Chapter 123 - 86: Zhao Ci: Whoever messes with me, I’ll take them down. Is that clear enough?

Chapter 123: Chapter 86: Zhao Ci: Whoever messes with me, I’ll take them down. Is that clear enough?

Zhao Ci finished dressing and left his room, still drowsy. He forced himself to look alert and said, "Weren’t you still compiling the list yesterday? How did you bring everyone over in the blink of an eye?"

"There’s something you may not know, Your Highness!"

Zhang Delv said with a grin, "The Northern Three Prefectures oversee a vast number of villages and towns. To compile the list as quickly as possible, most of our men went out to them directly. It may have seemed a bit slow here in Qingyang County, but we were actually keeping pace with the teams in the field."

"So that’s how it is!"

Zhao Ci put on a look of sudden understanding and gestured for him to proceed. "Please, Lord Zhang, lead the way!"

He then followed Zhang Delv out of the courtyard at a leisurely pace. After giving orders at the armory to retrieve the pills, they headed for the city gates together.

Upon reaching the top of the city wall, he looked down.

Outside the city gates, a crowd of over twenty thousand had already gathered. The front rows consisted of well-trained Military Officials, while the back rows were filled with people in commoners’ clothing.

It was a vast, teeming sea of people, so dense that it was impossible to make out a single face clearly.

Once the guards had finished stacking up the iron chests.

Only then did Zhao Yong come to stand beside Zhao Ci, laughing. "Lao Shi, your consideration for the common folk has really given me a hard time! If we had just distributed everything to our colleagues in the Northern Three Prefectures, we could have been on our way back to Lingge the day after we unloaded."

"Oh?"

Zhao Ci raised an eyebrow. "We’re distributing our shares separately. If Ninth Imperial Brother was truly in a hurry to return, couldn’t you have just handed out your seven thousand pills earlier?"

Zhao Yong threw up his hands. "All our officials were out compiling the registers. I had to wait for them to come back, didn’t I? I’m just like you—I can’t rest easy unless I personally hand the pills over to them!"

He seemed quite relaxed. Although he was only the Vice Envoy of the Pill Granting Mission, he was confident he could prevent Zhao Ci from earning any goodwill whatsoever.

Not from the low-ranking officials, nor from the commoners of the Northern Three Prefectures.

If Zhao Ci reacted too strongly, he might even end up offending those same officials.

After all, men like Zhang Delv were old foxes of the bureaucracy; they were no strangers to pulling the wool over the eyes of Capital Officials.

And they’d never slipped up before.

He highly doubted Zhao Ci was any more astute than those other Capital Officials.

Zhao Ci curled his lip and spoke directly to the official in charge of distribution. "Let’s give them to our colleagues first. They all know quality when they see it. These seven thousand pills are all from the Feng and Zhu families and the Yonghe Pill Workshop. Distribute these to them."

"Yes!"

The official acknowledged the order, organized his men, and opened the iron chests from the Feng and Zhu families and the Yonghe Pill Workshop.

The distribution began at once.

One after another, the local officials gleefully lined up.

If there was one thing the Northern Three Prefectures had in abundance, it was low-ranking officials, all necessary to maintain public order in the region.

There were over thirteen thousand directly under the command of the three Prefects. Of those, twenty-six hundred were at the Physical Body Realm or higher, while the rest were below it—all in desperate need of Qi Cultivation Pills.

Although the Court’s stipend had always included Qi Cultivation Pills, who would ever complain about having too much of such a scarce resource?

Every time an official received their Qi Cultivation Pill, they would shout, "Long live Your Majesty! May the Great Yu endure for ten thousand years!" then clasp their hands and bow to the two Princes.

Because they were already arranged in formations according to their units, the verification process was almost entirely unnecessary. Even with seven thousand people, the pace of distribution never slowed.

The thin morning mist had long since been burned away by the sun, which now crept slowly toward its southern zenith, struggling to bring one last, faint trace of summer warmth to the late autumn day.

By the time 9:00 AM was approaching, all seven thousand pills had been distributed.

The seven thousand local officials began to disperse.

The officials responsible for the distribution were also nearly exhausted.

Zhang Delv, however, was still full of energy. "Tenth Prince, are you tired? Shall we take a short rest, or..."

"No need to rest!"

Zhao Ci gave a faint smile. "Let’s start distributing to the commoners. They’ve been waiting all morning. If we send them away now, wouldn’t their wait have been for nothing?"

Zhang Delv nodded. "Very well! I’ll give the order..."

"No need!"

Zhao Ci waved his hand. "Give me the register. I’ll distribute them personally!"

Zhang Delv: "Huh?"

Zhao Yong: "Huh?"

The two men were stunned. He was going to check the register and hand out five thousand pills one by one?

And it wasn’t even just five thousand pills.

They had no idea what had gotten into Zhao Ci. For five thousand pills, he’d prepared fifteen thousand identical bottles.

On top of that, there were ten thousand portions of Qi Nourishing Grass stockpiled in the warehouse. Anyone who drew an empty bottle could go claim a portion.

That meant fifteen thousand people. If he handed them out one by one, how long would that even take?

Everyone knew he liked to be hands-on.

But this was a ridiculous way to show off how diligent he was!

Was he really planning to spend days handing them out without sleep?

The two men exchanged a look, each seeing the worry in the other’s eyes.

Zhang Delv started to speak. "Your Highness, this..."

But Zhao Ci was already on his feet. "What is it? Is Lord Zhang hiding something unsavory that you don’t want me to find out about?"

Zhang Delv’s expression tightened. "Your Highness, what do you mean by that?"

"Not at all, not at all!"

Zhao Ci chuckled, waving his hand dismissively. "Just a joke! I have a natural sense of humor. Don’t you find that amusing, Lord Zhang?"

Zhang Delv’s face was stiff for a long moment before he managed to force a laugh. "Hahaha, hilarious! Your Highness is truly amusing!"

Zhao Yong was left utterly baffled.

’Amusing?’

’Amusing, my ass!’

’My toes are curling from secondhand embarrassment!’

Zhao Ci, however, merely glanced at the space above Zhang Delv’s head.

[Zhang Delv’s Current Wish]: I hope Zhao Ci doesn’t discover my tricks. Reward for Completion: Insight +100, Heavenly Concealment Talisman x1.

’Heh...’

Zhao Ci stood up and leaped directly off the city wall.

THUD! The sound made Zhang Delv’s temples throb.

Zhao Yong narrowed his eyes. "Lord Zhang, it seems Lao Shi is even more of a handful than we imagined."