Ideals

In these days on the eve of battle, Luo Wei had been pondering a question—one she had often discussed with her late husband.

Why had the vast Sect Alliance, which had once nearly hollowed out the central court entirely, come to this point?

The people of the Sect Alliance today would likely find it difficult to imagine those days. In that era, the struggle between the Great Yan court and the immortal sects had in truth already neared its end.

From regional governors overseeing entire provinces directly under their jurisdiction to county magistrates supervising a single locality, nearly all such posts had been monopolized by immortal sects and aristocratic clans across the land.

And if it was so in the provinces, it was even worse at court.

More than half the court officials served as the immortal sects' mouthpieces. High-ranking cultivators of those sects could come and go from Di'an as they pleased, even taking up permanent residence in the capital, establishing their own manors and offices.

How could such a Sect Alliance decline step by step into its present state?

No.

Decline was not the right word.

The Sect Alliance had never declined. Compared to several decades ago, it was instead more powerful than ever. It would be more accurate to say that, over these years, the imperial court's influence had expanded far faster than theirs.

Because of Xu Yinhe and Li Yaoxuan.

Luo Wei did not truly understand those two men.

Over the nearly hundred years that had passed, she had met them only a handful of times.

At first, she—or rather, the Sect Alliance—had looked down on them both. Over Great Yan's thousand-year history, there had been no shortage of ambitious rulers who had sought to rein in the Sect Alliance, yet every one of them had