Chapter 505: An Injured Qin Wutian
The reactions of the seven was within Jian Chen’s calculations. After all, this was a good chance to curry favor with the Qinhuang Kingdom. Only an idiot would give up this once in a lifetime event.
“From now on, you seven are men of the Qinhuang Kingdom. I will leave this affair to you seven. If the Sect of Dragon and Tiger come to make trouble, they will be making an enemy of the Qinhuang Kingdom. The Qinhuang Kingdom will not sit idly on the sidelines for this.” Jian Chen spoke.
“Yes!” The seven obeyed.
“You seven may leave now. I’ve already split this kingdom into seven equal territories for you all. When you get back, prepare to clean up whatever needs to be done. As for what needs to be done, I don’t think that it’s necessary for me to tell you what to do.” Jian Chen smiled.
“We know what must be done, please rest assured Imperial Protector. We will not let you down for sure.” The seven vowed.
After they had left, Jian Chen looked back to Qin Wuming, “General Qin Wuming, would doing this give the Qinhuang Kingdom any future troubles?”
Qin Wuming let out a small chuckle as he listened to Jian Chen. “Imperial Protector, you underestimate our Qinhuang Kingdom. Although the Sect of Dragon and Tiger is quite strong, the Saint Ruler in their sect is the only one of importance. The rest of their individuals aren’t even within the eyes of the Qinhuang Kingdom, and with the vastness of our lands, we have many subsidiary kingdoms which means we have many Heaven Saint Masters within our ranks. As for the Saint Ruler himself, he won’t be too much of a problem unless he truly wishes to go against our four Imperial Protectors with his strength. Otherwise, the Saint Ruler won’t decide to go against the Qinhuang Kingdom for such a small matter.”
Qin Wuming’s words let Jian Chen feel at ease. He had at first been worried that the Qinhuang Kingdom would be inconvenienced by this matter, but looking at it now, it appeared that he had put too much thought into it…
After a satisfactory conclusion was met, Jian Chen felt quite at ease with himself. Standing up from the throne, he spoke, “Everyone, let us split up, but not return back home just yet. Stay for two days or so, so the remaining powers of the Heavenly Eagle Kingdom will cower in fear while the seven do their best to stabilize their territories.”
After everyone left, the dissolvement of the Heavenly Eagle Kingdom made its way out of the imperial palace and left everyone that heard the news in shock. Soon, the news made its way to every single corner of the entire kingdom. In an instant, magical beasts capable of sending messages could be seen flying through the air in droves to reach any place the information might not have reached. Combined with this method of sending messages, within a day, practically everyone within the kingdom knew about the changes.
After the information was spread, all of the commoners of the Heavenly Eagle Kingdom had different reactions than those with power. The commoners of the kingdom were all shocked for a good while, but they stabilized after some time and continued on with their lives as if everything was normal. As long as the commoners could continue to survive on the Tian Yuan Continent, it didn’t matter if the Heavenly Eagle Kingdom existed or if the reign passed to someone else. This matter didn’t concern them, so they left it at that. Naturally, there were several patriotic groups loyal to the Heavenly Eagle Kingdom that felt indignant at this. They voiced that the kingdom existed if the citizens existed, rather that the kingdom died with its king. They were discontent with how the Qinhuang Kingdom had done things, but because these thoughts only belonged to the minority, they stirred no large wave.
As for the various powers, they all made the same actions without exception. Each and every single one of them recalled all of their members and prepared themselves for expansion and war to fight and conquer territory. They knew that with the Heavenly Eagle Kingdom separated, this was a chance that was rare to come by. If they did not capitalize on this chance and prepare the horses and banners of war, once the other powers stabilized, there would be no chances left. This action was even taken up by the city rulers of several major cities. Some of the stronger cities had even established themselves as king of the mountain with attempts to annex the surrounding weaker cities nearby in hopes of establishing a new kingdom.
All in all, after news of the collapse of the Heavenly Eagle Kingdom was spread, the equilibrium that was maintained in the kingdom was shattered. The entire kingdom was tense with anxiety, and although it had been relatively quiet for now, those with a keen mind and a sharp eye knew that this was only the calm before the storm.
Afterward, it didn’t take long for news of several factions erupting into war. However, another piece of information made its way around the kingdom, serving as a wake up call to every single inhabitant within these lands. It also extinguished the ravenous flames of desire in their hearts.
