Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
In one of the cities of Great Xia, every place was full of scorched and blood-stained soil after the battle. Rotten smells came from every corner of the city, leaving the volunteer army in khaki clothes with no choice but to cover their noses and pass quickly.
This was already the third day after the fall of the city.
The originally strong Great Xia suddenly seemed to have collapsed. The fire of war was raging everywhere.
All of this happened swiftly.
It happened so quickly that most commoners didn’t know what was happening, but still got caught in the turbulence.
At present, Qing Lian was sitting in the residence of one of the aristocratic families. She was reading a book attentively while occasionally looking up at the people in front of her who were having a discussion.
As the commander-in-chief, Su Qing was currently filled with a murderous aura. After all, a person’s temperament was molded by their identity and experience.
Next to him was Military Advisor Xu Yu. He was a fat and fair-skinned man who appeared very normal and looked more like a merchant than anything else.
Apart from him, Shi Zhuowan, Lin Ping, Shao Xianyi, Zheng Huan the vanguard, General-in-Chief Chi Guo, General Bo Hai, and others were also present… It could be said that half of the highest ranking members of the volunteer army were present.
They were naturally having an important meeting about the future movements of the volunteer army, but Qing Lian had no interest at all. She simply sat there reading the book without showing the slightest interest in the conversation at all, and everyone was already used to this. Even Su Qing couldn’t do anything about it. Even if the others weren’t happy about it, they wouldn’t express it either.
After all, everyone knew Qing Lian’s abilities, and no one present could compare to her. Besides, she had no interest in power as well. Nobody would be easily offended by someone so capable and who held such a high rank in the volunteer army, yet wasn’t greedy for power.
Needless to say, her strength was also equivalent to a Spirit Wheel expert, the strongest in the volunteer army.
Although Qing Lian was reading a book during the discussion, she was thinking about the wedding of Qi Zixiao and the principal of Black Bamboo Academy that was going to take place in a month’s time.
She felt that her wedding gift was mediocre, and it seemed that she had to go to Su Qing to get some treasure.
She had studied at the school for so long and took away some books about mathematics and probability when she left. These were considered pretty generous farewell gifts. She felt that her wedding gift was too mediocre in comparison and that it was too shameful.
Thinking of this, Qing Lian looked up at Su Qing and realized that the discussion seemed to be over.
With a solemn look, Su Qing asked Military Advisor Xu Yu, “Our next step would be to advance and make our way around the Raogu Pass. What do you think about our chances of winning, Advisor?”
Xu Yu’s face was like a dumpling, and he was left with only slits for eyes. Without looking carefully, it was difficult to tell whether his eyes were open or closed.
He whispered a few words, wrote a few characters on the table, made some hand gestures, and looked up at everyone before saying, “Great Xia will definitely win this battle!”
Although everyone here used to be from Great Xia, they were now the volunteer army. Everything they were doing now was to overthrow the nation. Of course, there was no lack of people who were simply out to plunder money, food, and land. However, in terms of general direction, everyone was consistent, and the imperial court of Great Xia was still the enemy.
After Xu Yu said that Great Xia would win the battle, everyone looked extremely happy.
To those who didn’t know, they might think that these people were the leaders of Great Xia.
If outsiders were to hear this and see everyone’s expressions, they might even start to doubt their own existence.
They would probably also suspect that the people in the tent were spies from Great Xia.
“That’s good.” Su Qing was delighted.
To say this, the military advisor was definitely confident about it.
As long as he said that Great Xia would win, this meant that Great Xia would be defeated!
At the beginning, the volunteer army consisted of elite soldiers, whereas Great Xia’s forces were full of the old and weak. Everyone thought that they would win, even Xu Yu.
However, these battles had ended in utter defeat.
Even the generals who led the soldiers had an inexplicable feeling, and they didn’t know why they failed. They only found out after some questioning that it was a combination of many small factors that affected the result of the battle.
Even so, everyone felt that defeat was too unexpected.
There was a period of time when the entire army felt anxious. Many people thought that the gods had abandoned them and stood on the side of their opponent.
Otherwise, there was no way to explain why a clear victory would end in an inexplicable defeat.
After that, a turn of events suddenly occurred and caught everyone off guard.
Everyone was already prepared for defeat and merely fought to reduce casualties, but they inexplicably won.
Then, after several defeats, they discovered that whichever party the military advisor said would win the battle would definitely lose.
Even if they had more elite soldiers and even if they were completely prepared, it always ended up this way.
The exception was if one man faced off against 100 enemies in an unsalvageable situation.
As long as there was still a possibility, even if 1,000 men were to fight 5,000 elite soldiers on the battlefield, the result of the battle would be the complete opposite of what Xu Yu had predicted.
Even Qing Lian was curious about this magical phenomenon. She even tried to find out about his secrets, but to no avail.
Of course, Xu Yu’s position as the military advisor became more stable over time.
Everyone even suspected that he would be able to make them win against Dayao!
However, Qing Lian didn’t understand how he did it.
If Ren Baqian were to learn of this, he would definitely understand. Xu Yu was simply a living auspicious item and a nanny!
Full of poison milk!
What a talent!
When the others left, Qing Lian said to Xu Yu, “You should lose weight, otherwise you won’t find a horse that can carry you.”
Looking helpless, he replied, “I have only been eating one bowl of rice a day during the last month, and I only drank water at other times. However, I still gained about five kilograms.”
Xu Yu’s face was full of doubt regarding his body.
“Perhaps I can help you? My sword is fast and can minimize the pain. Besides, there’s also the black mud cream from Lan City,” Qing Lian replied with her evil designs.
“Forget it. Being fat makes me look wealthy, My wife likes me fat.” Xu Yu waved his hand and strode away.
When it was only Qing Lian and Su Qing that remained, Su Qing relaxed himself and said, “You can speak now.”
During normal times, Qing Lian would definitely be the first to leave.
Since she had actually stayed until the end, she must have something to tell him.
“You must have already found the Yu family’s treasure trove! I want to take some things from there,” Qing Lian said. At the same time, she knew that Su Qing would definitely agree. However, there was a 90 percent chance that he would ask her to promise him a condition and an 80 percent chance that he would want her to exercise restraint by not always reading a book during their meetings.
“What do you need?” He was puzzled at first, but he knew that unlike others, she wasn’t the greedy type who went after things like property and jewelry.
As such, he casually replied, “Sure, but you have to promise me a condition. During the next military meeting, even if you don’t like it, I can allow you to fall into a daze, but don’t be reading a book. If everyone acted like you, how would I be able to manage them?”
Su Qing was suffering a headache over this.
As Qing Lian smiled, her eyes became like crescent moons.
It turned out just like she expected.
Currently, everything was like a river to her.
There were tributaries branching out along the way, and all these tributaries had different probabilities.
