Bringing the farm to another world

Chapter 16231 Missing
In the Divine Kingdom, aristocratic families are divided into major and minor families. Minor families generally refer to those that cannot hold official positions in the Divine Kingdom, but have the status of 'clerks' in small cities, and whose members have at least two experts at the royal city level. Such families are considered a type of aristocratic family, but they can only survive by relying on major families. In the aristocratic family alliance, they are considered to be out of reach.

As for the criteria for a large family, it is actually quite easy to judge: a family must be able to gain a foothold in a medium-sized city, have at least one kingdom-level expert, and someone in the family must hold a formal official position in the kingdom in order to meet the criteria for a large family.

Of course, there are also hierarchical divisions within large families. If a family only has one kingdom-level expert who holds a very minor official position in the Divine Kingdom, such a family can only be considered the lowest-ranking among the large families. When the Aristocratic Family Alliance holds meetings, such families usually only have the right to listen in and do not have the right to express their opinions.

Within the Aristocratic Clan Alliance, the truly powerful families possess immense strength. Some families can even control an entire city. Of course, this doesn't mean everyone in the city belongs to that family, but rather that there are no other powerful families in the city. Even smaller families are dependent on them. Furthermore, many industries in the city are related to that family. The number of Kingdom-level experts in this family must exceed twenty, and the family must also hold a high position within the Divine Kingdom. This is the standard for a powerful family, and only such families are qualified to express their opinions when the Aristocratic Clan Alliance holds meetings.

Previously, the Myriad Laws Divine Sect had only dealt with the smaller families, but had not touched any of the larger families, not even those with only one kingdom-level expert. It was precisely because of this that the major families in the Aristocratic Alliance did not unite to cause trouble for the Myriad Laws Divine Sect. Although the five major families were also very angry, they were not really willing to fight the Myriad Laws Divine Sect to the death.

For those large families, small families are not even considered their kind. They truly do not regard those small families as their own. The reason they take care of those small families is only to use them and control those small towns, so that they will have leverage to fight against the royal family.

One of the main reasons why those powerful families were willing to accept those smaller families was that they couldn't allow those smaller families to side with the royal family. If they didn't accept those smaller families, those smaller families would side with the royal family, and the royal family's power would increase while their own would decrease. That's why they allowed those smaller families to join their aristocratic alliance. In any case, they wouldn't have any say in the matter, and this way they could prevent those smaller families from side with the royal family. It was a win-win situation, so why not?

That is why, when the Myriad Laws Cult wiped out those smaller families, the five major families were angry, but not to the point of necessarily fighting the Myriad Laws Cult to the death.

This time, Xu Ying and his group are not targeting the small families, but the large families. Moreover, they cannot target the weakest of the large families. They must select several large families with considerable strength, and then they will take care of all of them. Then, they will observe the reactions of the five major families, which will surely be quite exciting.

After careful consideration, Xu Ying and his group decided to take action against the two powerful families living in Xingyang City. Xingyang City was a medium-sized city, and there were two powerful families in the city: the Xing family and the Zhan family. These two families controlled the entire city. Of course, in addition to these two powerful families, there were also several smaller families in the city, but these smaller families all depended on the two powerful families for their livelihood.

The Xing and Zhan families were allies and relatives by marriage. They had conflicts in the past, even reaching a point of life and death. However, an event occurred that made them put aside their hatred: a sect attacked them and almost wiped them out. The two families suffered heavy losses and almost lost their status as major families. The reason for this tragedy was that the two families fought too fiercely, giving others an opportunity.

Since that incident, the two families have learned their lesson. They stopped fighting and instead started intermarrying. After years of recovery, their strength is now not to be underestimated. Each family has more than twenty kingdom-level experts, and they control almost half of the city's industries. Many industries outside the city are also under their control. Although there are a few small families in the city, they all depend on them for survival. The city lord of Xingyang City is a position that is held by people from both families in rotation. Therefore, Xingyang City can be said to be their territory. Gongliang Juewen was certainly aware of this situation, but there was nothing he could do about it.

The infiltration of powerful families into various cities was silent and stealthy, so Gongliang Juewen was unable to prevent it, not to mention that by the time he became emperor, those powerful families had already become influential.

