Chapter 268: Chapter 268

"Let's go back. I also want to return and have a look." Nangong Suxin said.

"Then let's return. We'll have others take over things here first. There's nothing particularly special happening, and the surrounding areas are already very peaceful." Third Miss Nangong said.

Regarding Ning Zhiyuan's orders, they had no particular thoughts. If it were someone else, they might wonder whether His Majesty wanted to seize their military authority and whether they should do something to guard against it.

But they didn't think this way, because they originally had no intention of pursuing military power. Their purpose in joining the army was merely for cultivation. Now that their goal had been achieved, even if Ning Zhiyuan revoked their military authority now, they wouldn't mind, because they simply didn't care about it.

Ning Zhiyuan also knew their thoughts, so he felt even more at ease letting them hold military power. In their hands, it was much better than in the hands of those with ambitions. Because of this, Ning Zhiyuan had never thought of seizing their military authority. He just felt he needed to give the three Young Misses something to do, otherwise he couldn't bear the consequences of their boredom.

Although in less than two years, the three Young Misses had conquered several countries, causing the Great Tang Empire's territory to expand once again, the problem was that digesting these acquisitions was also very troublesome. He didn't yet have the capability to completely digest these countries and could only work on it bit by bit. Thɪs chapter is updated by N()velFire.net

Because of this, Ning Zhiyuan didn't want the Young Miss to continue helping expand territory. This wasn't a matter of bigger being better, it depended on capability. They would expand again when the time was ripe.

Even if the Great Tang Empire didn't have the ability to sweep across the world, annexing nearby countries was still quite simple. But they had never done this, because even annexing a small country required paying a certain price. Of course, this kind of annexation didn't mean simply conquering it, but completely subduing and ruling it.

Simply conquering was easy. Anyone with slightly greater strength could accomplish this, but completely ruling and digesting the territory was a major undertaking.

This was what the common saying meant: "Gaining the world is easy, keeping the world is difficult."

If it was just simple annexation, there might be indigestion problems with potential dangers, which the Great Tang Empire didn't want to see.

This time, the several countries conquered by the Young Miss would require the Great Tang Empire to spend considerable time digesting them. Although they couldn't be settled immediately, it was only a matter of time.

The Great Tang Empire hadn't expanded for a long time, so this was actually an opportunity. The Young Miss perfectly satisfied the Great Tang Empire's needs, making Ning Zhiyuan very pleased. The countries annexed this time happened to be hostile ones, providing legitimate reasons that wouldn't cause other countries to complain.

Originally, Ning Zhiyuan had been considering which countries to deal with. He didn't expect the Young Miss to decide for him, with minimal losses and gains that exceeded expectations in both quantity and quality.

However, continuing further wouldn't be good, so Ning Zhiyuan had the three Young Misses take a temporary vacation, arranging a very nice assignment for them, attending a military exchange conference to be held in the Heavenly Wind Kingdom.

This was a conference between several empires. However, empires generally had some conflicts with each other, so everyone agreed to hold this conference in another kingdom. But this conference wasn't very important, it was usually just talk with no substantial meaning.

True cooperation was very difficult. Cooperative situations might not appear more than a few times in a hundred years, and there certainly wouldn't be any during this period, so this assignment was just going through the motions with nothing significant.

Why didn't the orders say to immediately attend this conference but instead told them to return to the Heavenly Wind Kingdom? Because this conference wouldn't be held until half a year later. Even walking there slowly, they would need to wait several months before it began.

So Ning Zhiyuan simply used letting them return home in glory as the reason to go first, then casually attend that conference afterward.

"Then let's prepare to depart. Should we ask Guxing?" Third Miss Nangong asked again. Guxing was also from the Heavenly Wind Kingdom, so returning together for a few months would be a nice choice.

"...Let's forget about that. Seventh Sister was removed from the family registry by Grandfather. There's no room for compromise, she can't possibly return." the Young Miss sighed. Regarding this matter, she felt her grandfather was very confused, but what could she do? She couldn't oppose it.

However, she would still acknowledge Guxing as her sister. No matter how things changed, as long as Guxing acknowledged it, that was enough. And the only one Guxing acknowledged was the Young Miss.

"Very confused indeed. To treat one's own granddaughter this way because of fate. Perhaps fate was formed precisely because he acted this way." Third Miss Nangong said.

"The little servant seems to have said something similar, that fate is sometimes caused by people themselves." Nangong Suxin also said.

"Regardless, not wanting Guxing was a huge mistake. I wonder if he would regret it now, knowing that Guxing has already reached Emperor Level peak." Third Miss Nangong said.

