Chapter 2288: When Blades Meet

Xue Jinling truly had no idea what had happened, so even though he was beaten to the brink of death, they still couldn't get an answer from him.

In the end the Zhong Yuan King was also helpless and could only order a Soul Search on Xue Jinling.

However, their Soul Searching Technique was not advanced enough; although they confirmed that Xue Jinling genuinely didn't know the truth, they turned him into an idiot and erased all his memories.

"Xue Rongwu! I trusted you so much, and you treat me like this!"

After the Zhong Yuan King learned that Xue Jinling had been deceived by Xue Rongwu, his hatred for Xue Rongwu deepened, and the blame for turning Xue Jinling into an idiot was pinned on Xue Rongwu.

He wanted to capture Xue Rongwu and ask why he betrayed him.

But neither the Zhong Yuan King nor anyone else could understand why the memory of Xue Jinling's fake orders and the assault on Lingquan was missing.

In the end they could only suspect that Xue Rongwu had erased that memory.

The Zhong Yuan King is now at a loss; Xue Jinling is an idiot, Xue Rongwu is nowhere to be found, and he cannot explain to the two dynasties.

Even he finds this inexplicable; hearing it himself seems unbelievable, let alone the other two dynasties.

So he can only simultaneously order the main army to prepare for war and dispatch many Martial Cultivators to search for Xue Rongwu's fate, hoping to find a breakthrough in him.

However, Xue Rongwu and the Martial Cultivator elites he took with him seemed to have vanished without a trace.

Yet the Sheng Yun Dynasty and the Xing Jin Dynasty have joined forces, continuously pressuring the Zhong Yuan Dynasty to hand over Lingquan and pay compensation, or else blades will meet.

Ye Liuyun immediately used a Teleportation Array Disc to send Cui Yuan Liquid to Mo Tianheng and others in the Sheng Yun Royal City, boosting their strength.

The remaining Cui Yuan Liquid, Ye Liuyun gave entirely to the Spearhead Brigade, elevating every Martial Cultivator there who had not yet reached the Ninth Layer Late Stage.

This was done to prepare for future battles against the Zhong Yuan Dynasty.

So neither he nor those around him have been further enhanced for the time being.

As a result, the Spearhead Brigade's combat power rose again; all over three thousand members now have at least the Ninth Layer Late Stage.

After Ye Liuyun grasped the Zhong Yuan Dynasty's strength, there was no need to stay in the Royal City any longer.

Following the information in Xue Rongwu's Sea of Consciousness, he took several women with him and began to target the Zhong Yuan Dynasty's Mineral Veins.

They handled the battles against the Mineral Vein garrisons, Xue Rongwu led Martial Cultivators to repel reinforcements, while the Death Legion or the Half-Beast Legion were in charge of mining.

The Divine Crystals seized were piled by Ye Liuyun into a small hill, upon which he placed Lingquan, allowing it to keep producing Cui Yuan Liquid.

The Zhong Yuan Dynasty each time dispatched many Martial Cultivator elites to encircle the places where Xue Rongwu appeared.

But each time they were evaded by Ye Liuyun using the Thousand Illusion Technique or an Invisibility Cloak.

At the same time, the Martial Cultivators sent by the Zhong Yuan Dynasty to hunt Xue Rongwu were all exposed in the Sheng Yun Royal City.

After arriving at the Sheng Yun Royal City, they were sensed by Mo Tianheng's Heaven and Earth Power, then Mo Shaowen used illusion arts to force them to unleash their Divine Soul Power, prompting the Sheng Yun Dynasty to hunt them down.

As a result, the Sheng Yun Dynasty felt the Zhong Yuan Dynasty was making small moves against them, widening the gap between the two sides.

As for the Lingquan issue, the Zhong Yuan Dynasty never gave either side a satisfactory answer, prompting them to finally dispatch troops to pressure Cui Yuan City.

The Zhong Yuan King had no words to explain his distress and could only meet the challenge.

