Chapter 602: Do something substantial

Xu Laner put down the account book and closed her eyes to ponder for a moment. With her formidable spiritual sense, she could generate hundreds of thoughts in a single breath, her speed of thought hundreds of times faster than an ordinary person's. In just a short moment of contemplation, she had already come up with over a dozen possible ways to break the deadlock. But the most critical and unavoidable issue was the granary.

"Someone, come with me to take a look at the largest granary."

The attendant was clearly somewhat panicked and hurriedly said, "That granary is jointly managed by two Elders. Please allow this one to go and report it first..."

Xu Laner did not give the attendant any chance to tip them off; a strand of sword Qi swept him up, and she flew straight toward the granary.

Upon arriving above the granary, Xu Laner saw that the several granaries were each several zhang wide and three zhang high, each capable of storing hundreds of thousands of catties of grain. This granary complex had a total of over five million catties of grain on the books.

Xu Laner channeled her sword Qi and directly pried open the roof of one granary, which was ten thousand catties in weight, and looked inside. This granary was designed quite ingeniously, with inner and outer layers separated by a gap of one chi; the grain was stacked within this gap, while the interior was entirely empty.

If one did not open the granary, a cultivator scanning from the outside with spiritual sense would be able to detect a full granary of grain.

However, at this moment, this granary contained at most a few tens of thousands of catties of grain, a far cry from the one million catties recorded in the account book.

Xu Laner checked the other granaries as well, and the situation was the same for all of them. At this time, several Elders received the news and hurried over, their faces looking extremely ugly, some even appearing flustered and exasperated.

At this moment, the oldest Elder, whose path to the Dao was hopeless, said with a dark face, "Fairy Laner, what is the meaning of this? Could it be that you want to take the old lives of us few?"

This Elder was actually four generations above Xu Laner and was already nearly five hundred years old, with little lifespan remaining. He was usually considered amiable, but today, the term "Fairy Laner" already carried the implication of a fight to the death.

Another Elder sneered, "Wanting to kill us is not that easy; it must be discussed and passed by the Family Elder Council. Relying solely on the sword in your hand, I'm afraid it's not enough!"

Xu Laner remained expressionless and asked, "Is the situation in the other granaries the same?"

The faces of the several Elders became even uglier, and they said, "Fine, we will tell you the truth now: all the granaries are like this! This granary has more grain stored because more people come to check it; the other places have even less than this."

Xu Laner was thoughtful: "Why was I completely unaware of this?"

The Elders said, "You act in a savage and overbearing manner and don't listen to what we say at all; who would tell you the truth? To be honest with you, everything up and down Hanyang Pass is being kept from you alone! Xu Laner, oh Xu Laner, don't you understand yet? You are now a lone wolf; apart from yourself, no one can be ordered around!"

Xu Laner did not get angry and continued to ask, "Then what do the soldiers eat on a daily basis?"

An Elder said, "The military has other granaries; although they aren't the actual numbers on the books, they are barely enough to eat. The private army can't really be left to starve, they just don't eat as well. Among all the troops, only the unit you are training has supplies executed according to the register."

Xu Laner asked again, "If the soldiers can't even eat their fill, then what about the porridge sheds and camps set up for the refugees?"

"They can only boil rice soup that is a bit thicker than clear water." The Elders had already torn off the mask, so they no longer hid anything.

"Don't they cause trouble?"

An Elder sneered, "We've already killed over a thousand of them; who would dare to cause trouble? Those who dare to cause trouble die even faster. Besides, they are all so hungry they can't even stand steadily, so what trouble could they cause? One of our Body Forging guards can deal with hundreds of them."

Xu Laner was silent for a moment before saying, "Follow me."

She then returned to the main hall of the garrison office and sat in the seat of honor, lost in thought and silent.

The several Elders were somewhat apprehensive in their hearts at this time, remembering the fierce reputation this woman had in those years.

In those years, Xu Laner applied for Body Refining precious medicine, but the Elder in charge of the storeroom coveted her beauty and actually forced her to sleep with him. She rose up in resistance, killed that Elder, and then left home to travel. Several years later, her cultivation broke through, and she returned home. The elders of her branch saw that she had successfully broken through and stepped forward to suppress the matter.

Xu Laner dared to kill an Elder when she first entered the Dharma Form realm; would she not dare to do it now? Xu Laner pondered for a long time, until the various Elders became uneasy, and then she said, "Since you are so fearless, I suppose my family members are involved in this, right?"

"That's right! Your two youngest brothers have taken quite a few benefits from us, and your father comes to ask for monthly immortal silver allowances himself, taking away several thousand taels every month. Hmph, if you want to kill us, behead them first!"

