Chapter 396: A Great Storm
Translator: DavidT Editor: DavidT, Rock
The 200,000 Eastern Zhao army guarding their borders had advanced by two hundred miles and invaded the Northern Wei territory on the pretext of a training exercise. At the same time, the Eastern Zhao imperial family also sent a thousand elites to Northern Wei with the excuse of mourning over the Northern Wei's demise and expressing their regret over the happenings in the Yu Family.
The Western Han made its move as well and General XiMen ChongTian, who was anxious for merits, led 200,000 soldiers towards Northern Wei!
The Wu Empire and Southern Zheng also stopped the war between their empires and adjusted their forces with the intentions of proceeding up north!
The south-east Xiao Family suddenly tightened its security and began to gather their army as well. According to some informants, the elites of the Xiao Family numbered at least 300,000!
The Heavenly Star Continent was like a bow pulled taut with the arrow being launched at any moment!
In Sky Bearing, as the two Yu Elders noticed that the Ling Family seemed to have the intention of backing off, their actions grew even more unbridled. They began to act as though they were planning to set up base in Sky Bearing and were the ruler of the empire!
Before seeking the opinion of the Ling Family, the Yu Family mobilized a huge amount of wealth and bought the old residence of the Yang Family and the surrounding hundred mansions. Only after the purchase had gone through did they explain to Old Madam Ling that while both their families were in-laws, the Yu Family couldn't possibly stay in the Ling Residence for free as it would be unbecoming of their Yu Family. Furthermore, they intended to wait for Ling Tian and Yu BingYan's wedding and would definitely need a place to stay in the meanwhile.
Old Madam Ling cursed them in her hearts, So you finally remember that you are a thousand-year-old family and remember the right rules and conduct? It is obvious that you only want to build up a base of operations in Sky Bearing. However, Old Madam Ling had already received Ling Chen's hints and thus did not mind the actions of the Yu Family and agreed to it happily without questioning the matter further. In fact, she even provided some assistance towards the Yu Family from time to time. Despite the strength of the Yu Family, they would still face some difficulties in purchasing the properties, and the deals only went through smoothly with the aid of the Ling Family.
With the Ling Family giving way intentionally, the Yu Family had easily built up its prestige in Sky Bearing in just a few days. If they had sufficient time to hire guards and purchase resources, they would definitely be able to exceed the prestige of the Yang Family in a short time! Not to mention other things, just the headquarters of the Yu Family in Sky Bearing City was already a few times larger than the previous Yang Residence!
With the reputation of the Yu Family, the few small families in the city had begun to approach the Yu Family with the intention of fawning over the Yu Family. Through the aid of these families, the Yu Family gradually began to control some of the local gangs in Sky Bearing and gradually spread their influence. As for the underground force of Sky Bearing, the originally prospering Violent Wind Gang began to pull back their forces under the pressure of the Yu Family. No matter how the Yu Family provoked them, there actually wasn't a single drop of blood spilled between these two powers! According to the estimates of the two Yu Elders and the information they had received, even if the Yu Family wanted to exterminate or subdue the Violent Wind Gang, they would definitely suffer a huge loss! However, the intentional retreat of the Violent Wind Gang further fueled the arrogance of the Yu Family.
In the Sky Bearing City, a huge change of power seemed to be happening behind the scenes, and the daily atmosphere was extremely stifling. It was as though a single spark would cause a huge explosion!
Was the prestige of this thousand-year-old family really that huge?!
As though there was an invisible hand controlling them, the original powers of the city seemed to be making a retreat! Even the famous Smoky Thea Tower also became much more low profile than before.
As though they were receiving the approval of all the other powers, Yu ZhanShui and Yu ZhanKong's ambitions had inflated up to the extreme. They did not even report the many peculiarities to the family and had ordered the troops they brought to the Yu Family to come into contact with all the various powers in the city. Regardless of the market or sector, the Yu Family would definitely place their hands on it. As such, the Yu Family expanded extremely swiftly and the 1000 experts they had brought over gradually became insufficient. While these experts were able to take ten people on at the same time in a fight, their capabilities in ordinary affairs were not that much different from an ordinary individual. Thus, the elites of the Yu Family that could easily hold off a ten thousand strong army were truly inferior to ordinary management staff!
With great confidence, Yu ZhanShui sent a message to their Yu Family headquarters and requested additional manpower so that they could create a second Yu Family in Sky Bearing. In this delicate situation, the Yu Family, or more accurately, the whole Northern Wei was thrown into chaos!
