Ling Cangqiong's Fury

They fought side by side and reaped plenty of rewards, but the Fifth Prince remained close at the Ninth Prince's side the entire time.

For a while, Tianyan City seemed to have been emptied out, leaving only the court officials who had stayed behind, the anxious common folk, and the Imperial Lord secluded deep within the palace.

However, the news from the front was far from encouraging.

The First Guardian dispatched by Ling Cangqiong, at the peak of the Ninth Level of the Dharma Idol Realm, and Shadow One, at the Ninth Level, had badly wounded the infamous deputy leader of the Blood Wolf Mercenary Group and killed one of its members. In the end, however, they were no match for the group leader's ferocity and the Yantian Sect Master's surprise attack with a King Artifact in hand.

In the fierce battle, both the First Guardian and Shadow One were seriously injured. They barely escaped with their lives, fleeing in a sorry state.

Even though the two were carrying Ling Cangqiong's edict, they had only just managed to escape.

After all, King Artifacts were top-tier treasures. Even the imperial family had only three, and each top faction possessed one!

They corresponded to beings of the Cave Reality Realm.

The loss of these two top fighters under Ling Cangqiong's command struck him like two heavy hammers, smashing the composure he had maintained until it finally crumbled.

He slammed his palm onto the table. With a sharp crack, the jade table, once finely crafted and adorned with exquisite carvings, shattered into pieces, fragments scattering everywhere!

"What did King Zhenbei say?" Ling Cangqiong's voice was low and strained, with a hint of anger that was difficult to detect.

Hearing this, Prime Minister Li Fan's face flickered with helplessness. He sighed softly, bowed, and reported, "Your Majesty, King Zhenbei has replied. He said the Northern Imperial Dynasty is currently making restless moves. To guard against the unexpected, he must devote all his forces to defending the border. He has no time for anything else, and cannot spare troops to march south and suppress the rebellion."

He paused, then added, "As for King Zhenyao, Your Majesty knows he is fully occupied resisting the demon king forces in the south. A few days ago, King Zhenyao was even wounded by the Peerless Demon King. He can barely look after himself now, and dares not move a single soldier for fear of leaving his rear exposed."

Li Fan smiled bitterly to himself, but his face remained impassive.

His Majesty had certainly taken too big a step, too soon. Without that earth-shattering Edict of Grace, those princes and marquises might have stepped in to maintain order to protect themselves and their interests. They might even have refrained from openly taking sides against him.

But now?

The Edict of Grace had taken food right out of their mouths. Now that trouble had erupted on the front lines, His Majesty expected them to lend a hand?

He could dream on!

To say nothing of the Blood Wolf Mercenary Group, which had exploded like a bomb out of nowhere, while the Yantian Sect had openly come out in opposition, sending the situation spiraling out of control.

Li Fan understood this Imperial Lord's ambition all too well: he wanted to bring the Great Yan Imperial Dynasty under an iron-fisted rule, with no dissenting voices left standing.

Unfortunately, his appetite was a little too large.

He should have first stabilized the sects, then taken them down one by one, before slowly dealing with the princes. That was the proper way to proceed step by step.

But now, he had managed to offend both sides completely. Even with a powerful ally like Xinghui Academy joining in, this game of chess was only getting harder to play.

Take too large a step, and you'll pull a muscle. Li Fan mused to himself. The world was not something one could swallow whole.

Even the imperial family was nowhere near strong enough to completely suppress all beneath heaven.

At least in the reign of His Majesty Ling Cangqiong, accomplishing the grand feat of uniting the world was nothing more than a pipe dream.

They would need at least two more generations, until the imperial family's foundations were deeply rooted in people's hearts and its power had grown strong enough.

And the foundation for all of it was the people's support.

The people's allegiance was the true foundation of a realm.

But if the imperial family wanted to win their hearts now, it had to do things that tangibly benefited them, such as opening up more paths to advancement and gathering talented people from across the land beneath the imperial family's wing.

