Having the genes of a demon king, I never intended to be a kept man.

"What's wrong? Why aren't you saying anything?" Ye Ge asked curiously, "What's that?"

Long Ying clenched her fist slightly: "...It's that one."

"Which one?"

"that."

"You only mention 'that,' how am I supposed to know which one it is?"

"..."

Long Ying pursed her lips and looked into Ye Ge's eyes: "You did this on purpose. With your intelligence and emotional intelligence, you couldn't possibly not understand. You're deliberately teasing me."

Ye Ge smiled faintly: "As expected of Your Highness Long Ying, you saw through it all."

Long Ying: "......."

"Alright, I won't tease you anymore." Ye Ge gave her a deep look: "I didn't expect Princess Long Ying to have such grand ambitions. You want to be the emperor?"

"Is it not allowed?" Long Ying looked at him.

"Yes, of course." Ye Ge nodded in agreement: "A princess who doesn't want to be the emperor is not a good princess."

"If our Ye family can truly become the lords of the Southern Territory, and I can become the patriarch of the Ye family, then once we become one family, you will directly control a quarter of the empire's territory. At that time, compared to your brothers and sisters, your chances of inheriting the throne will indeed be greatly increased."

As for the estrangement...

Ye Ge shrugged: "You're right. There's no barrier that can't be solved by building together. If there is, then just build a few more."

"..."

Long Ying's cheeks finally flushed slightly, but the shy expression was fleeting, and she immediately turned away so that Ye Ge wouldn't see her reaction.

In fact, no one could see her expression clearly beneath her red veil.

"In short, I will help you win this battle in the Southern Territory, and I will also help you take the position of head of the Ye family in the future. I hope you can do your best and not let me invest in the wrong person."

"I am leaving."

After saying that, Long Ying leaped onto a large tree and prepared to leave.

"You're leaving already?" Ye Ge waved her hand. "Okay, bye-bye. Let's build that together sometime."

"..."

Long Ying stumbled, her footing slipping on the leaves, and nearly fell from the top of the tree.

......

The next day.

Night Song and Night Owl rode together to White Elephant Castle in the Southern Territory.

White Elephant Castle is the territory of the Marquis of White Elephant. There were originally three marquises in the Southern Territory, one of whom rebelled with Wang En, leaving two remaining.

Before officially launching the war against the traitorous coalition led by Wang En, the patriarchs of all the families in the Southern Territory will gather for a meeting. The main purpose, of course, is to discuss tactics; in short, it is a pre-war meeting.

Upon entering the castle, guided by a maid, Night Song followed Night Owl to a magnificent council hall.

The heads of the other families were all present, from marquises to barons. Ye Ge followed Ye Xiao and took a seat, glancing around briefly. Most of the family heads were accompanied by their most trusted confidants, except for Ye Xiao, who had brought his son.

"Consider it a lesson for you, on how to deal with these hypocritical and slick old nobles." That's what Night Owl said.

Night Song sat quietly next to Night Owl, without saying a word.

Marquis White Elephant glanced around: "Everyone's here, let's begin the meeting."

After Duke Wang En rebelled, Marquis White Elephant became the head of the highest-ranking and most powerful noble family in the Southern Territory.

Marquis White Elephant first put on a stern face and spoke a bunch of high-sounding nonsense with a righteous expression, denouncing Duke Wang En's traitorous behavior.

Ye Ge then realized that formalism exists in every world, and this extraordinary world is no exception. People always have to pronounce the enemy's heinous crimes first and establish their own righteous stance, as if only in this way can they have a legitimate reason to fight.

Next, Marquis White Elephant began to count the number of soldiers from each family and calculate the fighting strength of both sides.

The rebel alliance has a total force of about 300,000, including two Apocalypse Realm transcendents: Wang En and another rebellious marquis.

On the Justice League's side, there are three powerful figures at the Apocalypse Realm: Marquis White Elephant, Marquis Pangton, and Ye Quan, the patriarch of the Ye family.

Marquis Bai Xiang has 50,000 superhuman warriors under his command, as does Marquis Pang Dun. The other powerful families, Xia, Zhou, Qi, and Yuwen, each have around 20,000 soldiers, while the Ye family also has 50,000 warriors.

In fact, Night Owl's own forces numbered only about 15,000, while the 50,000 included all the Ye family members, including Ye Qingxin and Ye Yulong.

However, the 15,000 men under Night Owl's command were vastly different in combat strength from the warriors under Night Jade Dragon's forces. Night Owl always prioritized quality over quantity when it came to his soldiers, training only the elite of the elite. Night Jade Dragon's army, on the other hand, consisted mostly of adventurers and wandering warriors recruited during their campaigns against the myriad races—mostly self-taught. To put it bluntly, any one thousand men from any of Night Owl's units could easily annihilate Night Jade Dragon's entire force of 35,000.

In total, the Justice League has approximately 400,000 troops.

In terms of numbers, this seems to give them a slight advantage.

But in fact, we also need to consider Count Nicholas, whose 200,000-strong vampire army has been stationed outside the Great Wall of the Empire, ready to make a move at any time, and no one knows what they might do.

"This is a map showing the current distribution of power in our southern territory."

Marquis White Elephant picked up a remote control and pressed it; a holographic map immediately appeared in front of everyone.

"Because of the existence of the War Academy, Wang En has directly abandoned the city of Asen and retreated to the area south of the southern border with the traitorous allies."

"The area south of Huangjiang is entirely under the control of the rebel alliance, so if we want to break through, we must take control of Huangjiang."

The Xia family patriarch stroked his chin and analyzed seriously, "In that case, taking Jiangcheng is of paramount importance."

The head of the Qi family said, "South of the Huangjiang River is easy to defend but difficult to attack... The Huangjiang River is a natural barrier, and water-based extraordinary individuals are definitely in control here. Wang En happens to have many water-based mages under his command. If we want to take it by force, it probably won't be an easy task..."

The Zhou family patriarch said, "Actually, we didn't necessarily say we had to defeat their 300,000-strong army. As long as we can behead or capture Wang En, the rest are just a bunch of rabble. Without a leader, they will scatter like birds and beasts."

The head of the Yuwen family scoffed, "You make it sound so easy. That old fox Wang En has been fighting alongside the empire against all races since the time of the late emperor. How could we possibly behead him so easily? Besides, he's a powerful expert at the Heavenly Revelation Realm!"