Forced to become a pure and innocent female pharmacist in order to cultivate immortality.

Just like that, the power center of the Dongfang family suddenly lost nearly half of its members.

Those who left were all from the younger generation. The older generation would never leave the Dongfang family. They knew very well that without the Dongfang family, they were nothing.

Dongfang Chengwen never intended to take revenge on them, because he understood that with so few direct descendants, they needed to rely on the strength of collateral branches.

“Chengwen, it’s true that you’ve gained power, but your direct descendants are few in number and you have no collateral relatives to assist you. How are you going to manage this family?” Dongfang Xiao asked.

Dongfang Lin immediately spoke up.

"Second Grandfather, there are many branch families in the Eastern Wilderness that have been expelled for violating family rules. We can send a message to them and let them select suitable people to return to the main family."

These words startled Dongfang Xiao. He hadn't expected Dongfang Xiao to use this method to fill the void left by the departure of the collateral branch.

This is indeed a good idea. Those who have separated from the family are eager to return to their original family. This would not only fill the gap in the family but also attract a group of people who support Dongfang Lin and his family. Why not do it?

"Well, that is indeed a good idea. So what do you plan to do about your daughter's marriage to Tianshui Immortal Palace? The Elders' Hall has already agreed to it." Dongfang Xiao threw another difficult question at Dongfang Lin.

But Dongfang Lin refused without even thinking.

"I'm sorry, I disagreed with this from the beginning."

Having said that, Dongfang Xiao didn't know what else to say and could only let out a heavy sigh.

"Alright! Do as you please, but you'd better think about the consequences." Dongfang Xiao said one last thing before walking to the elders' seats and sitting down.

Chapter 446 Siege (5000 words + 3300 monthly votes bonus chapter)

There's no suspense left regarding the Eastern Family's situation; at least in terms of power, no one can reverse the outcome.

Ye Liuyun and her second sister chatted until evening, discussing many things. Ye Ningshuang knew that Ye Liuyun couldn't stay in the Dongfang family for long, so she cherished the time she was still there.

Around 7 or 8 p.m., after Dongfang Chengwen took over the family power in the presence of the family elders, he came to Ye Ningshuang's place with Dongfang Lin. He wanted to personally thank Ye Liuyun. Dongfang Dieyi and Dongfang Canglan also came.

"Shuang'er, you and Yun are still chatting? You two siblings have such a good relationship. It feels like you could talk for days and nights if no one interrupts you," Dongfang Lin teased.

When Ye Ningshuang saw her children and father-in-law arrive, she immediately stopped talking with Ye Liuyun.

"Father, you've arrived. My younger brother and I haven't seen each other for so long. We have so much to say to each other now that we're here," Ye Ningshuang said with a smile.

These words made Dongfang Lin and Dongfang Chengwen feel somewhat ashamed, after all, Ye Ningshuang had not had a good life in the years since she came to their Dongfang family.

"Liuyun, your uncle is so grateful to you. Without you, our family would probably never have seen the light of day again." Dongfang Chengwen bowed to Ye Liuyun with great gratitude.

Ye Liuyun naturally wouldn't accept Dongfang Chengwen's luggage, since he was her sister's father-in-law, which meant he was of the same generation as her father.

"Eh? No, Uncle, there's no need. We're family. If I don't help you, who will I help? Actually, I was angry with you at first, but after thinking about it carefully, I realized that your family is powerless to change things, so I changed my approach to help the direct descendants of your Dongfang family regain power," Ye Liuyun said frankly.

Dongfang Chengwen looked embarrassed upon hearing this. To be honest, even he used to think that the Ye family's daughter marrying into their Dongfang family was a great honor.

After all, they were a semi-cultivation family, while the Ye family was just a mortal family. They had considered it back then, but in the end, they agreed to the Beiming family's suggestion because of Li Muyun.

"Alas! I have let you down. I failed to fulfill the promise we made back then," Dongfang Chengwen said with a wry smile.

Ye Liuyun became very curious when this was mentioned.

"Uncle, let's not talk about anything else. I'm very curious. When did your four great families arrange the marriages between my grandfather and my sisters?" Ye Liuyun asked curiously.

Ye Ningshuang and the others were unaware of this matter. It was decided long ago, before they were even born, and it dates back to when Ye Feiwu was the Minister of Revenue in the Tang Dynasty.

It was around the time Ye Feiwu was in his thirties or forties when he received the envoys of the four great families on behalf of the royal family. After all, the four great families were the richest families in the four regions, and their tax payments accounted for more than half of all the taxes in the Tang Kingdom, so the court attached great importance to them.

