Liu Junshi snatched the wine gourd from him and hugged it tightly to his chest. Glaring at Xu Yi, he said, "I've got a pretty good idea why you came to see me. With wine this fine, you really didn't need to go to all the trouble of playing several games of chess with me just to dent my confidence. So, tell me—what do you want to know?"
Xu Yi ignored the flattery. "When Brother Ge recommended that I come to you, Brother Liu, he said that if I had questions about the Staff Department, you were the one to ask. I asked him why, but he never gave me a clear answer. Could you enlighten me?"
Liu Junshi poured himself a cup and drank it, savoring the taste for a moment. "There's nothing strange about it. If you think of the Staff Department as a well, then we staff officers are frogs in that well. Most of them spend their whole lives unable to leap out. But I, Liu, fell in from outside..."
"...A staff officer in the Staff Department can become Chief Strategist if he earns the trust of an elder. More than thirty years ago, I earned an elder's trust and followed him for over a decade. Later, the elder failed to survive the Ninth Tribulation of Lightning. His soul scattered, and he was utterly destroyed. The Territory had intended to appoint me as a prefect, but I'd watched with my own eyes as that terrifying tribulation reduced the elder to ashes. My heart had gone cold, so I joined the Staff Department and hid away from the world..."
Xu Yi asked, "What sort of tribulation is the Ninth Tribulation of Lightning? What realm can one reach after surviving it?"
After spending some time among the Staff