823: Chapter 45 Swordsmanship Talent Connects to God_2 823: Chapter 45 Swordsmanship Talent Connects to God_2 “Boss, should we keep them alive, or kill one and only interrogate the other?”
His tone was light, not taking this as anything serious.
Besides, the Vitality of a Sublimator could ensure their survival, so there was no need to coddle them.
In terms of combat, Green Tide was undoubtedly a genius, after all, he was the man who managed to significantly improve the average strength of Harrison Port’s guard squad after just a few months of training.
“That’s impressive,” Ian nodded slightly and praised, “There’s no need to kill them, these two are probably not from Fiery Fla Land but conspirators from The Empire’s side— the greater credit lies with them.”
Having said that, he turned his head and looked at the grain convoy leader: “Go and notify the local garrison—tell them, the Inspector Knight has caught spies from Fiery Fla Land.”
“Don’t worry,” Ian smiled, causing the concerned and sowhat anxious convoy leader to involuntarily feel a sense of tranquility, “You won’t be punished for the delay in transporting grain.”
“On the contrary, you might even be credited with a major contribution.”
Indeed, it was a major contribution.
Under the subsequent interrogation by the South Ridge garrison who ca to take over from Ian, the dispirited grain shop owner confessed without reserve to colluding with Fiery Fla Land.
The reason for the collusion was simple—his comrce association had always had backing from Mountain People’s funds.
The Rebel Highlanders were their major custors before their rebellion, and the association got tied up with them through ongoing dealings.
Besides that, Fiery Fla Land had also reached an agreent with a major comrce association from the Eastern Territory of the Empire…
With the grain shortage in South Ridge, only grain from outside regions could be sold, and at a high price.
Such tacit understanding didn’t need to be voiced; everyone who should understand did.
There would always be a portion of people willing to betray The Empire’s interests for money, especially since The Empire was too vast, it was difficult for people from different parts to empathize with one another, and regional discrimination was rife.
The Eastern Provinces held deeper hatred towards the Azure Sky Royal Court; the others were sowhat indifferent.
“Thank you very much for your assistance, sir!
Your sharpness has indeed been a great help to us!”
The captain of the local garrison was extrely grateful upon eting Ian and learning of his identity as an Inspector Knight, and ca over imdiately to thank him: “I was truly negligent, failing to see the spies before my eyes!
If it weren’t for your help, sir, we might have made a grave mistake!”
“It’s nothing much; they were very well hidden.”
Ian also offered a few words to ease the situation: “If I hadn’t had suspicions about this comrce association that we temporarily connected with, and if I hadn’t specifically observed sothing fishy, it would have been impossible to find them through a normal investigation.”
“However, it seems like the spies from Fiery Fla Land are running rampant.”
“Indeed!”
At this point, the captain couldn’t help but start complaining.
Recently, because of the congress in Nauman City treating the matter coldly, the various special warfare operations from Fiery Fla Land had been escalating outside the Agate Stone Plains.
Not to ntion the electromagnetic communication jamming centered around Yasteel Mountain, they even controlled Dragon Groups to interfere with ssenger pigeons and provided advanced weapons to roaming bandits and thieves—all the way down to the rural Cults, which received a sum of money and started causing chaos excitedly.
Here at the Indigo Mountain Gorge Entrance, due to its strategic geographical position, it had always been a hotbed for various disturbances—just a few days ago, a rural Cult had attempted a Ritual at an inn, and whether the Ritual was effective or not, the whole place covered in animal blood really made the innkeeper feel like crying without tears, and the soldiers handling the scene mostly felt nauseous.
“That’s disgusting.”
Ian sincerely spoke, having recently beco a Lord himself, he understood that although such petty disturbances might not shake the foundation of a domain, they were enough to fray the nerves of the administrators.
Not to ntion other things, if the construction team in the Dawnshimr Domain faced threats like the teams at the Gorge Entrance, causing them to be unable to start work every couple of days, Ian would have been so furious he would personally lead a team and dig three feet into the ground if he had to, in order to root out the spies from Fiery Fla Land.
