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

In a secluded manor outside Chang'an, several heads of long-established powerful families smashed their wine glasses in anger as they read a newspaper article about "digital tailors getting rich overnight."

Exquisite shards of celadon porcelain flew everywhere on the blue brick floor, and warm wine mixed with the shards slowly spread across the surface.

The acting patriarch of the Taiyuan Wang clan had a livid face, his fingers gripping the armrests of the rosewood chair tightly.

The dark patterns on the edge of the armrest were almost peeled off by his fingernails, making a harsh, creaking sound.

"Absurd! How could a lowly weaver who can barely read a few words suddenly become a millionaire?"

His hoarse voice, filled with an uncontrollable jealousy, chilled the air in the entire inner hall to the bone.

This arrogance stemming from the capitalist class made it utterly intolerable for peasants to rise above them in this new world.

In the eyes of aristocratic families, wealth should be a derivative of bloodline, not a myth built from a few strings of glowing codes.

"Brother Wang, please calm down. That peasant just caught the first wave of Li Chengqian's popularity."

The elder Lu, who was sitting next to him, snorted coldly and slammed the holographic newspaper with Su Mu's photo on the table.

"The Eastern Palace opened up this so-called 'meta-universe,' claiming it was for the sake of all industries in the Tang Dynasty, but in reality, it was just to drain all the liquid funds in our hands."

Look at our workshops back home; because of these damn digital tailors, their operating rate is less than half of what it used to be!

This group of old fogies, accustomed to monopolies, united in that one minute, their gloomy faces distorted in the dim candlelight.

Since they couldn't keep up with their rebellious son in terms of creativity and technology, they decided to use the hidden funds they had accumulated over hundreds of years.

This money was originally intended for hoarding and speculation during times of scarcity, but now it has become their most ruthless financial weapon.

They plan to use their most proficient ancient methods to create a man-made economic disaster in the metaverse.

"Brother Lu is right. Since we can't get this land, let's just smash this whole development to smithereens!"

The Wang clan patriarch took a deep breath and placed his two withered hands on the offline main control panel of the bracelet.

A near-destructive madness gleamed in his eyes as he gave a death order to his trusted clerks behind him.

"Sell off all the 'top-tier' virtual land we've stockpiled at rock-bottom prices, leave nothing behind!"

At the same time, let those idlers in the black market spread panic across the internet, saying that the underlying computing power of the Tian Shu system is overloaded, and all virtual appearances may be completely wiped out at any time due to a power outage!

With the issuance of the aristocratic family's orders, a conspiracy to maliciously dump the metaverse's stock price was secretly and blatantly launched.

They attempted to cause the market to collapse completely through this short-selling tactic.

This forces ordinary people at the bottom to panic and sell their goods, allowing the authorities to reap the profits at low prices and plunder the wealth of those at the bottom once again.

Just one hundred milliseconds later, violent and abnormal fluctuations began to appear on the servers of the virtual land transaction center.

The green curve, which had been steadily rising and representing the vitality of Datang's assets, suddenly seemed to have crashed into an invisible iron wall.

Due to the massive influx of sell orders in a very short period of time, the green waveform chart began to show an irregular and sharp decline.

The crimson patches representing the fear index spread out in large patches from the edge of the market towards the center.

"What happened? Why did the land price in 'Top Tier' drop?"

"Good heavens! There's a rumor circulating on the black market that the power to the Taiji Palace is going to go out again, and all these glowing codes will turn into scrap metal!"

Ordinary people who were just about to turn their lives around by relying on the design of their bracelets turned pale under the holographic cold light as they watched their assets shrink.

The collective panic caused by the unknown spread like a sudden digital plague across every street in virtual Chang'an.

Some people hesitated before pressing the sell button, instantly amplifying the market's decline.

This violent fluctuation not only panicked the speculators, but also made Changsun Wuji, who was sitting in the side hall of the Taiji Hall, break out in a cold sweat.

The fat old man stared intently at the data on the secondary control panel, his thighs trembling uncontrollably beneath his court robes due to excessive tension.

"Your Majesty! A major disaster has occurred! The market is plummeting!"

The Wang and Lu families are using their real money as a hammer to smash our pot!

Li Shimin was still basking in the glory of showing off his supreme wings, but when he saw the constantly updating red numbers indicating losses, his dragon eyes narrowed slightly.

He slammed his hand on the table, making a dull, booming sound.

"These shameless old fools, do they really think my scepter is just for show now?"

"Wang De! Send an imperial decree to Xu Xiao, ordering him to lead a strike team to investigate all the accounts involved in the sell-off!"

"Your Majesty, please calm down. Using physical violence will only give them ammunition to criticize you."

Just a second before the old man was about to flip the table.

The holographic light screen on the side of the main hall suddenly distorted violently, and the virtual projection of Wu Zetian fully armed once again clearly solidified.

Her light armor reflected the cold, electric arcs in the machine room.

But on that exquisitely beautiful face, there was not a trace of panic caused by the market crash.

On the contrary, she slightly raised her chin, her phoenix eyes flashing with an almost cruel, cold calculation.

Her slender fingers lightly traced the financial grid on the secondary control panel, drawing out neat and orderly lines of code defense.

"This unusual flow of funds naturally did not escape the discerning eyes of Wu Zetian within the Taiji Palace."

Wu Meiniang's cold gaze swept across the hall, looking at the terrified former officials, and she curled her lips in disdain.

"These old aristocratic families, who are tightly controlled by His Highness's laws in reality, think that they can do whatever they want in this system because of their capital."

The more aggressively they dumped shares, the clearer their hidden positions became, making it the perfect opportunity for the Tian Shu system to wipe them out.

"Director Wu, do you mean... this was all within the Crown Prince's expectations?" Changsun Wuji swallowed hard and stammered.

Wu Zetian did not answer him directly, but instead opened a direct channel to the highest legal entity settlement channel in Hawaii. Golden codes representing the encirclement and suppression began to flood the screen like a waterfall.

She looked at the monitoring data in the backend, a cruel sneer curling her lips: "The fish has taken the bait, time to cast the net."