The mastermind behind the scenes starting with the calamity of all races

Zhou Tianqi had just arrived and, unsurprisingly, was the last one there after scanning the room.

Zhou Tianqi cupped his hands in greeting to everyone and said, "Everyone, I'm really sorry, I have some personal matters to attend to at home, so I've kept you all waiting."

Qin Guang strode over and said with a smile, "Haha, it's alright. Getting married is a major event in life. It doesn't matter if it's delayed. Besides, we haven't seen each other for several years, so it's a good time to catch up."

Zhou Tianqi nodded slightly, "Mm."

Everyone had arrived, and no one lingered any longer.

Qin Guang, seated at the head of the table, said, "Now that everyone is here, let's begin this meeting."

Qin Guang got straight to the point: "I've called everyone here today mainly to discuss two things. First, regarding the responsibilities of the Heavenly Palace. I don't care about the affairs of the Twin Saints Palace; whoever wants to cause trouble can do so. But we must discuss the affairs of the Heavenly Palace."

Then Qin Guang looked at Zhou Tianqi and said, "Old Zhou, come up with a plan."

Zhou Tianqi was prepared for this. The two had discussed it privately, and this gathering of everyone was just a formality, since Yun Jie, Zhu Dizhu, and Xia Wushen would not object to their opinions.

In this way, the five strongest members all agreed, and the others had no way to object even if they wanted to.

Zhou Tianqi took out a stack of documents and used his spiritual energy to float them onto the table in front of everyone.

Qin Guang raised his hand to indicate, "Take a look at them all, and feel free to offer any suggestions."

The crowd's eyes flickered slightly. They could tell that Qin Guang and Zhou Tianqi had come prepared in advance, even having prepared the documents beforehand, as if they had done so specifically to show them to them.

However, no one spoke. They quietly flipped through the documents in their hands, and for a moment, the only sound in the room was the turning of pages.

Everyone observed very carefully, because the issues involved were also closely related to them.

A moment later, everyone put down their documents and looked at Qin Guang and Zhou Tianqi.

Qin Guang remained unmoved and said, "Now that you've all read it, let's hear your opinions. Who wants to go first?"

Everyone looked at each other, as if they all had something to say, but no one wanted to be the first to speak.

Finally, King Chengye of the Great Yuan Dynasty spoke first: "Since none of you want to be the first to offend someone, then I'll speak first."

He slowly stood up, looked around, took in everyone's expressions, and finally looked at Qin Guang and Zhou Tianqi. He picked up the document in his hand and said, "I can accept everything else, but there is one point I don't agree with. Since the Zhutian Palace doesn't have a Lord, why should we invincible beings obey its orders during wartime?"

Qin Guang didn't answer immediately, but looked at the others and said calmly, "What about you?"

"Ahem, Old Qin, what the Great Yuan King said makes sense. Unless one of you five takes on the role of Lord of the Heavenly Palace, the brothers won't be satisfied if someone else is appointed." Compared to the Great Yuan King, the Great Shang King Shang Wu spoke more tactfully, and his tone was less forceful.

The others nodded in agreement with what the Great Shang King said.

Zhou Tianqi glanced at Qin Guang discreetly and transmitted his voice, "See? I told you they wouldn't agree."

Zhou Tianqi had anticipated this situation. He had disagreed with adding this clause in the first place. Although everyone seems to be getting along well now, it's only because their core interests haven't been touched, and their combined strength is enough to suppress the rest of the group. Otherwise, who knows what kind of mess might have happened.

However, Qin Guang insisted on adding it, so Zhou Tianqi had no choice but to agree.

Qin Guang ignored Zhou Tianqi and instead looked at Yun Jie, Xia Wushen, and Zhu Dizhu, asking, "Which of you is willing to concurrently serve as the Lord of the Heavenly Palace?"

Unsurprisingly, the three of them shook their heads in unison. What a joke! They already had so many things to do at home; who had the time to deal with the affairs of another prefecture?

Seeing this, Qin Guang remained silent for a long time before saying, "In that case, let's drop this one."

Qin Guang now understood the pride in his brothers' hearts. They were absolutely unwilling to obey the orders of someone who was not eternal, or even an eternal being weaker than them. They would only obey those who were stronger than them.

"Do you have any other objections?"

"Then let's add one more."

At this moment, Yun Jie, who had been standing aside, suddenly spoke up.

"Ok?"

Everyone turned their heads in unison to look at Yun Jie, puzzled. The duties of the Zhutian Palace were already numerous enough, why add more?

