"Let me go! I want to kill him!"
The black-clad woman shouted at Ian Song, her face filled with urgent determination.
"Miss, does your earlier promise still count?"
Ian Song asked with a smile.
"If you let me kill Brandon Lian, forget two hundred years of service—I'll serve you for five hundred years if you want!" Selene Shen replied without hesitation. For experts like her, spending hundreds of years in seclusion was nothing unusual, so serving Ian for five centuries really didn't matter much to her.
"Good, it's a deal!"
Ian let go of Selene Shen, and she immediately charged toward Brandon Lian...
Half an hour later, atop a small mountain peak.
"What's your name?" Ian Song asked with a smile, looking at the black-clad woman. Not far away, a group of Void Realm experts stood quietly—they were all her subordinates.
"Selene Shen." The woman answered slowly, then bowed to Ian Song. "Thank you for letting me avenge my father. Rest assured, I keep my word—I'll follow you and obey your commands for five hundred years!"
"Excellent. You haven't disappointed me. For now, I have other matters to attend to, so go to Vermin-Ape City in Prosperia Kingdom and lay low there for a while. When I return, I'll give you your next mission!"
"Alright!"
Selene Shen nodded and turned to leave, swift and decisive as ever.
Although he hadn't Soul-Seized Brandon Lian, recruiting an Ancestral third-layer like Selene was still a win—especially since she had a group of Void Realm experts under her command.
Dogwood God Nation has eleven major cities; Millhaven City and its Governor, Liam Lin, have already been Soul-Seized by Ian. Drakefall City's Governor, Brandon Lian, wasn't Soul-Seized, but after his death, Ian gained the loyalty of another Ancestral third-layer—Selene Shen. That leaves nine more city governors. Once Ian Soul-Seizes those nine, almost the entire Dogwood God Nation will be in his grasp.
When founding a nation, you can start from scratch, building everything yourself, or you can seize someone else's foundation and change dynasties.
Compared to starting from nothing, Ian Song still felt that changing dynasties was the better way.
Several months passed in a flash.
After months of effort, Ian successfully Soul-Seized the remaining nine city governors. The strongest among them had reached the sixth layer of the Ancestral Realm; if Ian hadn't spent so long setting up and luring him into a formation trap, it would have been nearly impossible to seize him.
Dogwood God Nation has nineteen Ancestral Realm experts: eleven stationed in the major cities, and eight residing in the royal capital. The king, Lian Wusheng, is especially formidable—he's an Ancestral seventh-layer.
For experts of this level, trying to seize their souls is almost impossible.
When he soul-seized that fifth-layer Ancestral, Ian felt tremendous strain. He knew that with Soul-Seizure Divine Art, he could at most seize a sixth-layer Ancestral, and even then, the risk of failure was high.
So, the royal capital was out of the question.
After all, with eight Ancestral experts there, any attempt on one would likely be detected by the other seven.
So, he decided to head for North Qin God Nation.
If you lack enough strength, make up for it with numbers.
As long as he seized enough third, fourth, and fifth-layer Ancestrals, even if a seventh-layer came looking for trouble, he wouldn’t need to fear them.
North Qin was a region full of ambition, always scheming to annex Westpeak and East Yu. Ambition breeds strength—North Qin itself was formidable, with seventeen major cities and twenty-five Ancestral experts in the nation. Its king was a rare eighth-layer Ancestral.
An eighth-layer Ancestral was at least as strong as three seventh-layer Ancestrals combined.
In the end, after a year, Ian successfully soul-seized twenty-two Ancestral experts in North Qin, including three fifth-layer Ancestrals.
The remaining three major city lords were all sixth-layer Ancestrals, and he didn’t risk it.
Even so—
His roster of Ancestral experts had reached thirty-three.
Four fifth-layer, eight fourth-layer, fifteen third-layer, and five second-layer Ancestrals.
With this kind of power, he could already take down Dogwood God Nation.
However, since Dogwood was North Qin’s ally, if Ian tried to seize Dogwood, North Qin definitely wouldn’t sit back and watch.
So, he planned to soul-seize a few more Ancestral experts.
Three years passed in a flash.
Now, twelve mission years had gone by.
Ian finally returned to Vermin-Ape City. During his years away, Mona Meng and the other Hosts had kept the city running smoothly.