Starting My Cultivation With Time Management-Chapter 922 - 62: West State Advances Troops
Chapter 922 -62: West State Advances Troops
If two people fall in love but their families are bitter rivals, then they can only prepare for a deeply difficult and psychologically wrenching decision between their beloved and their family.
Although this statement makes perfect sense, it’s nothing but outright nonsense.
Otherwise, what else could one do?
Qi Yingzhu felt choked with anger upon hearing this and had absolutely no desire to continue speaking to the other party.
Yet, deep in her heart, a strangely familiar sense of déjà vu was slowly rising.
“You…” Qi Yingzhu hesitated, then asked, “What’s your name?”
“You Da,” Long Long quickly bowed his head and said, “I’m called You Da.”
The Mustela Clan typically uses “You” as their surname, and lower-class little demons with little education often name their children sequentially—You Da for the first, You Er for the second… Clearly, You Da was as generic a name as names could come.
Qi Yingzhu said nothing, merely staring at Long Long intently.
Long Hu grew slightly worried and immediately stepped in front of Long Long, blocking Qi Yingzhu’s gaze.
The déjà vu grew even stronger, giving Qi Yingzhu the sensation of being transported back to Eastern State, squabbling with some little turtle, little bird, and little dragon—truth be told, it made her deeply annoyed.
Who do you think I am!? Am I really going to fight over this male weasel with you?
She felt a surge of instinctive anger, yet it coexisted with an inexplicable flutter in her chest. She turned her stare instead to Long Hu, watching her intently.
Long Hu grew even more nervous. Thankfully, the Fox Clan’s natural gift for acting kicked in, her gaze quickly revealing seventy percent trembling fear and thirty percent jealous indignation—an urge to reprimand bubbling yet restrained in her eyes.
Qi Yingzhu saw her behaving so timidly, and her anger quickly dissipated.
As the Elder Princess of the Qilin Clan, it was beneath her to pick a fight with a Fox Lady.
As for fighting out of jealousy? That was even more impossible—what was she even thinking just now?
Snapping out of her daze, Qi Yingzhu waved her hand apathetically, signaling the pair that they could leave.
Once the two had left, the Fox Ladies around her finally began speaking loudly and insistently:
“Your Highness, he’s just a lowborn creature with a bit of cunning; why pay him any special mind?”
“It’s fine.” Qi Yingzhu didn’t feel like explaining further to them and simply shook her head.
The Fox Ladies initially wanted to ask who the mysterious male reconnecting with the Elder Princess might be, but seeing Qi Yingzhu lose interest in conversation, they obediently fell silent.
Over in their own camp, Long Long and Long Hu only sighed in relief after distancing themselves. Long Long spoke nervously:
“Did I reveal any flaw just now?”
“I don’t think so?” Long Hu replied tensely. “I don’t think there should have been any.”
“Then why was she staring straight at me?” Long Long grumbled irritably. “Could it be some kind of woman’s intuition?!”
“Oh.” Long Hu’s mood dipped slightly at this, her tail drooping. “Probably. After all, you’ve got so many beloved confidantes; it wouldn’t be surprising if one or two recognized you.”
“What confidante am I with her supposed to be?” Long Long, sensing her sulking, immediately pulled her into an embrace to comfort her, finally restoring the perkiness of her fox ears.
The two hurried back to Elder Hu Li’s residence, planning to stay hidden for a while to avoid Qi Yingzhu recalling anything and hunting them down to confirm their identities, which would cause untold trouble.
Fortunately, Qi Yingzhu seemed not to have noticed anything, as she soon departed the Celestial Fox territory and returned to the White Tiger Sacred Mountain.
Some time later, the armies of Western State finally formally set out, heading toward the border for assembly.
Long Long and Long Hu naturally blended in quietly within the Fox Clan contingent of Western State’s army, following the expedition unobtrusively.
Meanwhile, to coordinate with the Western State’s movements, Central State also massed forces at its border, led personally by Qi Yingzhu—while the White Tiger Divine General Lv Yan was relocated to the southern border of Central State to guard against any possible surprise attacks from Southern State.
Officially positioned at the Eastern State front rather than the Western border, there was an implicit strategy to guard against the Eastern State as well.
Soon enough, secret intelligence from Eastern State spies swiftly reached the White Tiger covert operatives in Central State.
It was reported that Long Long and Long Hu of the Dragon Clan had mysteriously gone missing not long ago.
This news heightened vigilance across Central State; after all, with Long Long holding a magical treasure for spatial teleportation, who knew where he might appear to concoct mischief in the shadows?
As such, Central State quickly sent emissaries to Eastern State for a diplomatic “inquiry”… nominally to inquire, but in actuality to investigate and uncover what had truly transpired.
Some time passed before word of this reached Qi Yingzhu at the northern border.
Upon hearing it, she was briefly stunned, then immediately recalled something, her realization dawning.
“Covert operatives!” she promptly ordered her adjutant. “Head to Western State’s Qingqiu Mountain right away and find a weasel!”
“Find a weasel?” The adjutant double-checked the instruction.
If they were headed to the old sacred mountain inhabited by the Mustela Clan, finding weasels wouldn’t be a problem; but how could there be a weasel on Fox Clan’s Qingqiu Mountain?
“Exactly…” Qi Yingzhu instinctively wanted to describe the weasel’s appearance in detail but hesitated and stopped herself.
Of course, given his cunning nature, after all this time, he wouldn’t stay anywhere as obvious as that.
“Never mind.” Qi Yingzhu waved her hand, dismissing the adjutant before narrowing her eyes in contemplation.
Long Long, what are you planning?
Why did you and Long Hu leave the Dragon Clan? Haven’t I already told you that, sooner or later, I will…
Suddenly, she vividly recalled all the things she had said to that member of the Mustela Clan, thinking he was clueless and could serve as a sounding board for her outpourings—only to find he had been the person himself all along…
Upon realizing this, Qi Yingzhu was overcome with an unspeakable, private feeling of embarrassment as though she desperately wished she could bury herself in a hole. Fury surged alongside it.
It’s all your fault, you rotten dragon! Of all things, why pretend to be a stinky weasel?
You’d better not let me catch you! Or else…
Meanwhile, Long Long remained oblivious to Qi Yingzhu having pieced together his identity, as news of Eastern State’s missing Dragon Clan elder had already reached Western State.
In response, the Western State’s leadership unanimously concluded: this must be a Dragon Clan plot or ploy—no need to deal with it.
After assembling along the border, Western State’s army surged forward across the boundary, proceeding into the Northern Border.
As the march continued northward, the surrounding geography turned increasingly barren: mountains became sparse, while frozen tundra predominated, with frost thickening in the soil—persisting even at midday without melting.
Snow began falling from the skies, icy winds slashing like knives across exposed faces, the cold flooding over bodies like pounding tides.
However, the stout, robust Mao Clan soldiers were impervious to the chilling weather, pressing forward hundreds of miles through snow and wind until encountering the vanguard forces of the Northern State’s Kun Race.
The two sides clashed in close-quarters combat, fiercely but briefly, before leaving dozens of corpses in their wake and withdrawing respectively.
Long Long and Long Hu, disguised as the personal guards of Elder Hu Li for this operation, weren’t deployed to the battlefield.
Gazing into the vast snowstorm ahead, Long Long began silently mapping out plans once again.
Based on Western State’s current marching route, they were scheduled to veer eastward in five days; at that point, the pair would need to break away from the army and head north alone.
But military maneuvers are unpredictable. Who could say how the march might vary? Adapting on the fly seemed inevitable.
