Special Expert of Beauty CEO

Sure enough, just as the Lion King had expected, once the Tiger King regained power he directly announced that he was cutting diplomatic ties with the Lion Clan and withdrawing from the Southern Barbarian Alliance!

Not only that, the Tiger King even threatened to attack the Lion Clan!

”Heh, since when did the Tiger King also start acting on impulse? Attack the Lion Clan? What a fool’s dream!”

The Lion King sneered at the Tiger King’s series of moves and didn’t take them to heart at all.

”Right now the Tiger King is still facing Qin Tian’s offensive. Even if Qin Tian doesn’t attack him, if he wants to attack me, it’s no different from an egg hitting a rock.”

While the Lion King was analyzing, one of his strategists said worriedly, ”Your Majesty, what if the Tiger King and Qin Tian form an alliance and attack us together? What should we do then?”

”That would be the worst-case scenario. I’ve thought about it.”

The Lion King stretched lazily and said, ”Since Qin Tian was able to let the Tiger King return, that means the two of them might have reached some sort of agreement.”

”Hmph, if it were before, I might have been afraid, but now I have both the Wolf Clan and the Xiong Clan firmly in my grasp. Even if they join forces, what can they do to me? I hear the Fox King has returned home; I’ll go ask the Fox King to send troops, and then join up with that twenty to thirty thousand from the Leopard Clan. Pulling together a two-hundred-thousand-strong army will be effortless. Do you think I have any reason to fear them?”

The Lion King was incomparably confident. And according to his analysis, indeed, being able to muster an army of over two hundred thousand at this time meant he would have better than a ninety percent chance of victory against Qin Tian.

What’s more, the Lion King had already sent a letter to the Ice Emperor, asking him to increase troops in South State, creating a posture of cutting off Qin Tian’s retreat and forcing Qin Tian to divert forces to defend.

However, the plan was beautiful, reality was cruel.

When the Lion King was preparing the next day to summon the Fox King to discuss a joint campaign, news from the Fox Clan reached his ears at the same time—

The Fox Clan announced its withdrawal from the Barbarian Clan alliance and its alliance with the Leopard Clan!

Of course, the ”Leopard Clan” the Fox Clan referred to was the Leopard Clan led by the little leopard girl.

Clang!

This news instantly sent the Lion King into a rage; he smashed a huge hole in the audience hall with one punch on the spot!

”That cheap woman! She actually went and threw herself at an outsider? Cheap woman!”

The Lion King cursed viciously and immediately started shouting about sending troops to attack the Fox Clan.

The Fox Clan bordered the Lion Clan, and he had always bullied the Fox Clan as a matter of habit. This time he truly made up his mind to deal with the Fox Clan that had ”betrayed him.”

Unfortunately, just as the Lion Clan’s army finished assembling, a major incident also broke out on the Xiong Clan’s side—

Qin Tian set up a banquet in Shuiyun City at the junction of the Wolf Clan, Xiong Clan, and Tiger Clan, inviting the Tiger King and the new Xiong King to attend!

The new Xiong King was Xiong Da’s son, eleven years old—still young, but not that young.

After receiving Qin Tian’s invitation, the Little Xiong King was not foolish. On the one hand, he sent people to Man City to seek the Lion King’s instructions; on the other, he sent people to contact the Tiger King and ask whether the Tiger King would go.

The Tiger King’s reply was crisp: he would go.

Whether the Little Xiong King went or not, the Tiger King would definitely go.

This left the Little Xiong King and his strategists in an awkward position, especially when the Lion King’s order arrived from Man City, forbidding him to go.

At this time, the Xiong Clan was split into two factions internally. One faction were supporters of the former Xiong King, who rejected the Lion Clan’s interference in the Xiong Clan’s internal affairs; the other were the Lion Clan’s proxies, holding the vast majority of the Xiong Clan’s military power and very strong.

The Little Xiong King was coerced into not going.

But just then, Qin Tian suddenly made a move, personally leading thirty thousand troops to deploy along the Xiong Clan’s border!

The intent of this move was obvious: if the Xiong Clan didn’t give him face, he would directly invade the Xiong Clan!

