Inside the Imperial Study, there was silence at first. Then Emperor Li Kun leaned back against his chair with a blank expression, drew a harsh breath, and suppressed the shock in his heart. His hands hanging at his sides trembled slightly.
At the side, Eunuch Wei, the pale-faced old man standing in attendance, was also stunned for a moment upon hearing the news before quickly regaining his composure.
The secret organization under his command served as the imperial family's eyes and ears. During every major war, it infiltrated all manner of places, providing the court with another channel of information and preserving the emperor's understanding of the realm.
Yet when the White Lotus Sect had risen in rebellion, not only had the officialdom and army of Southern Ridges Circuit defected, but countless intelligence agents and spies had vanished without exception. This left him, the head of the secret agents, utterly ignorant of the situation in Southern Ridges—blind and deaf.
More than that, as the White Lotus Army advanced, the spies in every place it passed through were uprooted one by one. By now, the intelligence network across the entire south had nearly been pulled out in one sweep. Some locations might still have been operating, but after realizing the situation was unfavorable, those in charge there no longer dared casually send out messages for fear of exposing themselves.
Under such circumstances, military reports had become the palace's sole source of information. Thus, Eunuch Wei could not help being shocked when he suddenly heard this news. Yet when he recalled the reports about Qiu Yan he had received over the years, it no longer seemed all that abrupt.
One had to know that over the past four years, Qiu Yan had done no shortage of astonishing things. At first, Eunuch Wei