Chapter 282: What kind of nonsense did Li Chen send over? (Request Subscription)

Thinking of how her father had been implicated by Li Yang's rebellion and now sat imprisoned in the Ministry of Justice, Li Ling felt a pang of sorrow.

If not for the fact that this man was her own brother, she would have already cursed him out.

Li Ling knew full well that her brother was a key figure in the plot to assassinate the Crown Prince—by law and reason, he deserved death, with no chance of redemption.

"I'm curious," Li Ling asked, "what kind of person is this princess of the fallen dynasty?"

Li Yang's crime had already been made public: he had conspired with the princess of the fallen dynasty to assassinate the Crown Prince.

At the mention of this woman, Li Yang's eyes flickered with longing and infatuation, and he murmured, "When the chance arises, I'll introduce you to her. I'm certain you'll like her."

Li Ling said nothing. Whether she'd like the woman was uncertain—but she suspected she'd likely cut the woman's head off with one sword strike.

Without her, her brother wouldn't be a fugitive, her father wouldn't be in prison, and the Jing'an Prince's Mansion wouldn't have fallen into decline.

Li Ling had never hated anyone this much before.

As they spoke, the group arrived at the restricted zone.

Soldiers guarded this area to warn anyone attempting to enter: danger lies within, and no responsibility will be taken for any mishaps.

After bypassing this zone, Li Ling's party pressed onward.

To be honest, Li Ling had grown a little curious about the Sea Tribes herself.

Perhaps Li Yang had flaws in other matters, but as a brother, he was at least adequate—or perhaps because he needed something from Li Ling, he was behaving exceptionally well.

He told Li Ling many precautions: which areas belonged to the Fourth Army's jurisdiction and must not be entered lightly, taboos among disciples of sects, types of Sea Tribes, how to avoid poisoning, and more.

It sounded impressive, and Li Ling praised him enthusiastically.

In truth, this was merely because Li Yang had bought a guidebook on the Sea Tribes a few days ago, which came with a free map.

Li Ling had someone to guide her on this trip, but Li Ji was far worse off.

He had stubbornly come alone to the territory of the Prince of the South.

Following Li Ran's advice, Li Ji arrived at the Prince of the South's military camp and immediately pulled out the imperial edict to read it aloud.

This made the Prince of the South frown. Normally, when eunuchs or officials came to deliver imperial edicts, they approached with humble smiles, handed the edict to him, and let him read it himself.

Li Ji forced him to kneel before him in public to receive the edict.

Though he was kneeling before Li Ji, who represented Li Chen, he still felt displeased.

Even though the Prince of the South knelt, the pressure on Li Ji was immense.

But he had no choice—Li Ran had told him he must act as if he represented the Emperor himself, or later attempts to assert authority would become far more troublesome.

At this moment, the Prince of the South, naturally suspicious, wondered: was this Li Ji's own idea, or the Emperor's?

After reading the edict, Li Ji handed it to the Prince of the South and said apologetically, "Uh… what should I do next?"

The Prince of the South blinked. "What do you mean, what next?"

He suspected Li Ji was setting a trap; he didn't understand how to answer, so he asked back.

Li Ji smiled awkwardly. "This is my first time doing this. I don't know the procedure."

The Prince of the South frowned. "Didn't you participate in the Western Campaign?"

Li Ji replied seriously, "I just tagged along."

The Prince of the South: "."

This answer completely stunned the Prince of the South.

He was thinking: What kind of nonsense did Li Chen send over?

This was exactly what Li Ran meant by feigning ignorance—Li Ji didn't even need to act; he was just being himself.

After all, Li Ji was a prince sent by the Emperor to oversee the campaign; his status among the imperial clan was noble, and the Prince of the South still gave him due respect—for now.

Without even holding a welcoming banquet, he immediately took Li Ji to the central command tent to discuss how to assist allied neighboring states with the Sea Tribe problem.

This was already generous—if he hadn't been generous, the Prince of the South would have told the overseer to go anywhere but here.

In this southern region, very few people earned his respect.

Li Ji didn't act cowardly either—he was a prince, after all, and he'd met the Prince of the South before.

Not long after, the southern army's soldiers prepared the Sand River map, and the Prince of the South began discussing battle strategies with his officers.

According to the Prince of the South's view, since they'd been invited to fight, their goal was merely to repel the Sea Tribes back to the sea—after that, they had no obligation to guard other nations' borders.

Next came troop deployments and battle arrangements.

After some discussion, the Prince of the South suddenly turned to Li Ji and asked, "What are your thoughts, Prince of Prince Anxi?"

This was clearly a test—he wanted to gauge Li Ji's true ability to deduce his real purpose.

Hearing this, Li Ji rubbed his hands together and voiced his opinion.

It was his personal understanding of troop deployment and how to attack the Sea Tribes.

When he finished, the Prince of the South frowned and asked, "Has anyone ever evaluated your military skill?"

Li Ji scratched his head. "The Emperor once said, 'As long as you don't cause trouble, that's your greatest help.'"

After a moment of silence, the Prince of the South said solemnly, "That's remarkably accurate."

Because everything Li Ji had just said was clearly the ramblings of someone who didn't understand warfare—yet his thinking was lively, textbook paper generalship.

You could say he didn't know—he at least understood the characteristics of each troop type. But you could also say he did know—his tactics would guarantee total defeat.

Li Ji was just as frustrated—he hadn't even spoken, yet they forced him to talk; now that he had, they weren't pleased.

This was Li Ji's advantage: he made even this suspicious man unable to tell whether he was truly foolish or pretending.

But one thing the Prince of the South could be certain of: this boy kept saying, "The Emperor told me," "The Emperor once said…"

With that tone, the Prince of the South found it hard to get angry with him.

Because Li Ji represented the Emperor—he could ignore Li Ji's face, but he couldn't ignore the Emperor's.

Li Ji was like an "uncatchable" person—leaving the Prince of the South unsure how to handle him, so he could only keep him close.

In this way, Li Ji neither lowered his stance nor provoked the Prince of the South's disdain—he had successfully survived in this dangerous place.

On the other side, within the imperial palace's inner court.

Because Li Si's cultivation speed was astonishing, Li Chen was preparing to secure the next batch of cultivation resources.

This time, the location for repelling the Beast Tide was Qizhoucheng, in the central region of the Tian Ce Dynasty.

Near this city stood a powerful sect: the Zi Yun Immortal Mansion.

Repelling the Beast Tide was complicated: according to the system's rules, one had to slay ten Hollow Void realm beasts during the tide—slaying them beforehand didn't count.

To avoid errors, Li Chen couldn't scare off the Beast Tide.

This wasn't a joke—based on the current system task, Li Chen's strength was too overwhelming, making him a walking bug. He had to be extremely careful with his actions, or the task would get stuck.

Since it was near Zi Yun Immortal Mansion, Li Chen casually mentioned to Mu Mu Qingrou that he planned to inspect Qizhoucheng—he didn't mention the task, only his intention to travel there.

Before Mu Mu Qingrou could respond, Shi Shi Yingying, lying nearby, said she was familiar with Qizhoucheng and volunteered to accompany Li Chen.

According to her, going to Qizhoucheng now would allow them to catch a special "gathering."

She didn't say what it was, but hinted mysteriously that Li Chen would surely love this gathering.

(End of Chapter)