"Brother, what should we do?"
In the Guanzhong region, the families who came from the Northern Lands mostly split up after arriving in the heart of Guanzhong because their respective businesses were located in different places. After agreeing on a meeting point, they went to the cities where their businesses were located.
The Ge Family was a prominent clan in the north, with numerous businesses scattered across thirteen towns in Guanzhong. However, they hadn't found a single active town along their journey.
What's worse, all the important resources distributed across the various strongholds, such as high-grade medicinal herbs and certain spiritual materials that nourish the spiritual fields, have been completely wiped out.
Those items were important family resources, and each one was secretly protected by a technique placed on it by the family. No matter who stole them, the family members could track them down and retrieve them. This was a secret technique possessed by all the major families.
But after obtaining those resources through the secret technique, the elders were utterly disheartened.
All those supplies were concentrated in the Beijing area!
In other words, it wasn't the stewards or others who were greedy, but rather the funds had been transferred by powerful figures in the capital long ago.
What does this mean?
The imperial court knows what the cities outside will become, the imperial court knows all of this is happening, but the imperial court doesn't care!
It doesn't care about ordinary people, or even ancient families like theirs; instead, it seizes the opportunity to take away all their family's resources!
The fate tablets showed that all the illegitimate sons and high-ranking managers were dead. Their deaths were so thorough that it was almost certain that the court and even the merchants had seized all their family resources without any consultation, a move that left no way out.
Has that emperor from the Xiao Household gone mad?
The elder slumped to the ground, staring blankly at the setting sun.
"Perhaps... those families in the capital are taking advantage of the chaos to seize wealth?" an elder couldn't help but say. "If we go to the capital and seek justice from the imperial court, perhaps..."
"Do you think it's possible?" The First Elder looked at the elder who was still dreaming with amusement and shook his head. "Our family has so many businesses, and the locations where we store important resources are extremely well hidden. In our territory, apart from the imperial court, which family in the capital could be so cleanly wiped out?"
The elders fell silent upon hearing this. If the imperial court was behind it, then it meant they were completely out of options.
The North suffered such a great calamity, with less than one in ten people surviving. The Northern Lands court did not send a single soldier, allowing them to be slaughtered by demons. Not only that, but they also took advantage of their misfortune to trample on them and seize their families' savings accumulated over hundreds of years.
What kind of jackal is this?
The elder sat on the cold ground, but what he recalled was not the present, but twenty years ago, when a young man in white, full of vigor, invited him to change the world together.
That person's dream was as absurd as a child's fantasy, yet it possessed a captivating allure.
Why did I betray them back then?
The elder suddenly felt somewhat confused. Was it because of his demonic identity?
A demon comes along and says that humans and demons should coexist, so that the world will be free of demonic calamities and enjoy eternal prosperity. Isn't that absurd?
But everyone saw what he was doing. He was indeed doing his best to resist the demons, and he almost created a world without fear.
If he had unified the world back then, would this serpent plague have been avoided?
Would the world be different in this way?
What if I had gone crazy with that boy back then?
"Big brother, what are you thinking about?"
"No, just thinking about the past," the elder smiled and shook his head.
"Elder, shall we continue our journey to the capital?" the younger member asked cautiously.
To be honest, by the time he got here, he really didn't want to go any further. He had lost all his businesses in Guanzhong, so what would he have left in the capital?
Evidence everywhere indicates that the capital city today is definitely not a safe place.
The Grand Elder glanced in the direction of the capital. Back then, many ultimately chose the emperor. Should the same choice be made now?
"How about we go to Jiangnan and join the other disciples?" Another elder hesitated for a moment before speaking.
The Grand Elder paused for a moment, then looked at the other elders and asked, "Why was Chen Qing of Jiangnan granted the title of King of Qin?"
Everyone was taken aback, unsure of what it meant, but the elders wore strange expressions.
Qin was the name of the first dynasty to unify the Central Plains. Therefore, in the past dynasties, when kings were enfeoffed, Qin was the first. More than 20 years ago, when warlords were in a standoff and kings were listed side by side, only one person dared to call himself the King of Qin.
After the founding of the dynasty, it was clear that the emperor did not want to implement the enfeoffment system. The highest military merit was that of a duke. Even so, no one dared to accept the title of Qin. In the end, Lu Ming took the initiative to accept the title. However, because he accepted the title, he was always wary of the emperor for twenty years!
Chen Qing gained control of Jiangnan, and not only did the emperor back down, but he was also granted the title of King of Qin. Was this a coincidence, or was it because...?
The Jiangnan region is shrouded in mystery due to its many strange tales. How similar is Chen Qing's style of doing things to that of someone from back then?
Now, the time for a choice has come again, and it happens to be a choice between the King of Qin and the emperor of the Xiao Household!
--
"There are only three months left to prepare the troops!"
When Chen Qing returned, he quickly convened the high-ranking officials and announced the alliance.
In early spring, once the imperial court sends troops to attack the Northern Lands, the Jiangnan will immediately send troops. In return, the North Sea City will be completely at peace, and the passage through the vassal Northern Yan Kingdom will now be completely stable.
When Chen Qing brought back this news, both the Shen Family and Wei Gongcheng were shocked. In their view, given Chen Qing's intelligence, he shouldn't have done something so self-destructive.
Even though he repeatedly emphasized that the Arctic holds the most crucial resources, what good are any other benefits if the core base is lost?
"My lord, are we really going to send troops?" Shen Er asked first.
Ziyue, who was with him, looked at Chen Qing with complicated emotions. Chen Qing had gone with the players from the Divine Martial Guild to the Land of the Void they had mentioned. It was rumored to be a place where extraterrestrial life forms could temporarily appear in spirit form.
She couldn't understand why Chen Qing insisted on going to such a dangerous place, nor could she be sure whether the Chen Qing who had returned had been harmed by some secret technique.
After all, the next version of life form will possess methods and energy far beyond what we can currently match.
"Not sending troops is a dead end!" Chen Qing explained with a wry smile, "You don't understand the weight of King Xiang. Once he takes over the Heavenly Python Palace and monopolizes the resources of the Arctic, he can regain his former peak in just one year. We are far from being able to keep up with his speed. Although I don't want to admit it, I am now certain that the Northern scheme has made King Xiang and that person from the Xiao Household the most unsolvable problem!"
This is not an exaggeration.
Previously, he had always considered the Northern Lands as his most formidable opponent, not only because those people had the support of a powerful guild, but also because they monopolized the greatest resources of the Heavenly Python Palace and the Arctic Land, which were geographically close.
The original plan was to unite with the imperial court to fight against the Arctic and form a three-way power struggle.
The King of Qin in the East Sea has been trapped in the Data City due to the power outage. The sorcerer families in the South Sea have no resources to acquire and cannot gain any significant influence in the short term. In fact, the only ones with the potential to launch an attack within two years are the imperial court and the Northern Lands.
However, the scheme orchestrated by the Emperor in the North wiped out almost half of the guild's high-ranking members. The Heavenly Python Palace has a clear rule: many of its contracts with the giant snakes are one-person contracts. This means that if the person bound by the contract dies, the giant snakes of the Heavenly Python Palace may not necessarily continue to abide by the agreement.
In other words, the Northern Lands were essentially ownerless at this time!