A Major Event

The great snowflakes finally began to fall, and the depths of winter in the fourth year of the Zhaowu Era of Great Xia had finally arrived. Qin Mo complained about the Great Xia Court's stinginess while telling Wu Shengze to make sure the soldiers were protected from the cold. Why the hell had they not left a month earlier? Was it because the court only began providing supplies after departure from the Imperial Capital, allowing them to save a month's worth of provisions?

Guihua City was roughly a thousand kilometers from Ulan City in Qin Mo's memory—two thousand li by Great Xia's measure. At a marching pace of sixty li a day, the army would need a month to arrive, by which time it would nearly be the twelfth lunar month. If the Great Xia troops had all been cavalry, they could have moved faster, perhaps a hundred and twenty li a day. Any faster, and the horses would start dying or being injured. This was a march, not a wartime raid; they could not simply disregard the cost.

This was where all the preparations Qin Mo had made in Dayuan came into play: leather boots, leather gloves, padded coats, along with the great many sheepskins acquired in Guihua City. Stringing them together with rope made a windproof sheepskin coat. Even Great Xia's Imperial Guard looked like beggars beside the Dayuan Army. They could only howl and endure the bitter north wind, praying to reach Ulan City sooner.

The fields lay buried beneath ice and snow, while the great tents were warm as spring. The Great Xia Empire had fought the Orc Tribe north of the grasslands for so long that it knew every blade of grass and tree in the region. Black coal had long since been developed and put to use. During Great Xia's nearly thousand-year standoff with the Orc Tribe in the north, coal had played a fundamental role. There were no towering trees on the grasslands; without coal for warmth, the nearly million-strong Great Xia border army would have frozen into cripples long ago.

Kaihime skillfully kneaded Qin Mo's shoulders. Whenever she occasionally applied more force, Qin Mo let out one or two comfortable hums... Qin Mo's muscles were highly elastic; a maid without sufficient strength simply could not give him a deep massage.

"Has your cultivation been going smoothly?" Only the two of them were in the tent. Qin Mo had grown used to casually speaking to Kaihime; whenever he opened his mouth, it was certainly to speak with her.

"Reporting to Your Highness, this subordinate's cultivation has been going very smoothly. My Dantian has stabilized, and in a few days I will begin using Vital Essence to temper my body." Kaihime stopped what she was doing and respectfully bowed before replying. Whenever the topic involved cultivation, she always saluted before answering, rather than responding casually as she did to ordinary questions.

"Oh! Your aptitude is quite good, but do not rush for quick success. Your foundation must be tempered until it is solid if you wish to achieve greater things."

Qin Mo was speaking the truth. Kaihime had entered the path of cultivation on her own; "quite good" was nowhere near enough to describe her aptitude. Unless something went wrong, she would have no problem reaching the Mysterious Realm relying only on the Breaker Manual.

Human Realm cultivators might be cultivators, but if their opponents were ruthless enough to spare no expense, they could bury a Human Realm cultivator beneath a hundred lives. Yellow Realm cultivators were different. Unless the enemy also had cultivators, a Yellow Realm cultivator determined to break through the encirclement could generally leave safely.

As for Mysterious Realm cultivators, they could come and go freely amid armies made up of ordinary warriors. That was why all Great Xia officers above the rank of brigade commander had to be cultivators. It was not that they were expected to block high-level cultivators, but at the very least, they could not have their heads casually taken, leaving the army unable to function normally.

"Thank you for Your Highness's guidance. This subordinate will remember it." After saluting and replying, Kaihime continued massaging Qin Mo as he bathed. She tried hard to control her heartbeat, but before long, beads of sweat began dripping from the tip of her nose, and her heart somehow beat faster and faster.

Xu Liyan had indirectly asked her several times just how far she and the Heir Apparent had gone. After all, Qin Mo had never gotten close to any maid before; Kaihime was absolutely the first. Whenever she thought of Xu Liyan's words, the weeds in her heart grew wild, impossible to suppress.

"Your Highness, it is already late. This subordinate still needs to cultivate, so let us leave it at this for today!" Kaihime picked up Qin Mo's clothes, swiftly dressed him, and fled back to her own tent. Only after letting out a long breath did her breathing return to normal.

Qin Mo watched her hurriedly departing back and shook his head with a quiet laugh. No matter how mature she pretended to be, she was still only a girl under twenty. Of all the flavors of human warmth and coldness, how many had she truly tasted?