Ye Feiwu first came into contact with the Beiming family, and then through the Beiming family, she obtained private contact information with three other families.

At that time, the Tang Dynasty was not yet fully unified. It only had about two-thirds of its current territory, with some land in the four major regions held by other small countries.

After Ye Feiwu took office as prime minister, he began to push for the policy of attacking those countries, large and small. After one or two decades of effort, the entire territory of the Tang Kingdom was returned to Tang, which means that there are no other countries in this small world.

Ye Feiwu's power had reached its peak, but because of Li Muyun's matter, Ye Feiwu was definitely dissatisfied with the Li family in secret. In addition, the emperor began to develop some kind of hostility towards him. In order to protect himself, he had no choice but to start using his connections to arrange a way out for the Li family and the Lin family.

Ye Liuyun knew almost everything that happened afterward.

After hearing Dongfang Chengwen's acceptance, Ye Liuyun was surprised that his grandfather's arrangements had begun so early.

"So, Grandpa is currently commanding the rebel kings of the four regions in Zhongzhou, right?" Ye Liuyun guessed.

It's not so easy for outsiders to dismantle the Li family dynasty in the mortal world without the power of cultivators. The only way is to let them fight amongst themselves first, deplete the Li family's own strength, and then deliver a fatal blow at the end.

This is Ye Feiwu's method. The fact that he was able to become the Prime Minister of Tang shows that his methods in the court are definitely beyond those of ordinary officials.

Not to mention that because of Ye Liuyun's elixir, he gained two hundred years of lifespan. Even now, Ye Feiwu still has a lifespan of one hundred and seventy or eighty years, so he has plenty of time to play with them.

Because no one in the secular world or the royal family knew Ye Feiwu anymore, even if he stood openly in the court, no one would know that he was Ye Feiwu.

"Yes, he's in Zhongzhou. Your grandfather actually seized the opportunity. When we told him that the Nine Heavens Holy Land was in chaos and powerless to intervene in the mortal world, he decisively chose to act," Dongfang Chengwen said.

But in reality, Ye Feiwu had almost forgotten about these preparations. It was Ye Liuyun's pills that brought him back to his youth and rekindled the flame in his heart.

"This? No way, my grandfather, is he planning to overthrow the Li family and become emperor himself?" Ye Liuyun guessed.

Dongfang Chengwen chuckled.

"That's hard to say. It's just going with the flow. Even if your grandfather didn't intervene, our four great families, along with the other four clans, wouldn't allow the Li family to continue controlling this small world," Dongfang Chengwen said.

The other four families are undoubtedly the four families that the Lin family has formed alliances through marriage. This makes a total of eight forces opposing the Li dynasty, which is exactly the same as the power struggle among the eight major factions in the Nine Heavens Holy Land.

After talking with Ye Liuyun for a while, Dongfang Chengwen also left first, as he had many things to do. In the end, only Dongfang Lin, Dongfang Dieyi, and Dongfang Canglan remained.

"Uncle, I'm sorry." These were Dongfang Canglan's first words.

He stood there in front of Ye Liuyun with his head down. Ye Ningshuang didn't know what to say about Dongfang Canglan. For a while, Dongfang Canglan didn't act like his son at all, always sticking to the side of those collateral relatives.

It's practically a sham; they use every possible method to please them.

To be honest, Ye Ningshuang disapproved of this behavior and criticized him many times. Dongfang Canglan retorted with one sentence to Ye Ningshuang, saying that he was trying to please them just so that their son in the Dongfang family could live more comfortably.

To put it simply, from Dongfang Canglan's perspective, he is the only male direct descendant of the Dongfang family in this generation, and his goal is to revitalize the direct line.

"Hey! Don't apologize to me, kid. You should apologize to your sister, mother, and father. Your thinking is too naive. Do you think that by lowering your status and trying to please those people from the collateral branches, they will let you back into the center of power? You're too naive."

"Also, even if you want to change the future, you shouldn't use your own sister as a pledge of loyalty. Even if you eventually achieve your goal, so what? There should be a bottom line in everything." Ye Liuyun didn't know how to evaluate Dongfang Canglan.

Compared to Nangong Mufeng, Dongfang Canglan is actually more mature, but Ye Liuyun dislikes this kind of unscrupulous behavior.

Dongfang Canglan didn't utter a single word of excuse. He had done it, and making excuses wasn't in his nature.

Three days later... Dongfang Quyang and the others left the Dongfang family one after another with their families. As for where they went, that was no longer a question for Dongfang Lin and the others to consider.

