Star Trace Gate

Chapter 835: Unparalleled Strategy, But at a Price

Government office, inner hall.

The color gradually returned to Long Yuqing's pale and dull cheeks, and the hand that was clutching his clothes under the table slowly loosened.

As he listened to the story told by the Little Bad King, he gradually calmed down and realized that refuting and arguing would only destroy his last bit of dignity.

He had nothing to say, so he slowly raised his arm, picked up the wine glass, and drank it all in one gulp.

Ren Ye looked at him, slowly stood up, and asked in a hoarse voice, "Do you know...who is the person I admire most in this story?"

He raised his arm and pointed with a trembling voice at the blank memorial tablet beside him, then spoke word by word, "The person I admire most is him, your father-in-law—Yang Ganglie."

"...!"

When Long Yuqing heard this, her eyes, which were looking at the table, turned slightly red.

"Wu Chen perished in the Emperor's Tomb. The Xianlan Sect was in panic, on the verge of collapse. You secretly dispatched the witch and unleashed the sharpest sword you had honed over the past eight years. Thousands of cultivators from the Ligui Sect trampled upon the Immortal Mountain, shattered the Dao Palace, and burned this thousand-year-old sect, which had oppressed the common people, to the ground in a blaze."

"Then, the other four cities of Xianlan were surprisingly united. They raised an army of 400,000 and besieged Chaolong. They denounced the Yang family and intended to take advantage of the chaos to break into the city and divide up Chaolong's interests."

"The actions of the four cities instantly made Old Master Yang feel an unprecedented crisis, a dilemma, a feeling of being on the edge of a tiger. He found himself without a choice. After the complete collapse of the Xianlan Sect, the light of the immortals in the sky could no longer protect his Yang family. If he took the initiative and led his troops to annihilate the enemy, how could the mere troops of Chaolong City repel 400,000 troops? But if he did not defend the city, these 400,000 troops would break through, and Chaolong City would be devastated. The Long and Yang families would be like fish on the chopping board, at the mercy of the four cities. The thousand-year-old ancestral heritage of the two families... would be destroyed in an instant."

"In despair, he thought about it and suddenly realized that it seemed that only one person could win the game of Chaolong City."

"That's you! Only by bringing you back and reestablishing our relationship, and then using the might of my protector's sword, can we strike fear into the four cities and drive the army back without bloodshed."

Ren Ye's voice began to tremble as he spoke. "But although Old Man Yang was born a military general, he was better at conquering and not good at court disputes. But he was, after all, a general of two dynasties and a fifth-rank elder. It's impossible that he didn't notice anything amiss even when facing imminent death."

"He was filled with confusion and immense doubt. Why did the other four cities suddenly show such unity after the fall of the Xianlan Sect?!"

"And the four cities all tacitly excluded the Long and Yang families of Chaolong City. Every move they made seemed to have been planned for a long time, as if they had long been planning to take action against the Yang and Long families."

"So, he began to secretly investigate, hoping to find out the true intentions of the four cities. However, he stumbled upon the fact that on the day the Ghost Clan attacked Xianlan, soldiers from the other four cities also disguised themselves and boarded the Xianshan Mountain, taking advantage of the situation to loot and plunder."

"This was extremely puzzling to Old Master Yang. For the five cities of Xianlan, the Wendao Palace was the heaven, an insurmountable mountain. Although Wuchen was dead, the remaining traces of the millennium-old immortal sect were enough to terrify people. There were still many fifth-rank immortal masters atop the immortal mountain, and how could the other four cities have known that the Li Gui Sect would definitely overthrow the Xianlan Sect? How could they have known in advance that the Li Gui Sect had unknowingly accumulated a thousand cultivators? How could they have been so sure that the witch would have the power to set a fire that would blaze through the sky in the Wendao Palace that night?!"

"Aren't they afraid that if the Li Gui Sect fails to annihilate the Xian Lan Sect in one blow, it will instead provoke Xian Lan's final revenge before annihilating the sect? If a dozen fifth-grade immortal masters come down the mountain together and massacre the families of the four city lords, how will they respond?!"

