"Junior Brother Yan is right. Before we set out, the elders specifically instructed me to preserve the strength of Qing Province's cultivators as much as possible."
"Naturally, we must keep that in mind."
Liu Yu gazed toward Red Maple Mountain and spoke calmly.
After a pause, he continued:
"With just us and the three hundred Qi Refining disciples under our command, how many would be left by the time we completed the Azure Edge Squad's mission if we adopted brutal, heavy-handed tactics?"
"The Golden Gate Market Ward is only our first stop."
"Compared with a few resources, preserving our fighting strength is far more important."
"Besides, after this war, cultivators will be needed to take over and organize most of the territory left behind by the Yan Kingdom's four sects. If the cultivators brought here by our sect suffer too many casualties, our diminished strength will affect our eventual governance and shake the foundations of our rule."
"So it is still very necessary to yield a few resources and put these Yan Kingdom cultivators to work for us."
What Liu Yu left unsaid was that completing the task of subduing the forces along their route with their current ten Foundation Establishment cultivators and three hundred Qi Refining disciples was essentially impossible.
Even the settlement around the Golden Gate Market Ward had the White Household. Naturally, farther along there would be forces no weaker than the White Household, and perhaps even stronger.
Their success in dealing the White Household a crippling blow this time had mainly come from catching them off guard.
Once the forces farther ahead caught wind of events and formed something like a "defensive alliance" in advance, things would become difficult.
Thus, there was nothing wrong with using the name of the Nine Kingdoms Alliance or their sect