Chapter 196: They Are Our People!
Chu Xingchen glanced at his second disciple, whose expression showed slight difficulty, and naturally understood the situation.
This flood dragon, aside from lazing around and catching fish, simply loved to eat.
Xie Lingyu had also often used food to entice this little flood dragon.
Seeing Qinghe so naturally walk to Li Xingtian's side, and showing no concern at all for Xie Lingyu's threats, it was obvious she had found herself a meal ticket.
And that meal ticket was none other than his own second disciple.
Although Qinghe tended to speak without much thought, in some ways she was still rather adorable.
Chu Xingchen went along with the flow and said, "Xingtian, take Qinghe and go handle the matter I assigned to you."
Li Xingtian looked toward his master. Seeing the slight lift of Chu Xingchen's brow, he immediately understood and replied,
"Mm. We'll go now."
Qinghe was not stupid and naturally understood that this meant Li Xingtian was taking her to eat. She looked at Chu Xingchen and then shot him an approving look.
At least this kid understood how things worked and did not make her do all that work for nothing.
But still, how infuriating.
Xie Lingyu treated her worse than this brat.
Well, she would deal with that after eating.
Chu Xingchen watched as Qinghe happily followed behind Li Xingtian toward the door.
This little flood dragon really was quite easy to appease.
This time, Qinghe did not dare say any harsh words to Xie Lingyu. After all, if she kept yapping and ended up with no food, that would be disastrous.
Xie Lingyu did not say anything further either and quickly got to the point.
"Something is wrong over in Cangzhou. Someone is pretending to be a boatman and meddling in the river there. I was afraid of alerting the enemy, so I came to ask for your opinion first."
Chu Xingchen did not seem particularly concerned, since the grass had already been stirred long ago.
"It's fine. I've picked up some leads recently. Set the matter of the Cangzhou water veins aside for now and stay in Chizhou. Let's see what kind of move they're planning."
Xie Lingyu asked in confusion, "Then should we not send anyone to keep an eye on the Cangzhou water veins?"
Chu Xingchen let out a soft chuckle.
"No need. I intend to keep them too busy to go causing trouble in Cangzhou."
——————
Chizhou.
The Xuanwu Sect's discussion hall was a simply constructed wooden building. The furnishings inside were equally plain, consisting of nothing more than a large table and a few crude wooden stools.
There was not the slightest hint of the grandeur one might expect from a mysterious sect; it looked more like a temporary camp.
The old fox found this quite normal. After all, keeping a low profile made it easier to survive longer.
This Xuanwu Sect at least understood that much.
The old fox had been sitting silently on the chair for quite some time, waiting for someone or some demon to come and exchange information.
It had previously worked under Yu Zhu, offering strategies and handling certain logistical matters, all of which fell within its duties.
Everything had originally proceeded according to plan, but a plan was still just a plan. Having one did not guarantee its realization.
The Xuanwu Kingdom's scorched-earth strategy had nearly driven the Bingzhou army into a dead end.
Even cultivators could not create something from nothing. They could conjure water, fire, manipulate the earth, and even influence the weather.
But they could not produce food out of thin air to fill empty stomachs.
Yu Zhu had already clearly judged the situation and made preparations for the worst.
The old fox knew that a large portion of the demon soldiers who had scattered after the fall of the Demon Kingdom had actually been hidden away by Yu Zhu.
As the one managing logistics, the old fox naturally noticed irregularities in the accounts.
Especially during the food shortage, there was a substantial portion of supplies that could not be accounted for.
When faced with this deficit, Yu Zhu had merely stated calmly that he was aware of it, yet took no further action afterward.
This was not Yu Zhu's usual method of commanding troops. Based on the unknown destination of the missing food, the hidden demon soldiers were the only plausible explanation.
Thinking about it now, Yu Zhu's worst-case plan was likely to unleash those concealed demon soldiers and catch the Xuanwu Kingdom completely off guard.
After all, seizing an opportunity only required a fleeting moment.
For that moment, how many people or demons died likely did not matter to Yu Zhu at all.
