Youming Town.
Two forces were locked in fierce battle on a mountain road.
One side moved with strict discipline and clear coordination. After only a few charges, they had broken the opposing formation apart.
But their advance was halted by a powerfully built man with a thick beard.
The man gripped a cavalry lance, fierce and virtually unstoppable — seven or eight soldiers couldn’t get near him.
Just as the man was preparing to lead a counterattack, the opposite formation suddenly split open, and a figure cut through the gap like a flash.
The cavalry saber in his hand caught the dying light of the sun, stained as though with blood.
The man swung his lance to block — but his opponent tilted back on the horse like a ghost.
In the very instant the lance swept past the tip of his nose, he straightened back up, and the saber carved across the man’s neck at a deviously precise angle.
Blood poured along the blade’s edge, taking the place of the fading sun to dye it fully red.
The man was seized with terror. He could not fathom it — he, unrivaled in valor, had his life taken in a single exchange.
The last image reflected in his eyes was a pair of cold gray irises.
Without that man, the opposing side had no resistance left.
In less than an hour, they had collapsed entirely.
Songlü stepped forward: “My lord, these prisoners…”
Xie Yi sat mounted, his armor streaked with blood. The moment his gaze swept over, even Songlü — who had been at his side for years — instinctively stiffened his spine.
“Kill them.”
In this moment, my lord looked exactly as he had in the old days.
Songlü didn’t dare utter a single word of objection.
By the time it was over, night had fallen.
Everyone carried torches back to camp.
Those they had killed today were a rebel force that had been entrenched in the area.
Over the past half year, the situation had grown worse by the day.
Fires of war had broken out across the land, and the common people had no peace.
What was laughable was that amid all of this, the court was still consumed with infighting and power struggles — completely self-destructive and pointless.
Not long ago, the military commander of Minzhou had raised troops in rebellion, attempting to seize Jiangnan.
But before they had even crossed into Jiangnan territory, Xie Yi had defeated them and pursued them all the way back to Minzhou.
If Qingzhou had been behind Xie Yi, he could have swallowed the entirety of Minzhou in one go.
Unfortunately, the time since taking Jiangnan was still short — the region wasn’t yet entirely stable, and couldn’t fully absorb Minzhou on top of it. With Luo Zhitang occupied keeping Jiangcheng in order, the supply and logistics side had grown somewhat thin.
So Xie Yi could only move steadily and methodically, taking Minzhou piece by piece like a silkworm eating through a leaf.
Now, with the last rebel faction eliminated, it was only a matter of time before Minzhou was fully brought under control.
Xie Yi returned to the command tent and rubbed his temples.
A few days earlier, Luo Zhitang had sent a message asking when he would return to Jiangcheng.
Luo Zhitang was capable, but only with Xie Yi holding the center could Jiangnan remain stable. The longer he stayed away, the more restless certain lurking forces were growing.
Yet Xie Yi, in a rare moment, hesitated.
Not long ago, the man he had placed near Liu Muzhi had sent word that Liu Muzhi had been quietly gathering certain things in private.
And before that, Liu Muzhi had gone to the governor’s residence to meet with Lin Zhiji.
In the time since, Lin Zhiji had sent him two letters — and in neither had he mentioned this matter with so much as a single word.
Xie Yi had ten thousand ways of making people tell him the truth.
But the person in question was Lin Zhiji. Not a single one of those ways was something he could bring himself to use. He was even avoiding it — unwilling to know the truth.
The next morning, Songlü came to report that Jiangnan had sent people with a new shipment of military provisions.
Xie Yi’s brow furrowed.
The timing was much earlier than he had calculated.
He stepped out of the tent — and found that the supply wagons were less than half the usual number. And more than that: the one who had come to deliver the provisions was Luo Zhitang himself.
Xie Yi’s chest tightened. He stepped forward quickly: “Has something happened in Jiangcheng? Where is Zhiji?”
Luo Zhitang said at once: “My lord, Jiangcheng is fine. Young Master Lin is also fine.”
Only then did Xie Yi’s heart settle partway. Then something else occurred to him: “You came personally for this shipment? What’s different about it?”
