Wouldn't You Say So, Third Young Master?

Outside, wind and snow swirled. Li Zhaoyuan stood alone within the quiet grand hall. He suddenly found his thoughts in disarray as a feeling of powerlessness—one where racking his brains still yielded no way to break the deadlock—surfaced in his heart once more. A long-lost sensation. What Xu Changtian had said earlier made him realize once again the gulf between himself and his elder brother, the Crown Prince. It was not a gap in ability, but simply one of birth. The Crown Prince was a mountain pressing down upon the hearts of every imperial prince. Even if one exerted every ounce of strength and exhausted every scheme, he remained insurmountable. After standing for a long time, Li Zhaoyuan let out a sigh and turned toward the desk. Right at that moment— "I never thought you'd show an expression like that, Zhaoyuan." A slender, feminine voice abruptly broke the silence of the hall. Tilted with teasing amusement, it sounded quite familiar with the Second Prince. "..." At the sound of her voice, an instinctive trace of tenderness surfaced in Li Zhaoyuan's eyes, but by the time he looked over, his gaze had already returned to calm—tinged even with a hint of revulsion. A woman clad in plain white snow garments appeared at the hall's entrance. A fine, sculpted nose and vermilion lips. Her snow-white sleeves fell to her elbows, leaving fragrant shoulders half-bared and delicate, fair collarbones fully exposed. Breathtakingly chilly, yet stunning. The woman seemed to have appeared alongside a drift of snowy mist floating into the hall from the entrance. Wherever she stepped, a layer of white frost naturally formed across the floor. Had Xu Yuan still been inside this deliberation hall, he would have recognized her distinctive attire at once: she was one of the Three Kings of the Guyuan Fox Clan. After all, characters who were "poor yet generous" were rare in *Cangyuan*. The Snow Fox, Nan Jinxi. Not a *Cangyuan* heroine, but a very special boss. Though she was one of the Fox Clan's Three Kings, she was nowhere to be seen when Guyuan invaded Great Yan. Across many timelines, she stayed obediently in seclusion within a mountain forest inside Great Yan. She could be considered a neutral boss. Killing her yielded equipment drops and intelligence. Sparing her life meant she would take action to assist the player once in the late game, though strictly limited to targeting the Chancellor's Manor. Hearing her tease, Li Zhaoyuan showed no emotion on his face. "This Prince is also human; naturally, I too feel frustration." Pausing for a breath, he asked in a stern voice, "Nan Jinxi, why have you come here?" The Snow Fox, Nan Jinxi, tilted her head in thought. Her slender figure stepped forward as she chuckled softly. "Xu Yinhe and that imperial father of yours kicked up such a storm in the Northern Border; it would be hard for us not to come. Some small beasts in the city told me this commandery office carried your scent, so I came over to see you." When it came to gathering intelligence, the demon race was practically unmatched. Their bloodlines allowed them to control lower-tier demonic beasts and even ordinary animals to supply them with information. However, such control had its flaws. The controlled beasts retained a faint residual link of Source Qi, which powerhouses like Lou Ji could easily perceive and trace back to the source. Li Zhaoyuan glanced toward the outside of the hall. "Doing this... are you not afraid of remaining in Beifeng City forever?" "Is Zhaoyuan worried about me?" Gazing at his sword-like brows and starry eyes, Nan Jinxi curved her eyes into a smile. "Don't worry. Lou Ji has already left the city and headed north. As long as I don't get too close to that imperial sister of yours, no one in this city will discover me." As she spoke, clad in her thin, plain garments, she crossed the hundred-meter hall and arrived right before Li Zhaoyuan. Li Zhaoyuan's expression betrayed neither joy nor anger. He asked thoughtfully, "Lou Ji left?" Nan Jinxi gave her smooth, fair shoulders a playful shrug and smiled. "If that woman hadn't left, I wouldn't have dared show myself. She seemed to be delivering something important." As she spoke, she gathered her skirt and sat on a chair, reaching out to take the dossier from the desk. Unfortunately, Li Zhaoyuan, standing at the desk's side, snatched the dossier into his hand first and gave a faint smile. "Are you that afraid of Lou Ji?" "I can't beat her, after all~" Nan Jinxi wore a pitiful pout, stretching her hand out toward another dossier, and said with a squinting smile, "If that woman hadn't somehow damaged her foundation, she might already have achieved Sainthood by now." Seeing her actions, Li Zhaoyuan swept all the dossiers on the desk straight into his Sumeru ring, his voice turning slightly cold. "Enough. If you wish to pry for intelligence, look elsewhere." Nan Jinxi fixed her azure eyes on Li Zhaoyuan and said, "It was only a joke. You blockhead... you truly understand nothing about women." Li Zhaoyuan looked down at her with inky pupils. "A woman? Are you human?" "..." Hearing this, Nan Jinxi froze for a moment, and then a flash of indignation surfaced in her beautiful eyes. Li Zhaoyuan's dark eyes remained profound and unmoved. A locked gaze. Silence. After a long while, the indignation in Nan Jinxi's eyes gradually faded, and she murmured faintly to herself, "I know your status means you cannot have any ties with me, but..." "Enough." Li Zhaoyuan cut her off, standing straight. "Nan Jinxi, this Prince did indeed save you back then, but do not replay that tedious