The Great Barbarian Witch’s sudden arrival on the battlefield caught not only Minhan Mude’er and the Empress of Eastern Qin off guard—it caught Jun Beiyue off guard as well.

News from the front lines traveled fastest of all, especially to a man like Jun Beiyue, whose eyes and ears were everywhere.

No sooner had the Great Barbarian Witch set foot in Yandang City than Jun Beiyue received word of it at once!

For a moment, the argument over whether to attack the city or wait and watch fell silent. The ordinary generals withdrew, leaving only the three Tiger Generals behind.

“Your Highness, surely the Xiongnu wouldn’t bring their own style of warfare onto this battlefield—must they really have a priest perform a divination first before deciding whether to send troops?” The White Tiger General held nothing but disdain for such religious superstition. The moment anyone insisted on the importance of faith, well—as soldiers, they trusted nothing but the blade in their own hands!

Physician Gu, who had always stayed close by Jun Beiyue’s side serving as the army’s doctor, understood the Xiongnu’s religion far better than any general.

To defeat a people, one must first understand that people, and to understand a people, one must first understand their faith!

Nanzhao, to the south, was a land Jun Beiyue would never touch unless absolutely forced to.

But the Xiongnu, to the north, were Jun Beiyue’s true rivals—the greatest obstacle standing between him and conquering all of Longyuan. His study of the Xiongnu hadn’t begun with this war.

As far back as when he was first made a prince in his youth, commanding the three armies of the northern frontier, he had already begun studying the Xiongnu—their character, their strengths and weaknesses, the structure of their imperial system, and most importantly of all, their faith: the Wolf Totem, the Great Barbarian Witch-Spirit Faith!

Jun Beiyue had never been able to understand, had never been able to find, the true origin of the Great Barbarian Witch-Spirit Faith!

Since ancient times, witchcraft had always originated in the southern territories—so why would a religion belonging to a people of the northern snowfields carry the character “witch” in its name?

Did the “witch” of the Great Barbarian Witch-Spirit Faith mean something different from the “witch” of Nanzhao, or were the two in fact somehow connected?

Seeing Jun Beiyue’s brow furrowed, lost in silent thought, the three generals didn’t dare speak carelessly either. It was Physician Gu who, after a moment’s hesitation, couldn’t help but offer a reminder. “Your Highness, whatever the Great Barbarian Witch has come here to do, there’s one thing we mustn’t fail to guard against.”

The moment Physician Gu said this, Jun Beiyue immediately looked up—it was clear that Physician Gu had put his finger precisely on the worry weighing on his mind!

Others might not know it, but Jun Beiyue certainly did!

In his efforts to understand the Xiongnu, over the years he had sent no small number of scouts into the Great Barbarian Witch-Spirit Faith. The ones he sent were, naturally, skilled experts—yet strangely, these experts never even got the chance to raise a weapon. Without exception, every single one of them had died of poisoning!

The use of poison was, of course, nothing unusual in itself.

What was far stranger was this: after he had begun studying poison because of Ziqing, recruiting poison masters and poison physicians to cultivate poison-death operatives, he had once again sent poison-death operatives in to investigate—and still, not a single one had ever returned with word!

Whatever the truth of the matter, one thing could be said for certain: within the Great Barbarian Witch-Spirit Faith, there must be someone extraordinarily skilled in the use of poison—skilled enough to kill even poison-death operatives.

“You mean… they might choose to attack with poison?” Jun Beiyue asked coldly.

However formidable a group of poison-death operatives might be, they were nothing compared to the terrifying human gu—and even the human gu, formidable as it was, could never stand against an entire army!

A poison attack in war meant poisoning the army’s food, provisions, or water source!

“This is merely my own speculation, Your Highness. I wouldn’t dare draw a firm conclusion.” Physician Gu was, as ever, cautious—after all, he was a physician, not a strategist, and in truth, he had no real standing to speak on such matters here.

Apart from matters concerning the Consort of Prince Yao, Physician Gu was always exceedingly careful to stay within his proper bounds on everything else.

And yet, his words left all three generals stunned.

“If that’s true, it must be the Empress of Eastern Qin’s idea—the Xiongnu wouldn’t know how to pull off such tricks!” the White Tiger General said at once.

