Chapter 2292: Chapter 2292 Swordsmanship
Xue Jinling truly had no idea what had transpired. No matter how brutally he was beaten, they couldn’t extract any useful information from him.
In the end, King Zhongyuan grew desperate and ordered a soul search.
However, the Soul Searching Technique they employed was far from refined. Though they confirmed that Xue Jinling genuinely knew nothing, the crude execution of the soul search wiped his mind completely, reducing him to an imbecile.
"Xue Rongwu! I trusted you so much, yet this is how you repay me!"
Upon realizing that Xue Jinling had been deceived by Xue Rongwu, King Zhongyuan’s hatred for the man deepened. He blamed Xue Rongwu for everything—including Xue Jinling’s ruined state.
He was determined to capture Xue Rongwu and demand answers. Why had he betrayed him?
Yet, what baffled both King Zhongyuan and his advisors was why they found no trace of Xue Jinling issuing a false decree or leading an attack on the spiritual spring.
In the end, they could only suspect that Xue Rongwu had erased that part of his memory.
Now, King Zhongyuan was overwhelmed. Xue Jinling had been reduced to a fool, Xue Rongwu was nowhere to be found. Yet, he had no reasonable explanation to offer the other two Royal Management.
Even he found the situation absurd. If he himself couldn’t believe it, how could the other two Royal Management?
Left with no choice, he ordered his army to prepare for war while deploying a vast number of martial practitioners to hunt down Xue Rongwu, hoping to find a breakthrough in him.
Yet, Xue Rongwu and the elite martial practitioners he had taken with him seemed to have vanished without a trace.
Meanwhile, the Grandcrest and Euphoria Dynasties united, intensifying their pressure on the Elysium Dynasty. They demanded that King Zhongyuan surrender the spiritual spring and provide compensation. Otherwise, they would settle the matter by battling.
Ye Liuyun swiftly activated the Conveyor Disc, transmitting Emerald Essence Liquid to Mo Tianheng and his allies in Grandcrest’s capital. This ensured that their strength surged rapidly.
The remaining Emerald Essence Liquid was allocated entirely to the Blade Legion, pushing every martial practitioner below the ninth-layer late stage to breakthrough.
His intent was clear—preparing for the inevitable battle against the Elysium Dynasty. Even he and his closest confidants refrained from advancing their own cultivation.
As a result, the Blade Legion became even more formidable, with all 3,000 warriors reaching at least the ninth-layer late stage.
Having assessed the Elysium Dynasty’s strength, Ye Liuyun saw no reason to linger in Regalty.
Relying on the knowledge extracted from Xue Rongwu’s Ocean of Consciousness, he led a select group of women in targeting the Elysium Dynasty’s mineral veins.
His forces engaged the guards stationed at the mineral veins, while Xue Rongwu led martial practitioners to intercept reinforcements. Meanwhile, the Dark Legion and the Beastman handled the excavation.
The stolen Spirit Crystals were amassed into towering piles. Upon these crystalline mounds, the spiritual spring was placed, allowing it to continuously produce more Emerald Essence Liquid.
The Elysium Dynasty relentlessly dispatched waves of martial practitioner experts to entrap Xue Rongwu wherever he surfaced. Yet, each time, Ye Liuyun effortlessly evaded them using Phantom Illusion or his Concealcape.
Meanwhile, the Elysium Dynasty’s operatives sent to track Xue Rongwu in Grandcrest Dynasty were swiftly exposed.
Upon entering the Grandcrest Dynasty, their cultivation levels were immediately sensed by Mo Tianheng’s power of heaven and earth. Mo Shaowen then used illusions to force them into unleashing their Divine Soul power. This sparked suspicion among Grandcrest Dynasty forces.
This further deepened their hostility toward the Elysium Dynasty, convinced that they were orchestrating covert schemes against them.
However, the Elysium Dynasty failed to provide a satisfactory response regarding the spiritual spring, provoking both opposing factions to mobilize their armies and apply pressure on Greenfield City.
King Zhongyuan had no choice but to engage in battle.
All three dynasties swiftly amassed their forces, reinforcing the border cities of Greenfield, Jade Grove, and Sky Fortune Town.
