Ye Futian felt rather speechless with the Black Wind Condor. He pressed his hand on the bird’s head, turned around and left, feeling a chill running down his spine.
He probably had just got himself into trouble, as the a**hole of a bird actually told Kong Xuan to serve him.
Xia Qingyuan wore no expression on her face when she said, “Let’s go.”
The massive army of Emperor Xia’s Realm left as soon as she gave the word. Putting the imperial flags after the flag battle at the highest point of the imperial city signified the beginning of the Battle of Empty Realm. Deaths occurred during the battle were to stay within the battle.
The Battle of Empty Realm had always been extremely brutal and the trading of pointed words hardly had any bearing when life and death situations were common. Anyone could have said anything brutal and unforgiving at anyone. While the Black Wind Condor had indeed insulted Kong Xuan, but those demonic beast on the other side were pretty much doing the same as well.
Everything were to be decided on the battlefield.
“With the imperial flag placed within the city, does it mean that we’d need to put garrisons as well then?” Ye Futian somehow came to walk at the very front together with Xia Qingyuan, with the army following right behind them, as he asked her.
“Yeah.” Xia Qingyuan nodded. “One of the Battle of Empty Realm’s rules: the city with their flag taken down would be eliminated from the battle. For many years, many from the losing side perished from defending their flags. Don’t think about gathering a force to just go about taking down the flags of others. While we’ve won all three battles of the flag battle, but you’ve seen what they were made of. None of them were weak, and furthermore, that was before divine implements were brought out.”
Ye Futian understood what Xia Qingyuan meant. There were many at the very cutting edge of the top notch figures among the armies of the three great imperial realms. There were even the likes of Wang Chuan among them. Furthermore, with the princes and princesses, no one would have believed it if any of them were to claim not having top notch ritual implements with them.
If the armies were to bring their full might to bear, they could have even killed saints at the First of the Divine Steps.
While the might of an individual would have allowed them to kill their way throughout the battlefield, but if said individual were to take down an imperial all on their own, it would have proven next to impossible. In Ye Futian’s case, it would have only been possible if he were to burn his imperial will.
Ye Futian was barely managed to stay alive doing so with Emperor Xia deciding to spare him. If he dared to pull something like that at the Upper Worlds, it would have been akin to asking for his head to be put on a guillotine.
“Furthermore, if we were to attack, wouldn’t that mean that we’d have to guard against yet another side attacking us?” Ye Futian asked.
“That’s a given. As such, we’d need to watch their moves constantly. Other than that, we’d need to be alert against cultivators appearing in any of the three warzones. Even if there were to be unaffiliated cultivators from the Empty Realm, they might actually turn out to be in the enemy’s employ, or at least, they could be spies. As such, if we were to find anyone within the warzones that were not of ours, we’d need to take them down.” Xia Qingyuan then continued, “One other thing. We couldn’t afford to expose our true power right at the very beginning.”
“Doing so would end up forcing our enemies to team up then?” Ye Futian added.
“Battles fought between three forces are more complicated than usual. We couldn’t afford to trust any side, as there would only be one victor in the end. There’s a risk of being set up if we were to team up with anyone, and no one would bother making the first move when launching attacks. Worse still, we’d still need to be on guard against each other, for fear that the other side is actually setting you up while pretending to be an ally, enabling them to cut down our flag first. All manner of scenarios took place during the past Battles of the Empty Realm. Until one side became clearly more powerful than the other two, the balance remained unbroken,” Xia Qingyuan explained.
“In the last Battle of Empty Realm, the leading figure of the Emperor Li’s army had been a student of the imperial advisor of the Dali Dynasty. He had been quite a strategist, going so far as to be willing to lure their opponents by sacrificing one-fourth of their army. They pretended to be weak all the time, making both Emperor Xia’s Realm and Demon Peacock Emperor’s Realm lower their guard. Emperor Xia’s Realm would have been able to secure victory by taking down the Demon Peacock Emperor’s Realm, so Emperor Xia’s Realm allied with Emperor Li’s Realm. However, during battle, Emperor Li’s Realm played both sides, letting the two other realms duke it out between each other and wearing down their forces considerably. After the Demon Peacock Emperor’s Realm’s flag was cut down, Emperor Li’s Realm’s forces burst with all of the power all of a sudden and ambushed Emperor Xia’s Realm’s forces. They killed all the way in Emperor Xia’s City. Massive casualties resulted, the imperial flag was cut down, and Emperor Li’s Realm’s forces emerged as the victors.”
Xia Qingyuan’s voice was calm. It was apparent that she knew the history of the last Battle of Empty Realm like the back of her hand, so as to take the lesson to heart. In actual fact, despite having concealed a good portion of their powers, Emperor Li’s Realm’s forces were indeed the weakest among the three back then. It was especially so after losing a good portion of their forces. One could have only said that the student of the Dali’s imperial advisor has indeed had indomitable will and a very shrewd mind.
While Ye Futian knew little about past Battles of Empty Realm, but given how it was a battle fought once every ten years and the battles were directly tied to command of the realm for a decade, one could have assumed that any methods imaginable could have been brought to play in the battlefield.
Many behind them saw both Xia Qingyuan and Ye Futian being at the very front of the army, walking side by side. Many looked rather puzzled at the scene.
Both Yu Sheng and the Black Wind Condor had been Ye Futian’s people back in that flag battle earlier. Both of them bagged two victories and one could have assumed that Ye Futian was also incredibly formidable himself. As such, it was only natural that the princess valued him so much. However, no one thought that she would have valued him that much, so much so that she came to see him as her equal.