However, Qin Guang and the others became interested and asked, "Which one should we add?"

Yun Jie held up two fingers. "To be precise, it's two fingers."

"The first rule is that the position of Lord of the Heavenly Palaces cannot be held by the descendants of the invincible ones in each palace."

"Secondly, when the human realm is in danger, the Heavenly Palace has the authority to mobilize all personnel, legions, and families within the human realm. Upon being summoned, no one may refuse; otherwise, they are considered deserters. On the battlefield, deserters will be killed in one word!"

Finally, Yun Jie added with a smile, "Of course, this doesn't include invincibility."

Although Yun Jie spoke casually, his words were filled with murderous intent, causing many of the invincible figures present to feel a chill, especially the Forbidden Heaven King and the Burning Sea King, who felt that Yun Jie was deliberately saying these words to them.

However, in fact, Yun Jie was indeed referring to them, because in the future their families would all become Seeking Realm families, which were the families that were slaughtered by Wan Tian Sheng.

They enjoy so many resources from the human realm normally, but at a critical moment they sit idly by and watch the human realm fall into crisis without contributing. How can they not be killed?

Deserters are more despicable and deserve to die than traitors. Yun Jie's suggestion today is just to give them a heads-up. If their descendants are slaughtered in the future, they can't blame anyone else.

"Old Yun, what you're doing..."

Someone couldn't help but speak up, but didn't know what to say. What Yun Jie said seemed quite reasonable.

Someone questioned, "Wait a minute, why can't the invincible descendant serve as the Lord of the Heavenly Palace?"

Yun Jie narrowed his eyes and smiled, "I'm talking about each invincible master, not all invincible masters. There are already great masters who have been passed down to their descendants. What? Isn't that enough? The person who serves as the master of the Heavenly Palaces can not only meet the strength requirements, but more importantly, he can be fair and impartial, rather than favoring one side or the other."

Qin Guang, Zhou Tianqi, Xia Wushen, and Zhu Dizhu spoke up: "We agree."

Thus, the others had no choice but to agree. Yun Jie had already said so much; if they continued, it would truly be a case of them intending to use the Zhutian Palace to seek personal gain.

At this moment, someone else spoke up, saying, "Isn't this second clause too harsh? And isn't the power of the Heavenly Palace too great?"

Yun Jie chuckled and retorted, "Do you guys think it's ruthless too?"

Some people nodded, while others shook their heads.

"What if the Heavenly Palace sends people to their deaths? Should we still obey?"

"That's right, who knows if the person in charge of the Heavenly Palace will have ulterior motives?"

Sudden.

Qin Guang stepped forward and said, "First of all, Yun Jie was referring to wartime, when the human realm is in danger. Only then will the Zhutian Palace have the authority to mobilize personnel. At other times, your various palaces should continue with their usual activities. This has no impact."

"Secondly, every new Lord of the Heavenly Palaces must be vetted to ensure that he will treat each palace and each person fairly and justly in the future."

"As for those who disobey orders, killing them wouldn't be too much to ask, would it?"

"Do you have anything else to say? If not, then the matter concerning the Heavenly Palace is settled."

Qin Guang glanced at the crowd. Several people seemed hesitant to speak, but ultimately kept quiet. Qin Guang pretended not to notice and continued, "Now let's talk about the second thing."

"We must build defensive works in the Eastern Rift Valley as soon as possible and send legions there as quickly as possible. Each prefecture will be responsible for a region. We will discuss the specifics later."

"Regarding the issue of Invincible guarding the battlefield of the heavens, my opinion is that the guards should be rotated every ten years, and the number of guards should not be less than twenty. Those whose turn it is cannot shirk their duties without a valid reason, otherwise they are deserters, and Invincible is no exception!"

No one objected to this point. The human territory must be protected, and judging from Qin Guang and the others' resolute attitude, anyone who dared to object would likely be dealt with by them directly. Killing them was unlikely, but they would certainly be taught a lesson.

No one objected, and Qin Guang nodded in satisfaction; otherwise, he probably wouldn't have been able to resist teaching them a lesson.

"Then let's talk about the allocation of war zones. The front-line battlefield will be handed over to my Great Qin Prefecture." After saying that, Qin Guang fell silent.

"Hahaha, the men of Great Xia are not afraid of war, and Great Xia Prefecture will be on the front line."

"The same is true for the Great Zhou."

"Then let's add me, Da Xuan, to the list."

Four of the five strongest men had already spoken, and everyone looked at Landlord Zhu.

