As an official, what's wrong with raising a few monsters?

Chapter 418 Lu Tian's Talent

"I plan to order General Yan Xuanang to lead 5,000 men to attack this place and take Lizheng City."

"Shi Zirui led 20,000 troops to attack Jiayue City in the west."

"We divided our forces into three routes. I led the troops to advance from the front, pushing the battle line north of the Liehe River."

……

Inside the military tent, Ling Yu, dressed in military uniform, looked dashing and heroic.

She stood before the sand table, speaking with commanding presence to several generals.

War is fluid, and the Qian Yuan army cannot always hold its ground at the Three Passes, waiting for the enemy to gather their troops and prepare before launching an attack.

The balance of power has now shifted.

Qin Lou's army was not yet fully assembled and ready. The legions stationed at the three passes had already been defeated. The Beilie Army's defenses at the front were not very strong. Now was the time to launch a counterattack.

Ling Yu may seem aloof and dull, but in reality, she sees things very clearly. Even though Ming Chen didn't tell her, she knew what Ming Chen and Xiao Xinyue's ultimate goal was.

To unify the world!
The world has been divided for thousands of years, with constant chaos and war.

It's time for this era to end.

Having won the battle to defend the three passes in the north, Qian Yuan would have the right to continue its advance.

Now that she has the opportunity, she should rightfully continue to push the front lines forward.

The success or failure of a war between nations depends on two factors: the number of soldiers killed or wounded, and the amount of land occupied.

Now that Mingchen has returned and the army is receiving a steady stream of supplies, Lingyu doesn't want to give up this opportunity; it's time to launch a northern expedition.

"Do you have any objections?"

"Feel free to speak your mind."

……

Ling Yu held a large meeting in the military tent, but Ming Chen, who was another key figure, did not join her.

Ultimately, Mingchen's military talent was just so-so.

He was just a mascot in the army, meant to boost morale.

He's best at cheating, lying, breaking the rules, scheming, and plotting.

But if it were a direct, real battle, commanding troops, changing formations... his skill level was actually not much different from that of a top-tier general in this world, and he was only able to do so thanks to the old ghost's sincere teaching.

Given the current situation, Mingchen can't find any loopholes to exploit.

Let Ling Yu take charge of the overall situation and launch a frontal northern expedition.

It's not like Qian Yuan can't function without him.

"Wow, that's quite a big operation..."

Lu Tian didn't know if this was the first time she had seen such a large army and such a magnificent battlefield.

Her eyes sparkled, and she couldn't help but sigh.

Mingchen smiled and said to her, "There are many more people!"

"Is my wife comfortable here?"

"If you feel unwell, I can send someone to take you back to Yueyang City."

Spiritual cultivators and demons don't actually like the grim atmosphere of the army; they always feel a sense of oppression.

Although Lu Tian is shrouded in many mysteries, Ming Chen knows her background.

The spirit deer inquires of the immortals.

Although she has clear, doe-like eyes, one can only imagine how many years she has lived through.

"It's okay~"

Lu Tian said with a smile.

She pumped her fist and said energetically, "If I leave, who will help you?"

"Hahaha~"

Upon hearing this, Mingchen smiled repeatedly, neither trying to be assertive nor refusing. Instead, he went along with her, offering plenty of emotional support: "Then I'll have to trouble you, my wife, to put in your effort~"

Lu Tian puffed out her chest and said, "Husband, you can rest assured and leave everything to me!"

Mingchen narrowed his eyes, looked into her eyes, and asked, "Do you know who our opponent is?"

"The tyrant of Beilie! I know him. He seized power through a coup, quelled the Xiongnu rebellion, and reformed the military system. During his reign, Beilie's national strength increased greatly, and the people revered him like a god. He is also ambitious and has great plans..."

As if reciting a memorized text, Lu Tian recited a string of Qin Lou's life story and resume directly to Ming Chen.

Mingchen's gaze was full of inquiry, as if he wanted to see some unusual emotion in Lu Tian's eyes.

It's worth noting that the 'Northern Tyrant' that Lu Tian mentioned has a close relationship with her master.

But... he didn't see anything.

Lu Tian's eyes still had that clear and pure look, ethereal and seemingly devoid of anything.

She's like an observer, just judging someone from the sidelines.

