Above the Grandmaster, Map of the Prefectures Under Heaven

[In the end, you still met this Eighth Prince, Prince Jing, who already bore the title of "Worthy Prince."]

[Inside the great hall, the main seat on the left had long since been reserved. Symbolizing honor and status, it had originally been left for Prince Jing.]

[However, Prince Jing did not take his seat at once. This actually made Liu Jinchan on the right hesitate as well, and in the end both seats were left empty. Naturally, the rest of the people did not dare show the slightest overstepping.]

[They all lined up in two rows.]

[Prince Jing, Zhou Cheng, had brought only one servant, Chen Ji, as well as that uncle of yours whom you had not seen for so long.]

[Your uncle had only arrived today. He had once been a disciple of the Three Truths Sect, and after returning to secular life, he had married and had children.]

[You and Prince Jing completed all the proper courtesies, and only then did you and Lu Yu, one after the other, pay respects to your uncle.]

[Zhou Cheng returned your courtesy, addressing you as Junior Guardian, and was in no hurry to disturb the reunion between uncle and nephews. He waited silently to the side.]

[Perhaps it was because you had not seen him for many years, but that once bold and forthright uncle now had a few strands of white in his hair. The hot-blooded man who had accompanied your father north three times, saying, "If North Wind is not destroyed, how can I make a home?" seemed to have changed, and grown old as well.]

[Your uncle looked at you brothers, smiled with joy, and tears shimmered in his eyes.]

[Only then did you learn that your uncle actually had a child now, a girl.]

[Your uncle laughed and said, "That girl doesn't like the embroidery and needlework of daughters' families. Instead, she likes playing with spears and staffs the most, spends all day holding military books, and says she wants to become the number one female general of Great Qing!"]

["Of course, the ones she admires most are you brothers, especially you, Shenzhou."]

["As for your stories in the north, she keeps them on her lips all the time. Every time she tells them, even my soul is pulled along and my dreams are entangled."]

[The man past fifty gave a long, drifting sigh. "Even I wish I could return to the Lu Family Army, lead troops beyond the desert north, divide roasted meat among my men for fifty li, and sing my way back from eight hundred li beyond the frontier."]

["But ah, in my heart, I can never stop worrying about mother and daughter. I want to watch her marry, watch her build a family and have children. Don't blame your uncle either."]

[You sighed softly.]

[In troubled times, with national hatred and family grudges, who shouldered both family and country? Between the great home and the small home, who in the mortal world could act with a mere common man's courage?]

[Your uncle's figure seemed somewhat lonely. He did not speak much of how he had entered Prince Jing's manor in the past. He only gently handed your mother's letters into the hands of you brothers, then retreated silently behind Prince Jing, Zhou Cheng, like a shadow, neither ostentatious nor stealing the host's thunder.]

[With a call from Liu Jinchan, everyone took their seats, and the atmosphere accordingly became harmonious.]

[Lu Yu, as he had in the past, stood silently behind you. This was a habit developed over many years in the Lu Family Army.]

[Once you were seated.]

[You lowered your brows and eyes, your expression calm and still, like the stillness of an abyss, and like the steadiness of an ancient pavilion, like abyss, like pavilion.]

[This was the bearing you had cultivated through years of campaigning. Otherwise, how could you have kept the three armies in awe?]

[Seeing this, Zhou Cheng was slightly startled.]

[The imperial nobility he had nurtured for twenty-seven years in the capital, that idle ease of the royal family, inevitably seemed somewhat laughable before you.]

[Zhou Cheng could not help thinking of the accompanying military records from court: "In the Lu Family Army's tent, the Junior Guardian sits in command and supervises the battle. Behind him is often the young marshal Lu You'an, and behind them stand the twenty-six generals of pavilion and terrace. Their momentum is grand and imposing; all generals in the army focus their minds, not daring to be negligent."]

[Ten years of golden spears and iron horses, swallowing ten thousand li like a tiger.]

[Who knew what bearing Lu Chen had possessed back then, when brocade banners rolled in the west wind and he supervised one hundred thousand troops of the Lu Family Army marching north.]

[Only then did Zhou Cheng slowly come back to himself.]

[Chen Ji was Prince Jing's chief companion and was deeply favored. He often did not put the powerful officials of court in his eyes. So-called Junior Guardians were merely courtiers changing with each new Son of Heaven, nothing more than attachments to the shifting of power. Had the court not changed six prime ministers in three years, with one man finishing his song and another taking the stage?]

[When Chen Ji saw your sleeves drifting lightly, your face steady, and your bearing composed, he secretly said in his heart, "Quite the airs."]

[Suddenly, an aura that had never appeared before crashed over like a mountain. Chen Ji staggered and nearly fell to the ground.]

[Seeing this, Zhou Cheng frowned slightly.]

