Let Me Explain, Fairy
Chapter 330 - 237: Are You Right, Third Young Master?_2

Chapter 330: Chapter 237: Are You Right, Third Young Master?_2

"Reason."

Nan Jinxi’s eyes betrayed a hint of hesitation, but she still revealed,

"All the grain and munitions stored by our Sect in Northern Border City will soon be destroyed. You should know what this means."

It meant three-quarters of the city’s grain supplies would be destroyed.

It meant that half of the defensive weapons could not be replenished.

It meant that a third of the Reserve Source Crystals supplying the Protective City Formation would vanish into thin air.

Thinking of this, Li Zhaoyuan immediately wanted to leave to deal with the situation but was stopped by Nan Jinxi, who said leisurely,

"It’s too late. I learned of this news a quarter of an hour ago; you should hear the explosions in less than the time it takes to drink a cup of tea."

Li Zhaoyuan fell silent for a moment, frowning,

"Was it the Sects?"

Nan Jinxi shook her head, indicating she did not know but added a trace of mockery in her tone,

"The resources within the Dayan Territory are really too bountiful. The Imperial Court fights against the Sects, and the Sects also fight amongst themselves. If Northern Border City is lost, even if seven hundred thousand troops perish in the snow plains, Dayan will inevitably mobilize troops to reclaim this crucial stronghold next year.

"The Barbarian Tribes will not give up this opportunity to flee the snow plains. The Sects, the Great Desert, even we from Ancient Abyss will not let go of this chance to drain the Dayan Dynasty. We will all support them, and even if your Dayan Dynasty manages to take it back, it will no doubt be severely weakened and unable to make a move against the Sects..."

...

After a few moments of silence,

Li Zhaoyuan suddenly asked,

"Are you finished?"

"Hm?"

"Once you’re done, leave. This prince has to continue dealing with military affairs."

...

Nan Jinxi’s eyes widened slightly, and her tone quickened slightly,

"Li Zhaoyuan, did you not understand what I said? This Northern Border City..."

"Of course, I understood."

Li Zhaoyuan slowly stepped forward, lifting the woman from her chair, then he seated himself, leaning on the chair back, his voice indifferent,

"But the more dire the situation, the more support I can garner from others. If handled correctly, I might even win over the support of the empress."

"You will die," Nan Jinxi stared at Li Zhaoyuan.

Li Zhaoyuan shook his head, no longer looking at her,

"If this prince fails, I cannot escape death either."

The hall sank into silence for a time.

Li Zhaoyuan exhaled a breath of white mist,

"Leave. If someone discovers you here, this prince can only activate the Formation and have you slain."

...

Nan Jinxi looked at him with a complex expression for several moments, bit her lip, and then turned into a mist of snow, disappearing from the council hall.

And with her went the frost her movements had stirred up.

All traces of her presence dissipated, as if she had never been there at all.

Watching her leave, Li Zhaoyuan placed the documents he had withdrawn into the Sumeru Ring back in their place on the desk, but while placing the scroll concerning the Sect’s inventory in Northern Border City, he hooked the corner of his lips with deep meaning...

...

...

...

Night fell deeper.

Amidst the wind and snow, Northern Border City seemed empty and lonely.

The occasional patrol soldiers, and the beast carts rushing by transporting military equipment, were the only sounds on the streets.

The horses in the stables were unsettled by the continuous explosions in the southern skies, and countless soldiers and civilians sheltered beneath the great Formation huddled in their beds, enjoying a false sense of security under warm, heavy blankets.

Xu Yuan was one of them.

After parting with the Second Prince, he immediately returned to his room to rest.

No one had arranged for him, so he simply took his rest in his fiancée’s quarters.

This was not in accordance with the customs of Great Yan, but a profligate son could hardly care for propriety.

Moreover, there were only three decent quarters in the back house in total; surely he could not sleep in the Third Prince’s residence?

The thick blanket gave Xu Yuan a sound sleep, but it was destined to be a sleepless night.

Just as he was about to drift off, Xu Yuan suddenly opened his eyes.

Xu Yuan sat up, rubbing his temples, his long, untied hair cascading down his back.

Ignoring the fatigue in his heart, he turned over to get up, grabbed the coat hanging on the chair beside him, and draped it over his body as he walked toward the door.

When he opened the door, the piercing cold wind and the blizzard slashed his cheeks like knives.

Not far off in the sky, the fiery red glow mixed with black mist came in continuous explosions.

Looking at this scene, Xu Yuan subconsciously frowned.

Before he could think further, a figure had already landed, and Zhou Chen came over:

"Third Young Master."

Xu Yuan glanced at him and asked,

"What happened?"