Their wariness of the Xiongnu came precisely from not understanding how the Xiongnu waged war. They never bothered with careful strategy—only brute force. And yet it was precisely this disregard for strategy that, in the greatest of battles, so often proved unpredictable, striking without warning, impossible to guess at in advance.

Jun Beiyue, however, didn’t see it that way.

“The Great Barbarian Witch wouldn’t interfere in matters of war. Besides, if it were a poison attack, why would it require a witch of her standing to act in person?”

Jun Beiyue kept his head lowered the whole while, his composed eyes deep and unreadable.

The art of poison, though not exactly a secret within the Great Barbarian faith, was hardly common knowledge either! At the very least, not everyone knew that people of the Great Barbarian faith were skilled in poison!

Had it not been for his own probing, which had cost him the loss of so many scouts, he himself would never have known!

The Great Barbarian Witch couldn’t possibly have traveled a thousand li just to launch a poison attack and announce to the whole world that she knew how to use poison!

So why exactly had this witch come to the front lines?

For the moment, even Jun Beiyue couldn’t quite work it out, but he knew this much: now was not the time to storm the city. It seemed the wisest course was to wait and see what the other side did first.

“Send word down the ranks—the entire army will rest and regroup for three days. No drinking!” Jun Beiyue ordered.

The three Tiger Generals took their leave to carry out the order, but Physician Gu lingered, not leaving right away. His sharp eyes had been fixed the whole while on the letter in Jun Beiyue’s hand.

He knew it was a letter from Han Ziqing.

Seeing that Physician Gu still hadn’t left, Jun Beiyue raised an eyebrow. “Something the matter?”

“Yingzi isn’t here to attend you, old servant that I am—Your Highness ought to rest early,” Physician Gu answered with concern, presenting a freshly brewed cup of tea as he spoke.

Jun Beiyue said nothing more, and only then slowly opened the letter. It had been in his hands for a full day already, yet he’d had no time at all to open it.

And after a whole day of argument in this camp, things had finally quieted down.

No one knew what the letter said, but Jun Beiyue’s expression gradually curved into a handsome, warm smile—one that was lovely to behold!

Even Physician Gu found himself momentarily entranced. In nearly a month’s time, there had only been these scant two or three letters—yet they were enough to make this man, whose lips were otherwise perpetually pressed tight, finally relax.

Physician Gu knew he shouldn’t, yet he couldn’t help wanting to edge closer for a look, curious what the letter actually said—whether it mentioned the situation in Xijing, whether it mentioned the state of the mines.

Physician Gu was torn, conflicted. He kept thinking—if only Han Ziqing weren’t the orphaned survivor of the Lone Island, how wonderful that would be!

But she was, precisely, that very person—and yet His Highness, precisely, didn’t mind at all.

Just as he was about to lean in for a closer look, Jun Beiyue put the letter away and slowly turned his head, casting him a cold look. Physician Gu was so startled by the sudden chill in his expression that he stumbled back several steps in a hurry, nearly falling over. “Your Highness… I… I…”

“Leave,” Jun Beiyue said coldly.

Only then did Physician Gu breathe a sigh of relief, and not daring to linger any longer, he hurried out.

Once he was alone, Jun Beiyue opened the letter once more. In truth, it contained only a few brief lines, the elegant handwriting just like her—slender, yet possessing a proud, unyielding bearing.

A month now. He missed her.

Half a year—not terribly long, and yet, not exactly short either!

Though he knew perfectly well there was no possibility of slipping away to see her in secret, Jun Beiyue couldn’t help himself from thinking of her all the same.

The last time Ziqing had been abducted by Yanzi, he had been anxious—so anxious that he’d had no room left even to miss her.

This time, then, was true longing in its purest form.

What was she doing right now? Was she well?

To think that these few brief lines, once written, took at least ten-odd days to reach his hands…

The night stretched on, and Da Zhou’s military camp lay in complete silence, while within Eastern Qin’s city walls, all was silent as well—the first such peaceful night since the two nations had gone to war.

And yet, at this very moment, inside Minhan Mude’er’s tent, nothing was peaceful at all!

…