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“Is there really no problem? Moon, you better not be swindling me.”

I looked at Moon who was clumsily putting on makeup for me and couldn’t help but ask.

Moon smiled and replied:

“Don’t worry. While I truly might not be as good as you in painting people beautiful like you, I am second to none when it comes to painting people ugly.”

While she didn’t speak in detail, I roughly understood in my mind. When she was serving in the Overlord of Tiancheng’s mansion, he was truly in a situation of ‘a clay Bodhisattva is helpless when it comes to crossing the river’. So if she wished to not be eaten clean until not even his bones were left, then he had to think up on ways to make herself become a bit more ordinary each and every day. This skill of self-uglification must have been the skill that she depended on to live.

After Moon put away the cosmetics, I searched for a mirror to look at my current self.

A once-handsome fellow now has thick eyebrows, wide eyes, blackened skin, beard stubble, and seems to have aged 7 to 8 years. Burdened with ugliness that someone my age shouldn’t have, I felt the pressure on my mentality instantly increase greatly and I couldn’t help but ask:

“Do I truly have to be this ugly? If by any chance Fang Thirteen turns me away for being too ugly, what will I do then?”

Moon placed both her hands on his hips and appeared quite unhappy with my complains as she continuously retorted:

“The heck are you thinking.You’re not going out on a tour, rather, you’re seizing the opportunity to sneak into Sky Star City to scout out Fang Thirteen’s foundation. At that time, you ran up the city wall and flamboyantly strutted around, so plenty of the enemy soldiers have remembered your appearance. If we make even the slightest mistake, you will be exposed and Fang Thirteen’s blade will chop off your head.”

Moon made a beheading gesture to threaten me.

That’s right, after passing close discussions, we decided to split out forces into two groups.

Aleya, Felita, Bai Huang and Heji were to remain behind to help Moon and along with Lugh’s army, they were to prepare for setting out eastwards and watch for opportunities to nibble away at Li Neng’s territory, snatching as many cities from Li Neng as humanly possible without repercussions. But it’s most likely that Li Neng’s defenses will have already been reinforced, so this military campaign was going to be a war of attrition.

As for my side, my job was to infiltrate into Zhao Chen Territory and do my best to mingle Sky Star City’s City Lord’s mansion. That is to say, I need to infiltrate the place where Fang Lita and Fang Thirteen live in, and make some discreet inquiries for information. The best possible outcome would be for me to stall them.

The reason as to why we ultimately adopted such tactics is actually due to that fatty I met along the way to Yun Hai; it was Fang Yuan’s idea. From what I could make out in the letter, he should have recently received some intelligence about the Overlord of Zhao Chen’s health not being too good. This Overlord has been always researching immortality, but has failed an innumerable amount of times. It seems like he’s become a little discouraged and resolved himself to establish a successor.

As for the successor he’s established, he’s very inflexible, undying, and has an extremely bad relationship with Fang Yuan. If he smoothly succeeds the position without a hitch, then there will basically be one pre-determined ending for Fang Yuan——a groundless criminal charge will fall onto him and he’ll die via execution. As a fatty who doesn’t want to succumb to fate, Fang Yuan decided to lift up arms and rise up so that he can blow his fate out of the damn waters. However, because his own ability is limited, there’s nothing he can do to establish himself, so he’s decided to join hands with me.

According to his words, he will assemble all the soldiers within his territory and place them on standby so that they can coordinate with my movements.

Based on his way of thinking, he will first publicly express his willingness to accept West-Resisting City’s refugees and resist the resulting pressure from Zhao Chen.

I would subsequently announce that ‘the northern Zhao Chen has begun accepting refugees, I know some of you have been thinking of leaving West-Resisting City to live a smooth and steady life, so those of you who want to may go’.

This would be the first batch of people to leave.

This batch of people would be incorporated into Fang Yuan’s city and cause the previously advocate for admitting refugees, Fang Thirteen, to be moved and begin issuing decrees that they would also be admitting West-Resisting City refugees.

