Seeing that their main target had fled, Ling Changqing directed the second Golden Armor Combat Puppet to finish off the remaining Pseudo Core masters, with Ling Qiyue joining in to help.

In less than ten breaths, all but two Pseudo Core Cultivators who had luckily escaped were slain.

Next, it was the turn of the Foundation Establishment Cultivators.

By the time the Golden Armor Combat Puppet dissolved into feathers of light and vanished, only a handful of Foundation Establishment Cultivators were left alive on the battlefield.

A few who had lost their nerve tried to surrender, but Ling Qiyue cut them down without a shred of mercy.

"...Alright, we can’t just stand idle. Shall we go out and lend the Patriarch a hand?"

Tang Qiu Yao spoke, and the surrounding family Elders naturally had no objections.

Soon, a force of over a thousand family disciples and nearly two thousand Loose Cultivators, led by more than twenty Foundation Establishment Cultivators, exited the Grand Array and charged the alliance’s forces.

With their high-level fighters almost completely wiped out, the alliance’s Qi Cultivation Stage Cultivators were no match for the Ling Family’s counterattack. The battle immediately devolved into a one-sided slaughter.

In the end, more than half of the Qi Cultivators were killed on the spot. The remaining stragglers scattered in every direction, fleeing the battlefield.

This battle was a resounding victory for the Ling Family.

With the exception of the fugitive Lu Armor, the enemy’s Pseudo Core and Foundation Establishment Cultivators were almost entirely annihilated.

The three leaders—Yuan Wuya, She Mu, and Bai Yunsong—were no exception; Ling Qiyue had struck them down at the first opportunity.

Afterward, Ling Qiyue and Tang Qiu Yao led teams to hunt down the stragglers. They also arranged for patrols across the Changqing Continent, to prevent any fugitives from hiding and waiting for an opportunity to cause mayhem.

Ling Changqing had wanted to go along, but Xue Qingtan firmly insisted he stay behind. She was worried something might happen; ’It’s better for my husband to remain here and hold down the fort.’

The pursuit teams only began to return as night fell, bringing with them the heads of several hundred more Cultivators.

Ling Qiyue, however, had taken a group of family disciples to Yu Long Island. She intended to seize the Sect’s assets as quickly as possible, lest any delays create new problems. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

The few Qi Cultivators who managed to escape back to Yu Long Island had only just informed the remaining Disciples of the crushing defeat when Ling Qiyue’s team arrived.

The outcome was never in doubt. Facing a Late stage Golden Core expert at the height of her power, the remaining Elder on Yu Long Island obediently shut down the Array and announced their unconditional surrender.

A few days later, the remaining Elders of the Yuan Family and the Bai Family sent Envoys to seek an audience with Ling Qiyue, expressing their willingness to surrender unconditionally.

Ling Qiyue readily agreed, dispatching two groups of family disciples, each led by several Foundation Establishment Elders, to take possession of their territories and assets.

Under the current circumstances, the Ling Family’s leadership had no fear of them trying any tricks. In the face of such overwhelming strength, all schemes and plots were meaningless.

As expected, the process of taking over their territories went smoothly and without incident.

Next came the remaining Foundation Establishment small powers. This included families and Sects that had remained neutral and observed from the sidelines; they all pledged their unconditional allegiance to the Ling Family of Changqing Continent.

Surrender was their only option. These families typically only had one or two Foundation Establishment Cultivators presiding over them, their territories and wealth were quite limited, and they had few disciples suitable for Cultivation.

Faced with a behemoth like the Ling Family of Changqing Continent, these small fries could only choose subservience, giving up all their autonomy to be absorbed into the Ling Family.

For the next several months, the Ling Family’s leadership was constantly busy, run off their feet.

Their tasks included taking over island territories, taking inventory of Spirit Vein Cave Mansions and numerous other assets like Spirit Field Medicine Mountain Mines, and managing the vast mortal populace—the very foundation upon which any power relies for survival and growth.

Most of the promising youths suitable for Cultivation came from the mortal population. All of them needed to be registered and cataloged for the leadership to review, so they could absorb this new blood and strengthen the family’s foundations.

Next was the task of redeploying defenses. Now that the Ling Family were masters of the entire Feiyu Sea Region, the territory under their charge was dozens of times larger than before.

As a result, their manpower was stretched thin. Even counting the several thousand Guest Minister Loose Cultivators employed by the Ling Family, there simply weren’t enough people to go around.

To solve this, on Ling Changqing’s suggestion, Ling Qiyue also deployed the Cultivators from the newly absorbed small powers, stationing them in regions far from their homes.

For example, the surviving disciples of the former Bai Family were all assigned to garrison the Mingsha Islands in the far east.

The surviving Cultivators from the former Yu Long Island, meanwhile, were assigned to the Qianye Islands in the far south, where they were integrated into mixed units with Ling Family disciples.

This series of measures finally solved the problem. Although the garrisons in each location were small, at least the territories weren’t left completely undefended.

This potential weakness could be gradually addressed in the future, once the number of available family disciples increased.

Furthermore, Ling Qiyue had already publicly announced that every five to ten years, the defensive postings for all Cultivator teams would be rotated. No one was exempt.

This measure was, of course, intended to prevent those Cultivators from entrenching themselves in one place for too long, which could lead to them colluding with local factions and becoming too powerful to manage.

Finally, there were the various foreign merchant guilds. They also had to be placated and persuaded to continue doing business in the Feiyu Sea Region.

This process proved to be simple. Tang Qiu Yao merely had to promise that they could move their businesses and shops to the Changqing Continent Marketplace, and she immediately won their unanimous support.

「In the inner boudoir.」

"...From now on, the Feiyu Sea Region is our territory!"

Amidst the embroidered draperies, Ling Changqing spoke with a relaxed expression as he held Ling Qiyue’s voluptuous, warm, and flushed body.

Beside them, Tang Qiu Yao, whose jet-black hair cascaded like a waterfall, rolled over. Her star-like eyes were half-closed as she said languidly,