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

Li Chengqian threw away the empty coconut shell and his fingers flew across the virtual keyboard, bringing up a huge project folder called "Construction of the Spiritual Culture and Entertainment of the Tang Dynasty".

The azure waves continued to relentlessly lap against the white sand beaches of Hawaii, making a soft, hypnotic sound.

However, the atmosphere under the parasol was instantly transformed by this sudden operating command, giving it a cold, mechanical feel typical of an industrial empire.

Wu Meiniang straightened her delicate body slightly, her pair of bright eyes quietly fixed on the holographic catalogs that kept flashing through the air.

The strange terms mentioned above, such as holographic gigolo, cyber talent show, and immersive theater, exude an unfathomable absurdity.

"Your Highness, why bother? The old man's access has already been restricted by you, and the entire court is feeling quite frustrated."

Wu Meiniang smiled slightly, her slender fingers lightly tapping the air as she drew a note for Li Chengqian that had been put on hold due to an unexpected event.

"If we don't find a way to calm them down now, His Majesty will definitely go crazy after twelve hours."

"Meiniang, this is something you don't understand. Why would the old man bother with some kind of air tax? Because he's too idle."

Li Chengqian turned over, resting his right elbow on the soft cushion of the recliner, letting the messy strands of hair on his forehead flutter in the breeze.

He pulled down his sunglasses, revealing a pair of eyes that gleamed with mischievous light.

"If people don't keep their minds on things, they'll start having all sorts of wild thoughts. The old man holds such a large sum of credits, and those scions of noble families have now become cyber beggars."

If we don't find them some proper way to expend their excess energy and resources, the Tang Dynasty will inevitably be thrown into new chaos by them sooner or later.

He pointed to the colorful entertainment programs on the screen, his tone revealing a languid and cunning air of knowing everything.

"This is what is known as 'entertainment for the poor'. It uses the most glaring lights, the most brainwashing music, and the most insane virtual sensory experiences to fill every hour of the lives of ordinary people."

Make them think about how to climb the rankings in the game and how to send flowers to the virtual courtesan as soon as they open their eyes every day.

As for those powerful family heads who still hold hidden assets, it's even simpler.

I'll build them a cyberpunk stage where they can flaunt their wealth in a lower dimension, and let them happily pour in their nearly moldy credits as rewards.

When they're fighting tooth and nail for empty fame online every day, who has the mind to think about how to rebel, and who has the time to complain about the exploitation by the Central Bank of the Tang Dynasty?

This set of underlying logic, which completely transcends feudal thinking, slowly dissipated in Wu Zetian's mind like a mist in that instant.

This brilliant digital queen stood there, stunned.

Her beautiful eyelashes trembled slightly from shock.

She could imagine how terrifying this technology was—a soft knife that could paralyze an entire social class simply through sensory opium, without even needing the sharp blades of the Great Snow Dragon Riders.

This is even more insidious than simply abolishing gold and silver, because it deconstructs humanity's most primal aggressiveness.

Those ambitions that might have been secretly growing will be completely worn away in endless entertainment and revelry.

"Your Highness, what exactly is going on in your head? Sometimes I feel that you understand people better than the devil."

Wu Meiniang sighed softly. Due to the shock of this realization, her micro-expression when she looked at Li Chengqian contained a hint of lingering fear that was almost worshipful.

"Alright, enough with the flattery, let's get to work. Send orders to the Cyberspace Administration and the Ministry of Works to notify those working-class people in Chang'an to work overtime."

Li Chengqian waved his hand and pressed down hard on the red "Distribute Across the Network" button on the control panel.

"Buzz—"

A stream of garbled data with the highest priority instantly pierced through the clouds from the launch tower in Hawaii and was forcibly poured into the Chang'an Heavy Industry hub on the other side of the ocean via Starlink.

Almost simultaneously, in the central square of the City That Never Sleeps, which had been deserted due to the run on deposits, dozens of large holographic projection levitation devices that had been dormant for a long time suddenly emitted high-frequency charging roars from their internal capacitors.

The pale purple coolant flowed wildly through the transparent pipes, making a gurgling sound.

The Ministry of Works’ thousands of night-shift engineers were forcibly awakened by the frantic vibrations of the quantum bracelets. They rubbed their sleepy eyes and grumbled as they put on their insulated protective suits.

"What's going on? What's wrong with them in the middle of the night?"

"Stop talking nonsense! This is a direct order from the Crown Prince's office: upgrade and transform all holographic equipment in the entire Never-Sleeping City overnight!"

The foreman spat out the cheap cigarette from his mouth, pointed with his right hand at the towering steel frame, and shouted loudly due to his tense emotions.

"Pull all the pulse coils to full power. If we can't get the spectral frequency right tonight, our whole team will have to go mining in North America!"

In the middle section of the several-kilometer-long Zhuque Avenue, flames suddenly erupted.

The booming sound of pneumatic wrenches and the blinding white light from high-frequency welding machines intertwined to create a bustling cyber construction site.

Countless robust hydraulic robotic arms swung in mid-air.

Holographic lenses, crafted from rare crystals, were firmly wedged into every blind spot of the clock tower in the city that never sleeps.

Ordinary people who were preparing to go to work in the early morning stopped in their tracks outside the police line.

They stared blankly at the pale blue, cold lines of light that spread like a spiderweb in mid-air.

The sense of mystery and suspense arising from the unknown spread rapidly among the crowd at an astonishing pace.

"Hey, have you heard? The Academy of Sciences is going to create some kind of 'Second World' in the City That Never Sleeps, and even His Majesty personally approved it in red."

"Who knows? Look at that light, it's so bright it's dazzling. It might be some kind of magical contraption that His Highness the Crown Prince came up with."

Huddled in the cold wind, everyone was talking amongst themselves, their eyes filled with shock but also an indescribable, fervent anticipation.

Meanwhile, those remnants of aristocratic families who beg on street corners, unable to buy even a roujiamo (Chinese hamburger) despite possessing gold bricks.

At this moment, he also raised his head blankly, looking at the huge mechanical structures above him that seemed like a miracle.

Cui Hua gripped the blackened gold in his hand tightly, and for some reason, a strong sense of foreboding suddenly welled up in his heart.

The sound of the gears of that era turning faster and faster made it hard for him to even breathe.

This spiritual carnival, casually sketched on the beach by the Salted Fish Crown Prince, is about to burst into its most intense bloom, catching everyone completely off guard.

Three days passed, and the people of Chang'an endured an almost agonizing wait, like a taut bowstring finally snapping to its limit.

As night fell on the third day, dark clouds obscured the moonlight, plunging the entire ancient capital into a deep gloom.

However, just as the evening bell of Daming Palace struck its seventh time...

On the kilometer-high quantum tower at the heart of the city that never sleeps, a pure white high-energy pulse, like a sword piercing the heavens and earth, suddenly pierced the darkness.

"boom!"

Accompanied by a deep, infrasound-like roar that seemed to come from the depths of the earth, tens of thousands of luminous nodes across the city lit up simultaneously.

Suddenly, without warning, countless holographic glowing cherry blossoms began to fall from the sky above Suzaku Avenue.