Seven hundred li might have seemed an immense distance to mortals, but to Xu Yuan, a Transcendent aberrant ghost, it was no more than half a day's journey, even with his speed held in check.
Truth be told, Xu Yuan had harbored some expectations for this Sacred City of the Barbarians.
Yet upon seeing the low city wall that stood at less than twenty zhang tall, an inexplicable flicker of disappointment inevitably crossed his eyes.
It was like someone accustomed to grand metropolises suddenly returning to a modest county town, only to be told that this was the finest district in the whole place.
Speeding through the snowless night, Xu Yuan gazed at the Barbarian Sacred City nestled within the colossal canyon. Turning his head toward Li Qingyan beside him, he suddenly asked, "Qingyan, after this battle is over, will we station troops here permanently?"
He was thinking of the Protectorate General to the Western Regions of the Tang Dynasty from his previous life.
Li Qingyan's crimson eyes gave him an odd sidelong glance, a touch of amusement coloring her tone. "Are you an idiot?"
Xu Yuan replied nonchalantly, "The city is already built, so there's no need for construction materials. If we station a permanent garrison here and organize regular sweeps each year, the Barbarians will likely never amount to a threat again."
"A fine idea."
With their arrival at the Barbarian Sacred City drawing near, Li Qingyan was in a visibly good mood. After offering that brief compliment, she pointed a slender, jade-like finger into the desolate darkness all around them.
"To keep a permanent garrison in a place like this, morale aside, do you have any idea how many resources a single qu consumes in a year?"
"I'm not a general, how would I know?" Xu Yuan answered shamelessly.
Li Qingyan kicked at him. When he dodged it, her crimson lips curled into a smirk. "Ten times."
"Huh?"
"Stationing troops here means the resources required to sustain an army are tenfold what it costs within Great Yan."
Li Qingyan continued unhurriedly, "To thoroughly suppress this Land of Utter Darkness, a single qu isn't nearly enough. You'd need an elite garrison of at least a battalion or more. Inscribing array markings, soldiers' entertainment, winter provisions, grain and pay subsidies—all of that adds up to astronomical figures. Moreover, this Land of Utter Darkness lies isolated far beyond Great Yan's borders. Nothing might go wrong in the short term, but what about ten or several tens of years down the line?"
With that, she looked at Xu Yuan as if looking at a fool.
Xu Yuan glanced at her, amused. "This is the feat of expanding our empire's borders."
"Expanding borders?"
A mockingly amused smile played in Li Qingyan's gallant phoenix eyes. "By your logic, Changtian, over the past decade or so, this princess has expanded Great Yan's territory a thousand li north, pushing the front line from Beifeng City to Houting County, and then to Mount Dali. If merely keeping the enemy beyond our nation's gates counts as expanding the borders, then such glory comes far too cheap."
"..."
Seeing the utterly indifferent expression on the stunning woman in red, Xu Yuan could hardly comprehend the chest-binding princess's train of thought.
If this didn't count as expanding borders, what did?
Pushing the Barbarians all the way from Beifeng to Mount Dali, and then building an altar to sacrifice to Heaven—that was practically enough to claim the glory of Mount Langjuxu.
As if noticing Xu Yuan's gaze, the look in Li Qingyan's beautiful eyes softened slightly.
"Changtian...
"In this world today,
"the only expansion worthy of the name lies in Guyuan."
"..."
Their eyes met for a heartbeat. Xu Yuan opened his mouth, but found nothing to say.
He suddenly understood how this red-robed princess defined expanding borders.
To expand borders was to make the dynasty's national strength even mightier, not to bleed the dynasty's resources to maintain a tract of useless wasteland.
As things stood, the only land capable of enticing the Great Yan Dynasty was Guyuan.
The sheer abundance of Guyuan could be gleaned from the annual demonic beast tides alone.
Occupied by the demon race, Guyuan possessed rich soil and abundant spiritual qi, exceptionally suited for cultivating spiritual herbs, with resources plentiful to the extreme.
Yet the nature of the Guyuan demon race created a terrible reality:
If Guyuan wanted to strike Great Yan, the two bordered each other directly.
However, if Great Yan wished to strike Guyuan, it first had to cross the Wanxing Mountain Range—a primeval wilderness so vast its horizon seemed infinite.
In such rugged, undulating mountain terrain, the moment you dared invade, Guyuan held the absolute geographical advantage.
More critically, the sects would stir up trouble in the meantime, perhaps even orchestrating a catastrophe capable of toppling the dynasty.
In other words,
unless the sects were wiped clean, Great Yan could never break through, and Li Qingyan's vision of expanding borders would remain impossible to achieve...
"Don't look at me like that. Guyuan is just talk for now."
Li Qingyan let out a soft huff and tossed Xu Yuan a muli veil draped in red gauze. "Put it on. We're entering the city."
Catching it instinctively, Xu Yuan hesitated slightly. "What do I need this for?"
