Seeking Death, Longing for Home; By Strange Fate, the Realm Is Secured
Mu Qingbai has lived through nine cycles of reincarnation. In his tenth life, he is condemned to death in the Great Yin Dynasty. Bound by karmic shackles, he can only break the endless cycle and return to his homeland if killed by another person. Having lost all will to survive, he embarks on reckless, death-courting acts, desperate to end his life quickly. Yet every attempt backfires, propelling him on an unexpected rise to fame and glory. In the imperial civil examination, he listed ten major crimes of the female emperor in his paper, fully expecting execution. Instead, Emperor Yin Yunlan spared him, impressed by his fearless courage, and broke precedent by appointing him an eighth-rank Censor. Growing more obsessed with dying after his failed attempt, Mu Qingbai openly slapped the Director of the Imperial Astronomical Bureau, berated the entire court of officials, and even called the emperor a foolish ruler, hoping to enrage everyone into sentencing him to death. Far from achieving his goal, he resolved multiple political crises for the throne and earned the emperor’s profound trust. When war broke out at the border, he volunteered for the deadly frontlines. He challenged the enemy alone and provoked them with unorthodox tactics, wishing to die in battle. To his surprise, he single-handedly routed tens of thousands of foes, made a name for himself as a war hero, and was promoted to general. Sent to a disaster-stricken area to oversee relief efforts, he pretended to take bribes and drive up grain prices in order to frame himself as a corrupt official, luring assassins from the Jianghu underworld. Behind the scenes, however, he stabilized food prices, punished greedy officials and profiteering grain merchants, and saved hundreds of thousands of disaster victims. He won the people’s heartfelt admiration, and Wei Ningshuang, a legendary sword immortal, chose to protect him rather than kill him. Back in the capital, he repeatedly defied imperial authority and executed a nobleman’s son in public, then surrendered himself to prison to await death. By sheer chance, he brought down powerful corrupt ministers and became a pivotal figure who balanced the imperial court. During this journey, he grew close to Yin Qiubai, the Protector General of the realm and younger sister of the empress. Their relationship evolved from constant clashes to playful banter. Yin Qiubai fell for him and repeatedly foiled his plans to die, becoming the warmest bond in his cycles of rebirth. Even after being exiled to the remote frontier, Mu Qingbai clung to his obsession. He charged into battles as cannon fodder. When his mortal body was on the verge of death and the gate of reincarnation appeared, Yin Qiubai risked her own life to pull him back.
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