Su Xuening returned to Linshui Pavilion, but she couldn't sleep either.

She stood by the window, looking at the full moon in the sky, missing both Xuan Yuanzhan and Su Yun'an.

I wonder how Xuanyuan Zhan is doing? He's been traveling for two days already, he should still be on his way!

The situation in the north is unclear, and we don't know when he will be able to return.

And then there's Yun'an. Even with a fast horse, it would take seven or eight days to get from Kyoto to Kaiyang.

I hope everything goes smoothly for them!

The official road of Eastern Chu.

After traveling for two days, Xuanyuan Zhan finally allowed the army to rest tonight.

Mu Lingchen handed a piece of dry food to Xuan Yuanzhan: "Make do with this."

Xuanyuan Zhan accepted the dry rations without hesitation and took a bite.

What is there for him to complain about when he is away from home? When there was a disaster in Xiangnan before, he couldn't even get dry food!

Give me the map.

Mu Lingchen immediately handed the map he was carrying to Xuan Yuanzhan.

Xuanyuan Zhan opened the map by the campfire, looked at the location of the North, and then at the place in front of them: "We are here now. If we travel at this speed, it will probably take us about half a month to reach the North!"

Mu Lingchen was speechless: "Of course it would take half a month, right? It would normally take nearly twenty days to get from the capital to the north, and we've only been traveling for two days. And we're already considered fast, we only rest for one night every two days."

Not only him, but the entire army knew that the Holy Princess was pregnant and about to give birth, and they also knew that he was anxious to deal with those bandits and rush back to be with the Holy Princess during childbirth. Therefore, they voluntarily gave up their rest time and sped up their journey.

Even with the entire army cooperating with him, Xuanyuan Zhan still felt it wasn't enough: "It's still taking too long."

Ning'er is due to give birth in a little over two months. Even if all of them do nothing, it will take a month to travel back and forth. If the situation in the north is difficult to resolve in time, he might not be able to make it in time for Ning'er's delivery.

Besides banditry, the northern lands are also plagued by famine. With so many problems, a month is definitely not enough to resolve them. Therefore, he still wants to speed things up.

"What can we do? These people have been resting for two days and one night a week. You don't expect them to work for ten days or half a month without rest, running around all night with you, do you?"

Mu Lingchen knew that Xuan Yuanzhan was anxious, but there was nothing he could do about the distance. They couldn't fly there; they could only take it one step at a time.

Xuanyuan Zhan remained silent for a moment, looking at the vast group of soldiers who were already asleep, and suddenly said, "How about this, I can go faster by myself, I'll go to the North first!"

When Xuanyuan Zhan said this, his eyes became incredibly bright.

That's a brilliant idea!

Let's do it!

Xuanyuan Zhan immediately flipped over and mounted his horse.

Seeing that he was about to leave, Mu Lingchen became anxious. He wanted to shout but was afraid of disturbing the soldiers, so he could only lower his voice and ask urgently, "What will happen to these soldiers if you leave?"

Xuan Yuanzhan glanced at Mu Lingchen, his meaning crystal clear: "Send me a message if anything happens!"

Before Mu Lingchen could say anything more, Xuan Yuanzhan flicked his whip and charged off.

Upon hearing this, Ye Yun and Ye Feng immediately mounted their horses.

"You're leaving too!" Mu Lingchen became anxious again when he saw that Ye Yun and Ye Feng were also going.

"We are the prince's personal guards, so of course we have to follow him," Ye Yun said, and then went to catch up with Xuan Yuanzhan.

Ye Feng paused for a moment and said politely, "Thank you for your trouble, Lord Marquis. Please send word if needed!"

"Ugh~" Watching the three horses gallop away, Mu Lingchen gritted his teeth in anger: "Like master, like guards!"

The three horses ran very fast and disappeared in no time.

Mu Lingchen turned around and saw his two dull-witted guards, Shan Bai and Shan Shui, and immediately became angry: "What are you looking at? Learn from other guards."

Shan Bai immediately grabbed a piece of dry rations and stepped forward to flatter him, saying, "My lord, don't be angry, have some dry rations!"

Before they'd even eaten their rations, Mu Lingchen was already annoyed: "What's the point of eating! Go to sleep!"

He has to lead his troops on the road tomorrow, so he has no appetite!

...

Three days later.

Xuanyuan Yu waited anxiously for several days before finally receiving Long Jiaojiao's reply on the evening of the third day.

After reading Long Jiaojiao's letter, Xuanyuan Yu immediately perked up.

He finally figured out how to control the Gu worms inside his father's body!

Xuanyuan Yu didn't even sleep before rushing to the national treasury.

"Third Prince." The eunuchs guarding the storeroom were quite surprised to see Xuan Yuan Yu in the middle of the night.

"Open the door." Xuan Yuan Yu raised his chin towards the gate of the national treasury.

"This..." The eunuchs looked at each other, not daring to move. "Does Your Highness have any imperial edict?"

Upon hearing this, Xuanyuan Yu's face darkened immediately, and he said angrily, "What? Do I need to disturb Father Emperor just to go into the storeroom to find something?"

The eunuch was startled by Xuan Yuan Yu's sudden outburst of anger and said nervously, "It's not that we servants are unwilling to let Your Highness in, but it's a very important place, the storeroom. Without His Majesty's decree, we servants dare not open the door."

Xuanyuan Yu said impatiently, "I just want to go in and find something. There's no need to disturb Father. Open the door now. If Father blames me, I will take full responsibility."

The eunuchs looked at each other again, and still none of them moved.

Your Highness's words are nice, but if something really happens, how could the Emperor bear to blame Your Highness? I reckon they'll be the ones who get the blame.

Seeing that they remained unmoved, Xuanyuan Yu completely lost his patience and roared in fury, "So my words have no effect? ​​Guards! Drag these lackeys away and behead them!"

"Your Highness, please calm down!" Several eunuchs were terrified by Xuan Yuan Yu and knelt down in unison: "We will open the door for Your Highness right away."

The eunuch in charge of the keys dared not delay any longer, and immediately got up, took the keys, and opened the gates of the national treasury.

There's nothing we can do; these are the masters, after all.

Rather than being executed by the Third Prince now, it's better to wait until the Emperor blames them. Maybe the Third Prince will just go in and find something insignificant, and they won't have a hard time explaining themselves.

Xuanyuan Yu entered the storeroom, with two eunuchs following closely behind him, which immediately displeased him: "What are you doing? Are you afraid I'll steal something? Get out of here right now!"

"Yes." The two eunuchs had originally intended to follow him in to see what was happening; as long as the Third Prince didn't take anything of great importance, they still had a chance to live. But now…

The two could only bow and leave.

After the two eunuchs left, Xuanyuan Yu immediately began searching anxiously.

Xuanyuan Yu was dazzled by the sights he saw while wandering around the warehouse.

The warehouse was so big that he had no idea where the thing he was looking for was. It was too difficult to find.

Xuanyuan Yu suddenly remembered something and immediately went over to blow out the candle that the eunuch had lit when he came in.