"Mhm."
Seeing Chen Junting's confidence, Gu Tianchen also put down his teacup. After responding, he said, "Actually, regardless of whether you have confidence or not, I've already promised them."
"Do you have that much confidence in me?"
Chen Junting picked up the teapot and smiled as he poured him a cup.
"It's not that I have confidence in you."
He picked up the teacup and unceremoniously downed it in one gulp. Along the way, he rolled his eyes at Chen Junting. "I just know that whether you have confidence or not, you must achieve this. Otherwise, once the news gets out, their plan will definitely fail."
After all, by then, the Sun Moon Army would inevitably withdraw. Moreover, once Jing Hongchen learned the news of Mingdu's fall and Xu Tianran's death, he definitely wouldn't continue to act as their inside mole.
"Anyway, the outcome is already set."
Chen Junting poured himself a cup of tea too and took a sip. "I understand the Three Empires. Given the sheer size of the Sun Moon Empire, if they choose not to continue fighting, shrink their defensive lines, cede territory and interests for peace, and compromise on a few conditions, temporarily holding onto a third of their territory is possible. But as for the Sun Moon Empire twenty or thirty years from now... as long as the Three Empires don't run into any accidents and don't let their guard down, it will be difficult for them."
The Three Empires would absolutely not give up on this massive cake that was the Sun Moon Empire.
Although this massive cake was delicious, it was also hard enough to crack a tooth. Therefore, softening up the Sun Moon Empire first, and then upgrading their own teeth to iron and copper before taking a bite, was obviously the choice the Three Empires would make.
Understanding Chen Junting's meaning, Gu Tianchen asked his doubts. "If this is the Three Empires' choice, what about you?"
"Me?"
The corners of Chen Junting's mouth curled up. "Same here." Then, he tilted his head slightly, his tone unsurprised. "Don't you think so?"
"I don't."
In Gu Tianchen's eyes, in the eyes of the people of the Three Douluo Empires, this battle seemed like the Three Empires had the upper hand. But what about in reality? At its root, this was a defensive war!
But this defensive war could be won, and won decisively! Won to the point of crushing the Sun Moon Empire!
But fundamentally, the reason this war could reach such a level of victory was that the Three Empires and all their forces were united in purpose! If they didn't have this unity, what would happen? Nothing else, they would just raise their own banners and go their separate ways.
At that time, for any one empire, the other two Douluo Continent empires would be just like the Sun Moon Empire, and the Sun Moon Empire would be just like the other two Douluo Continent empires. At least, from the political perspective of the high-ranking officials of each empire, this point was beyond doubt.
Starting from this point, it would absolutely give the Sun Moon Empire an opportunity to rise again!
Even if the Sun Moon Empire was defeated, no matter how much territory they lost, no matter how much they suffered, and no matter how restrained they were, the current generation of Sun Moon citizens who were partitioned off would absolutely not forget the humiliation. They would definitely harbor patriotic feelings and remember their old country. As long as they were alive, when war broke out again, they would sooner or later rise up in rebellion and return to the Sun Moon Empire's side. By then, they might even stir up massive unrest.
Unless...
They killed all these people!
"Wow—"
Chen Junting feigned a gasp of surprise. "Old Gu, how can you be so ruthless!"
Bang—
Gu Tianchen slammed his teacup down onto the table.
"It's not that I'm ruthless." A fierce glint flashed in his eyes. "If it's for a hundred years, then we could naturally assimilate their clothing and eradicate their customs. But for only twenty or thirty years..."
"It would be more effortless to just kill them all."
Speaking of this, he inevitably paused again before adding: "Of course, as for those children who don't yet understand the ways of the world... let's spare them for now."
Chen Junting took another sip of his tea and remained silent.
Brutal, too brutal!
Actually, he understood Old Gu's perspective. It was similar to the methods used against nomadic tribes like the northern Xiongnu in the historical novels of his previous life, divided into the brutal and the non-brutal approaches.
The brutal one was: as long as the child could stand and their head exceeded the height of a cartwheel, they were all killed. (Mhm—given their personalities and rhetoric... the so-called cartwheel would probably be placed lying down.)
The non-brutal one was using culture to assimilate them. For example: completely turning the people of the Sun Moon Continent into people of the Douluo Continent.
It was just a pity that this method would absolutely not be enough in just twenty or thirty years. So in the end, Gu Tianchen still opted for the first approach. And he even left a sliver of mercy.
"Old Chen, what do you think?"
"I'll just sit and think."
Gu Tianchen: ??? Do you hear what you're saying? Are you being this irresponsible?
