Volume 3, Chapter 53 – An Open Scheme

With a sharp crack , a blue-and-white porcelain bowl was flung to the floor and smashed to pieces. The culprit was Yao Xing himself. He’d actually been in a good mood these last few days—right up until he’d just heard a piece of infuriating news: because of the Blood Sea’s influence, demon disasters had erupted all around the southern region. To safeguard the lives of the more than 1.7 million people in the Chilong Circuit, Zhang Xianzhi, the Governor of Maozhou whom he had personally invested with authority, had actually agreed to merge with Zhen’nan Dao and move all the people and supplies ahead of time to the Zhen’nan Circuit!

I clearly sent Kong An for you to command, and you’re still this useless!

Scowling, Yao Xing ordered the attendants to clear away all the medicinal dishes, then turned to the elder seated nearby. “So, according to the Prime Minister, five Divine Fetus cultivators will be enough to settle this?”

“It should be enough.” Liu Xi—Liu Gongzhu—nodded. “Bai Xiang truly made her name by joining forces with three Dao Lords to bring down the Southern King. Even by the Southern King’s standards, five people are absolutely sufficient.”

“Prime Minister, you’ll have to bear the responsibility of that guarantee.” Yao Xing snorted. He rose to his feet and began pacing back and forth at the side.

“Every time you say it can be handled,” he grumbled as he walked, “and every time it falls short of my expectations!”

“If it wasn’t enough, you should have told me sooner.”

“At worst I’d swallow my pride and go beg my Imperial Mother again, have her send a few more down south!”

“Your Majesty…” Liu Xi sighed and shook his head lightly. “Being able to pull out five this time is already making an exception—especially being transferred on an emergency basis. It’s already made the winds in Xuzhou shriek like cranes. We absolutely must not push it any further.”

“Besides.” He looked southward. “What the demon clan is after is nothing more than propping up federation pawns in our south to create chaos, in order to tie up our attention. One has to say, this move is quite clever. Using the Southern King, they’ve really managed to open a second springhead.”

“Prime Minister, don’t mock Us.” Yao Xing sighed. “Is this really the time to be praising them?”

“No need to be anxious, Your Majesty.” Liu Xi smiled. “The disaster of the southern region is a disaster for the future. The disaster of Bai Xiang is a disaster for this autumn.”

“No matter what Shenming and Yuming intend to do, the first thing they’ll have to face is the demon scourge in the south. If they were decisive enough to hold the line to the death, they might have a chance of lasting—but instead they’re playing the benevolent, taking in the people of Chilong.”

Liu Xi shook his head. “That means they’re guaranteed to clash head-on with the demon tide.”

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The demon beasts tainted by the Blood Sea didn’t care about strategic gain and loss. They had no concept of the best direction to attack from; they only knew hunger, only knew they wanted to eat. When senseless demon beasts like that piled up in sufficient numbers, they were actually the hardest for defenders to deal with.

Reports of the situation in the south had already reached them. From what he’d seen, the defensive measures of the surrounding circuits were still reasonably solid—it was impossible for their cities to fall within just a few days. But the demon tide would never wait that long. It would definitely split off “tentacle” detachments to probe in all directions. As soon as they discovered the soft persimmon that was the Chilong Circuit, they would swarm toward it.

Because there was no way Maozhou could evacuate everyone from the Chilong Circuit.

It had only been a few days. Something like that was absolutely impossible.

Inevitably, a considerable number of people would stay in Chilong, clinging to lucky thoughts. They would either hide at home, or stash supplies in high-rises, holed up in “safe rooms”—either way, they would convince themselves nothing would happen, that they could hold out until rescue arrived.

Those people would draw the demon tide over. And the fate awaiting them would be to become the blood food of demon beasts.

And after that?

With the Nanluo mountain range below and the branching channels of the Jing River above, once the demon tide finally struggled its way there, it wouldn’t leave again. Its only option would be to throw itself with everything it had against the Maozhou defensive line.

“With all those deeds proving Bai Xiang is a cold-blooded sort, I never thought she’d make a mistake like this.”

After listening to Liu Xi’s analysis, Yao Xing’s mood really did improve. “In the end, still a woman! A woman’s soft heart!”

“When the time comes and the demon tide focuses on attacking Maozhou, she’ll be damned if she holds, damned if she doesn’t!”

“And she thinks she can defy Us? I don’t even need the five Divine Fetus cultivators—give it a few days and she’ll probably be the one begging me !”

Is that really something you say out loud?

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Even Liu Xi’s expression grew a touch unnatural.