fairy tale of a white fox repaying a kindness." Nan Jinxi's slender, fidgeting fingers clenched with sudden force. "Li Zhaoyuan, I gave up years of my lifespan to cultivate a human form—what do you think that was for?" Li Zhaoyuan was not moved in the least, his voice even taking on a hint of impatience. "If you have something to say, say it directly. The battle for Beifeng is pressing. If you continue this nonsense, this Prince will activate the array." "..." Silence fell over the hall. The woman's frail, slender body trembled slightly, and she whispered, "I only came to tell you: leave Beifeng City immediately." "Leave?" Li Zhaoyuan's brow furrowed slightly. He knew that for her to appear at the risk of her life, she most likely wasn't lying. Pondering for a moment, he uttered a single word: "Reason." Nan Jinxi showed a flicker of hesitation in her eyes, yet still revealed, "All the sects' stockpiles of provisions and armaments within Beifeng City are about to be detonated. You should know what that entails." It entailed seventy to eighty percent of the provisions in the city being destroyed. It entailed half of the city-defense siege engines and armaments being left without replenishment. And it entailed a third of the reserve Source Crystals supplying the city-protecting array vanishing into thin air. Thinking of this, Li Zhaoyuan was about to depart immediately to handle it, but Nan Jinxi called him back. She said unhurriedly: "It's already too late. I learned of this a quarter-hour ago. Counting the time, in less than a cup of tea's time, you should hear the noise." Li Zhaoyuan fell silent for an instant, then frowned. "The sects?" Nan Jinxi shook her head, indicating that she did not know either, though a touch of playful mockery entered her voice. "The resources within your Great Yan are truly far too abundant. The imperial court fights the sects, and the sects fight among themselves. If Beifeng City falls, even if seven hundred thousand troops are buried in the snow plains, Great Yan will inevitably mobilize troops next year to reclaim a strategic stronghold like Beifeng. "The Barbarians won't pass up this opportunity to escape the snow plains, and neither the sects, the Great Desert, nor even our Guyuan will let slip this chance to deplete your Great Yan imperial court. We will all support them. When the time comes, even if your Great Yan imperial court manages to reclaim it, you will surely have suffered catastrophic damage, powerless to move against the sects any longer..." "..." After several breaths of silence, Li Zhaoyuan suddenly asked, "Are you finished?" "Huh?" "If you are finished, then leave. This Prince must continue attending to military affairs." "..." The Snow Fox Nan Jinxi's eyes widened slightly, her pace quickening. "Li Zhaoyuan, did you not understand what I said? This Beifeng City—" "Of course I understood." Li Zhaoyuan stepped forward slowly, pulled the woman up from the chair, sat down himself, leaned against the backrest, and said calmly, "However, the more critical the situation becomes, the more support I can win from others. If handled properly, I might even gain the backing of that imperial sister of mine." "You will die," Nan Jinxi said, staring at Li Zhaoyuan. Li Zhaoyuan shook his head and stopped looking at her. "If this Prince fails, I will meet with death all the same." For a time, the hall sank into silence. Li Zhaoyuan exhaled a breath of white mist. "Go. If you are discovered, this Prince will have no choice but to activate the array and execute you." "..." Nan Jinxi looked at him with a conflicted expression for several breaths, then bit her lip, turned, and dissolved into a puff of snowy mist, disappearing from the deliberation hall. And vanishing along with her was the white frost brought forth by her footsteps. All traces dissipated, just as if she had never come. Seeing her departure, Li Zhaoyuan returned the documents and dossiers he had just stored in his Sumeru ring one by one to the desk. But when he placed down the dossier regarding the sects' stockpiles inside Beifeng City, his lips curled into a meaningful arc... *** The night deepened. In the snowy night, the strategic town of Beifeng appeared vast and desolate. The soldiers patrolling the streets from time to time and the beast-drawn carriages thundering past with munitions were the only sounds in the streets. Horses in the stables paced restlessly due to the continuous explosions rumbling across the southern sky, while the countless soldiers and civilians sheltered beneath the grand array curled up in bed, savoring a false sense of security beneath warm, heavy quilts. And Xu Yuan was one of them. After bidding farewell to the Second Prince, he had immediately returned to rest. With no one to arrange lodging for him, he had simply retired to his fiancée's room. This violated Great Yan's etiquette, but a wastrel couldn't care less about etiquette. Besides, there were only three decent courtyards in the back hall; he couldn't very well go sleep in the Third Prince's room, could he? The thick quilt allowed Xu Yuan to sleep soundly, but alas, tonight was destined to be a sleepless night. Just as he was about to drift into slumber, Xu Yuan suddenly opened his eyes. Xu Yuan sat up while rubbing his brow, his unbound long hair draping across his back. Enduring the drowsiness in his chest, he rolled out of bed, picked up the padded coat draped over the back of a nearby chair, threw it over his shoulders, and walked toward the door. The moment he opened the door, a biting, bone-chilling wind and blizzard cut into his cheeks like knives. On the horizon not