To kill the Emperor Ying's Dharma Body, they could not raise their own strength to a level capable of contending with it in a short time. That left only one path: weaken the other side.
The first step was to make him leave the borders of the Great Ying Divine Dynasty, cutting him off from the dynasty's terrifying empowerment.
The second step was to sever his foundation and weaken him further.
Killing him outright would have been the most convenient, but that option could be disregarded entirely.
Then, settling for the next best thing, they could have Jiayi take the throne and become the new Great Emperor. At that point, there would be a chance to greatly weaken the Emperor Ying's Dharma Body. But it was only a chance; even if he stepped down, he would still be the retired emperor.
Considering this world's peculiar nature, so long as the Emperor Ying had not died or transcended, he would never abdicate.
That left only one option that could weaken him to the greatest extent: make him "die" first.
Because the Emperor Ying's true body had not emerged from the Sea of Thoughts and had been swept into the tide of time, vanishing without a trace, objectively speaking, the Emperor Ying's true body no longer existed in this world. Calling him dead was entirely correct.
It was only that when the tide receded and flowed downstream once more, the Emperor Ying's true body would revive.
Yet during this period, to the Golden Armored Flood Dragon that embodied the nation's destiny, the Emperor Ying's true body truly was dead. With the true body dead, the Dharma Body, strictly speaking, could no longer represent the Great Emperor.
Whether it knew the truth or not, that was indeed a fact.
Qin Yang had not