A thousand-year-old family begins with one fighting against ten thousand.

Shen House.

Shen Ye returned home with a pale face.

"Who are you trying to fool with that mournful face?"

"What bad luck!"

"How could I, a mere good-for-nothing like you, have married me?!"

As soon as he got home, his wife gave him a good scolding.

For some reason, Shen Ye, who was used to being scolded by his wife, felt a rebellious spirit rise in his heart.

Why did he stand up today?

It was all because he was instructed by his father-in-law!

He got to where he is now entirely his own fault.

Shen Ye stepped forward and slapped him across the face.

Sima Yanran covered her face in disbelief. How dare Shen Ye hit her?

"How dare you hit me?"

"Fine, fine, Shen Ye, you've got too big for your britches now!"

"Don't forget, you owe everything you have today to the support of the Sima family."

"You think you're so great, so high and mighty, now that you're a high-ranking official, you've started beating your wife."

"I can't live in this family anymore. I'm going to pack my things and go back to my parents' home with my son."

"I'd like to see how far you can go without the support of the Sima family!"

"Father, how could you hit Mother?!"

Shen Ye's son happened to walk in and quickly shielded his mother behind him.

Looking at his somewhat unfamiliar son, Shen Ye suddenly had an idea.

Why does this son look nothing like him?

"Do you even know what happened? You're just protecting your mother."

Shen Ye asked.

"No matter what happened, you should not hit your mother."

"You're right."

Shen Ye nodded expressionlessly, wanting to say something more, but was interrupted by Sima Yanran who had just realized what was happening.

"Nian'er, let's go."

"Shen Ye, you're nothing but a dog of the Sima family. Today I'll show you that without the Sima family, you're not even worth a dog on the street."

"Walk!"

Without the slightest hesitation, Shen Nian left the Shen family with her mother.

Shen Ye watched all this expressionlessly. After leaving the palace, he was utterly despondent.

This, on the contrary, made his mind extremely clear, and his brain cells exceptionally active.

This is perhaps the greatest terror between life and death.

He returned to his study and summoned his trusted confidant, the third steward of the household.

He secretly gave a few instructions and then waited for news in the study.

As night fell and the treetops rose, the butler arrived with the investigation results.

Shen Ye took it and saw it, then let out a terrifying hooting sound like a night owl, which sounded extremely frightening in the dark night.

"What a family the Sima is, what a woman the Sima is, what a woman the Sima is, what a woman the Shen is."

"They're not treating me like a human being at all!"

According to the housekeeper's investigation, Sima Yanran was already pregnant before she married him.

Shen Nian is not his son.

He had served the Sima family like a slave for so many years, only to find out that he was raising someone else's son.

"Giggle giggle."

Shen Ye let out another strange cry, "Very good, very good."

"The Sima family, just wait for my revenge!"

"I'll soon show you what regret really means!"

Shen Ye made up his mind: he would be the blade, the blade in Yang Jian's hand, and slash fiercely at the aristocratic families.

The first strike upon surrender is to behead the Sima family.

"I will definitely hold the imperial examinations properly, hehehehehe!"

The next day, Shen Ye was beaten by unknown people on the street, leaving him bruised and disfigured.

Yang Jian was furious and ordered a thorough investigation, but they only managed to catch a few thugs.

Yang Jian realized that something must have happened between Shen Ye and the aristocratic families, so he immediately ordered someone to investigate.

They could find out the information that Shen Ye's butler could obtain.

Yang Jian suddenly realized that this was good news.

He might be able to win over Shen Ye and make Shen Ye the sharpest knife in his hand.

So he summoned Shen Ye to the palace. When Shen Ye was being courted by Yang Jian, he knelt down and spoke words that were filled with anguish.

"Your Majesty, I am willing to do anything for you. I only ask that Your Majesty grant me the opportunity to avenge this blood feud."

"I will have no regrets even if I die afterward."

The hatred expressed in those words moved Yang Jian deeply.

He personally helped Shen Ye up and brushed the dust off Shen Ye's body.

"Then I'll leave the matter of the imperial examination to you, Minister Shen."

"This matter is entirely entrusted to Minister Shen. I will instruct Minister Shen's adjutant to assist him."

"Your Majesty, I thank you!"

After Shen Ye seized power, he immediately removed the Book of Han from the scope of the examination.

The Sima family's main focus was on studying the Book of Han, and nowadays, more than half of the students in the world who study the Book of Han have intricate connections with the Sima family.

Shen Ye removed the Book of Han from the examination scope, which almost completely blocked the Sima family's path to the imperial court.

Moreover, if it's not tested in the imperial examinations, how could students possibly learn it?

At that time, the Sima family will gradually decline, its influence will decrease, and it will eventually perish.

Afterwards, he took the imperial sword bestowed upon him by Yang Jian and began to fully implement the imperial examination system.

In this process, it can be said that no one cares about family or relatives, and no matter who pleads for them, it is useless.

The elders of the clan, Sima Yanran and her son (whose identity was unknown), as well as many classmates, his former superiors and subordinates, all jumped out one by one.

Even his colleagues, who had watched him collapse on the ground in the imperial court and no one paid any attention to him, began to try to get close to him.

It was only then that he realized this was a society driven by self-interest; they only ever cared about whether you were useful to them.

The Sima family is the same; they only acknowledge him as their son-in-law because he is useful, even if they look down on him.

If he wants to live, he must demonstrate his worth.

Now that they have chosen to pledge allegiance to Yang Jian, they must demonstrate their value to him.

So Shen Ye became even more ruthless.

He used to be a front man for the Sima family, and he was very familiar with the rules of aristocratic families.

He personally traveled to various prefectures to assist them in improving the imperial examination system. His ruthlessness and underhanded methods left even Yang Jian speechless.

The Sima family is even more reviled, since it is because of the Sima family that such a freak came into being.

Sima Yanran and Xu Nian were also forced to seek reconciliation from Xu Ye, but Xu Ye completely ignored them.

The Sima family wouldn't let them return, and the Xu family couldn't get in, leaving them homeless.

Even Xu Nian's biological father dared not approach them at this time, for fear of arousing the resentment of the entire aristocratic family.

Seeing that the imperial examination system was becoming increasingly difficult to resist, the major aristocratic families directly replicated the various forces that had instigated rebellions in different regions.

Yang Jian's rule over the world was not achieved through intrigue and trickery, but through sheer strength and hard work.

His subordinates were all veteran ministers who had fought alongside him to conquer the world, and even among the many civil officials, they possessed extremely formidable martial prowess.

Whether it was Han Qinhu, Yang Su, or the Left Assistant Minister Gao Ying and the Right Assistant Minister Su Wei, they were all skilled warriors.