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

Inside the Taiji Hall, Li Shimin, wearing a holographic helmet, was excitedly running through the streets of the virtual Chang'an.

His bloated, obese dragon body twisted and turned behind the dragon table.

With both feet firmly planted on the marble floor, they creased the thick carpet with their kicks.

The edge of the helmet flashed a deep green light at a high frequency, making him look like a code carrier in a state of excitement.

He waved his hands and chuckled sheepishly.

In the holographic world, land prices have plummeted to an astonishing level.

Li Shimin felt that this was a miracle of sudden wealth bestowed upon him by Heaven.

He simply didn't believe the bullshit rumors about policy decoupling.

The policy was set by the Crown Prince.

In other words, it's his rebellious son who spends all his time sunbathing in Hawaii who's in charge.

Since Chengqian had not spoken, in Li Shimin's eyes, this so-called severance notice was nothing more than the dying struggle of those old bones of the aristocratic families before their death.

This blind confidence and frenzy of buying at the bottom caused him to lose his mind.

"Wang De! Stop dawdling! Convert all three million credits you've got hidden away in your private treasury into gold threads!"

Li Shimin shouted in the virtual street while frantically pointing in the air with his hands.

His gaze was filled with those unclaimed plots of land, gleaming with a gray, lifeless light.

The Wang family of Taiyuan threw it away.

The Cui family of Qinghe were also smashing things.

Li Shimin, on the other hand, was like a constable who had opened a sack, consuming as much as was available.

He watched as the virtual asset pool on his bracelet expanded at a speed that made his scalp tingle, and he felt incredibly happy.

"After tonight, half the land in the city will belong to me. Let's see if those roughnecks dare to speak loudly in front of me again!"

However, the speed at which the fake news spread completely escaped all financial control within that minute.

Panic is like a forest fire ignited by a strong wind.

It spread out of control on the public internet of every province in the Tang Dynasty.

Several newly wealthy factory owners who had originally joined the old man in buying up stocks at rock-bottom prices also received the forged official document.

"This is terrible! The decoupling is real! The Academy of Sciences' gateway has begun to be physically shut down!"

"Delist! Delist now! Otherwise, your money will really become a pile of digital garbage!"

On the overall market chart, the green curve that was barely hanging on suddenly plummeted without warning within a millisecond.

The waveform was as if it had been cut off at its highest point by an invisible iron saw.

Then, with a terrifying drop of tens of thousands of points per millisecond, it continued to slide into the deepest abyss.

Li Shimin's chubby face, which had been beaming with pride, suddenly froze in that instant.

He watched helplessly as he bought thirty prime plots of land, each a "top-tier" property, at the cost of millions of his own savings.

The total value of the assets above shrank by half in a microsecond.

Those glowing golden characters, in an irreversible manner, frantically transformed into a pale white representing losses.

He was firmly trapped halfway up the mountain.

Prices continued to fall, dropping below his bottom-fishing price.

It broke through his last line of defense, the margin safety net.

"Wait! Why is it still falling? Give me a break and it'll go up!"

Li Shimin roared in a daze, frantically pulling at the red line that had almost turned into a vertical drop in the air with both hands.

No matter how hard he tried, the system's backend trading matcher only kept popping up a barrage of glaring error warnings.

This is the kind of intense devastation that comes from watching real money vanish in a second.

It transformed into an invisible chill.

They gripped every vein in his hand tightly.

The old man was so angry that he jumped up and down in the side hall of the Taiji Hall.

He stomped his dragon boots on the white marble steps, making the sound of a billiard ball echo.

He ripped off his helmet, panting heavily, his chest heaving violently.

"Rebellion! Utter rebellion! Wang De! Investigate for me! Which bastard spouted this nonsense on the public internet?!"

Li Shimin's face was flushed red with anger.

His bloodshot, furious dragon eyes seemed to be spewing out real flames.

Changsun Wuji nervously handed over a cup of tea, his face soaked with sweat that had soaked the collar of his robe.

"Your Majesty... the stock market... the stock market has plummeted to rock bottom, our private treasury... is empty."

"Empty? My money!"

Li Shimin let out a mournful cry and leaned helplessly against the edge of the broken dragon table.

He looked at his trembling hands, and the arrogance in his eyes that belonged to an investment tycoon was shattered in that instant by the cold reality of algorithms.

He had intended to be a speculator who could reap the benefits without lifting a finger, but in the end, he couldn't even keep his own savings.

In a corner of the main hall, Wang De lay prone on the carpet, barely daring to breathe.

Outside the hall, Wei Zheng was still dutifully using a loudspeaker to shout his admonition that "playing with things leads to the loss of ambition."

The sound pierced through the thick palace walls, and for that minute, it sounded like a merciless mockery of the greed for imperial power.

On this night, the highest ruler of the Tang Dynasty was reduced to the biggest and most insignificant cyber leek in the metaverse.

"Sir, not only have the fish taken the bait, but even the chairman, that big crocodile, has thrown himself into it."

Inside the Cyberspace Administration of China's central computer room, the operator watched as the top-level key, representing the royal treasury, was completely locked in its cage, and reported in a low voice with a strange expression.

Wu Zetian stood in front of the curtain wall, her phoenix eyes flashing with the cold-bloodedness unique to a wealthy queen.

She didn't even frown.

"Tell Tian Shu to handle this strictly. Since he's already in the 'explosion grid,' don't worry about who's on the throne."

Her slender fingers slowly tightened on the main control lever.

This elaborate scheme of spreading false information, which she orchestrated herself, has now completed the perfect encirclement of the hidden capital of aristocratic families and imperial power.

Those powerful families who think they can smash the stove of the new era with real money.

At this point, all they could do was watch helplessly as their hard-earned capital was transformed into the purest underlying nutrients within the Tian Shu main control panel, subject to the crushing weight of the data.

"Your Highness, the order to close the net has been issued, and His Majesty is probably going to be cursing."

Wu Zetian used a special frequency band to accurately transmit the data ledger of the entire Chang'an region to the other side of the ocean.

"Let him curse. The old man is just passing around state assets from one hand to the other every day. He should pay his dues."

Li Chengqian's languid voice sounded gloating in the sea breeze.

"We can use this money to build two more quantum production lines at the third heavy industry base in North America."

He tossed aside the empty can and sat up from the beach chair.

Looking at the green stock market in the center of my vision, which represents a global financial victory, it has regained its dominant position.

A cynical yet cold smile played on his lips.

The aftershocks of this great panic ultimately did not cause the collapse of the empire's financial chain. Instead, they used the flesh and blood of aristocratic families and imperial power to make the industrial foundation of the Tang Dynasty even more stagnant and solid.

In front of the dragon throne inside the Taiji Hall.

Just as Li Shimin was about to unleash a torrent of curses at which bastard had spread the rumors, a forced pop-up window from Hawaii suddenly appeared on his holographic terminal.

It was a pop-up window displaying the Imperial Seal of the Crown Prince, shimmering with the light of the Eastern Red River. Every word on it exuded an illogical, distorted logic in the cold light.

Li Shimin stared intently at the text in the pop-up window, the curse he was about to utter stuck in his throat, and he let out an unpleasant hiccup.

At the very center of the screen, the cold, mechanical voice of the Tian Shu system loudly announced in a completely emotionless tone: "Dear unknown retail investor, given your suspected malicious bottom-fishing during this fluctuation, your personal account has been placed under the supervision of the Eastern Palace Level 2. The losses incurred will be automatically transferred directly to the Hawaii Phase II Beach Development Special Fund. Thank you for your selfless contribution to the construction of Datang Heavy Industry."