The doctor suffers from amnesia, but not complete amnesia.

"Thank you for the compliment."

Qiao Yelan accepted the praise without hesitation.

"So...you agree?"

The old man asked somewhat nervously.

"I'm sorry, not yet—because we don't have enough chips."

"not enough?"

The Grand Tutor was somewhat puzzled.

Currently, there are still eleven Year Phases left. With Qiao Yelan's methods, it should be easy for him to preserve more Year Phases—moreover, he has a good relationship with the Year Phases and will definitely be able to control these immortals well.

"Yes, it's not enough. Since we've come this far, I won't hide it from you—in my plan, the existence of the Year Phases is mostly to help the Great Yan deal with evil spirits. Even if you agree to transfer them to me, they will still be used by the Great Yan."

Qiao Yelan said frankly.

"Used on the head of the Great Yan... what exactly does that mean?"

The Grand Tutor was utterly shocked.

"You should understand what the source of demonic power is, right?"

Qiao Yelan asked.

"The more they are known, the more concrete their image becomes, and the stronger their power becomes—that's why the Great Yan has never publicly revealed what the Heavenly Mystery Pavilion is fighting against in the north, only saying that it is stationed at the Great Yan Dragon Vein."

"Yes, so when preparing forces to fight against the demons, we must be extremely careful—it is best to have a small number of elites with strong individual combat power. This way, the number of people who know about the demons will be small, while the strength will be enough to destroy them."

Qiao Yelan nodded, affirming the Grand Tutor's statement.

"Whether it's the Ursus Guard or the Great Flame Celestial Master, they were all chosen as forces to fight against the evil forces—otherwise, a disaster like that in Sami might have occurred. If I hadn't sent the Cyclops there back then, I'm afraid the entire Sami would have been destroyed because of it."

"Even so, the power of the demons is still increasing. The Heavenly Mystery Pavilion should have received similar feedback, right? This is one of the reasons why there are fewer and fewer Celestial Masters traveling around in recent years."

The old man nodded solemnly.

"The power of the Great Yan cannot continue to be consumed indefinitely, especially with the newly emerging threat in the south—so I have been planning to maintain the front line against the demons with less power."

"You mean... the phases of time?"

Qiao Yelan took out two documents.

When the Grand Tutor received it, the questions alone were enough to attract attention.

"Ursus Internal Defense Design Drawings"

Spirit Art

He knew the second document; it was something [Wang] had been researching, and everyone knew about Ursus's internal guards...

"The design of the Ursus Inner Guard represents the pinnacle of my previous strategy against the demons—powerful individual combat capabilities that do not increase the demons' strength due to a large amount of knowledge, and most importantly, they can be mass-produced industrially."

"However, the inner guards are not without flaws—not to mention the corrosive effect of using demonic power on them, although their mass production looks much better than the steam knights, they are still limited by the quality of the inner guards themselves, resulting in a bottleneck in their numbers."

The Grand Tutor's expression was slightly unpleasant. This problem also existed on the side of the Great Yan Celestial Masters. Although the assembly line factory called the "Celestial Master Academy" had replaced the small workshops of the past, the number of Celestial Masters 'produced' was still limited by their qualifications.

Many of the Celestial Masters were not even skilled in combat, so they were categorized into various academic disciplines, such as civil engineering or agriculture.

"So I shifted my thinking slightly—perfect weapons may have been overestimated; a large, capable army is the key to victory."

"But the characteristics of demons..."

"Yes, the characteristics of demons are an unavoidable problem, so my solution is to make sure that what serves as the army is unable to even perceive anything."

Qiao Yelan chuckled and pointed to the second document.

Spirit Art

"A complete person can think, understand, and act—but what if they are incomplete?"

“Stripped of thought and cognition, they are stuffed into a fighting machine, and their actions are handed over to a central authority—all they have to do is fight.”

The Grand Tutor stared at Qiao Yelan in astonishment.

"you--"

"Of course, it's not about using human souls to cut it apart, after all, I'm not some kind of demon—so the best way is to use the soul of a giant beast."

The man waved his hand, interrupting the old man's "slander".