The situation in Xingyang City is quite tense right now. They used to have the Temple of Ten Thousand Laws here, but after their conflict with the Sect of Ten Thousand Laws, the temple was completely deserted. All the members of the Sect of Ten Thousand Laws left, so it's as if the Temple of Ten Thousand Laws no longer exists.

Even so, they were still very nervous. However, they believed that the Myriad Laws Divine Sect wouldn't attack them this time, because in their view, the Myriad Laws Divine Sect's primary target would definitely be the five major families. So, although they were nervous and strengthened their vigilance, they weren't overly anxious. While they increased their precautions, they didn't go so far as to monitor everyone entering the city. However, they didn't know that there were already members of the Blood Slaughter Sect in Xingyang City. These people were all rogue cultivators who had already infiltrated Xingyang City and had been living there for a long time. They did missions and lived like ordinary rogue cultivators. Therefore, even if the Xing family and the Zhan family really monitored the entire Xingyang City and kept an eye on all the new faces entering the city, they wouldn't find anything, because the disciples of the Blood Slaughter Sect were already in the city.

The day was the same as before. When it got dark, Xingyang City closed its gates, and everyone returned to their homes. The streets were empty, and no one dared to wander around outside anymore.

Previously, there was no curfew in Xingyang City. However, after the Xing and Zhan families participated in the operation against the Wanfa Divine Sect, they implemented a curfew in Xingyang City. As a result, no one can be seen outside Xingyang City at night. If anyone dares to act outside, they will be executed on the spot if they are discovered. Those rogue cultivators dare not provoke the two families, so there is naturally no one outside.

At 9 PM, Xingyang City was already quiet. Suddenly, countless men in black appeared in the city and surrounded several areas. There were many of them, and they appeared suddenly and silently. Although the city had defensive formations, they did not react at all. Even after they surrounded those areas, the people inside did not react at all, because they did not realize that they had been surrounded.

The next moment, a slight energy fluctuation suddenly appeared in the areas surrounded by the men in black. Then, the men in black rushed directly into the surrounded areas. All the surrounded areas were the territory of the Xing family and the Zhan family in the city, including the city lord's mansion.

But just as the men in black rushed into the area they had surrounded, nothing changed. It was as if the men in black had simply vanished, just as they had appeared.

But that's not actually the case. The men in black didn't disappear. The reason they seemed to have vanished was because those places were shrouded in an illusion array. In other words, those places were completely covered by the illusion array, making it impossible for outsiders to see what was happening there.

More than an hour later, the men in black reappeared. They then removed the illusion array and disappeared from the city. The rogue cultivators and ordinary people in the city had no idea what had happened. They didn't hear a sound, and everything seemed like an ordinary night.

The next morning, after the independent cultivators in the city got up, they suddenly discovered that many shops in the city were not open, no one was coming or going from the city lord's mansion, and no one was coming or going from the various aristocratic families in the city. It seemed that all the people in charge of the city had disappeared all at once.

The rogue cultivators panicked. They immediately inquired about the situation. When they mustered their courage and entered the Xing family's gate, they saw a tall stone tablet standing in the Xing family's square. On the stone tablet, several large characters were written in blood: "The Fate of Noble Families"!
Upon seeing these words, the rogue cultivators turned pale with fright. They immediately withdrew from the Xing family, and many others left the city. They knew that the Xing family, the Zhan family, and all the smaller families in the city were wiped out; not a single one had survived. If they stayed in the city, they didn't know when they would be arrested and interrogated, and they might not even know how they died.

He knew very well that if those powerful families really went crazy, they would be unreasonable. In their eyes, they were probably not even as good as ants. Killing them would be too easy. So all the rogue cultivators ran away.

Most of the rogue cultivators had fled, and all the members of the aristocratic families in the city, whether they were large or small, had vanished, leaving only ordinary people. As a result, Xingyang City was suddenly empty. The ordinary people in the city were now in a panic, because their food, clothing, shelter, and transportation were all related to the aristocratic families, large and small, in the city. Now that all the members of those families had disappeared, their lives were in jeopardy, so how could they not panic?