With half the family gone, the Dongfang family suddenly became empty. These past few days, Dongfang Lin and his son have been extremely busy, dealing with the property of these branch families while also contacting the branch families on the Dongfang side.

Ye Liuyun also had no intention of staying any longer.

Before she left, she gave Ye Ningshuang a lot of pills, including cultivation pills, resurrection pills, and other life-saving pills. Ye Liuyun wrote down the usage instructions on a piece of paper and repeatedly told Ye Ningshuang not to let too many people know about these pills.

Ye Liuyun did not tell Ye Ningshuang the specific effects of these pills, but only gave a general overview. This was not because she did not trust Ye Ningshuang, but because she could not fully trust the people of the Dongfang family.

She couldn't trust even her own sister's children, because while she claimed she would treat them as descendants of the Ye family, this was just wishful thinking on Ye Liuyun's part.

No matter how badly the Dongfang family treated them before, their sense of belonging still belongs to the Dongfang family, not the Ye family. This is a very real issue.

Sometimes, the depth of human relationships depends entirely on the strength of feelings. People with deep feelings can become brothers who would risk their lives for each other.

At the edge of Dongfang Island, Ye Liuyun and Jiang Wanshan disappeared into the horizon in an instant while riding a flying boat. Ye Ningshuang looked very sad and wiped away her tears that she could not hold back.

She knew that after this separation, she didn't know when they would meet again. But that's life. Even in the mundane world, as people get older and start their own families, the frequency of their meetings will decrease as they get older.

Looking at Ye Liuyun on the airship, she stood at the bow watching the gradually shrinking Eastern Island until it was completely out of sight before turning her gaze away.

"Sigh!" Ye Liuyun sighed deeply.

"My lord, where should we go next? Should we return to the Cloud Realm, or go somewhere else?" Jiang Wanshan asked.

After pondering for a moment, Ye Liuyun spoke directly.

“Let’s go to Zhongzhou through the secular path, and then go up to Xichuan from Zhongzhou. I need to visit my third sister. After I’ve settled everything at home, I’ll go back to Yunduan.”

Jiang Wanshan nodded, then spurred the flying boat to increase its speed.

Actually, Ye Liuyun should have gone to see her grandfather first, but unfortunately, no one knows exactly where Ye Feiwu is, and Ye Liuyun can't possibly search everywhere.

Therefore, I can only go to my third sister, who has a specific goal, first, then to my parents, and finally, when I return to the Eastern Wilderness, I will come to the Central State to look for my grandfather's whereabouts.

During this period, Ye Liuyun basically treated it as visiting relatives, and took the opportunity to check on the situation in various parts of the Tang Kingdom.

When passing through Zhongzhou, well, Zhongzhou is relatively peaceful at the moment. It's just that the area bordering Donghuang is heavily guarded, preventing people from Donghuang from coming over and people from Zhongzhou from leaving.

The rest of the region was relatively peaceful, since the flames of war had not yet spread to the Central Plains, and the rebel kings were secretly negotiating with the imperial court.

Most of the rebel kings demanded that their territories be divided and governed separately. What this means is that they wanted the imperial court to separate the Eastern Wilderness, Western Sichuan, Northern Plains, and Southern Ridge and give them a high degree of autonomy.

They were willing to forgo vying for the throne, but how could the imperial court possibly agree to such a thing? If they did, it would mean splitting the Tang Dynasty into five parts.

But the problem is, what can you do if you disagree?

These opposing forces seemed to have a tacit agreement: if the imperial court dared to openly refuse, they would simultaneously attack the Central Plains.

Although Zhongzhou is powerful, it is difficult for it to completely withstand the simultaneous attacks of the four major domains, and its chances of winning are very low.

The court is currently without a ruler, and Prince Jing, Li Zhen, has been handling state affairs, which is a major headache for him. Moreover, many ministers have suggested that Prince Jing succeed to the throne and officially take charge of state affairs.

However, Prince Jing is no fool. If he were to ascend the throne, the usurpation would likely be confirmed. What would be the consequences? The Central Plains would probably be thrown into chaos. Therefore, Prince Jing has been rejecting suggestions from all sides and is trying to find a way to resolve the conflict.

Even if Jiang Wanshan were to drive his flying boat at full speed from the Eastern Wilderness across the Central Plains to the Western Sichuan, it would probably take him several days to disembark.

Meanwhile, Lin Aoxue in the Taixu Secret Realm began fighting again and encountered a personal disciple who immediately challenged her to a duel.

During this period, she had already fought against several direct disciples and had not lost a single one. The direct disciple she fought today was very strong and also had a special physique. He was a direct disciple of Tianqiong Peak and his name was Xuan Hao.

