Secret Meeting

Sunlight spilled into the side chamber, its furnishings refined and elegant.

Xu Yuan sat alone before the desk, staring wordlessly at the ancient tome titled Black Scale for a long while.

Ever since he had succeeded Xu Changge and taken charge of the Ink Hidden Pavilion, he had firmly established himself as the second-ranking figure in the Prime Minister's Mansion's financial and administrative affairs.

With the support of two direct subordinates, Lou Ji and Hua Hong, the authority he wielded in practice was already immense. During certain exceptional periods—such as when the Prime Minister entered seclusion—aside from the Black Scale Army, he could even overstep his bounds and exercise the Prime Minister's sole authority directly.

But now, with this cultivation art, even the Black Scale Army was no longer an exception.

"I can't figure it out."

Muttering softly, his fingertips brushed over the ancient book's cover.

Xu Yuan had never cultivated military formation arts, but out of curiosity during his time at the Northern Border, he had learned a little about military formations from Li Qingyan.

If military authority in his previous life had been an authority built upon systems, then military authority in this life possessed a tangible anchor.

The mother art of a military formation.

During the first six thousand years after military formation arts came into being, one might have been able to launch a coup merely by gathering a loyal, elite guard division. But in present-day Great Yan, even if you led a million-strong army to force the palace, you would only be delivering your heads on a platter.

Rebel before a superior officer?

The moment you dared circulate your cultivation art, the holder of the superior mother art could instantly send you into cultivation deviation.

It was the symbol of centralized rule expanded to its