The long night stretched on as Qin Mo cultivated in calm concentration. Heaven and earth's Vital Essence formed a vortex, enveloping one large tent and one small one. One was a freakishly gifted genius, the other a transmigrator possessed of peerless abilities. Two currents of Vital Essence seeped into their bodies, nourishing their Dantians and flesh, and holding up their yearning for the future.

When the second great snowfall arrived, the Great Xia army led by Qin Mo finally reached the outskirts of Ulan City.

Ulan City was also called Kuren. More than a thousand years ago, merchants of the Great Xia Empire traveling to trade with the Rakshasa Kingdom would gather here before heading north to Trading City to sell their goods. But after the Orc Tribe used bloody methods to force the Rakshasa Emperor into submission, the Great Xia Empire closed the gates to trade with the Rakshasa Kingdom and turned Ulan City into a defensive stronghold spanning a thousand li. After centuries of constant repair, Ulan City's scale was no less than that of any provincial capital in the Great Xia Empire.

Ulan City had countless unused military camps, built from thick adobe bricks or masonry. Qin Mo's Dayuan Army was assigned to one such old camp east of Ulan City. They were to hold their position until next spring, then leave the pass to fight until autumn, when newly replenished border troops arrived to relieve them. Come winter, another group of meritorious nobles' private armies would arrive and repeat what Qin Mo was doing today.

"Young Master, someone from the Governor's Office has arrived. They want the commanders of every household to go to the Governor's Office for a meeting." When Wu Shengze came to report, Qin Mo was watching his subordinates busily clean up the vacant rooms. Some were lighting fires, others were looking for water. Without two or three days, there was no hope of getting settled.

"The Governor's Office? Shouldn't it be the Northern Expedition General's Office?" Qin Mo paused, then asked Wu Shengze.

"It is the Governor's Office, Young Master. I asked the other households; they have all been summoned to the Governor's Office for a meeting as well. I do not know why."

Great Xia had established the post of Ulan City Governor, responsible for Ulan City's construction, the management of its garrison, and similar matters. Yet the highest-ranking official here was not the Ulan City Governor, but the Northern Expedition General. The Northern Expedition General was responsible for strategies against the Orc Tribe, the allocation of troops along the Long Wall stretching more than a thousand li, and so on. In other words, the Ulan City Governor was the Northern Expedition General's logistics minister.

By rights, after arriving in Ulan City, Qin Mo and the others should have fallen under the jurisdiction of the Northern Expedition General's Office. The Ulan City Governor was likewise under the Northern Expedition General's Office. The two sides were colleagues, yet they had now been ordered to discuss matters at the Governor's Office. Something seemed rather strange.

The Ulan City Governor's Office stood at the very center of Ulan City. It had once always been the city's highest center of power, until six hundred years ago, when the Orc Tribe suffered setbacks in the Western Continent and gradually shifted part of its forces toward Great Xia. In response to the increasingly fierce Orc Tribe offensive, the Great Xia Empire established the post of Northern Expedition General, appointing a high-level cultivator in order to suppress and unify the growing number of border troops and private armies.

After the Zhaowu Emperor ascended the throne, he changed his strategy toward the Orc Tribe and sent Duke Wuan Zhao Qirui to take over as Northern Expedition General. Zhao Qirui was a Mysterious Realm cultivator, one of the strongest kinds of people in this world. Great Xia had only four Mysterious Realm cultivators in total. That the Zhaowu Emperor had sent him north demonstrated his determination to conquer the Orc Tribe.

By the time Qin Mo arrived at the Ulan City Governor's Office, quite a few people were already seated in the council hall. Blazing coal fires roasted the hall until smoke and heat drifted through the air. The nobles spoke in hushed, chaotic clusters, clearly unsure what exactly this unusual situation today was about.

Before long, the hall filled with people. Then Chen Xuanji entered side by side with another middle-aged man. This time, no introduction was needed to know that the man was Ulan City Governor Li Zinian. In this city, only this one man could walk shoulder to shoulder with Chen Xuanji. As for Duke Wuan Zhao Qirui, Chen Xuanji was not qualified to appear alongside him at all.

"Everyone, the military situation is urgent, so this Governor will make a long story short. This matter concerns state secrets. Anyone who leaks it at will... shall be executed." Li Zinian did not speak loudly, yet his words spread to every corner of the hall, allowing everyone to hear them with perfect clarity.

Seeing every noble's expression change and all traces of frivolity vanish, Li Zinian's stern face revealed a hint of satisfaction. Nobles were, after all, the foundations of the state. These young people were all pillars of talent.

"Half a month ago, the General caught the enemy unprepared and launched a surprise attack on Trading City. He has now annihilated the defending enemy in full. Trading City now belongs to Great Xia!!!!"