Li Qingyan glanced at his blood-red phoenix eyes and the eerie markings running across his handsome face. "Find a mirror and see if you look human right now. Don't cause unnecessary trouble."
Hearing this, Xu Yuan chuckled, flying a bit closer to lean in and ask, "Don't you think this young master has a wickedly charming look—"
"Shut up and put it on."
Li Qingyan gave him a sidelong glare, shoved his face away with a hand, and spoke with utter disdain. "Hurry up and turn back into a human. Looking at this aberrant ghost body of yours disgusts me."
"A woman who says the opposite of what she means."
Rubbing his chin, Xu Yuan placed the red gauze muli veil over his head, testing the waters with a laugh to soften up the chest-binding princess in advance. "Let's get this straight first: it was this Prince Consort who saved you in the Silent Crypt. Once I lose all this Transcendent cultivation, don't you go thinking of revenge."
"..."
At his words, Li Qingyan looked back and stared at him for a few breaths. Glancing over at Bai Muxi, she suddenly flashed a radiant, deeply meaningful smile.
"Fine, then. This princess will try her best~"
"..."
Through the red gauze of the muli veil, seeing her smug arrogance return, Xu Yuan let out a soft hiss. He reached out to grab at her, teasing, "Hey, this young master is still a Transcendent powerhouse right now. You'd better show me some respect—"
At the Barbarian Sacred City, a hundred-man squad was conducting their daily patrol along the city walls.
Although the surrounding Barbarians had already been eradicated and an assault on the city was highly unlikely, the strict discipline of an elite army compelled them to uphold their military duties without lapse.
Li Yongliang walked at the very front of the formation, sighing with every step.
The task of reporting the anomaly had, in the end, been handed off to that fellow Wang Cheng.
Even though they had agreed that most of the military merit from the report would belong to him, thinking carefully on it, this was one of the few chances to get one's face seen by the Marquis.
Becoming familiar to a figure like the Marquis... was far better than any damn military merit.
*Wang Cheng,*
*you bastard.*
*To think you'd scheme against an honest man like me.*
At the thought, sorrow welled up from Li Yongliang's chest, prompting yet another series of sighs:
"*Sigh...*"
"*Sigh.*"
"*Sigh!!*"
"..."
Behind him, the white-armored Beifeng soldiers looked at their incessantly sighing leader, then glanced at one another in dead silence.
Ever since a few days ago, their boss had been acting like this, yet none of them dared speak up or ask questions.
And so, the hundred men carried on their patrol amidst the unending stream of sighs.
Before they knew it, the white-armored soldiers suddenly noticed that the sighs at the head of the formation had stopped.
Directing puzzled looks toward Li Yongliang up ahead, they saw him staring blankly toward the southeastern sky beyond the Barbarian Sacred City.
"..."
Li Yongliang felt the resonant qi from the cultivation technique within his body.
The military array cultivation techniques used in the army were exceedingly unique, resembling nested master-and-subordinate arts that stacked upward like a pyramid, governing each tier in turn.
Ordinary soldiers practiced the subordinate arts, while a squad leader cultivated the lowest tier of master arts. As a qujiang, the military array technique Li Yongliang cultivated already placed him as the backbone of an army.
Across thousands of battles, the resonance he typically sensed came from the tier of a yajiang or a commandant.
Yet right now,
the qi resonance Li Yongliang felt belonged to the Commander-in-Chief.
He remembered that in the vast Beifeng Army, only two people possessed such a technique.
One was the Marquis.
The other was Her Highness.
Thoughts racing, Li Yongliang immediately began channeling his technique with all his might.
Though he did not understand the situation, his conditioning as an elite made it abundantly clear that this resonance in qi was the signal from the Commander-in-Chief ordering middle-tier officers to activate the military array.
It was not just Li Yongliang; every single Beifeng Army officer garrisoned within the Barbarian Sacred City sensed this call of qi unique to the commander's art.
Without the slightest hesitation, even Bai Jiaqi, who was enjoying himself in bed, froze his hips and reflexively began channeling his technique.
Such was the martial discipline of Great Yan's true elite officers.
Right after the officers, the ordinary soldiers followed, answering the resonant qi of their leaders' techniques...
"...still a Transcendent powerhouse right now. You'd better show me some res—res—"
High in the sky outside the city, before Xu Yuan could finish his chuckling words, his expression froze.
He suddenly felt her aura—fluttering in her red robes—abruptly shift, turning exceedingly dangerous.
*Military array...*
Smacking his lips, Xu Yuan cautiously pulled back his roving hand, coughed lightly, and changed his tune:
"...*cough*... respect..."
*Clap.*
The cheeky hand he tried to withdraw was seized in a backhand grip, and Li Qingyan pulled him right up to her face.
With her long, wind-blown hair fluttering across her stunning visage, Li Qingyan tilted her head slightly, her crimson-flame-wreathed phoenix eyes holding a trace of amused inquiry.
"Changtian, this princess didn't quite catch that. What... were you saying just now?"
Chapter 315