Zhu the landlord chuckled awkwardly and said, "The soldiers of my Great Ming are of average strength, but they are better at logistics. Therefore, my Great Ming should choose the second line."

With Zhu the landlord taking the lead, others followed suit, some choosing the second line and some the third line. As for the number of people, it was roughly half and half.

Excluding Qin Guang, Yun Jie, and the other three, there are 32 prefectures remaining. Sixteen prefectures choose the second line, and sixteen prefectures choose the third line.

Qin Guang and the others didn't say much about this. Judging from the current situation, everyone was indeed making their choices based on the strength of their own prefectures.

Moreover, the more dangerous the place, the richer the resources. Although the four families were at the forefront, the resources contained there were also the richest. Conversely, although the rear was relatively safer, the resources were much less. Therefore, there is no question of who suffered a loss and who gained an advantage.

They understood Zhu's choice. Although the prefectures had only been established recently, their atmosphere was gradually taking shape. They had heard about the "unconventional" nature of the Ming Prefecture. Judging from Zhu's behavior, the situation was probably pretty much as expected.

"Alright, let's leave it at that for now. Everyone, arrange manpower as soon as possible to build the defensive works. Now, who's coming with me to the Battlefield of the Heavens?"

Xia Wushen immediately stepped forward, "Since I have nothing to do in my residence for the time being, I'll go to the Battlefield of the Heavens."

Subsequently, out of the forty-odd people present, eighteen more walked out, and the meeting finally came to an end.

Qin Guang and Xia Wushen led the others directly to the teleportation array. Because it was the day of the establishment of the mansion, there was no one on duty in the battlefield of the heavens, so Qin Guang hurriedly led his people there.

It should be noted that the establishment of the government and this meeting only took half a day. In other words, Qin Guang has only been back in the human realm for half a day. This is the responsibility of a "leader". Therefore, no one can say a bad word about Qin Guang.

This time, neither Yun Jie nor Zhou Tianqi spoke, because they had important life events to attend to recently.

After the meeting, Zhu the landlord came over to Zhou Tianqi and Yun Jie and said, "Old Yun, Old Zhou, would you like to come to my place for a bit? I'd like to introduce you to your nephew."

Zhou Tianqi laughed and scolded, "I think getting to know your nephew is just a pretense; your real intention is to get a gift, isn't it?"

Landlord Zhu quickly waved his hand. Although that was indeed what he thought in his heart, he couldn't admit it. He, the Great Ming Emperor, still had his pride.

"No way, I just wanted you to meet my nephew."

Zhou Tianqi shook his head, "No, I haven't finished dealing with things at home yet, but I'll have someone send the gift over."

"Oh, no, that won't do. Gifts are too formal."

That being said, the smile on his face clearly didn't mean that. Zhou Tianqi looked at him speechlessly, and in the end, without saying goodbye, he left.

"Why did he leave in such a hurry? He didn't even mention what gift he was going to give," Zhu the landlord muttered to himself as he watched Zhou Tianqi's departing figure. But then he noticed that Yun Jie was still there, so he immediately turned around and said to Yun Jie with a grin, "Old Yun, how about it? Old Zhou is busy, but you must be free, right?"

Yun Jie "cruelly" rejected him, "That really won't work. Jiang Yao and I are also planning to go back and prepare for the wedding. You know, this matter is quite complicated."

Landlord Zhu hesitated, as if he wanted to say something but then stopped.

"Don't worry, I've already prepared the gift for you."

As he spoke, Yun Jie took out a few Heavenly Origin Fruits. "Here, this is a gift I prepared for my nephew. Just one is enough for him to open his nine orifices."

This time, Yun Jie didn't take out the poor man's version of the Heavenly Origin Fruit that the system gave him, but the genuine Heavenly Origin Fruit that he obtained from the Heavenly Origin Fruit tree in the ruins. One fruit was enough to fully open the nine orifices of the Heavenly Origin.

Landlord Zhu snatched the Heavenly Origin Fruit as if worried that Yun Jie might suddenly take it back. "Hahaha, Old Yun, you're so generous!"

"But I already said I didn't need any gifts, why did you still prepare one? I feel so bad, if I don't accept it, wouldn't you be wasting it?"

"Heh," Yun Jie sneered, deciding to ignore this shameless guy, and then he grabbed Jiang Yao and ran away.

Sudden.

The invincible guys who were catching up also ran away instantly, like frightened birds, not for any other reason than that Landlord Zhu had turned his attention to them.