The Prime Minister's Darling novel Chapter 1577

Chapter 1577: 762 Siblings Join Forces (Second Update)

"What’s going on?" Xiao Hen asked.

"Xiaoxue said it’s Jiaojiao’s exam question." Xiao Jingkong patted his chest, "I memorized it, these are all written by me!"

The two exchanged a glance. Exam question? Was it what they had in mind?

The pair took the exam question to the next room.

Xiao Hen closed the door and sat down by the table with Gu Jiao.

"Six bamboo tubes, six people advancing... Open them," he said, looking at the table’s bamboo tubes.

"Hmm." Gu Jiao casually picked up a bamboo tube, poured out the piece of paper inside, and read, "Enter Songshan Mountains, ambush the enemy camp near Biyue Spring, seize the secret letter, and deliver said letter to the first Fenghuo Camp, handing it personally to the deputy commander in charge of the camp’s defense on the left."

"Sounds like the final selection task for your mission this time," Xiao Hen paused, "but why are there six bamboo tubes?"

Gu Jiao opened the second bamboo tube, "Thou art a spy for the Tujue, this is the real secret letter from the Tujue army, swiftly carry the only secret letter to the first Fenghuo Camp, handing it personally to the deputy commander of the rebels on the right."

"What does that mean?" Gu Jiao asked.

Xiao Hen said, "The secret letter obtained from ambushing the enemy camp is a fake, if it weren’t for this bamboo tube, probably no one would know they’d taken a false letter. Thus, even if one reaches the final destination, the mission would still be a failure."

Gu Jiao furrowed her brow, "Clever indeed. So, this task of escorting the real secret letter has an advantage, as there’s no need to battle the enemy nor worry about carrying a fake letter."

Xiao Hen always felt there was more than meets the eye, "Let’s look at the third one before jumping to conclusions."

Gu Jiao opened the third bamboo tube, and the situation changed this time, "Enter the Songshan Mountains, ambush the enemy camp near Huangshupo, seize their secret letter, and deliver said letter to the second Fenghuo Camp, handing it personally to the deputy commander in charge of the camp’s defense on the left."

Gu Jiao then opened the fourth one.

"Thou art a spy for the Tujue, this is the real secret letter from the Tujue army, swiftly carry the only secret letter to the second Fenghuo Camp, handing it personally to the deputy commander of the rebels on the right."

"Hmm, is this like changing the location and NPC to farm a dungeon?"

"What?" Xiao Hen didn’t understand the last two words.

Gu Jiao explained, "It means that although the location and characters are different, the form of the mission is the same as the first set, one goes to the enemy camp to seize a fake, and another escorts the real one."

"Take a look at the last two as well," Xiao Hen said, suspecting it was more of the same.

Sure enough, the remaining two were headed for the third Fenghuo Camp, and the ambush locations were at the Purple Grass Pond of the Songshan Mountains.

Gu Jiao summarized, "This competition is divided into three groups, each with a cavalry and a spy, but how will the winner be decided then? For example, I, Gu Changqing, and Han Wuye, if the three of us drew the spy role and each safely delivered the secret letter to our respective rebels, then who would be the one to advance?"

Xiao Hen shook his head thoughtfully, "It’s impossible to complete the missions simultaneously, only to fail at the same time."

Gu Jiao was slightly startled, "What do you mean?"

Xiao Hen opened the slip of paper, "Look at the spy’s words again... ’swiftly carry the only secret letter’, this only is the crux of the entire mission. If there are three spies, why mention the only letter?"

Gu Jiao thought for a moment, "Because the destinations are different? Like, the one going to the first Fenghuo Camp has only that letter."

"Then there would be no need to stress this only," Xiao Hen boldly analyzed, "I believe, this only implies that you need to destroy the other two spies’ secret letters, making your own the only one."

As he spoke, he opened another slip belonging to the cavalry, "And within the cavalry’s mission is the word ’their’. Since the secret letters in the enemy’s camp are fake, ’their’ must refer to the three spies."

Realization dawned on Gu Jiao, "So, the cavalry’s task is to capture three secret letters, and the spies’ task is to destroy the other letters in their hands. In this way, there’s bound to be fierce combat among the six."

Xiao Hen sighed, "Three seeking to capture, three seeking to destroy, what’s merely a fierce battle? It’s a battle to the death."

Gu Jiao thought of a possibility, furrowed her brows, and asked, "What if all fail? Like if all the secret letters are destroyed."

Xiao Hen’s expression became serious, "Then the winner... would be the monarch!"

The monarch had never intended for anyone to win from the very start.

First, he had borrowed the influence of the ten great families to get them to agree to the suggestion of selecting Hei Fengqi’s commander, then used the selection rules to eliminate all the cavalry. By doing this, he could rightfully claim – Your Majesty did not deny you an opportunity, it’s just that you lacked the capability. Thus, Your Majesty has no choice but to temporarily reclaim possession of the Hei Fengqi.

"Just like how he reclaimed the military power from the Mu Family," Gu Jiao said.

The thoughts of the Dayan monarch were indeed deeper than the sea.