Zhou Chen looked in the direction where the flames were rising and hesitated as he said,

"That direction... it should be the Border Army’s warehouse."

Xu Yuan’s eyes twitched, and his sleepiness was completely swept away as he operated his cultivation technique and jumped to the top of the Government Office in a few bounds.

In the low visibility of the snowy night, apart from the fire right near the Government Office, he could vaguely see several other fires erupting within the city.

"Are all those places Border Army warehouses?"

Zhou Chen, who had been following Xu Yuan, immediately responded upon hearing this:

"Yes, there’s internal chaos within the Border Army, and virtually every sect in Northern Border City has its own storage facilities for materials."

Xu Yuan stood on high ground and watched for a moment before gently shaking his head:

"Wiped out in one fell swoop, these sects really have quite the appetite..."

"Indeed, they do have quite the appetite."

The responding voice was steady, and it was not Zhou Chen, but Li Zhaoyuan.

He had somehow also arrived at this highest tower within the Government Office and, looking at Xu Yuan with a bundle of scrolls in his hand, he indifferently said:

"It’s just a pity for this information about the sects’ warehouses that the Third Young Master had just given me, as it now seems to be of no use."

As he spoke, Li Zhaoyuan ignited a blue flame in his hand, instantly consuming the bundle of scrolls and turning it to ashes.

Xu Yuan furrowed his brow and stared at Li Zhaoyuan:

"Second Prince, are you suggesting our Prime Minister’s Mansion is behind the burning of the Border Army warehouses?"

Li Zhaoyuan’s gaze seemed to see right through people:

"Third Young Master, the Black Scale Guards were even able to accurately account for the warehouse inventories. Interfering a bit in this wouldn’t be difficult, and the investigation into the explosion at South City’s Triumphal Arch also points to the Tian’an Commerce Assembly’s carriages."

Xu Yuan remained silent, offering no response.

Seeing his expression, Li Zhaoyuan smiled wanly:

"However, given Minister Xu’s fondness for you, the Third Young Master, he wouldn’t place you in such jeopardy. I surmise there must be someone else sabotaging plans from within. After all, if it really were the work of the Prime Minister’s Mansion, why would the Third Young Master give me the Border Army’s warehouse information? And why use the carriages of the Tian’an Commerce Assembly? I suspect someone is scheming, sowing discord."

The wind and snow at the top of the tower were fierce, and his unbound hair fluttered in the wind.

Xu Yuan’s eyes burned with a sanguine flame as he chuckled:

"With such a big incident happening, instead of directing efforts to control the fires, Second Prince, you come to idle chat with me?"

Li Zhaoyuan’s deep, dark eyes gleamed with a hint of amusement:

"The destruction of the Northern Border Sects’ storage benefits the Imperial Court as well, does it not?"

"Benefits?" mused Xu Yuan.

"Third Young Master, I see three benefits—please correct me if I’m wrong."

Li Zhaoyuan glanced at Xu Yuan and then gazed distantly towards South City, as if with a sigh or a laugh:

"Firstly, if we cannot hold Northern Border City, these supplies would ultimately be destroyed anyway. Materials sufficient for a three-hundred-thousand-man army’s half-year supplies are left with no choice but to be given to the Barbarian Tribes."

"Secondly, the main reason for the precarious situation in Northern Border City is not the shortage of materials within the city, but rather the destruction of both the formation and gate of the southern Triumphal Arch. When the Barbarian Tribes gather their totems for an assault, we need to fill the breach with lives. Now, if someone is willing to help us destroy it, the sects and the Border Army within the city will lack materials and inevitably seek assistance from us, reducing the resistance to the rotations in city defenses that my royal sister has negotiated with these sect and Border Army groups."

"Thirdly, Houting County is merely three hundred miles from Northern Border City. High-rank cultivators, even when concealing their aura, only need a day to go back and forth. For every additional day the Northern Border City holds, these supplies will be transported by the Sects’ high-rank cultivators using Sumeru Rings, a portion at a time. If we hold for ten days, most of the materials will have been hoarded in Houting County. By then, those trapped in the snow plains will only be our Imperial Court’s three-hundred-thousand-strong army near Dali Mountain."

Xu Yuan, facing this deeply contemplative Second Prince, suddenly cracked a smile:

"So it is, the destruction of the sects’ supplies actually presents such benefits to the Great Yan Dynasty. The meticulousness of the Second Prince’s thoughts indeed lives up to his reputation."

Li Zhaoyuan shook his head:

"Third Young Master flatters me. I too could only come up with these thoughts after the fact. The true meticulous planner is the person who orchestrated this from the start."

With that,

amidst swirling snow,

he stared at Xu Yuan and, laughing intently, one word at a time, said:

"Don’t you agree, Third Young Master?"