After a few cups of milk tea, the two grew closer in an instant, and Qian Renxue stopped standing on ceremony. In her daily life, both her status and her mission to infiltrate the Heaven Dou Empire required her to learn all manner of elaborate, useless etiquette, ensuring that no one would notice anything amiss after she replaced Xue Qinghe.
But there was no denying how exhausting it was. No one liked keeping a stiff face at all times, showing nothing but an elegant smile, maintaining a dignified sitting posture, and even forcing their personal tastes to follow the crowd in pursuit of "high-class" things, such as drinking tea.
She knew how to appreciate tea and had nothing against it, but at that moment, she felt that tea brewed from those expensive leaves fell far short of the milk tea before her.
Since she was entertaining Qian Renxue, Leng Xiyue simply gave herself a day off as well. She did not usually attend classes anyway, and her teachers had long since become familiar with her. So she brought out some cream cakes and other desserts she had previously commissioned from a pastry shop, and the two read while eating and drinking together.
Leng Xiyue had her own study, stocked with several hundred books, mostly about the continent's history. Compared with Wang Yan's broad accounts, these books recorded far more detailed events, along with biographies and the like. Leng Xiyue would read them whenever she had nothing else to do. She also occasionally recreated a few classic books from her previous life. Though she could not guarantee that every word and sentence matched the originals, their meaning was more or less the same.
Qian Renxue loved such subjects, so the two discussed the continent's balance of power while imagining the future.
Discussing these things with someone who lacked knowledge would only be torture. People like Hu Liena and Xie Yue devoted all their thoughts to combat; talking to them about this was like playing a lute to a cow. Qian Renxue was clearly different. Her terrifying talent allowed her to devote more attention to studying these matters.
"Xiyue, in your opinion, does our Spirit Hall have any hope of unifying the continent within this generation?" Qian Renxue asked.
This was a question nearly all young people discussed-or rather, young people in every generation did so. The young were bold and radical, willing to struggle for dreams that were elusive and impractical. Yet when they grew into the older generation of decision-makers, they discovered that the obstacles were too numerous to count. In the end, no generation dared take radical action, afraid of destroying Spirit Hall's foundations and becoming villains condemned throughout the ages.
But Qian Renxue was clearly not daydreaming when she asked, because she was already moving down that road. Moreover, Leng Xiyue knew she had come within a hair's breadth of succeeding.
Perhaps she was testing her, or perhaps she wanted to hear her views, hoping to find a like-minded sister. Leng Xiyue had already given this thought. With a faint smile, she said, "A great general from my homeland once said that winning a hundred victories in a hundred battles is not the pinnacle of excellence; subduing the enemy's army without fighting is the pinnacle of excellence. Thus, the highest form of warfare attacks strategy, the next attacks alliances, the next attacks armies, and the lowest attacks cities. Our military strength may bolster our confidence, but if war truly breaks out, no side will achieve a genuine victory. The best approach would be... peaceful evolution."
"Take the Heaven Dou Empire, for example. If voices throughout the Heaven Dou Empire, from top to bottom, welcomed Spirit Hall taking control of Heaven Dou, then, should Spirit Hall truly wish to seize the Heaven Dou Empire, overthrowing its imperial family would take no more than a single day."
"What insights do you have, little sister?" At those words, Qian Renxue sat up straight. Clearly, this coincided perfectly with her own thinking.
Although Qian Daoliu fully supported her plan, he did not agree with it. He believed Spirit Hall possessed overwhelming strength and had no need whatsoever for such underhanded schemes. In fact, the people of Spirit Hall all disliked engaging in such plotting. Even when discussing an invasion of Heaven Dou, they only compared the two sides' military strength.
But Leng Xiyue clearly thought otherwise. Both she and that unnamed great general plainly advocated victory without battle.
"The key to peaceful evolution lies in propaganda and cultural infiltration. Our Spirit Hall enjoys great prestige among the common people. If those commoners had room to rise, then the upper nobility would gradually come to include people who respected Spirit Hall as well. Ultimately, we could make most people in the empire support annexation by Spirit Hall or the establishment of a puppet regime. But the greatest difficulty lies in-rigid class barriers."
"The empire clearly won't give those at the bottom any room to rise. Commoners remain commoners forever. Even if a Soul Master occasionally emerges among them, at most they make their family a little wealthier before going off to risk their life for some noble. At its core, power still rests with the nobility. They are also more likely to produce Soul Masters themselves, so they certainly won't let Soul Masters from the lower classes encroach on their vested interests."
"That also means the empire's propaganda remains mainly in the nobles' hands, rather than Spirit Hall's. It's easy to foresee that once war begins and the local branches of Spirit Hall are purged, the nobles will lead the thoughts of the people at the bottom by the nose. Even if we achieve victory quickly, those people will no longer identify with Spirit Hall's ideals."
"War changes everyone's fate. If the empire conscripts a million ordinary people to fight, how many will die on the battlefield? Even assuming a relatively low death toll, say a hundred thousand, how many families will resent Spirit Hall because of those deaths? If that resentment spreads, or creates an atmosphere hostile to Spirit Hall's rule, what should we do? Kill everyone who causes trouble? Or give everyone subsidies in Gold Soul Coins and settle things with money?"
"Of course, solving it with money is an option. After all, as long as we offer higher death benefits than the empire, most people won't say anything, and Spirit Hall has enough money. But that isn't a good solution. Many commoners lack the ability to protect their own wealth, and in the end, it might only bring disaster upon them. So we still need to think of a better approach."
Qian Renxue fell into deep thought. Her opposition to war came only from knowing that many people would die; she had never considered it this deeply. That was precisely why she had no real grounds to argue against her grandfather. She did not even think Qian Daoliu was wrong-it was merely something her own temperament found difficult to accept.
Sometimes, she had even thought that if they really did go to war in the end, they could simply spend more money afterward. Yet the final point Leng Xiyue raised reminded her that the matter was not so simple.
Leng Xiyue gave Qian Renxue a meaningful look before continuing:
"That's why the support of ordinary people is especially important. If-and I mean if-I held a position with decision-making power, I would definitely prioritize promoting talented young people who had risen from the bottom. Then I would organize them into a Youth Mutual Aid Association or something similar, serve as its president myself, and publicize the superiority of Spirit Hall's system, seeking to transform the system from the bottom up and make the Heaven Dou Empire great again."
"After all, most of Heaven Dou's soldiers are still ordinary people, aren't they?"
"Once their numbers grow large enough, they will become a force that cannot be underestimated. Although they won't be able to stand on equal footing with the traditional nobility, they can intensify the conflicts. Add in the sects and some of the families our Spirit Hall has won over, and as long as we have enough support within the empire's political circles, we will represent the mainstream. At that point, even opposition from top sects like the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect and the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Sect will be utterly useless. If they try to cause trouble, we can even reasonably and legally deem their actions treason and use Heaven Dou's own people to wear them down."
"Then Spirit Hall can raise the banner of following the people's will and wipe out the entire noble class. Everyone left will be sympathetic to Spirit Hall."
"Under those circumstances, we will have elevated the young, able-bodied commoners. Asking them to hand over most of the power and interests once held by the Heaven Dou Empire's nobles to Spirit Hall in return wouldn't be unreasonable, would it?"
At her words, Qian Renxue fell into deep thought.
Before you continue