level, ‘Battle Royale in the Capital.’ I feel like I’m already pretty useless,” Jiang Lu said.

"Brother, where did you travel to?" Ying Wu asked.

After exchanging words, the two discovered that they were from the same "Eight Desolations World," and both were dealing with the same messy affairs of the Gamba Empire.

"It's obvious that the Gamba Empire is our Great Qin. It's just that now Huhai is the emperor, Li Si is the head of the military council, and Zhao Gao... wait, Zhao Gao didn't get promoted. Instead, he was alienated by Huhai and stripped of his power as the 'Grand Eunuch in Charge of the Imperial Seal'."

Could it be that Hu Hai also traveled through time?

Jiang Lü seemed to understand something. "In short, Grand Tutor Yu, in order to maintain harmony within the Qin Dynasty, reconciled many of the original figures and events." Then he asked his brother, "Have you spoken with any of the others? What scores did they get, and what did they experience?"

Ying Wu said, "I didn't have time to say anything before you suddenly appeared, so I came to find you immediately."

"Then let's go ask them."

Strangely enough, even though he was in a void, hazy space, he could move freely whenever he wanted to.

Where the heart leads, the body follows.

They quickly found several brothers with whom they had a good relationship, as well as their brothers' sons and nephews.

After asking each other, they quickly determined that they had all traveled to the Eight Desolations World and the Gangba Empire.

"No need to say more, it's our Great Qin."

"Second brother, you actually got 85 points, how did you do that?"
"Passing the test is incredibly difficult, let alone just getting a passing grade, and you've almost reached 90 points!" Prince Gao exclaimed in surprise.

Jiang Lü said, "I'm ashamed to say that I've traveled through time twenty times before I've even grasped a little bit of the art of political maneuvering, and I'm just lucky to have survived until the capital fell. How many points do you have, Third Brother?"

The prince said with embarrassment, "I can't compare to my second brother, I only get 65 points."

Ying Wu exclaimed in surprise, "Third Brother actually got 65 points! You passed!"

That's something I don't like to hear.

Is it strange that passing is just barely passing?

Jiang Lu frowned and asked, "Why did you only score 51 points? In the battle royale in the capital, did you survive to the end?"

Ying Wu said awkwardly, "I survived to the end, but my performance was not good, I didn't pass."

I had no choice but to pretend to be crazy and eat shit in front of Hu Hai and Zhao Gao. They really thought I was crazy, so they didn't kill me.

Although I survived to the end, I'm still not satisfied with myself. 51 points—I deserve it.

He was able to face reality and didn't cry out in grievance.

Jiang Lu's expression was contorted, as if he had eaten feces, looking utterly disgusted.

He knew how real the "Eight Desolations World" was.

It's almost like another world; everything you eat is just like in real life.

Anyway, he couldn't tell the difference between the real and the fake.

So, did you eat real poop, bro?
Strangely, the other princes, upon hearing this, only had strange expressions and were not particularly shocked or excited.

“You have always been proud and brave. You should have many ways to survive. Why eat poop?” Jiang Lü said.

Ying Wu was initially ashamed and embarrassed, but when he heard his older brother say "there are many ways to survive," he became excited.

“Brother, I’ve traveled through time more than three hundred times! I’ve tried every method imaginable, but Hu Hai is a great demon king. He just wants to kill us brothers. He’s heartless and irrational. No matter how we try to persuade or beg, it’s no use.”

Ninth Prince Ying Zhou nodded in agreement, feeling a pang of sympathy. "Trying to persuade or beg Hu Hai to let us go is a dead end."

The other princes nodded in agreement, saying, "Hu Hai is too ruthless."

"You've time-traveled over three hundred times!" Jiang Luxian was startled. Then he remembered that his brother had gone astray, kept begging Hu Hai, kept dying early, and kept time-traveling, which explained the large number of times he had time-traveled.

"Didn't you ever think of resisting? Hu Hai, Li Si, Zhao Gao, they were just the easiest enemies to deal with!"

After he cleared the game, he fought against the rebels for another five years!
Prince Gao said, "I also begged in vain, and finally, when I was desperate, I practiced martial arts diligently and killed those three bastards. Li Si is not right, oh, it's Chancellor Bismarck, his 'Prime Minister Bismarck' is too powerful."

I traversed fifty times in a row before I accumulated enough experience and internal strength to finally kill him with my sword.