Yu Zhu sending him to Cangzhou might very well have been because he found him troublesome.
After all, this old fox had once followed Hu Qi and possessed a certain degree of prestige.
At this point, a fox capable of even slightly influencing the demon soldiers naturally became an unstable factor.
However…
These matters were no longer within its control.
The old fox understood deeply that Chizhou would likely be its burial ground.
That day, it had personally witnessed how human cultivators, with what seemed like a casual swing of the sword, crushed demon kings into nothing but scraps.
Facing such enemies…
Even so, despite knowing this was a journey to death, the old fox still came.
That was because ever since that day, it would often dream of Hu Qi.
In those dreams, Hu Qi was still like an old friend, drinking wine and eating meat alongside it.
The only difference was that dream-Hu Qi always urged it to stop there and not seek revenge on his behalf.
The old fox did not know whether it was because the cultivator it had seen that day was too terrifying, causing fear to linger so deeply that even its dreams tried to find excuses for retreat.
Yet the more Hu Qi said this, the harder it became for the old fox to let go.
Later, the old fox finally thought it through. It was only a half-ruined life anyway; if it could at least disgust those cultivators a little, that would be enough.
After several quarters of an hour, having thought through many things, the old fox finally heard footsteps outside the door.
It raised its eyes and saw the door open, with two people entering… and one demon.
One was a middle-aged man with an ordinary appearance, the kind who would not stand out even in a crowd.
Another was a young man with a cold expression and a fierce look on his face.
The last was a demon, a small girl with deer antlers growing from her head.
She was likely a deer spirit, perhaps a sika deer. Her cultivation was extremely deep; if the old fox had not seen her with its own eyes, it would not have sensed her presence at all.
The middle-aged man stepped forward. Seeing that it was a fox, he looked momentarily stunned, but still quickly cupped his hands and said,
"You must be the strategist sent down from above. My name is Li Zhong, and I'm the head of this forward camp."
A forward camp?
The old fox was briefly dazed before realizing that this was not the Xuanwu Sect's main headquarters at all.
Had it been thrown into some outpost to fend for itself?
Used and discarded?
No wonder this place was so old, shabby, and small.
"Just call me Old Fox," it said, quickly regaining composure as its gaze shifted to the other man and the demon.
Li Zhong naturally understood the implication and explained,
"These two are allies from the Central Province Evil Spirit Sect, Brother Li and Ancestor… Grandmother."
"They're here to discuss the materials they need. I heard you've handled logistics before, so this is a good chance to make the handover."
The old fox nodded lightly and looked toward the expressionless young man and… the secretly snickering deer spirit.
That title of Grandmother…
The old fox glanced again at Li Zhong. As expected of a human, his mentality was truly something else.
Li Xingtian looked the old fox over twice, then handed over a slip of paper and said,
"No need to make this complicated. Just procure supplies according to what's written on this list. Prepare as much as you can. I'll come to collect it tomorrow."
The old fox reached out and took the paper from Li Xingtian, glancing over its contents.
It truly was a case of preparing whatever was possible. Just this list alone contained materials that even if the Bingzhou army sold off their trousers, they still would not be able to gather in full.
Wasn't this asking for far too much?
After handing over the paper, Li Xingtian turned and left with Qinghe.
Li Zhong initially wanted to see them off, but after being persuaded otherwise by Li Xingtian, he stayed behind in the room.
The old fox looked at the paper in its hand and asked instinctively, full of suspicion,
"Have their identities been verified? The things he wants are not few."
Li Zhong curiously sized up the fox, surprised that the Xuanwu Sect was so short on followers that even non-humans were accepted.
Still, he explained,
"We've confirmed it with the Central Province Evil Spirit Sect. They said he really is one of theirs."
"And the Central Province Evil Spirit Sect also asked us for a batch of supplies, saying they'll send more people over. We've already bled quite a bit because of it."
"At a time like this, if we can scrape together what they need, we should. Better to avoid stirring up any further trouble."
Hearing this, the old fox nodded lightly.
"Mmm… I understand."
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