At this point, he slightly shifted his tone and quietly said to the group, "To be honest, fellow disciples, I anticipate that the original camp of our master should have had more than just these five hundred people who escaped. Not only Junior Brother Zhu, but over the past few years, I've noticed at least a hundred unfamiliar Cold Resistance Level faces."

"A hundred!"

"So many?"

......

Everyone, including Zhu Baixu, burst into exclamations of surprise, their pupils filled with astonishment.

Unlike them, who had only been here for a month, Lu Yun had lived in East Ridge for a long time. Coupled with their interactions over the past month, Lu Yun already had considerable prestige among them, so his words carried more credibility. The group of youths, upon hearing this, immediately believed him.

More than a hundred new Cold Resistance Level faces, plus the current hundred in East Ridge, that makes over two hundred Cold Resistance Levels. The key is that these are just some of those who fled from the disaster at Lu Yang's original camp.

How powerful must Lu Yang's original camp have been?

"You've been here for over a month, and you should be able to see that our master and Zhao Shanyu have no real long-term plans for most people in East Ridge. They clearly don't care much. I estimate they will eventually leave Beishuo and return to rebuild their homeland. Don't you all want to see just how strong our master's original camp really is?"

Zhu Baixu, Bai Wuji, Wan Qingyu, Nie Shen, Yang He, and the others, upon hearing Lu Yun's words, exchanged glances with expressions of eagerness.

Whoosh...

A cold wind swept across the roof, but none of the youths inside took notice, lost in their imaginations about how powerful Master Lu Yang's original camp might have been.

.........

"Managing to make these kids so obedient in just a month, what do you think, Lord Wang? My disciple Lu Yun is quite something, isn't he?"

Just jumping down from the roof towards the main building, Lu Yang couldn't help but boast a bit to Wang Tao beside him.

Wang Tao smiled and said, "Appealing to emotion, reasoning with them, followed by patient guidance, Lu Yun is indeed impressive. However, the key is that you, my lord, have sincerely invested considerable effort in these eighteen. People have feelings; when you truly treat them as disciples, they can naturally feel it. That's the real reason for their transformation."

Recalling everything he'd done over the past month, Lu Yang nodded slightly, then softly said, "Sincerely taking in disciples isn't too bad. These youths suffer mostly from shallow experiences, relying on their backgrounds with a bit of arrogance. But fundamentally, they aren't bad-natured. With a little effort in nurturing, it's not hard for them to succeed."

He paused and then, with a hint of confusion, asked, "But, Lord Wang, do you really think that just by bonding with these hostages, we can influence the Five Camps of Zhu Ling? Ultimately, we still need to send people to infiltrate, right?"

Wang Tao laughed and said, "Sending people to infiltrate is one approach, but fostering hostages is another. Both need to be addressed. Not mentioning others for now, Zhu Baixu and the other four are the most excellent heirs of their respective leaders. It may be too early for them to inherit the camps, but their statuses are special. They have many supporters in their camps. Once the five of them start seeing East Ridge differently, the impact will be immense.

Don't forget, Lord Lu, that the first leader of Long Mountain, Li Tianhua, once used this method of raising hostages to firmly hold the eleven families of Longyou in his grasp for decades."

Hearing this, Lu Yang nodded slightly, clearly beginning to understand.

An idea seemed to strike Wang Tao, as a glint of insight flashed in his eyes. He continued, "Moreover, reports from Xia City suggest that our Great Xia will most likely first clash with the Nine Towns on the North Bank of the Xing River. If so, it'll take our East Ridge a long time to come into play. Since time is on our side, the infiltration must become even more thorough and covert. What could be more thorough and covert than winning over and controlling the next generation of heirs to these camps?

According to He Wuyang, spies from Beishuo have infiltrated the Five Camps of Zhu Ling. If we rashly send people to infiltrate them, and Beishuo finds out, the consequences would be unimaginable. Instead of taking such a huge risk, it's better to proceed slowly and steadily."

"You have indeed given it thorough consideration, Lord Wang. I am enlightened!"

As they talked, the two of them had already walked into the main hall of the main building. Lu Yang, without any pretense, thoughtfully mulled it over and realized that Wang Tao's perspective was indeed more detailed and comprehensive than his own. He immediately clasped his hands and bowed in thanks.

"You honor me, Lord Lu!"

Wang Tao, in his fifties, felt a twinge of embarrassment upon seeing Lu Yang salute him and quickly returned the gesture.

He was the Chief of Punishment in the Prison Department of East Ridge. Although nominally on equal footing with Lu Yang, the actual power of a Defender's position was evidently larger, especially in a critical outpost like East Ridge. Even putting aside official rank, Lu Yang's seniority and status in Great Xia made such a gesture of respect towards him a rarity.

Lu Yang didn't dwell on it as much as Wang Tao did. After taking the main seat, he picked up a golden Beishuo Town Edict from the table, his eyes flickering as he said, "The matter of infiltrating Beining Mountain can progress slowly. However, this Beishuo Town Edict cannot be delayed. The Minister communicated back, explaining that Beishuo is withdrawing personnel from each village this time to support the warfare at Jiangxia Town and Dajue Temple. Half of them are Cold Resistance Level, and thirty percent are Earth-digging Realm. That many is already quite aggressive from our perspective, yet the Minister mentioned that Beishuo Town hasn't really intended to help Jiangxia Town sincerely..."

"It's understandable. There are seven districts under Beishuo, with a total of more than fifty small village-level camps. Just looking at the situation of Beining Mountain Camp, each one having half Cold Resistance Level means at least 5 to 8 individuals. Regarding the thirty percent Earth-digging Realm, stronger village-level camps have a thousand or more, while the weaker ones may have three to five hundred. Calculating it like that, the fifty-plus camps can rally three to four hundred Cold Resistance Levels and fifteen to twenty thousand Earth-digging Realm individuals.

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