"Old Chen, what exactly are you thinking?"
Gu Tianchen was a bit confused. With Old Chen's wisdom, Gu Tianchen believed he naturally saw the ultimate difference between these two choices. Pursuing them immediately would definitely yield a higher chance of victory! It wouldn't give the Sun Moon Empire a chance to catch its breath, solving the problem once and for all.
Of course, he didn't deny the consequence of this. The Three Empires' military forces would suffer heavy casualties, to the point where only a few families out of ten would have any men left. But ultimately, this meat grinder would still take place on the Douluo Continent.
"So there's no need."
Chen Junting put down his teacup and suddenly said this.
"Hmm?"
Hearing this, Gu Tianchen frowned slightly in confusion. "What do you mean by 'no need'?"
"Just the literal meaning."
Chen Junting raised his eyes and explained his thoughts to Gu Tianchen. "This war, we could certainly continue fighting. But if we do, just as you said, the Tian Hun and Star Luo Empires will reach a state where only a few families out of ten have men left. By then, both empires will basically be on the verge of collapse. We can't exactly say that a population decrease is easing the burden for the two empires." The last sentence was a dark joke from a certain someone. But obviously, no one found it funny.
"So there's no need."
Gu Tianchen gripped his teacup, clenching and relaxing his hold. He pondered the meaning behind Chen Junting's words. Finally, he asked, "From what perspective are you considering this?"
"What perspective?"
Chen Junting asked rhetorically, though he was really asking himself. "From a higher-dimensional perspective."
Higher-dimensional? What new term was this? The words on the tip of his tongue were swallowed back. It took Gu Tianchen a long while before he squeezed out a sentence, his tone carrying a hint of annoyance. "Stop talking in riddles."
Chen Junting smiled, unfazed. "Actually, at first, my thought was for the Three Empires to completely carve up the Sun Moon Empire. Whatever happened after that would have little to do with us or our sect, and I could continue climbing to the peak of cultivation."
"But a while ago, I changed my line of thinking..."
Before he could finish, Gu Tianchen chimed in. "When Meng Hongchen successfully borrowed the seed?"
Chen Junting paused slightly and nodded. "More or less."
"I see, so that was the trigger."
"Hehe, well, it was the trigger that made me make up my mind."
After the two exchanged a smile, Chen Junting continued. "Actually, if Xu Tianran was still in power, I absolutely wouldn't do this. It would be the Three Empires completely crushing the Sun Moon Empire and wiping it out. But with Xu Tianran dead and the next person to take the throne being my half-puppet, I'm in no rush. I know this is a chess piece under my control, at least for a period of time."
"Plus, with Meng Hongchen's boundless ambition, I dare say the Sun Moon court won't be stable. Especially without external enemies attacking, their internals might just fall into complete chaos."
So your idea is this: let internal chaos weaken their strength, allowing the Three Empires to wait at ease for the enemy.
But what about the high-dimensional aspect? How do you explain that?
Gu Tianchen pondered this, and finally raised his head to ask the question.
"If you don't understand 'high-dimensional,' then I'll use a different term."
Chen Junting changed his tone. "What about Gods?"
Hearing this, Gu Tianchen suddenly realized. He looked at Chen Junting's glabella and pointed a finger at him. "So that's what you were thinking!"
To use time to secure his own path to godhood.
After all, if the war continued and the whole continent was in turmoil, how could he have the peace of mind to achieve godhood?! But once he became a god, he could use absolute power to completely suppress the Sun Moon Empire. To cow an entire nation with the might of a single god! By then, even if the Sun Moon Empire didn't want to surrender, they would have to.
It saved time, saved effort, and saved lives. How great!
"This is purely a crushing attack."
Hearing Gu Tianchen's mutter, Chen Junting immediately laughed. "Congratulations on inventing a new term."
Gu Tianchen didn't want to say anything, and just rolled his eyes at him again.
"But speaking of which, are you really that confident?"
"More or less."
Hearing Gu Tiancen ask this, Chen Junting did a rough calculation. Ten years would be enough for him to reach the absolute peak of the mortal realm. Give him another ten years, and he would have enough time to ferment the power of faith, allowing it to erupt all at once to boost his path to godhood.
People might say Poseidon (Bo Saidong) took a thousand years, while ten years was too short. But that was purely because he still had two trump cards. Once they were played, ten years was enough.
"That confident, huh?"
Hearing this, Gu Tiancen didn't say anything more. As a brother, he chose to believe him.
Moreover, once Chen Junting became a god... mortal wars would be meaningless to him. The power of a deity could pacify mortal strife in a single breath.
