I Inherited the Throne, and There Was Never Any Suspense

A story told entirely from behind the scenes. If that's not your thing, read no further. Reborn in another world, Sun Haoyang becomes the eighteenth prince of the Dafeng Dynasty. With a low-born maternal family and no presence among the princes, all he wants is to survive in this martial world, where grandmasters are as common as dogs and Celestials rule the land. Fortunately, his annual sign-in System arrives right on schedule. While others toil at cultivation, he signs in. Celestial bodyguards, grandmaster death warriors, divine weapons and spirit beasts, pills and treasures... Every year brings a new surprise. On the surface, he seems harmless and is known throughout the palace as a nobody. In secret, he turns the power from his sign-ins into an invisible hand. Inside the palace, the commander of the Imperial Guard is his man, keeping Yonghe Palace under tight protection. Outside, the ancestors of reclusive sects obey him, while his network of influence spreads across the martial world like a web. At court, the ministers of the Six Ministries are his hidden agents, and the upright censorial officials take orders from him. In the military, the generals of the capital camps and border garrisons are all his confidants, and the empire's elite forces are already in his grasp. Even among the imperial clan, his most respected great-uncle is one of his deepest-hidden Celestial pawns. He plots with cold precision: those who follow him prosper, and those who oppose him perish. Anyone who might threaten him simply “disappears” in an accident. Only when the emperor falls gravely ill and the princes tear into each other over the throne do they realize in horror: Their eighteenth brother, the one they never gave a second thought, has quietly seized the lifeblood of the entire empire. Sun Haoyang slowly steps out of the shadows and looks down at the court in chaos, laughing softly. “You've fought so hard for this throne. Why not... let me take it?”