The War Begins

Xu Yuan expertly counted the number and authenticity of the silver notes, while Li Yunqing sat quietly to the side, watching eagerly.

The private room fell silent for a moment, with only the soft rustling of money being counted.

After a while,

Xu Yuan looked up.

Li Yunqing immediately said:

"Has the Third Young Master finished counting?"

"Not a single detail will be missed, Your Highness. Don't worry, I will arrange it. After all, honesty is the most important thing in everything, isn't it?"

Xu Yuan put the counted silver notes into his Sumeru Ring, paused, and then asked with slight interest:

"However, I'm curious about something: Your Highness, how much silver do you usually carry with you when you go out?"

Upon hearing this question, Li Yunqing's eyes immediately lit up with alarm:

"What you up to?"

"Don't be nervous, I'm just asking."

Seeing this, Xu Yuan chuckled and said, "Your Highness, you know me well. I'm always generous to my friends. If I say five million, I mean five million. I won't raise the price any further."

Li Yunqing suppressed the urge to curse and chuckled softly:

"I have long heard of the Third Young Master's reputation for being charitable and generous."

"You flatter me."

Xu Yuan cupped his hands in greeting and suddenly asked:

"However, since Your Highness is so magnanimous, how do you plan to make up for the deficit of five million taels?"

Five million taels of silver is an astronomical figure.

With the current productivity of the Great Yan, an ordinary person could only earn twenty or thirty coins a year after working hard.

Within the Prime Minister's Estate, without a special position, even a top-tier expert of the second Origin Beginning, whose strength is unparalleled in the world, receives an annual salary of only one million taels of silver. However, each time an extremely dangerous mission is undertaken, this salary will increase by about forty percent.

Li Yunqing smiled slightly upon hearing this:

"I previously borrowed six million from a Daimyo on Yingzhou Island."

"Six million?" Xu Yuan's eyes narrowed.

Li Yunqing's expression changed, and he suddenly sighed:

"But we only received the first payment of three million. The remaining one and a half million will probably have to be covered up by some bookkeepers."

Hearing this, Xu Yuan rolled his eyes inwardly.

This statement is most likely false, but accounting is indeed a high-risk profession in any world.

A moment of silence,

Xu Yuan stopped mentioning the matter and instead asked:

"I wonder how long Your Highness plans to take before leaving Beifeng City?"

Seeing that the topic had returned to normal, Li Yunqing tried hard to suppress his painful emotions and said:

"The sooner the better, preferably tonight."

"Tonight?"

Xu Yuan hesitated for a moment, then asked seriously, "Third Prince, are you sure you want to leave the city tonight?"

Li Yunqing was slightly puzzled:

"Not tonight?"

Xu Yuan explained:

"It's not impossible, but it might be a bit dangerous."

Li Yunqing looked puzzled.

"The Barbarian Tribe outside the city are not..."

Before the words were finished,

As if to confirm Xu Yuan's words, a burst of white light suddenly burst forth in the dark sky outside the window.

Subsequently,

"Boom!"

A series of deafening explosions resounded throughout the city!

Having already been warned by Li Qingyan, Xu Yuan wasn't too surprised to hear the noise.

I got up, walked to the window, and looked south.

On a pitch-black, blizzard-stricken night, with his fifth-rank cultivation level, his vision was limited; he could only see hundreds of white lights of varying sizes shining in mid-air.

That was the light from the City Protection Array.

The Barbarian Tribe siege weapons launched projectiles that created booms and ripples on the semi-transparent City Protection Array.

The commotion was terrifying, but after a volley of fire, the entire Beifeng City was protected by the semi-transparent shield as if it were impregnable, and no buildings within the city were destroyed.

At this time,

Li Yunqing also came to his senses and looked out the window at the distant horizon:

"What's this?"

Xu Yuan slowly turned his gaze, his eyes swirling with blood-red flames, while the dark sky behind him rumbled incessantly.

"Third Prince, what do you think?"

Li Yunqing slumped back onto the soft couch and took a sip of wine to calm his nerves.

After a long silence,

He exhaled and chuckled softly:

"The Barbarian Tribe have actually attacked the city tonight, but judging from your reaction just now, Third Young Master, you must already know."

Xu Yuan slowly walked back to the soft couch, sat down, and poured himself a glass of wine:

"Yes, your elder sister has already anticipated that the Barbarian Tribe will most likely attack the city tonight."

That's good.

Li Yunqing nodded. "Since Your Majesty anticipated this, there shouldn't be any mishaps."

Xu Yuan shook his head, looked at Li Yunqing, and asked:

"Beifeng City will certainly not fall, but Your Highness, do you still insist on leaving the city tonight?"

Li Yunqing hesitated for a moment, but then nodded firmly:

"If they're going to attack, tonight's attack should just be a probing strike. According to the records from the Northern Border, when these Barbarian Tribe attack a city, they usually first use a large number of boulders mixed with ' Ice Spirit Spike ' and ' Corrosive Acid Beast ' to weaken the City Protection Array."

