Only then did Ning Yan understand why the senior minister overseeing the state this time wasn't one of Qi Shan or Chu Yao. This really was better left to her. Ning Yan might have kept a low profile at court and rarely taken part in Court Sessions or All-Out Combat, but in terms of potential prestige and influence, she actually surpassed Qi Shan and the others. If they were specialists with glaring weaknesses, Ning Yan was a star in every field.
First was the public academy under the Imperial Academy of Kang.
Though Shen Tang had founded it, she had been a hands-off patron ever since, only providing funds and steering the academy's overall direction. Ning Yan had handled and implemented the vast majority of its affairs.
Over the years, women scholars and warriors had sprung up like bamboo shoots after rain throughout Kang. Aside from a small number who'd benefited from family resources, eighty percent of them had come from this academy. In a sense, they weren't just Shen Tang's students; nominally, they could also be considered half Ning Yan's students, and were expected to pay their respects as such when they met her.
Second was the Ning Clan behind Ning Yan.
The Ning Clan had been trying to repair their relationship with her for years, and her father and brothers had made daily efforts to curry favor with her. When they couldn't get through to her, they often used Ning Yan's mother as an excuse to invite her daughter to their estate. In the eyes of outsiders, the two sides might not seem close, but they were still blood relatives, bound together even if their bones were broken. Ning Yan bore the surname Ning, after all. It wasn't as if the two sides could really fight to the