Hou Gang, one of the Human Race's Fire Masters and ministers, analyzed the schemes between the Dragon Master and Bird Master factions.
The Eastern Yi Lineage had sent out troops, sweeping forward like a storm. The Dragon Master system had collapsed utterly, seemingly losing all control...
There was, in fact, an unspoken understanding at work here!
The Bird Master wanted to expand.
The Dragon Master did not want an imposed leader or inspectors sent by the central royal court. It still wanted to enjoy its autonomous privileges.
Thus, when the two sides hit it off, Yinglong's first campaign ended in failure, and his humiliating return was only natural.
Of course.
Part of the reason was that the Human Emperor was no longer at his peak. The central hegemony had suffered, and he could no longer perfectly suppress the various feudal lords and hegemonic rulers or extinguish the ambitions of schemers.
To put it more plainly—
The Shennong clan declined, and the feudal lords attacked one another, while the Shennong clan could no longer subdue them.
The feudal lords no longer submitted to the Fire Master's hegemony. They began making covert moves—testing the waters, as well as provoking him.
—Why should you be the Human Race's true orthodox lineage?
—I think I'm pretty capable too!
This seemed to make quite a bit of sense.
After all, during the process of the three thousand saints merging with the Dao and suppressing the era, the forces most supportive of the Fire Master as the orthodox lineage had been depleted too severely!
These forces had been centered around Nuwa, the Saint Emperor, and the many Ancestral Shamans. They had been the strongest combat power, powerful enough to overturn the table.
However, as the era's version was updated and the Witch-Demon Era transitioned into the