Otherworld Advance Team
Chapter 1303 - 1296: Be Careful with Candles and Fire

Chapter 1303: Chapter 1296: Be Careful with Candles and Fire

Out of trust in Fulajie’er, after releasing Boyan, the group didn’t move but waited in the same place for the transport plane to arrive. Then they took the captured general onto the plane and flew back to Lingyuan City.

Just a few days after leaving, they felt as if the people of Lingyuan City had been injected with chicken blood, so agitated were they. Huge posters were plastered all over the city, and excited shouts from the Demon Clan could be heard everywhere.

After stopping a member of the Demon Clan to inquire about the reason, Cheng Ziang and the others finally understood what was happening and couldn’t help but show wry smiles.

They handed the captured general over to the Demon Clan’s soldiers to be strictly interrogated in the hope of obtaining more information from him.

Upon hearing of Cheng Ziang and his team’s safe return, Luo’er was very excited, especially after hearing the intelligence they had gathered, Luo’er was even more thrilled.

"Very good, it looks like our enemies have started to fracture," Luo’er nodded in satisfaction. "This way, we only need to defeat them one by one and we can completely drive the Dongsheng army out of West Outer Heaven."

"This city is really bustling, what are you all stirring up?" Cheng Ziang couldn’t help but ask.

"We’re promoting nationalistic sentiments," Luo’er explained. "We plan to make Abisien effectively a nation-state through constant propaganda."

"You’re really something, no wonder you’re the Political Commissar..." Cheng Ziang shook his head and sighed.

"There’s always something I can do, otherwise, I’d appear too incompetent," Luo’er said, scratching his head.

"You doing nothing would be the biggest contribution to us," Cheng Ziang said.

"I’m not a mascot..." Luo’er protested.

"No, you are the mascot, the mascot of the Advance Team," Cheng Ziang stated.

"Speaking of which..." Baiyue interrupted the two’s conversation, looking at them seriously, he said, "There’s a merchant named Boyan who wants to do business with the Demon Clan. He hopes we could facilitate that for him. He’ll be coming over in a little while."

"Who is Boyan?" Luo’er pondered.

"A Kyushu merchant," Baiyue replied.

"A Kyushu merchant..." Luo’er frowned slightly. "How did he end up coming to West Outer Heaven to do business with the Demon Clan?"

"He says that merchants and the military are at odds, that military aggression doesn’t represent the attitudes of the entire Kyushu population," Cheng Ziang said.

"To be specific, it seems to be more a case of merchants versus military generals," Baiyue added.

"Hmm..." Luo’er rubbed his chin, deep in thought.

"Should we meet with him?" Cheng Ziang asked.

"I’ll check with the leaders to see if we can meet him," Luo’er mused. "As long as he’s willing to be friends, even if just for trade, we should try to make contact. After all, in these life-and-death times, the more friends we have, the better."

"I’m just afraid it won’t be so easy," Cheng Ziang shrugged. "You’ve worked hard to stir up the nationalistic feelings of the Demon Clan, but if you turn around and say we’re doing business with Kyushu merchants, the public might not accept such a contrast."

"That’s not contradictory, as long as it’s explained properly," Luo’er said. "We oppose the invasion of the Dongsheng Empire’s army, not all Kyushu citizens. On the contrary, we should welcome those Kyushu citizens who are willing to support us and isolate the Dongsheng army. Nationalistic sentiment is indeed a good medicine, but if it develops into extreme nationalism, it will do more harm than good. So I’ve always been trying hard to prevent this from happening."

"You’re playing with fire..." Cheng Ziang said helplessly.

"But this is what I’m best at, isn’t it?" Luo’er shrugged.

"Fine, have it your way, just don’t put yourself in danger, and I don’t care what you do," Cheng Ziang said with a spread of his hands.

After leaving Cheng Ziang and the others, Luo’er hurried to the prison of Lingyuan City, eager to see the captured general. As he approached the prison, he ran into Zisu, who was coming out, so he asked curiously, "How’s that guy doing?"

"He’s dead," Zisu spread his hands and said.

