Ceasefire with the Dragon Palace: Negotiations and a Signing Ceremony Watched by the Nation

News of the failed Jade Whale Sect Campaign spread through Peace Sea and Lower River provinces faster than expected.

By the next morning, soldiers in the camps on Ironspine Island were already discussing it in low voices during their drills. After all, quite a few men had fled back from the battlefield.

Rumors even spread through the army that the battle for the Thunderclap Archipelago might have been fought for nothing, and that the troops would soon withdraw from the occupied territory to guard against a southward advance by the Jade Whale Sect.

Such rumors were dangerous. The Central Army noticed them too, so that afternoon Jian Cong addressed the entire force and steadied morale for the time being.

The defeat also directly affected the negotiations with the Dragon Palace. That afternoon, when word reached the Dragon Palace Envoy Delegation, Ao Yin formally asked Wang Lu to suspend the talks for three days on the grounds that "the situation had changed."

After the Dragon Palace representatives left, Shen Wenyuan looked at Yang Wenqing and asked, "Do you think our superiors will give ground?"

That was not a question Yang Wenqing could answer.

The defeat against the Jade Whale Sect was bound to hurt morale. By ordinary diplomatic logic, this was the time to make appropriate concessions at the negotiating table and stabilize the front with the Dragon Palace.

But the orders from headquarters said the exact opposite. That evening, every guard station received instructions for a new round of exercises, all focused on engagements and anti-landing operations in the deep waters to the east.

Headquarters had no intention of yielding. Through the exercises, they meant to show the Dragon Palace that Wanxuan's line had not moved. If possible, they even intended to push it forward.

Over the next two days,