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

The mahogany doors of the Taiji Hall were wide open.

The cold morning wind, carrying the smoke and fumes from the steel furnaces in the West Market, blew into the empty hall.

The crimson overload light above the main hall has completely extinguished.

It returned to its usual quietness.

Li Shimin remained in that awkward kneeling position.

The bright yellow dragon robe was stained with dust and black blood spit out by Changsun Wuji.

Several eunuchs were carefully lifting Changsun Wuji's body onto a stretcher.

A white linen cloth covered that withered, terrified old face.

Li Shimin did not stop him.

He watched as the stretcher was carried out of the palace gate and disappeared at the end of the white marble steps.

His hand still held the same arc as when he hugged his old friend.

On my fingertips, there lingered the chilling, stiff feeling of a corpse.

This realistic tactile sensation.

Like a sharp icicle, it pierced Li Shimin's brain, which was blinded by the desire for immortality.

He shivered.

A wave of lingering fear washed over him like a tidal wave, instantly engulfing him.

Li Shimin recalled the night he spent deep within the underground palace at Mount Li.

That dimly lit basement, reeking of a pungent gel smell.

That expensive, gleaming titanium alloy machine.

And there was that specially made crown covered with high-pressure probes that were almost touching his scalp.

If only at that time...

If it weren't for that one-thousandth of a millisecond of forced power outage.

If those fine, hair-like probes really did pierce his brain.

The high-voltage current of tens of thousands of volts instantly burned out his cerebral cortex.

Will he end up like Changsun Wuji?

Turn into a rotting, lifeless body that can't speak, can't breathe, and slowly rots and infests maggots?

No.

He is not even as good as Changsun Wuji.

He would be soaked in nutrient solution and turned into a stinking pile of rubble in that cold titanium alloy box.

And in the virtual world, he arrogantly proclaimed his "eternal kingdom".

It's nothing more than a string of stupid code that has been programmed with the emperor's instructions and is mechanically looping in the background of the Tian Shu system.

Li Shimin began to breathe heavily.

Cold sweat instantly soaked through his inner clothes.

The damp, cold fabric clung to his back, raising goosebumps.

He raised his hand.

Those hands were still trembling uncontrollably.

He pressed his hands firmly onto the cold floor tiles of the Taiji Hall.

The ten fingers bend and straighten.

Feeling the slight stinging sensation from the friction between my fingertips and the rough stone surface.

Then, he raised his hand in front of his eyes.

These hands have calluses and hidden injuries from martial arts training.

There are also a few age spots that appear as I get older.

It's neither pretty nor perfect.

But he could feel the warmth in his palm.

I could feel my pulse beating regularly at my wrist.

He pinched his thigh hard.

The real pain is transmitted to the brain along the nerves.

"Alive..."

Li Shimin murmured to himself, his voice filled with the relief of surviving a calamity.

"To be alive in this world is what truly matters."

He finally understood.

I understand what Changsun Wuji meant by his dying words, "Even a stinking skin can be real."

He finally understood.

Why would that rebellious son, who's so far away in Hawaii, get so angry?

They would use such extreme methods.

He ruthlessly shattered the immortality dreams of all the officials and civil servants in the court.

They didn't even give him face as his own father, and violently pulled the physical power switch.

Li Chengqian was not seizing power, nor was he targeting anyone in particular.

That cold-blooded, cunning prince who only talks about code.

It is done in the most brutal way.

It pulled the entire Tang Dynasty back from the brink of a collective civilizational suicide.

If Li Chengqian hadn't cut off the power last night.

This morning's court session.

Those standing in the Taiji Hall would not be these flesh-and-blood old ministers.

Instead, they are a group of "ghosts" lying in the server rack, with only a bunch of fake code mechanically operating in mid-air.

The real economy of the Tang Dynasty will come to a complete standstill.

The entire empire will become a giant, digital tomb devoid of living people.

"I'm getting senile."

Li Shimin lowered his head and looked at the pool of black blood on his dragon robe.

He was the mighty Heavenly Khan, the founding tyrant of the Tang Dynasty.

He fought wars his whole life, killing countless people, showing no mercy even to his own brothers.

When you get old.

They were completely fooled by a few black market dealers using a bunch of broken machines and a few lines of fake code.

He almost personally sent the Tang Dynasty's empire, along with his own life, into the trash can.

He braced himself on the floor tiles with both hands.

Slowly stand up.

My legs felt numb from kneeling for so long.

But he stood very steadily, his back ramrod straight.

The feeling of being old and frail, overwhelmed by the fear of death, vanished completely.

Li Shimin took a deep breath.

The crisp morning air he inhaled cleared his lungs and completely roused his groggy mind.

"Wang De".

Li Shimin spoke.

His voice regained its usual composure and authority.

The old eunuch, who had been kneeling in the corner and dared not utter a sound, quickly scrambled over.

"Your servant is here."

"deliver an imperial order."

Li Shimin did not order the punishment of those powerful figures who participated in the illegal uploading.

They also did not investigate the transgression of the Great Snow Dragon Riders breaking down doors and ransacking homes overnight.

Because that's meaningless now.

The scam was exposed, the server racks were burned to molten steel, and those people have received the cruelest punishment.

He looked out of the hall.

The sky was bright.

A thin layer of frost is melting in the fields outside Chang'an.

"Order the Ministry of Works and the Ministry of Revenue to immediately resume the Spring Ploughing Ceremony, which has been suspended for several days."