After 742 Loops, a Mine Slave Becomes the Emperor’s Mentor

Shen Zhaoye had no golden finger and no System. He had simply died 741 times.

Different ways to die: He became a bodyguard and was hacked to death by bandits. He became a traveling doctor and succumbed to an epidemic. He became a bookkeeper, got caught up in some private accounts, and was silenced. He became a minor official, was too honest, and was bludgeoned to death. He became a high-ranking official, got caught up in a succession struggle, and was beheaded at the Meridian Gate… The longest he ever survived, he reached the pinnacle of power, and his fingers had almost touched that blue light. But he still died.

After each death, he woke again in the mine, with Zhou Laizi’s first whip already falling across his back. 741 deaths, 741 ways to die, 741 bouts of despair.

Only this time, he awoke with fragmented, incomplete memories: 741, a knife, a ledger, an imperial decree in bright yellow, a vast sea of deep blue…

He didn’t know who was controlling his loop, why that shadow was always watching him, or why the words “Cangming” sent a chill down his back. He knew only one thing:

For the 742nd time, he didn’t want to die.

In this life, he crawled out of the mine with a back covered in whip marks and fragments of memories bought with 741 lives.

He would escape the mine, enter the Jiao Gate, and make his way to the imperial court.

He would rise from a mine slave who took the whip to stand once more at the pinnacle of power, and break this cycle.

742 deaths in exchange for one chance to truly live.

This time, he would choose how he died!