This way, a part of the people departing West-Resisting City would also go to Fang Thirteen’s place. As for me, I have to think up a way to mingle with these people and enter Fang Thirteen’s domain, then rely on my handsome-……fine, my current not-even-the-least-bit-handsome appearance to confuse her. But Fang Thirteen was originally a blind person, so it wouldn’t even matter how handsome I was anyway.

Once I find out Sky Star City’s concrete state of affairs, I would have to think up a way to send this information to Fang Yuan. Afterwards, Fang Yuan and Moon would surround the territory and launch a pincer attack. With me as the mole on Fang Thirteen’s side, it would be hard for even an immortal to save her.

Hehe, wonderful, wonderful.

After a night of consideration with Moon, we felt that this tactic didn’t have too many issues. Moon had also told me that if an opportunity pops up, it would be best if I could kidnap Fang Thirteen. After all, it’s been widely spread in the outside world that Fang Thirteen and Fang Lita’s relationship isn’t the best, so if I’m able to swindle this famous handicapped strategist over to West-Resisting City, then we won’t need to worry much about our military.

I said that this could only be up for fate to decide, so he shouldn’t hold much hope.

After all, if I’m to speak frankly, even I am a little unclear on the relationship between Fang Thirteen and Fang Lita.

No familial love, no friendship, and definitely no love. No harmony, no rebellion, and definitely no strained relationship.

The waters are deep.

Based on the situation, killing Fang Thirteen is actually a very simple matter. We’ll have to see when the time comes though.

Aleya was still somewhat anxious. In the past, she wouldn’t speak much, but on this rare occasion she asked me twice:

“You really don’t need me to follow you? Young master.”

I shook my head:

“The combination of the two of us is too conspicuous. Who doesn’t know that a blonde female bodyguard next to Li De wherever he goes? It would be too easy for us to be exposed. There are also many inconveniences if two people were to operate simultaneously. Don’t worry, in the case that some unexpected accident arises, I’ll hide myself away.”

Aleya prudently nodded.

When Moon was doing my makeup, it just so happened that we were preparing to let the second batch of approved people leave West-Resisting City. Previously, in order to cover the fact that I’ve been living like a prince, I’ve been sunbathing under the scorching sun for these past few days. I won’t speak much on the tanning except for the fact that there are many places where my skin has started peeling and it hurts like hell when touching these places. But there’s nothing I can do about it, who would believe a fair-skinned person if they were to run up to you and tell you that they’re a refugee?

I exchanged the clothes on my body for some shabby plain cotton linen, carried a satchel with some silver coins and copper coins, and wore some open-toed shoes. After waving goodbye to everyone, I mingled with the crowd leaving the city and walked northwards along with them.

In the beginning, I was thinking that the reason why this group of people didn’t want to stay in West-Resisting City was definitely because they resented me for being the City Lord. So in order to blend in with the group, I brought out the spirit within me to make fun of myself and began wildly dissing the City Lord. However, I didn’t expect that I would be very quickly stopped by someone.

A woman wearing ragged cotton clothes, who appeared dragged down by having a family to feed, patted my arm and said:

“Young lad, don’t speak like this. That West-Resisting City’s City Lord……called Li De, I think, that lad is a really great man. It is us who is letting him down, not him letting us down.”

The surrounding people nodded.

The woman shook her head and softly said:

“It’s just that we all have families. Sky Star City’s Fang Lita has 10 cities in any case, so his influence is much bigger. West-Resisting City is a lone city at risk at any time. The Demons might come day, Zhao Chen’s people might come tomorrow, and Li Neng from the east might come on the day after tomorrow. We, we really don’t see hope……we’re just some really ordinary people who only hope to live our lives without feeling so scared.”

I became silent for a very long time after hearing this.

I recalled the words Moon spoke of at the time, ‘It won’t be long before the world of great struggle arrives. When the time comes, there will be hostile forces everywhere and there won’t be a peaceful area.’

But these things aren’t matters that I can control. The best that I can do is maintain communication with them and discuss the bitterness of life with them. This way, I’ll be able to slowly assimilate into my current status as a common person and perfectly mingle into the crowd going towards Sky Star City.