"Such a huge risk, can't these four city lords see it? Why do they insist on following the footsteps of the Fiendish Ghost Sect and risking their lives? Wouldn't it be better to wait a little longer?"

"The only reasonable explanation is that the lords of these four cities firmly believed that the Li Gui Sect would win, and they were also very clear that it had the ability to overthrow the thousand-year-old immortal sect. Therefore, the Li Gui Sect and the other four cities of Xianlan must have been secretly colluding for a long time."

"But why, after the fall of the Xianlan Sect, did the soldiers from these four cities come together to surround Chaolong so tacitly, and even unite like brothers?!"

"Why are they so determined to target the Yang family?! In Old Master Yang's heart, while he and the four city lords weren't exactly close friends, they didn't have any deep hatred. Even during the first siege of the four cities, those four lords acted on their own and gave Old Master Yang a chance to go up the mountain and beg for mercy...!"

"Why did they suddenly change their attitude after Wuchen's death and insist on bringing the Yang family to its doom?"

"Why does the Ghost Sect want to connect with the Four Cities?"

"Why is it that only that one person can break the Yang family's current deadlock?!"

"With 400,000 troops besieging a city, who are the real beneficiaries?!"

"Old Master Yang, filled with suspicion and speculation, conducted a thorough investigation. He wanted to understand why the Li Gui Sect had suddenly become so powerful, and why it suddenly boasted over a thousand cultivators. His Yang family had been in charge of Chaolong City for so many years, and under the oppression of the Xianlan Sect, they had to levy heavy taxes. The enlightened and supernatural beings in this city were all to be meticulously recorded so that they could collect heavy taxes in the future...!"

"In such an environment, how did over a thousand cultivators above the third rank manage to quietly join the Ghost Sect and never have their whereabouts traced? This is impossible...!"

"He might have pondered this for a long time, or perhaps he suddenly realized it. If the Ghost Sect had grown so powerful, there seems to be only one possibility: those military officers who disappeared from the city earlier weren't actually dead, nor were they used as cauldrons by the witch to practice her magic. They simply found an excuse to disappear from Chaolong City...!"

"He was eager to confirm his suspicions, so he went to the archives, retrieved the historical records of missing military officers from Chaolong City, and compared them with the roster of missing military officers from the previous military... Finally, he gradually uncovered a shocking conspiracy... He discovered that most of the missing military officers were young members of the Long family, former officers under the command of Flying General Long Qingyan, or young military officers who had been promoted by him. Furthermore, Long Qingyan's death, unseen by anyone, was a formidable one, and his body was never recovered...!"

"Mr. Yang completely collapsed after reading all these lists."

"He also understood that the 400,000 troops outside the city were besieging the city just to bring back one person, and that person is you—Long Yuqing!"

"You are the only one who can break this desperate situation, and the only one who can benefit. He must take you back openly...!"

"But after they're taken back, will the soldiers from these four cities be able to withdraw? If they can, then what's the point of the Li Gui Sect's connection with the four cities?"

"He knows in his heart that if you come back, he will die."

"Because your purpose in using the Li Gui Sect's alliance with the four cities to launch an attack is to kill with a borrowed knife. You want to use a siege to wipe out the Yang family's elite troops, thereby achieving your goal of eliminating all obstacles on the road to power."

Ren Ye looked at Long Yuqing with an unconscious expression of fear. He shook his head and said, "I guess that Master Yang must have met with you before he went to war, but you never took the initiative to say that you would come to me first and beg me to withdraw the troops from the four cities. Your silence made him even more convinced...that you came back to kill him. So...he chose to lead the army to attack Luoshen Mountain and Datong River at night, and ordered all the generals in the army to secretly dismiss their families and leave with money. He even sent his eldest son, Yang Mingtang, to leave with his clan..."

"He just wants to tell you that he has no objections!"

"If we must abandon the affection between father-in-law and son-in-law, and uncle and elder brother, then the loyalty is: if the king orders the subject to die, the subject must die!"

"That was the most important thing in his life, and it was also the oath he made to your father!"

