Family Cultivation: My entire family are Villains

Chapter 437: 215, Hou Yuling's Three Messages

The Rakshasa Holy Sect was paying such close attention that, not only did they notify Wan Renjue in advance, but they also deliberately informed Hou Yuxiao before both Hou Yujie and Hou Yuduan returned, urging the Hou Clan's army of twenty thousand to set out quickly. This obviously showed the importance they placed on the upcoming battle in Hedong.

Therefore, having recognized the capabilities of the Holy Land, Hou Yuxiao, albeit reluctantly, had no choice but to swiftly start preparing for the military campaign, readying to wade into the tumultuous waters of the Hedong conflict.

As previously discussed, according to Zhan Taiqing, if the Hou Clan wanted to pull Tongling out and together with the other three prefectures of Hexi to establish Hexi Prefecture, then this time, as the Holy Sect set out to conquer Hedong, the Hou Clan must lead all the second-rate forces of the three prefectures and dispatch twenty thousand troops as a certificate of pledge to the Rakshasa Holy Sect.

Establishing Hexi Prefecture was an essential and inevitable achievement for the Hou Clan, the significance of which was not solely about expanding territory, but also another enormous advantage: the Hou Clan would face almost no difficulty in advancing to a first-class power in the future.

In the world, regardless of the power, the biggest difficulty in advancing actually wasn't the standards restriction: a third-rate power only needed a Warrior of the Gang Qi Realm, and for any normal power, even if the sect members' talents were poor, producing one or two Warriors of the Gang Qi Realm wasn't too difficult.

The biggest challenge was actually replacing the predecessor—considering you want to advance to a third-rate power, generally, you need to replace another third-rate power in the county. It's an unavoidable path, because a county at most can only accommodate one third-rate power;

Even in prefectural cities where multiple third-rate powers coexist, in most cases, you still need to replace other third-rate powers. After all, the resources and business of a prefecture are limited; if you advance without matching industrial and business support, it becomes impossible to sustain your sect members and disciples, ultimately leading to inevitable destruction.

In the same way, the Hou Clan no longer had the pressure to advance to second-rate, given that they were in control whether in Tongling or Wanyang.

But to advance to first-class, that was difficult...

A third-rate doesn't leave the county, a second-rate dominates the prefecture, first-class, now that requires controlling the prefectural government. Staying in Tongling County, the only path for the Hou Clan to advance to first-class was to replace the traditional first-class power of Xingnan Prefecture, the Xiong Yun Gang; however, currently, Zhan Taiqing offered the Hou Clan a new path, which was to pull out from Tongling County and, together with the three prefectures of Hexi, form Hexi Prefecture.

To replace the Xiong Yun Gang, which had a history of over seven hundred years, compared to naturally dominating the about-to-be-established Hexi Prefecture—these two paths to becoming a first-class power, which was simpler, went without saying.

Hou Yuxiao's choice was almost indisputable; upon hearing Zhan Taiqing propose the idea of forming Hexi Prefecture, she immediately knew that Hou Clan was entirely in Zhan Taiqing's grip—she clearly understood what the Hou Clan truly desired.

The great battle in Hedong was perilous, and indeed the Hou Clan did not want to get involved if there weren't sufficiently enticing conditions. But coincidentally, Zhan Taiqing's Hexi Prefecture proposal was a condition Hou Yuxiao couldn't refuse.

On the third day of September, at the Golden Wind and Drizzle Building during a strategic meeting, the Hou Clan executed seven leaders, making all the second-rate forces of the three prefectures recognize the Hou Clan's firm intention to establish Hexi Prefecture. Given that it was a time of war, the Hou Clan was managing all matters of the three prefectures, and naturally, no one dared to oppose the decision to dispatch troops in support of the Holy Sect.

On the day Hou Yujie and Hou Yuduan returned from the prefectural city, led by two second-rate forces—the Famed Sword Sect and the Fengbo Hall—the disciples of all the second-rate forces of the three prefectures who were prepared to join the battle had sequentially arrived at the prefectural city.

Hou Yuxiao, upon receiving news of everyone's arrival, promptly dispatched Hou Yucheng and two others to welcome the leaders of the twenty-eight forces to the main hall of the Hou Mansion where she was waiting early.

The Hou Mansion had now become the center for handling all affairs of the three prefectures. After the main hall was expanded several times, it could accommodate hundreds of people, and with the leaders of the twenty-eight second-rate forces and their followers, totaling about a hundred people, the main hall did not feel crowded.

"Fengbo Hall, deploying 2300 troops."

"Famed Sword Sect, deploying 2300 troops."

"The Gao Family, deploying 1500 troops."

"Qinghu Gang, deploying 300 troops."

"Hualing Sword Sect, deploying 400 troops."

"The Zhang Clan, deploying 350 troops."

...

As the twenty-eight second-rate forces sequentially stepped forward to report the number of sect members being dispatched and then submitted a list of those members' names, Hou Yuxiao, seated at the head, waited until all twenty-eight had finished reporting their numbers, her face displaying satisfaction from the beginning.

Fengbo Hall and the Famed Sword Sect, being second-rate forces, were actually slightly weaker than the prior Great Luo Sect and Tianding Sect. Based on what Hou Yuxiao knew, these two sects had between four to five thousand warriors with five levels of body refinement or higher, so being able to deploy 2300 men was enough to demonstrate their sincerity.

The Gao Family also managing to contribute 1500 troops was somewhat unexpected to Hou Yuxiao; it seemed that although they had been classified as third-rate, their strength had already reached second-rate standards.

Beyond these three, the remaining twenty-five forces of the three prefectures generally each deployed over three hundred troops, with the most being five hundred. As a third-rate force, having five hundred to six hundred warriors with five levels of body refinement or higher was already quite strong; hence, the cooperative attitude of these twenty-five third-rate forces was also quite fitting.

While Hou Yuxiao felt satisfied, she also understood in her heart that the reason these people were so cooperative was probably due to having been frightened by the event at the Golden Wind and Drizzle Building on the third day of September.