My cultivation disguise has been exposed by Xiao Sizi.

A tingling sensation, indescribable and intense, shot through his tailbone and up to the top of his head like a lightning strike!

Scalp tingling!

All the fat on my body trembled uncontrollably under this intense stimulation!

Li Tai grew up in the deep palace, where he was used to hearing the learned scholars of the court sing his praises and to hearing the flowery words written to curry favor with him.

He once thought that this was eternal fame, that was the recognition of the whole world.

But today.

Watching an illiterate old woman from the streets, kneeling on the ground in the freezing cold, sincerely kowtowing to him for a lump of coal he had made, even wanting to erect a longevity tablet for him!

It was a pure, profound gratitude from the people, completely devoid of any political interests!

"This...feeling"

Li Tai let out a wild, beast-like scream from the bottom of his heart.

"This is fucking awesome!!"

The unparalleled pleasure of being worshipped by all the people of the world was like the strongest liquor in the world, instantly intoxicating him completely!

He finally understood what his sixteenth brother meant when he said those words to him in the side courtyard.

The throne is nothing!

Those who sit on the dragon throne work themselves to the bone every day, yet they are still scolded and insulted by powerful families.

How could anything be as satisfying as him now, casually creating an iron can and having the entire world treat him like a living Buddha?!

This is true fame that will last for eternity! This is the path to heaven that Prince Wei, Li Tai, should have taken!

"Grandpa, get up quickly."

Li Tai's eyes welled up with tears, and he quickly stepped forward, helping the old woman up from the snow with both hands.

Just as he was about to ask if there was anything about the stove that needed improvement.

"Bang!"

A dull thud suddenly rang out outside the tea stall.

Several men dressed in shorts and with fierce faces barged into the tea stall. The one in the lead, with triangular eyes, kicked over a bench next to him.

"You old bastard! Smash this damn iron furnace right now!"

The man with the triangular eyes pointed at the steaming iron stove and began to curse viciously.

"This black mud is full of poisonous gas! I bought one yesterday and burned it all night, and my old mother was poisoned and vomited blood! This is a harmful concoction that the Cui family of Qinghe made to swindle money!"

After saying that, the man with the triangular eyes swung a wooden stick in his hand, as if to smash it down on the tin stove.

Li Tai frowned, and a chilling aura instantly flashed in his eyes.

How dare you smash my hard work? How dare you cause trouble in front of my followers?!

The two guards behind him immediately put their hands on the hilts of their swords, ready to step forward and take down these ruffians.

However, the guards didn't even have time to draw their swords.

"You dare to smash one and see what happens!"

A fierce roar rang out.

The hunched old woman suddenly possessed a strength like that of a mother leopard. She grabbed the rusty wood-chopping knife used for chopping ginger from the cutting board and, without hesitation, placed it in front of the iron stove!

"Anyone who dares to touch the divine object bestowed upon them by His Highness Prince Wei, this old woman will fight them to the death today!"

The old woman's eyes were bloodshot as she stared intently at the man with the triangular eyes, swinging her machete with a whooshing sound.

Not only that.

The neighbors who were warming themselves under their own eaves all rushed out when they heard the commotion.

The butcher carrying a boning knife, the blacksmith wielding a massive hammer, and even a few teenagers picking up fist-sized stones from the ground.

Dozens of ordinary people instantly surrounded the troublemakers in layers!

"Bullshit! Everyone on this street is burning honeycomb briquettes, how come only your mother is vomiting blood?"

"It's clearly you heartless maggots who deal in charcoal all day long, seeing that the Cui family is selling cheaply, that deliberately came to smear us!"

"Kill these bastards! How dare they slander His Highness Prince Wei! Break their legs!"

The anger of the masses was like a volcano about to erupt.

Those hooligans who originally wanted to cause trouble and create panic were so frightened by the pairs of eyes around them that seemed to want to eat them alive, as well as the gleaming machetes and hammers, that they wet their pants on the spot.

"It's a misunderstanding! It's all a misunderstanding!"

The man with the triangular eyes was so frightened that he dropped his stick, covered his head with his hands, and scrambled through the crowd like a stray dog.

"Stop fighting! We're leaving right now!"

Several people scurried out of Yanpingfang like rats, fleeing in a disheveled state amidst angry shouts and curses.

Li Tai stood in the center of the crowd, watching the people who were still holding machetes and hammers, refusing to budge from the iron furnace.

The Prince of Wei of the Tang Dynasty slowly raised the corners of his mouth, widening until the smile stretched all the way to his ears.

He clenched his fists so tightly that his nails dug into his flesh, but he felt no pain whatsoever.

This is the will of the people!

With these people willing to risk their lives to protect him, what are those powerful families and clans anyway?!

Deep in the snowstorm.

In a dark, dead-end alley.

The man with the triangular eyes, fleeing in a disheveled state, tumbled and crawled into the depths of the alley.

In the shadows stood a middle-aged man with a sinister face, draped in an expensive mink coat.

On his belt hung a jade pendant symbolizing his status as a core member of the Lu clan of Fanyang.

"waste!"

The head of the Lu family looked at the triangular-eyed man and coldly uttered two words.

"You can't even manage to incite a few lowly people, what use are you?"

"Sir, spare my life!" The man with the triangular eyes knelt in the snow, kowtowing repeatedly. "It's not that I'm negligent, it's just that those lowly people are like they're possessed. Anyone who dares to say a bad word about those honeycomb briquettes, they'll actually try to kill them with knives!"

The head of the Lu family stared grimly in the direction of Yanping Ward, the murderous intent in his eyes as chilling as the December snow.

"What a clever way to win people's hearts."

He clenched his fist, which was hidden in his sleeve.

"Since rumors can't sway these peasants, we'll have to cut off their supply at the root."

He turned his head and looked at the several assassins behind him who were lurking in the darkness like ghosts.

"Notify the brothers outside the city."

"At midnight tonight, take kerosene and crossbows and head to the old weapons workshop of the Cui family in Qinghe, south of the city. It's their main base for making iron furnaces now."

"Get in there, by any means necessary, find that damn formula for me!"

"If you can't find it, set it on fire. Burn everything, people and workshop, to ashes!"