The Mirror Hung High to Judge Merit and Fault; Reading Brought Understanding and Awakened Divine Abilities

Deep beneath the Merit Office in Great Wall Prefecture.

This was the most secret and heavily guarded forbidden ground in all of Great Wall Prefecture: the Mirror Platform.

The platform floated above a dried-up underground yin vein. Dense isolation array patterns covered the surrounding stone walls; even a mighty Purple Abode cultivator wielding an extraordinary treasure could not hope to divine or overhear the slightest secret of this place.

Ordinarily, this chamber opened only when Great Wall Prefecture faced a crisis of survival or was about to make a decision that would shake all of Qingzhou.

Tonight, the Mirror Platform's heavy stone door boomed shut.

At the center of the chamber stood a round table carved from a single piece of Agarwood Dragon-Saliva Wood.

A small bronze cauldron sat on it. Within, Samadhi True Fire gently heated a pot of "Enlightenment Tea" potent enough to transform an ordinary Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator.

Steam curled and the fragrance of tea spread, but neither could dispel the weight in the chamber, or the sense that everyone present had plans of their own.

Three figures sat around the table in a triangle.

Zhu Wuji, head of the Merit Office; He Wenyan, director of the Astronomical Bureau; and Shen Xuance, head of the Examination Office and a leading figure of the Dao Academy.

These three Purple Abode Realm pillars of Great Wall Prefecture had brought no attendants. Deep in the night, they held a top-secret discussion about Qingzhou's future and Chu Bai's.

"With that stubborn old Chang Buyu absent, even the air in the Mirror Platform feels clearer."

He Wenyan, dressed in purple, her beautiful face cool and proud, broke the silence first.

She lifted the teacup before her with slender, fair fingers. A merchant's shrewdness gleamed in her lovely eyes, alongside undisguised admiration: