Chapter 551: Entering the World to Back the Dragon, Miaoxin Requests an Edict to Destroy the Court

News of the Daoist Lineages entering the mortal world to support a new emperor quickly spread far and wide.

Naturally, the most displeased and vehemently opposed was the Jade Dragon Dynasty.

The moment the three Daoist Lineages made their announcement, it directly implied that the Jade Dragon Dynasty’s legitimacy was gone.

Furthermore, the realm had officially entered the process of dynastic change. However, while the Jade Dragon Dynasty was no longer at its peak, it was by no means in its final years.

Yet, faced with the immense power of the three great Daoist Lineages, the Jade Dragon Dynasty dared not act rashly. Instead, they took the opportunity, before the Daoist Lineages could establish themselves among the various upstart factions, to frantically purge these groups.

Besides this news, the next major event was the Xiliang Kingdom welcoming the Buddhist Family to serve as its patrons.

Others wanted all three, but Xiliang had bucked the trend, accepting only one.

But people soon discovered the advantages. With a single Daoist Lineage, there was no need to worry about personal grudges, which was more conducive to unity.

After all, the conflict between the Daoist Lineages had not ended; it had merely been interrupted.

And it had been halted at the height of its intensity. It would be unrealistic to claim there were no lingering resentments or hatred.

To then expect them all to join one big happy family—anyone would grumble about that.

Besides, considering the kind of person the Sovereign of the Xiliang Kingdom was, his decision must have been carefully considered. Thus, many people also began to evaluate which Daoist Lineage would be suitable for their own faction.

Of course, many held a different opinion, believing that having one lineage hold exclusive power was not a good thing.

They thought it was better for the three parties to have enmity, as they would balance each other out, removing the fear of being turned into a powerless figurehead.

Everyone had their own ideas.

But no matter what they said, it all depended on one prerequisite: that members of the Confucian, Buddhist, and Daoist families were actually willing to pledge allegiance to them.

Not every faction was as powerful as the Xiliang Kingdom, which had earned the favor of the Confucian, Buddhist, and Daoist Lineages and was even visited personally by an Arhat.

In reality, most rebel armies couldn’t attract anyone from the Confucian, Buddhist, or Daoist Lineages; they mostly had to go begging for their support.

‘This feels a bit like a low-budget version of *Investiture of the Gods*…’ Qi Suian thought, observing the state of the world with a strange sense of déjà vu.

After occupying the northwest and southwest, the Xiliang Kingdom was quickly intercepted by the Imperial Army, which had dispatched a force of 300,000 this time.

There was a lot of fluff in that number, but the headcount was certainly there, which was how they managed to halt the Xiliang Kingdom’s westward advance.

It wouldn’t last long, though. After all, the upper echelons of the Xiliang Kingdom were filled with scoundrels.

If you lined them all up and shot them, not a single one would be innocent.

For their own power and future, they threw away the lives of their subordinates without a second thought, simply piling up the bodies.

One could call it the very definition of warmongering.

But they didn’t just use coercion; otherwise, their troops would have mutinied long ago.

From food to military pay, everything was top-tier.

In this year of great drought, when just surviving was difficult, being a soldier meant eating and drinking well, and even getting paid.

The cost was obvious, but people couldn’t resist when there were no other options for survival.

When you compared the two, it was a sword to the neck whether you stuck your head out or pulled it back. Might as well join the army.

Moreover, after every battle, survivors of a loss were consoled with drink and food, while a victory was celebrated with a grand feast.

In every respect, it was better than just waiting to die.

After all, countless people were dying every day.

As long as the drought persisted, the Xiliang Kingdom would never lack for recruits.

Especially since they took men and women, old and young—not just able-bodied young men.

This practice was, of course, akin to draining the pond to catch the fish, causing the local population to plummet.

‘Everyone’s going to die in the end, so I might as well take a gamble.’

But the high-ranking leaders were different; they saw the bigger picture.

As long as they could conquer cities and seize new territory within the timeframe set by Qi Suian, it meant they could secure even more recruits.

Lose ten thousand soldiers but gain a city of several hundred thousand people, then just replicate their original methods, and just like that, they’d have a fresh supply of troops.

They could even kill the wealthy families in the city to seize their money and grain. Through this reckless method of fueling war with war, the Xiliang Kingdom was able to snowball its power successfully.

As for any problems that might arise later, those were problems for later.

Conquering the world came first.

It was precisely because the Court saw this insane method of warfare that they grew afraid and finally mobilized an army of 300,000.

This already accounted for half of the Court’s total forces.

The Court’s standing army only numbered 500,000 in total.

This showed just how determined they were to destroy the Xiliang Kingdom.

The reason they didn’t send everyone was not only because they needed to defend the Capital and protect other regions, but also because they had to suppress other rebel armies.

If they did move the entire army, wouldn’t they be leaving themselves open to a direct invasion?

Squeezing out 300,000 was their absolute limit, and it was for this reason that they managed to block the Xiliang Kingdom’s westward route.

However, based on Qi Suian’s observations, 300,000 men wouldn’t hold for long.

The reason Qi Suian was concerned was that the momentum of his grand undertaking had slowed.

‘This must be the bottleneck.’

‘If the Xiliang Kingdom can break this encirclement by the 300,000-strong army, then the world will be their oyster.’

‘The Court will be crippled, and at that point, my breakthrough to the Fifth Realm will be certain!’

As for why Qi Suian didn’t go to the front lines to supervise such an important matter himself? The answer was simple: he trusted the ambition and ability of his subordinates.

