From the Start, I Pretended to Be a Noble Heir and Became Emperor for the Ages

[Playing the Cautious King? No, I'm Going to Steal the Empire!] In a furnace of chaos, human lives are as cheap as grass. Chen Mo, a servant who barely survived a warlord's massacre of a city, struggles at the very bottom of society, living a life worse than an insect's. A chance encounter lets him witness the death of Xiao Jie, the seventh young master of the Lanling Xiao clan, the literary luminary of the realm. It's an opportunity, but also an abyss. As he gazes at the Langgan jade pendant that symbolizes supreme power and prestige, a mad plan takes root in his heart. He buries the young master, saves a loyal servant, puts on a mask, and steps into the game. From then on, he is Xiao Jie: a dashing aristocrat, peerless with both poetry and sword, and a model for the realm, renowned for his eloquence and his ability to best scholars in debate. In Luojing, he navigates between extravagant scions of noble families and court officials who hide daggers behind their smiles. In the warlords' camps, he feigns cooperation with domineering strongmen who command their own armies, turning their power to his advantage. Deep inside the imperial city, he dances on the blades of eunuchs and the empress dowager, treading on thin ice. One nerve-racking test after another, one deadly crisis after another. With the cunning and ruthlessness he honed on the streets, a quick mind that never forgets what it sees, and acting skills polished to perfection, he repeatedly turns the tables in the face of utter desperation. But he knows that this stolen identity is as fleeting as a reflection in water, and could shatter at any moment. As the lies he has painstakingly built inch toward the pinnacle of power, the real Xiao Jie may quietly return... Will this audacious deception drag him into eternal ruin, or help him steal the whole realm and become its uncrowned lord?