Both Xiao Sheng and Gongsun Zhong sported grim expressions. Xiao Sheng had prepared himself to enter Emperor Xia’s Palace through fighting in that year’s Battle of Empty Realm, which would have enabled him to accumulated merits and renown in the battle, enabling him to legitimately serve Xia Qingyuan and wield actual power over Emperor Xia’s forces.
However, the scene before them seemed to have said that Xia Qingyuan had already made Ye Futian her lieutenant. That had been the expectations Xiao Sheng’s family had placed on him.
The army returned to the city and placed the imperial flag at a palace at the central region. Xia Qingyuan ascended the steps and addressed her people below, “In this year’s Battle of Empty Realm. The army of Emperor Xia’s Realm shall be divided into five legions. The Tian and the Dou were a legion in themselves respectively. I expect the leading figures for these two legions had already been assigned by the sacred generals. Ye Futian shall lead the legion consisting of those from the Nine States. Those of other forces here at the Upper Worlds, despite being of different forces, we shall stand in this battlefield as one legion, which I would lead personally. Those who train in Emperor Xia’s City here at Empty Realm, shall be led by Tian Ji. Any questions?”
The myriad of top notch forces in the Upper Worlds—Divine Cloud Valley, the Xiao clan, the Xuanyuan Palace, the Jiutian Temple, the Qin Palace and many others—deployed their very beast and they looked formidable. Furthermore, Xia Qingyuan appeared to be the only one capable of lording over their respective leading figures. If they were to be left to their own devices, they would have stayed among their own and made streamlining their actions difficult, which would have in turn been a liability in the Battle of Empty Realm.
There was a force from Emperor’s Xia’s Realm remaining in Emperor Xia’s City at Empty Realm. The killings were stopped when the battles were over. With the victor taking control over Empty Realm, they naturally would not have provoked the other two sides by killing unnecessarily.
“We shall serve you, princess,” Xiao Sheng and Gongsun Zhong were the first to bow and pledged their vow. The mighty ones behind them followed suit.
Of the five legions, Ye Futian’s was the numerous and they could have hardly been even called a legion. Xia Qingyuan allowed them to be recognized as a legion on their own, as from her perspective, despite lacking in numbers, there were several top notch figures among them, which could have served as vanguards or secret weapons of Emperor Xia’s Realm’s forces.
Xia Qingyuan continued to delegate tasks. The cultivators of Empty Realm knew the place better than anyone, so they were tasked to protect the imperial flag and monitor the enemy’s movements. Details about operations were naturally delegated to Tian Ji.
When Xia Qingyuan was delegating tasks, Ye Futian chose to walk off on his own instead.
“Where are you going?” Xia Qingyuan asked Ye Futian.
“A stroll outside the demonic city,” Ye Futian said. Black Wind Condor was mentally linked with him and appeared rather excited. It flapped its wings as it came to Ye Futian’s side.
Xia Qingyuan looked at Ye Futian and knew that he would have never obeyed the chain of command, just as she expected. As such, she never intended to give any tasks to him in the first place.
“Brother Ye, the Battle of Empty Realm could not be fought with individual bravado alone. You might be formidable as an individual, but that would not have helped in the battle. It is best that you listen to what the princess has to say,” Xiao Sheng said with a smile and appeared rather amicable.
Ye Futian took a look at him before turning her eyes back to Xia Qingyuan, “Please rest assured, Princess. I’m only there to look at how things are and I have no intentions of taking risks.”
Xia Qingyuan heard Ye Futian and nodded, saying, “Be careful then.”
“Thank you, princess.” Ye Futian nodded and then at Sword Saint, Gu Dongliu and the others, saying, “Big Brother shall be in charge in my absence.”
Ye Futian stepped onto the Black Wind Condor when he was done. The bird flapped its wings and took to the air, heading far away.
“Hey boss, are we going to pick up your concubine?” The Black Wind Condor’s eyes glimmered and looked rather excited. “That daughter of the Demon Peacock Emperor might be a demonic beast cultivator, but she has little difference to humans. And that body of hers, man, perfect.”
Boss sure is quick with his actions. Lord Black Wind Condor here sure is looking forward to it.
“Now I wonder if you’d fit in a pot, eh?” Ye Futian lowered his head and glared at the bird, causing it to squirm, feeling rather vexed. Wait, so boss is uninterested in that demon girl at all?
“You’ll get to open that big mouth of yours when we’re at their turf,” Ye Futian continued. The bird’s eyes sparkled, as it was akin to allowing it to provoke those from the Demon Peacock Emperor’s Realm.
…
At the Dali Dynasty far away before the Battle of Empty Realm was about to begin.
The palace of Dali Dynasty was extremely regal. It shot into the skies and looked even more magnificent than Emperor Xia’s Palace.
A middle-aged man in cultivator’s robe was seen at the top of the Sky Gazing Tower of Dali Palace, casting his gaze into the stars.
He waved his hand and the stars began to shift, as if the great path had swifted as well.
The robed middle-aged man was an impressive figure stood above the billions at Dali Dynasty and served only the emperor himself. The man was none other than the imperial advisor of Dali.
The imperial advisor of Dali was the most knowledgeable person throughout the entire Dali Dynasty and everyone in the dynasty knew, that there was no powers that the imperial advisor was unable to master.
The imperial advisor took only a handful of students, yet every single one of them were impressive geniuses in their own right. He was a huge factor to Emperor Li’s Realm’s present day glory.
The imperial advisor frowned with great concern as he observed the changes of the celestial phenomenon. Two beams seemed to have shot from his eyes, enabling him to pierce the stars and see the secrets behind them.
However, his eyes actually bled after observing the stars for quite a while. It was a harrowing scene to behold and yet, he seemed to have felt nothing. He then gave up after being at it for quite a while.
He sighed deep down. The might of Dali Dynasty is in decline. But why!?