Let Me Explain, Fairy
Chapter 323 - 234 The Battle Begins

Chapter 323: Chapter 234 The Battle Begins

Xu Yuan deftly counted the silver notes, verifying their amount and authenticity, while Li Junqing sat quietly beside him, eagerly observing.

The private room was silent for a moment, save for the rustling of notes being counted.

After a while,

Xu Yuan looked up.

Li Junqing immediately asked,

"Has the Third Young Master finished counting?"

"Not a penny off, Your Highness. Don’t worry, I will make arrangements. After all, everything must be grounded in trust, right?"

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

"However, I am quite curious about one thing. Your Highness, how much silver do you usually carry with you when you go out?"

Upon hearing this question, Li Junqing became immediately vigilant:

"What are you trying to do?"

"Don’t be nervous, I’m just asking."

Seeing this, Xu Yuan could not help but chuckle, "Your Highness knows me, I am always generous with friends. I said five million, and it will remain five million without raising the price."

Li Junqing suppressed the urge to curse and said with a low chuckle,

"I have always heard of the Third Young Master’s reputation for philanthropy."

"You flatter me."

Xu Yuan clasped his hands in a gesture of thanks and then suddenly asked:

"However, Your Highness, how do you plan to cover this deficit of five million taels?"

Five million taels was an astronomical figure.

Given Dayan’s current productivity, ordinary people would work hard for a year to earn just twenty or thirty pieces of broken silver.

Within the Prime Minister’s Mansion, unless one held a special position, a Second Grade Origin Initial cultivator, a top-tier powerhouse unrivaled in the world, would earn no more than one million taels of Patterned Silver a year. However, each time they undertook an extremely hazardous mission, their salary would likely increase by about forty percent.

Li Junqing smiled faintly upon hearing this:

"I had previously borrowed six million from someone of note on Yingzhou Island... "

"Six million?" Xu Yuan’s gaze sharpened.

Li Junqing’s expression changed, and he sighed all of a sudden:

"...But I only received the first three million. The remaining one hundred and fifty million will probably have to be blamed on some bookkeeping shopkeepers."

Upon hearing this, Xu Yuan rolled his eyes inwardly.

The statement was most likely false, yet being an accountant indeed seemed to be a high-risk occupation in any world.

Silence fell for an instant,

and Xu Yuan did not bring up the matter again, instead asking:

"I wonder when Your Highness plans to leave Northern Border City?"

Seeing the conversation returning to business, Li Junqing tried to compose his distress and said:

"The sooner, the better. Preferably tonight."

"Tonight?"

Xu Yuan pondered for a moment before asking seriously, "Are you certain you want to leave the city tonight, Your Highness?"

Li Junqing was slightly perplexed:

"Is there a problem tonight?"

Xu Yuan explained:

"It’s not that it’s impossible, but there might be some danger."

Li Junqing’s expression showed his lack of understanding:

"Aren’t the Barbarian Tribes outside the city... "

Before he could finish,

as if to prove Xu Yuan’s words, a burst of white light suddenly lit up the dark sky outside the window.

Then,

"Boom!"

A series of explosive roars thundered across the sky above the city!

Having been forewarned by Li Qingyan, Xu Yuan was not too surprised by this noise.

He rose and walked to the window, looking south.

In the pitch-dark snowy night, with his Grade Fifth cultivation, his sight did not reach far, but he could see hundreds of varying-sized orbs of white light illuminating the sky.

Those were the lights of the Protective City Formation.

The projectiles launched by the Barbarian Tribes’ siege engines upon the semi-transparent Protective City Formation created a series of booms and ripples.

The noise was terrifying, but after a barrage of simultaneous shots, the entire Northern Border City seemed impregnable beneath that semi-transparent shield, with not a single building within the city being destroyed.

At this moment,

Li Junqing also snapped back to reality and peered through the window at the distant skyline:

"What is that...?"

Xu Yuan slowly turned his gaze, his eyes swirling with blood-red flames, against the roaring dark sky:

"What do you think, Your Highness?"

Li Junqing collapsed back onto the couch and took a sip of wine to calm his shock.

After a long silence,

he exhaled and laughed softly:

"The Barbarian Tribes attacked the city tonight, but seeing your reaction just now, you must’ve already known."

Xu Yuan slowly walked back to the couch and poured himself a cup of wine:

"Yes, your princess sister had anticipated that the Barbarian Tribes would most likely attack tonight."

"That’s good then."

Li Junqing nodded, "Since the princess has anticipated it, there shouldn’t be a problem."

Xu Yuan shook his head, looked at Li Junqing, and asked,

"Northern Border City will indeed be safe, but are you still insisting on leaving the city tonight, Your Highness?"

Li Junqing contemplated for a moment before resolutely nodding:

"Yes, I must leave. Tonight’s attack is probably just a probe. Looking at the Northern Frontier records, the Barbarian Tribes typically start by using a large number of boulders mixed with ’Ice Spirit Cones’ and ’Corrosive Beasts’ to wear down the Protective City Formation."

Xu Yuan smiled ambiguously:

"The Barbarian Tribes are impoverished. They can’t afford something like a Source Crystal Bomb."

This method of siege warfare was also mentioned in the records Lou Ji had given him.

The Ice Spirit Cone appeared to be an iron ball with spikes about three meters in diameter on the surface; its core held a thumb-sized Source Crystal, surrounded by hundreds of ice spikes.

The Corrosive Beast was a type of hard-shelled Demonic Beast from the ice fields; upon shattering its Ice Crystal outer shell, it would self-destruct, spewing a large pool of acidic liquid.

Compared to the several internal rebellions within Dayan previously, these two were somewhat unimpressive.

That was because Source Crystal Bombs were used in Dayan’s internal sieges.

If unimpeded, siege engines targeting a single point on the Protective City Formation could break right through with just a few volleys.

However, these two options were cheaper for the Barbarian Tribes, did little harm to array masters, but caused significant damage to buildings and ordinary people.