Grand Xia Empire (Eastern Wastelands)

The Grand Xia was once mortal enemies with the Phoenix Cry Empire, but in the past few decades, their relations had mellowed and they had become allies.
== Characters ==
== Royal family Relations ==
	Grand Xia 	Phoenix Cry 		
	Xia Youyu 	Western Palace Queen Mother, sister		
	Xia Changfeng, son (dead)	Chu Xia, son 		
	 	 		
== History ==
Over twenty years ago, the Grand Xia had married off their most beautiful princess to Phoenix Cry in order to prevent further conflicts and form an alliance between the two empires.
But the Grand Xia's princess's mission hadn't been to make peace. She had a greater mission. That mission was to take control of Phoenix Cry so that it could be swallowed by the Grand Xia.
That had been shrewdly hidden by the princess extremely deeply. Once she had arrived at Phoenix Cry, she put in her full effort to wait upon the Emperor, and with her skillful techniques in bed, she began to receive heavy pampering from the Emperor.
Not long after, she gave birth to a prince, the fourth prince. The Grand Xia's princess had always maintained a low profile, never entering the conflicts between concubines, patiently enduring and eventually becoming a good sister to the Empress.
Originally, the Grand Xia's plan had been to overturn Phoenix Cry, but during that process, the fourth prince's mother found a shocking secret.
That secret had been told to her by the Emperor after he had gotten drunk. He had told her that Phoenix Cry was about to become the most powerful empire in all of history. Being put on guard from that, the princess had used all her skills in bed to make the Emperor a slave to her skirts, and he finally told her the secret that he had found a spirit stone mine.
=== Spirit stone mine ===
Originally, the Emperor had been planning on building a secret tunnel to be used to escape from assassinations or other dangers. If an enemy managed to enter the city, he could manage to slip away without anyone noticing.
But halfway through the excavation of the secret tunnel, they had found that the stones were becoming increasingly harder, and even cobalt started to appear.
Cobalt was a partner substance that was formed along with spirit stones. Where there was cobalt, there would be spirit stones. That discovery caused the Emperor to go wild with joy.
He directly exterminated everyone who had known about the secret tunnel to keep the whole matter secret. However, the Emperor had never been a tight-lipped person. 
A short while after telling her this, he died of ‘natural causes'.
The Emperor had been within the Empress's palace when he had died. Moreover, he had died on their bed while being intimate with each other. 
The Empress had been frightened out of her mind, but luckily, the fourth prince's mother had ‘just happened' to be walking by.
And in her panic, she had taken her good sister's advice, faking that the Emperor had entered seclusion.
The plan was that they would eventually say he had died in seclusion, limiting the amount of panic that would occur. They just had to find a suitable moment.
In the end, under her scheming, the Empress smoothly gained all the authority over the empire. Lured by the power, she decided to just leave the Emperor in ‘seclusion' forever.
As for the spirit stone mine, she never learned anything about it. 
Whenever she would have any tough problems she would always go to her good sister for help. Her sister became her most trusted aide.
=== Infiltrating Phoenix Cry ===
The fourth prince's mother leaked the information of the spirit stone mine to her father. The matter had become too huge, so she didn't dare do too much without his advice.
This occurred right at the moment when an expert from the Xia family was in a sect. But that expert wasn't even good enough to become a disciple. He was only a worker. But by using this information, it was possible for him to enter the sect as a disciple.
Everything went extremely smoothly. The sect secretly sent people to investigate the terrain, confirming the existence of a spirit stone mine.
But rushing in to mine it would release spiritual qi, alarming the surrounding powers. They sent orders down to take control of Phoenix Cry as fast as possible and also built a Hidden Spirit Formation to completely conceal the aura from the spirit stone mine.
That Hidden Spirit Formation had precisely been the city gate tower. Normally, the aura from the spirit stone mine was completely isolated from the rest of the world. That way they could secretly mine it in the future. 
However, members from the sects couldn't reveal themselves in the secular world without other powers noticing. And so they could only rely on the power of cultivators from the secular world. In order to not cause too many waves, they could only rely on the Grand Xia slowly infiltrating Phoenix Cry.
== Story ==
=== Death of Xia Changfeng ===
In just a single month's time, the capital had completely changed. First the news of Xia Changfeng being murdered shook the entire Phoenix Cry Empire.
But even more shocking was that the person who had killed the Grand Xia's prince was the most famous person in the capital, the junior generation's strongest member who had risen like a shooting star, Long Chen!
The Long household's people had all been imprisoned in just one night. After another few days, large quantities of soldiers began to flow towards the capital.
Before anyone could even understand what was happening, four hundred thousand elite troops from the Grand Xia had encircled the city.
Everyone had been incomparably nervous, waiting for the spark of a huge war to ignite the capital in flames.
But the lucky thing was that the battle never occurred. The fourth prince had appeared to mediate both parties. Saying that he had already captured the killer and had investigated the whole matter, he gave the Grand Xia an acceptable account.
Only then did the elite troops withdraw their siege of the capital. But they didn't go far. They pitched camp forty miles away from the capital. If the Phoenix Cry Empire didn't hand over acceptable terms, they definitely wouldn't mind starting a huge war.
At the same time, there were also people who secretly wondered what was going on. Weren't the Phoenix Cry Empire and the Grand Xia Empire supposed to be allies? How did they suddenly end up on opposite sides of the battlefield now?
Ten days ago, sudden news had leaked that Long Chen's murder of Xia Changfeng had been incited by the crown prince, and so even the crown prince had been arrested.
=== Execution ===
There had also been several ‘henchmen' that had been taken in with him. Today was the day for all these ‘murderers' to face their executions.