Xu Yuan smiled enigmatically:

"The Barbarian Tribe lands are barren; they can't afford things like Source Crystal bombs."

Xu Yuan had also seen this method of siege in the dossier that Lou Ji had given him.

The Ice Spirit Spike Cone looks like a ball of iron spikes about three meters in diameter, with a thumb-sized Source Crystal at its center, surrounded by hundreds of ice spikes.

The Corrosive Acid Beast is a hard-shelled Demon Beast found on the ice plains. Once its icy outer shell is shattered, it will explode, spraying out a large pool of acid.

Compared to the previous local rebellions within the Great Yan, these two are somewhat insignificant.

Because the Great Yan civil war sieges all used Source Crystal bombs.

Without interference, a siege weapon aimed at a single point of the City Protection Array in one volley can break through the formation from the front in just a few volleys.

These two items from the Barbarian Tribe are cheap to manufacture and don't cause much damage to cultivators who form formations, but they can cause great damage to buildings and ordinary people.

The Barbarian Tribe used the same method to attack Beifeng during the Beifeng, attempting to exhaust all the Source Crystal maintaining the City Protection Array. Unfortunately, Beifeng was teeming with powerful warriors and elite Beifeng City at that time.

Even the City Protection Array doesn't need to be activated; the high-level cultivators within the city alone can shatter these projectiles in mid-air.

However, the Beifeng City currently undefended. Faced with such overwhelming attacks, it can only rely on the City Defense Array for protection, and the amount of Source Qi consumed by the City Defense Array every moment is calculated in massive quantities.

The costs of offense and defense are on completely different scales.

Xu Yuan drank the contents of his cup in one gulp, stood up, and didn't linger any longer.

"In that case, let's set off."

Li Yunqing glanced once more in the direction of the south of the city and silently stood up.

No further words were spoken.

As soon as the two stepped out of the private room, they noticed that the corridor outside was somewhat chaotic.

Many servants carrying weapons walked quickly down the corridor, their expressions varying—some were panicked, others were ashen-faced.

As I descended the stairs, knocking and chatter filled the air, and several disheveled courtesans and men rushed out of the doors.

Clearly, the Barbarian Tribe siege also affected the most expensive brothels in Beifeng City.

The myriad aspects of human nature revealed during wartime.

But this chaos did not last long.

When Xu Yuan and Li Yunqing came downstairs to the lobby, the lobby had been restored to its former state of peace and prosperity thanks to the madam and pimp.

Because they knew the Barbarian Tribe wouldn't be able to invade anytime soon.

A tall woman swayed her slender waist on stage, while the musicians continued to play gentle melodies, unaffected by her movements.

Looking at the scene of singing and dancing, Xu Yuan let out a soft breath and asked in a low voice:

"Your Highness, what do you think of this scene?"

As Li Yunqing descended the stairs, his gaze lingered on the hall for a few moments before he chuckled smugly:

"Third Young Master, I am not qualified to judge them right now."

He paused for a moment,

Li Yunqing glanced at Xu Yuan:

"However, I suspect that once the Barbarian Tribe breach the South City in a few days, this relatively orderly main hall will descend into chaos."

"."

Xu Yuan glanced at the courtesans in the hall and the elegantly dressed patrons below, and gently shook his head.

Impart, right?

After leaving the main hall, the two arrived at the stables, where a crowd had already gathered and were whispering among themselves.

However, these people were all using telepathy, and hearing their conversation, it seemed they were disciples of sects who knew some inside information, and had no interest in having fun here anymore.

Moreover, without connections, soldiers had the right to kill anyone who dared to walk at night in the military-controlled, curfew-bound Beifeng City.

Apart from the sound of the wind and the booming of the sky in the south of the city, everything was very quiet on the snowy night, with the Bright Pattern Lamp on both sides of the road appearing and disappearing.

Occasionally, you might encounter a group of fully armed soldiers patrolling the streets in the wind and snow.

However, upon seeing the sign for the Beifeng Government Office on the carriage, the soldiers did not question it further and simply let it pass.

After being questioned again by a patrol of soldiers,

Looking at the houses on both sides of the road outside the car window, Li Yunqing suddenly sighed and said softly:

"When the city falls, all the common people within will likely be slaughtered by those barbarians."

Upon hearing this, Xu Yuan, who had been resting with his eyes closed, opened them and glanced at the Third Prince:

"To those barbarians, we, the people of Great Yan, are nothing more than two-legged sheep."

"Two-legged sheep"

Li Yunqing looked out the window, the cold wind ruffling the hair at his temples, murmured something, and then fell silent.

The carriage fell silent once again.

I don't know how long it has been,

Li Yunqing sighed and suddenly asked:

"Changtian,

"Do you think my father and Lord Xu anticipated this?"

"."

Silence.

After a while,

Xu Yuan replied in a low voice, "Perhaps I expected it, perhaps I didn't."

