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

Long Hai's breathing became increasingly heavy, and his hands, hidden beneath the long sleeves of his imperial robe, clenched into fists.

Was all of this part of Ye Ge's plan?

He first controlled the entire southern territory, then expanded his influence to the entire empire, and now his business has spread to all races!

What does he want to do next? Seize my throne?

"Your Majesty, given the current situation, it's best if we avoid conflict with the Ye family."

"Yes, the Ye family's power has grown considerably since they formed an alliance with Dark City. There's no need for us to fight a losing battle now."

"That's also what I mean. Perhaps we could establish friendly relations with the Ye family. Isn't Princess Longying Lord Yege's chosen one? If we cultivate a good relationship with the Ye family, we might be able to get a share of the business with the myriad races in the future..."

The ministers in the main hall all tried to persuade him.

"You bastard!" Long Hai glared. "Trying to break a rock with an egg? You mean the Empire is the egg, and the Ye family is the rock? Or are you saying I'm the egg?!"

The ministers: "..."

"Pfft..." High Priest An Lingyue couldn't help but chuckle to herself.

Why does it feel so funny to hear Long Hai say that?

Long Ying remained silent.

Meanwhile, the priestess Ji Lian beside her remained calm and expressionless.

"Long Ming!" Long Hai flicked his imperial robes and said coldly, "You immediately take men to the Ye family and deliver my imperial decree, ordering Ye Ge to come to the palace alone to see me. He must not bring any subordinates. Tell him that I have a secret matter to discuss with him! I want to see if he dares to disobey my decree!"

Long Hai sneered. He knew that Ye Ge was merely a transcendent being at the Myriad Manifestations Realm. If he came alone, he would surely ensure that Ye Ge would not return alive!

If he doesn't come, he can be charged with disobeying an imperial order!

To everyone's surprise, Long Ming's face stiffened upon hearing this, and he looked troubled: "This..."

"What's wrong?" Long Hai frowned.

After hesitating for a long time, Long Ming timidly said, "Father... I also think... maybe we shouldn't provoke the Ye family?"

"What did you say?!" Long Hai glared angrily: "I sent you to Dark City to find a powerful weapon to deal with the Ye family, but you've been scared out of your wits because of the Ye family's little business dealings with the myriad races?!"

Long Ming quickly lowered his head.

"Useless thing!" Long Hai grabbed a pen holder from the table and threw it at Long Ming.

"Wolf Sky, Xiahoudun, Walter!"

Long Hai then looked at the three dukes of the East, West, and North, gritting his teeth as he said, "And you? Your territories have been infiltrated by the Ye family all these years, haven't they? Don't you have any resentment at all?!"

"Uh......"

Lang Xiao looked embarrassed.

Xiahou Dun scratched his head in frustration.

Walter chuckled sheepishly, "Your Majesty, let the Ye family infiltrate if they want. It won't hurt us anyway. Besides, even though they've infiltrated, they haven't really affected our interests. And according to the financial reports, many sectors of our human race's economy have also benefited from the expansion of the Ye family's business..."

"!!!"

Long Hai was so angry he was about to vomit blood.

These cowards! What's wrong with them? Is the Ye family really that scary to them?!?

He Jin couldn't help but smile bitterly to himself.

His Highness Long Ming, along with the three Dukes, were all present at the Dark City Myriad Races Press Conference.

Despite their dissatisfaction with the Ye family's past actions, they were still quite unhappy with them.

When they saw the Odin M3 Magic Machine Gun and the Deep Blue System in action, their pent-up frustration from all those years almost completely vanished...

They should be grateful that the Ye family isn't coming to beat them up, why would they go out of their way to provoke them?

To put it bluntly, the minister's comment about "throwing an egg against a rock," and calling the empire an egg, was probably a rather polite way of putting it...

Long Hai looked at the court officials, all of whom were bowing their heads, and fell silent.

"That's all."

Long Hai said slowly, "I will consider this matter further."

Many people looked surprised; they hadn't expected Long Hai's attitude to change so quickly.

"Let's all go back."

Long Hai paused for a moment: "He Jin, you stay."

"Yes..." The ministers all took their leave.

Only Long Hai and He Jin remained in the main hall.

"General He Jin," Long Hai said expressionlessly, "tell me, what exactly did you see at the press conference in Dark City, and why did it make you so afraid?"

In the past, the empire's important officials had a limit to their fear of the Ye family. At least the dukes of the three regions of the east, west and north, as the three overlords on par with the Ye family, even if they were cowardly in their hearts, they had to pretend to be on equal footing with the other party on the surface. Otherwise, where would they put their face as dukes?

But today, they were clearly not in the right state; they didn't even seem to have the courage to brag in front of him anymore.

He Jin sighed, "Yes, Your Majesty, we did see something that terrified us..." and then recounted everything he had seen at the press conference.

"A system?" Long Hai frowned. "Besides the gods, how could mortal life create something like this? Isn't that cheating?"

"Yes, I also found it very unbelievable at the time." Even now, He Jin's face is pale and he looks like he is still scared when he thinks about it. He feels that he was lucky that he hadn't offended the Ye family to death before, otherwise he would be finished now.

"Moreover, Ye Ge now has six mysterious experts at the Heavenly Revelation Realm by his side! Including Ye Ge, who somehow obtained a mysterious revolver weapon and killed a Heavenly Revelation Realm werewolf with a single shot! His flesh and blood were instantly vaporized, leaving not even a trace!"

Long Hai's pupils contracted: "One shot killed a Heavenly Revelation Realm werewolf warrior? It was Ye Ge who fired the shot?? What kind of weapon was that?"

“Yes.” He Jin said helplessly, “So, Your Majesty, the Ye family is no longer someone we can afford to offend. As long as the Ye family doesn’t go too far, we should not provoke them… Since Princess Longying and Lord Yege are still engaged, we can take this opportunity to show goodwill to the Ye family.”

"To curry favor with the Ye family? Hahahaha..." Long Hai let out a pale laugh: "I never thought that I, as the monarch of the mighty Qin Empire, would need to curry favor with the head of a family!"