Chapter 469: Alright, the Time Is Ripe

Within the Ten Thousand Demon Country, a massive army was already rushing toward Xuejiang Prefecture from all directions.

In addition to several princes and ministers, the troops of other generals were also participating in the encirclement and suppression campaign.

For the Demon Emperor, She Qiqi had to die!

Otherwise, he would never be able to rest easy… It was truly a sigh-inducing situation that a biological father and daughter had ended up like this.

But then again, in an imperial family, where could one find genuine affection?

The Demon Emperor’s claim of capturing She Qiqi alive was merely rhetoric—a way to save face for the Yao Race imperial family.

Such rhetoric allowed the Demon Emperor to appear ‘reluctant,’ ‘magnanimous,’ and ‘forced by circumstances’… In reality, even if She Qiqi’s forces truly collapsed and she was captured alive by some prince or general, no one would dare to actually bring her back to the Demon Capital alive.

Otherwise, you would never know what kind of variables She Qiqi might introduce.

Only She Qiqi’s death could prevent further complications.

While dealing with She Qiqi, some people didn’t mind taking the opportunity to wipe out Chu Yaoyao, that remnant of the previous dynasty, as well.

And so, the current situation took shape.

Seven armies—led by the Crown Prince, the Second Prince, the Third Prince, the Fourth Prince, the Minister of War, and the Generals of the North and South—were jointly besieging Xuejiang Prefecture.

Meanwhile, three armies—led by the Fifth Prince, the General of the West, and the Grand Pillar of State—went to eliminate Chu Yaoyao, determined to wipe out this remnant of the previous dynasty in the shortest time possible.

Otherwise, if Chu Yaoyao and She Qiqi joined forces, their positions would become mutually supportive, like lips and teeth.

If that happened, it would take much more effort to defeat them.

Whether looking at it from the perspective of military strength or the overall trend of the world…

She Qiqi’s act of rebellion was absolutely extremely unwise.

Even though She Qiqi was an Ascension Realm Cultivator, it wasn’t as if the Ten Thousand Demon Country lacked those in the Ascension Realm.

Furthermore, the military strength of the Ten Thousand Demon Country was several times that of She Qiqi’s.

This time, She Qiqi was bound to lose.

But even so, the Demon Emperor still felt a slight bit of regret.

He regretted not enfeoffing She Qiqi in a place closer to himself.

If he had, even if She Qiqi wanted to rebel…

She would have been surrounded by enemies on all sides, and he could have definitely extinguished those flames of rebellion in the shortest time possible.

But now, the Demon Emperor had no chance for regret.

Then again, if he really had enfeoffed She Qiqi in a place close to the Demon Capital…

The Demon Emperor probably wouldn’t have been able to sleep soundly either.

Because if She Qiqi were close to the court, her influence over it wouldn’t have decreased much at all.

In short, She Qiqi’s rebellion was inevitable; it was only a matter of time.

Truth be told, the current situation might actually be the best outcome.

At least the Demon Emperor didn’t have to be so on edge every day, constantly guarding against She Qiqi.

What the Demon Emperor actually feared most wasn’t going to war with She Qiqi, but rather the battle of wits against her.

In the imperial court, no one had a deeper mind for schemes than She Qiqi.

Even the Demon Emperor felt that he couldn’t compare to his own daughter.

His own imperial schemes, when faced with his daughter, were perhaps like child’s play.

Sometimes the Demon Emperor felt incredibly embarrassed.

It was only because She Qiqi was born a woman.

If She Qiqi had been born a man…

Then… the Demon Emperor was certain.

On the day her mother died, She Qiqi would have already led her troops to break away from the Heavenly Frost White Snake Clan to fight him for the world and compete for the Central Plains… If things had really reached that stage back then, the Demon Emperor felt that the one who lost would definitely have been him, and absolutely not She Qiqi.

To put it another way, if She Qiqi really had been a man…

The Demon Emperor wouldn’t have made the choice to sacrifice her mother back then, because he wouldn’t have dared.

But… She Qiqi was a woman.

So… even if She Qiqi had very high prestige at the time, she couldn’t have led her troops to break away from the Heavenly Frost White Snake Clan.

She Qiqi needed to constantly scheme and build momentum for herself to gain the recognition of the people of the world.

Even so, it was extremely difficult.

But in the end, She Qiqi actually did it.

When, at some unknown point, the saying ‘If the Seventh Princess were a man, the Demon Race World would be peerlessly prosperous’ began to circulate among the common people…

She Qiqi’s goal had already been achieved.

