A thought flashed through his mind: Could this be Xiao Yan's?

How could that be? I must be overthinking it.

In the evening, Xiao Yuanshan had dinner with her.

"The day you left, your father also left Shengjing. Come, let's have a drink together."

Xiao Zhixing drank the wine in his glass. "Then I wish Father a pleasant time?"

Xiao Yuanshan laughed heartily, "Good, Dad will definitely be happy. Daughter going to Beizhou is like a fish leaping freely in the sea. Dad is happy for you too."

Xiao Zhixing smiled and said, "You noticed?"

She didn't like Shengjing at all; she preferred the outside world, where she could rob the northern barbarians whenever she wanted—it was much more comfortable.

Even though she disliked it, she had to endure it for the sake of her goal.

“Father doesn’t like staying in Shengjing either.” Xiao Yuanshan blinked, looking like a fellow traveler. “Father is really looking forward to finally being able to travel around.”

Xiao Zhixing couldn't help but laugh, and the two toasted again.

Xiao Yuanshan talked on and on about the past until the moon was high in the sky, when Xiao Zhixing and Ying Da escorted the drunk Xiao Yuanshan home.

As she was escorted to the courtyard gate, she turned to return inside, and heard him mumble, "You said you'd come back to see me when my beard grew past my chest..."

Xiao Zhixing: Shouldn't his hair be longer than his waist? Xiao Yan's perverse sense of humor has turned such a handsome man into a rough fellow; it's truly a sin.

The sun rises in the east, its rays breaking through the fog.

In the late winter of the twenty-first year of Yunping, thirty students from the Gentleman's Academy traveled to various states to formally take charge of the world.

At Shili Pavilion, outside the west gate of Shengjing City, a large procession of thirty people, along with servants, attendants, and family members seeing them off, crowded the road.

The three groups of people, traveling south, north, and west, bid each other farewell.

Xiao Zhixing waved his hand, and servants from the Prince's Mansion carried over book boxes, one for each person. "These are the information on the local conditions of various states that I have collected. I hope they will be of help to you all."

Huo Baijun and Xiong Chumo personally took the box, bowing and saying, "Your Highness, we are leaving now."

Behind them, Xiao Yun and Luo Zhengnan led two thousand soldiers in saluting.

"Alright, have a safe journey." Xiao Zhixing patted the four men on the shoulders. "Don't let me down."

The four nodded vigorously, their young faces full of confidence and determination.

Zhao Xianyin stepped forward and curtsied, "Your Highness must miss Yinyin."

"Alright, I may forget anyone else, but I will never forget you," Xiao Zhixing joked, making Zhao Xianyin giggle before letting her attendant take the book box.

Li Jun, Mu Zixi, Zhang Zhong, and Liu Zizai stepped forward in turn to express their gratitude and accept the book box.

Xiao Zhixing cupped his hands to the crowd, saying, "Throughout the ages and across the vast wilderness, the future is as boundless as the sea, and the days ahead are long. Take care, everyone. See you in three years."

"Take care, Your Highness." Everyone bowed in return.

One group headed south, another west, both heading towards distant places.

Xiao Zhixing mounted his horse, and the long procession of three thousand soldiers, along with Feng Zhen'er, Lin Rushu, Mu Wan, Nian Chenghan, and their followers who were heading north, stretched for half a mile.

They bid tearful farewells to their families.

"Everyone, it's time to set off."

No matter how reluctant they were to leave, everyone had to go. They all chose to travel on horseback, even Li Wenxiu and Lin Rushu, who had practiced riding horses at high speeds long ago.

The farewell party, led by Li Xiao and Xiao Yuanshan, looked at the group of bright young people and were filled with emotion.

"Your Highness, we entrust them to you."

The journey was long, and bandits roamed the area; how could they not be worried?

Xiao Zhixing smiled and cupped his hands in greeting, "Don't worry, I'm here."

After saying that, she raised her hand and waved, "Set up camp!"

The Xiao-character military flag was suddenly unfurled, fluttering loudly, and three thousand soldiers surrounded the ranks, their horses' hooves thundering.

The group rolled northwards.

