Defying the Martial Way to Burn the Heavens

The Ye Lin Empire is close to the southwest, in a huge basin surrounded by mountains. Most of the strongest forces of the Ye Lin Empire are now concentrated here.

No one could have imagined that the powerful existence that once united several empires and attempted to divide Xuanwu would lose the imperial capital today.

Those strong men who would cause the Kunxuan Continent to shake with a stomp of their feet, now hide in this valley like injured beasts, secretly licking their wounds and healing silently.

Since the Ye family established the empire, it has never suffered such a setback. However, when the huge crisis appeared, it also brought some favorable changes to the Ye Lin Empire.

Since the Ye Lin Empire had a strong man named Xiao Kuangzhan, who rose step by step, the status of the Ye Lin Empire itself has become the strongest among the empires.

But from that time on, the Ye Lin Empire also buried a huge hidden danger, that is, "the master is weak and the ministers are strong."

If it is said that the king is really so weak, it may not be, but Xiao Kuangzhan is really strong. He not only has an amazing level of talent in cultivation, but also has unique features in family management.

Under his leadership, the Xiao family stood out from the many families in Ye Lin, and in the end they were able to compete with the Ye family.

The rise of Xiao Kuangzhan is the result that the Ye Lin Empire hopes to see, but the rise of the Xiao family with Xiao Kuangzhan is not the result that any Ye family warrior wants to see.

If it was just Xiao Kuangzhan, the lord Ye Shan would even be willing to give a large part of his power to Xiao Kuangzhan.

Because that would at most damage Ye Shan's personal power, but would not shake the foundation of the Ye family and the Ye Lin Empire. But the rise of the Xiao family is completely different, which will shake the foundation of the Ye family's rule of the empire.

So in recent years, the Ye family has promoted Ye Chang to become the master of the Sacrifice Hall and "competed" with the Sacrifice Hall under Xiao Kuangzhan.

Ye Shan and the Ye family thought this was a good move, but they didn't expect that it would directly bury a greater hidden danger.

They actually knew that Ye Chang had never been the leader of the country, so they had always been dissatisfied with Ye Shan and the Ye family. So on the one hand, they supported Ye Chang, and on the other hand, they constrained him in many ways.

Ye Chang was not a fool. Whenever he dealt with Xiao Kuangzhan, the Xiao family, and even the sacrificial hall, all kinds of help would assist and cooperate.

But once he wanted to develop and strengthen his own power, he could feel that countless invisible resistances surrounded him, as if he had no place to use it.

If Ye Chang was obedient, then he would at least be the first person under Ye Shan and Xiao Kuangzhan in the Yelin Empire. But when he missed the position of the leader of the country, he had to be inferior to Ye Shan. How could Ye Chang be willing?

He directly took another path and found a force from the outside, although they also used each other. But Ye Chang at least now occupied the capital of Yelin Empire. Now he directly declared to the outside that he was the leader of Yelin. Because Ye Shan was not in the right position, he had been abolished and expelled by him.

This operation caught the other empires off guard, but other forces chose to wait and see.

The reason why other empires did not intervene was that they could not see the situation clearly, after all, the Ye Lin Empire was too chaotic now. A direct line of the Ye family jumped out and directly occupied the imperial capital, competing with Ye Shan. At the same time, in the east of Ye Lin, there was an empire named Tianping that announced the establishment of a country, which was a chaos that had not happened in tens of thousands of years.

In the face of such a chaotic situation, no one actually cared about right or wrong. As long as other empires chose to support, they would be the final winner of this fight.

In this situation where the situation is unclear, it is definitely not a wise move to rashly choose to support any of the parties, and it may even cause unnecessary trouble for yourself.

In addition, there is another reason, which is the rise of the Nether Clan. Not only has the Fengtian Dynasty lost one-third of the empire, but the Xuanwu Empire has also been affected to a certain extent.

This influence has caused considerable pressure on all empires in both visible and invisible ways, so all empires are more willing to retain their strength to deal with the Nether Clan. As for the Ye Lin Empire, it will temporarily adopt a wait-and-see attitude.

As for the Ye Lin Empire, after the initial chaos, after a period of calm that was taken for granted, the undercurrent began to gradually become turbulent.

At the beginning of the chaos, everyone acted quickly to gain the greatest benefits in the shortest time. Ye Chang was naturally unwilling to occupy only one imperial capital, so he led his subordinates, the Soul Sacrifice Hall and the Qianhuan Sect, to occupy two counties in the shortest time.

As for the Tianping Empire, the action was even faster. According to Zuo Feng's deployment, several directions attacked at the same time. In less than half a month, almost one-third of the Ye Lin Empire had been included in its territory.

As for the agreement reached with Xiao Kuangzhan, Zuo Feng deliberately played a little trick. We only sent strong men to occupy, but did not hinder the free coming and going of human warriors, which did not count as a violation of the promises of both parties.

But in this way, except for the direct army of the Ye Lin Empire and some super families, other small and medium-sized forces and families almost had no conditions to leave immediately.

Of course, Zuo Feng also understood that simply occupying an empty city would mean nothing to the new Tianping Empire. Xiao Kuangzhan naturally understood this, so he proposed such an agreement at that time. However, Zuo Feng was not stupid. He saw the other party's intention on the spot, so he deliberately played a little trick.

