Deposed Crown Prince: After three years of service on the frontier, the entire court knelt and begge

Xiao Ce glanced at Etuoke and smiled faintly.

"How's life going? Are you having a comfortable time?"

Etok knelt on the ground, nodding frantically like a lapdog.

"So comfortable...so comfortable...Reporting to Your Highness, the King of the Northern Desert, it's very comfortable...Thank you, Your Highness..."

Xiao Ce walked straight into the house, and this Otog subconsciously glanced at the 'Ghost-Fearing Demon' who had followed him.

Seeing that 'Ghost Fear' did not respond, Etok crawled after Xiao Ce.

Looking at him, Xiao Ce said calmly, "Get up. You're not a dog, why are you crawling around like that!"

Upon seeing this, Etuoke nodded and bowed as he stood up.

After he got up, he followed Xiao Ce into the house.

He went straight to a seat and sat down, then stared at Otog.

Otog asked Xiao Ce, "Your Highness, King of the Northern Desert, what's wrong? Is something the matter?"

Xiao Ce nodded, then said to Etuoke, "Do you have anything to say? Tell me."

Otok looked at Xiao Ce with suspicion, as if he were sizing him up.

However, Etuoke couldn't find anything on Xiao Ce's face, so he was naturally worried.

He was indeed hiding something from them, but he was just hoping to get away with it.

However, after considering the methods of the "Ghosts' Fear" group...

Otog's liver was trembling, after only a moment's thought.

Otok nodded: "Reporting...reporting to the King of the Northern Desert, I have something to report to you..."

“Just a few days ago, I received a letter from the Kingdom of Uz through our previously secret channels. The letter stated that the military power of the Kingdom of Uz had been taken over by the surrendered people of the Kingdom of Xiao, and there was great dissatisfaction within the Kingdom of Uz.”

"The Queen Mother has granted considerable power to the three generals who surrendered from Xiao Kingdom, and they seem to have reached an agreement. Also, Chi Gao has been eliminated, and now Diliti has gained the Queen Mother's favor. According to reliable sources, in order to silence the gossips within Uzbekistan, the Queen Mother is preparing to have them do some major things to keep some people quiet."

“My family told me not to go back here for the time being, and to save up some silver and cash for emergencies... They also told me to be prepared for defense and to flee at any time. My family thinks that the big thing they mentioned is likely to unify the Western Regions... If they declare war, my identity could very well lead to me being taken hostage by the people of Shanshan.”

This Otog was quite clever; he spoke very frankly without hiding anything...

The information they received from "Ghost's Sorrow" was exactly the same as what Xiao Ce reported back.

Xiao Ce nodded and continued to probe Etuoke, "So what did you answer?"

Otog smiled and said, "Your Highness, I replied as usual, saying I understood... and told them to be careful as well, and other polite things. I also told them to notify me immediately if there's any news..."

As he spoke, Otog carefully explained, "Your Highness, please don't misunderstand... I did this so that I could easily get information and report it to you!"

Xiao Ce raised an eyebrow and said to Etuoke, "You make it sound so nice, but why didn't you tell the people here this unless I asked?"

Seeing this, Etuoke was not in a hurry and said to Etuoke, "Your Highness, I don't know if those people can be trusted."

"Besides, even if you didn't ask me, I would still have come to you to tell you."

Xiao Ce said to Etuoke, "Alright, you want to say these things? I don't believe you. You'd better behave yourself, and I can let you live a good life. Otherwise, I'll have the Ghost-Seeing-Sorrow people practice on you every day! You probably don't know that in my Northern Desert, there's a place called 'Hall of the King of Hell.' Their methods are far more powerful than these people's!"

After hearing Xiao Ce's words, Etuoke turned pale and trembled like a leaf!

He immediately knelt on the ground and kowtowed to Xiao Ce, begging for mercy.

"Your Highness, I was wrong, I won't do it again! I swear, I will never do it again!"

Xiao Ce stood up and coldly said to Etuoke, "While I'm still treating you like a human being, you'd better do something more humane..."

Etuoke listened and nodded repeatedly.

Xiao Ce didn't waste any more words and got up to leave.

"Ghost's Sorrow" followed up and asked Xiao Ce if he needed help.

Xiao Ce shook his head and said to 'Ghost's Sorrow': "No need, just do it at your pace. I was just giving him a nudge... I didn't mean anything else. You've already done a great job!"

Seeing this, 'Ghost Fear' nodded without saying anything more.

After Xiao Ce left, he returned to his residence. Hu Yidao asked, "Your Highness, even Etuoke has received the news. If the instructors really considered you one of their own... they would have said so already! The fact that they haven't come shows that they don't want you to know at all!"

Xiao Ce nodded and said, "Let's not speculate about them maliciously... Let them do their thing, and we'll do ours!"

