Xu Lanshan put down the ledgers and closed her eyes in contemplation. With her formidable divine sense, hundreds of thoughts sparked in the span of a single breath, her mind working hundreds of times faster than an ordinary person's. In just a brief moment of deliberation, she came up with more than a dozen possible ways to break the deadlock. Yet the crux of the matter, an obstacle impossible to circumvent, was the granaries.
"Someone, come with me to inspect the largest granary."
The attendant was visibly flustered and hurriedly said, "That granary is managed jointly by two elders. Please allow this humble servant to go inform them first..."
Xu Lanshan gave him no chance to pass word. A sweep of sword qi swept him up, carrying him along as she flew straight toward the granary.
Arriving in the air above the grain depot, Xu Lanshan saw several storehouses, each several zhang wide and three zhang high, capable of holding hundreds of thousands of jin of grain. On the depot's ledgers, the total stored grain amounted to over five million jin.
Channeling her sword qi, Xu Lanshan directly lifted the storehouse's roof, which weighed tens of thousands of jin, and peered inside. The storehouse had been cleverly designed with an inner and an outer layer separated by a gap of one foot. The grain was piled only within this gap, while the interior was completely hollow.
Without opening the depot, an outside cultivator sweeping over it with divine sense would perceive a full storehouse.
At present, however, this storehouse held tens of thousands of jin at most, vastly short of the one million jin recorded in the ledger.
Xu Lanshan checked the other storehouses and found the exact same situation. By then, several elders who had received word hurried over, their expressions hideous with frustration and rage.
An elder who was the oldest and whose path of cultivation had reached a dead end spoke with a dark scowl, "Fairy Lanshan, what is the meaning of this? Do you intend to take our old lives?"
This elder was four generations senior to Xu Lanshan, nearly five hundred years old, with little lifespan remaining. He was usually genial and amicable, but addressing her as "Fairy Lanshan" today carried an undertone of fighting to the bitter end.
Another elder sneered. "Killing us won't be so easy. A joint resolution by the clan's council of elders is required! The sword in your hand alone won't suffice!"
Xu Lanshan remained expressionless. "Are the other granaries like this as well?"
The elders' faces darkened further. "Fine, we'll speak plainly with you today—every single granary is like this! This depot only has more grain because people often come to inspect it; everywhere else has even less."
Xu Lanshan looked pensive. "Why was I kept completely in the dark?"
"You act tyrannical and overbearing, refusing to listen to a word we say! Who would tell you the truth?" the elders replied. "To tell you the honest truth, everyone throughout Hanyang Pass has been keeping this from only you! Xu Lanshan, oh Xu Lanshan, don't you understand yet? You are completely isolated! Aside from yourself, you can't command a single soul!"
Xu Lanshan showed no anger. She simply continued, "What do the soldiers eat on normal days?"
One elder answered, "The soldiers have separate depots. Though the actual stores don't match the numbers on the books either, it's barely enough to feed them. We can't truly starve the private army, even if the food isn't as good. Among all the troops, only the unit you are training receives supplies strictly according to the register."
Xu Lanshan asked again, "If the soldiers aren't even full, what about the porridge pavilions and camps set up for the refugees?"
"They only manage to brew rice broth that's barely thicker than plain water." Now that civility had been discarded, the elders hid nothing.
"Don't they cause trouble?"
An elder sneered. "We've already killed over a thousand of them. Who would dare cause trouble? Making trouble only brings a swifter death. Besides, they're so starved they can barely stand upright—what trouble could they cause? A single Body Casting guard of ours can handle a hundred of them."
Xu Lanshan fell silent for a moment before saying, "Follow me."
She returned directly to the main hall of the garrison commander's office, taking the high seat and sinking into contemplative silence.
Unease gnawed at the elders as they recalled this woman's past notoriety.
Years ago, Xu Lanshan had applied for body-refining spiritual herbs, only for the elder managing the warehouse to covet her beauty and attempt to force her into his bed. She had erupted in revolt, slain the elder, and left home to wander the world. Years later, after breaking through in cultivation, she returned to the clan. Seeing that she had made a successful breakthrough, the seniors of her branch stepped forward to suppress the matter.
Back then, when she had just entered the Dharma Idol realm, Xu Lanshan had dared to kill an elder. Would she hesitate now?
Xu Lanshan pondered for a long time, until the elders began to shift uncomfortably. Only then did she speak: "For you to be so emboldened, my family must have had a hand in this, yes?"
"Indeed! Your two youngest brothers took plenty of benefits from us, and your father came in person to demand monthly allowances of immortal silver, walking away with several thousand taels every month. Humph, if you want to kill us, cut them down first!"
