Chapter 64: A Painting Hidden Within a Painting?

Xue Yuan asked Su Ruowei to sit down, then sent someone to summon Qi Yuansheng for an impromptu brief meeting.

"Yuansheng, I want to train an elite force of two thousand men. How large a training ground and what kind of budget do you think we will need?"

Upon hearing this, Qi Yuansheng's expression shifted slightly.

"Your Highness, training an army in private... that is a crime punishable by the extermination of all nine familial generations!"

Xue Yuan chuckled softly. "Let them exterminate then. My nine generations happen to overlap with the Emperor's nine generations anyway; let us see how many he can manage to wipe out."

Sweat beaded on Qi Yuansheng's palms, and he remained silent.

After all, helping the Prince train personal guards was one thing, but training a full military force was equivalent to pledging allegiance to a rebellion—it meant following him straight into insurrection!

At this thought, he felt... immensely excited!

As a brilliant disciple of the Strategist school, a man naturally gifted with the "Military Soul" trait, leading troops into battle and galloping across the battlefield was an inherent thrill deeply carved into his bones, entirely impossible to suppress!

Yet, excitement aside, the moment he thought of his second eldest sister, his gaze dimmed.

His second sister would certainly never agree to this!

The Qi clan was a prominent family; if they were implicated in a treasonous conspiracy, the number of people dragged down with them would be in the hundreds, if not thousands!

Seeing Qi Yuansheng's hesitation, Xue Yuan easily guessed what was going on in his mind.

He therefore said, "Rest assured, Yuansheng, no matter how thoroughly this army is investigated, it will belong entirely to the Remnant Elders Guild and have zero connection to the Prince's Manor! In other words, as long as the Prince's Manor stands, no matter what happens, I will be able to shield you!"

Of course Xue Yuan had no intention of harming Qi Yuansheng!

Moreover, the risk involved was truly not as massive as it seemed!

First, Xue Yuan would definitely choose Ning'an as the training location, and Ning'an was currently firmly in his grasp. Who could possibly discover it?

Even if it were discovered, who would dare to make an arrest?

To put it crudely, whoever dared to suggest making an arrest, he could make that person instantly vanish!

To step back ten thousand paces, even if misfortune struck and the matter were somehow leaked to the higher authorities, it would still be regarded as the Remnant Elders Guild rebels training troops in secret; who would ever suspect him?

As long as he remained standing, he could simply throw vast amounts of money at the problem and have an eighty percent chance of protecting Qi Yuansheng!

After deep consideration, Qi Yuansheng realized the logic was indeed sound!

He thus declared, "Very well, I shall follow Your Highness's instructions! However, you must never speak of this to my second sister!"

Xue Yuan replied, "Naturally, I will not tell her. Aside from Su Ruowei and you, I shall not breathe a word of this to a single soul!"

Qi Yuansheng nodded, a look of eager anticipation crossing his face. "Actually, I have also wanted to test the true power of my Strategist formations! Your Highness, are those soldiers truly sturdy and formidable elites?"

Xue Yuan smiled faintly and said, "Sturdy and formidable elites? No, they are not merely elite, and every single one of them possesses cultivation! I imagine what you wish to test is rather the absolute limit of your Strategist formations' power!"

Hearing this, Qi Yuansheng sprang abruptly to his feet, his bovine eyes reddening with intensity!

"Two thousand... and every last one of them possesses cultivation? Th-this, how is that even possible?"

It was no wonder he was astonished. After all, individuals with cultivation, even those at the lower tier of the Ninth Rank, had plenty of ways to make a living!

The simplest was to serve as guards for wealthy households; the income these individuals earned as guards was several times higher than that of ordinary guards!

Living in such comfortable circumstances, who would be willing to become a common foot soldier with no personal freedom who could be sent to die at any moment?

Even those desiring a regular government stipend would strive to enter the Divine Catch Bureau or the Brocade Guards, or become constables and squad leaders—roles that offered both freedom and lucrative opportunities.

Consequently, among the imperial court's elite forces today, for every ten thousand men, there were on average only about three hundred soldiers who possessed cultivation!