"Dead?" Luo’er felt greatly disappointed.

"Don’t look at me like that; it wasn’t us who killed him," Zisu said with an innocent face, "He was already at death’s door when he was brought here. We barely messed with him before he took his last breath. Your weapons are really something; they blasted their Inner Cores to smithereens."

"So, did you find out anything?" Luo’er asked.

"Well, I got to know a little," Zisu said, "He was a Ba Path Banshan Cultivator, which is what I mentioned to you before. Overall, he wasn’t very high-ranking in the Dongsheng military—just a lackey."

"I see..." Luo’er nodded, falling into deep thought.

"What are you thinking about?" Seeing Luo’er deep in thought, Zisu couldn’t help but ask curiously.

"I’m thinking, whether we could use him for propaganda, to motivate the Demon Clan to not fear the Dongsheng Generals any longer," Luo’er replied honestly.

"How would you do that?" Zisu asked, curious.

Luo’er didn’t spell it out but leaned closer and whispered a few sentences in her ear. Hearing his words, Zisu’s eyes widened in surprise and she asked, "Can we really do that, given he’s just a dead man now?"

"Absolutely, as long as we spin it right, it should be enough to dispel the Demon Clan’s long-standing grievances," Luo’er affirmed.

Luo’er’s suggestion was simple, that while the General was not yet fully dead, they should parade him and publicly decapitate him. This would motivate the Demon Clan, showing them that Dongsheng Generals were not invincible, that they could be killed.

This was mainly to invigorate the civilians within the city, as well as the new recruits who had never seen battle, giving them some backbone, making them realize that Generals could be slain.

Luo’er had been tirelessly promoting a sense of nationalism these days, but to oppose the Dongsheng Empire, propaganda alone was not enough.

A great man once said to regard the enemy highly in tactics but to despise them in strategy. The intent behind executing this General was just that—to seize this opportunity and tell all of the Demon Clan that Dongsheng Generals weren’t to be feared, to build confidence in their hearts, encourapging them to dare to confront the Dongsheng Empire.

Upon learning that a General had been captured, the astute Luo’er immediately realized the potential. Although the General’s death was somewhat disappointing, he could still be put to use.

The French Revolution truly escalated after the decapitation of Louis XVI; thus, Luo’er hoped to replicate this successful case and inspire the Demon Clan to stand up against the Dongsheng Empire.

"You’re quite the sly one, with such a talent for incitement. You’d be a dangerous person anywhere. I should be thankful that I’m your friend, not your enemy," Zisu looked at Luo’er and couldn’t help but comment.

"Most of the time, my work is very peaceful," Luo’er said with an innocent look.

"But when you get ruthless, you’re really something, aren’t you?" Zisu said with a smile.

Under the coordination of Luo’er and Zisu, the dead Dongsheng General was dragged up to the high platform in the market, where he was beheaded in front of all the Demon Clan.

Even with mental preparation, the sight of the excited crowd below still shocked Zisu.

As the General’s head rolled down the platform, the mood of the Demon Clan reached its peak. Everyone who witnessed the execution became extremely agitated, and the buzz of the marketplace reached such a level that they couldn’t hear each other even if they were whispering.

But even amidst such an excited atmosphere, Luo’er himself did not become agitated. On the contrary, he furrowed his brows and watched the boiling crowd, lost in thought.

He was well aware that the mood of the Demon Clan towards the Dongsheng Empire had reached a threshold, and he needed to maintain this threshold—it shouldn’t rise any further, nor should it drop.

If it dipped, then the effort put into this event would be wasted, the General’s execution for naught. However, if it rose further, the consequences could be severe, easily tipping into extreme nationalism.

The consequences of extreme nationalism were well exemplified by Earth’s history; Luo’er didn’t even need to imagine to know what would happen.

He needed to control these people, constantly modulating their emotions to ensure they peaked in their opposition to the Dongsheng Empire and appropriately dropped when it was time to cooperate with the people of Kyushu.

As Cheng Ziang said, he was indeed playing with fire, thus he became exceedingly cautious, ever fearful of getting burned.

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