Then, Xiao Ce said to Hu Yidao, "Let me teach you something else!"

Hu Yidao looked at Xiao Ce with certainty and stared straight at him: "Your Highness, please enlighten me."

Xiao Ce said with a smile, "In everything you do, don't let others lead you by the nose. Even if they have the upper hand, we must find a way to turn our disadvantage into an advantage, understand?"

"Then we'll proceed at our own pace! As long as we can bring the opponent into our rhythm, we win, understand?"

Hu Yidao nodded as he listened: "Your Highness, I understand everything you say. However, putting it into practice is not so easy for me..."

Xiao Ce smiled at Hu Yidao and said, "You'll understand once you stay by my side!"

As Xiao Ce spoke, he led Hu Yidao to his room.

He also intended to cultivate Hu Yidao, because Hu Yidao and Da Lei had different ambitions.

With two people standing beside him, Da Lei might be interested in what Xiao Ce was doing, but Da Lei was concerned about what dangerous consequences Xiao Ce's actions might have.

Hu Yidao was learning how to handle situations after they arose.

Hu Yidao was learning the mindset of those in positions of power, while Da Lei was simply a qualified bodyguard.

From a safety perspective, a large thunderbolt is better.

As for Hu Yidao, one of his own, Xiao Ce was naturally very happy to teach him, since having another capable assistant was something Xiao Ce was very pleased about.

After Xiao Ce returned, he wrote a letter and asked Hu Yidao to go find Wang Shouyi.

Let Wang Shouyi deliver it to Xiao Yang.

Hu Yidao looked at Xiao Ce with a puzzled expression: "Your Highness, why not send Jiang Liu to deliver the message? It's obvious that Jiang Liu is more trustworthy! Wang Shouyi's son is serving in the Tiger Legion, and the Tiger Legion is still in the hands of Instructor, Wuwei, and Lin Bang. We haven't even figured out their backgrounds yet!"

Xiao Ce said with a smile, "I just want to test him out! This time I want to transport the gold prepared by Shanshan Kingdom there... As long as there are no problems, we can proceed with the next steps."

Hu Yidao nodded and went to do what Xiao Ce had said.

In the following days, Xiao Ce still held a sliver of hope, hoping that they would come looking for him.

Unfortunately, they don't seem to have come looking for him.

Clearly, things have deviated from what they were at the beginning.

Xiao Ce didn't seem to care.

He would never have placed his fate and hopes on others.

However, the border issue did not disappoint Xiao Ce.

Wang Shouyi said that because of some of his previous remarks, Lin Yao trusted him completely.

Therefore, all the goods he transports are exempt from inspection.

This is good news.

Shanshan Guo and his group raised the money quickly and shipped the first deposit over immediately.

In the days that followed, they assumed that the Uzbek parliament would take significant action.

However, according to various sources, they have been mobilizing troops and preparing for war.

Apart from that, they did nothing else.

To Xiao Ce's surprise, they obtained a lot of information through Etuoke's intelligence.

They knew that their first target was the Gaochang Kingdom.

As for the other countries, they have no intention of taking action.

This greatly worried Bairdar of Gaochang, who immediately sought to discuss the matter with the other three kingdoms.

As a result, they didn't even bother to discuss it with Shan Shanguo.

This shows that they completely disregarded the Kingdom of Shanshan.

In their eyes, bringing Shanshan Kingdom along was a burden.

Nanxi and his friends were overjoyed when they heard the news.

After all, they really don't have the mind to get involved in their affairs right now.

Their Shanshan Kingdom is currently undergoing reforms.

What they need now is time.

On this day, after obtaining firsthand information, Nanxi still personally visited the city of Sanguandao.

When Nan Xi came over, she didn't tell Xiao Ce that she wanted to give him a surprise.

However, to his utter surprise, it was Xiao Ce who first gave him a pleasant surprise.

When they arrived at the Three Passes Pass, they could see a fortress with high walls in the distance.

It was originally a small town, but in less than two months, it has been transformed into a magnificent place.

Although it doesn't look very nice, being gray and dull, it looks very sturdy.

Xiao Ce found some people and had them burn cement here on the spot, since it would be quite laborious to transport cement from afar.

So they had the locals use the available materials to begin modifying the Sanguan Road.

Despite the ongoing construction, it hasn't deterred the locals from coming here to do business.

Nanxi looked from afar and saw that various stalls had been set up on both sides of each road to do business with passing merchants.

The merchants coming and going wore all sorts of clothes, and you could tell from their clothes that almost all the merchants from the Western Regions had come.

Seeing the grand scene before him, Nanxi exclaimed in surprise, "I heard it was already quite lively here, but I never expected it to be this lively... It feels like a grand gathering of nations!"