Luo Zhitang pulled back the oilcloth covering one of the wagons.
Underneath was not the usual grain and provisions they were accustomed to, but rather rows of neatly stacked ceramic jars, and block-shaped items wrapped tightly in oiled paper.
The moment these things were revealed, the officers who had come to receive the supplies were also taken aback, and immediately began murmuring among themselves.
Songlü asked curiously: “What are these?”
Luo Zhitang opened one of the ceramic jars to reveal what appeared to be dried, shriveled vegetable strips — yet without the salty, pungent smell that dried vegetables typically had.
Luo Zhitang called for hot water and poured it over the contents. The shriveled strips instantly expanded, releasing a fragrance of fresh vegetables.
The officers were all stunned. Only Songlü volunteered himself, scooping up a spoonful to taste, and immediately brightened: “It’s so fresh!”
If he hadn’t watched with his own eyes as Luo Zhitang poured the water in to rehydrate it, he would have genuinely thought this was a soup made from fresh vegetables.
And beyond the ceramic jars, the oiled paper packages contained flat, square, biscuit-like blocks — hard, but with a very good flavor, and extraordinarily filling.
Songlü had eaten less than half a block before he was already full.
The provisions were not entirely made up of these new-style military rations — the wagons toward the back contained ordinary supplies as usual.
Here is the word-for-word translation into American English:
But because these new-style military rations took up very little space and required far less transport capacity, they could be delivered in less than half the usual number of wagons. The team responsible for transporting them didn’t need nearly as many people either, and the journey was significantly faster.
That was how the delivery had arrived so much earlier than expected.
Over time, the manpower and resources saved would add up to a staggering figure.
Before this, logistical constraints had prevented them from extending their battle lines. Territory that had been won at great cost could only be watched helplessly — they couldn’t consolidate their hold on it.
But now, none of that was a problem anymore.
When the news spread, the entire camp erupted into a fierce wave of cheering.
Xie Yi, however, remained calm. He brought Luo Zhitang into the tent. “Whose idea were these new-style military rations?”
Luo Zhitang hesitated for a moment, then gave an answer completely at odds with what Xie Yi had expected: “Liu Muzhi.”
Xie Yi’s brow furrowed immediately.
Others might not know, but he understood perfectly — these things had to have been exchanged by Lin Zhiji using his points.
Luo Zhitang continued: “Beyond the rations, he also improved the supply wagons. And then there was…”
Luo Zhitang went on to describe several more things.
With every item, Xie Yi’s frown deepened further. Every last one of these things was clearly a product of the system.
Connecting the dots — Liu Muzhi had visited Lin Zhiji, and shortly after had begun gathering materials, with the new-style rations arriving not long after — the picture became instantly clear: Lin Zhiji had used his points to exchange for these things, then handed them to Liu Muzhi.
In that instant, his heart felt as though it had been bitten savagely by a venomous fang.
Pain. Anger.
And a jealousy he was unwilling to even acknowledge to himself.
He hadn’t forgotten — from the very beginning, Lin Zhiji had always paid exceptional attention to Liu Muzhi.
From the moment they were bound together, Lin Zhiji had worried that he would kill Liu Muzhi.
When they entered Qingxi City and encountered Liu Muzhi, Lin Zhiji had taken the initiative to suggest traveling together. After Liu Muzhi’s identity as a prince was exposed, worried that he might move against him, Lin Zhiji had also talked Liu Muzhi into going to Jiangcheng.
And now he had even contributed his accumulated points — while handing all the credit to Liu Muzhi.
Even knowing that Lin Zhiji did these things because of his tasks.
Faced with such blatant favoritism, it was very difficult for him to stay rational.
Or rather — because they were lovers, it was even harder for him to stay rational.
When Luo Zhitang finished speaking, he felt Xie Yi’s expression grow visibly darker.
The instinct to avoid trouble made him swallow everything else he had been about to say. He had also been planning to ask when Xie Yi would return to Jiangcheng, but now he kept his mouth firmly shut.
