Within the bedchamber.
Qian Renxue nestled in Yang Yuan's embrace. After listening to his recounted experiences, she found them utterly bizarre and incredible.
However, upon second thought, nothing that happened to Yang Yuan should be considered strange.
She then proceeded to tell Yang Yuan about all the major and minor events that had occurred on the continent over the past year.
First was the matter concerning Tang San.
Yang Yuan was not surprised that Tang San had become a Fallen Soul Master. After all, in the glimpse of the future he had seen, Tang San should have accepted the Rakshasa God's Legacy.
According to what Qian Renxue said, after repelling the Spirit Master squad dispatched by the Spirit Hall, Tang San fled to the extreme northern lands of the Heaven Dou Empire.
(Slaughter City should be in the north of the Heaven Dou Empire; the earlier plot point was written incorrectly and has been corrected.)
Hearing Qian Renxue say this, Yang Yuan immediately understood: Tang San was probably planning to escape into Slaughter City.
Undoubtedly, this would be the turning point in his destiny.
His inheritance of the Rakshasa God's Legacy was likely to take place within Slaughter City.
After all, Slaughter City contained measures left behind by the Rakshasa God.
Apart from news of Tang San, Qian Renxue also relayed another piece of information to Yang Yuan.
Over the past year or so, the Heaven Dou Empire had implemented benevolent governance. The people lived in peace and prosperity, and the nation's power grew stronger by the day. Naturally, the Star Luo Empire could not sit idly by. Thus, half a year ago, they began sharpening their weapons and preparing their horses, mobilizing an army of two hundred thousand to march against the Balak Kingdom on Heaven Dou's southern border.
The Balak Kingdom directly bordered the Star Luo Empire. It was the militarily strongest of the Heaven Dou Empire's four great kingdoms and served as Heaven Dou's gateway.
It is worth mentioning that the King of the Balak Kingdom was Emperor Xue Ye's cousin.
Theoretically, he and the Heaven Dou Empire should share both glory and disgrace.
However, ever since the Crown Prince, 'Xue Qinghe', succeeded to the throne and implemented sweeping reforms—not only acting against many corrupt nobles but also, in the past year, showing signs of moving against the various kingdoms and principalities to centralize power—
this undoubtedly touched upon the fundamental interests of the various principalities and kingdoms.
At this time, the Star Luo Empireexactly threw out an olive branch.
They promised the King of the Balak Kingdom that if he was willing to pledge allegiance, he would be allowed to remain independent and would even be granted three additional provinces.
In the end, the King of the Balak Kingdom could not resist the Star Luo Empire's temptation. He decided to go all the way and defected to the Star Luo Empire.
He raised an army of one hundred thousand, joining forces with the Star Luo Empire to form a combined force of three hundred thousand, continuing their campaign against Heaven Dou.
Of course, this did not mean the Balak Kingdom and the Star Luo Empire were not wary of Yang Yuan.
But they were betting that Yang Yuan would not interfere in the conflict between the two great Empires.
After all, since Heaven Dou's Crown PrinceXue Qinghe ascended the throne, no one had seen Yang Yuan make an appearance.
Even over the past year, with Heaven Dou Empire making frequent major moves, Yang Yuan had not stepped forward to offer support.
This undoubtedly gave many people a sense of false hope.
The Star Luo Empire was a prime example.
After all, since the reforms under 'Xue Qinghe', the Heaven Dou Empire's national power had visibly strengthened.
The Star Luo Empire could choose to ignore this, but doing so would be like being slowly cut by a blunt knife. Once Heaven Dou's power grew strong enough, they would inevitably turn their blades on Star Luo.
Left with no choice, the Star Luo Empire could only strike first, gambling that Yang Yuan would not interfere in matters between the two Empires.
After all, throughout history, while powerful Spirit Masters could single-handedly form an army, it was rare for a Spirit Master to engage in large-scale slaughter of troops on the battlefield.
For example, the Peak experts of the previous era, Tang Chen and Qian Daoliu—their strength was not far from being able to oppose an entire nation single-handedly.
Yet, neither of them had ever spoken of interfering in imperial disputes.
Precisely because of this, the Star Luo Empire decided to take the gamble.
