Chapter 179

They arrived at the mountain's base and found a temporary campsite. The Great King first took off a string of crystals from his wrist—a designer set of green phantom double rings. For adult double rings, the Great King wears three. On top of them is a golden money bead as the top bead, plus a little Pixiu charm; the Great King brought this from his Luofu Tower.

"I'll put up a prize, let's compete! Who wants to join? The winner takes the prize!"

"This designer bracelet is a new model from Luofu Tower; Chang'an definitely doesn't have it."

"To most people, energy fields are still a superstitious matter; the intermittently superstitious Great King, having heard that this attracts wealth just like gold hair crystal, picked out several to wear interchangeably."

"If you talk about other superstitions, the Great King believes in science; but if you mention attracting wealth, then the Great King is… give me a few, Your Highness!"

"As soon as he produced it, Li Chang took a liking to it."

"Great Jin men don't wear much jewelry, but lately it's suddenly become fashionable to wear strings. There's a craze where you can't resist once you start; the single-loop crystal strings that the Jin family brought in from Myriad Phenomena City draw crowds every day. And when this modern popular style was produced, Li Chang spotted it at a glance."

"He directly untied the jade pendant from his waist, 'Count me in! You King, what do you call this bead? I've never seen one like this before.'"

"'Green phantom with a golden money bead—it attracts wealth! Look, inside the green phantom are different miniature landscapes, very evocative, extremely valuable! This one I have just a single string.' Really, the size seven is gone; only diameters eight, nine, ten, eleven remain…"

"Everyone eagerly produced their valuables, mostly personal treasures; the Great King's fishing plan succeeded—if he won, everything would be sent to the auction."

Bai Li Heng brought Li Xu forward to introduce to Your Highness: "This is my second uncle's older brother Li Xu; it's our first meeting—last time you hosted the welcome feast, he wasn't there."

Li Xu stepped forward and gave a simple salute; Your Highness smiled: "Second Uncle's Older Brother, hello~"

Li Xu: "……"

Bai Li Heng glared at him: "Nonsense! Don't just shout!"

Li Xu hurriedly said: "Your Highness, just call me by my name; I'm in poor health and haven't taken office yet."

Your Highness immediately: "Alright, Li Second Brother."

Li Second: "……"

The hunt officially began; Your Highness led Skycover charging ahead into the valley, while White Marsh lazily squatted in the camp, aimlessly scanning the surroundings.

Liang Bin found it utterly adorable, lagging behind, dragging his feet: "Why isn't it going?"

Li Chang wanted to abandon him and run off first: "I want the You King's bracelet—I'm leaving first!"

"Wake up! Although I don't see what's impressive about his eagle besides its looks, just look at your hawk's cowardly appearance—you know the You King relied on it to beat Ge Zhong, so stop dreaming."

"Isn't my hawk afraid of that horned creature? Your hunting dog is even more cowardly!"

Liang Bin looked at the guards' dumb-looking dogs and fell silent—"Where's the ferocious snarling you used to have?" Compared to the You King's pets, these seem pathetically weak. Feeling like a dwarf, he was quite annoyed; he turned and told his brother to also find him a White Marsh in Youzhou; Liang Bin silently decided.

Your Highness soothed Skycover, let it go, and then split up with Wei Shenbing. Your Highness was more excited than anyone to come out and play, taking Lingyin into a dense forest and charging in.

As a result, he found the forests outside Chang'an were no richer than those in Youzhou—because the population here is denser; not only do commoners operate in these mountains, but there are also mountain folk.

Your Highness struggled for a long time before finally bagging a rabbit; Skycover found him a deer, then reluctantly flew off—this creature is even more ambitious than Your Highness, since Your Highness had already found a spot with relatively even grass to sit down.

"Exhausted—what lousy mountain did Second Brother find? There are far too many traces of human activity.... Lingyin, you say this is a mountain hollow—where does all this wind come from, blowing the soil into piles?"