Given Xuan Yuan's status, all his schemes are actually out in the open.

Just like the bell from before.

You don't know, and I won't tell you.

It's alright if you know.

Everyone is competing on the chessboard. If you win, you gain a piece from me.

If I win, I'll only earn one point from you.

Sending Lu Tian down the mountain was meant to help her find a husband, specifically to arrange a marriage with Ming Chen. It's impossible that they would secretly instruct her to harbor any malicious intentions.

Subsequent objectives can be achieved amidst changes in the political landscape.

"Didn't you just come down from the mountain? How do you know about these things?"

Lu Tian seemed confused, but she also told Mingchen that this was her first time coming down the mountain.

However, judging from his interactions with others, he was not at all awkward.

She has a somewhat peculiar personality, but she is very open and straightforward, and has never made any mistakes.

There's a strange sense of contradiction.

Mingchen had met many people who grew up in the mountains and then decided to do something outside the secular world.

The naive older sister from back then is the best example.

Compared to Lu Tian now, Dai Jie was practically an idiot back then.

"Of course I know!"

Lu Tian said matter-of-factly, "Isn't this normal? I not only know the Northern Emperor, I also know you, I also know the Qian Emperor, and I also know Sister Ling..."

"If I don't know anything, how can I help you?"

Mingchen: ...

Very good, that's well-reasoned and frank. But after saying a lot, it seems like he didn't directly answer the question.

Lu Tian leaned closer to Ming Chen and lowered her voice: "Husband, I also know that the Qian Yuan treasury is probably a bit empty now, and the money and food can't keep up."

"Given our current size, if we don't stop fighting and recuperate, and insist on continuing the Northern Expedition, we'll run out of food in a year at most."

Lu Tian shrugged and said nonchalantly, "Of course, Bei Lie is about the same, maybe even worse."

If she had spoken any louder and the surrounding soldiers had heard her, the news might have spread and caused a bad influence.

"Oh?"

Upon hearing the bad news, Mingchen didn't feel nervous or panicked; instead, he became even more curious about her.

"How did you know?"

He asked the same question again.

He was not concerned about the impending disaster for the country; instead, he was more interested in knowing what Lu Tian was thinking.

"I know, so I know!"

Lu Tian shook her head and said matter-of-factly.

She pointed to her eyes, a glimmer of light shining in them: "I saw it, I calculated it, so it's only natural that I knew."

"Calculate it?"

Lu Tian really liked the way Ming Chen looked at her. She shook her whisk and said with a hint of pride, "That's right... Master said this is divination."

"Divination?"

Is this girl able to know everything happening in the world without leaving her house through fortune telling?
Mingchen didn't actually believe in divination or prophecy. The old tree had told him that there was no way to know the future.

Ninety-nine percent of the fortune-telling and divination techniques circulating in the market are charlatans.

Seemingly afraid that Mingchen would misunderstand, Lu Tian smiled at him: "Divination is not the kind of deceptive mystical art that is circulated in the martial arts world, um... how to describe it?"

She started to say something, but then shook her head in distress: "Husband, I don't know how to describe it either."

"It was a feeling. I saw the lives of the people in Qian Yuan, I saw the size of the army, I knew about Qian Yuan's actions, I knew how many wars they had experienced, I knew how long Qian Yuan had been cultivating the west... It was as if my mind automatically told me many things, and then automatically deduced from these things layer by layer. In the end, the answer I finally got was that Qian Yuan's money and food should not last long."

Mingchen: ...

This girl seems to have said everything, yet she also seems to have said nothing at all.

Mingchen frowned and asked her, "Can you predict the future?"

Upon hearing this, Lu Tian shook her head: "Husband, there is no power to make prophecies out of thin air. All divination and fortune-telling have prerequisites."

"Some things can be budgeted, and some things cannot."

"For example, if I throw a stone into the air, I can predict that it will fall to the ground in a few moments. That's like predicting the future, right? Of course, it's also possible that it will be carried away by a bird. But the most likely outcome is that it will fall to the ground."

"The more I know and the more I understand, the more I can automatically guess the future based on what I see. However, the more involved I become, the more tired I get, and the results are less likely to be accurate."

"It's like the two countries are at war right now. I don't know who will win, but with my husband in Qian Yuan, I think Qian Yuan has a better chance of winning."

