Chapter 5 — The Prophet Awakens: Shedding the Worthless Shell

At midnight, at the largest money exchange station in Bắcương located close to the southern border, Tô Bạch Vũ's patrol team had been waiting in ambush since dusk. The flickering torchlight clearly illuminated the silhouettes of three men secretly loading white silver bags onto a horse-drawn carriage, preparing to cross the border in the dark.

"Capture!" Bạch Vũ shouted loudly, leading the group of soldiers to rush out from the darkness.

The other three men panicked and tried to run away, but were surrounded from all sides. After a short struggle, all three were controlled, tied up and brought back to Nguyệt Trạch.

In the interrogation room, one of the three men - apparently the leader - still stubbornly refused to confess until Bạch Vũ placed on the table a stack of letters found on him, with the Uoc family's eagle seal on them.

"Tell me, who sent you to collect the white silver of Bắcương?" Tuyết Doanh sat on a high chair, her voice cold as ice.

The leader trembled and finally had to bow his head and confess. "It's... it's because Nam Xuyên's butler Ky sent us to do it, promising to pay him handsomely if we could collect enough white silver in a month."

"Kỷ Thường," Tuyết Doanh repeated the name, her eyes flashing cold light. "So it's clear. Nam Xuyên is behind this silver shortage."

The next day, Tuyết Doanh sent someone to bring evidence and three criminals straight to Nam Xuyên, asking Ước Liêm Phong to explain.

But Liêm Phong received the Bắcương envoy with such perfect surprise on his face that hardly anyone could suspect him. "This is such a pity! Kỷ Thường did work for me, but this white silver collection was completely his own business, without my knowledge. I will immediately severely punish this person to apologize to the Queen of Bắcương."

Right in front of the messenger, Liêm Phong ordered Kỷ Thường to be beaten thirty times and dismissed from his position. Anyone who is observant can recognize the meaningful glances the two exchanged before the drama began. Kỷ Thường was really beaten, but the amount of gold and silver he had previously received was still kept secret, stored in a secret place, waiting to be compensated tenfold by Liêm Phong when the great event was successful.

When the messenger returned to report, Tuyết Doanh just laughed after hearing it. "Please keep the car. Ước Liêm Phong is really cunning. He knows the limits so he doesn't get himself into trouble."

"My lord, what can we do?" Bạch Vũ angrily clenched his fists.

"Currently there is not enough evidence to directly accuse TƯớc Liêm Phong before the tribal council." Tuyết Doanh was thoughtful. "But at least, now we know for sure who is behind everything. Strengthen border patrols, tighten control of money exchange stations, and continue to monitor every move from Nam Xuyên."

***

At the same time, in a small village named Thạch Giản located along the eastern mountainside of Bắcương, another disaster was silently forming without anyone in the village knowing.

Nam Xuyên secretly had people block the main stream supplying water to the village from upstream, intending to cause the village to have a serious water shortage right during the planting season, causing a catastrophic crop failure that could be blamed on Bắcương's "bad luck", continuing to foster rumors of bad omens.

But that night, when the whole village fell asleep, a figure quietly appeared along the stream bank, holding an old bamboo stick in his hand. It was Vọng Thần, who had quietly left Nguyệt Trạch since dusk with the excuse of "going out to find good wine".

He followed the shallow stream upstream, feeling the unusual current in the air — a choking feeling like when a natural flow is stopped by human hands. Walking another half an hour, he discovered a hastily built temporary dam made of stone and wood, blocking almost the entire stream, cleverly camouflaged under a layer of branches and leaves to avoid being detected from afar.

"Indeed." He frowned, observing the structure of the dam. If the dam is destroyed violently, the water that has been stagnant for a long time will collapse on Thạch Giản village like a flash flood, causing even greater harm than lack of water. He needed a more subtle way.

Vọng Thần sat down on the bank of the stream, closed his eyes, and placed his hands on the largest stone slab in the dam structure. This was one of the few magics he still remembered from his childhood lessons at Thien Co Pavilion — the flow induction art, which helps the user "persuade" water to find the most natural way out without breaking the flow-blocking structure. This was a magic that required extreme concentration and consumed a great deal of internal energy, something he had refrained from using over the past twenty years for fear of revealing his traces.

Small streams of water began to weave through the gaps between rocks and wood, at first just small drops, then gradually becoming a small flow, enough to maintain the irrigation water source for Thạch Giản village without causing sudden flash floods. By the time the sun was about to rise, the stream had found a stable outlet through a nearby rock crevice, flowing smoothly toward the village as if it had never been stopped.

Vọng Thần stood up, his body drenched in sweat despite the cold weather, his face pale from consuming too much internal energy in one night. He leaned against a nearby tree, panting for a long time before having enough strength to trudge back to Nguyệt Trạch, just in time for dawn.

The next morning, the villagers of Thạch Giản were surprised to discover that the stream was still flowing normally despite clear traces of a partially demolished dam upstream. No one knows why, only word of mouth says that the mountain gods protected the village.

***

News of the "miracle" in Thạch Giản village quickly reached Ước Liêm Phong's ears, causing him to angrily break a precious tea cup.

"Who ruined my plan?" He roared, his face red with anger.

"Your Excellency," one of his subordinates reported tremblingly, "our reconnaissance did not detect any signs of strangers appearing near the dam. It seems...like an unusual natural phenomenon."

"Abnormal nature?" Liêm Phong gritted his teeth. "Three times in a row, all my plans targeting Northern Cuong were ruined by some 'abnormal natural phenomenon' at the most critical moment? Do you believe that is a coincidence?"

He stood up, walked to the window, his eyes narrowed with calculation. "There is someone secretly protecting Bắcương. That person knows in advance what we are about to do, or at least has the ability to detect and stop it extremely quickly. This is not a simple matter."

"Who does the Count suspect?"

"Don't know yet." Liêm Phong shook his head, but in his heart an uneasy premonition was gradually forming. "But we will find out. And in the meantime, we will accelerate the main plan. If we cannot weaken Bắcương with small attacks, we will attack directly at the root of Xa Tuyết Doanh's power."

Three days later, an official letter from Nam Xuyên was sent to the Bắcương elder council, signed Ước Liêm Phong, with content that seemed full of goodwill but contained a sharp knife.

"Dear council of Bắcương elders. As a neighboring lord who always cares about the common prosperity of the entire region, I cannot help but be concerned about the recent unrest in your district - from the scarcity of silver to folk rumors about the legitimacy of the leader. I only hope that the council will consider thoroughly whether the Thousand Year Agreement is truly being respected or not, to avoid more unfortunate consequences for the entire Northern Cuong land."

When the letter was read before the council of elders, the entire hall fell into a heavy silence. Tuyết Doanh sat in the chair, her face expressionless, but her fists were clenched so tightly that her knuckles turned white.

"Your Highness," an elderly elder spoke up to break the silence, his voice full of hesitation, "although this letter is somewhat vulgar, it is not completely baseless. Recently, Bắcương has indeed encountered many unstable incidents. I wonder how your Queen plans to respond to the Count?"

"I will respond with actions, not words." Tuyết Doanh stood up, his eyes swept over each elder in the hall. "Bắcương has gone through many generations of prosperity and decline. It is not because of an encouraging letter from outside that it will shake. We will find out the truth behind these instabilities, and when we have enough evidence, we will let the whole council clearly see who is the one who really brings disaster to our land."