[Chen Ji hurriedly begged forgiveness, saying in a trembling voice, "This lowly one was discourteous. I ask Your Highness to forgive me."]

["Mm, rise."]

[Chen Ji was terrified and uneasy. His master was broad-minded in small matters, but in great matters could not tolerate a single grain of sand.]

[Your heart stirred, and your gaze turned toward Lu Yu. You only felt that just now, a strange aura had emanated from Lu Yu, seizing another's imposing presence and raging straight at the eunuch behind Zhou Cheng, only to vanish again in an instant.]

[Could this be the realm above Grandmaster? Colorless and formless. If you had not been close, you probably would have found it hard to detect this change in heaven and earth.]

[Lu Yu, however, looked perfectly natural, as though it had nothing to do with him.]

[You smiled faintly.]

[You and Zhou Cheng began to chat casually. Today, he was the main figure in this scene.]

[You spoke from the doctrines of the Three Truths to deploying troops on the battlefield, from poetry and songs to the general trend of the world.]

[You discovered that this Eighth Prince was indeed worthy of his reputation. He could pick up the learning of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism at will and fuse them into mastery.]

[When he spoke of your battles, his tone was filled with excitement and pride, as though sharing in the honor.]

[He took out a scroll and gently unfolded it. It was a map of Great Qing's prefectures under heaven.]

[Zhou Cheng smiled and said, "Junior Guardian, I know you have spent ten years in the saddle and your military achievements are illustrious, so I specially present this map to you."]

[Hearing this, Chen Ji hurried forward, respectfully took one end of the scroll with both hands, and carefully unfolded this grand map together with Zhou Cheng.]

[The map was ten feet long and two feet wide, as though the entire territory of Great Qing had been condensed onto this one sheet of paper.]

[You focused and examined it closely. You saw that it meticulously depicted the geographical situation of You Prefecture, Liang Prefecture, Bing Prefecture, Qing Prefecture, and Xinxing, these five prefectures, as well as Yun Prefecture and Yan Prefecture, which General Lu Chen had taken back.]

[Every mountain, river, city, and fortress was marked clearly, as though the whole of Great Qing had been taken in at a glance.]

[The level of detail and value of this map was already enough to be described as "a priceless treasure worth city after city."]

[However, in the eyes of ordinary people, this kind of map of the prefectures under heaven was undoubtedly an act of outrageous treason. If it were privately made among the common folk, it would likely invite a catastrophe that blotted out the sky and destroyed the entire clan.]

[However, the official seal of the Ninth Prince was impressively stamped in the lower left corner of this map, making it an object that could truly circulate.]

[Even Liu Jinchan coveted this map greatly. This map was enough to be handed down through the ages.]

[You did not know Zhou Cheng's intention, and made no indication.]

[Suddenly, Zhou Cheng tore apart this incomparably precious map with one motion.]

[Even Chen Ji, his personal chief companion, was stunned. He remembered that his master treasured this map dearly, and others were not even allowed to touch it.]

[Chen Ji hurriedly knelt and hugged the incomplete map, his voice a little hoarse as he said, "Master, why?"]

[Liu Jinchan also found it a great pity.]

[After tearing it apart, Zhou Cheng instead laughed and said, "But I feel this map is still not worthy of the Junior Guardian!"]

[In high spirits, he took out another map and slowly spread it open.]

[This map depicted in detail the vast regions north to Liaodong, south to the Sea of Sand, west to the Western Regions, and east out to Dragon Gate, covering the five nations of Great Qing, North Wind, Qianyuan, Han, and Chu.]

[It looked down upon all under heaven.]

[Among them, Great Qing was located in the Central Plains, surrounded on all sides by the four nations. The terrain was vast, and Great Qing occupied only the land of the Central Plains.]

[Zhou Cheng explained, "Though Great Qing lies south of the river, rich and prosperous, the wealthiest land among the five nations, it is also the money pouch of the five nations."]

["Great Qing governs the world together with the southern scholar clans, valuing civil culture while slighting military preparedness," Zhou Cheng added.]

["If not for Chu and Han being at war and Qianyuan being in internal turmoil, we would long since have been four tigers lying in wait, carving up Great Qing to eat."]

["By then, North Wind would have gone south to graze, Qianyuan would have gone north to capture the dragon, and Chu's Flying Tiger Army would long ago have broken through the capital."]

["Back then, the Junior Guardian was only thirty li from Huanglong Prefecture. You were only one step away from striking straight at Huanglong. What a pity, what a sorrow."]

[When Zhou Cheng spoke to this point, his expression turned mournful.]

["At that time, I knelt outside Father Emperor's chamber for three days and three nights, begging for an imperial edict to send troops."]

["Could North Wind go south into my Great Qing, yet my Great Qing could not go to North Wind?"]

["This heart is bright and clear. A kingly enterprise does not settle for a corner in peace."]