"Quick! You are me, and I am you! He is you, and you are him! We will all have a bright future!"
Lin Feng's piercing screams surfaced once again in Xie Xinzhi's dream.
Lying in bed, Xie Xinzhi jolted awake and let out a long breath. Sweat had soaked his clothes.
He knew that the wandering soul named Lin Feng had begun trying to bewitch him again.
He rose and walked to the window. In the distance lay the former capital of Great Tang, the place where he had dreamed of becoming a general and being made a marquis.
It blazed with lights, as though the change of dynasty a few months earlier had left this enormous city untouched.
The crowds bustled, lanterns and festive decorations hung everywhere, and voices clamored amid songs and dances celebrating peace and prosperity.
A change of masters did not affect the lives of the millions of common people.
The city gaining a new master had even become a festival for its ordinary people.
Those nobles who had never been willing to part with a drop of blood had become generous and benevolent overnight.
This had once been the place where his ambitions lay, the place where he, who had diligently studied the books of sages, had hoped to build a flourishing age.
But Great Tang's oppressive taxes and levies had reached an inconceivable level. The parasites in the capital grew ever larger, and the people of Great Tang had suffered under Great Tang for far too long!
To build a flourishing age, he would inevitably have to scrape the poison from this rotten empire's bones. Yet he faced one greatest constraint: the master of this capital.
I have lofty ideals and grand ambitions. Why shouldn't I simply build a flourishing age myself?
*This world