"I'm sorry. The two city formations are just too weak. But if Linlang went all out, would our current situation be a lot better?"
Seeming to subconsciously view the little Divine Maiden as her dependent, his bosom buddy looked rather guilty about Linlang being an actor who had slacked off.
In their prior plans, the entire defense of the city was supposed to be a joint line held by three parties: Zhenxi Manor, the Desert Divine Maiden, and the Chancellor's Manor. Yet once the battle actually broke out, both the prefectural city's two formations and the Divine Maiden's Linlang had merely played supporting roles on the flanks. The Chancellor's Manor had practically held the front line against the sects' main forces all by itself.
This made Li Junwu feel utterly powerless.
Stepping past the dozing Linlang—whose habits Xu Yuan was also learning for the first time—he noticed Li Junwu seemed to have misunderstood something, and explained:
"Not really. You couldn't intervene not because you're too weak, but because our opponents are simply too strong—far stronger than even I anticipated. Normally, unless a Saint has spells that specifically counter them, the two city formations can pose a real threat to an ordinary Saint."
Naturally, there was one more thing Xu Yuan didn't say.
Theoretically, the two formations could still threaten Saints like the White Emperor even now, but unfortunately, if you can't hit them, it's all useless.
"As for Linlang... it actually did its best."
As a pseudo-Saint, Xu Yuan had a very clear assessment of Linlang's combat strength.
You could call it an actor, but you couldn't say it didn't try its hardest.
Inside Qin Ke's Dao domain, Linlang had indeed pulled out all the stops to rip him apart. But reality was cruel. There were no power-ups from bonds of friendship or love; being angry only made it mad, nothing more. If you can't beat someone, you just can't beat them, no matter how hard you throw your life on the line.
That it could heal in such a short time only proved this son of a bitch of a wolf had an absurd amount of saint origin—so much that it didn't even need to budget the cost.
With that, Xu Yuan took a strip of dragon tenderloin from his Sumeru ring and tossed it before the white wolf. The gesture instantly made the previously lazy, relaxed Linlang scramble to its feet.
Just like a dog spotting a pile of dung.
Gulping down the dragon tenderloin in two ravenous bites, Linlang abandoned all thought of sleep and began sloppily licking Xu Yuan's boots.
Thus, on their stroll back to the Military Affairs Hall, they gained a white wolf trailing behind them.
It licked all the way, pawing at Xu Yuan from time to time with longing eyes.
Xu Yuan ignored the foolish wolf and roughly explained the current situation in the city to Li Junwu.
Although his bosom buddy had been observing through the city defense formations the whole time, without experiencing certain things firsthand, she still only saw the surface.
Listening closely, Li Junwu arched her willow-leaf brows slightly in surprise and murmured, "In other words, the sects are all more or less phoning it in?"
"Except for the White Emperor," Xu Yuan corrected.
Honestly, Xu Yuan felt the White Emperor was practically a model worker in this city siege.
First he smashed the formations, then fought Linlang, then fought the Sword Saint after that, and now he had formed a mortal grudge with an entity suspected of being the Cataclysm itself.
Xu Yuan almost felt bad for the White Emperor. But what could you say? Perhaps this was just the dignity expected of a sovereign of Guyuan.
Sighing with emotion, Xu Yuan smiled and said, "Still, this works to our advantage. If they had been united from the start, we would have had no choice but to wait for death."
After listening to Xu Yuan's explanation, Li Junwu deeply agreed. She pondered for a moment, her brows knitting slightly as she asked tentatively, "Changtian, does their infighting also mean the sects still have plenty of leeway?"
"..."
Xu Yuan paused slightly in his tracks.
The answer was undoubtedly yes.
Yet he replied rather casually, "Just now in the city, I ran into an old friend who actually thought we were already winning. You're far sharper than her."
Li Junwu didn't let Xu Yuan's casual manner derail her thoughts, asking in a grave voice, "What do you plan to do?"
Xu Yuan curled his lip and pointed toward the White Emperor's position in the sky. "Didn't I say it already? Once Mu Nuo wakes up, the tide will turn, and that might just strip the sects of their leeway."
"How long until it wakes up?"
"Uh..."
Xu Yuan was at a loss for words.
