Chapter 722: The Group’s Strategist
Cang Xu led the discussion between the three, changing the direction of it, “Now let us look back at the Ice Sculpture Kingdom rebellion 40 years ago.
“First, this rebellion started at a subtle opportune moment, when the current king took over.”
“On the face of it, it was indeed a power struggle between members of the royal family.”
“However, the current king has saint level strength, while his competition was only gold level, yet they never shrank back. For what reason did a gold level think they were confident in taking on a saint level?”
“I personally believe that this rebellion should have received imperial assistance, that the Imperial Secret Spy Agency played a major role in it.”
“Snow Fall City Lord was a member of the royal family, and regardless of whether he had terrible luck of being coerced into it, he was still a member of the rebellion. In short, he ultimately surrendered to the rebel army.”
“After the king put down the revolt, he changed its name to Blood Kin City. Despite approving his mother’s plea for leniency and sparing Snow Fall City Lord’s life, in reality, he died soon after. The outside world claims that after he learned of the city’s new name, he could endure his guilt and committed suicide. But is that really true?”
“It is possible that the king’s mother’s plea for leniency was just abnormal political grandstanding. Wasn’t the king sure to settle accounts, so he sent an assassin?”
“It can also be seen that the current king didn’t let off any royal family members who joined the rebellion.”
“The winner writes the history books.”
Zi Di’s eyes shined, and she said straightforwardly, “Makes sense. The Blood Vengeance Axe was once Snow Fall City Lord’s weapon. Afterwards, it fell into the hands of a snow elf expert. And he relied on this axe to grab territory and establish the Axe Gang! If the Axe Gang Leader was a power aided by the royal family, then the logic to this is very strong.”
Zi Di continued, “During the rebellion, there might have been secret clashes between saint levels. Legend level involvement is low, after all, the responsibility is too large. Ice Sculpture’s strength was greatly injured, and it allowed the current Ice Sculpture King to thoroughly recognize reality.”
The dragonman youngster said, “It seems this way, although the king assumed the throne, he sensed an imperial conspiracy, but the enemy was strong while he was weak, so he had no choice but to restrain his emotions. Because of the rebellion, he no longer trusted other members of the royal family and began to actively plant veterans all over the country disguised as criminal syndicates to reinforce his control over the nation.”
Cang Xu added, “The rebellion 40 years ago was a fierce contest between the Sheng Ming Empire and the Ice Sculpture Kingdom.”
“The result shown to the outside was disastrous losses, with seven or eight of the ten members of the royal family dead.”
“It goes without saying, I fear these secret confrontations are more treacherous and ruthless, all sacrifices are silent and nameless.”
“Although the king won this contest in the end, relying on his native advantage to defeat these outsiders, the empire wasn’t fully beaten.”
“At least the Imperial Secret Spy Agency hasn’t been completely eliminated just yet, [Usurper] is still active and developed many subordinates afterwards. We know one of them is Snow Bird Harbor City Lord.”
“The royal family was weakened, so the armor prohibition and troop restrictions were issued at that time.”
“The armor prohibition restricts Ice Sculpture Kingdom’s armament reserves, and the army restrictions prevent kingdom troop stockpiles. This is a harmful national policy.”
“I consulted the data and saw there were many proposals at the time. The Thirteenth Prince was very active, and nobles large and small to protect their benefits also must have relied on the Sheng Ming Empire secretly and proposed these national policies, displaying their power during this process.”
The dragonman youngster sighed, “The armor prohibition is publicly to protect public security and safeguard the Ice Sculpture Kingdom’s rule. The army restrictions could also be interpreted as the benevolent king, unable to bear war, desired the entire country’s recovery, while simultaneously needing to placate the panic-stricken and restless noble powers as a newly throned king, so this policy was put into place. The historical truth is more often than not the opposite of what the official explanation and popular understanding is.”
Zi Di suddenly said, “Although the Thirteenth Prince is a hostage, he has great prestige. When the throne was vacant, many Ice Sculpture citizens loved and respected him enough to endorse his ascension to the throne.”
“This was not a small number of people, at the time, there was a voice throughout the kingdom that hoped the Thirteenth Prince succeeded the throne.”
“Unfortunately, the Thirteenth Prince is Heavenly Emperor Sheng Ming’s son, and based on his bloodline and legal principle, he is unqualified to succeed the throne.”
“Thinking about it now, this should be a contest the Ice Sculpture Kingdom defeated the Sheng Ming Empire in.”
“Although there wasn’t a flash of knives and swords, the level of danger in it causes the body to tremble.”
With Cang Xu’s guidance, the dragonman youngster and Zi Di saw new details in old information. Their understanding was elevated to new heights.
Zi Di suddenly asked, “The Dueling Godhead accumulation, is that a grand chess piece the Ice Sculpture Kingdom is using to withstand the Sheng Ming Empire?”
Cang Xu muttered, “I am more inclined to believe that this is the Ice Sculpture Royal Family strengthening themselves. After all, the popularization of duels and the gathering of this Godhead has been going on for a long time.”
“This is the world of the strong.”
“Every organization’s scale, each regime’s prosperity and decline, is founded on individual transcendents.”
“The problem lies with bloodlines and if a transcendent individual can continue to advance in rank.”
“Regardless of how, self-improvement is never wrong, but the issue that arises is normally potential is finite, bloodlines reach their limits, and the road of self-improvement is severed.”