On one side of the execution stage were the Phoenix Cry Empire's elite troops, while on the other side were the Grand Xia's elite troops. They both watched each other from a distance with the atmosphere being incredibly tense.
The commoners of the Phoenix Cry Empire were also watching from far away. This was the most controversial and shocking matter that had occurred in the Phoenix Cry Empire in the several dozen years.
However, the most shocking thing for everyone was the sight of the person who was bound front at the execution platform. It was crown prince Chu Yang! 
Behind this group of people was another group of over twenty people. This group included maids and servants. They were actually the Long household's people.
Mrs. Long was shackled by iron fetters. Her expression was haggard as she looked into the distance. 
"Hmph, you want a next life? Just keep on dreaming. Your Long household really is just a group of idiots," said a man with a long blade in his hand coldly.
Mrs. Long glared hatefully at that man, her eyes filled with poison. She wished she could tear that man apart.
"Li Feng (李峰), you bastard, even as a ghost I won't forgive you." Mrs. Long ground her teeth.
That person was one of the officers in charge of the execution and was her older sister's son.
"Li Feng, you definitely won't die a good death!" Bao-er cursed him from the side when she saw his satisfied smile. She really couldn't stand seeing this despicable bastard. Thinking back to when he had acted so well-behaved in front of them, his current expression made her nauseous.
"Not a good death? Hehe, that'll be you guys! Soon your heads will fall to the ground!" Li Feng sinisterly laughed at Bao-er.
Bao-er was just about to retort when a heavy figure was thrown to the ground beside her.
"Wilde!" Mrs. Long let out a sorrowful cry.
Wilde had Bone Eroding Needle all over his body.
"Mom, you don't need to be worried. Wilde doesn't feel any pain." Seeing Mrs. Long crying, Wilde tried to comfort her, even forcing out a slight smile.
But the current Wilde had lost so much weight that he was now practically skin and bones. His smile was actually extremely ugly now.
Back when Long Chen had brought Wilde back home for the first time, Long Chen had told Mrs. Long about his circumstances. He had hoped that his mother would accept him as her adopted son.
Wilde had called Mrs. Long ‘mom' the whole time, but Mrs. Long had always felt that the appellation was a bit strange and hadn't replied to it.
But now when Wilde called her that, she couldn't help but feel sour inside. "Wilde, mom has let you down."
=== Xia Youyu ===
A disturbance arose as a party from both the Phoenix Cry Empire and the Grand Xia Empire walked out. On the side of the Phoenix Cry Empire was the Empress Dowager along with the princes and princesses, as well as the powerful chancellors.
On the side of the Grand Xia Empire was a large, tower-like man wearing yellow robes. Behind him were three armed soldiers closely following him.
Those four all emitted a terrifying pressure. Their reserved auras seemed like volcanoes that might erupt at any moment.
The person at the front was the Grand Xia's Emperor, Xia Youyu. The three people behind him were the Grand Xia's peak experts. This time Xia Youyu had truly brought his entire empire's top forces here.
The two groups stopped when they were a few dozen steps from each other. The fourth prince was the first to walk out. Behind him were two people, one of which was Marquis Ying. The other one was a slightly short, bearded man with a warhammer on his back. That was the equally famous Wu Yi who was known as Marquis Wu.
=== Chu Xia ===
Ever since the eldest prince had been removed from his position, the Empress Dowager had supported the fourth prince Chu Xia to become the inheritor of the empire, making him become the new crown prince. And once the fourth prince had become the crown prince, in a thunderous strike, he had immediately captured the eldest prince's henchmen.
He also quickly ordered Marquis Wu to recall his army back to the capital to defend. They had only just managed to return when the Grand Xia's army had arrived and encircled the capital.
"As for brother Xia Changfeng's misfortune, Chu Xia is deeply apologetic. But luckily the heavens have blessed us and the criminals have already been arrested. I hope the blood of these people can comfort brother Changfeng's soul." The fourth prince ‘regretfully' apologized to Xia Youyu.
Xia Youyu's expression was a bit complicated. This man should be his sister's son, and he was truly a bit unwilling inside.
He knew his son had died a wrongful death under the hands of this fourth prince Chu Xia. But he was unable to take revenge.
That was because there had been someone who had ordered him not to harm even a single hair on his body. The reason he had brought these troops was also because of that person's order. This was all just a play written by Chu Xia.
Xia Youyu narrowed his eyes, wishing he could slap this fake hypocrite. Even after killing his son, he now put on such an act. That was truly intolerable!
But he didn't dare make a move. He knew that if he killed Chu Xia, he would definitely not have a good ending. He could only endure.
"Crown prince Chu Xia is too courteous. As long as I can kill my son's murderer, I believe Changfeng will be able to truly rest contentedly." Xia Youyu looked profoundly at Chu Xia. When he said ‘murderer', a cold light flashed in his eyes.
The fourth prince ignored that gaze, lightly saying, "Rest easy Your Majesty. The killers have been captured and can't run. But in order to maintain our two empires' friendship, a couple of sacrifices are unavoidable. Only by giving up a few prejudices and misunderstandings can two empires' people enjoy peace. Thinking back to the Grand Xia and Phoenix Cry's friendship, I must say that Your Majesty's vision truly is great. What do you say?"
Xia Youyu finally understood that this chess piece he had set up all those years ago had already escaped his chessboard and was beginning to control him instead. The fourth prince's killing of Xia Changfeng was to tell him that this Chu Xia was no longer the old Chu Xia.
==References==
== Navigation ==
Category:Grand Xia
Category:Eastern Wasteland