Once the news leaked, it spread like a plague, rampant and uncontrollable. At first, it only circulated within the borders of the Eternal Divine Kingdom, but before long, it had seeped out into every corner of the Ten Great Divine Kingdoms. In this manner, the entire situation on Myriad Abyss Island was plunged into massive upheaval.
It was as if a heavy bomb had detonated, overturning the island's landscape in an instant.
Jiang Chen, meanwhile, had used A Hong's cover to successfully infiltrate the Eternal Divine Capital. The process had gone even more smoothly than he had anticipated.
A Hong cooperated thoroughly, providing a great deal of cover for Jiang Chen and his group.
By now, the entire capital had been consumed by a frenzy. In name, the imperial family had taken control of everything, and under their mobilization, various factions had assembled into an anti–Sacred Land alliance.
This alliance had started with only six first-rate powers, but it kept expanding. By now, many second-rate factions had joined as well.
Of course, this alliance was not born out of genuine solidarity. Many factions had actually been dragged in against their will.
The Zhou Guang Sect, for instance, found itself in a rather awkward position — riding a tiger, as it were.
During the siege of the Eternal Sacred Land, the Zhou Guang Sect and two other great families had become the mainstay of the assault. The casualties had been staggering, almost beyond imagination.
As a result, the Zhou Guang Sect was currently suffering terrible headaches. They had joined the alliance without ever anticipating something like this. Their goal had been to overthrow the Sacred Land's dominance, create a new order, and then profit from the reshuffling.
After all, no one rises before dawn without a reason.
But now, profit was nowhere in sight, and the losses were devastating.
With things as they were, the Zhou Guang Sect was truly in a wretched state — caught between a rock and a hard place. At this point they wanted to withdraw, but given the circumstances, pulling out now would likely drown them in a torrent of condemnation from the other alliance members.
Yet if they stayed, the rate of attrition meant that their eventual losses would far outweigh anything they might gain.
The worst-case scenario was that they would end up with nothing at all, while having squandered more than half their strength, thereby dropping into the second-rate tier and being struck from the ranks of first-rate powers.
As harsh as it sounded, this outcome — however cruel — was, based on the current situation, the most likely to come to pass.
The Zhou Guang Sect's Sect Master had been burning with anxiety lately. He had gone to the Emperor and to Xiahou Patriarch, Marquis Xiaoyao, to lodge his protests.
But the Emperor and the Marquis had simply greeted him with warm smiles and hollow courtesy, praising the Zhou Guang Sect for its hard work and sacrifice, and expressing hope that the sect would consider the bigger picture.
It left the Zhou Guang Sect's Sect Master feeling as though his fists had struck cotton.
Within the Zhou Guang Sect itself, grumbling had grown loud and pervasive. They had clearly had enough of this one-sided sacrifice. Some factions in the alliance, after all, had barely suffered any losses at all, whereas the Zhou Guang Sect had already lost twenty to thirty percent of its elite forces.
This level of damage could already be considered crippling. If things continued on this trajectory, it was entirely foreseeable that the Zhou Guang Sect would be stripped of its first-rate status.
Under these circumstances, figures like A Hong and his three companions were no longer the focus of anyone's attention. Soon, at A Hong's own volunteering, the four of them were assigned to the front lines of the siege against the Sacred Land. The area they were responsible for was one of the Sacred Land's exit passages.
Through this passage, powerhouses from the Sacred Land frequently escaped, slipping out of the Sacred Land to flee.
By reaching this point, A Hong had fulfilled Jiang Chen's request for cooperation.
Jiang Chen smiled faintly. "You did well. I can see your conscience hasn't died completely. Bear with us for a little while. Once this blows over, we'll make sure you come through safe and sound."
A Hong's expression remained flat. "It isn't that my conscience is intact. I simply want to see what kind of miracle you loyal devotees of the Sacred Land can actually pull off."
Since the four of them were now in charge of this passage, the surrounding area naturally fell under their jurisdiction. Even a fly that buzzed out from inside would be their responsibility.
Of course, they were not operating independently. They still took orders from the imperial family's appointed supervisors. In this campaign against the Eternal Sacred Land, the imperial family served as the supreme command — even the Xiahou family nominally answered to them.
The overall commander of the siege was an elder ancestor of the imperial family.
Under this ancestor's command were three area supervisors.
Jiang Chen and the other three reported to one of those supervisors. This particular officer was responsible for the attack and defense of the surrounding region.
He was none other than the Emperor's uncle — a prince of the Eternal Divine Kingdom's imperial bloodline, a man of considerable standing.
Everyone called him Prince Shang.
Each day, Jiang Chen and his companions had to report to Prince Shang and present the results of the day's operations.
It had to be said that the siege campaign was organized with remarkable rigor.
On this particular day, Prince Shang summoned Jiang Chen and the others to his quarters.
"You four have been responsible for this area for two or three days now. Why is there still not a single result to show for it? Are the men of the Zhou Guang Sect always this lackadaisical when it comes to the Crown's business?"