The courier’s message was written on silk the color of dried blood.
Mo Lin spread it flat on the practice yard bench in the gray predawn light, his fingers trembling slightly as he smoothed out the folds.
The seal was intact the Han Family’s crimson crane stamp pressed into black wax but Mo Lin had steamed it open over a kettle and resealed it with a merchant’s precision that bordered on artistry.
I copied the contents before resealing, Mo Lin said, sliding a second piece of paper across the bench.
The courier never knew I intercepted it.
Lu Chen picked up the copy and read.
The letter was addressed to Prince Han Ming, Third Prince of the Crimson River Kingdom, and it was written in the Han Patriarch’s own hand.
The contents were brief and damning.
The Han Patriarch reported that the Lu Family of Cloudmist City had discovered an unregistered spirit stone deposit of “significant strategic value” in the western mountains.
He reported that the Lu Family’s young master had displayed anomalous combat ability inconsistent with his recorded cultivation realm.
He requested immediate military support from the Crimson River Kingdom to secure the deposit and neutralize the Lu Family threat before it destabilizes the region.
In exchange, the Han Patriarch offered the Crimson River Kingdom exclusive mining rights to Dragon Ridge and full vassal tribute from Cloudmist City’s commercial revenues.
Lu Chen read the letter twice.
Then he folded it carefully and tucked it into his sleeve.
How long ago was this sent?
he asked.
The courier left Cloudmist City six days ago, Mo Lin said.
He was heading for the Crimson River border relay station at Vermilion Pass.
That’s a three-day ride from here.
So the message reached the border nine days ago.
Mo Lin’s voice was tight.
If the Crimson River Kingdom responded immediately, their advance scouts could already be inside Blackstone Kingdom territory.
Lu Chen stared at the mist-shrouded rooftops of Cloudmist City and felt the weight of the world shifting beneath his feet.
This was no longer a clan dispute.
This was no longer a local economic war between two frontier families.
The Han Patriarch had invited a foreign kingdom into Blackstone Kingdom territory, and that was an act that could trigger a diplomatic crisis between two of the Azure Heaven Empire’s vassal states.
King Mo Beihan of the Blackstone Kingdom would not tolerate Crimson River soldiers operating inside his borders without authorization.
But King Mo Beihan was a Heaven Ascension cultivator sitting in a fortress city three thousand li away, and Cloudmist City was a forgotten speck on the edge of his territory that he probably could not find on a map.
By the time the Blackstone Kingdom’s provincial governor noticed the incursion, the Crimson River Kingdom could have already seized Dragon Ridge and installed a garrison.
[System alert: Strategic escalation detected.]
[Threat level upgrade: Local → Regional.]
[New hostile faction identified: Crimson River Kingdom (Vassal State, Tier 3).]
[Ruler: King Han Lie.
Realm: Saint (Realm 15).
Remaining lifespan: 8,000 years.]
[Note: Crimson River Kingdom is a direct vassal of the Azure Heaven Empire.
Military intervention in Blackstone territory violates the Tri-Sovereign Vassal Treaty.]
[However: Enforcement requires Imperial Court intervention, which is unlikely for a frontier dispute.]
Lu Chen absorbed the information in silence.
The System could identify the Crimson River Kingdom’s ruler and realm, but it could not tell him what to do about it.
That was his job.
Mo Lin, he said quietly.
How many Crimson River cultivators do you estimate the Third Prince would send for a frontier mining operation?
Mo Lin thought for a moment.
For a deposit this size?
A small strike force.
Maybe twenty to thirty soldiers led by a Foundation Establishment captain.
Nothing that would draw the Blackstone Kingdom’s attention.
A surgical operation.
In and out before anyone notices.
Lu Chen nodded.
Twenty to thirty Crimson River soldiers at Foundation Establishment level.
Against Cloudmist City’s total defensive force of roughly six thousand low-level cultivators, most of whom were Body Tempering or Qi Gathering.
The city could not resist a Crimson River strike force.
The Lu Family certainly could not.
[Foreign cultivator signatures detected.]
[Count: 12 entities.]
[Direction: Southeast, approaching from Vermilion Pass.]
[Realm range: Qi Gathering Stage 6 to Foundation Establishment Stage 3.]
[Affiliation: Crimson River Kingdom military (confirmed via fire-attribute qi signatures).]
[ETA to Cloudmist City: 14 days.]
Lu Chen’s jaw tightened.
Twelve scouts.
Not the full strike force just the advance party, sent to verify the Han Patriarch’s claims and prepare the ground for the main operation.
Fourteen days.
He had fourteen days to prepare for the arrival of foreign soldiers who outranked every cultivator in Cloudmist City.
Does anyone else know about this?
Lu Chen asked.
Just you and me.
Keep it that way.
Mo Lin nodded and gathered the papers.
He paused at the gate and looked back.
Lu Chen.
Yes?
Fourteen days.
I know.
What are you going to do?
Lu Chen looked at the eastern sky, where the first pale light of dawn was burning through the mist.
I’m going to get stronger, he said.
Mo Lin left.
Lu Chen stood alone in the practice yard and felt the Chaos Origin Pearl spinning in his dantian, patient and hungry and waiting.
Fourteen days.
It was not enough time.
It would have to be.
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