Chapter 4: The Struggle within the Royal Family

After the banquet, Xue Ye was not in a hurry to leave.

But stayed for another day.

The main reason he stayed was Di Yuan, and secondly Di Hong.

Emperor Yuan was also very clear about this. The situation within the empire was very complicated, especially the situation within the royal family. The current emperor had three princes, namely Crown Prince Xue Ye, Second Prince Xue Yu, and Third Prince Xue Xing.

Among them, Xue Yu has the highest talent for cultivation, and his innate soul power has reached level seven. In comparison, Xue Ye and Xue Xing's cultivation talents are relatively average.

Xue Ye is now over 30 years old, but his soul power level has not yet reached that of a Soul Sect. He is only a Soul Master. Ever since Xue Yu showed his talent in cultivation, the old emperor seemed to regret it and wanted to make Xue Yu the crown prince.

But due to Xue Ye's existing power, he cannot easily depose Xue Ye. If he deposes the prince now, it will easily cause turmoil in the empire and give the Xingluo Empire in the south an opportunity.

So he could only support Xue Yu.

The old emperor's behavior made Xue Ye feel a sense of crisis, and he urgently needed to win over other forces to consolidate his position.

The only forces that can be won over within the empire nowadays are the annexed kingdoms and principalities. In fact, there is also the Seven Treasures Glazed Tile Sect. As one of the top three sects, the Seven Treasures Glazed Tile Sect has a very close relationship with the royal family.

But they will not easily get involved in the internal struggles of the royal family.

Among the vassal kingdoms, there are already two that support the second prince. The principality in the east has remained neutral because it is too small to be provoked by anyone.

The Kingdom of Barak chose to support Xue Ye. Even so, Xue Ye's power was only slightly stronger than Xue Yu's. However, more and more ministers began to stand on Xue Yu's side, which is why he came to the Kingdom of Silves.

Among the four major kingdoms, only the Kingdom of Silvestre has not expressed its support for anyone, but they have not remained neutral.

night.

Di Hong sat alone in the garden.

He was speechless at this moment.

He had originally planned to set out today to obtain the spirit ring, but he didn't expect Xue Ye hadn't left yet, so he had to postpone it.

Di Ming, who had just returned from a leisurely outing, saw Di Hong sitting there speechlessly when passing by the garden and suddenly became curious.

"Hey, fourth brother, what's wrong with you?"

Di Hong glanced at him, then raised his head towards the study.

Di Ming understood immediately.

"Prince Xue Ye hasn't left yet. I thought he left today."

"No, he's leaving tomorrow." Di Hong sighed.

Sitting opposite him, Di Ming said with a smile: "This life of Prince Xue Ye is not easy."

"Oh?" Di Hong was puzzled. He was not aware of the internal struggles in the empire, nor did he have the mind to understand them. To him, the only way to succeed the empire was to strengthen himself as quickly as possible. The fight for the throne among the princes had nothing to do with him.

In the kingdom, the crown prince belongs to his elder brother Di Yang and has nothing to do with him. Even though he has an innate level 20 soul power, Di Yuan has never thought of deposing the crown prince.

In Di Yuan's opinion, the throne is far less important than strength.

Di Hong himself had no intention of becoming a king. He did not yearn for power, nor did he have the brains for it. He was fed up with dealing with the nobles and battling wits and courage every day.

Besides, in this world, cultivation is the most important thing.

"You may not know that the struggle for succession within the royal family is already very intense. Crown Prince Xue Ye and Second Prince Xue Yu have been fighting for the past few years. Third Prince Xue Xing is on Xue Ye's side, but it's no use. He has no power and no one supports him."

"Now, except for our kingdom and the principality in the east, the remaining three kingdoms have all taken sides." "I came here on Xue Ye just to win over my father under the pretext of a banquet."

"You forgot that at the banquet before, Xue Ye conferred the title on you on behalf of the emperor."

After Di Ming said this, Di Hong finally understood.

At the previous banquet, Xue Ye did confer a title on him. His title was not high, just an earl. However, this earl was not an earl in the kingdom, but an earl in the empire. In other words, as an earl, he enjoyed the treatment of the empire and had his own fiefdom within the empire.

It was obvious that Xue Ye wanted to win them over.

If he accepts the inducement, then after Xue Ye succeeds to the throne, he will most likely be directly conferred the title of Duke, and his fiefdom will be expanded by then.

This is equivalent to Xue Ye painting a big pie for them. As long as you support me, after I ascend the throne, your Di family will have a very high status in the empire, even on par with the Barak Kingdom.

Although they are both kingdoms, the status of the Kingdom of Silves is far inferior to that of the Kingdom of Barak.

Xue Ye is also investing for the future. Di Hong has an innate level 20 soul skill, and is advertised to the outside world as having innate full soul power. In his opinion, he will definitely be a Titled Douluo-level powerhouse in the future. If they don't win over such a genius, who else will?

This is why the emperor agreed to the enthronement of Di Hong, as the prince did not have the right to enthronement nobles.

No matter how foolish the emperor is, he will not let such a genius go. He will enthrone him and tie him and the kingdom to the chariot of the empire, so as to prevent the Spirit Hall from trying to win him over.

Over the years, the Spirit Hall has tried hard to win over the outstanding children of noble families. Many nobles have secretly been inclined towards the Spirit Hall, and there is no way to prevent this.

No one knew what Xue Ye and Di Yuan talked about that night.

Anyway, he was very satisfied when he left the next day.

Before leaving, Di Yuan brought several of his sons to see him off.

Before getting on the carriage, Xue Ye looked at Di Hong, nodded to him, and got on the carriage.

Di Hong was a little confused.

But now that Xue Ye has left, he can finally get the spirit ring.

I have to say that even if Xue Ye is decades older now, he still looks very handsome. After all, he is a royal family, and he can charm a lot of women if he goes out.

After Xue Ye left, Di Yuan took him to obtain the soul ring the next day.

The destination of their trip was the Soul Beast Forest in the kingdom.

Unlike the Soul Hunting Forest, the Soul Beast Forest does not belong to the Spirit Hall. Of course, the kingdom has never acknowledged that the Soul Hunting Forest is the property of the Spirit Hall. It is just that due to the powerful strength of the Spirit Hall, it can only silently oppose it.

The Soul Beast Forest is a direct property of the kingdom.

Its location is only a few hundred miles away from Silves City. For soul masters, a few hundred miles is not far, and it can be reached in one day.

However, considering that Di Hong was only six years old, Di Yuan did not travel at the fastest speed, but chose the most comfortable carriage to travel.

Sitting in the carriage.

Di Hong was holding a map in his hand.

Judging from the map, the Soul Beast Forest is not very big, but it is not small either. It is indeed a smaller version of the Sunset Forest. There are also ten thousand year old soul beasts in it, but not many. The kingdom has simply enclosed the Soul Beast Forest, built a tall wall on the outside, and stationed troops and soul masters there.

The morning after two days.

They arrived at the town outside the Soul Beast Forest, but did not stop. Instead, they went straight into the Soul Beast Forest to hunt soul beasts while there was still time.

(End of this chapter)