At first, the Elysium Dynasty suffered significant losses. However, once their ten-thousand-strong Praetorian Guard arrived, the battlefield dynamics began to shift. Composed entirely of Ninth-Stage martial experts, these elite forces quickly turned the tide in Elysium Dynasty’s favor.
Despite gaining the upper hand, the Elysium Dynasty refrained from launching a counteroffensive towards the two Royal Management. Rather, they focused solely on defense.
The other two Royal Management had not anticipated Elysium Dynasty’s formidable strength. In response, they swiftly mobilized martial practitioners from within their territories to reinforce their defenses.
Meanwhile, Mo Tianheng and his forces withdrew from Grandcrest Dynasty, launching sabotage missions across Elysium Dynasty’s territory. They relentlessly destroyed Conveyor Formations, forcing the Elysium Dynasty to dispatch a large number of Formation for repairs.
Many of these Formation masters were ambushed and slain during the restoration efforts.
Ye Liuyun coordinated with them, seizing Elysium Dynasty’s mineral vein resources near cities where Conveyor Formations had been destroyed.
In response, the Elysium Dynasty was forced to station elite martial practitioners at key mineral veins to prevent further looting.
From the fifty-thousand-strong praetorian secretly cultivated by the Elysium Dynasty, ten thousand had already been deployed to defend Greenfield City. The remaining forty thousand were distributed across rich regions of the mineral vein to fortify their defenses.
Additionally, several thousand experts were dispatched to various mineral veins, tasked with hunting down Xue Rongwu.
Seeing no promising opportunities to strike, Ye Liuyun chose to remain quiet. He and his female companions had been battling continuously, honing their skills through relentless combat. Finally, it was time for a period of rest.
Meanwhile, the Euphoria Dynasty’s trade guild expanded its dealings with Ye Liuyun, engaging in larger-scale transactions.
The weapons and Elixirs he provided were being sold in massive quantities to Euphoria Dynasty’s military, bolstering their overall combat strength.
Ye Liuyun instructed Ton Xin and Qiong Qi to continue upgrading the equipment of various legions. Any surplus resources were sent to Xuanyuan Ling, prioritizing the armament of Yu Xiaofeng’s forces. Once his army was fully equipped, the remaining supplies would be distributed among other martial practitioners.
News of Euphoria Dynasty’s superior weaponry and Elixirs quickly spread. Seizing the opportunity, Elysium Dynasty attempted to sow discord between the Grandcrest Dynasty.
The Grandcrest Dynasty had initially wavered, but Euphoria Dynasty swiftly countered Elysium Dynasty’s ploy. They revealed that Elysium Dynasty had secretly nurtured a powerful force of martial practitioners using treasures granted by the Celestial Envoy. If Grandcrest and Euphoria Dynasties did not unite to seize these treasures, Elysium Dynasty would eventually eradicate them both.
Understanding the principle of shared survival, Grandcrest Dynasty saw reason. They immediately requested access to weapons and elixirs, and Euphoria agreed to supply them.
Meanwhile, Ye Liuyun promptly had Xuanyuan Ling gather another batch of Elixirs and weapons for trade.
As a result, Elysium Dynasty’s attempt to drive a wedge between its enemies backfired. The Grandcrest and Euphoria Dynasties only forged an even tighter alliance.
At last, King Zhongyuan realized that the chaos engulfing his dynasty was likely orchestrated by Ye Liuyun from the shadows.
He immediately voiced his suspicions to the other two dynasties, only to be dismissed outright.
Both parties were benefiting from their trade partnership without suffering any attacks or disturbances. Naturally, they found Elysium Dynasty’s claims unconvincing.
Moreover, Ye Liuyun and his people had already left the region, showing no signs of returning. Their involvement seemed limited to mere commercial exchanges. It seemed hardly the work of a sinister mastermind.
Even the merchants collaborating with Ye Liuyun lacked the power to seize the spiritual spring.
Thus, everyone assumed that the Elysium Dynasty was merely using this as an excuse to shirk responsibility.
Even the martial practitioners of the Elysium Dynasty began to believe that their own kingdom was the one instigating conflict, leading to waning support for the war.