far away, red flames mingled with black smoke, and continuous sympathetic explosions rumbled in unbroken succession. Watching this scene, Xu Yuan subconsciously frowned. Before he could think further, a figure landed beside him. Zhou Chen had arrived. "Third Young Master." Xu Yuan glanced at him and asked, "What happened?" Zhou Chen looked toward where the flames rose, hesitating before saying, "That direction... should be the border army's storehouses." "Hiss..." The corner of Xu Yuan's eye twitched, and any lingering sleepiness vanished completely. Circulating his cultivation technique, he leaped up to the highest point of the commandery office in a few bounds. Through the snowy night with its poor visibility, in addition to the blazing fire near the commandery office, he could vaguely make out firelight rising from several other locations across the city. "Are all those places the border army's storehouses?" Zhou Chen, following closely beside Xu Yuan, responded immediately, "Yes. The border army's internal structure is chaotic; each sect basically keeps its own depot to store supplies within Beifeng City." Standing at the high vantage point, Xu Yuan watched for several breaths before softly shaking his head. "Wiped out in one fell swoop. These sects certainly have quite the appetite..." "A voracious appetite indeed." The voice answering was steady—not Zhou Chen, but Li Zhaoyuan. Unbeknownst to them, he had also arrived atop this highest pavilion of the commandery office. Looking at Xu Yuan, he held a dossier in hand and remarked calmly, "It is only a pity that the intelligence on the sects' storehouses the Third Young Master gave me earlier now appears useless." With that, a plume of blue flame ignited in Li Zhaoyuan's hand, instantly engulfing the dossier and reducing it to ash. Xu Yuan furrowed his brow, staring at Li Zhaoyuan. "Second Highness, does your remark imply that you suspect our Chancellor's Manor burned these border army storehouses?" Li Zhaoyuan's gaze seemed capable of seeing right through someone. "Third Young Master, if the Black Scale Guards can uncover even the exact quantities in the storehouses, tampering with them shouldn't be difficult. Furthermore, the findings regarding the blast at the southern Triumph Gate also pointed to carriages belonging to your Tian'an Chamber of Commerce." "..." Xu Yuan made no sound and offered no defense. Seeing Xu Yuan's reaction, Li Zhaoyuan smiled faintly. "However, given Duke Xu's doting fondness for you, Third Young Master, how could he ever place you in harm's way? My guess is that someone else is causing trouble from the shadows. After all, if it truly were the Chancellor's Manor's doing, why would the Third Young Master hand over the border army storehouse intelligence to this Prince? And why use the Tian'an Chamber of Commerce's carriages? This Prince deduces that someone is actively meddling to sow discord." At the top of the pavilion, the wind and snow blew fiercely, Xu Yuan's unbound hair dancing in the gale. With blood-red flames flickering in his eyes, Xu Yuan let out a light laugh. "With such a major incident occurring, instead of presiding over command to contain the fire, Your Second Highness has the leisure to come chat with me?" A trace of amusement crept into Li Zhaoyuan's deep, dark eyes. "The destruction of the northern sects' storehouses is actually advantageous to the imperial court, is it not?" "Advantageous?" Xu Yuan mused thoughtfully. "Third Young Master, this Prince sees three distinct benefits. Please, offer your corrections." Li Zhaoyuan glanced at Xu Yuan, then turned his gaze toward the southern district in the distance, sounding partly wistful and partly amused. "First, Beifeng City cannot be held, and these supplies would have to be detonated sooner or later. Leaving half a year's provisions for three hundred thousand troops behind would only mean surrendering them to the Barbarians. "Second, the greatest reason for Beifeng City's crisis is not a shortage of supplies, but the complete destruction of the southern Triumph Gate's formations and gate. When the Barbarians gather their totems to assault us, we have to fill the breach with human lives. Now that someone has kindly detonated the stockpiles for us, those sectarian border forces in the city are left without supplies and must turn to us for aid. My imperial sister's efforts to rotate those sectarian troops onto city-defense duty will face far less resistance. "Third, Houting County is merely three hundred li from Beifeng City. Even if high-level cultivators must conceal their auras, a round trip takes only a single day. For every extra day Beifeng City holds, a portion of these supplies would be transported away by high-level sect cultivators using Sumeru rings. Hold for ten days, and most of the supplies would be stockpiled back in Houting County. When that happens, the only people stranded on the snow plains would be our imperial court's three hundred thousand troops around Mount Dali." "..." Looking at this calculating Second Prince, Xu Yuan suddenly grinned. "So that's how it is. The destruction of the sects' depots actually yields such benefits for our Great Yan imperial court. Your Second Highness's meticulous mind truly lives up to its reputation." Li Zhaoyuan shook his head. "Third Young Master flatters me. This Prince only realized this after reflecting in hindsight. The person who schemed all this beforehand is the one whose mind is truly meticulous." As he spoke, amidst the wild dance of wind and snow, he stared at Xu Yuan and smiled, enunciating each word: "Wouldn't you say so, Third Young Master?"