D-level males reached the pinnacle of life by living off women.

On the other side of the study, Rhine watched Lu Yuan nod repeatedly with a constant smile on his face, and unconsciously a smile appeared on her own face as well.

Rhine's suggestion to share the study was really good. Seeing the lord's expressive face every day improved his mood and made him more patient in handling affairs.

After laughing for a while, Rhine also started working.

The situation on the Araqi defensive line is mostly good news, with nothing particularly worrying.

After finishing the affairs within his territory in a pleasant mood, Rhine looked at the several sealed envelopes on his desk, and his expression gradually became serious.

The situation is good news for the Araqi defense line, but it might not be so good elsewhere.

The sealed envelopes contained messages from the capital planet.

After securing the Arach defense line, Rhine secretly contacted his trusted confidants whom he had specially left within the Third Army, instructing them to keep a close eye on the situation on the capital planet.

To be honest, things have been really chaotic on the capital planet these past few years.

The Crown Prince's faction and the Duke of Norton's faction have almost brought their infighting from behind the scenes to the open, making it so that the powerful ministers on the capital planet have hardly any peace.

Moreover, during the struggle between the two factions, all sorts of dramatic stories kept emerging, making everyone in the empire feel like a weasel that had fallen into a melon patch, thoroughly enjoying the gossip.

First, there were rumors online that the reason the Crown Prince has no children yet is because he is not a male insect, but a female insect.

Because no male insect eggs were laid before the Crown Prince, the position of the insect king was unstable.

In order to secure their positions, the insect king and queen conspired to have female insects impersonate male insects.

When the news first came out, although everyone said that the news was too outrageous and no one would believe it, quite a few people actually believed it in their hearts.

Otherwise, there's really no way to explain why the Crown Prince still doesn't have a child. After all, if the Crown Prince wanted, he could choose from all sorts of female insects in the empire. And even if he had some kind of health problem, modern medical technology is so advanced that there's no reason for him to have waited until now.

At the time, the entire empire was secretly discussing whether the crown prince was male or female, forcing the crown prince to later go to the hospital for a physical examination to confirm his male identity before the matter was quelled.

However, not long after this matter was resolved, another rumor emerged.

The claim that the Duke of Norton's identity is questionable, and that he is not actually the son of the previous Duke of Norton, is false.

Most people know a little about the story of the previous Duke Norton and his consort, who is now the Duke Norton's father-in-law.

The previous Duke Norton was the younger brother of the current Insect King. For some unknown reason, he was in poor health from birth and had some deformities in his hands and feet. Doctors said he wouldn't live long.

In this situation, those powerful families would naturally not agree to marry their carefully cultivated female insects to the previous Duke Norton.

The royal family was also aware of their own limitations, and originally intended to choose a female insect from an ordinary family background to be the queen consort of the previous Duke of Norton.

However, the previous Duke Norton took a fancy to a female insect at a banquet. That female insect also came from a prominent family and was of high rank and strength. Naturally, she did not fancy the previous Duke Norton.

Unexpectedly, the previous Duke Norton used many despicable means to successfully seize the female insect.

In this situation, the female insect had no choice but to marry the previous Duke Norton and become his queen.

Then, three years after that female insect married into the family, the previous Duke Norton died.

The previous Duke of Norton left behind three children, one male and two females.

The male son is the child of the female ruler, and the other two female sons are the children of the previous Duke Norton's lady-in-waiting.

Apart from the male offspring of the female ruler, the other two female offspring were obtained by the female servants through technical means.

If there is only one male son, then naturally it is the male son of the female ruler who inherits the title and becomes the current Duke of Norton.

The child successfully inherited the title, and the female insect was finally freed from her long ordeal.

However, there were always secret scandals circulating about the Duke of Norton's mansion.

Because the female servants of the previous Duke of Norton all died one after another because they no longer had the spiritual comfort of their male masters.

Only the female insect, who was the previous Duke Norton's consort, remained healthy and seemed perfectly fine.

There were rumors at the time that the previous Duke Norton's queen might have secretly found other males.

Logically, the royal family should have taken action regarding something so obvious that would damage their reputation, but instead, they acted as if they hadn't seen anything and didn't react at all.

Since the royal family didn't react, the general public gradually stopped discussing it.

Unexpectedly, another big scandal has broken out at the Duke of Norton's mansion.

Now all the insects in the empire are privately discussing the true identity of the current Duke Norton, but the Duke Norton's mansion has not given any response.

This makes the true identity of the current Duke Norton seem even more questionable.

Even within Duke Norton's faction, some began to waver in their stance.

Just as the hype surrounding this incident was starting to die down, another bombshell dropped.

There are also rumors that the current Duke Norton is actually the son of the Insect King.

The people of the Empire felt like they were already stuffed with gossip; the sheer volume of gossip was overwhelming.

While everyone was enjoying the gossip, they were also privately complaining that the royal family was far too chaotic.

What excited everyone even more was that the royal family still didn't react at all.

Sometimes, not reacting is also a form of attitude.

Now, the people of the Empire were all secretly discussing the affairs of the previous Duke Norton and the Insect King.

Meanwhile, the worms in Duke Norton's faction, who had initially begun to waver, all settled down again.

It is said that on the day this news broke, the sound of things being smashed echoed throughout the Queen's palace for an entire day.

It was after this incident came to light that the struggle between the Crown Prince's faction and the Duke of Norton's faction moved completely out of the public eye.