Marriage alliances—the simplest and least costly means by which factions expressed loyalty, sought peace, forged cooperation, and managed a whole web of complicated relationships.
The illusory city wedged between the Li Clan and the Divine Sect's twenty Spirit Boats vanished. The atmosphere between the two sides gradually turned oppressive and murderous.
What kind of man was Li Dalong? He had weathered every storm, become clan head, prefectural lord, son-in-law of the Witch Tribe, and Lord of the Underworld. He had drifted through a thousand years of upheaval without ever taking a single wrong step. The moment Goddess Xia Yan's golden seal passed beyond the Divine Sect's Sect Master and landed in Zhu Yu's hands, he understood what had happened within the Divine Sect. Or rather, Goddess Xia Yan had already "returned from the lost path," and was using a marriage alliance to achieve her aim.
In truth, he could accept this marriage alliance.
Judging from the Heaven-Chosen Divine Sect's arrangements, every Chosen One below the Fourth Chosen, including their disciples, was a piece on the Sect Master's board—pieces that could be discarded. Zhu Yu putting on wedding robes before the Sect Master represented, to a great extent, the resolve of the Divine Sect's "peace-seeking" faction. At the very least, the Li Clan could take in some of the Divine Sect's people for their own use and gain a greater advantage.
What Goddess Xia Yan sought was merely a safeguard for the Heaven-Chosen Divine Sect amid the great battle between the two sides. She meant to trade the "morale" the Heaven-Chosen Divine Sect had lost through the marriage alliance for the price of preserving a portion of its bloodline in this battle of life and death.
But the mercy retained by the Lord of the Underworld, and Goddess Xia Yan's bowed