Having such an extraordinary talent in the Heavenly Frost White Snake Clan was the clan’s honor, but in another sense, it was absolutely the Demon Emperor’s misfortune.

“Can only say she truly is your daughter, isn’t she?”

Standing atop the Tower of Heaven in the Demon Capital, the Demon Emperor sighed as he watched the grand army of three hundred thousand Dragon Blood Iron Cavalry depart from the city.

“I never expected that one day I would face your child with blades drawn… Truthfully, I didn’t want this.

If only Qiqi could have been an idle princess, married someone decent in the future, and lived out her life peacefully, how good would that have been?

Forget it, things have come to this, so let me see just what our daughter is capable of.”

The Demon Emperor retracted his gaze from the distance.

On the fifth day after the seven demon armies set out for Xuejiang Prefecture…

The army led by the Crown Prince was intercepted by a band of bandits.

Actually, rather than calling them a band of bandits…

It was more accurate to say they were a regular demon army disguised as bandits, having undergone formal and strict training, with formidable combat strength.

This regular demon army was definitely elite!

Without even thinking, it was obvious these demon soldiers were She Qiqi’s people.

They were sent by She Qiqi to obstruct him.

After a fierce battle, these demon soldiers disguised as bandits were repelled by the Crown Prince’s army.

However, this so-called ‘repelling’ wasn’t quite as strict as it sounded.

Because the other side never intended to fight to the death.

They fought just enough to exhaust some of the Crown Prince’s army’s stamina, and without getting caught up in a bloodlust, they quickly retreated as soon as they felt it was enough.

The Crown Prince felt something was strange and worried there might be a trap, so he didn’t send troops to pursue them, fearing he would fall into an ambush.

After all, She Qiqi was far too cunning; he had to be on guard.

Another day passed, and before the Crown Prince had marched very far, he was attacked by another group of demon soldiers.

This time, these demon soldiers took a harassing stance, leaving after fighting for a bit, having no intention of clashing to the death with the Crown Prince.

After this second engagement, the Crown Prince still didn’t pursue.

But not long after they resumed their march, more demon soldiers came to harass the Crown Prince’s army.

This time, the Crown Prince’s temper flared, and he tried to give chase.

Sure enough, the enemy had an ambush. Of the over one thousand men the Crown Prince sent to pursue, only about four hundred returned… For a moment, the Crown Prince’s blood pressure spiked.

The main thing the Crown Prince couldn’t understand was…

Why was his marching route being completely monitored by She Qiqi?

And weren’t these places all within the Domain of the Ten Thousand Demon Country?

How on earth did She Qiqi manage to hide such a large army here without being discovered?

If he were told that all the governors of these prefectures were She Qiqi’s people, the Crown Prince would absolutely not believe it.

If that were truly the case, She Qiqi could have just given the order and marched straight into the Demon Capital.

Why would she need to raise troops in Xuejiang Prefecture and engage in all these elaborate maneuvers?

Looking at that army dressed as ‘bandits,’ ‘escort bureaus,’ ‘Sects,’ and various other commoners’ disguises…

The Crown Prince knew that She Qiqi had planned this long ago, deceiving even the governors of every county in this prefecture.

But such a layout rooted in the local counties would have taken at least three or four years.

And She Qiqi even had to be certain he would pass through here… “Can someone really be so calculating as to never miss a single detail?”

The Crown Prince couldn’t help but sigh toward the heavens.

While feeling terrified at the prospect of being enemies with his seventh sister, the Crown Prince also felt that this full-scale encirclement of her was absolutely necessary.

Otherwise, even if he ascended the throne in the future, as long as his seventh sister existed, he would have to live every day in fear.

The Crown Prince continued his march and encountered more sudden attacks.

In total, the Crown Prince had marched for less than fifteen days and had encountered a total of twenty sudden attacks.

Among them, the Crown Prince still tried to defy logic and attempted to pursue a few times, only to fall into the enemy’s ambushes every time.

Mixing the false with the real, these troops were extremely familiar with the local terrain.

They were local snakes who had lived here for several years.

The Crown Prince, an outsider ‘crossing river dragon,’ had no way to contend with them.

A total of twenty days of marching passed.

Finally, as the Crown Prince approached Xuejiang Prefecture, his army was already exhausted.

The Crown Prince knew this was the effect She Qiqi wanted, so he issued a military order for the entire army to halt and rest.

