Chapter 134: Feigning Weakness
With the matter of Xu Wenwu dealt with, the problem regarding supplies shifted over to the front row once more.
So far, every single one of his allies had arrived in Qingming empty-handed, and none of them thought that a lack of supplies would constitute a problem at all. In their opinion, their one true need was a place to recover spirit qi. As Qingming was growing at a prodigious rate, this too wasn’t a problem. When its domain had grown to two or three hundred li in radius, there would be enough spirit qi to sustain everyone cultivating at the same time.
Forget mortals, even ordinary cultivators were almost useless in Zhang Sheng and Ji Liuli’s eyes. Their only real use was handling menial and dirty work. As for the war, the further they stayed away from the battlefield, the better.
His allies could afford to ignore all trivialities because they were great immortals, but Wei Yuan couldn’t. As the lord of the realm, he had no choice but to shoulder the burden and consider every angle carefully. Although he hadn’t voiced it, he strongly agreed with Xu Wenwu regarding the necessity of supplies. Now, his last hope rested solely on Cui Yu.
As a prominent figure among the younger generation of the Cui Clan, the young master had always enjoyed gathering friends and traveling in a large group. Thus, it was very likely that he would bring his rowdy friends along for this journey. This meant that he wouldn’t be traveling nearly as quickly as his allies, and he would inevitably bring supplies if only to keep his companions fed.
In truth, Cui Yu genuinely had these ne'er-do-wells’ best interests at heart. He took them all over the place to gain experience. If there were merits to be earned, then they would share it together. If there were dangers, then they would face them together. He did all this in hopes of preventing them from turning into true wastrels.
Wei Yuan had studied the map closely after slaying Xu Guanwen. It was how he discovered that both the flying ship route to Hanyang Pass, and the overland route to the former Ningxi Commandery were under the control of the Xu Clan. This meant that transporting supplies from the Palace of Absolute Beginning would probably not be easy. It was also why he paid so much attention to the supplies.
He wasn’t holding out much hope, however. He only wished that one of the powerful reinforcements he had requested would bring something, anything at all in their luggage. After all, he had a feeling that the Palace’s regular freight routes would soon come to a standstill.
That said, it felt like a waste to not pull off something spectacular while everyone was gathered, especially since they were all the cream of the crop of the Palace of Absolute Beginning.