: Soldiers and Generals Share the Same Helmet

A starved camel is still bigger than a horse.

When Mulan said her Grand General's residence still had some leftover resources, Ning Zhuo absolutely believed it.

But that didn't stop him from coldly rejecting her once again.

Frustrated once more, Mulan couldn't help but retort coldly, "Well, Military Advisor Ning, you can go back and tell General Liu Er. I would never take a liking to him, so he'd better not hold onto such wishful thinking."

Ning Zhuo sighed, bowed, and took his leave.

Returning to the Three Generals Camp, he conveyed Mulan's rejection to Liu Er as tactfully as possible.

Liu Er clenched his fist, expressing that he wouldn't give up just because of Mulan's refusal.

He still wanted to keep trying.

"Ning Zhuo gained more insight: 'Liu Er's excessive confidence clearly means he still has an ace up his sleeve.'"

After that, Ning Zhuo no longer assisted Liu Er by running errands between the two sides. Instead, he said, "Lord Liu, I need to request a few days' leave."

"An envoy from my family has arrived, bringing the latest orders from the ancestor."

"I need to leave camp to receive them."

Liu Er immediately responded, "Military Advisor, why trouble yourself to go far? This Three Generals Camp is practically your second home; it has your support and bears the fruits of your day and night efforts. Why not invite your family's envoy to the camp? We will surely treat them well!"

He very much wanted to use this opportunity to strengthen ties with the Ning family.

From Ning Zhuo repeatedly providing precious materials, Liu Er deduced that the Ning family was extremely wealthy. He hoped that by building a closer relationship, he could secure more support from the Ning family for the Three Generals Camp and himself.

But Ning Zhuo shook his head, "I already proposed that in my letter."

"However, the family is concerned because this is Liangzhu Kingdom. My participation in the war as a military advisor is already slightly overstepping."

"If the family envoy were to come openly into the Three Generals Camp and bring support, it would be hard to explain to outsiders."

"Moreover, Lord Liu, we must consider the current situation of the Three Generals Camp."

"Now that you wish to pursue General Mulan, you'll surely be seen as a thorn in the side by Shuang Jing and Sun Gan. In such circumstances, if an envoy from another kingdom's family openly enters the Three Generals Camp, it would certainly become a handle for them to use against us!"

Liu Er was startled, "Military Advisor, you've considered this very thoroughly. That makes sense."

Only then did he let go of the idea of hosting the Ning family envoy.

Ning Zhuo secretly breathed a sigh of relief and quietly left the camp under Liu Er's eager gaze.

He first met up with Sun Lingtong, then used the Wanli Youlong to traverse the void, crossing a great distance to re-enter the Thousand Peaks Forest region.

In a prearranged mountain forest, Ning Zhuo, Sun Lingtong, and the stone ball merged once again to disguise as the "Ancient Stone Monster" and secretly met with Lu Hongtu, the Great Cave Master of the Six Caves Sect.

"Fellow Daoist Stone."

"Fellow Daoist Lu."

The two exchanged greetings.

Lu Hongtu smiled, "Fellow Daoist Stone, venturing behind enemy lines and braving great dangers, you truly set an example for our kind..."

Before he could finish, Ning Zhuo bluntly interrupted him.

"Save the flattery."

"I'm here to do business."

"These spoils of war, I'm selling them all to you!"

With that, Ning Zhuo took out a Pure Spirit Milk Mana Pool, three Sage Light Shining Towers, hundreds of White Feather Light Dust steeds, along with various military equipment like Jade Armor, Flash Spears, and Moon Phase Shields, and laid them all out on the mountain ground.

The Mana Pool was intact, but the three Sage Light Shining Towers were damaged. The hundreds of White Feather Light Dust steeds had noticeably thinned.

As for the Jade Armor, Flash Spears, Moon Phase Shields, and other military equipment, they were all of good quality.

Lu Hongtu showed a serious, cautious expression and immediately used his spiritual sense to scan the entire area, carefully inspecting everything.

His Nascent Soul-level spiritual sense was extremely powerful.

Lu Hongtu excelled in painting arts and had long trained his spiritual sense, enabling him to grasp the overall picture while focusing on details.

Soon, he had counted the quantities and confirmed the qualities.

He took out a storage pouch and handed it to the "Ancient Stone Monster": "The spirit stones here include low-grade, medium-grade, high-grade, and a few top-grade ones. The total value is thirty-one million medium-grade spirit stones. Please check."

Ning Zhuo and Sun Lingtong also activated their spiritual senses to inspect, confirmed everything was correct, and both were satisfied.

"Fellow Daoist Lu is straightforward! Maintaining such cooperation benefits both of us," Ning Zhuo responded.

The total value of Ning Zhuo's spoils was approximately thirty million fifty-four hundred thousand medium-grade spirit stones. On the surface, Lu Hongtu had overpaid by nearly five hundred thousand medium-grade spirit stones.

But in reality, if Ning Zhuo tried to quickly sell his spoils, he would definitely face price reductions.

So, in actual operation, Ning Zhuo's real profit would have been significantly less.

Cooperating with Lu Hongtu was both convenient and cost-effective. More importantly, it avoided having to meet the Whisker Dragon King in person. If this wasn't killing multiple birds with one stone, what was?

Seeing the "Ancient Stone Monster" about to leave, Lu Hongtu, while storing the spoils, quickly spoke up, "Fellow Daoist Stone, wait a moment."

"Might Fellow Daoist be willing to sell the 'Gao Sheng's Posthumous Writings'?"

Ning Zhuo immediately refused, "Since the ambush battle, I've become very interested in military texts."

"Even if I can't cultivate them myself, reading them helps me understand and study military tactics and formations, preparing for future battles."

As a Military Advisor, Ning Zhuo saw Generals Liu, Guan, and Zhang training soldiers every day. After participating in the ambush, he not only witnessed but personally experienced the benefits of battle formations.

Thus, he became increasingly curious about this power and developed a strong desire to study it.

Even if he couldn't master it now, understanding battle formations better to increase his chances of survival on the battlefield was well worth it.

Therefore, even though Ning Zhuo knew early on that "Gao Sheng's Posthumous Writings" could fetch a good price, he wanted to keep it in his possession.

Lu Hongtu wasn't surprised by the Ancient Stone Monster's reasoning; he fully agreed.

"Fellow Daoist Stone speaks wisely."

"I understand that Fellow Daoist would not part with 'Gao Sheng's Posthumous Writings.'"

"However, our Thousand Peaks Forest's biggest disadvantage compared to Liangzhu Kingdom is the scarcity of talented generals; we urgently need superior military texts to narrow the gap."

"Otherwise, if a decisive battle occurs, our chances of victory would be much smaller than Liangzhu Kingdom's."

At this point, Lu Hongtu smiled slightly, clearly having prepared his proposal.

"How about this, Fellow Daoist Stone, let's try a different way of trading."

"Since you won't sell, we dare not force a purchase."

"Instead, let's cooperate."

"We lend you the Soldiers and Generals Share the Same Helmet to help you quickly study 'Gao Sheng's Posthumous Writings.' In exchange, please lend us both the 'Gao Sheng's Posthumous Writings' and the Soldiers and Generals Share the Same Helmet during critical times for key operations!"

"Soldiers and Generals Share the Same Helmet?" Ning Zhuo recalled a certain record in the book and immediately became very interested.

Lu Hongtu laughed heartily, "Guaranteed authentic!"

(End of )