To… use the lives of over a million commoners as leverage to threaten a subordinate—if that ever made it into the historiographers’ records, the reputation of everyone in this court would be utterly ruined.

Even when he’d presented it, he’d only used veiled phrasing. He’d never expected that at Yao Xing’s age, he would still be this “uninhibited,” breaking through Liu Xi’s expectations every time.

Fortunately, this wasn’t the court.

And with the Directorate of Rites backed by the two supreme Daos, they couldn’t simply kill him to solve the problem.

“Oh…” Yao Xing narrowed his eyes, mulling things over. “I hear that Bai Zhixing has a supple figure and looks like a celestial fairy, and that she once ranked first on the Graceful Fragrance List ? Is that true?”

Without waiting for Liu Xi to answer, he began spinning the scenario himself. “If she really is willing to lower herself and come beg me, I’ll give her an extension to abandon the south, then grant her the title of ‘Consort Zhi,’ and have her, for the sake of righteousness, cut ties with her own kin… What does the Prime Minister think of this plan?”

“…” The corner of Liu Xi’s mouth twitched a few times before he forced himself to say, “Most ingenious. If it comes to pass, so much the better.”

“That’s how it should be！” Yao Xing said, eyebrows dancing. “A girl—what’s she doing learning the sword?”

“Such beauty mixed up with the stink of sweat.”

“She should calm herself and study calligraphy and painting with me. That is the path she ought to follow.”

“Your Majesty.” Liu Xi didn’t dare let him go on, and quickly cut in with a question: “Since Your Majesty has previously seen the Empress Dowager, this old minister would boldly ask… with regard to the sharp increase in consumption on the northern frontier, did the Empress Dowager give any additional instructions?”

“The northern frontier, the northern frontier—why are you all always so focused on the north?” Yao Xing frowned and waved it off. “Leave it as it is… she’s taken vows, says I should decide such things myself.”

“Then does Your Majesty have any thoughts?” Liu Xi asked solemnly. “This upheaval is no ordinary one. This old minister has convened the high officials to discuss it; most of them are in favor of upgrading our armaments.”

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“Upgrade again?” At that, Yao Xing immediately waved both hands. “No, no.”

“That proposal is rejected.”

Liu Xi was not surprised to hear that answer.

In truth, that was the answer he himself—and even those high officials who had proposed the idea—most wanted to hear.

Because the matter of upgrading armaments was far too dangerous.

The federations’ new weapons were being updated at an astonishing pace. Some of them, even in the hands of ordinary people, were enough to pose a threat to Forge the Sword–realm cultivators. A little of that equipment in the field was one thing—but if it were widely deployed… once chaos broke out, it would be impossible to rein it in.

Better to take it slow.

Only by keeping control of this authority in their hands, letting them calculate the profit and loss of every purchase and sale, could the world enjoy “peace.”

But the encirclement in the north couldn’t be left unresolved either.

So Liu Xi spoke up again. “Then may I ask Your Majesty to draft an edict, bestowing one thousand portions of Sacred Pills within three months, to help the northern frontier hold the Celestial Pass.”

“A thousand portions? That’s a hundred thousand pills.”

Yao Xing instinctively felt something was off.

“There aren’t that many high cultivators for you to command… Prime Minister, are you trying to dig out the roots of the Daos?”

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“With the Yuming example before us, Your Majesty cannot afford not to be on guard.” Liu Xi bowed. “Cleansing the reserves of the Daos to relieve the northern disaster—this was also a common way the late emperor used to bring the Daos to heel.”

“Fine, fine.” Yao Xing nodded, unfastening a seal from his belt.

“This thing… you take it and use it.”

“Your Majesty…”

“You know my tone, don’t you? Draft it for me, stamp it, then bring it back. Is there anything else important today?”

“There should not be…”

“Then how about you accompany me to the gardens?” Yao Xing grabbed Liu Xi with a beaming smile. “That Graceful Fragrance List is really a menace—it’s made no small number of people in the palace develop a taste for white hair. Prime Minister, you really should come admire it, see who would be the best match.”

Sweat pouring down his forehead, Liu Xi barely managed to decline the invitation, and was promptly scolded by Yao Xing as being no fun.

“Alas.”

After leaving the palace complex, Liu Xi turned his head to glance at the high jade walls of the Qianyu Palace and sighed inwardly.

An Imperial House like this… was truly beyond words in certain respects.

Relying on only this one’s assent for the northern strategy was hardly reliable. He ordered the servants to turn the carriage around and headed toward the Buddhist temple north of the city.