Above The Sky
Chapter 823 - 823 45 Swordsmanship Talent Connects to God_2

823: Chapter 45 Swordsmanship Talent Connects to God_2 823: Chapter 45 Swordsmanship Talent Connects to God_2 “Boss, should we keep them alive, or kill one and only interrogate the other?”

His tone was light, not taking this as anything serious.

Besides, the Vitality of a Sublimator could ensure their survival, so there was no need to coddle them.

In terms of combat, Green Tide was undoubtedly a genius, after all, he was the man who managed to significantly improve the average strength of Harrison Port’s guard squad after just a few months of training.

“That’s impressive,” Ian nodded slightly and praised, “There’s no need to kill them, these two are probably not from Fiery Flame Land but conspirators from The Empire’s side— the greater credit lies with them.”

Having said that, he turned his head and looked at the grain convoy leader: “Go and notify the local garrison—tell them, the Inspector Knight has caught spies from Fiery Flame Land.”

“Don’t worry,” Ian smiled, causing the concerned and somewhat anxious convoy leader to involuntarily feel a sense of tranquility, “You won’t be punished for the delay in transporting grain.”

“On the contrary, you might even be credited with a major contribution.”

Indeed, it was a major contribution.

Under the subsequent interrogation by the South Ridge garrison who came to take over from Ian, the dispirited grain shop owner confessed without reserve to colluding with Fiery Flame Land.

The reason for the collusion was simple—his commerce association had always had backing from Mountain People’s funds.

The Rebel Highlanders were their major customers before their rebellion, and the association got tied up with them through ongoing dealings.

Besides that, Fiery Flame Land had also reached an agreement with a major commerce association from the Eastern Territory of the Empire…

With the grain shortage in South Ridge, only grain from outside regions could be sold, and at a high price.

Such tacit understanding didn’t need to be voiced; everyone who should understand did.

There would always be a portion of people willing to betray The Empire’s interests for money, especially since The Empire was too vast, it was difficult for people from different parts to empathize with one another, and regional discrimination was rife.

The Eastern Provinces held deeper hatred towards the Azure Sky Royal Court; the others were somewhat indifferent.

“Thank you very much for your assistance, sir!

Your sharpness has indeed been a great help to us!”

The captain of the local garrison was extremely grateful upon meeting Ian and learning of his identity as an Inspector Knight, and came over immediately to thank him: “I was truly negligent, failing to see the spies before my eyes!

If it weren’t for your help, sir, we might have made a grave mistake!”

“It’s nothing much; they were very well hidden.”

Ian also offered a few words to ease the situation: “If I hadn’t had suspicions about this commerce association that we temporarily connected with, and if I hadn’t specifically observed something fishy, it would have been impossible to find them through a normal investigation.”

“However, it seems like the spies from Fiery Flame Land are running rampant.”

“Indeed!”

At this point, the captain couldn’t help but start complaining.

Recently, because of the congress in Nauman City treating the matter coldly, the various special warfare operations from Fiery Flame Land had been escalating outside the Agate Stone Plains.

Not to mention the electromagnetic communication jamming centered around Yasteel Mountain, they even controlled Dragon Groups to interfere with messenger pigeons and provided advanced weapons to roaming bandits and thieves—all the way down to the rural Cults, which received a sum of money and started causing chaos excitedly.

Here at the Indigo Mountain Gorge Entrance, due to its strategic geographical position, it had always been a hotbed for various disturbances—just a few days ago, a rural Cult had attempted a Ritual at an inn, and whether the Ritual was effective or not, the whole place covered in animal blood really made the innkeeper feel like crying without tears, and the soldiers handling the scene mostly felt nauseous.

“That’s disgusting.”

Ian sincerely spoke, having recently become a Lord himself, he understood that although such petty disturbances might not shake the foundation of a domain, they were enough to fray the nerves of the administrators.

Not to mention other things, if the construction team in the Dawnshimmer Domain faced threats like the teams at the Gorge Entrance, causing them to be unable to start work every couple of days, Ian would have been so furious he would personally lead a team and dig three feet into the ground if he had to, in order to root out the spies from Fiery Flame Land.