Just like this ti—the grains and seeds provided by the Yisu Comrce Association were mixed with so seemingly insignificant ‘impurities.’ These impurities were special invasive species seeds, parasitic plants that could harm the growth of local wheat sprouts.
Once germinated, they would spread rapidly, with one being able to harm an entire field of crops.
Was this a big deal?
If the Lord reacted fast enough, only one field would be hard.
But if dozens, or even hundreds of fields sporadically faced this issue…
Ian thought about it and felt his brain heating up.
“No, even the smartest person is just an individual when it cos to administrative positions, and my ti is limited.”
Ian murmured to himself, “The support AI for administration must be brought online sooner.
Otherwise, just handling Xia Hui Territory is enough to wear out—I should allocate more funds to Adalbert when I return.”
Even facing Duke of Solin, Ian had never felt fear, but now he was indeed a bit afraid when faced with the mundane affairs of his domain.
Ti passed, and evening approached.
With the cooperation of the local military, the convoy quickly assembled the safe rations without any issues, and continued towards Yasteel Mountain.
On the surface, it seed everything was perfect.
But a certain Swordsman felt puzzled by Ian’s actions.
“Sir.”
In the glow of the sunset, as the grain convoy set off again, Green Tide asked Ian sowhat perplexedly, “Isn’t this operation a bit too high-profile?
It’s not bad, but aren’t we supposed to act discreetly?”
“Even though they didn’t say you’re the Lord of Dawnshimr Domain, anyone with intent can quickly find out you’re going to Yasteel Mountain based on the status of the Inspector Knight!”
“In this way, no matter what the Elder’s purpose is, aren’t all your movents exposed to both Fiery Fla Land and the Mountain People?”
“Correct.” Hearing Green Tide articulate such a smooth analysis, Ian couldn’t help but feel pleased.
He seriously said, “That’s right, you should think more and question more.”
“As for why I’m causing such a commotion…”
Ian raised a finger and slightly shook his head, “From the beginning, the fact that I left Dawnshimr Domain was not concealed from Fiery Fla Land.”
“Have you forgotten?
There are a few spies from Fiery Fla Land within our domain, whom I purposely didn’t deal with.”
“This ti, when I left the domain, I intentionally let them know of this news…
The exposure here is just to give another positioning of ti and place to Fiery Fla Land.”
“Eh?”
Green Tide was sowhat puzzled, “If that’s the case, why…”
“It is to make both Mountain People and Fiery Fla Land believe that the spies they left in Dawnshimr Domain are useful.”
Ian spoke calmly, his plan wasn’t focused on the present but much later, “Because my real major move isn’t this journey to Yasteel Mountain to negotiate with the Dragon Worship Cult…
but a potential future assault on the Midra Autonomous Region.”
“As long as Mountain People and Fiery Fla Land can get precise reports of my movents, they will lower their vigilance towards —and I plan to use these spies to pass on false information so that both Mountain People and Fiery Fla Land will believe I wouldn’t do such a thing when I plan to raid the Midra Autonomous Region in the future.”
At this point, Ian smiled and nodded towards Green Tide, who was in a daze, “Deceiving with information doesn’t require many tis; just one key instance is enough.”
“Do you understand?
Sotis, you have to intentionally show a flaw to make the enemy believe in their own reliability.”
“And then, at the most crucial ti, tell them that everything is under my control!”
“I see…”
Green Tide had an epiphany, “That makes sense—it feels like it could be applied to swordsmanship!
Indeed, making the enemy mistakenly believe they’ve grasped my swordsmanship, then luring them to attack my feint, before I counterattack their own weakness…”
Green Tide’s swordsmanship experience increased!
Ian: “…you really are quite a genius in this area.”
Well, he completely gave up on the idea of training Green Tide to be an all-rounder.
As a swordsman, it’s enough to be good at strategy; as for other liberal arts subjects… let it be.
Having laid the groundwork for this strategic deception and casually apprehending a few spies from Fiery Fla Land, Ian’s journey with the convoy went very smoothly.
Soon, they arrived at the entrance to the Abode Tribe located at the southern part of Yasteel Mountain.
And here, Elder Manye Avode was waiting personally for Ian.
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