[Yellow bullet comment: Come on, light up the whole interstellar space with fireworks! Congratulations to the Great Sheng on the start of a new chapter!]

[Yellow comment: The fireworks are too stingy! Our legions are going to bomb the space pirates directly to celebrate Prince Yuansheng's imminent rise to great heights!]

[Yellow comment: Speaking of which, why didn't Pirate Captain Xiao appear?]

[Red comment: Ahem, all we can do here is offer our support and congratulations from countries around the world.]

[Green bullet comments: Our national official news broadcasts are celebrating live.]

The Imperial Palace, the Immortal Pavilion.

Luo Mangong draped a cloak over Zhao Yunqi's shoulders, saying, "Your Majesty, you are feeling the chill."

Zhao Yunqi gazed into the distance. "They should have already set off, right?"

Luo Mangong nodded, "They've set off, it's quite lively."

Zhao Yunqi smiled faintly, his expression inscrutable.

The Emperor System seemed to have resigned itself to its fate, and said to him dejectedly, "Don't worry about them for now. As for those subsystems, besides me conducting the tests, you need to send someone to check them out. If there are any unusual movements, you should have someone take over."

Since no new subsystems can be added, the existing ones are especially valuable.

Zhao Yunqi was in a slightly better mood. "Didn't you say you didn't want me to know?"

The Emperor System snorted coldly, "Stop being sarcastic. It was only natural for me to be wary of you back then. Now, more than twenty years have passed, and we have built up trust in each other. Rather than letting those forces benefit, it's better to give them to you."

Zhao Yunqi smiled and said, "Thank you very much."

Xiao Zhixing waited for them to report the host information of the scoring system, but unexpectedly they stopped communicating.

She immediately realized that after what Lowe had done, even the Emperor System itself didn't really trust the system anymore.

The exchange with Zhao Yunqi also became the deepest spiritual communication.

She only watched through the system's view as Zhao Yunqi wrote a bunch of random gibberish.

This is a cipher.

Although she couldn't understand it, she wrote it all down, intending to find Shi Erbao's copy first, and then deduce the meaning of these codes by combining them with Shi Erbao's situation.

It just takes a little time.

Around noon, the group found a spacious spot to stop and have lunch.

She brought quite a few people with her: Lin Rushu, Anotha, and Jiang Tan went to Mengzhou; Li Wenxiu, Ji Bai, Lin Muzhen, Qi Wuyi, Jiang Pu, Jiang Du, and Jiang Shan went to Beizhou; Mu Wan and Gu Tianyang went to Xiazhou; Nian Chenghan and Wei Qi went to Ningzhou; and Feng Zhen'er and Liao Bing went to Dongzhou.

Each person was accompanied by dozens of maids, carriages, and three thousand soldiers.

With a force of over four thousand men, they simply couldn't move fast.

Xiao Zhixing wasn't in a hurry; she just needed to reach Mengzhou within two months.

"Come on, while everyone's busy, I have something I'd like to ask you all."

These are all promising young talents, and she used them without hesitation.

She handed a booklet to Lin Rushu, who was closest to her, and said, "Take a look and help me correct and supplement it."

Lin Rushu took it with both hands, puzzled. "The Three Character Classic?"

She opened it, looked at it for a while, and then her eyes lit up and her breathing became heavier.

Her appearance aroused the curiosity of everyone else. Feng Zhen'er couldn't help but lean over to take a look, and after a while she exclaimed in surprise, "The Enlightenment Codex! The Enlightenment Codex!"

Xiao Zhixing smiled and said, "I've only written the first part. I need everyone's help to write the rest. Let's create a great article together to teach the world."

She only borrowed the form of the Three Character Classic. The historical allusions of the two worlds are different, so she had to find similar words and allusions from the vast amount of books and history in this world to summarize them.

Select the essence and discard the dross.

It's almost equivalent to writing a new Three Character Classic.

The project is massive.

Now that there is readily available labor, why not make use of it? She trusts their knowledge.

The journey is long, so we need to find them something to do to pass the time and help them get through the tedious trip.

(Let's make it a new month!)