Just like this time—the grains and seeds provided by the Yisu Commerce Association were mixed with some seemingly insignificant ‘impurities.’ These impurities were special invasive species seeds, parasitic plants that could harm the growth of local wheat sprouts.

Once germinated, they would spread rapidly, with one being able to harm an entire field of crops.

Was this a big deal?

If the Lord reacted fast enough, only one field would be harmed.

But if dozens, or even hundreds of fields sporadically faced this issue…

Ian thought about it and felt his brain heating up.

“No, even the smartest person is just an individual when it comes to administrative positions, and my time is limited.”

Ian murmured to himself, “The support AI for administration must be brought online sooner.

Otherwise, just handling Xia Hui Territory is enough to wear me out—I should allocate more funds to Adalbert when I return.”

Even facing Duke of Solin, Ian had never felt fear, but now he was indeed a bit afraid when faced with the mundane affairs of his domain.

Time passed, and evening approached.

With the cooperation of the local military, the convoy quickly assembled the safe rations without any issues, and continued towards Yasteel Mountain.

On the surface, it seemed everything was perfect.

But a certain Swordsman felt puzzled by Ian’s actions.

“Sir.”

In the glow of the sunset, as the grain convoy set off again, Green Tide asked Ian somewhat perplexedly, “Isn’t this operation a bit too high-profile?

It’s not bad, but aren’t we supposed to act discreetly?”

“Even though they didn’t say you’re the Lord of Dawnshimmer Domain, anyone with intent can quickly find out you’re going to Yasteel Mountain based on the status of the Inspector Knight!”

“In this way, no matter what the Elder’s purpose is, aren’t all your movements exposed to both Fiery Flame Land and the Mountain People?”

“Correct.” Hearing Green Tide articulate such a smooth analysis, Ian couldn’t help but feel pleased.

He seriously said, “That’s right, you should think more and question more.”

“As for why I’m causing such a commotion…”

Ian raised a finger and slightly shook his head, “From the beginning, the fact that I left Dawnshimmer Domain was not concealed from Fiery Flame Land.”

“Have you forgotten?

There are a few spies from Fiery Flame Land within our domain, whom I purposely didn’t deal with.”

“This time, when I left the domain, I intentionally let them know of this news…

The exposure here is just to give another positioning of time and place to Fiery Flame Land.”

“Eh?”

Green Tide was somewhat puzzled, “If that’s the case, why…”

“It is to make both Mountain People and Fiery Flame Land believe that the spies they left in Dawnshimmer Domain are useful.”

Ian spoke calmly, his plan wasn’t focused on the present but much later, “Because my real major move isn’t this journey to Yasteel Mountain to negotiate with the Dragon Worship Cult…

but a potential future assault on the Midra Autonomous Region.”

“As long as Mountain People and Fiery Flame Land can get precise reports of my movements, they will lower their vigilance towards me—and I plan to use these spies to pass on false information so that both Mountain People and Fiery Flame Land will believe I wouldn’t do such a thing when I plan to raid the Midra Autonomous Region in the future.”

At this point, Ian smiled and nodded towards Green Tide, who was in a daze, “Deceiving with information doesn’t require many times; just one key instance is enough.”

“Do you understand?

Sometimes, you have to intentionally show a flaw to make the enemy believe in their own reliability.”

“And then, at the most crucial time, tell them that everything is under my control!”

“I see…”

Green Tide had an epiphany, “That makes sense—it feels like it could be applied to swordsmanship!

Indeed, making the enemy mistakenly believe they’ve grasped my swordsmanship, then luring them to attack my feint, before I counterattack their own weakness…”

Green Tide’s swordsmanship experience increased!

Ian: “…you really are quite a genius in this area.”

Well, he completely gave up on the idea of training Green Tide to be an all-rounder.

As a swordsman, it’s enough to be good at strategy; as for other liberal arts subjects… let it be.

Having laid the groundwork for this strategic deception and casually apprehending a few spies from Fiery Flame Land, Ian’s journey with the convoy went very smoothly.

Soon, they arrived at the entrance to the Abode Tribe located at the southern part of Yasteel Mountain.

And here, Elder Manye Avode was waiting personally for Ian.