Lin Su nodded. "Not bad. Your ability to analyze the Current Situation has improved greatly."
Zhou Mei smiled happily, but suddenly, her smile stiffened. "But... but you said Wenxin Pavilion made a foolish move!"
Lin Su said, "You saw through the Current Situation, through the underlying logic of the games being played in every direction. But none of you rose another level, seeing through appearances to grasp the essence. That made you overlook the psychological changes of one person."
"Who?"
"The Chi Kingdom Emperor!"
"Overlook?" Zhou Mei lightly scratched her head. "Wasn't everything Wenxin Pavilion plotted centered around this emperor?"
"It was centered around this emperor, but they overlooked the mind of an emperor." Lin Su said, "Who do you think the Chi Kingdom Emperor is? He did indeed use the images to see that the Fire Clan was unreliable, the Poet Sage Sacred Family was unreliable, and the Crown Prince was unreliable. But would that mean he would receive a signal that Wenxin Pavilion was reliable? What sort of thing was Wenxin Pavilion? Did you think he didn't know? No matter how much Wenxin Pavilion washed itself clean, it was still filth!"
Zhou Mei's large eyes filled once more with clear bewilderment. "Then... then what would he do?"
"Making these images public would only make the emperor see, through this boundless chaos, an absolutely correct essence: insecurity! Yes, he would suddenly feel that there was not a single good person around him. Whether he was in the imperial court or the inner palace, he would feel unsafe!"
"And then?"
Lin Su said, "Countless cases throughout the ages have proven one truth: when an emperor lacks a sense of security, he is at his most terrifying. Did you think he would still talk to you about balancing power? Did you