Chapter 148 What Did You Just Say?
The teahouse.
Cui Hao and Lin Luoyu also took their seats. While lowering their heads to drink tea, their gazes were fixed on the wild ox spirit's seventh struggle within the Mirror Flower Water Moon.
At this moment, it was trying to cause a ruckus in the forward camp, attempting to change its original trajectory.
Unfortunately, within the dream, it seemed to have been identified as having mad cow disease and was captured and tied up not long after.
It seemed this struggle was also completely useless.
Li Yingling sat in her seat, looking somewhat dejected, absentmindedly drinking the tea Chen Baiqing poured.
This could be considered the first operation she had led and planned.
Her master had not said a single word about this plan, letting her do as she saw fit.
She had originally wanted to perform brilliantly...
In the end, not only did she have to ask her master for help with the interrogation, but the results were also lackluster.
Chu Xingchen cracked melon seeds and personally debriefed his disciple: "It's normal to be a little excited the first time you lead a team, but it was more or less thoughtless."
"Handling affairs is not the same as cultivating. It's not always best to do everything yourself. If you want to be just a fighter, then pretend I never said this."
Li Yingling was smart, but too young and inexperienced.
Even after reaching the Golden Core stage, she had just followed behind Chu Xingchen to cultivate, doing whatever her master told her to.
Although she had made gains, she was still lacking when it came to standing on her own.
Li Xingtian, on the other hand, had enough experience. His handling of affairs would be much more stable, and his suggestions were mostly for the sake of stability.
Although there might be occasional mistakes, who in this world doesn't make any?
Li Yingling nodded lightly and replied: "I understand. Yingling will remember."
"If you remember, then this trip wasn't a waste."
Chu Xingchen nodded in satisfaction, then looked at Cui Hao and Lin Luoyu beside him, raising his eyebrows as if to ask if they understood.
Cui Hao also raised his eyebrows, revealing a knowing smile: "Master, I understand!"
Lin Luoyu glanced sideways at Cui Hao, who had a sly smile on his face, and suddenly felt... she didn't quite understand.
But she nodded along anyway.
Seeing that the two had caught on, Chu Xingchen nodded in satisfaction and took a light sip of tea.
Chen Baiqing waited for a moment but noticed that her master was not looking at her.
She couldn't help but look at Chu Xingchen—why isn't Master asking if I understand?
"Your comprehension is very high. Master believes you understand."
Chu Xchen nodded in affirmation while giving Chen Baiqing a thumbs-up.
The sect's teatime meeting concluded with this summary.
The next operation would still be commanded by Li Yingling.
Even how to deal with the three little demons was for Li Yingling to decide.
----------
Three days later.
Yunzhou City.
The alliance meeting hall was chosen to be in the government office of the local Demon Suppression Division.
There were ready-made maps of the vicinity here. Furthermore, many of the buildings and their layouts were very well-suited for a wartime state.
Even many of their operational procedures could be directly adopted, and there were also backups of many local topographical maps.
Under such urgent circumstances, this was indeed the best choice.
The alliance leader was an elder of the Xuanwu Kingdom's royal family, with a cultivation at the peak of the late-stage Golden Core.
He introduced himself as Zhao Chun.
His appearance was that of a rather vigorous, white-haired old man, but his gaze was sharp, and his every word and action was measured.
Every conversation could lead to a certain degree of compromise among all parties.
Truly worthy of being specially chosen by the Xuanwu Kingdom to be the alliance leader.
After all, integrating resources was not something that could be handled simply by having high enough cultivation.
It required more of an accurate grasp of interpersonal relationships and the direction of events.
Of course, a person like this could not handle everything well.
For example, right now...
A very young girl was sitting below him with an ice-cold expression.
The dozen or so members of the alliance below did not look at Zhao Chun, but instead fixed their gazes on this young girl—Li Yingling.
This position belonged to a sect from Yuzhou City, one that he had been specifically reminded before departure to treat with the utmost seriousness.
And to give them the highest courtesy.
Zhao Chun had naturally complied.
Regarding Chu Xingchen, Zhao Chun was naturally very serious.
This was not just due to the emperor's instructions, but because Chu Xingchen himself was worthy of respect.
Although he rarely attended the alliance meetings, every time he did, the opinions he raised were always incisive and to the point.
This unique perspective on matters was not something that could be achieved simply through high cultivation.
Moreover... this person's cultivation was even more extraordinary.
When Zhao Chun looked at Chu Xingchen, he felt as if he were one with heaven and earth, a strange feeling that other Nascent Soul experts could not give him.
If possible, he still wanted Chu Xingchen to attend this alliance meeting and offer more advice.
But unfortunately, this young girl was fully representing Chu Xingchen's position.
Chu Xingchen himself had not even come.
This originally was not a problem.
But...
She also had three people standing behind her: a little girl at the Foundation Establishment stage, and two minor cultivators at the Qi Refining stage.
To be honest, the alliance members really were a bit of a makeshift group.
After all, they were a rope twisted together by force.
But looking at them, they really couldn't appear too makeshift.
It was these high-level officials who formulated the plans, deciding the attack directions for the many cultivators; this was meant to be an extremely confidential plan.
Only one person attending was the unspoken default rule.
This kind of situation, bringing one's whole family, and looking at that man, his expression clearly showed he was just there for the fun, his eyes constantly scanning the surroundings.
Zhao Chun took a deep breath and stood up, attracting everyone's attention.
Ignoring the questioning gazes below, he forced himself to speak:
"The intelligence has now been basically gathered. According to the intel, there is an eighty percent probability that there is only one Nascent Soul-level demon king assisting this tiger demon."
"However, just in case, besides the two Nascent Soul Realm elders of the Xuanwu Kingdom, we still need three Nascent Soul Realm elders to provide final support."
"I wonder which sect's Grand Elder is willing to save the common people from the clutches of demons?"
"Afterward, the Xuanwu Kingdom is willing to offer generous rewards!"
As his voice fell, the scene fell slightly silent.
Li Yingling did not speak, gently toying with the teacup before her.
At this moment, only the sound of the teacup colliding could be heard in the meeting room.
Since no one was volunteering, he could only call on them by name.
Zhao Chun looked at a man on the lower left: "Brother Li, I wonder if I could trouble your sect's Grand Elder to come and oversee the formation?"
The man addressed as Brother Li on the left was a middle-aged man.
He glanced lightly at Li Yingling, then said in a calm tone:
"It's not that we are unwilling to contribute, but why would the Xuanwu Kingdom seek far and wide for what is near?"
Hearing this, Li Yingling turned her head slightly, her gaze falling on this person.
The level of this passive-aggressive remark was too low, not as good as her own master's.
But Li Yingling was not in the mood to bicker with them.
In her master's words, arguing with this group of people was just lowering her own status.
Li Yingling slowly stood up. Under the gaze of everyone, she took out the jade tablet her master had given her, engraved with the two words "Tian Yan," and gently placed it on the table.
She frowned slightly and asked in a soft voice:
"What did you just say?"
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