In an instant, all three sides mobilized massive forces, reinforcing Cui Yuan, Cui Mountain, and Feiyun City at the border.

At first the Zhong Yuan Dynasty suffered many setbacks, but after their nineteen thousand Ninefold Strong Imperial Guard arrived, the battlefield shifted in their favor.

Nevertheless, the Zhong Yuan Dynasty did not launch attacks on the other two dynasties; they were merely defending.

The other two dynasties had not expected the Zhong Yuan Dynasty to be so powerful and immediately began gathering Martial Cultivators from within to rush over and assist in the defense.

Mo Tianheng and his group also withdrew from the Sheng Yun Royal City, and across the Zhong Yuan Dynasty they repeatedly sabotaged its Teleportation Arrays, forcing the Zhong Yuan Dynasty to send many Formation Masters to repair them.

Many of those Formation Masters were killed by them while repairing the formations.

Ye Liuyun also began cooperating with them, seizing the Zhong Yuan Dynasty's Mineral Vein resources near cities where the Teleportation Arrays had been destroyed.

For this, the Zhong Yuan Dynasty had to station Martial Cultivator elites at the Mineral Veins.

The Zhong Yuan Dynasty secretly cultivated fifty thousand Imperial Guard; besides the ten thousand already stationed at Cui Yuan City, the remaining forty thousand were deployed to several densely mined regions.

The Zhong Yuan Dynasty also sent several thousand elites to hunt for Xue Rongwu near various Mineral Veins.

Seeing no good chance to break out, Ye Liuyun fell silent at once.

He had recently been constantly fighting with those women by his side, undergoing ample training, and needed a rest for a while.

At this time, the Xing Jin Dynasty's Merchant Guild began even larger trades with Ye Liuyun.

The weapons and pills Ye Liuyun supplied were sold in bulk by the Merchant Guild to the Xing Jin Dynasty's army, used to boost its combat power.

Ye Liuyun let Tong Xin and Qiong Qi continue upgrading equipment for each corps; any surplus he sent back to Xuan Yuan Ling, who first equipped Yu Xiaofeng's army, and after that army was fully equipped, opened the resources to other Martial Cultivators.

The news that the Xing Jin Dynasty equipped advanced weapons and pills spread quickly, and the Zhong Yuan Dynasty seized the chance to sow discord with the Sheng Yun Dynasty.

The Sheng Yun Dynasty was initially hesitant, but the Xing Jin Dynasty told them that the Zhong Yuan Dynasty, through a planetary envoy's treasure, had secretly cultivated many Martial Cultivators; if they did not jointly seize the treasure, they would eventually be wiped out by the Zhong Yuan Dynasty.

The Sheng Yun Dynasty understood the principle that when the lips are gone, the teeth feel the cold.

So they also requested to trade some weapons and pills, and the Xing Jin Dynasty agreed.

Ye Liuyun immediately had Xuan Yuan Ling gather another batch of pills and weapons, which were traded to the Merchant Guild.

As a result, the Zhong Yuan King's attempt at sowing discord failed, and instead the Sheng Yun and Xing Jin Dynasties grew closer in cooperation.

The Zhong Yuan King suddenly realized that the current chaos might be orchestrated behind the scenes by Ye Liuyun.

He immediately presented his view to the other two dynasties, but they ignored him.

Both sides benefited from the trade without suffering attacks or impacts, so they naturally did not believe the Zhong Yuan Dynasty's words.

Moreover, Ye Liuyun and his group have already left, and there are no signs of their return.

It's only the transfer of commercial resources; how could that be the mastermind?

Even the Merchant Guild cooperating with Ye Liuyun lacks the power to seize Lingquan.

So they all concluded it was an excuse for the Zhong Yuan Dynasty to shirk responsibility.

Even the Zhong Yuan Dynasty's Martial Cultivators think the Zhong Yuan Dynasty itself is stirring up the dispute, so they are not very supportive of the war.