Windblown frost descended across the sky once more.
Tie Zhongtang said no more.
He had already said everything that needed saying.
The three factions of the Northwestern Circuit, the tangled accounts of its fifteen provinces, the fat prize of the Seven Kingdoms of the Western Regions, the threat of the Golden Tent Khanate, the Iron Household's wager, and the opportunities on the path to Spirit Transformation had all been laid before Qing Chen.
All that remained was whether he dared to make his move.
Tie Zhongtang stood amid the wind and snow, his figure not particularly tall, his white hair blown into disarray by the bitter wind.
Yet as the Iron Household Black Armor Army Ship slowly turned behind him, its Iron-Red Banner snapping amid the sea of clouds, his entire being took on a weighty presence, as though he had become one with the mountains and rivers of the Northern Border.
"This old man can only see you this far."
He looked at Qing Chen, but his voice seemed to pass through the wind and snow and settle deep within this stretch of heaven and earth.
"I hope that, within my lifetime, I can witness the day Governor-General Qing's might bears down upon the Northwestern Circuit and strikes awe into the Various Nations of the Western Regions. I'll leave you these old methods of marching and formation deployment as well."
"They hardly qualify as an inheritance. They're merely a few crude methods this old man earned from heaps of corpses over a thousand years of struggle in the Northern Border. I hope they prove of some benefit to Governor-General Qing."
With that, he swept his sleeve, and several ancient jade slips floated out.
The Northwestern Circuit-Surveying Seal within Qing Chen's sleeve grew slightly warm, and he solemnly cupped his