To his surprise, Xie Yi was silent for only a brief moment before saying: “Pass the order for the army to rest and regroup. Have a unit separated out. Tomorrow they come back to Jiangcheng with me.”
Luo Zhitang: !
Lin Zhiji finished touring the factory producing the military rations with Liu Muzhi at his side, and gave a quiet nod of approval inwardly.
True to the exceptional learning ability certified in the novel — even working only from written descriptions and his own explanations, Liu Muzhi had gotten this factory looking like the real thing.
Liu Muzhi couldn’t hold back: “Brother Lin, I still can’t understand — why didn’t you give this directly to my lord? Having them produce it on that side would be far more convenient, wouldn’t it?”
Even though Liu Muzhi had initially guessed these things were worth quite a lot, it was only once they were actually produced that he truly grasped how significant the contribution was.
Right now, even holding onto it felt like holding something that burned.
Lin Zhiji shook his head. “I have my own reasons…”
No matter how Liu Muzhi asked, he said nothing more.
Liu Muzhi let out a sigh and stopped pressing.
Once Liu Muzhi left, 03 came back online with its usual sarcasm: [The male lead really has it rough! First you put him through being a merchant, now you’re using him to go around the task system and pave the way for the villain. Doesn’t your conscience hurt even a little?!]
Since 03 had figured out Lin Zhiji’s true intentions, it had been like this every day. Lin Zhiji had long since become immune.
In truth, Lin Zhiji hadn’t expected things to go this smoothly.
He had previously studied the patterns behind how the task system issued tasks and found that the system had its eyes fixed entirely on Xie Yi — the moment Xie Yi’s behavior deviated from the parameters they had set, a task would be issued.
Conversely, there was no such restriction placed on Liu Muzhi.
For example: Xie Yi entering Jiangnan ahead of schedule triggered a task.
But when Liu Muzhi later sought out Xie Yi on his own initiative and proposed going to Jiangcheng — enabling Xie Yi to gain control of Jiangnan earlier than in the original book — no new task was triggered.
By the same logic: if Lin Zhiji used his points to exchange for these things and help Xie Yi pacify the realm more quickly, the system would in all likelihood trigger a task.
But if he handed everything to Liu Muzhi and let Liu Muzhi be the one to present it, the task system wouldn’t issue a task at all.
It was also why he hadn’t dared tell anyone — he was afraid that if the task system somehow found out, it would patch the loophole.
Now that the test had succeeded, he wasn’t going to care about 03’s rattled complaints.
What he hadn’t anticipated, though, was that 03 fell silent for a moment — and then suddenly said: [You want to dodge the tasks, exploit a bug, and stay in this world. That’s impossible!]
Lin Zhiji hadn’t expected 03 to guess his true intentions, and was shaken to the core.
But after everything he had experienced in recent days, he was no longer the naive person who didn’t even know how to tell a lie. So he kept his expression perfectly neutral: [I don’t know what you mean.]
03 hesitated for a long time before finally speaking: [Things have reached this point, so I won’t keep it from you anymore. Your mission and mine have different outcomes. If I fail, this world will continue to exist. But if you fail, this world resets — everything starts over from the beginning.]
Lin Zhiji was stunned: [You… that’s a lie! You never said any of this before!]
When he had first entered this world, 03 had only told him that once task completion reached sixty percent, he could leave this world.
03 gave a small cough: [That… was something I told you to make you comply…]
Lin Zhiji: !!
[I was just afraid you’d give up on completing tasks…] 03’s voice had gone slightly unsteady. [But that’s not the main point. Even if you really do manage to exploit the bug successfully, you still wouldn’t be able to stay…]
Lin Zhiji went still.
His heart began pounding frantically.
He had a hazy premonition that what 03 was about to say next might turn his world completely upside down.
He heard his own voice come out rough and strained.
[Why?]
This time, 03 hesitated even longer.
The silence around him felt dead.
Then Lin Zhiji heard 03 say, in a voice that couldn’t conceal its reluctance: [Haven’t you ever wondered — why would a system from a novel-transmigration bureau pull you in?]
[Because you are also a character from a book.]
[Except — you’re a cannon fodder character.]