Gathering

Within the main hall, daylight had dimmed of its own accord.

More than a dozen people knelt on prayer mats, holding their breaths and restraining their voices, swallowing even the rustle of their robes.

The remaining heads of Aristocratic Clans in Jinghai Prefecture, Rogue Cultivator leaders, and even local officials—anyone who could still walk alive into this hall—were already among the most sensible of the lot.

Normally imposing and most skilled at lofty talk, they were now all trembling with fear, not daring to raise their heads. As for the reason...

It was naturally because of the person seated in the place of honor.

Or rather... the Solar!

His blood and qi coursed around him, deep as a still pool and steadfast as a mountain. A faint Spirit Light drifted between his brows, like the moon reflecting upon a thousand rivers—neither dazzling nor dim.

Good deeds left no tracks; good words invited no flaw.

He sat there upright, neither speaking nor moving, yet all the hall's currents of qi tilted toward him, like a hundred rivers returning to the sea. The pale golden sun patterns upon his black robes glimmered faintly in the gloom.

A scroll mounted on a blue-jade roller lay spread before him.

A living map still flowed slowly across it, depicting the earth-vein paths throughout Jinghai Prefecture. Thirty-six major spirit veins were traced in thin silver-white lines, winding like silver serpents across the jade surface.

Within the map, the thirty-six spirit veins slithered like silver serpents. Yet three of them—the three that had once belonged to the Li Family—had become crimson dead lines, like three scarlet snakes whose heads had been severed. At their broken ends lingered embers of Vermilion Mound Fire Qi, still twitching faintly within the map.

The spirit veins of the other households remained,