Lu Tian seemed to genuinely consider Ming Chen an outsider, and quite frankly told him her secret: "My master said that the world I see is different from others. I can see subtle things that ordinary people cannot notice, and connect everything together to automatically deduce and calculate, and finally get the answer of the divination. I can use this to know many things that ordinary people cannot understand."

Mingchen: ...

The girl's words were somewhat abstract, but Mingchen roughly understood what she meant.

In his previous life, he had heard of a saying about divination.

So-called divination is actually a combination of keen observation and life experience.

To put it simply, it's like an old fox who's been around for a long time and is shrewd enough to know what mistakes a reckless young man will make after just a few glances, and to predict his life trajectory.

Their vast life experiences have enabled them to build a huge information database, allowing them to find similar personality traits in some people and make certain predictions about their future based on what they have seen and heard, much like predicting the opponent's moves in chess.

Sometimes, they are even unaware that they can automatically connect with magnetic fields and electromagnetic waves, and images will automatically appear in their minds, allowing them to calculate the other person's past experiences and see what might happen to them in the future.

Ultimately, it's just a form of reasoning. Some people categorize this discipline as divination, prophecy, fortune telling, and other such miscellaneous abilities.

The girl in front of us is a super-enhanced version.

She must have exceptional observational skills, after all, her master said that the world she sees is different.

No one can know the world as seen through the eyes of others, and Mingchen could not imagine what the world was like through Lutian's eyes.

In Lu Tian's eyes, perhaps time flows differently than ordinary people, and perhaps every wisp of ashes is exceptionally clear to her.

The biggest contradiction about her is that she seems too innocent and pure, making it impossible for her to have such a vast database of life experiences.

She was like an emotionless computer, seemingly unaware of her own talents, creating a strange sense of disconnect.

It would be too incredible to rely solely on working in isolation or accumulating knowledge through books.

“Sister Fuyao doesn’t like me, so I knew that when I left, she would definitely make things difficult for me and wouldn’t take me with her.”

Lu Tian seemed to have opened a floodgate, chattering on and on to Ming Chen: "But I expected my husband to take me with him, but he didn't. I'm a little curious, I really like it..."

Mingchen: ...

Her feelings were bizarre and somewhat incomprehensible.

Even Mingchen was stunned for a moment when he heard this.

A masochist?

At this point, Lu Tian suddenly raised her head, her eyes sparkling as she looked at Ming Chen, as pure and innocent as ever.

But she asked a question that was cryptic: "Husband, are you afraid of me?"

She wasn't asking anything else, she was asking about fear!
She was a stunningly beautiful woman, intelligent and graceful, optimistic and pure... She would probably attract countless lecherous men, yet at this moment she was asking Mingchen if he was afraid of her.

Now, Mingchen may understand another meaning behind Xuan Yuan bringing Lu Tian to him.

To uncover Mingchen's secrets.

Your talents, your treasures, your supernatural powers, your magical artifacts, your purpose... these are all secrets.

Mingchen possessed no magical power, nor had he ever cultivated, yet he could unleash terrifying strength, capable of obliterating even immortal spirits without leaving any room for error. However, no one knew how he did it.

This is a terrifying power, and no one knows where its end lies. It is also the most important reason why Mingchen is able to sit at the table for a meal.

This is Mingchen's secret; secrets are the foundation of a person's success.

Lu Tian possesses exceptional talent, with outstanding observational skills and uncanny shrewd calculation abilities, making her the most suitable person to gather information. Given enough time, she can uncover the secrets of 99% of people and understand their true nature.

The future is uncertain.

Mingchen doesn't know where things will go from here, and even Lu Tian might not belong to either side.

However, even if there is only a slight possibility of dialogue, a connection between master and disciple, and the opportunity to glimpse Mingchen's secrets through Lu Tian, ​​it would be worthwhile.

Now that you're at the card table, be prepared to face the test of time.

Upon hearing this, Mingchen chuckled and patted the girl's head: "What husband is afraid of his wife?"

"Hee hee~"

In fact, Lu Tian herself didn't know why she asked that question.

Just like guessing that Qian Yuan was short of money and food, this was an instinctive prediction that her brain had compiled. And the question she just asked was also something she asked instinctively based on observation.

Mingchen's answer made her very happy.

(End of this chapter)