Xu Laner sighed lightly and said, "Open the pass."

"What?" The several Elders could hardly believe their ears.

"Lift the pass ban and let all merchant caravans pass. But there is one condition: the caravans leaving the pass must take all the refugees stranded within the pass with them," Xu Laner said.

The several Elders were both surprised and happy; as for the small matter of taking refugees out of the pass, compared to the reopening of the path to wealth, it was simply not worth mentioning!

Xu Laner's spiritual sense had already left the main hall, not knowing where it had flown, and her voice was also somewhat ethereal: "Reminding you of one more thing: Wei Yuan paid a tax of five taels of silver to Prince Jin for every refugee. If you can also get refugees, you can try selling them to him."

The Elders were overjoyed; the oldest Elder laughed until the wrinkles on his face bloomed, saying, "I said that grandniece Laner not only has high talent but also understands the big picture! When I make money, I will definitely give you a share; I'll put one hundred thousand immortal silver with you first as a greeting gift!"

The other Elders also realized this and all said that everyone was now in the same boat, and the share that Xu Laner should get would not be a single cent less. Thus, in the blink of an eye, the atmosphere in the main hall became enthusiastic, a scene of blood relatives and harmony.

When Wei Yuan received the news from the front, he was also somewhat incredulous.

Xu Laner's personality was so rigid, and she had just been scolded by him and Prince Jin, yet she actually opened the pass and let people go? Was she not afraid of others saying she bullied the soft and feared the hard? This reputation did not sound very good.

Wei Yuan felt that if it were him, he would definitely communicate privately first to have himself withdraw all the people from the Heaven-Extinguishing Gang, dismantle the positions, and then find a few scapegoats to tie up and send over, saying these few were temporary bandits who hadn't been officially promoted yet and didn't understand the rules, and it was they who fired the cannons and injured the Hanyang Pass garrison.

!

If the other party refused to hand over even the temporary workers, then he would just find a few death-row prisoners to substitute. After saving face, he would then open the pass to let the refugees go, and he would likely be able to ask for another sum of money from Wei Yuan.

This was the precise operation; this Xu Laner didn't communicate anything and opened the pass directly to let people go; the method was truly crude.

However, after pondering, Wei Yuan sent a letter to Xu Laner, stating that he had already cleared the bandits on the trade route, the trade route to the Lei Ze tribe was now open, and the Heaven-Extinguishing Gang had also been severely damaged by him and should be hiding deep in the Western Regions, unlikely to appear again in the short term.

When this letter was delivered to Hanyang Pass, the Heaven-Extinguishing Gang on the small mountain was already dismantling fortifications and reloading the cannons onto carts.

The Xu family Elders inside the pass initially didn't know what had happened, but upon hearing that the trade route to the Shaman tribe was open, they couldn't help but go wild with joy. This was a double happiness!

And so, in less than half a day, letters were sent to the Elder Council like snowflakes, all full of praise for Xu Laner, calling her beautiful and kind, and respectful to the old and loving to the young.

Xu Laner, however, felt it was incomparably ironic; she had only understood the status quo of the grain reserves and knew there was simply not enough grain to feed the refugees, and even the grain for the private army was not quite enough. Between her family's face and the lives of the refugees, she still made a choice.

It was just that the lost face naturally had to be recovered from Wei Yuan, so she threw herself into the training of the new army, drilling day and night, making the tens of thousands of private soldiers miserable, but their cultivation bases rose in a straight line.

Wei Yuan also began to get busy; once Hanyang Pass opened, at least one hundred thousand refugees would pour out. Moreover, at least six Xu family Elders and over thirty Xu family power-holders secretly wrote letters to Wei Yuan, or sent trusted aides directly, claiming they had a large number of refugees on hand.

Prince Jin collected five taels of silver for each refugee, while they only collected two.

Wei Yuan replied immediately: he would take as many as they had, payment in cash, payment upon arrival.

Up to this point, Wei Yuan estimated the number of refugees might exceed two hundred thousand; this had to be planned well, as the first day of arriving in Azure Void was the time when humanistic Qi was most easily generated.

Should he hold a welcome assembly and give a short speech himself?

Once he thought of giving a short speech, Wei Yuan's thoughts automatically began to diverge: how big should the venue be, how should the personnel be organized, what exactly should he say: firstly, secondly, thirdly... one, two, three, four... finally... I'll add two more points... emphasize a few more points... and finally, finally...

Wei Yuan pondered for a long time, but still rejected this incomparably tempting idea and decided to do something substantial.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 603 =====