Besides, the 300,000 soldiers weren’t gathered in one place but were spread out along a battlefront.

Their goal was to encircle and annihilate.

The death of the King of Xiliang would certainly cause problems for the Xiliang Kingdom, but the Court had studied him. The King of Xiliang mostly ran the kingdom through balance, political maneuvering, and other such methods.

Even if he died, it would merely transform one big enemy into countless smaller ones.

Who knew what capable people might be hiding among them?

They had a 300,000-strong army; all they needed to do was advance steadily. There was no need to be impatient.

The last time they were impatient, it led to the annihilation of 30,000 troops—a permanent sore spot for the Court.

‘But the Court probably never imagined they could lose.’

‘The Xiliang Kingdom’s forces are certainly numerous, but they include men and women, old and young, and they lack professional training. Their equipment is also far inferior.’

‘So, having more people might just mean suffering more casualties.’

In ancient warfare among ordinary people, being armored versus unarmored represented two completely different levels of combat effectiveness.

And cavalry versus infantry was another gap entirely.

Then there were the Archers, who were even harder to train, and so on. The Court’s army had well-established troop types and armaments.

The Xiliang Kingdom could only rely on numbers and strategy to compensate.

Even so, the daily casualty figures were horrifying.

Even if Xiliang were to unify the world, it would take several generations to recover from these losses.

If it weren’t for Qi Suian, the dynasty might have perished within a single generation, never even making it to a second.

Especially when every one of them was a wolf with wild ambitions.

“My lord, Master Miaoxin has arrived,” a servant said from outside the door.

Qi Suian took control of his survivor avatar again and said, “Have him wait in the main hall. I will be there shortly.”

Miaoxin’s arrival was presumably because the Xiliang army had been blocked by the 300,000-strong Imperial Army and could not advance westward.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t have rushed over in such a hurry.

He immediately rushed to the main hall, where Miaoxin had been waiting for some time. Upon seeing Qi Suian, Miaoxin rose and bowed. “Greetings, Your Majesty.”

Theoretically, Miaoxin was now his subordinate, so he no longer used the honorific “Sovereign,” but had switched to a different form of address.

“Master Miaoxin, please rise.” Qi Suian helped him up and then asked, “You seem to have come in a great hurry, Master. Has something happened?”

“Indeed. This poor monk has come to request an edict from Your Majesty,” Miaoxin said bluntly.

Hearing this, Qi Suian asked, “Please speak, Master.”

“This poor monk went to invite fellow practitioners to lend their aid. Along the way, I heard that the Court’s 300,000-strong army was blocking the Xiliang forces, so I did not have time to ask my fellows to come to the Capital to pay their respects to Your Majesty.”

“Instead, I had them go directly to various fronts to provide support.”

“However, this action was ultimately a case of acting first and reporting later, and thus lacks proper legitimacy.”

“Therefore, I have come to request an edict to legitimize my words and actions,” Miaoxin stated plainly.

In other words, he wanted procedural justification.

‘As expected of one who has attained the Arhat’s Righteous Fruit,’ Qi Suian thought, ‘truly meticulous.’

“Master Miaoxin, you are most thorough.” Qi Suian wore an expression of great satisfaction before saying, “But an edict would be an offense to the masters.”

As he spoke, Qi Suian had someone bring a Tiger Talisman.

“This talisman grants command over the armies of Xiliang. Whether it can one day command the armies of the world will depend on Master Miaoxin’s aid.” Qi Suian had always followed the principle: trust those you employ, and don’t employ those you distrust.

‘They’ll all have to be killed eventually anyway, so it doesn’t matter.’

Hearing Qi Suian’s words, Miaoxin fell silent.

He hadn’t expected Qi Suian to be so audacious as to directly hand over military authority, one of the greatest forms of power.

“Such great courage, Your Majesty,” Miaoxin said. “I have only just arrived, yet you are willing to entrust me with such a heavy responsibility. I am moved to tears of gratitude.”

“Master Miaoxin, you must have seen the ‘talents’ I have under my command. It matters not if they all have different intentions, as long as their abilities can be put to use.”

“As for me, I only care about results,” Qi Suian said with a faint smile.

“Your Majesty knows how to recognize and use talent. That is how you have built your current foundation,” Miaoxin offered a compliment.

Only then did Qi Suian ask, “But I do have a question. With Master Miaoxin’s power as one who has attained the Arhat’s Righteous Fruit, wouldn’t those 300,000 soldiers be nothing more than clay chickens and pottery dogs to you?”

“Why go to such great lengths?”

But Miaoxin just smiled. “Your Majesty may not know this, but Divine Techniques cannot be used in a War of Ascension.”

“Thus, we are subject to many restrictions.”

“If we were to violate this law, we would be attacked by all sides.”

Qi Suian heard this and immediately understood why.

The so-called rule of not using Divine Techniques meant they couldn’t engage in large-scale slaughter.

Otherwise, let alone the destructive power of someone with the Arhat’s Righteous Fruit, even those who had attained the High Monk’s Righteous Fruit below them were terrifyingly powerful.

But other aspects weren’t restricted, such as movement, scouting, and the like. Otherwise, what would be the point of you coming to support the new emperor? Your power is valued precisely for its convenience in such matters.

If you couldn’t use your powers at all, you’d be no different from an ordinary person.

Take Miaoxin, for example. Even without using Divine Techniques, his physical body alone was immensely powerful. So as long as he didn’t go on a killing spree, basically no one would care.

And if you were to unleash your full power on your own territory to save the king, no one would say a thing.