Upon seeing the palace guards flanking the palace servants, Fang Kui's legs went weak: "I dare not, I dare not!"

A palace maid suddenly leaned close to Fang Kui's ear and said, "His Majesty said that whether you killed your son or not is not important, but the absence of your Fang family is very important."

Fang Kui stared blankly as they left.

The words Fang Zhiyi had uttered in front of the emperor flashed through his mind again.

For a moment, he couldn't figure out whether Fang Zhiyi had dug a pit for the Fang family or the emperor had dug a tomb for them.

“Remember this: in any dynasty, as long as there are social classes, the rulers will never sit idly by and allow powerful families to grow too strong,” Fang Zhiyi said to Xiao Hei.

"That cunning emperor is very shrewd. What I say is not important. The key is the handle I left for him. Don't be fooled by how chaotic this world is, with aristocratic families and royalty forming something like a court. The essence remains the same. In the original story, Fang Congyun abducting the princess was the trigger, and my indirect insult of the emperor was also the trigger. It's just that the scale of the matter is different. What if I add fuel to the fire?"

"So you made the Fang family offend all the powerful families, and then you sent people to spread rumors that he killed you..." Xiao Hei understood.

"If you want to find out if I'm dead, just take the remains for testing. Those two corpses were dug out of a mass grave, so it's easy to tell the real one from the fake one." Fang Zhiyi stretched. "You're overthinking it. Neither the emperor nor those powerful families are stupid. They most likely believe that Fang Kui didn't kill me, but they have to say it that way because that's the result the emperor wants, and they want to take advantage of the chaos to recoup their losses and gain some benefits along the way. So no one will examine the remains; they might even help me destroy the evidence."

"Darkness, fucking darkness." Little Black shook his head.

Aside from the difficult road, they didn't encounter any other problems along the way. This was because Fang Zhiyi was rich, and he used the simplest method: using money to pave the way. Even fighters need money, so very few people made things difficult for them.

Peng Huan'er looked distressed. The young master seemed to be more generous than when he was in the capital. He would give money to strangers without hesitation. But she couldn't say anything, since the young master had "earned" all of this money himself.

Because of this, when Fang Zhiyi and her group approached the southwest region, their original small group had grown to several dozen people.

“Like-minded companions aren’t invited from the beginning; they meet when moving towards the same goal…” Fang Zhiyi mumbled in a way that Peng Huan’er couldn’t understand, but she could only sense that the people behind her were a bit dangerous.

Farmers who have lost their land, scoundrels who have failed to extort money, and old scholars who curse aristocratic families when they're drunk—these people have one thing in common: they like to criticize the current situation, saying things like "the emperor has no foresight" and "aristocratic families bring many troubles." If these people appeared in the capital, they would probably be beheaded in batches.

Fortunately, we are now close to the southwest. The closer we get to the southwest, the sparser the population becomes. The population is concentrated in a few small towns. The terrain here is treacherous and not as vast as the central and northern regions. Most of the people living here are ordinary locals. Even if there are aristocratic families, they are only there to open up trade routes for caravans.

If you stand on the street cursing the emperor in the capital, you'll probably disappear in no time. But here, if you stand on the city wall cursing for three days and three nights, you might only attract some onlookers from the border regions.

The arrival of a group of refugees in Yicheng did not attract much attention. Yicheng often had merchants or refugees from other places, so this was not unusual. People came here either to avoid trouble or to do some business.

The family that manages this place is not large.

The Gu family was very welcoming to Fang Zhiyi when she came to visit, which surprised Fang Zhiyi.

Fang Zhiyi suggested that he wanted to settle down here and rent a shop to do timber business. The head of the Gu family was overjoyed when he saw the silver notes that Fang Zhiyi handed over, and immediately agreed to everything.

Fang Zhiyi didn't sit idle either. He immediately started recruiting people to go into the mountains to cut timber. There were quite a few people who responded. He didn't refuse anyone who was willing to work with him. However, they felt that this young boss was a bit strange. He was always wandering around in the mountains and never listened to the advice of the locals.