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

Li Shimin slowly loosened his fingers.

The pure gold dragon head on the dragon throne was dampened by his sweat.

He didn't see Wu Meiniang's anxious eyes.

He also did not respond to Changsun Wuji's fervent gaze.

He just stared at the broken jade tablet on the ground, remaining silent for a long time.

"This matter... I must consider it carefully."

Li Shimin's voice sounded weak, lacking its usual confidence.

"Wei Zheng's body shall be frozen first. Court is adjourned."

He stood up, ignoring the eunuch's attempt to help him up.

Like a puppet who had lost its soul, he walked straight to the side hall behind the Taiji Hall.

The heavy palace doors slammed shut behind him.

He shut out the whispers of the court officials.

The emperor did not refuse on the spot.

In official circles, this would be tantamount to tacit approval.

This even means that the emperor himself was tempted.

This signal is like a drop of water falling into boiling oil.

This instantly ignited the entire underground black market of Chang'an.

In less than twelve hours.

An underground organization called "Chang Sheng Men" is growing wildly like a plague in the elite circles of Chang'an.

This organization has only one core business.

It was the "permanent upload location" provided by the remnants of the Gongshu family.

Pingkang Ward, east of Chang'an City.

Deep within the mansion of Old Master Liu, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Works of the Tang Dynasty.

In a dark, underground chamber that never sees sunlight.

The air was filled with a strange smell, a mixture of strong sandalwood and disinfectant.

There was no bed in the center of the secret room.

In its place is a "resurrection cabinet" that emits a pale white, cold light.

This server rack looks like an upright ice coffin.

It is covered with a thick layer of radiation-proof glass.

It was filled with a translucent nutrient solution.

Several thick black pipes extended from the top of the server rack, connecting to the underground servers next to it.

Grandpa Liu was lying in the cabinet.

He is 82 years old this year and has late-stage tuberculosis.

Every breath felt like a broken bellows, with a thick phlegm stuck in my throat that I couldn't cough up.

His emaciated body was soaking in nutrient solution.

He was wearing a rudimentary, illegal brain-computer interface on his head.

The metal probe of the interface roughly pierced his sparse scalp.

A trickle of black blood seeped out and dissolved in the nutrient solution.

Next to the server rack.

Standing there was a black market witch doctor wearing a black cloak.

The witch doctor, wearing a mechanical mask, was adjusting a high-voltage electric shock generator in his hand.

"Lord Liu, are you ready?"

The witch doctor's voice, processed with a voice changer, was as grating as fingernails scraping a blackboard.

"This is a one-way ticket."

"Once it starts, your physical brain cells will be instantly burned out by the high-voltage current."

"Your consciousness will be packaged and forever exiled to the ownerless core area of ​​the Tian Shu system."

Grandpa Liu did not hesitate.

He laboriously raised one hand and tapped twice on the glass inside the server rack.

Boom, boom.

The voice was deep and muffled, with a hint of impatience.

"Hurry...start now."

"I...cough cough...don't want to suffer through this mess anymore."

The witch doctor didn't waste any more words.

He pulled the red switch on the electric shock generator.

Shila-

A blinding blue arc of electricity traveled along the pipes and directly into the brain-computer interface on Old Master Liu's head.

Grandpa Liu's withered body suddenly arched up in the nutrient solution.

It looks like a boiled shrimp.

His eyes instantly turned bloodshot, and he stared intently at the ceiling.

He exhaled a large string of bubbles.

On the electrocardiogram monitor next to the server rack.

The already weak wavy line jerked violently a few times.

Then, accompanied by a long "beep" sound.

It was stretched into a perfectly straight green line.

Physical death.

But at the very same second that the electrocardiogram flattened out.

The holographic projection screen on the wall of the secret room suddenly lit up.

A light scattering of snowflakes flashed by.

On the screen appeared a middle-aged man dressed in a magnificent brocade robe.

That was the "code body" that Old Master Liu bought on the black market.

He looks to be only around forty years old.

Her complexion was rosy, and even the wrinkles at the corners of her eyes were smoothed out by the code.

There are no signs of tuberculosis at all.

The middle-aged man on the screen slowly opened his eyes.

He looked down at his virtual hands.

He clenched his fist tightly.

There's no arthritis pain, only surging computing power feedback.

"I am alive."

The digital body spoke, its voice loud and clear, full of energy.

"Hahaha... I'm really alive!"

He looked at his own shriveled corpse inside the cabinet.

There was not a trace of lingering affection in his eyes; instead, they were filled with disgust.

"Burn it."

The digital body points to its own corpse.

"It's an eyesore. I've had enough of this pile of rotten flesh."

He let out a strange, maniacal laugh on the screen.

Laughter echoed in the dark basement, carrying a chilling sense of absurdity.

This is immortality.

They abandoned breathing, temperature, and touch.

In return, they received a string of code that would never wear out.

This scene unfolded over the next few days.

A frenzied spectacle unfolded in the deep courtyards and mansions of various wards and markets throughout Chang'an.

Those powerful and wealthy people who are about to die of old age, and even retired generals.

Like moths to a flame, they poured huge sums of real gold and silver into underground banks.

In exchange for a chance to enter the stark white server rack.

They cannot tolerate the fact that cyberpunk technology allows mechs to fly and burrow underground.

However, they cannot stop their own bodies from aging and dying.

Changsun Wuji's words at the morning court session became the catalyst for them to cross the line.

The Changsheng Sect made a fortune.

Their black market servers were running at overcapacity.

Every day, a large number of "digital ghosts" travel along smuggled fiber optic cables.

It was quietly packaged and sent to the unclaimed block at the edge of the Tian Shu system.

On that virtual land, bizarre communities were built, consisting only of code and living people.

Wu Zetian has been working non-stop these past few days, and dark circles have appeared under her eyes.

She turned the Cyberspace Administration's inspection power up to the maximum.

They attempted to block those illegal upload channels.

However, Li Shimin's ambiguous attitude greatly hindered the Cyberspace Administration of China's law enforcement efforts.

Many powerful figures even mobilized their private soldiers to guard the entrance to the underground server room.

A physical conflict occurred with the technical staff of the Cyberspace Administration of China.

In just five days.

Chang'an West Market.

The most prosperous physical heavy industry and trade center of the Tang Dynasty.

More than 40% of them are physical workshops and large trading companies.

Overnight, the person in charge of reality mysteriously disappeared.