Hesitant, Lingyin finally got a chance to speak: ".... My lord, could it be that what you're sitting on is a grave mound?" Not everyone's home is like yours, with an underground palace dug beneath and a bunch of buildings on top.

Your Highness slowly lowered his head to look at the small dirt mound he was sitting on, and stopped swinging his legs. "I was just saying the wind blew too neatly, in neat rows..."

Your Highness yelled, jumped up, whistled to call back Skycover, and without waiting for Skycover to appear, he clambered onto the little date tree's back and ran toward the camp—no more playing, no more playing! Even if I advertised that green specter!

This competition actually let Li Chang win—this guy won by relying on a fox with excellent fur, beating Your Highness who had bagged a deer; everyone else did even worse.

Li Chang, under Your Highness's gaze, smoothly slipped the green specter onto his own wrist, then handed over the rest to the youngest Your Highness—this guy turned out to be very pragmatic.

"Li Fourth Brother, from now on I admire you—let me treat you to a drink later, pure Youzhou white liquor~"

A group of playboys were shocked: "What?"

"Does the Moon-Attaining Pavilion's Youzhou white liquor actually have water mixed in?"

Your Highness: "……"

"It serves you right—you should be drinking fake liquor! One look at how you usually neglect my business, and it's no wonder you don't know what real Youzhou white liquor tastes like."

Upon saying that, as expected, Your Highness was surrounded and attacked by everyone.

"Is it my fault? Your place is either full of dust from charcoal sellers or packed with old ladies buying pickled vegetables—who'd go there for fun?" "Exactly, you don't even say hello when you have something good!" "Before, it was fine, but from now on not saying hello is just over the top."

After messing around a bit, everyone's relations grew much closer.

At noon they ate barbecue in the camp; Bai Li Heng brought the cook, so they didn't have to lift a finger. In the afternoon they were too lazy to hunt, found an open spot and held a horse race.

Your Highness's black wind horse brought in a few more orders; as the sun set westward, this group finally returned to the city.

Before they even reached the gate, they saw the city gate bustling, as if some foreign envoy had arrived, with a crowd blocking the entrance. They weren't in a hurry, slowly lining up at the back of the queue.

Your Highness rubbed his chin: "The city's going to be lively~ Unfortunately, I've got this heat-induced cold and can't go out—I'll have to recuperate in the courtyard."

But Liang Bin took a close look and recognized it: "These clothes—are they actually Xianbei?!"

Your Highness's nonchalant, amused attitude vanished instantly: "What? Xianbei?"

He immediately craned his neck toward the gate, sure the envoys wouldn't be wearing battlefield gear—he was just looking out of boredom. Your Highness had only ever seen the slave‑catching squad and the Eastern Xianbei cavalry; he'd never seen ordinary Xianbei people outside of battle.

Liang Bin examined it a moment longer and confirmed: "No mistake, it's Xianbei. After all, I stayed over a year at Shanggu Pass, had contact with Xianbei people—back then my father had just retaken Youzhou, the two sides interacted, and I'd seen their clothing."

Your Highness hoped: "Can you tell whether they're Eastern or Western Xianbei?"

Liang Bin: "Is there a difference?"

Your Highness: "Of course there is. The ones currently interacting with me are Eastern Xianbei—maybe on the way back we could travel together!" That way he might as well first send the Eastern Xianbei envoy back home and then head to Changzhou.

That's just how enthusiastic I am!

After saying that, Li Xu glanced at Your Highness, then turned to look at Bai Li Heng. "Your younger brother's got guts—really can be ambitionless?"

Who knew there was a foppish fool in the ranks who bluntly asked: "Are you guys not fighting the Xianbei on the northern border these days? Sounds like relations are pretty good."

Your Highness: "Not bad? There have been a few incidents involving lives."

Li Xu: "……The Prince of Guangling is fine everywhere—he just likes to play with fools."

Bai Li Heng: "……"