"Among the year phases, both [Command] and [Evening] have demonstrated the ability to imbue with spirituality. I tend to think that this is the simplest form of soul division. The number of giant beast souls contained in this kind of spirituality is so small that even if there are thousands or tens of thousands, the year phases will not feel any lack. However, the inanimate objects that have been imbued with spirituality all have considerable combat capabilities."

"After that, it was Wang's turn to act. He dedicated himself to cutting his own soul, and I kept encouraging him to do so in order to study the resilience of the behemoth's soul—and that's how the Art of Spirits was born."

Qiao Yelan's words completely broadened the Grand Tutor's horizons.

If the fighting machines manufactured by the Suixiang could replace the Great Yan Celestial Masters fighting on the front lines, it would save the Great Yan an enormous amount of resources—this is obvious.

That's why I said your chips aren't enough—I need you to give more.

The master nodded.

"Then what do you need me to do?"

"Keep an eye on the Grand Commandant, and secretly prepare this plan for me—at least when the plan is being implemented, don't cause me any problems other than those related to resources and funding."

The old man was stunned.

It wasn't that Qiao Yelan's demands were too exaggerated—it was simply too few.

The other party intended to use the year's phase to fight against evil spirits, so he would have even less to get his hands on. Therefore, the Grand Tutor originally thought that Qiao Yelan wanted to ask for more things for his own use.

The result was this unexpected requirement.

Are you a saint?

"Is all of this part of the Great Yan's scheme—just to fight against evil?"

"if not?"

The Grand Tutor opened his mouth, unsure of what to say.

In the end, he could only ask one question weakly and feebly.

"Then why don't you explain it to more people?"

"Will they believe it?"

Qiao Yelan countered with a question.

“I never hide my methods, nor do I mind exposing them to anyone, so I know exactly what kind of person I am, and I also know how others see me.”

"People won't believe that someone like me aims to save this land. They'd rather believe that I'll use a seemingly noble reason to justify my despicable actions."

"People are particularly willing to believe that this person, who moves between various forces, used such methods to disrupt the situation on this land."

The old man remained silent.

Qiao Yelan lifted the pot lid, plucked a handful of green garlic leaves, and threw them into the pot.

“I don’t like debating or proving myself—because if I spend my time explaining my purpose to everyone, I won’t have time to get to my purpose.”

The man served himself a bowl of soup, scooped out a piece of tofu, and handed the spoon to the tutor.

"Most people, or rather, the vast majority of people, can neither pose a real obstacle to me nor be useful pawns—to say even a single word to them would be a waste of my life."

The Grand Tutor then added another bowl of soup to his bowl.

"Any other questions?"

"There is indeed another question—were you involved in the affair between Duke Wei and Princess Wenyue back then?"

The old man, while drinking his soup, asked a seemingly unrelated question.

"That depends on which part—protecting Princess Wenyue and encouraging Wei Yanwu to go to Longmen, those were all my doing."

"What about Duke Wei's love at first sight for Princess Wenyue?"

Qiao Yelan put down her chopsticks and looked at the Grand Tutor.

"What, you want to test my bottom line?"

"No, I was just asking."

"Hmph, just asking... I've said it before, I never send female subordinates to seduce men, nor do I send assassins to kill non-traitors—my bottom line is higher than any of you think, and lower than any of you think."

Upon hearing this, the Grand Tutor paused briefly before continuing to drink his soup.

"You don't believe it."

Qiao Yelan spoke with certainty.

"...It's not that I don't believe it, it's just that it wouldn't be surprising if you did anything, even if it was love at first sight, even if the princess of the Eastern Kingdom was your pawn. If you say it's true, I would think it's reasonable."

The old man put down the empty bowl.

"After all, it all happened too coincidentally."

"For me, there are no coincidences; it's all just going with the flow."

“I believe that—but I’m still very confused. What exactly happened in 1072?”

This has been a question that the Grand Tutor has always had.

Whether it's the treacherous situation in the Great Yan court or Qiao Yelan's plans in the Northern Frontier, all of this seems to originate from that war of national destiny between Ursus and the Eastern Kingdom.