He possesses the Purple Thunder Divine Body, a rare type of thunder-based physique. Cultivating the thunder path with this physique makes one several times stronger than ordinary thunder-based spiritual root cultivators.

This person is probably the strongest opponent Lin Aoxue sees at the moment, stronger than Xuan Tian, ​​because he entered the sect earlier than Xuan Tian and is much older than Lin Aoxue. He did not participate in the last Nanling Grand Gathering because he was over the age limit.

Don't assume that the team sent by the Supreme Response Sect at the last Nanling Grand Gathering represented the peak combat power of the various peaks of the Supreme Response Sect. Obviously not. They only represented the strongest combat power among the new generation.

They are considered top-tier among those of similar age, but when you include the younger generation of disciples, it's a different story. Those in the Four Extremes Secret Realm who are under 500 years old are considered part of the younger generation.

"Hahaha, that was great, that was great! Junior Sister Ye, you are the strongest opponent I have ever seen among my peers."

"Nine Heavens of Thunder." A wild young man, his body crackling with lightning, was unleashing a powerful thunder technique to attack Lin Aoxue.

The power of his lightning was extremely fierce. Streaks of purple lightning fell towards Lin Aoxue from space, causing the ground to collapse and mountains to crumble wherever they struck.

However, Lin Aoxue had already activated her Feathered Immortal Shadow technique to withstand the lightning spell.

This Xuan Hao is not only powerful in lightning magic, but also incredibly strong in physical combat. Like Ji Chunling of the Yun Sect, he cultivates both magic and physical body.

Moreover, he is definitely stronger than Ji Chunling in terms of physical strength, which has reached the level of the Four Extremes Secret Realm.

Even though lightning magic was useless against Lin Aoxue, physical attacks caused her several serious losses. She had just been accidentally punched by the opponent, and although she blocked it in time, she was still in a sorry state.

"Senior Brother Xuanhao is truly amazing. Senior Brother, are you sure we want to continue fighting? Forgive my bluntness, but we've been fighting for five minutes without a clear winner. If we continue, we'll be risking our lives. Do you think it's necessary for us to go all out today?" Lin Aoxue and Xuanhao faced off across a canyon.

Xuan Hao's battle with Lin Aoxue was quite exhilarating, but after glancing around, he noticed a large crowd watching. He had to consider the consequences: would it be beneficial for him to fight Lin Aoxue to the death here?

He doesn't have much confidence in beating Lin Aoxue right now, and even if he does, it will probably be a Pyrrhic victory.

"Well, alright, that's enough for today. I look forward to even more intense battles in the future." Xuan Hao thought for a moment and decided to call it a day. This place wasn't safe and wasn't suitable for a big fight.

After saying that, the two of them turned into blurs and ran in opposite directions, trying to escape the sight of the people around them.

This was very disadvantageous for Lin Aoxue, as every time she got into a fight, she would find herself in danger.

However, real trouble eventually came to Lin Aoxue. After taking the invisibility pill, Lin Aoxue came to a relatively secluded area.

But just as she was preparing to rest and recover her strength, something unexpected happened. Suddenly, streaks of purple light rose up all around her, and these lights quickly converged to form an array that enveloped the area where Lin Aoxue was located.

The moment the formation was fully closed, Lin Aoxue immediately narrowed her eyes.

"An array? What a huge array! It seems they knew I was in this area and were planning to use it to isolate this place before killing me." Lin Aoxue's guess was correct.

As the formation rose, five cultivators from different factions of the Four Extremes Secret Realm appeared at a high vantage point.

The five men scanned the area with sinister expressions. They were certain that Lin Aoxue was in this area, but they just couldn't see her.

"Hehe, Senior Sister Xuanmiao, come out. We know you're in this area. This area has been sealed off by us with a top-grade Xuan-level formation. Unless you have the cultivation of the Transformation Realm, it's impossible for you to escape from here," a somewhat alluring woman said with a smile.

Lin Aoxue took a deep breath, then deactivated her invisibility and appeared in their sight.

"Who are you from? The Reverse Immortal Alliance?" Lin Aoxue asked.

The fact that they could create such a powerful formation to deal with her clearly indicates their intention to kill her, so it's unlikely that they were from within the Supreme Response Sect.

"You're finally out. You know what's going on, there's no need to explain. This place will be the burial ground for you and one of us. Only one of us can walk out alive," the leading woman said with a cold smile.

They began preparing the moment Lin Aoxue appeared, predicting her retreat route and setting up an array along it to surround her.

Chapter 447: Hidden Cards Revealed (5000 words + 12 Fire Coins Bonus Chapter)