If Yang Yuan truly intended to interfere, they would simply find another way, It's nothing more than ceding some interests.
After the Balak Kingdom defected, the Xiluoweisi Kingdom, Hagendas Kingdom, and Gulei Kingdom surrendered one after another.
The Star Luo Empire, combined with the allied armies of the four kingdoms, amassed a total of six hundred thousand troops, arrayed outside Jialing Pass.
Beyond Jialing Pass lay the Heaven Dou Plains. Therefore, once Jialing Pass was breached, the path would be clear, allowing troops to march straight to Heaven Dou City.
Fortunately, Jialing Pass was Heaven Dou's foremost fortified pass. With support from various quarters, they had managed to prevent the Star Luo allied forces from breaking through.
However, for a time, the Heaven Dou Empire still presented the appearance of a nation on the brink of collapse.
Qian Renxue said to Yang Yuan, "If you hadn't emerged from seclusion, I would have had to return to Heaven Dou City alone to take charge of the situation."
Although she was far away in the Spirit Hall, she remained deeply concerned about all matters, great and small, in the Heaven Dou Empire.
After all, this was an Empire she had spent over a decade infiltrating and usurping. Now that it was finally on the right track, how could she easily give it up?
Yang Yuan stroked Qian Renxue's smooth, long hair. "I'll accompany you back. It's been so long since I left Heaven Dou; it's time to return."
"Good!"
Qian Renxue smiled gently, her eyes filled with happiness... After learning Yang Yuan had emerged from seclusion, Qian Daoliu also came to see him once, mainly curious about Yang Yuan's current strength and, truly, had he not become a god?
The answer he received was: although he had not become a god, he was not much different from a Divinity.
Even looking across the entire God Realm, only the five God Kings could reliably defeat him.
As for the remaining First-level Gods like the Sea God and the Rakshasa God, while they could suppress him, they could do nothing to truly harm him.
Upon learning that Yang Yuan could now rival a First-level God, Qian Daoliu's expression was indescribably Wonderful.
It must be remembered that the Angel God he worshipped was also merely a First-level God.
As for Yang Yuan and Qian Renxue preparing to return to Heaven Dou, he did not object. After all, Qian Renxue had already completed the seventh trial of the Angel God Trial. The content of the eighth trial was to Breakthrough to level ninety-nine before the age of forty.
Of course, this was not difficult for Qian Renxue.
She had only absorbed two pieces of her Angel Set. Once she absorbed the remaining four pieces, she would naturally reach level ninety-nine.
Three days later, Yang Yuan and Qian Renxue left the Spirit Hall.
This time, however, Yang Yuan did not travel slowly as he had on the way there.
Yang Yuan directly took Qian Renxue and traveled at full speed, covering a hundred li in a single breath.
In just over ten breaths, they arrived above Jialing Pass.
This terrifying speed would make anyone who saw it exclaim 'Terrifying' (dreadful to such an extent); it had completely transcended the realm of Mortals.
However, Yang Yuan had an extremely deep mastery of the Law of Space, so such a feat was nothing to him.
At this moment, below Jialing Pass, the aura of solemn killing was exceptionally heavy.
Gazing into the distance, one could see the encampments of the Star Luo allied forces arrayed outside Jialing Pass.
And below the walls of Jialing Pass, countless soldiers' bodies were piled up.
But clearly, most of these soldiers belonged to the Star Luo allied forces.
The Heaven Dou army, leveraging the advantageous terrain of Jialing Pass, held the upper hand.
As for the fighting between Spirit Masters, both sides remained relatively restrained.
On one hand, low-level Spirit Masters had limited power; strong bows and powerful crossbows could pose a significant threat to them.
And powerful Spirit Masters, aside from Fallen Soul Masters, were Very few people willing to engage in large-scale slaughter of ordinary people.
After all, killing one, ten, or even a hundred people might not amount to much.
But if one were to truly slaughter thousands, tens of thousands, or even a hundred thousand, it would inevitably place an immense psychological burden on them.
Otherwise, Dugu Bo alone could have annihilated the hundreds of thousands of Star Luo allied troops before Jialing Pass.
(End of Chapter)
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