"He simply hoped that after the Yang family's elite troops were wiped out, you would remember our old friendship and show some restraint, sparing innocent lives and not targeting the families of the Yang family generals. But he was mistaken... You are no longer that cowardly, timid son-in-law, but a ruthless and merciless monarch! After the battle of Datong River, I suspect that the families of the Yang family generals, including those taken away by Yang Mingtang... were all ambushed by the Fiendish Ghost Sect along the way. Not a single one was left alive, is that correct?"

He questioned angrily.

Long Yuqing raised his glass again, emptied it in one gulp, and then, with a ruddy face, shook his head and said, "No, you finally guessed wrong. I wasn't silent that day, I just feigned fear and trepidation... When my father-in-law came to me, I... I offered to go to the Emperor's Tomb to find you, and even went to the Human World Inn to ask that Senior Shenjin or your close friend to intervene. But he insisted on a night raid on Datong River, saying that if we could win, he would dismiss all the family soldiers and return my unified country to me."

"He's more stubborn than you think, and his heart is much broader. When he entered my room that day, he was already determined to die. He, too, wanted to win the Battle of Falling Gods Mountain. He had spent his entire military career, and he wanted to achieve the most glorious victory possible to end the Yang family's dominance. He also wanted to awaken a glimmer of pity in me, in exchange for the possibility of the Yang family's collective survival and disbanding on the spot!"

"He really wanted to give me a generous gift to regain the position of city lord and fight for the Long family again."

"Unfortunately, the Four Cities cannot be defeated by him, and the Four Cities Lords cannot die. They have controlled the Four Cities for a long time, and their disciples and former officials are spread all over the world. And you, the descendant of the Ancient Emperor and the Protector of the Divine Forbidden Way, cannot remain in Jiuli forever. Therefore, if we want the Five Cities to regain stability within a year and the new policies to be implemented, we cannot kill the goose that lays the golden eggs and exterminate the entire clans of the Four Cities Lords... We must use them, use them to control others, and then, over time, gradually wither their wings, slowly eradicating the Four Clans...!"

He spoke as if he was narrating a history book, his voice steady, cold, and without a trace of emotion.

Ren also looked at him: "The reason why the witch was able to persuade the four cities to send troops, secretly help, and act as the butcher's knife was because of me, right?"

"Yes."

Long Yuqing admitted it frankly, laughing, "Haha, who in this world doesn't know that this witch was once your protector?! She fought alongside you all the way to Xiliang and back again, saving you from danger numerous times. In the eyes of outsiders... this Li Gui Sect no longer belongs to me, Long Yuqing, but to you, the descendants of the Ancient Emperor."

"So, after Sister Qingyan found the four city lords, they agreed to be the butchers without much persuasion. They knew very well that if the Xianlan Sect fell, the descendants of the Ancient Emperor, with the divinely forbidden guardians, could easily change the situation of the five Xianlan cities and even end the situation of warlords fighting for power across the Jiuli Continent. They are all opportunists who understand the current situation and naturally will not go against the trend."

"After Sister Qingyan revealed her irreconcilable feud with the Yang family, the four cities immediately rose up in rebellion, putting my father-in-law in an instant mortal danger. They only hoped that Sister Qingyan could intervene on your behalf and protect their entire clan, so that they could maintain their current position in the future unification of the five cities."

"Haha, to put it bluntly, now that the Xianlan Sect has collapsed, they want to be your dogs! You tell them how much tax to collect, and they'll do it... And then, when you're in a good mood, throw them a few bones, and they'll be extremely happy."

Ren Ye looked at him and asked in a trembling voice, "You have never had any contact or correspondence with the Lords of the Four Cities?"

"A bunch of petty, mediocre people with no ambition, who only care about immediate gains, are they worthy of contact with me?! After you help me ascend the throne of the Five Cities Lord, I will continue to be a coward, mediocre, and foolish... Using the identity of a puppet descendant of the Ancient Emperor, I will secretly spy on the court, and then use the sharp sword of the Fiendish Ghost Sect to eliminate all hidden dangers one by one...!"