Chapter 2770: Negotiation Delay

Yu Xiaofeng, Qin Peng, and Yuan Hao are the three leaders whom Ye Liuyun trusts most; he fully approves of their command abilities. Pei Yong is suitable for training troops, but he is still somewhat lacking in combat.

Yuan Hao's command style is most like Ye Liuyun's—bold and daring, striking unexpectedly. Qin Peng complements Ye Liuyun best and coordinates well with him. Yu Xiaofeng is the steadiest, suited to overseeing the overall situation.

While Ye Liuyun was still reorganizing the army and appointing leaders, Emperor Liu Qiang sent people to negotiate.

After Liu Qiang received the news of the army's total annihilation, he realized his situation was hopeless and could only negotiate with Ye Liuyun.

At the same time, he had prepared to flee. If Ye Liuyun did not leave him a way out, he would have no choice but to escape.

Besides, he still had twenty thousand gold-armored guards and one hundred thousand silver-armored guards under his command; taking over a weaker star system to rule as king would pose no problem. Moreover, these troops are not many in number, and he could sustain them for a while using the resources in his storage ring.

If Liu Qiang had not sent someone to negotiate with Ye Liuyun, Ye Liuyun would not yet have thought of attacking him. Now, upon calculation, Liu Qiang also has few troops left—only the meager resources remaining in his storage ring.

Thinking this over, Ye Liuyun had Liang Xue use the Thousand Illusion Technique to transform into his likeness to negotiate with Liu Qiang's emissaries, while he himself remained invisible, accompanied by the Thief Cat, and returned to the capital once more to look for an opportunity to strike. He still wanted to seize the resources in Liu Qiang's storage ring.

In the negotiations, Liang Xue did not make excessive demands; she only asked for some resources, five thousand gold-armored guards, and fifty thousand silver-armored guards, and then agreed to leave the Star Disk Empire. These terms made Liu Qiang hesitate as he considered whether to accept Ye Liuyun's offer.

After all, Ye Liuyun's strength now completely overwhelms his. Whether he hands over those people or not makes little difference to the outcome. Moreover, if Ye Liuyun simply left now, Liu Qiang would no longer need to flee, and the forces he still has could defend the empire.

Liu Qiang immediately summoned the royal family members to discuss; they all felt the request was not excessive and could be agreed to.

But while they were discussing, the Thief Cat struck again, taking advantage of their noisy deliberations to steal clean out all the resources in Liu Qiang's storage ring.

Liu Qiang didn't notice at the time. After the discussion, he still ordered the captains of the gold-armored and silver-armored guards to select personnel. Only when he returned to his cultivation room to retrieve resources for training did he discover that his storage ring was empty.

Moreover, the Thief Cat had stolen from not only him but also several important royal figures. As Liu Qiang stared in disbelief, reports came in that those individuals' storage rings had also been emptied of resources.

Ye Liuyun was not idle either; taking advantage of the moment when the gold-armored and silver-armored guards assembled, he used Time Power to implant slave seals on both guard captains.

All members of these two special guard units had signed collective loyalty contracts, so controlling one person would not invalidate the contract, and for a while no one else would notice.

Using the slave seals to control them, Ye Liuyun altered Liu Qiang's order so that all of the gold-armored and silver-armored guards would be handed over to him, rather than just a portion.

Ye Liuyun immediately commanded the silver-armored guard captain to open the capital's gates, ordering these two units to exit the city and surrender at once.

The soldiers in these two units did not know what was happening; they only knew to obey orders. Once the gates were thrown open, they all marched out of the city at once.

Ye Liuyun also followed them out of the city while remaining invisible; upon emerging, he immediately began to incorporate this army, having them sign collective loyalty contracts.

Meanwhile, his clone, accompanied by two dominant eight-reversal foreign tribesmen, stood guard above the imperial palace, delaying Liu Qiang.

After Liu Qiang's side finished issuing orders to the gold-armored and silver-armored guards, he was flustered by the loss of resources in his storage ring. Moreover, the sudden appearance of Ye Liuyun with those dominant eight-reversal foreign tribe experts made all the martial cultivators inside the palace tense.

"Ye Liuyun, are you stealing our resources again?" Liu Qiang, bereft of resources, also prepared to fight Ye Liuyun to the death. All the royal family members inside the palace had also made ready for battle.

"Don't rush. I took the resources, but I can return them to you!"

Ye Liuyun's clone had no intention of fighting; instead, he held the Thief Cat, and under the protection of those two foreign tribesmen, he calmly began chatting with Liu Qiang.

"Oh? Return them? What are your conditions?" Liu Qiang, seeing there was something to discuss, immediately asked for the terms. He also wanted to stall for time, awaiting the arrival of the gold-armored and silver-armored guards to help.

The transmission talisman in his storage ring had been lost, so he could no longer contact those two guard units.

"I am about to leave this place. Fighting in the starry void requires martial cultivator strongers as troop support. You see for yourself how many martial cultivator strongers you can still provide. As for those resources, I already have plenty; I don't lack your little bit, and returning them to you is not impossible!" His clone then tried to drag out the conversation, letting Liu Qiang propose the conditions.

In fact, he could never actually return the resources to Liu Qiang; Liu Qiang's storage ring contained vast amounts of primordial power, plus enough supplies to sustain an army of three hundred thousand cultivators for years of training. Once these fell into Ye Liuyun's hands, he was reluctant to give them back.

At that moment, Ye Liuyun's main body had already smoothly taken over the gold-armored guard unit outside the city, placing them into the Space World. Only when receiving the silver-armored guard unit did he encounter some difficulties.

He had only controlled the silver-armored guard captain. Meanwhile, the vice captain, who commanded the fifty thousand silver-armored guards, had actually been in contact with Liu Qiang all along. But Liu Qiang's transmission talismans were all lost, so he could not receive his messages.

Unable to reach Liu Qiang, he grew doubtful and refused to bring his fifty thousand silver-armored troops to surrender. Consequently, Ye Liuyun only took fifty thousand of the silver-armored guards.

If Ye Liuyun tried to control him now, it would surely arouse suspicion from others, so he had to give up.

He therefore said, "All right, since you don't believe me, go ask Liu Qiang yourself! But I won't wait here for you. After you consult him, go report to my base on your own."

Saying this, Ye Liuyun turned and left.

That vice leader also dared not stop Ye Liuyun; Ye Liuyun now had not only fifty thousand silver-armored guards but also twenty thousand gold-armored guards, which he could not defeat. Moreover, seeing Ye Liuyun so composed, he could not be certain that this order was definitely false.

He merely had the unit stand by, while he himself led a group back to the imperial palace to personally seek instructions from Liu Qiang.

After Ye Liuyun had walked a distance, seeing that he had indeed gone back to ask, he immediately returned, unleashing Ye Tiandao's Sharp Blade Squad to begin encircling the remaining silver-armored guards. He and the Vermilion Bird also tried to seize control of as many silver-armored guards as possible; even if they caught few in the end, it would not leave any for Liu Qiang.

(End of chapter)