This was a blatant threat!

Yet the Little Xiong King was helpless.

At the same time, Yan Ruolan brought twenty thousand men straight to the southern Xiong Clan, preparing to cross the Xiong Clan’s border and counterattack the Leopard Clan!

Besides Qin Tian and Yan Ruolan, the Fox Clan, which bordered the Leopard Clan, also began to move at this time. A thirty-thousand-strong army assembled on the Leopard–Fox border, ready to coordinate with Yan Ruolan’s operation so the two forces could encircle together, with Leopard City as their direct target!

The situation among the Barbarian Clan shifted like storm clouds; in an instant, all factions began to mass their troops!

The Lion King’s original plan of first controlling several major clans and then combining their forces to attack Qin Tian completely collapsed in less than ten days.

Under the Lion Clan’s influence, the Little Xiong King had originally decided not to go to Shuiyun City for the banquet. But the day after he sent people to refuse Qin Tian, the Tiger Clan mobilized!

The Tiger Clan dispatched twenty thousand troops and massed them directly on the Tiger–Xiong border, forming a posture with Qin Tian of jointly encircling Xiong City!

This time, the Little Xiong King panicked.

Especially after the Lion King sent people again and again to warn the Tiger King not to act recklessly, to no avail, the Little Xiong King, under the analysis of certain ministers, gradually saw the situation clearly and realized that relying on the Lion Clan was a dead end.

In the end, the Little Xiong King overruled all objections and, ignoring every obstruction from the Great General (the Lion Clan’s proxy), stubbornly led his people to Shuiyun City to attend the banquet.

As a result, the Lion King, enraged and humiliated, ordered the Xiong Clan’s Great General to spring an ambush when the Little Xiong King left Xiong City, and they directly slaughtered the Little Xiong King and his three thousand-strong Guard Team to the last man!

This was the ”Xiong City Incident”!

Originally, under the Lion King’s promise, after the Xiong City Incident the Lion King would fully support the Xiong Clan’s Great General, Hou Xiaolin, in ascending the Xiong throne.

And he did indeed do just that.

However, both the Lion King and Hou Xiaolin underestimated the influence the Xiong King still had within the Xiong Clan. Many generals and ministers supported the Little Xiong King entirely because the former Xiong King had shown them great favor.

Now that Hou Xiaolin had killed the Little Xiong King, he completely ignited the fury of a large portion of Xiong generals. These people united to resist Hou Xiaolin, and a civil war broke out directly inside Xiong City!

The Lion King had not expected such a development and hurriedly prepared to dispatch troops to help Hou Xiaolin suppress the revolt.

But at the same time, at Qin Tian’s instigation, the Tiger King also dispatched troops. He and the Tiger King each sent twenty thousand soldiers and marched straight to lay siege to Xiong City!

The Lion King was completely dumbfounded, especially when he heard that Qin Tian was personally leading the army!

In the end, in a small town outside Xiong City, the Lion Clan’s forces ran into the Tiger Clan’s troops and Qin Tian’s forces and were beaten so badly they fled in disarray back to the Lion Clan’s territory.

By then, the civil war in Xiong City, with the entry of Qin Tian’s and the Tiger Clan’s forces, also came to a definitive end.

Qin Tian took control of Xiong City, and the Tiger Clan troops withdrew.

At this point Qin Tian also noticed that the people of Xiong City were quite hostile toward him as an outsider.

So, after consulting Yan Ruolan and the Fox King, Qin Tian helped the Xiong King’s only daughter ascend the throne; she was only thirteen years old.

To prevent the Xiong Clan from growing suspicious of Qin Tian, the Fox King specially wrote a letter to the new Xiong King and to the Xiong King’s consort, Si Fei.

The mother and daughter both knew about the relationship between the Fox King and the late Xiong King, and everyone in the Xiong Clan knew of the Xiong King’s ties with the Fox King. Thus, after the Fox King personally came forward as guarantor this time, the Xiong Clan finally settled down somewhat.

At the same time, in that letter the Fox King also urged the new Xiong King to immediately send troops to coordinate with the Tiger Clan’s army and the little leopard girl Yan Ruolan in besieging Leopard City.