Furthermore, those individuals held at least low-ranking official positions within the military; none of them served as mere rank-and-file soldiers.

Therefore, Qi Yuansheng found it completely incomprehensible how Xue Yuan had managed to gather these two thousand men!

At this, Xue Yuan laughed heartily and said, "Yuansheng, I still hold plenty of cards in my hand. What are these two thousand? There will be even more in the future."

Indeed, the core members of the Remnant Elders Guild were the surviving elites from the fallen Seven States; there were likely still several thousand of them who possessed cultivation!

The energy generated by gathering such people together was frightening to contemplate, yet unfortunately, each had their own agenda and could not be forged into a single rope!

This was precisely what concerned Xue Yuan!

He therefore asked Qi Yuansheng, "The problem now is that because they all possess cultivation, every single one of them is naturally arrogant and proud. With such a cohort of proud and unruly warriors, do you have the confidence to tame them?"

At this moment, Qi Yuansheng had already clenched both fists, his body trembling slightly with excitement!

Looking directly at Xue Yuan, he spoke word by word, "If Your Highness truly possesses those two thousand men, I am fully capable of taming them and forging them into the premier strong army of Great Gan! If I fail to achieve this, what face would I have left to call myself a disciple of the Strategist school?"

Xue Yuan nodded without hesitation!

As for this force of two thousand, if anyone else claimed they could tame them one hundred percent, he wouldn't believe it!

But when Qi Yuansheng said it, he believed it!

Because this was a man carrying the "Military Soul" trait atop his head!

At this moment, a rare look of solemnity appeared on his own face as well.

He said, "Yuansheng, I am placing the greatest card in my hand into your care, which is tantamount to entrusting my very life and livelihood to you! But I trust you; I believe that you, the brilliant disciple of the Strategist school, can forge them into a peerless army of tigers and wolves for Great Gan!"

Qi Yuansheng's eyes abruptly reddened. The bloodline fervor long suppressed deep within his heart, along with a certain instinct deeply engraved into his genetics, was finally completely unleashed!

He immediately dropped to one knee and spoke with ringing certainty, "Your Highness, rest assured! Yuansheng will never fail in this mission!"

"Good!"

Xue Yuan raised Qi Yuansheng to his feet and asked, "Then tell me now, to build this force, how many silver taels will you need?"

"Starting at three hundred thousand taels!"

Qi Yuansheng stated without a moment's hesitation, "At the inception of troop training, heavy penalties and generous rewards must be applied to establish military prestige! Following that, weapons and armor must be procured; these items can only be secretly commissioned from craftsmen, and the price will be at least five times that of imperial government procurement.

Furthermore, I will need a batch of elixirs to elevate cultivation levels in order to match the advanced battle tactics of the Strategist school. Three hundred thousand taels is a conservative estimate, if anything!"

Hearing this, Su Ruowei beside them sighed with weary resignation.

Good grief, for a mere force of two thousand men, thirty thousand taels—no, three hundred thousand taels—was required?

If it were twenty thousand, or even two hundred thousand men, how much silver would that take?

At this rate, selling herself off wouldn't even be enough to fund the Prince's army!

Yet Xue Yuan waved his hand without the slightest hesitation and declared, "Very well! True fire tempers fine steel; three hundred thousand taels is not too much! Go ahead and handle it, and if it's not enough, we will add more!"

At this moment, the light in Qi Yuansheng's eyes was as brilliant as the stars!

He was trembling slightly from sheer excitement!

These were two thousand martial cultivators, backed by funding with virtually no upper limit!

He could guarantee that across the entire world, not a single Strategist cultivator would ever be granted such an incredible opportunity to display their talents!

It wasn't that other princes or the Emperor could not spare these resources, but even if they possessed them, they would never recklessly hand them over to a single person with such complete trust!

The only one in the entire world with this level of magnanimity was the Prince of Ning!

Therefore, this was no longer just a matter of helping the Prince train an army; the Prince was providing him with an unparalleled opportunity for personal cultivation and elevation!

Indeed, for a Strategist, training an army was the ultimate form of cultivation!

And successfully training an army brought the greatest possible breakthrough!

