Your voice is a bit sharp.

In the lord's study of the Miral territory, the flickering candlelight cast Kaiaolen's shadow long across the room.

Sitting behind a heavy oak desk, he ran his fingertips over the yellowed parchment documents. His brows were tightly furrowed, his expression solemn.

The desk was piled high with replies from various lords, troop deployment maps of the royal capital's surroundings, and scattered intelligence reports regarding the "disguised monsters." Every single document weighed heavily on his mind.

"Sigh..." Kaiaolen let out a soft breath, rubbing his throbbing temples.

He had been sitting there processing documents for an entire day without moving. His eyes were bloodshot, yet he still dared not take a break.

The current situation was growing increasingly critical. The disguised monsters had infiltrated deep into the royal capital, yet the lords willing to join forces to purge them were few and far between. Most opted to either sit on the fence or blindly side with the capital, terrified of bringing trouble upon themselves.

He could not help but think of Ye Chuan...

By his calculations, it had only been a few days since the young man left Miral for Valoran.

He should still be on the road right now.

Kaiaolen shook his head. Count Leon of Valoran was both greedy and paranoid; convincing him to dispatch troops would be no simple task. No matter how strong Ye Chuan was, he would undoubtedly face difficulties.

Furthermore, the journey from Miral to Valoran took five or six days even when rushing on an earth dragon. Even if Ye Chuan used special methods, he would have only arrived in Valoran a few days ago. Catching a disguised monster and convincing Leon to mobilize his army would take at least a couple of weeks before any news could be sent back.

"Count Kaiaolen, have you still not rested?"

A soft voice came from the study door as Princess Irena walked in, carrying a cup of warm floral tea.

She was dressed in a light purple gown, a trace of unconcealable anxiety lingering between her brows. It was obvious that she too was worried about the current situation.

"Princess Irena." Kaiaolen hurriedly stood up.

"The situation is dire, so I truly have no mind to rest. Why haven't you gone to sleep either?"

Irena placed the floral tea on the table. Her gaze fell upon the document-laden desk as she spoke softly,

"I couldn't sleep. I wanted to see if there were any new developments on your end... Is there any news from Mr. Xi Xi?"

At the mention of Ye Chuan, a hint of anticipation crept into her tone.

In her eyes, Ye Chuan was their only hope of breaking the current deadlock.

Kaiaolen shook his head.

"Not yet. Valoran is not close, and Count Leon is naturally paranoid. It will likely take some time for Xi Xi to persuade him."

He paused, and seeing Irena's anxious expression, he added,

"Your Highness, I know you are eager to retake the royal capital and save our people, but we truly cannot afford to act rashly right now."

"The royal capital is not only filled with a massive number of disguised monsters, but it also houses hundreds of thousands of elite soldiers, not to mention a significant number of high-tier combatants.

"More importantly, the lords of several surrounding territories have chosen to side with the capital. Their combined forces outnumber the troops we can currently assemble by several times over."

Pointing at the troop deployment map on the desk, Kaiaolen spoke with a heavy tone.

"If we launch a rash attack, it will only lead to the meaningless sacrifice of our soldiers. Not only would we fail to rescue His Majesty, but we would also drag Miral and the territories willing to follow us into a dire predicament."

Irena bit her lip, the light in her eyes dimming slightly.

She naturally understood that Kaiaolen was telling the truth. However, whenever she thought of the crisis plaguing the royal capital and the citizens being butchered by those disguised monsters, her heart burned with anxiety.

"But are we just going to keep waiting like this? The citizens of the capital..."

"We are not waiting; we are gathering our strength," Kaiaolen interrupted, his tone resolute.

"As long as Xi Xi can persuade Count Leon to deploy his troops, we will be able to amass a larger army. Once we unite with other lords who still possess a conscience, only then will we have a solid chance of standing against the capital's forces and purging those terrifying monsters."

"Alright..."

...

Right at that moment, a faint ripple suddenly distorted the space inside the study. A familiar figure materialized beside the desk without any warning. It was Ye Chuan, the very person who was supposed to be in Valoran.

He still wore his usual nonchalant expression, looking as though he had merely strolled in from the room next door.

"Yo!"

"?!" Sensing the spatial fluctuation, Kaiaolen shot to his feet.

Irena instinctively took a step back, her eyes wide with astonishment.

Once he clearly saw that the intruder was Ye Chuan, Kaiaolen's vigilance instantly melted into confusion. Furrowing his brow, he asked in a bewildered tone,

"Xi Xi, why are you back? Did you run into some kind of trouble on your way to Valoran? Or... did you forget something?"

Then, remembering something else, Kaiaolen hastily added, "Where is Elara? Didn't she come back with you? Where is my granddaughter?!"

Ye Chuan raised an eyebrow as he took in Kaiaolen's frantic demeanor.

"Relax. I didn't run into any trouble, and I didn't forget anything. Elara is doing just fine in Valoran. She's currently taking Torres and Aurora out sightseeing."

Sightseeing in Valoran?

"You've already reached Valoran?"

"Yep. I just popped back to let you know that the business in Valoran is settled. Count Leon has agreed to deploy his troops. In three days, he'll bring Valoran's entire military force to Miral to rendezvous with you."

"Though, the march here will obviously take some time."

"Wh-What?!" Kaiaolen was completely caught off guard.

He stood frozen in place, seemingly unable to process the information.

Irena covered her mouth, her eyes brimming with disbelief.

It had only been a few days since Ye Chuan left Miral, and he had already convinced Count Leon to dispatch his army? That was absurdly fast!

Once Kaiaolen snapped out of his daze, he strode over to Ye Chuan and gripped his shoulders.

"Xi Xi, Count Leon... did he really agree to send troops? You've barely been gone! How could you have possibly negotiated this so quickly?"

"I just showed off a little bit of my power, and he immediately fell to his knees and kowtowed in surrender," Ye Chuan chuckled.

Kaiaolen: "..."

He absolutely did not believe a word of that.

Count Leon had a seventh-tier battle aura swordmaster by his side, an existence renowned as the Valkyrie of Valoran. Furthermore, battle aura just so happened to be the exact type of power that dragonkin struggled to deal with.

Coupled with the fact that Leah possessed incredible speed and the blessing of the Goddess, if Ye Chuan had actually gone up against her, he likely would have been defeated in mere seconds.

"You wouldn't lie to me just to get a reward, would you?" The dragonkin couldn't help but suspect that Ye Chuan had done exactly that.

After all, Ye Chuan was definitely the type of person who would pull such a stunt.

That was just his reputation.

"Your voice is getting a bit shrill." Ye Chuan rolled his eyes. "What do you mean, 'lie to you for a reward'?"

Ye Chuan then proceeded to recount exactly what had happened.

When Ye Chuan claimed that he had beaten Leah to a pulp before threatening Count Leon, Kaiaolen simply thought he was blowing hot air. However, upon learning that Ye Chuan had taught the Valoran mages his detection magic, Kaiaolen finally understood.

It was just like what he had done in Miral.

By teaching it to the mages, identifying the monsters became a breeze.

"Good... Very good!"