The Crown Prince also considered that She Qiqi might launch an attack while they were resting.

Consequently, the Crown Prince set up various Formations in the surroundings and had Golden Core and even Nascent Soul Realm Cultivators release their Divine Sense for protection and vigilance.

However, this was of no use at all.

Late that night, the sound of iron hooves shook the earth.

The Crown Prince never expected that She Qiqi would immediately send her one hundred and fifty thousand Lushu Blood Cavalry to attack him!

The combat strength of these one hundred and fifty thousand Lushu Blood Cavalry was extremely close to that of the Dragon Blood Iron Cavalry.

To put it this way, those three hundred thousand Dragon Blood Iron Cavalry guards had originally been managed and trained by She Qiqi’s mother, Consort Su, from the very beginning.

And while Consort Su was training that cavalry, She Qiqi, as the one closest to her mother, naturally followed her around and watched.

It could be said that for the brilliant She Qiqi, her mother’s methods for training Iron Cavalry were completely at her fingertips.

She Qiqi had simply slightly modified those training methods and applied them to her own subordinates.

Under Lush Orchid’s leadership, the Lushu Blood Cavalry shattered one Magic Formation after another.

They formed Formations among themselves, blocking various attacks from the Golden Core and Nascent Soul Realm Cultivators.

Although individually, each cavalryman couldn’t compare to a Dragon Gate Realm Cultivator…

As long as they formed a Formation and were bolstered by blood Qi…

Then even an Immortal Realm Cultivator charging into these one hundred and fifty thousand Lushu Blood Cavalry would be unable to resist for even an hour.

Otherwise, while the Dragon Blood Iron Cavalry would pay an extremely heavy price, that Immortal Realm Cultivator would be exhausted to death.

Under the immense pressure of Lush Orchid’s charge, the Crown Prince could only keep retreating.

In the end, the army led by the Crown Prince was smashed to pieces.

Two days later, when the Crown Prince regrouped his army, only eighty thousand remained.

With no other choice, the Crown Prince could only station his troops in a nearby city.

However, this meant the Crown Prince was now a certain distance away from She Qiqi’s Xuejiang Prefecture and was also in a relatively passive position.

But this was already the safest course of action.

Besides the Crown Prince, the other six armies marching toward Xuejiang Prefecture were all hindered to some extent by the demon troops She Qiqi had planted in various prefectures.

The intelligence they had received said that Giant Country, the Snow Country, and various demon tribes were converging on Xuejiang Prefecture.

But they hadn’t expected to encounter them directly as they approached Xuejiang Prefecture, leading to the outbreak of battle.

The combat strength of these demon tribes was extremely formidable, especially that of Giant Country.

Back then, it wasn’t just talk that Giant Country had given the Ten Thousand Demon Country a massive headache.

Even though Lush Orchid had conquered Giant Country back then, killing its king and other members of the imperial family, leaving only the Eldest Princess…

Lush Orchid’s achievement was built on the foundation of Giant Country’s simple-mindedness, having been broken by Lush Orchid using She Qiqi’s silk-pouch strategies.

And now, Giant Country didn’t even need to think; they just had to follow She Qiqi’s orders and they were set.

Under She Qiqi’s command, Giant Country was like a mighty iron hammer, crushing bones one by one.

Among them, there were no lack of strategists who wanted to plan to sow discord between Giant Country and She Qiqi.

But to everyone’s surprise, that Eldest Princess of Giant Country actually directly called She Qiqi ‘Master’ in front of the envoy sent to sow discord.

In the end, that envoy who wanted to sow discord was beheaded and sent back… Now, the remaining Eldest Princess of Giant Country, along with the entire Giant Country, has completely come under She Qiqi’s banner and has become a part of her… Meanwhile, still in that courtyard, She Qiqi watched the intelligence continuously arriving from the battlefield, and Lin Xun was also looking on from the side.

Lin Xun was fully aware of all of She Qiqi’s plans.

There were even some things Lin Xun hadn’t wanted to know, but She Qiqi insisted on letting him know.

It was as if She Qiqi would feel very uncomfortable if she kept them bottled up inside.

And watching She Qiqi’s plans being implemented one by one…

Lin Xun could only say that so far, everything was proceeding according to the direction of She Qiqi’s plans.

“Alright, the time is ripe now.”

She Qiqi stood up and looked at Lin Xun with a smile.

“Now, how about Husband accompanies me to Xuanfeng City to play the hero saving the beauty?”