Thinking of this, Qi Yuansheng could not help but bow deeply to Xue Yuan once more, declaring with a voice like a bronze bell, "Yuansheng offers his deepest gratitude to Your Highness! I shall repay this great kindness with my life!"

Xue Yuan laughed heartily and said, "You and I are like brothers; there is no need for such formalities."

With that, he turned to Su Ruowei and said, "Ruowei, I need a place large enough to train two thousand men, and this location must be secluded enough to avoid drawing attention."

Although Su Ruowei strongly disagreed with investing such a colossal sum into these two thousand men, she still followed Xue Yuan's train of thought and suggested, "Some twenty odd miles north of the city lies Turtle Hollow. It is surrounded by mountains on all sides with a vast flat expanse in the middle, and sealing it off requires guarding only a few pathways.

Moreover, this land is already part of Your Highness's fief, and there are three small villages within it, all populated by Your Highness's tenant farmers. Having them provide food and lodging for these two thousand men should present no problem!"

Xue Yuan nodded. "Splendid! Let the training ground be established there! Additionally, the tenant farmers toil hard and should not be exploited; pay them wages equivalent to chefs in the city and exempt them from agricultural taxes.

Oh, and the grain and provisions required by the army must be transported from the outside. Transport the supplies in batches so as not to attract attention."

Su Ruowei sighed softly once more, thinking to herself how much more silver this would add to the bill.

"By the way, I recall Father mentioning the other day that he intended to offer fifty percent of our family's assets to Your Highness... how can we members of the Su family fail to keep our word?"

...

Over the next three days, within Ning Province, a large number of elites from the Remnant Elders Guild who possessed cultivation successively received mobilization orders from Guild Leader Lin Shishi and gathered inside Ning'an City!

The cultivation levels of these individuals generally ranged from the lower to upper tiers of the Ninth Rank, with about two hundred reaching the lower tier of the Eighth Rank!

This was because anyone with a higher cultivation level would find serving as an ordinary soldier somewhat wasteful, nor would they be willing to do so!

Furthermore, most advanced battle formations of the Strategist school only required soldiers to possess true qi to activate them!

Initially, these individuals had no idea what was happening and assumed the Guild was about to launch a major operation!

However, that very night, they were secretly escorted to Turtle Hollow!

To prevent any mutiny, Xue Yuan dispatched Lin Shishi in person to oversee the garrison, sent Xu Fengxing to assist Qi Yuansheng, and had Wang Yu'er lead a hundred disciples of the Root Hall to maintain order!

According to Wang Yu'er, who returned three days later, upon hearing that they were to be reorganized into a military force, a portion of the men were excited, believing it was high time the Remnant Elders Guild forged a powerful army.

However, a greater number expressed dissatisfaction; after all, they were the elites of the fallen Seven States and had no desire to take orders from anyone.

Nevertheless, after Lin Shishi executed seven or eight of the ringleaders who stirred up trouble, the situation was preliminarily brought under control!

Subsequently, Qi Yuansheng and Xu Fengxing each demonstrated Strategist battle arrays and Mohist defensive arts, instantly stunning and subduing the crowd!

Following that, Qi Yuansheng introduced various Strategist command doctrines, quickly establishing strict military discipline and whipping these men into absolute obedience!

The entire process had taken a mere three days!

"Your Highness, that Qi Yuansheng seems to possess a unique capability within the army that compels soldiers to hold a deep sense of reverence for him..." Wang Yu'er remarked.

Xue Yuan smiled without explaining further; he knew that capability was called the "Military Soul"!

Wang Yu'er hesitated for a moment before speaking again, "An individual of such talent is a sharp sword when used properly, but if..."

Knowing what she meant, Xue Yuan smiled faintly and said, "Rest assured, Sister Yu'er, I trust him just as I trust you!"

Wang Yu'er smiled gently and said no more.

She then changed the subject. "Oh, by the way, Your Highness, Xu Fengxing's rat mechanism is truly effective. Last night, we discovered that the Northern Yan man had entered 'Baoxing Studio' in the east of the city. I immediately sent a fresh face inside to seize the opportunity and attach a tracking talisman to a hidden part of his boots. Now, we have successfully located his new residence!"