Xu Lanshan sighed softly. "Open the pass."
"What?" The elders could hardly believe their ears.
"Lift the blockade and allow all merchant caravans to pass. But there is one condition: departing caravans must transport every refugee stranded within the pass out with them," Xu Lanshan said.
The elders were both shocked and overjoyed. Taking refugees along was a negligible matter compared to reopening lucrative trade routes!
Xu Lanshan's divine sense had already drifted out of the hall toward parts unknown, and her voice sounded faintly ethereal: "One more reminder. Wei Yuan paid five taels of silver in tax to the King of Jin for each refugee. If you can round up refugees yourselves, you may try selling them to him."
The elders were ecstatic. The oldest elder beamed, his wrinkles crinkling into a broad smile. "I knew our grandniece Lanshan was not only extraordinarily gifted, but also understood the bigger picture! When I make a profit, I will surely give you a share. Let me leave one hundred thousand taels of immortal silver with you first as a welcoming gift!"
The remaining elders caught on as well, claiming that they were all in the same boat now and that Xu Lanshan would receive every cent she deserved. In the blink of an eye, the atmosphere in the hall grew lively, painted in the warm, joyous hues of kin united by blood.
When Wei Yuan received word from the front lines, he found it somewhat hard to believe.
With Xu Lanshan's unyielding temperament, and having just been thoroughly cursed out by him and the King of Jin, she had actually opened the pass and let everyone through? Was she not afraid people would mock her for bullying the weak while fearing the strong? That would hardly do wonders for her reputation.
Wei Yuan figured that if he were in her shoes, he would have reached out privately to arrange for the Heaven-Extinguishing Gang to withdraw and dismantle their fortifications. Then he would have bound a few scapegoats and sent them over, claiming they were temporary bandits who hadn't been formally inducted, didn't know the rules, and were the ones responsible for shelling and wounding Hanyang Pass's garrison.
If the other side refused to surrender even temporary hands, he would simply pick out a few death-row convicts to take the blame. Once face had been preserved, he would open the pass to release the refugees, likely even extorting another sum from Wei Yuan in the process.
That would have been a refined way to handle it. Xu Lanshan hadn't communicated at all and had simply opened the pass to let people go, which struck him as exceptionally crude.
Even so, after some thought, Wei Yuan sent an emissary with a letter for Xu Lanshan. In it, he stated that he had eliminated the bandits along the trade route, clearing the path to the Leize Tribe, and that the Heaven-Extinguishing Gang had been heavily battered, likely retreating deep into the Western Regions and remaining out of sight for a long time.
When the letter reached Hanyang Pass, the Heaven-Extinguishing Gang on the hill was already dismantling their fortifications and reloading the cannons onto wagons.
At first, the Xu family elders within the pass did not know what was happening. Hearing that the trade route to the Shamans was now open, they were wild with joy. A double blessing had arrived!
Thus, in less than half a day, letters fell upon the council of elders like snowflakes, filled with nothing but praise for Xu Lanshan, lauding her beauty, virtue, and deep respect for both the elderly and the young.
Xu Lanshan found the praise deeply ironic. She had merely taken stock of the grain supply and realized there was simply not enough food to feed the refugees, and barely enough for the private army. Faced with a choice between her clan's face and the lives of the refugees, she had made her decision.
However, any face she had lost had to be reclaimed from Wei Yuan. She threw herself entirely into training the New Army, drilling the tens of thousands of private soldiers day and night. Though they suffered miserably from the grueling regime, their cultivation advanced by leaps and bounds.
Wei Yuan grew busy as well. With Hanyang Pass open, no fewer than a hundred thousand refugees poured out. Furthermore, at least six Xu family elders and over thirty influential clan figures secretly wrote to Wei Yuan or directly sent trusted aides, claiming to have large numbers of refugees in hand.
The King of Jin charged five taels of silver per refugee, whereas they asked for only two.
Wei Yuan replied at once that he would take as many as they had, paying cash in silver upon delivery of the people.
With this, Wei Yuan estimated the refugee count might surpass two hundred thousand. This required careful planning; the very first day they arrived in Qingming was the moment most likely to generate human karmic luck.
Should he hold a grand welcome rally and give a proper speech himself?
The moment he thought of delivering a speech, Wei Yuan's thoughts began to drift: how large a venue to prepare, how to organize the crowd, what exactly he should say... First, second, third... Points one, two, three, four... Finally... Let me add two more points... A few more reminders to emphasize... And last but not least...
After long deliberation, Wei Yuan ultimately rejected that tempting notion, deciding instead to do something practical.
Chapter 599