An Open Scheme

The chilling wind cut to the bone, and snow blanketed countless rivers across the boundless expanse. Gazing at his silhouette against the blizzard, Li Qingyan let out a faint, quiet chuckle. "It seems... where I stood was still too low. So low that all I could see was the survival of Beifeng City." Xu Yuan watched her reaction with a slight smile and extended a hand toward her. "The realm is a chessboard, all living beings are the pieces, and those who play them number merely two or three. The moment that Barbarian Heterodox King took the gamble of bypassing Beifeng City to the south, the Northern Border's grand situation was already cast in stone." Li Qingyan looked at his hand for a brief moment, took it, and rose from the snow. Dusting the flakes from her shoulders, she said offhandedly, "That Barbarian Heterodox King is hardly an obedient piece. Using him as one invites a dangerous backlash." Xu Yuan glanced back toward Beifeng City and laughed softly. "That Barbarian Heterodox King is indeed an extraordinary ruler. His vision, strategic acumen, ambition, and audacity are one in ten thousand. But as far as Di'an City is concerned, making him an obedient dog isn't all that difficult." A peculiar glint appeared in Li Qingyan's phoenix eyes. "Taming that Barbarian King into an obedient dog?" "Just a metaphor." Xu Yuan pulled her hand closer, looking straight into her eyes. "Did you forget, Qingyan? In the battle of Beifeng, though you took no orders from me, judged by the outcome, didn't you still end up as my... hehe." Stopping there, Xu Yuan grinned and said no more. Li Qingyan remained perfectly calm. Letting out a soft snort through her delicate nose, she smiled. "Prince Consort... are you saying you want this princess to be your dog?" "..." Her bluntness caught Xu Yuan off guard for a second. Subconsciously, the image of this imperial princess acting like a dog flashed across his mind. Hiss... Snapping back to his senses and seeing the amusement dancing in her eyes, Xu Yuan cleared his throat and hurried to deny it. "It was just a metaphor. I wouldn't—" "This princess never said no." "..." Xu Yuan licked his lips. Li Qingyan shook her head in an airy manner. "Heh. Men." Xu Yuan rolled his eyes and let out a breath. "During my time in the Imperial Capital, my father taught me many things. Most importantly, he taught me how to manipulate someone who takes no orders from me into serving my ends." "Driven by self-interest?" Li Qingyan asked coolly. "More or less." Xu Yuan nodded with a grin, not letting go of her hand as he chatted. "I could manipulate you, Qingyan, because I knew you wanted to hold Beifeng City. My father and the others manipulating the Barbarian King works on the exact same logic." Li Qingyan glanced at her hand, still grasped firmly in his, letting him take advantage of her. "Prince Consort, you only just praised that Barbarian Heterodox King's strategy and boldness..." "Yes, I did," Xu Yuan cut in with a smile. "Had it been the barbarian kings of the past, having gained such massive advantages over our Great Yan months ago, they would have fled back to the Land of Utter Darkness in the far north under the cover of this blizzard long ago. But today's Barbarian Heterodox King is different. It is precisely his grand strategy and ambition that allow my father and the others to manipulate him." At this, Xu Yuan could not help chuckling softly. He raised a single finger. "And the same goes for me now. So long as I give that Barbarian Heterodox King a path to break free from being a piece and become a player on the board, he will turn into an obedient dog—even if the odds of success are negligible—and bite those sects with all his might on my behalf." "..." Li Qingyan's eyes flickered. "Can you be sure the Barbarian King will attack those sect elites?" Xu Yuan shook his head, yet he smiled. "I can't be certain. But I had people stay behind in the city to contact him." Pondering for a moment, Li Qingyan asked, "Aren't you afraid of botching the whole thing?" Xu Yuan shook his head. "Of course not." "..." Hearing that, Li Qingyan's mind raced through the implications. Just then, Xu Yuan leaned closer to her flawless jade face. "Qingyan, as I told you, my father taught me how to use the greater momentum to turn enemies into dogs. Even the cleverest housewife cannot cook without rice; no matter how brilliant a strategist is, they cannot escape the constraints of their material foundation." Saying this, he pointed one finger toward the distant north. "Even if the barbarians militarize with everything they have in the Land of Utter Darkness and pour all their resources into arms, they could never match the wealth and resources of the Central Plains' fourteen provinces. It is a process where the strong grow stronger and the weak grow weaker. A thousand years ago, the barbarians could clash head-on with Great Yan's border army. But what about today? As