Only when the people's hearts were won could the realm truly be secure.

Yet just look at the situation before them. It was enough to make one laugh and cry at the same time.

Take the Yantian Sect, for instance. It had lowered its admission standards, leaving young people with two paths before them: one was to become an official and serve the imperial family; the other was to join the Yantian Sect as a disciple.

And the result?

Many would rather choose the latter.

After all, even those at the Qi Condensation stage could join the sect, and they would receive cultivation techniques from the Yantian Sect for free. The sect had even taken the differences between each family's techniques into account!

By comparison, the path to becoming an official had a high entry bar, and the future it promised was far from certain. Naturally, it held little appeal.

With that contrast before them, how could the local people's hearts not tilt toward the Yantian Sect?

The people's support had slipped away, bit by bit, without anyone noticing.

Of course, Li Fan didn't dare say any of this aloud. Hadn't the Imperial Lord grown more and more autocratic?

Of course, if the Imperial Lord had brought the full power of the imperial family to bear from the very beginning, the situation would not have become so turbulent.

But they feared that a Cave Reality cultivator might self-destruct, inviting foreign forces to invade afterward...

It would take two pillars of the realm to hold the enemy off, but in reality, they had only one. They could not afford to lose him.

Hearing this, Ling Cangqiong snorted, a trace of disdain flashing in his eyes. "The mere Northern Imperial Dynasty—what would it matter if King Zhenbei sent some troops? Hmph, it seems he's unwilling to send his forces and plans to sit on the mountain and watch the tigers fight."

"Once these treacherous rebels have been dealt with, I'll settle accounts with him."

"If I hadn't promoted him, how could he have attained his position as King Zhenbei? In the end, he owes his rise to me. I made him what he is!"

Li Fan listened to the Imperial Lord's words, his thoughts a tangled mess, yet he couldn't bring himself to say a thing.

He knew that history all too well.

Back when His Majesty had first ascended the throne, the neighboring country to the north had taken advantage of the opportunity to invade, repeatedly harassing the border.

The veteran generals His Majesty sent to repel them had never managed to rout the enemy completely, barely keeping them at bay.

In the end, it was that King Zhenbei, a man of humble birth who had started as an ordinary soldier, who rose through the ranks one bloody battle at a time.

It was he who led his army deep behind enemy lines and slew the enemy commander with a surprise attack, turning the tide of the war!

Had he not turned the tide, the Great Yan Imperial Dynasty would have paid a far heavier price.

Later, he even developed the military formation of the King Zhenbei Army, which now struck fear throughout the region.

It could be said that King Zhenbei was a true military genius, a rare talent!

At the time, the Great Yan Imperial Dynasty still had many elite forces, including the Divine Guard Army and the Nantian Army. In the end, however, many of them were consolidated into the two pillars of the King Zhenbei Army and the King Zhenyao Army.

At this thought, Li Fan could only lower his head helplessly.

"By the way, what about the Divine Guard Army?" Ling Cangqiong seemed to suddenly remember something, and his tone changed sharply as he asked.

Li Fan heard him and lowered his head until it was almost against his chest, not daring to meet the Imperial Lord's eyes as a storm gathered in them.

"Your Majesty, the former Great General, Zhou Jueshi... has secretly taken control of the Divine Guard Army." Li Fan's voice was somewhat hoarse. "He has now split the troops into two forces. One is marching south to support King Zhenyao; the other is heading straight north to help suppress the rebellion here."

"Zhou Jueshi!" Ling Cangqiong slammed his palm onto the already ruined table, fury on the verge of bursting forth.

But he could not act on his anger now, nor could he immediately replace Zhou Jueshi or move against him. Their most urgent task was to suppress the rebellion before them. Everything else would have to wait until later.

Ling Cangqiong took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the rage in his heart. A cold calculation flashed in his eyes.