Joy of Life: Me, the Second Prince? Summon Yuan Tiangang!

The Qing Kingdom's palace is as deep as the sea and as still as an abyss.

Inside the side hall of Consort Shu's palace, the carved beams and painted rafters were filled with the faint fragrance of golden nanmu wood.

On the bed, a child who looked only five or six years old suddenly opened his eyes. Those eyes did not contain the innocence and naivety that a child should have; instead, they were filled with shock, confusion, and then a deep fear that surged up.

Li Chengze looked at his own fair and delicate hands, and then touched the brocade quilt covering him. Two memories were intensely merging and merging in his mind.

"I...time traveled?"

"I am... Li Chengze?"

As his memories fully merged, he finally confirmed his identity: Li Chengze, the second prince of the Qing Kingdom. The tragic figure from the original story, a free spirit who disliked wearing shoes and had a passion for grapes, yet lived his entire life in the shadows and ultimately had to end his life with a cup of poison.

Cold sweat instantly soaked through the back of my nightgown.

He knew all too well the cruelty of this world. Here were the four Grandmasters who stood above imperial power, and Emperor Qing, whose mind was as deep as an abyss and who regarded kinship as worthless.

"A whetstone..."

Li Chengze chewed on those three words with a bitter taste in his mouth.

He knew that from the moment he was born, in the eyes of his high and mighty father, he was not a son, but a whetstone to hone Crown Prince Li Chengqian.

Emperor Qing needed a smart, ambitious, and powerful prince to create a sense of crisis for the Crown Prince and force him to grow up. Therefore, Emperor Qing would bestow favors upon him, grant him special privileges, and even imply that he was qualified to compete for the position of Crown Prince.

But once the prince has mastered his divine skills, or if the whetstone becomes too sharp and injures his hand, all that awaits him is to be ruthlessly discarded and crushed.

"A certain death trap..."

Li Chengze panicked. He was just a child of a few years old, while his opponents were Emperor Qing, who possessed the strength of a Grandmaster, Chen Pingping, who controlled the Overwatch Council, and the cunning Fan Jian.

In this world where martial prowess is off the charts, without strength, even a prince is nothing more than fish on a chopping board.

Just as Li Chengze felt his future was bleak and was even considering whether to start feigning madness to survive, a cold and mechanical voice suddenly rang in his mind.

[Ding! Host's soul fluctuations detected. The strongest reputation system is binding...]

[Binding successful!]

This system aims to assist the host in becoming the supreme ruler of the world. As long as the host performs widely known deeds, increasing their fame and influence, they will gain reputation points. Reputation points can be used in the system's shop to exchange for treasures, cultivation techniques, and characters from all realms!

Li Chengze was stunned for a moment, then overjoyed.

System! A must-have for transmigrators!

"System, are there any newbie benefits? I'm in a very dangerous situation right now and urgently need the ability to protect myself!" Li Chengze asked anxiously in his mind.

[Ding! Initial host binding detected. A "Newcomer Gift Pack" is being given as a gift. Open now?]

"Activate! Activate immediately!" Li Chengze said without hesitation.

[Ding! Congratulations, host, you have obtained: One Marrow Cleansing Pill (which can improve physical constitution and enhance innate abilities).]

[Ding! Congratulations, host, you have obtained: One God-level Character Summoning Card (As this is a newbie bonus, it guarantees a Grandmaster-level or higher character).]

Li Chengze's breath hitched. Grandmaster level or higher?

In this world, Grandmasters are like nuclear weapons. If you could start with a Grandmaster as a bodyguard, what would you have to fear from Emperor Qing? What would you have to fear from becoming a whetstone?

"Use the God-level Summoning Card!" Li Chengze roared inwardly, his eyes filled with a gambler's fervor.

[Ding! Summoning card successfully used...Communicating with the multiverse...Summoning...]

[Congratulations, host! You have successfully summoned the peerless powerhouse from the world of "The Legend of Qin"—the Bad Guy Commander, Yuan Tiangang!]

boom!

Li Chengze felt as if a thunderbolt had exploded in his mind.

Yuan Tiangang!

That terrifying being who lived for three hundred years, who calculated everything under heaven, and who single-handedly suppressed an era! That unruly commander who devoted himself to the Tang Dynasty and whose strength was unfathomable!

If the Grandmasters in Joy of Life are monsters who borrow the power of heaven and earth, then Yuan Tiangang, who has practiced the Heavenly Gang Technique for three hundred years and has the blessing of the elixir of immortality, is definitely a force to be reckoned with, and may even be stronger!

"Where is he?" Li Chengze hurriedly looked around.

Just then, the bright light in the bedchamber seemed to dim for a moment.

An indescribable sense of oppression arose out of nowhere, as if the air itself had become viscous. In the shadows before the bed, the space distorted slightly, and a tall figure slowly emerged.

He wore a bamboo hat and his face was covered by his signature terrifying mask. He was dressed in black, as if he had blended into the surrounding darkness. But the domineering and arrogant aura he exuded made the temperature in the entire palace drop a few degrees.

That is the domineering aura and vicissitudes that have been accumulated over three hundred years.

Yuan Tiangang stood there quietly, his gaze passing through the mask and landing on the young child on the bed.

The next moment, this once fearsome commander, who had inspired terror in countless warlords, slowly knelt on one knee, clasped his hands in a fist salute, and spoke in a hoarse, low voice, yet with a power that pierced the soul:

"Your subject, Yuan Tiangang, the leader of the Bad Guys, pays his respects to Your Highness."

Seeing this scene before him, Li Chengze finally felt completely relieved.

Looking at Yuan Tiangang kneeling before him, the fear in Li Chengze's eyes vanished, replaced by an unprecedented ambition.

With Yuan Tiangang by his side, what does Li Chengze have to fear in the Qing Kingdom and in the grandmaster's game?

"A whetstone?"

Li Chengze's lips curled slightly upward, forming a cold smile that seemed out of place with his age. His childish voice echoed in the empty bedchamber:

"Father, in this life, I do not wish to be a whetstone."

"Your subject wishes to be... the one who wields the sword!"

Li Chengze slowly concealed the almost overflowing ambition in his eyes, regaining the calm befitting a child, though his eyes remained frighteningly deep. He looked at Yuan Tiangang, still kneeling on one knee like a towering black mountain, and softly asked:

"General, in your opinion, with your current strength, where do you stand in this world? How do you compare to those so-called Four Grandmasters?"

Yuan Tiangang slightly raised his head, his eyes beneath the mask calm and unwavering, as if stating something utterly mundane. He gently shook his head, his voice flat, yet revealing an overbearing confidence that viewed all living beings as mere ants.

"Your Highness, I just sensed the energy of this world. Although some of the energy is quite powerful, if we were to actually fight... I fear there would be no one in this world who could withstand even a single blow from me."

Invincible!