For a long time, Qi State and Sea Fishing Tower had maintained a relationship of both competition and cooperation in the Near-Sea Archipelago.
When facing the Sea Race, they had fought shoulder to shoulder in the Lost Realm.
Yet between themselves, they contended for hegemony over the near seas.
Sea Fishing Tower's advantage lay in its history—in their patriarch, who had fished from the ancient era down to the opening of the new calendar of The Present World. For thousands of years, they had stood steadfast before the Lost Realm, becoming a tangible symbol of resistance against the Sea Race.
The only force that could compare to Sea Fishing Tower in this regard was Yang Valley, which spared no sacrifice and fought more desperately than anyone else. Clad in the afterglow of the former Great Yang Empire, it represented a spirit of swearing to defend the Sea Frontier unto death.
Qi State's advantage, meanwhile, lay in its strength. And it was growing stronger by the day.
The so-called "Nine Sun-Rising Kingdoms," which had inherited the legacy of the Great Yang Empire and once basked in blazing glory, had either vanished in the smoke of war or submitted memorials and declared themselves vassals. No matter how great that Great Yang Empire had once been, all trace of it had long been erased.
The banner now hanging over the Eastern Domain was the Ziwei Central Supreme Emperor Banner of the Great Qi Empire.
Especially in recent years, after swallowing Yang and extinguishing Xia, it had already become a force that gulped down ten thousand miles!
Only when name and reality matched could one clench the world in one's fist.
Qi State had long since freed its hands. So why had it endured so much, confining the struggle for near-sea hegemony within the