Immortality: Starting with a grave, I'm invincible when burying corpses.

Ninety-five years of the Five Kingdoms calendar.

While the entire Great Spirit Empire was caught up in the fervor of the Age of Exploration, the war in the Apocalypse Domain also reached its climax.

The armies of Dongqi and Xiqi clashed repeatedly, engaging in dozens of battles within Qingzhou, resulting in countless deaths and rivers of blood.

At the height of the fighting, hundreds of thousands of corpses were left on the front lines every month.

The war, which lasted for several years, saw both sides win and lose, but overall, the powerful Eastern Qi held an absolute advantage.

Whether it's the number of top-tier combatants, the military system, or the weapons and equipment the army is equipped with, Dongqi is stronger than Xiqi.

This was not because the generals of Xiqi were incompetent, but because the gap in resources between the two countries was too great, making it difficult to reverse the situation through simple schemes.

Long before the Great Qi was destroyed, the Eastern Qi already had its own foundation, dominating the eastern region of the Tianqi Domain.

One hundred years ago, Emperor Jun Mingle of Dongqi was able to successfully ascend to the realm of terrestrial immortals, which was the work of Jun Cheng'an and Meng Yan.

In the final years of the Great Age, these two rulers of the Great Age were keenly aware of the inevitable demise of the Great Age.

In order to preserve their strength as much as possible, the two made arrangements in advance, selecting promising members of the Jun family.

Jun Mingle was their most valued individual. They secretly nurtured Jun Mingle, providing him with abundant resources, ultimately enabling him to successfully ascend to the realm of terrestrial immortals, turn the tables, take control of Jiaozhou, and establish the later Dongqi.

As the political situation changed, Jun Cheng'an, Meng Yan, Lin Daofu, and others led their troops to join Dongqi.

With the Emperor Emeritus, the Sage of Literature, and the Imperial Respecters leading the way, the influence of these three great terrestrial deities is self-evident.

Apart from a very small number of die-hard loyalists cultivated by Jun Huayang and Su Xiang, the core forces of Daqi were gradually transferred to Dongqi in the last ten years or so.

From an objective perspective, Dongqi is the true orthodox dynasty of the Great Qi, and its national name is still "Qi," and its tradition of rites and laws has never been interrupted.

With the endorsement of Jun Cheng'an and Meng Yan, Jun Mingle's succession to the throne was legitimate and accepted by the vast majority of people.

It was only because Jun Huayang died in Qi'an City and Daqi lost control of Tianqi Domain that the world entered an era of conflict among five kingdoms, and people began to call the empire led by Jun Mingle "Dongqi".

Just like the Northern and Southern Song dynasties, their lineage was not broken, but they lost nominal control over the country.

It has both disadvantages and advantages.

The contraction of power certainly caused Dongqi heavy losses, as it lost control of a large amount of territory.

However, Dongqi's strength was not weakened too much as a result. On the contrary, because it no longer needed to continuously supply its vast territory to the border and rebellious areas day after day and year after year, Dongqi became much more stable.

A large amount of military spending was saved, and the amount of compensation for disaster relief was reduced by 90%, which revitalized the previously empty national treasury in just a few years.

Having learned from past lessons and facing a common external enemy, Jun Cheng'an, Meng Yan, and Jun Mingle, the three people who actually controlled Dongqi, reached a consensus and jointly promoted reforms in Dongqi.

This time, Meng Yan did not shut out the Datong Dao as he had done before.

He still refused to promote students of the Datong Dao, but gradually incorporated some of the Datong Dao's ideas into the Wenchang Hall.

After arriving in Dongqi, Meng Yan, based on the ideas of Wenchang Hall, absorbed some of the theories of Datong Dao, continued some of the policies of Su Xiang's administration, and combined them with the actual situation in Dongqi to promote reform in Dongqi.

A major upheaval is often accompanied by a reshuffling of power.

Because most of the officials in Dongqi were refugees, they engaged in fierce power struggles with the local powerful clans during the first ten years or so.

Under the covert influence of Jun Cheng'an and Meng Yan, the local powerful clans in the eastern region were used as the sharpest blades to cut down the aristocratic families that had migrated from Qi'an City, completely sweeping away the previously intricate network of relationships and ultimately completing a large-scale reshuffling of power.

After thousands of people died, the resistance to the Eastern Qi Reforms was reduced to a minimum.

The century-long reforms transformed Dongqi.

The people's living standards have steadily improved, and the officialdom is no longer as corrupt as it used to be. Even if there are occasional rebellions, they can be suppressed in the first instance.

Today, Dongqi controls forty major states, all of which are prosperous lands located in the central and eastern parts of the Tianqi Domain.

Its military and civilian systems have also made great strides in the past century.

The Eastern Apocalypse Warship alone is a class of aerial fortresses that the Eastern Apocalypse currently possesses four of.

The four large fleets greatly enhanced Dongqi's war power and gave it the confidence to not fear any country.

In comparison, Xiqi was as naive as a newborn child in front of him.

It took seventy-eight years for the Five Kingdoms to establish their kingdoms, and the Western Qi has been established for less than twenty years. The foundation of the kingdom rests entirely on Jun Xiangyang, who only managed to control Huangzhou and establish the Western Qi by relying on the power of the terrestrial immortal.

Logically speaking, the first thing to do when controlling a power through force is to maintain internal stability and gradually allow the rule to take root in people's hearts.

However, before its foundation was secure, Xiqi embarked on a vigorous expansion.

The newly established Western Qi launched military campaigns in multiple directions. Although it captured a lot of land, it also consumed a lot of resources, causing countless young men to die in foreign lands, and their bodies could not even be brought back to their homeland.

Such actions naturally drew widespread public resentment, with various allied forces daring not to speak out against them.

They were eager to expand outwards when their foundation was not yet stable.

The goal of making the Great Qi Dynasty great again blinded Jun Xiangyang, and the years of revenge-oriented education from the Dark Feather Guards also made him lose his mind and forget how to govern a country.

In a sense, the Great Revival is Jun Xiangyang's obsession after becoming a terrestrial immortal.

If it weren't for the relatively rational Jun Changping supporting him, Jun Xiangyang would probably have been all alone long ago.

In order to divert domestic conflicts, Jun Changping has adjusted his strategic measures in recent years, turning his attention to the desert and subduing many desert countries, which has eased the tense atmosphere at home to some extent.

If we were to pause at this point, take a proper rest, and spend several decades gaining actual control of the territory, then Western Qi might very well become a powerful nation dominating the Northwest.

Unfortunately, their emperors were more warlike than anyone else, and more eager than anyone else to restore the glory of the Great Qi.

Under Jun Xiangyang's skillful manipulation, Xiqi assembled a desert coalition army of up to one million, claiming to possess three million mighty soldiers from the Western Regions, intending to use them to wage a decisive battle against Dongqi.

However, on the actual battlefield, this massive allied force not only failed to play a significant role, but also dragged down the original battle lines of Xiqi.

Because the desert coalition lacked management and training, it crumbled at the first contact with the elite forces of Dongqi, fleeing the battlefield and ultimately triggering an avalanche-like defeat.

In this great defeat, the Western Qi suffered heavy losses, and the frontline army retreated 800 li.

More and more people died on the battlefield, and the cities that had been captured in previous years were lost one after another in this defeat.

The successive defeats made the already unstable rule of Xiqi even more precarious, with domestic turmoil continuing and many powerful forces within Xiqi secretly flirting with the Great Shi Empire.

If a ruler is without virtue, one should choose a wise ruler to serve.

With both external and internal troubles erupting simultaneously, the newly established empire of Xiqi was on the verge of collapse at any moment.