Jiang Wang had been gone for a long time.
In the spacious, brightly lit study.
The current Duke of Huai was writing furiously.
The official documents awaiting processing were piled into a towering stack, seeming as though they would never diminish...
He seemed always to have matters he could never finish handling.
His son had died in battle again, and then his eldest grandson had died in battle as well.
None of it had bent his back in the slightest.
He merely worked in calm silence, as he had through so many years before.
After writing furiously for a while, he seemed to suddenly recall something and paused his brush slightly.
"Send Lu Shuanghe a message."
"If he cannot keep his own people in line, then he need not keep them at all."
Having casually said this, he lowered his head and resumed writing.
No voice answered within the room.
But the will of the Duke of Huai of Great Chu would, without question, be carried out throughout Chu Kingdom... and even across the entire Southern Regions.
There was a mountain within Yue Kingdom, and the mountain had no name.
Upon the mountain stood an academy, and the academy likewise had no name.
Yet because Gao Zheng, Yue Kingdom's retired State Chancellor, lived in seclusion here, it was widely known among Yue Kingdom's upper ranks.
People of the time sometimes called it Hidden Prime Peak.
But its gates remained locked year-round, and few ever walked the mountain path.
This place received no visitors.
For many secluded years, there had been only the bright moon and mountain winds.
Ge Fei, wearing a high crown and scholar's robes, walked along the mountain path. His unattractive face was as rugged and uneven as that path.
In truth, Ge Fei had not