In the carriage, Ji Boli wore the grave face of a great sage aloof from worldly strife and said helplessly, "It was King Zhao Residence that sought a marriage match for your elder brother. King Zhao is a man of towering ambition, far from mediocre. Others may not know it, but I know perfectly well: this Grand Secretariat of Guanshan Circuit, lord of eight provinces, has come with ill intent. The court is preparing to make a move against our three houses."
The three houses were the Heavenly Sword Pavilion, Heavenly Saber Sect, and Heavenly Martial Sect that had emerged after the Heavenly Sect split in three—the three foremost first-rate powers in all Western Chu when it came to stirring up trouble.
With Western Chu's court having to guard against Northern Qi, Southern Jin, and the Southern Border, where demons clustered thickest, while also dealing internally with so many unruly first-rate powers, it was impossible for them to provoke all three houses at once. It was nothing more than the same old tricks: catching wolves bare-handed, driving wolves to devour tigers, winning over one group before suppressing another.
Ji Boli spoke at length. King Zhao, Xiao Yan, this Guanshan Circuit Grand Secretariat, was the court's first move. This matchmaking gathering was a gesture of goodwill from King Zhao Residence toward the Heavenly Martial Sect, indicating that the court did not intend to act against the Heavenly Martial Sect. As for who they were truly targeting...
Nor could they rule out making a feint to the east while attacking in the west, pretending to give the Heavenly Martial Sect a calming pill.
Xiang Yuan blinked. His second master, Ji Wuzhou, made his living in the Heavenly Saber Sect; his senior brother Ji Boli came from the Ji Clan, one of the