The Dragon-Robed Elder's words echoed through the great hall.
"If you want to do business here... you must first learn how to dance among wolves."
His voice was hoarse and grave, laden with the weight of ages.
Inside the hall, five distinct colors flowed endlessly across the enormous Geomantic Map fashioned from Spirit Jade, tearing the complete territory of Central Province into fragments.
Each patch of color represented a terrifying force that could easily crush the Northern Lands.
Lin Qingzhu's fingers unconsciously traced the cover of her thick ledger, her fingertips icy.
All the business plans she had so painstakingly prepared seemed pale and powerless before this map of absolute power.
This was no longer doing business. This was walking on a knife's edge, testing her footing at the brink of a cliff.
Yet Zhou Xuan seemed oblivious to that crushing pressure.
He did not look at the worry Lin Qingzhu could scarcely conceal. He merely studied the five divided regions on the table with interest.
"Alliance Leader, please enlighten me," he said, his tone as calm as if they were discussing the weather.
The Dragon-Robed Elder raised a withered finger and first pointed to the largest region, the blue-green expanse in the northwest.
Light flashed, and the blue-green region expanded. A lifelike giant dragon totem coiled over it, radiating a cold, unfathomable aura.
"The Grand Hua Immortal Vein and the seventeen immortal veins that follow them call themselves the 'Seeking Path Faction.'"
A trace of undisguised mockery colored the elder's voice.
"They believe the Heavenly Dao is incomplete and the depletion of spiritual energy is already inevitable. Rather than sit and await death, they would blaze another trail and seek a new path to immortality."
"To that end, they will stop at nothing to research forbidden arts. They have