The Ye Lin Empire's army is naturally unable to win them over. As for those super families, they are either tied to the Ye family or the Xiao family. Forcing them to stay will bring considerable hidden dangers to themselves.

But those small and medium-sized families and forces, as well as most ordinary people, all have their own livelihoods. As long as the Tianping Empire does not go too far and deliberately detains important property, especially training materials and important martial arts books, and prohibits them from taking them out of the Tianping Empire, those forces will almost be able to stay obediently.

Of course, this is only the first step, and most of the people who stay are half-hearted, and even make secret arrangements with the Yelin Empire.

But it doesn't matter. Even if they are not left behind, the Yelin Empire will still send other spies. This is inevitable. Zuo Feng also arranged a group of spies to follow and infiltrate the team retreating to the southwest.

From the beginning, Zuo Feng never thought that it would be impossible to eat Ye Lin in one bite, nor did he think that it could be done in just a few months or years.

Therefore, after the Tianping Empire quickly occupied some of the areas demarcated in the agreement with Xiao Kuangzhan, it stopped any further actions and made every effort to digest and consolidate its rights and control over the occupied areas.

As for Ye Chang, he did not act immediately. He also consolidated his rights and stabilized the situation in the area he occupied. Compared to the Tianping Empire, it is easier for Ye Chang to stabilize.

Because Qianhuan Sect has always been low-key, it will not be taken seriously by ordinary people, and since Ye Chang is also a direct member of the Ye family. From the perspective of outsiders, this is the internal contradiction within the Ye Lin Empire. No matter who is replaced as the leader, there will be no fundamental changes, so there is no need for everyone to withdraw from the area occupied by Ye Chang for the time being.

In the future, whether Ye Chang takes down Ye Shan or Ye Shan fights back, there is no need to deliberately bother about it, just quietly observe and prepare.

For Ye Shan and Xiao Kuangzhan, the only thing that makes them feel lucky is that the huge external pressure forces them to put aside their previous conflicts.

Originally, Xiao Kuangzhan and Ye Shan had already turned their attention to Ye Chang and the Tianping Empire, planning which side they would go to war with next.

But in the process of their planning, the Tianping Empire sent a letter of credence personally issued by Zhentian. In the past, this would have been an insult. After all, a being who had been arbitrarily manipulated and even wanted to be captured as a pet and a mount was actually given credentials as an equal.

But after seeing the credentials, both Ye Shan and Xiao Kuangzhan fell into silence. Although it is just a fluttering page, to them, it feels like a huge mountain is weighing down their hearts.

The content of the credential is not complicated and can be summarized into three points. The first is to establish trade. In the early stage, the Tianping Empire can guarantee that it will never take a commission from it, but only a minimum of 30% of the materials must be traded at the market price within the Tianping Empire.

The second is that the two sides will next delineate the two counties bordering each other diagonally as a special area where no troops are stationed. According to the Tianping Empire's credentials, it will serve as a buffer zone for contact between the two sides.

The third point is the key point. The Tianping Empire guarantees that when Ye Shan is at war with Ye Chang, he will never start a war first, and will also provide certain resources and material support.

All of Ye Lin's senior officials, as well as Xiao Kuangzhan and extremely important figures in the Xiao family, all gathered in the new hall. Everyone looked very ugly, but no one was willing to speak first.

"The guys from the Tianping Empire want us to start a war with Ye Chang and the others, and they can reap the benefits." After looking around, Xiao Kuangzhan was the first to speak. He was unwilling to continue testing. Now he doesn't have this Xianxin doesn’t have that time either.

Ye Xing, the former second elder of the Ye family and now the eldest elder, slowly exhaled, nodded with some difficulty, and said: "These three points can be said to attack the heart step by step, and their intentions are so sinister that their hearts can be killed. It’s so heartbreaking!”

Ye Peifang, the former third elder and now the second elder, also nodded in agreement, "Indeed, it's like they are handing over weapons and letting us fight Ye Chang and the others."

The eldest elder of the Xiao family, Xiao Gangyi, is the first person in the Xiao family besides Xiao Kuangzhan. After reading the credentials, he closed his eyes as if silently recuperating. Only then did he slowly open his eyes and speak.

"But it is difficult for us to refuse the conditions they proposed, even if this is the result we want most. Otherwise, a war between the two sides at the same time will only be more detrimental to us."

Ye Tao, the young man who happened to be next to Ye Shan at this moment, couldn't help but said: "Then why don't we do the opposite and join forces with Ye Chang to deal with the Tianping Empire first."

Everyone present looked at the future heir to the throne, and it was clear that there were complicated meanings in their eyes.

Ye Shan's face darkened slightly, he waved his hand to stop his son from continuing, and said directly: "Then let's discuss how to reply to this letter of credence. Even if we don't go to war with Ye Chang immediately, at least the first part of it will be. Two of them are very beneficial to us, let’s consider how to use them.”

Everyone present turned their attention away from Ye Tao, but no one said anything at this time, and Ye Shan didn't want to explain anything more at this time. Ye Tao knew that he must have said something wrong, but he couldn't figure out what he did wrong for a while.