long as the commanding general isn't utterly brainless, an equal number of barbarian soldiers simply cannot defeat our Great Yan border army. "If that Barbarian Heterodox King wants to lead his people to overcome the strong from a position of weakness, if he wants his grand southward conquest, he must walk the path I laid out for him." Looking at the smile in his eyes, Li Qingyan paid no mind to their faces being close enough to kiss. "Aren't you worried about the terms the sects offered the barbarians?" "The sects' terms?" Xu Yuan glanced aside, then leaned to her ear and murmured, "The best terms the sects could offer the barbarians would be ceding the area around Houting County. And the price? Giving up Beifeng City. Qingyan, you should understand what that means, right?" A wave of astonishment surged in Li Qingyan's heart. For a moment, the Xu Yuan before her felt like a stranger. "It means... the barbarians would be right back where they started." "Exactly." Xu Yuan sighed softly. "If they followed the sects' path, even if the barbarians held off the Beifeng Army and the Black Scale Army around Houting County—or even successfully ambushed and wiped them all out—they would still be right back where they started. If they wanted to head south, they would have to assault Beifeng City all over again, against an entrenched force of elites. Furthermore..." "Furthermore, the Barbarian King wouldn't dare place unreserved trust in the sects?" Li Qingyan broke in. Xu Yuan raised an eyebrow. She remained as sharp as ever, grasping everything with the slightest nudge. Li Qingyan half-narrowed her phoenix eyes and added in a low voice, "The moment the sects left part of their forces behind in Houting County, the barbarians' main host would be boxed in between Houting County and Beifeng City." Xu Yuan smiled faintly. "That's why I said earlier that the moment the barbarians took the detour south of Beifeng City, the Northern Border's grand momentum was already completely set in stone. "If that Barbarian Heterodox King wants to win, he has to see this path through to the bitter end: wipe out every single one of Great Yan's seven hundred thousand Northern Border elites, then successfully seize the strategic pass of Beifeng City. "And because I offered him that chance, he will inevitably become a dog to me, Xu Changtian." His words faded into silence. After a long pause, Li Qingyan suddenly rose onto her tiptoes, bringing her tall, slender frame right to his ear, her voice devoid of any emotion. "Prince Consort... were those Source Crystals you left behind intended for that Barbarian King from the very beginning?" Hearing this, Xu Yuan took a slight step back, his slender, phoenix-like eyes narrowing into slits, without denying it. "If you could find where those Source Crystals were, there's no reason that Barbarian Heterodox King wouldn't be able to." "Aren't you afraid he might use them for something else?" "Don't worry. At the slightest irregular movement, those Source Crystals will self-detonate." "..." Neither spoke again. She looked at him, watching the smile on his lips and the disdain in his eyes, her gaze growing wary. Li Qingyan had never put much stock in rumors. Over the time they had spent together, her assessment of him had been neither exceptionally high nor low. He was indeed a wastrel, but he possessed far more shrewdness and depth than the good-for-nothing Third Young Master described by rumors. Even so, measured against the sons of prominent clans, his conduct and caliber were only middling, with nothing truly astonishing about him. Yet at this very moment, the playboy persona he had displayed these past days, his cynical demeanor, and even the lustful interest he had shown toward her all began to show fractures. She found herself unable to see through him at all, beginning to wonder whether everything he showed now was merely a facade... In the soundless blizzard, Xu Yuan suddenly laughed. "What? Is my Princess Wuyuan scared?" "Heh." Hearing this, Li Qingyan's bold, spirited phoenix eyes betrayed a hint of amusement. "Scared?" As she spoke, Li Qingyan caught Xu Yuan's large hand—the one that had been continually teasing her—and pulled it up between them, a faint, subtle thrill shining in her gorgeous crimson eyes. On the hillside where the snow swayed and white mist drifted up all around, her smile bloomed as brilliantly as a flower. "Prince Consort, this princess is Li Qingyan." Xu Yuan tried to pull back his hand, but her grip was tight. Half-joking, he said, "Your Highness isn't scared, but I am." Li Qingyan let out a dry chuckle. "It's too late to be scared now. My body has already been seen thoroughly by you, Prince Consort." After a moment's silence, Xu Yuan smiled and asked, "Could we consider an amicable divorce?" Li Qingyan tightened her grip on his hand just a little more, tilting her head with a faint smile. "Hmm... this princess could consider widowhood instead."