Nangong Suxin continued, "Actually, Guxing wasn't the worst decision. The worst should be not wanting Xiaoyao, the little servant. He's a miraculous existence. But this is also good, with both of them not in the Mo family, it's actually a good thing for them. They don't need family support to become peak existences, which gives them more freedom."

"Mm, this is good. It's also good for other families, including our Nangong family. Otherwise, the Mo family would have risen powerfully. Now there's only Mo Yu, which still isn't enough. Mo Yu, why aren't you talking?" Third Miss Nangong said. At this moment, she thought the Young Miss was lost in contemplation.

However, the Young Miss said quite heartlessly, "I was thinking whether I should tear down that Eight Treasures Tower in Qingyun City when I go back. That shop waters down their wine... Where do you think Xiaoyao is now?" The Young Miss's thoughts jumped around quite erratically.

"Don't know. He disappeared from Medicine Immortal Ridge. Those people guarding him had no idea how he left. Only after several days did they realize Xiaoyao was no longer at Medicine Immortal Ridge," Third Miss Nangong said.

Many people wanted to know where Xiaoyao was and had tried to investigate, but there had been no news.

"Forget it, no need to look for him. Maybe he'll appear sometime on his own." the Young Miss said quite indifferently.

"True. Every time we only get news when he appears himself. When he wants to avoid being found, others will never find him. We can only wait for him to appear on his own." Third Miss Nangong said.

Although what she said was basically correct, there was one point that was wrong, there was still one person who knew Xiaoyao's whereabouts, and that was Guxing.

So where was Xiaoyao?

In the southern part of the continent, in a desolate wilderness where no village was ahead and no inn behind, Xiaoyao was in such a place, one person and one small monster beast, without even a mount, walking on foot through this area.

Moreover, it was nighttime, a brilliant starry night. But Xiaoyao wasn't walking under the starry night for this reason. The reason he was here now was—

"You little glutton, it's all because you delayed us for so long. Now we either have to travel at night or camp out in this wilderness."

Originally, Xiaoyao had planned to reach the village ahead before nightfall, but Chi Chi had run off halfway, finding a place full of wild fruits and refusing to come back no matter how much he called.

Although Chi Chi later brought some wild fruits to Xiaoyao as an offering, it couldn't change the fact that their journey had been delayed.

Originally, Xiaoyao could have just left Chi Chi behind, but recently Chi Chi seemed a bit abnormal, sometimes suddenly falling into long sleeps. He was somewhat worried and didn't want it to be too far from him.

"Chi Chi..." Chi Chi looked aggrieved and ingratiatingly licked Xiaoyao's face.

"Stop pretending. Let's just find a place to camp," Xiaoyao said irritably.

"Chi Chi." Chi Chi jumped on Xiaoyao's shoulder.

"Alright, even if I don't blame you anymore, please don't make such a fuss..." Xiaoyao smiled, and although he said this, he didn't really mind.

"Chi Chi." Chi Chi was still calling, seemingly not playing with Xiaoyao but indicating something else.

"What's wrong? Did you discover something to eat again?" Xiaoyao asked strangely, seeing Chi Chi . Chi Chi always acted this way when discovering things, and most of the time it was food, though sometimes it would find useful medicinal materials or treasures.

Xiaoyao suspected that Chi Chi had treasure-hunting skills, was it a treasure-hunting monster beast?

"Chi Chi..." Chi Chi darted out as usual, signaling for Xiaoyao to follow.

"Could it have really discovered something? Ah, forget it. We're already playing around anyway. Even if it just found food, I'll let it eat," Xiaoyao didn't care anymore and used his movement technique to quickly follow Chi Chi.

Although Xiaoyao was only Scholar Level, his movement technique was still very advanced. Generally, even King Level or Emperor Level experts couldn't catch up to him. But even so, he was still a bit slower than Chi Chi, who was both faster and more elusive.

Xiaoyao sometimes used this to train his movement technique, chasing Chi Chi all over the place, making Chi Chi very unhappy and protesting that such activities consumed too much energy and required food compensation.

Following Chi Chi, Xiaoyao ran for about a quarter hour before understanding why Chi Chi was acting this way. A small villa compound appeared before him, hidden among the trees. If Chi Chi hadn't run here, Xiaoyao would have had difficulty discovering this small compound.

The small compound seemed to be inhabited, with lights inside.

"..." Xiaoyao stopped, surveyed the surroundings, observed carefully, then slowly approached the compound's wall, touched it, and studied it.