The Bucashana Clan, the Hilo Clan, Bloodmoon Mercenaries, Worldly Sect, Windfall Mountain, Earthfyre School, and the Double Mystery Sect all declared complete control and authority over the remaining parts of the Heavenly Eagle Kingdom. At the same time, they declared their adherence and loyalty to the Qinhuang Kingdom.
With the surviving seven Heaven Saint Masters of the Heavenly Eagle Kingdom all in their own respective factions, it was no exaggeration to say that these seven powers were fully deserving of being the seven strongest existences within the kingdom.
With the seven greatest powers stepping into this power struggle, the other families and clans didn’t stand a chance. None of them had a Heaven Saint Master or the rapport of a kingdom as strong as the Qinhuang Kingdom. This meant the seven powers of the Heavenly Eagle Kingdom possessed no chances of being defeated and would leave any opposing family without a single pocket of resistance.
This bit of information allowed the originally nervous Heavenly Eagle Kingdom to return to the previous calm from before. Everyone knew that while the kingdom itself had been dissolved, the Qinhuang Kingdom had simply served to replace them as the ruling party, only stronger in terms of control. What could be ascertained was the fact that should the Heavenly Eagle Kingdom ever give rise to another Heaven Saint Master, that one would never be able to challenge the seven powers due to the Qinhuang Kingdom backing them up. As long as the Qinhuang Kingdom gave shelter, the seven powers would never lose their position.
The seven territories of the Heavenly Eagle Kingdom were already territories that could not be disputed over. When the seven Heaven Saint Masters returned to their respective families, clans, and sects, they had immediately sprung into action and moved to claim their rightful territories.
And with the backing of the Qinhuang Kingdom, the acquisition of the territories had gone by smoothly. All of the lesser clans and sects had immediately pledged allegiance to these seven powers, and some of them had even became a subsidiary power to them. This had allowed for the seven powers to completely control the entire Heavenly Eagle Kingdom in three short days.
Among the seven, the group that profited the most was the Bloodmoon Mercenaries. They were able to use their one Heaven Saint Master to keep up the front while all of their Earth Saint Masters were among the next strongest within the kingdom. Thus, they were quickly introduced as one of the strongest powers of the Heavenly Eagle Kingdom, but because they were at the bottom of the group, they were only able to claim a second class city as their stronghold with a small potential for growth before the war.
But now, Jian Chen’s order had practically given the Bloodmoon Mercenaries the power to grow to become the owners of one of the seven partitions. The amount of area they controlled had grown ten times over, giving no small excitement to the leader of the mercenaries.
It had been four days since the fragmentation of the Heavenly Eagle Kingdom. In the original palace of the Heavenly Eagle Kingdom, over a thousand artisans from the Heavenly Eagle Kingdom had already dismantled the treasury to a pile of scrap almost. There was no longer a third story, and the materials used to build that third story had been reduced to material that was later absorbed into the Space Rings of the Eastern Deity Swords.
Jian Chen gave all authority over to the seven powers to deal with any problems that may arise after the Heavenly Eagle Kingdom had been disbanded. This allowed him to a hands-free approach. All he did after that was quarter some soldiers around the area to act as a deterrence. The next few days were spent in leisure. All that was needed was for him to wait for the situation to stabilize before he and the army could return to the Gesun Kingdom.
At this moment, Jian Chen and princess You Yue were playing chess in the flower gardens in peace. Ever since You Yue had helped Jian Chen with the problem of what to do with the Heavenly Eagle Kingdom, the relationship between the two had grown far more intimate. Or at least, it was unlike the indifference from before.
Just then, Xiao Tian came walking in a hurry to Jian Chen with a serious expression and spoke, “Imperial Protector, something bad has happened. After being sent out to the Sunset Kingdom to capture the second prince, Qin Wutian has come back. He’s injured.”
Startled, Jian Chen ignored his game of chess to look at Xiao Tian, “Just what happened out there!”
“Qin Wutian came across an attack and suffered serious injuries. The hundred elite soldiers accompanying him faced serious damage as well.” Xiao Tian spoke grimly. His face was dark, this was an attack to the power that was the Qinhuang Kingdom.
Thinking for a moment, Jian Chen suddenly stood up before asking, “Where is Qin Wutian!”
“In the official hall!”
Bidding goodbye to the princess, Jian Chen hurriedly left the garden to rush to the official hall.
Just as Jian Chen arrived at the hall, all of the strongest people from the Qinhuang Kingdom had already congregated there. Each one of them had a dark expression filled with anger. On one of the chairs, a white-faced Qin Wutian sat weakly on it. His entire body was drenched with blood, and his silver armor had several cracks running through it. On his chest was a clear to see palm print.