Since they had reached a consensus on this matter, there was no need to discuss it further. As for how to get the Three Empires to agree... one could only say that once a consensus was reached among the high-tier combatants, they would agree very straightforwardly. This was inevitable!
But right now, Chen Junting remembered another matter. "Right." Chen Junting looked at Gu Tiancen and said, "It's best to synchronize this news with Xin's side as well."
"The Tian Hun Empire's battlefield, right?"
"Right."
Chen Junting nodded slightly, his tone cold and ruthless. "Although the war is going to stop, if we want the Sun Moon Empire to completely put down their guard for a long time, we still need to make their main forces suffer heavy casualties. When the time comes, I'll have Senior Di Tian send Bear Lord over to the Xin side to help him. After all, Kong Deming definitely wouldn't be the first to retreat among the forces pulling back earlier."
As the Grand Worship of the Sun Moon Empire, their stabilizing force, and pillar of support, even when the news of Mingdu's fall and the destruction of the Sun Moon Imperial Palace spread, he obviously knew what was more important and what wasn't.
Even if the Sun Moon Imperial Palace was destroyed and Mingdu fell, as long as the Sun Moon Empire's foundation and roots remained, it didn't matter. As for the Emperor... in such a vast Sun Moon Empire, finding someone with the Xu family's royal bloodline wasn't difficult. After so many years of inheritance, royal bloodlines out in the wild were quite numerous. So even if all the royal relatives in Mingdu were wiped out, he could just pull out another one. Furthermore, there were military officers with royal blood in the army; pulling one out wasn't impossible. At the very worst, he himself was of royal bloodline!
This Silver Moon Douluo saw this matter very clearly.
"I understand this."
Gu Tianchen nodded. "In a relatively enclosed environment, Dugu's poison is an absolute invincible weapon of mass destruction. When the soldiers enter the city, once Dugu releases the poison, they will definitely die out completely."
"But... what about the city's residents?"
"What are you thinking? Of course, we relocate them."
Chen Junting looked at Gu Tiancen with an expression that said: Wow— you weren't actually thinking of poisoning them all to death, were you?
"Why are you looking at me like that? I never thought of that."
"Hehe, really? I don't believe you."
The corners of Chen Junting's mouth curled up in a teasing manner. "Since you didn't think of that, how do you know what I was thinking."
Gu Tianchen was helpless and could only return to the topic he wanted to ask. "Tell me, what's the excuse? How do we find one?"
"Easy to find."
Chen Junting put the lid back on his teacup and slowly stood up. "With so many people entering the city, they'll need a place to stay, right? As for the responsibility, we can just dump it all on that City Lord. Anyway, he's become a puppet; no matter what happens, he's dead either way."
"Fine."
(City Lord of Dongyang City: I really want to thank you two.)
As the two finalized their decision, Chen Junting and Gu Tianchen also left the room and returned to the place where the Sun Moon Empire's court officials and Meng Hongchen were being held.
To prevent the news of the Common Alliance being inside moles from being exposed, Chen Junting didn't link this location to the Common Alliance at all.
However, compared to this, Shangguan Wei'er's guts were inevitably turning green with regret. When she learned the truth, she never imagined that a single collaboration would end up dragging herself into the mess.
The Sun Moon Imperial Palace was destroyed! The Sun Moon Emperor was dead! This was hundreds or thousands of times worse than a mere rebellion! Her Common Alliance was undoubtedly tied to this now.
She originally wanted to latch onto the Nine Treasures Glazed Tile Sect as a solid backing to do some business, at most just selling out the Empire's interests. But she never expected that the people from the Nine Treasures Glazed Tile Sect would play so dirty! They went straight to this extent.
But what made Shangguan Wei'er collapse even more was that the people from the Nine Treasures Glazed Tile Sect seemingly had no intention of destroying the Sun Moon Empire!
If the country was destroyed, it could be considered a surrender. With her contributions, she should be able to stay safe. But if it wasn't destroyed? Once this matter was dug up, she would be finished.
So up to now, Shangguan Wei'er had been terrified. Her reactions were even worse than other underground organizations. But this didn't come as a surprise to the other factions. After all, this attack had been far too brutal. It made the underground organizations not even dare to breathe too loudly, afraid that one day, if they weren't careful, their side would be silently wiped out.
Thus, throughout the city, whether white or black, everything went dead silent. The only exceptions were some city residents who truly couldn't endure the hunger and came out to look for food, but they only did so once, spending the rest of their time hiding in their homes.
Until over twenty days later...
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