"What?! Third Brother, you actually killed Hunyuan Wuji Bismarck with your own hands? Your martial arts are not even as good as mine!"

All the princes and nephews were shocked.

“Bismarck is simply too strong. Even ‘Otherworldly Meng Tian’ couldn’t defeat him. It took the deaths of six or seven military commanders and five thousand iron cavalry to finally surround and kill him. You actually killed Bismarck single-handedly with your sword. How did you do it?” Jiang Lü was especially shocked.

He personally led the Northern Army back to Xianyang and witnessed firsthand how terrifying Bismarck's "Thunderbolt" was.

If the battle of Xianyang had not resulted in such heavy casualties, Jiang Lü was confident that he could have led the Gangba Empire to hold out for another two years.

It was because Meng Tian's old injuries had not healed that he was killed by "Chen Sheng from another world".

Prince Gao said, "Didn't I say that I have accumulated rich martial arts experience by traveling through time fifty times in a row?"

“But time travel can only bring back memories, not internal energy!” Jiang Lü said.

Prince Gao's expression became awkward. "The 'Sunflower Manual' that I cultivate is a bit special. It becomes unfamiliar the first time, and familiar the second time. The more familiar I become, the faster my power grows."

If the side effects weren't so severe, I'd love to practice in real life.

Ying Xia asked curiously, "Where is this 'Sunflower Manual' from, and what are its side effects?"

The prince exclaimed, "Does your 'Gamba Empire' not have a royal armory? It's exactly the same as our Ying Clan's armory!"

“I’ve also thought about cultivating this divine skill, but it didn’t work. I haven’t seen the ‘Sunflower Manual.’ Third Brother, could you tell us about it?” Ying Zhou said.

The prince's eyes flickered as he said, "The very first line of the Sunflower Manual is, 'To practice this divine skill, one must first castrate oneself.'"

He recounted the contents of the divine skill manual in detail.

Not only does it contain the original training method, but also his cultivation insights from more than fifty self-castrations.

Prince Gao spoke eloquently, progressing from simple to complex in a logical and well-organized manner, displaying the demeanor of a master.

The princes felt awkward listening to this, yet they couldn't help but mentally reenact the scene.

"It seems like cultivation really is possible."

Even if the princes lacked ability and talent, they were not lacking in knowledge.

After silently thinking it over once, they immediately realized that this was a highly skilled immortal martial art.

Its explanation of the Yin-Yang Dao is profound and unfathomable, surpassing many true immortal techniques.

However, the cultivation method is very unorthodox.

The normal way of Yin and Yang is for Yin and Yang to be in harmony, while the unorthodox way is to absorb Yin to supplement Yang and vice versa.

The Sunflower Manual, however, involves self-castration to first sever one's own yang energy and then strengthen one's yin energy.

It's like absorbing one's own yang energy to replenish one's own yin energy. The highest level is when yin reaches its extreme and yang is generated, leading to ascension to immortality.

"Such a bizarre technique, if it were in the armory, it wouldn't be unknown!" Ying Wu wondered.

Prince Gao said, "Once I was hiding in a corner and crying secretly. An old woman in the armory who was sweeping the floor saw my pitiful state and helped me find the 'Sunflower Manual'."

"There's no old woman in the armory! And no need to sweep the floor." Several princes immediately said in unison.

Prince Gao was taken aback. "But I did find the Sunflower Manual through the old woman's introduction."

Jiang Lü's heart stirred, and he asked, "Why are you crying secretly?"

“My whole family was killed, and no matter how much I begged, it was no use. In the end, I almost followed Ying Wu's example and pretended to be stupid and ate excrement. How could I not cry when I was in such a miserable state?” Prince Gao said.

The other princes nodded slightly, sharing a similar sentiment.

They've cried many times too.

"Hu Hai from Another World" is too crazy, and the pressure he brings to them is too strong.

They were in so much pain and so desperate that of course they had to break down and wail.

She cried more than once!

Even someone like Prince Gao, who knows to hide in a corner and cry secretly, is already very strong.

Jiang Lü looked at Prince Gao with a complicated expression and said, "That old woman is probably Grand Tutor Yu."

Seeing that you were about to suffer humiliation, she couldn't bear to see you suffer, so she specially opened a little back door for you.

"At least I've managed to preserve the prince's dignity for you."

Ying Wu, who was eating shit, looked extremely embarrassed.

(End of this chapter)