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Lu Chen's words echoed continuously within the great hall, lingering for a long time, and the hearts of the courtiers present were already boiling with fervor, especially the military generals, whose auras were climbing incessantly—they couldn't wait to lead their troops south.

After the preparatory remarks had been made, Lu Chen glanced over the courtiers and then continued, "Today we shall discuss the matter of marching south to support the prince and all the preparations that need to be made for it."

Although nominally it was a march south to support the prince and fight traitors, this war was going to be more difficult than the one against Great Wu.

This time their target was to occupy the entire Great Xia Dynasty, which was much larger than the bit of land they had taken from Great Wu.

Moreover, the internal situation of Great Xia was even more complex; sometimes, occupation was easy, but governance was quite troublesome.

Also, due to Lu Chen's notoriety, the aristocratic families and landowners greatly feared him, which couldn't be helped since he had confiscated the land of North Country.

Under such circumstances, Lu Chen would need to undertake extensive preparations if he wished to seize the throne of Great Xia.

Especially the work in the occupation zones—whenever Lu Chen led the North Country's army into another part of Great Xia, he must occupy and govern each area; if someone caused trouble in the rear, it could potentially affect the army marching south to support the prince.

This was a challenging task for both Lu Chen and the whole North Country, hence the need for early discussions.

Initially, Lu Chen planned to wait until the children in the bellies of Yelv Nanyan and Xiao Wenyao were born, by which time he would have more support before he marched south.

However, upon further thought, he realized there was no need to truly wait for their childbirth since it was expected within the month. After all, he couldn't instantly lead his troops south the moment he decided to move; there were many tasks to be done, and at least two months were necessary for preparation, so he started early.

By the time Xiao Wenyao and Yelv Nanyan's children were born, he would also have completed his preparations.

After Lu Chen finished speaking, the courtiers in the great hall bustled about, discussing military mobilization and logistics.

Currently, civil officials and military generals were together in a court meeting, so the military layout was not yet discussed. Since Lu Chen had monopolized military authority in North Country, civil officials seldom got involved in military affairs, with only a few high-ranking ministers like Zhuge Zhongguang having access to the country's military secrets.

The remainder of the day was spent in meetings, with the ministers having both their lunch and dinner within the great hall.

There were simply too many issues to resolve all at once.

Seeing that it was nearly eleven o'clock, Lu Chen reluctantly allowed the ministers to return home, planning to continue discussing certain topics the next morning.

After sitting on the throne all day, Lu Chen also felt extremely fatigued; although his Pseudo Celestial realm meant that his body wouldn't experience any tiredness, it was mainly mental exhaustion.

He had anticipated that leading an army south would bring numerous issues, but he hadn't expected there to be so many that they couldn't all be addressed in one day.

After the day's meeting ended, Lu Chen went to Wind Cloud Court, where the mental exhaustion made him just want to rush off to sleep, to rest well—he didn't even want to touch a woman that night.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

But just as he was about to head to Wind Cloud Court to sleep, Liang Zong arrived.

It was evident that Liang Zong had brought important intelligence, so Lu Chen had no choice but to proceed to his study.

Entering the study, Liang Zong handed over the information gathered by the Brocade Guard to Lu Chen.

"Prince, news has come from the capital city; there seems to be an exceptionally powerful divine weapon within the Imperial Palace. It is said that this divine weapon can kill a Celestial!"

Hearing this, Lu Chen's hand paused in mid-air, not even unfolding the intelligence, as he looked up at Liang Zong after a brief shock.

"How was this intelligence collected?"

Liang Zong replied, "Someone in the capital city is spreading this news; the Brocade Guard has not yet determined who exactly is behind it."

Upon hearing Liang Zong's response, Lu Chen pondered for a moment before he opened the intelligence in his hand and read through it carefully.

After reading the contents of the intelligence, Lu Chen speculated whether it was the Lin Family trying to send him information?

If the Lin Family had discovered some secret within the Imperial Palace, it seemed unnecessary for them to go to such lengths—they could've directly passed the information to the Brocade Guard.

Ever since the Lin Family had aligned with him, North Country had placed Brocade Guards within the Lin Family; this ensured that any news from the Lin Family would be relayed to North Country through the Brocade Guard immediately.

Wait a second...

Could this be information being spread by his imperial father himself?

If it was his imperial father, then he indeed had a motive.

Perhaps his imperial father sensed that he was itching to make a move and, fearing his march south, wanted to spread false news to deter him?

No, this news might also be true.

When Lu Yi had come to North Country, he had mentioned that his imperial father had obtained an evil artifact capable of instantly elevating the State Preceptor's strength to the Heavenly Human Realm.

At that time, Lu Chen had suspected that his imperial father had truly acquired such a relic, but it was likely not one to enhance a person's realm, but rather, it served some other purpose.

Now with rumors of a divine weapon in the Imperial Palace that could kill a Celestial, it couldn't be just an idle claim—there was probably someone actively leaking the information.