To be honest, he had no idea either.
Even though Madame Wan had birthed Mu Nuo and their origins were vastly closer than Xu Yuan's, Madame Wan's yin origin and Mu Nuo weren't like a plug and a socket that could be used immediately.
It required an adjustment period, not to mention Xu Yuan had tossed some dragon-related seasoning into the little brat.
Seeing Xu Yuan fall silent, Li Junwu's lovely eyes showed clear surprise, as though astonished that there was something beyond his calculations, shocked that he could be uncertain about anything. "You don't know?"
"..."
A few dark lines appeared on Xu Yuan's forehead.
He realized this woman seemed to be treating him like Batman.
Li Junwu looked very worried.
Although Xu Yuan had said Mu Nuo was immortal, its torso had currently been smashed to pieces by the Lord of Guyuan.
Bits and pieces scattered here and there.
The largest chunk was probably the forearm clutched in the White Emperor's hand.
"What if, Changtian—I mean, what if that brat's immortality gets broken by the White Emperor brute-forcing a miracle?"
"Don't jinx it."
Xu Yuan rolled his eyes at her, not intending to pursue the topic, and changed the subject: "Take me to the drill grounds to see the soldiers of the Second Division."
Hearing this, Li Junwu immediately pulled her gaze back from the sky, her pitch rising slightly: "What do you want to see them for?"
Hearing her tone, Xu Yuan gave his bosom buddy a strange glance. Raising his right hand, etched with markings, he gestured and said as if it were obvious, "To boost morale, of course. You saw it just now—I count as a pseudo-Saint at the very least. Fooling the common soldiers down there will be a breeze."
The sects' objectives were Li Junwu and Jiayi, both of whom were inside the Zhenxi prefectural yamen. The only reason Tianyuan and the others hadn't come to break the formation was because of the military array.
Li Junwu had displayed the ability to fuse the array into her own body, and they dared not gamble their lives on whether she would burn her life away to drag them down with her.
Walking beside him, Li Junwu awkwardly tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear, her eyes darting sideways toward the waterside pavilion's small pond: "I've placed an information blackout on them. They can't see what's happening outside, and we've reported only good news, not bad. Morale is decent enough, so there's no need..."
"..."
Xu Yuan turned to look at Li Junwu with a peculiar expression, and in the next instant, he realized why she had refused.
He had subconsciously started taking over everything again, forgetting that doing so crossed a line.
Showing off Saint-level means at the drill grounds would indeed boost morale, but where would that leave his bosom buddy?
If they won the war, the rank-and-file soldiers would attribute the credit to Xu Yuan, not Li Junwu.
The example of Lu Baizou and the others had already proven that most defectors had chosen to side with the sects not because they subjectively believed the sects were more trustworthy than Zhenxi Manor, but because they were desperate over the incompetence of their profligate commandery princess and wanted to find a way out.
In other words,
the soldiers of Zhenxi Manor were already displeased with Li Junwu to the extreme, and his bosom buddy was counting on this war to turn her reputation around.
If Xu Yuan went, he would undoubtedly be repeating the sects' trick of replacing the plum with the peach: all the prestige would be seized by him as a Saint, reducing her to nothing more than an ornamental foil.
Moreover, in the eyes of those soldiers, their own commandery princess had already attached herself to the third young master of the Prime Minister's Manor, becoming practically his intimate confidante. If even the heir of Zhenxi Manor acted like this, defecting to the Prime Minister's Manor would feel far more justified and brazen than joining the sects!
While that was an outcome the Prime Minister's Manor would love to see, it wasn't what Xu Yuan wanted.
Scratching the back of his head, Xu Yuan chuckled softly and said, "Heh, look at you, being considerate. Fighting out there just now almost wore me out anyway—this gives me a chance to get some rest."
"Changtian, that's not..."
Li Junwu parted her red lips, seemingly wanting to explain herself. But before she could speak, Xu Yuan merely smiled, shook his head to signal that no words were needed, and strode forward.
Some things were best understood between them in silence.
Li Junwu remained silent for a moment, her dimmed gaze lingering on his back before shifting toward the Military Affairs Hall ahead.
She had stalled out here for so long...
Jiayi should have finished packing those things away by now, right?
Chapter 675