Within the Apricot Grove Gardens.
The Vermilion Platform towered high, Li Radiance blazing.
The great void split open. Xu Xuan stepped out and descended toward the vermilion-and-gold Treasure Platform ahead.
A man stood at the platform's highest point, tall and lean, wearing a golden crown and vermilion robes. His birdlike vermilion eyes turned toward Xu Xuan, yet no pressure emanated from him. He merely said, unhurriedly:
"Within ten years, Northern Liao will be pacified."
Neither concerned himself with ceremony; they spoke only of this matter. The Li Emperor continued:
"Lord Xu, what do you think will happen after the Liao Lands fall?"
Xu Xuan had already formed his own conjectures, but he did not know why Tian'ou wanted to discuss this.
"Indeed."
Yet deep coldness lurked in Tian'ou's eyes as he said indifferently:
"Do you know of the previous great lord of Li Fire?"
He abruptly brought up this momentous matter, and in the Imperial Capital at that, yet nothing stirred around them. Only the long river within the Apricot Grove Gardens flowed outward. The Li Emperor began speaking on his own, slowly pacing around Xu Xuan.
"To explain that, we must begin with the Great Upheaval of Yuan Wei. Do you know of that calamity?"
"Of course."
Xu Xuan's expression grew solemn, and he said gravely:
"Zhao was destroyed and Shu fell. Tuoba marched south and founded a dynasty named [Wei]. Wei Taizu, Tuoba Yuanye, attained the venerable position of sheji. After his fall came calamity-the greatest struggle of the recent ancient era, in which many Golden Cores perished."
"Indeed."
Tian'ou continued pacing around him, his voice deep:
"These ancient histories are the greatest Daoist Canon of all. Know the past, and you can deduce the future-which Dao lineages may be cultivated, which have already been claimed, and which