Cang Xu lamented, “The vastness of the Dueling God project is astonishing. When I learned of the Millenium Dragon Formation, I was utterly amazed, and upon learning of the Dueling Godhead, I have a whole new level of respect for the Ice Sculpture Royal Family. Successive generations of kings were really extraordinary, it’s no wonder they were able to govern the Ice Sculpture Kingdom into becoming a top ranking power in the Main Plane.”
“Based on the country’s territory surface area, resource quality, and other metrics, the Ice Sculpture Kingdom is a mere island nation, its lands cannot compare to the Sheng Ming Empire or many other large kingdoms. The Ice Sculpture Kingdom only has one super-resource point, the Ten Millenia Ice Lake.”
“But its king and citizens are really outstanding, it is they who made the Ice Sculpture Kingdom glorious, they who built this nation into being rich and powerful.”
The dragonman youngster sank into silence. His prior suspicions were correct. The Ice Sculpture Kingdom actively promoted duels for a reason, this was no short term project, but one that lasted for at least a thousand years!
Through Cang Xu’s guidance and analysis, the dragonman youngster and Zi Di had a better understanding of the situation.
The two knew not to be fooled by how numerous and disorderly it looked from the outside, it was essentially the Ice Sculpture Kingdom, and the Sheng Ming Empire confronting and contesting with each other.
They also realized that despite the lack of evidence, Cang Xu was convinced that the Ice Sculpture Royal Family knew about the Dueling Godhead. Furthermore, within the ranks of the duelists, there was a lot of Ice Sculpture Kingdom forces.
This was wisdom!
Even without direct evidence, one could deduce from other facts and excavate the truth from history’s dense fog, seeing through all kinds of disputes and chaos to find the underlying structure of the current political situation.
The dragonman youngster pondered, “Since the Ice Sculpture Royal Family is leading the Godhead project, then did the Sheng Ming Empire detect it? Who is [Usurper]? If we can track him down, we can learn the answer.”
Cang Xu analyzed, “From the current information, imperial detection is unlikely.”
“Lan Zao’s situation proves that the Imperial Secret Spy Agency’s missions into Tranquil Hill have failed repeatedly and have only made some progress for the first time ever. But Lan Zao and the others are trapped in the Dueling Divine Domain, and I fear it is very difficult to bring back information.”
“From the duelists’ activities we can see the Imperial Secret Spy Agency don’t know who they are. Otherwise, these people are all obstructions to their capture of the Dueling Godhead, how could they not act against them? Or at minimum, weakening the duelists will impair the royal family’s power.”
“Judging by the duelists’ backgrounds, the Ice Sculpture Royal Family still possesses the native advantage, leading the Imperial Secret Spy Agency by a wide margin.”
“However, we cannot underestimate the empire.”
“Firstly, we know there is a saint level shield guardian, as well as a gold level clergyman of mysterious faith that secretly boarded Tan Mo’s warship, their current whereabouts is unknown, they probably got into the island already.”
“Secondly, there have been rumors the Thirteenth Prince is returning with Qi Ci Lang accompanying him. Furthermore, it is rumored heavily that the latter wants to participate in this year’s National Ceremony Grand Duel.
“These should be measures the Sheng Ming Empire has taken to intervene. We also need to calculate in the Imperial Secret Spy Agency, I have a feeling that [Usurper], their leader, has quite the remarkable identity.”
“When Snow Bird Harbor’s magician tower was blown up, and pirates were liable to strike at any moment, Snow Bird Harbor City Lord didn’t actually contact [Usurper] whilst under this immense pressure, that instead proves indirectly that [Usurper] plays a critical central role. If we can truly ascertain this person’s identity, we will have a very clear understanding of the Imperial Secret Spy Agency’s power here.”
“The Ice Sculpture Kingdom, the Sheng Ming Empire…” The dragonman youngster forced a smile, feeling the enormous pressure.
He was a mere gold level, and the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps compared to these two juggernauts was like a small boat in a storm. If they were somewhat inattentive, they would be rushed to dregs and torn asunder.
The dragonman youngster couldn’t help but ask, “Was it a bit selfish of me to expose my saint level qualifications and fully throw myself into contesting the Dueling Godhead before I elucidated the intelligence about our enemies?”
“The current situation is this: in the worst case, don’t speak of losing the contest, you might also implicate your comrades too.”
“Our original plan was redemption. We wanted to exchange the divine artifacts and other gains with the imperial higherups for our lives and freedom.”
“We wanted to seek survival, but now we want to brave deadly risks to seize a Godhead, isn’t that putting the cart before the horse?”
Previously, the dragonman youngster was too unaware of the situation, and now that he had gotten Cang Xu’s advice, he finally had a comprehensive and clear understanding at long last.
The enemies were great powers, and the dragonman youngster felt he was tiny in comparison, causing him to sink into rare hesitation.
Cang Xu weighed up his words and observed his expressions, immediately realizing what the dragonman youngster’s mentality was.
He smiled, after exposing the truth of the current political situation, he began to encourage the dragonman youngster, “Lord Commander, you are proactive, fighting at all costs for the Dueling Godhead was absolutely the right decision.”
“Don’t lose heart, because there is a chance we might succeed.”
“Even if we fail and die, what does that matter?”
“I am delighted to follow you, and I believe Miss Zi Di also has enough courage to take this risk with you together.”