Just when Yu ManLou was searching for the murderer of his son and feeling extremely frustrated, he received Yu ZhanShui's report. After reading through the contents of the report, Yu ManLou felt his vision blacking out and had almost passed out from anger!
Before you guys left, I reminded all of you again and again that your mission is only to deal with the Ling Family. If things turn out bad, you can also choose to wipe out the Ling Family. If not, why would I allow you two to bring over 70% of our Yu Family's troops?! However, Yu ZhanShui's actions were no different from attempting to swallow Sky Bearing! Regardless of the strength that their Yu Family had, they couldn't swallow up Sky Bearing so openly! Despite Yu ManLou reminding them over and over again that they had to act under the radar and in secret, both the Yu Elders had actually tried to openly swallow Sky Bearing! Furthermore, both the Yu Elders had actually sent the Yu Family's experts to perform those menial tasks. Not to mention the fact that it was a waste of talent, the Yu Family's experts were completely unsuited for such tasks.
While taking over Sky Bearing now would definitely bring them a huge source of income, it would inevitably thin out the experts of the Yu Family. Furthermore, all of these things could be slowly acquired when they took over Sky Bearing in future, and there would be experts who specialized in this field to be placed in charge of this matter. The situation would definitely not be as it is now, having the untrained run the show!
In this instant, Yu ManLou had the urge to strangle Yu ZhanShui to death!
If it was only the affair in Sky Bearing, the Yu Family would be able to forcefully suppress the matter with their prestige. However, the Northern Wei imperial family was actually wiped out by the most frightening assassin organization at this moment! This was no different from meeting a thunderstorm with a leaking roof, or facing a huge gust with a broken sail!
With the coincidence in the timing, some imaginative individuals would definitely think that they were trying to take over Sky Bearing and that the Northern Wei imperial family must have been wiped out by them as well. It would definitely seem like the Yu Family intended to unite the entire continent and the various powers would certainly grow wary!
If only a single one of the two events occurred, while it would shock the continent, the prestige of the Yu Family would definitely be sufficient to suppress the matter and it would be no more than a tremor to the Yu Family. But for both the events to happen back to back, the Yu Family was immediately thrown into the spotlight! The attention of the whole world was definitely on the Yu Family! The various powers were thinking, Even if you are a thousand-year-old family, I will definitely not wait for my death if you want to wipe me out!
Everyone had originally thought that even if the Yu Family wanted to fight for hegemony, they would definitely lay in wait until the final moment before taking action. However, none of them expected that the Yu Family would be the very first party to spring into action!
Originally, Ling Tian had become the focus of the world because of the Martial Order Medallion and the Ling Family was a piece of fat meat in the eyes of all the various powers. However, the sudden appearance of the Yu Family had made the various powers feel as though there was a blade hanging above their heads! If the Yu Family were to succeed, all of them would definitely be facing their demise! At such a moment, how could anyone of them be interested in the piece of fat meat?
In just a short few days, the Yu Family had replaced the Ling Family and became the focus of the entire world!
Right at this moment, an even more terrifying news was spread across the continent that had truly placed the Yu Family on the opposing side of all the powers in the continent!
The XiMen Family of Western Han had suffered from an ambush from Ling Tian, and countless of experts were killed with the family head seriously injured. The hundred-years-old great family was completely destroyed! The one in charge of the XiMen Family was now the foster son of XiMen WuYi, the young XiMen Sa!
After XiMen Sa took over the XiMen Family, the first decision that he made was to swear that he would take revenge for his family and would never let Ling Tian go! In order to take his revenge, XiMen Sa sent a letter to Yu ManLou, expressing his willingness to submit to the Yu Family. As long as the Yu Family was willing to aid the XiMen Family to take their revenge, the XiMen Family would submit to the Yu Family for all the generations to come!
While this should have been a top-secret affair between the families, there was a leak from an unknown source that caught the whole world off-guard! When the imperial family of Western Han questioned XiMen Sa, the new family head first stuttered and refused to admit it. After that, he actually flew into a rage, kicked the emperor's ambassador out of the XiMen residence and said, "Why is there a need to kick up a fuss about alliances between aristocratic families? Why can't the XiMen Family form an alliance with the Yu Family? If anyone dares to have an opinion, they will be going against both the XiMen and Yu Families!" At the very end, the young family head had actually made an extremely arrogant remark, "If there is anyone who is dissatisfied, he can step out for this daddy!"