Chapter 404: Arrival

When Ren Baqian, the empress, and their followers continued to advance, Ning Caichen had already left.

He said that he went back to retrieve the xueke and that this time around, he didn’t want to exchange it for the Luoyin Root but for Ren Baqian’s stun baton…

Perhaps, Ning Caichen had fallen in love with the stun baton. To put it another way, he enjoyed getting electric shocks.

Ren Baqian felt that it was a pretty good idea for the flirtatious Ning Caichen to leave.

Ning Caichen not only found his self-worth, but also found “someone” he loved (the stun baton). In the future, he could travel the world with it. How unconstrained would his life be?

Exactly how many people knew what they wanted before they died? Everyone lived one day at a time.

Moreover, there was someone in the past who said that great souls were all hermaphrodites. Ren Baqian probably didn’t misunderstand this sentence, right? This showed that at present, Ning Caichen had a great soul. Plus, those who witnessed this situation were extremely moved.

Furthermore, his Dissociative Identity Disorder had been treated.

The treatment was somewhat harmful, so it was normal for him to experience a few side effects. It was just that he had some difficulty in identifying his gender. As long as he didn’t mind, it would be alright.

Looking at Ning Caichen, he was also rather happy and had no complaints. The situation was pretty good.

Ren Baqian felt very relieved, but the others weren’t able to feel the same. They looked at Ren Baqian as if they saw a ghost.

Witnessing a half-man, half-woman completely become a woman, this ability of Ren Baqian’s was really terrifying for a group of burly aboriginal men. What if Ren Baqian did the same to them and turned them into neither a man nor a woman? Everyone subconsciously kept their distance from him.

They didn’t know how Ren Baqian turned Ning Caichen into a woman. The bunch of them only saw him using a “stick” which emitted a blue light to poke Ning Caichen from time to time.

Things became like this after just one afternoon.

It was indeed terrifying.

“Yagui, I heard that you changed a man into a woman?” the little lolita, Tong Lan, got ahold of this news and ran over to ask Ren Baqian.

At the back, there were also many students looking at Ren Baqian because they were very concerned about his answer.

“Do you want to try it out?” Ren Baqian harbored evil thoughts.

The little lolita first looked at him with a disgust before hesitating a little. She wavered for a long time before opening her mouth and asking, “Can you turn me into a man?”

“Why?” Ren Baqian was astonished. He had never heard anything about the Tong Family valuing males over females. Why did Tong Lan think this way?

Aboriginal women weren’t weak and some could even be compared to men. As such, the aboriginals didn’t value males over females.

There were even women officials in Dayao’s imperial court.

Due to the fact that women were innately more cautious and had more patience as compared to men, they were mostly delegated to the Ministry of Revenue. Women were rarely found in other departments.

“I heard that House Yunyan is very fun and have long since wanted to go, but grandfather won’t let me and said that only men can enter.” Tong Lan was discontented. No matter how intelligent she was, she was only a ten year old kid. At times, she had some childish thoughts.

Ren Baqian had nothing to say.

This was definitely a lack of family education and parental care as well as a loss of social morality.

“My method is a bit flawed. There is a huge probability of turning someone into a half-man, half-woman. A half-man, half-woman isn’t able to enter either,” Ren Baqian said painfully.

“Ptui! Useless.” The little lolita was disappointed. She didn’t want to turn into neither a man nor a woman.

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This fellow was indeed unreliable.

While everyone was traveling on the road, two things happened. The first thing was that the winged cavalry and Li Qianqiu’s soldiers had successfully returned under Hong Wu’s support.

As per what he thought, the interior of Great Xia was empty at this time because their military power had been transferred out. Apart from some of the practitioners from the sects, there wasn’t much resistance. Those practitioners and the portion of the remaining defenders were easily destroyed. It was like a scene where one would gently push a sandcastle, causing it to crumble into a pile of sand.

A total of five cities were wiped out, and it shook all of Great Xia.