A flash of joy crossed Xue Yuan's heart. "Splendid, but there is no need to rush; continue observing his movement patterns. Also, did you ask the shopkeepers who had contact with him what they were discussing after he entered the shop?"

"We did!" Wang Yu'er replied. "Once inside, he talked about all sorts of things, mostly antique knowledge. However, it seems he spoke with every single shopkeeper about 'paintings within paintings'."

"Paintings within paintings?"

"Yes, meaning a second painting is concealed within the interlayer of another painting. Not only is crafting such a piece immensely difficult, but dismantling the hidden painting safely without damaging it is even harder! Consequently, such works are extremely rare, and those who understand the craft are as scarce as phoenix feathers and unicorn horns!"

Xue Yuan rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "So is he searching for a painting within a painting, or is he looking for an expert proficient in paintings within paintings?"

Wang Yu'er mused, "Both are possible! I've heard people in the martial world say that in the past, some individuals embedded treasure maps inside paintings within paintings. Judging by that, if the Northern Yan people learned that a massive secret was hidden within a certain painting within painting, they would naturally inquire everywhere in hopes of acquiring it.

Of course, it is also possible that the painting is already in their possession, but Northern Yan values martial prowess and lacks experts skilled in this craft, hence why they have come to our Gan State to seek out an expert."

"What is your next plan then?" Xue Yuan asked.

"I have already dispatched people to keep watch near his residence. The moment he steps out, they will sneak in and search for that painting within a painting! If it's there, we'll take it first!"

"Unnecessary!" Xue Yuan shook his head. "If such a painting truly exists, he is unlikely to carry it on his person; it will most likely be brought over by a Northern Yan commercial caravan! He is merely scouting ahead right now!"

Wang Yu'er looked embarrassed. "But... I've already sent people over!"

"Recall them immediately!"

Xue Yuan smiled and spoke in a soothing tone, "Sister Yu'er need not mind this. You have only recently assumed the role of Hall Master, and managing these matters in such an orderly fashion is already quite commendable. Given time, you will naturally learn to consider things more comprehensively and meticulously."

For a hardworking subordinate, Xue Yuan had every reason to offer encouragement; even if a mistake was made, he was willing to clean up the mess for her.

Warmth flooded Wang Yu'er's heart. "I understand! I'll go give the order for them to return right now!"

...

After Wang Yu'er left, Xue Yuan suddenly heard a commotion outside.

He asked Jian Qi, "What is going on out there?"

Jian Qi, holding a book, replied, "It must be the materials Xu Fengxing ordered arriving again. I heard he has spent over two hundred thousand taels these past few days buying hundreds of types of materials across the city—the cheap ones cost mere copper coins, while the expensive ones run into tens of thousands of taels. Now, whenever he walks down the street, plenty of shopkeepers scramble to invite him to dinner!"

"You've said quite a lot; does that sound a bit like jealousy?"

"I am curious!"

Xue Yuan's interest was piqued. "Then shall we go and see what on earth he is tinkering with?"

"Not allowed to look. Mohist rules."

"Can't you sneak a look then?"

"I did sneak a look, and his mechanism caught me!"

"Are his mechanisms really that formidable?"

"Fiercer than you!"

"Damn it, go read your book and continue your descent into depravity!"

Xue Yuan cursed, though inwardly he grew even more delighted!

Even someone with Jian Qi's martial prowess could be detected, which proved that the reputation of the Mohist school's number one genius was truly well-deserved!

Just think, he now possessed several top-tier talents under his command!

Furthermore, all his plans were unfolding one by one!

Given a little more time, he would no longer need to fear anyone attempting to assassinate him!

By then, whether it was Prince Yu or the Northern Yan commercial caravan, he would have ample capital to play games with them!

Thinking of this, Xue Yuan felt that he himself needed to improve as well!

He pulled out the *Great Meaning of Confucian Classics* and began to study with intense concentration!

He had made up his mind: if he fell asleep this time, he would simply tie his hair to the ceiling beam and prick his thigh with an awl!

However, the Prince's Manor's beams were too high, and he had no awl.

What should he do?

"I'll just nap for a moment; once I recover my vigor, I'll be able to study even better..."