Deposed? I couldn't be happier! I wouldn't even be a dog to the crown prince.

Li Chengqian's words stuck in his throat.

His slightly parted lips stiffened, his Adam's apple bobbed violently, and the thousand words he had prepared to comfort his father vanished in an instant. His pupils suddenly lost focus, and the illusory image of reality in his vision was forcibly covered by the system. The previously dim and messy scene of the imperial study became fragmented, replaced by a dense stream of dark red data cascading down like a waterfall.

That is the underlying logic of the Datang Global Financial Core System.

The golden code, which originally represented the absolute rule of the Tang Dynasty, is now undergoing an unprecedented physical-level alteration.

Li Chengqian saw that in the trading back-end of the Tang Dynasty stock market, countless hidden nodes were turning a sickly crimson red due to the frenzied influx of external funds. It felt like a normally healthy blood vessel in the human body suddenly being flooded with a large amount of highly toxic pus. The system's alarm blared sharply in his mind, each blast piercingly rapid.

[Warning: A large-scale, unidentified capital flow has been detected attempting to forcibly take over the Chang'an Stock Exchange.]

[Detection has been detected that five prominent families and seven powerful clans, in conjunction with overseas provincial financial groups, are exploiting the power vacuum created by the suspension of imperial authority to carry out a form of financial exploitation.]

[Prediction: Without intervention, the Tang Dynasty's power to set global resource prices will be completely lost within forty-eight hours.]

Li Chengqian's fingertips clenched tightly inside his sleeve, and the veins on the back of his hand throbbed violently with each cold, detached notification.

He sensed it.

This is no longer a simple matter of an old man throwing a tantrum and going on strike.

This is a deadly virus that has been scheming for decades and finally breaks out when the host is weak.

The gaze pierced through the thick palace walls of the Imperial Study, smoothly swept over the city gate, which had been washed by the torrential rain and was as cold as iron, and finally landed on the sticky and murky mud outside the imperial city.

The rain fell more and more heavily, splashing up layer after layer of white mist on the bluestone slabs.

The heads of the five clans and seven powerful families, who once held sway in the imperial court and controlled more than half of the Tang Dynasty's light industry, are now kneeling in the mud.

Cui Yonglin, the head of the Cui family, had a well-preserved face that was now deeply buried in the mud. Rainwater poured relentlessly down his neck and into his expensive silk official robes, making him look like a stray dog.

However, beneath this humble and subservient demeanor, Cui Yonglin's inner thoughts revealed a completely opposite kind of madness.

His lowered face was contorted with an almost perverse excitement, his lips twisting upwards uncontrollably.

Within the wide, rain-soaked cuffs, Cui Yonglin's fingers deftly touched a miniature, jet-black wireless communicator. The most cutting-edge quantum encryption technology of the era was instantly transmitting his commands across oceans to the ears of tycoon agents in distant Europe and the Western Regions.

"His Majesty has sealed off the palace, and that rebellious son has returned."

Cui Yonglin let out a chilling laugh in his heart, so faint that even the Lu family head next to him couldn't hear it.

"They thought we were begging for mercy, they thought we were afraid."

"Little did we know, we had waited fifty years for this moment."

"Notify Grand Duke Charles of the European branch, and those mining tycoons in the Western Regions. Sell all Tang Dynasty bonds and short the Chang'an Index at any cost. While that old man is still throwing a tantrum, before that young man can react, we must dig the Tang Dynasty's empire out of these cold, hard data!"

Cui Yonglin's facial muscles trembled slightly in the rain. The sacred feeling of about to dominate the world made even the cold rain seem sweet to him.

Beside him, the heads of the Lu and Zheng families, these aristocratic patriarchs who usually prided themselves on their aloofness, were also humble at this moment, but in each of their lowered eyes, there was a glint of greed and bloodlust.

They knelt there, not just to worship imperial power.

They were waiting for the moment when imperial power would completely collapse due to its own corruption, so that they could transform into a flock of the most greedy vultures and pounce on that juicy, rotten piece of flesh called "Tang Dynasty".

Inside the Imperial Study, the tension caused by the information asymmetry made the air feel as heavy as cast iron.

Li Chengqian looked at the old man who was panting heavily, his eyes filled with grievance and stubbornness.

He saw Li Shimin's nostrils flaring open in extreme anger, and his father's eyes, clouded from staring at the screen for so long, still filled with a fanaticism and yearning for power.

Li Shimin was currently consumed by anger at being tricked by his son.

This emperor, who was the greatest emperor in history, was completely unaware that the foundation of the empire he was so proud of, the Tang Dynasty he had painstakingly maintained, was being torn apart inch by inch by the scythe of capitalism by the group of seemingly obedient lackeys kneeling in the mud outside the palace.

Li Chengqian's eyelids twitched slightly due to the intense psychological struggle.

He didn't expose all of this immediately.

He knew very well that if he told the old man now that "those people outside are rebelling against you," given Li Shimin's current berserk state, he would only order the Great Snow Dragon Cavalry to kill all those clan leaders.

But the conspiracies of capital are different from armed uprisings.

Even if you kill Cui Yonglin, the funds already in the global liquidity pool won't disappear. Those clandestine trading orders will still haunt every corner of the Datang Chamber of Commerce like ghosts.

We must be patient.

Li Chengqian exhaled a long breath, the movement slow, as if he wanted to expel all the anxiety from his lungs.

His clear eyes instantly became as deep as a pool, and all the scattering that belonged to "salted fish" vanished completely.

Without making a sound, he manipulated his thoughts and issued the highest level of encryption command in his mind, quietly hiding the system panel that was flashing red light into the background.

Since these old foxes want to wage a financial war with overwhelming force.

Since these remnants of the old era want to find a chance to turn the tables in this cyber age.

Then let's play along to the end.

He not only wanted to protect the Tang Dynasty's territory, but he also wanted to use the fire of capital to burn away all the rotten sores within the Tang Dynasty that should have been removed long ago.

Li Chengqian refocused his attention on his furious father.

His initially stiff body gradually relaxed, and a forced smile, yet one that appeared exceptionally sincere due to his peak acting skills, slowly blossomed on his face.

He lowered his head slightly and spoke softly in a tone that was both ingratiating and full of profound meaning.

"Father, please calm your anger. I haven't come back this time to have you continue grinding grain. I've come to invite you... to be the chairman of the board."

He refocused his gaze on his enraged father, a confident smile playing on his lips: "Father, please calm down. I haven't come back this time to have you continue grinding grain. I've come to invite you... to be the chairman of the board."