I'm a Reasonable Person

Inside the inn, Lin Hanzhou listened quietly to the horn calls of assembling troops outside the window, as well as the faint commotion drifting from the direction of the imperial palace in the distance, his gaze calm.

He had long since learned of the upheaval occurring within the palace through his senses.

The late emperor had passed away, bequeathing the throne to the sixteen-year-old Ninth Princess.

The princes refused to submit, surrounding the imperial city with troops, intending to depose the new sovereign by force.

"She is a girl with some guts, after all."

Lin Hanzhou recalled that figure in Black Wind Gorge who dared to face a grandmaster head-on, willing to trade her own life for the survival of her attendants.

A flicker of approval could not help but cross his mind.

He had originally intended not to meddle in these muddy waters.

Who sat upon the throne of Great Gan was of no concern to him.

The rise and fall of this dynasty were, to him, nothing more than passing smoke in a dream.

But when he learned that the sixteen-year-old girl was attempting to salvage this crumbling empire, his heart, long since as still as an ancient well, was nevertheless stirred.

He remembered the golden age he had single-handedly forged in the world of Great Sui.

He knew what a good monarch meant to a nation and to its billions of common people.

Perhaps this girl named Li Yuechan could truly become a decent ruler.

"Very well, I shall give you a hand."

Lin Hanzhou murmured to himself.

With his current cultivation at the third-tier Qi Sea Realm, slaughtering ordinary grandmasters of the same realm was no different than killing dogs.

Stabilizing the throne for her would be no difficult task.

Of course, helping her would certainly not be free of charge.

Lin Hanzhou was not that kind-hearted.

What he had his eyes on was the Great Gan imperial library, which had been passed down for hundreds of years, and the vast quantities of rare treasures within the vault.

This was the fundamental reason he was willing to intervene.

With his mind made up, Lin Hanzhou's figure vanished from the room in an instant.

Outside the imperial palace, before Chengtian Gate.

Thousands of private soldiers and experts belonging to the various princes' estates had finished assembling, surrounding the palace gates so tightly that not even water could pass through.

Atop the gate, the deputy commander of the Imperial Guard gripped his spear, his expression grave to the extreme.

He knew that today would inevitably be a bloody battle.

Once fighting erupted within the palace, everyone present would likely swarm in.

Inside the palace, at the critical moment when the First Prince was about to order the attack, a youth dressed in black appeared without warning between the two opposing sides.

This person was none other than Lin Hanzhou, who had just been at the inn.

Seeing the abruptly appearing Lin Hanzhou, both sides were visibly stunned before immediately raising their guard.

Regardless of how he had appeared, anyone capable of sneaking in without a sound was undoubtedly an expert.

Li Yuechan, upon the dragon throne, saw the familiar figure of Lin Hanzhou, and her pupils constricted.

She could never have imagined that the figure she had been longing for day and night would actually appear now.

"A bunch of trash who only know how to scramble for power while the nation faces disaster."

Lin Hanzhou's cold and indifferent voice reached the ears of everyone present with perfect clarity.

Immediately, without the slightest hesitation, he drew his sword and struck.

A brilliant sword light, elegant as flowing clouds yet fast to the extreme, flashed and vanished with him at its center.

The next moment, the experts on the side of the princes—whether they were second-tier Martial Master or third-tier grandmasters—

their bodies suddenly stiffened, their faces filled with expressions of disbelief.

Then, one fine head after another soared into the sky.

Blood sprayed like a fountain, instantly staining the entire court red.

One strike—Lin Hanzhou had used only a single strike!

Seven grandmasters and over a dozen Martial Master were all decapitated, dying on the spot.

"Hiss—!"

The entire scene instantly fell into a deathly silence.

Everyone was completely stunned by this sword strike that felt like a miracle.

The several princes watched as the most powerful retainers under their command were slaughtered in an instant, as if they were nothing more than clay chickens and pottery dogs.

Terrified out of their wits, they collapsed to the ground one by one, their legs shaking like chaff.

Too... too terrifying!

What kind of monster is this?

On the side of the Imperial Guard, the Grand Commander of the Imperial Guard, Wang Jian, also wore a look of utter shock.

He could never have imagined that this youth who had suddenly appeared could kill seven Martial Masters in a single strike.

Even he, the strongest peak Martial Master beneath the level of a Grandmaster, could not achieve such a feat.

The opponent was already capable of standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the legendary Grandmaster powerhouses.

Lin Hanzhou slowly sheathed his sword; not a single drop of blood stained the blade.

He did not seem particularly surprised by his own achievement of killing seven Martial Masters with one strike.

After all, in his eyes, those so-called Martial Masters were only at about the fifth level of the third stage.

Although he was only at the first level of the third stage and his cultivation was lower than theirs, his golden sea of qi and near-perfect sword techniques were not just for show.

His top-tier golden sea of qi allowed him to possess the spiritual energy intensity of an ordinary third-stage martial artist at the seventh or eighth level, despite having just stepped into the third stage.

That near-perfect Profound-tier sword technique made him even more formidable.

Furthermore, his timing was so swift that he opened with a lethal move, leaving those Martial Masters with no way to defend themselves.

In summary, this was why he was able to slay seven Martial Masters and over a dozen Martial Master experts with a single strike.

Lin Hanzhou's gaze swept over the princes and officials below, who were already frightened out of their minds.

His voice was calm, yet it contained an unquestionable majesty.

"From this day forth, Li Yue Chan shall be the Empress of Great Gan."

"Does anyone have an objection?"

He paused, a playful curve tugging at the corner of his mouth.

"I am a person who has always preferred to convince others with reason."

"If any of you are unconvinced, you may step forward and debate it with me properly."

The entire imperial court fell into a deathly silence; one could hear a pin drop.

Everyone was so terrified by Lin Hanzhou's horrific strength that they almost forgot how to breathe.

However, at that very moment, a hot-headed fool jumped out, oblivious to the danger.

It was a young official who looked to be only in his early twenties.

Pointing at Lin Hanzhou, he denounced him righteously.

"You demon! Stop your demagoguery here!"

"In the hundreds of years since the founding of Great Gan, there has never been a precedent for a woman to ascend the throne. This disrupts the order of the world and violates the rites and laws of our ancestors! You..."

"I let you speak, and you really started talking?"

Before the man could finish his words, he was ruthlessly interrupted by Lin Hanzhou.

The next moment, Lin Hanzhou appeared right in front of the hot-headed fool.

A flash of cold light streaked by.

The fool's head flew high into the air, his face still frozen in a look of impassioned "devotion to the country and the people."

Lin Hanzhou's figure returned to his original spot as if he had never moved at all.

He blew on the blade to clear away non-existent dust and said indifferently.

"Is there anyone else who wants to reason with me?"

"That man just now committed suicide out of shame because he couldn't win the argument against me."

As Lin Hanzhou's words fell, the entire scene remained deathly silent.

Are you kidding? Who would dare jump out now? The image of the previous fool who "committed suicide out of shame" was still fresh in their minds.

The several princes and the ministers could no longer hold on and knelt to the ground one after another.

They bowed toward Li Yue Chan on the throne and shouted in trembling voices.

"Your subjects... pay respects to Her Majesty, the Empress!"

"Long live the Empress! Long live! Long, long live!"

A bloody civil war that was about to erupt was forcibly suppressed by Lin Hanzhou with nothing but a single person and a single sword.