However, there was one thing different from what he had predicted. Before the Dayao soldiers invaded, he had planned for them to loot and bring back gold and silver. In the end, they returned with food, food, and only food… The majority of the food was also consumed during the return journey to Dayao.

Fortunately, it was good that they had brought back some gold and jewels at the very least. Furthermore, these riches were all stolen from wealthy families. They should be of quite high value and could replenish the state treasury. The gold and jewels could at least support the construction of roads, a task that was paramount at the moment and could benefit the nation in the long run.

These soldiers left a brilliant legacy back in Great Xia. Wherever they went, they ate, ate, and ate, practically gobbling up everything in their path. Before their reputation of looting had been spread, their reputation for eating was already known everywhere. With the exception of humans, there was nothing they didn’t eat.

Smoke was constantly produced throughout those three days, and this was the best way to describe the cooking scene of the Dayao soldiers. During the three days that they occupied the cities, smoke was constantly produced.

This was something else that he also hadn’t expected. There was too little meat to satisfy the aboriginals’ hunger pangs in Great Xia. As such, they ate six meals a day and mostly relied on consuming vegetables. After all, there was an abundance of vegetables in Great Xia, and it was difficult to transport them back to Dayao. Furthermore, it helped to curb their hunger. Therefore, they collected all the livestock in every city and used grains and vegetables to fill their stomachs.

In conclusion, crop failure occurred wherever these soldiers traveled through.

These soldiers not only recklessly walked around within Great Xia’s borders and ignited fear within the neighboring cities, they also created a huge ruckus in all of Great Xia. This made it even more difficult for Great Xia to provide relief for the stranded commoners from these five cities.

Hundreds of thousands of commoners from the five cities and the nearby strongholds poured into the surrounding cities after the departure of the Dayao soldiers, causing the surrounding cities to be somewhat chaotic.

The reason for the hectic scene was because of food. After all, Great Xia had to provide food for 700,000 soldiers. Many of their soldiers were in the vicinity after being transferred, so the granaries stocked for disaster relief were already empty. After something like this occurred, they weren’t able to supply enough food for those who had fled from their hometowns.

They could only rely on the authorities to contact the wealthy families and try to persuade them to donate some food.

There were also notices that Ren Baqian instructed Li Qianqiu to post. Many scholars felt that it was a joke. Dayao actually dared to ask for reparations? Furthermore, they only announced it after they were already in Great Xia territory. It was similar to a situation where two parties were fighting and one of them got punched. Thereafter, the person who threw the punch demanded a compensation of 100 taels of silver. If the injured party didn’t comply, the attacker would rob his house.

What was the difference between a bandit and these Dayao soldiers?

Many commoners harbored a grudge against them.

After all, they had been living a safe and peaceful life. In the end, because of these soldiers, they had no choice but to leave their hometowns, causing them to feel a resentment deep down in their hearts toward both Dayao and Great Xia.

…

Li Qianqiu and the winged cavalry’s return was one of the things that happened while the empress was traveling.

The second thing was that the entire family of Qingfeng City’s warlord had been eliminated.

The Department of Inspection managed to grab a bunch of treasure from the warlord’s residence and was already back within Dayao’s borders. They were rushing to the Protectorate of the South to hand over the treasures for the empress to inspect.

They were both pieces of good news. Although they had yet to count the total value of the things they had looted, it was presumed that the amount would be rather high.

It was enough to start some construction work after they returned to Dayao.

At this time, Ren Baqian got up and lifted the curtain of the empress’s imperial carriage. He was able to see an army that was in formation and waiting for them in the front.

Thousands of soldiers bared their upper arms and slung only a piece of animal hide from their left shoulders to the right side of their waists. They were burly and bald men that wielded long sabers in their hands.

They looked more like bandits than soldiers.

However, all of Dayao’s soldiers behaved like this, and everyone was used to it.

Finally, they arrived at their destination.

The Protectorate of the South.