Li Yunqing rolled his eyes upon hearing this.

"What you said is as good as saying nothing at all."

Xu Yuan smiled slightly and reminded him:

"This second-rank Origin Beginning will only send you to Houting County. Be careful when you get there; the situation there isn't great either. The stockpiled grain will probably only last the sect's elite troops for about a month."

Li Yunqing was quiet for a moment, then said:

"Changtian, you must have something to do in Beifeng City, right?"

"I am merely a hostage left with your royal family," Xu Yuan said flawlessly.

"Oh, fine, don't tell me then."

The seriousness on Li Yunqing's face disappeared, and he stretched and sprawled on the soft couch. "I'm just an ordinary person. The more I know about these troubling things in the Northern Border, the more annoyed I become."

Xu Yuan nodded in agreement, looking at the southern horizon:

"Yes, the more you know, the more annoying it becomes."

Li Yunqing turned around and stared intently at Xu Yuan's profile for a few moments, then suddenly smiled:

"Third Young Master, I have a suggestion for you. You can learn from my Second Brother: be a little more ruthless and unscrupulous. Only in this way can you become the next Lord Xu of our Great Yan."

Xu Yuan turned his gaze back with interest upon hearing this:

"If I become the next Lord Xu, will your royal family be able to eat?"

Li Yunqing shrugged:

"You've become the next Lord Xu. The ones who should be worried are my eldest and second brothers, and all the sects in the world. It has nothing to do with me."

Xu Yuan's eyes flickered as he stared at the other person, trying to discern the truth in their words.

Finally, he chuckled softly:

"You're quite carefree."

"This isn't carefree attitude, it's self-awareness."

Li Yunqing shrugged:

"As for me, although I consider myself to be fairly good and can understand many things, I am still far behind my second brother and eldest brother."

"So I don't care who the people in this world are, as I have money anyway. If I can't get any soldiers when I return to the capital, I'll just go to a remote place, become a wealthy old man, marry a few beautiful women, and live a peaceful life. That wouldn't be bad either."

A smile appeared in Xu Yuan's eyes:

"In picture books, it's usually someone like you who ends up becoming emperor."

Li Yunqing chuckled and cupped his hands in a respectful gesture:

"Thank you for your kind words Third Young Master."

As they were talking, the carriage slowly came to a stop.

Xu Yuan glanced out the car window:

"Arrive."

Li Yunqing also glanced back:

"Pawnshop?"

The carriage stopped in the snowstorm right in front of a large pawnshop. By the Bright Pattern Lamp, the words "World Pawnshop" could be seen written in a flamboyant style on the signboard.

After getting off the carriage,

The wind was cold outside, Xu Yuan wrapped the coat that Li Qingyan had prepared for him tighter around himself and stepped forward to gently knock on the door.

"Tap tap--tap tap--tap tap--"

Short and rhythmic, very light.

Seeing this, Li Yunqing hesitated slightly:

"I don't need to avoid this?"

Xu Yuan chuckled lightly:

"It's a one-time code; if you use it again, you'll probably be mistaken for a spy."

Li Yunqing was somewhat disappointed upon hearing this.

At that moment, a slightly aged voice came from inside the door:

"Young master, our shop is already closed. Please come early tomorrow."

Xu Yuan followed the coded communication given to him by Lou Ji:

"I've come to pawn my jade pendant."

"A jade pendant?" The aged voice carried a hint of impatience.

"Black Dragon Jade Pendant"

"Squeak--"

The door opened, and a middle-aged man, whose voice was completely at odds with his aged appearance, appeared in their field of vision.

Wearing a bathrobe, she appeared to be resting.

Xu Yuan didn't speak, but directly took out a token with a black dragon tattooed on it and three characters engraved on its back from his Sumeru Ring. Before he could even toss it to the middle-aged man for inspection, the man bowed deeply to him.

"Third Young Master"

Xu Yuan looked at the middle-aged man, took back the bronze token, and slightly cupped his hands in greeting:

"So you are Mr. Wine?"

The middle-aged man straightened up and his gaze fell on Li Yunqing, who was standing slightly behind and to the side of Xu Yuan:

"It is indeed I. Lou Ji has already informed me that you are leaving the city?"

Xu Yuan waved his hand and pointed at Li Yunqing, saying:

"It wasn't me, it was him."

"He?"

Mr. Wine frowned slightly and hesitated before saying:

"Third Young Master, are you sure? Once I send him out of the city, he may never return."

"."

Upon hearing this, Li Yunqing's pupils contracted slightly.

He realized that the only Black Scale Guard in Beifeng City was this one, a second-grade Origin Beginning.

Thinking of this,

As the array above the city roared, Li Yunqing looked at Xu Yuan with a strange expression.

It wasn't out of gratitude, after all, this kid had just swindled me out of five million.

It's not that Xu Changtian sold him his escape route, but what about himself?

He didn't believe this kid would resort to the idea of dying for the city.

so,

What exactly is this guy trying to do?