Some wanted to sound out Great Jin's stance on the situation in the Western Regions, some wanted to open trade routes, and others simply brought lengthy manifests, preparing to purchase treasure armor, talismans, formation plates, and battle formation treasure ships from the Northwestern Circuit.
Qing Chen did not summon the envoys of all seven kingdoms into the hall together.
He housed the seven delegations in separate guest courtyards, each isolated from the others by formations. Ostensibly, this was to prevent conflicts between them; in reality, he did not want to give them a chance to exchange information.
For today's first audience, Qing Chen chose neither the Qiuci Kingdom, which lay closest to Great Jin's Northwestern Circuit, nor the Loulan Kingdom, which was about to forge marriage ties with Great Jin's Imperial House.
Instead, he chose Persia.
The moment word of this order spread, all six other delegations reacted.
The Loulan envoys looked the most displeased.
They had assumed that, with Loulan about to welcome a Great Jin commandery princess in marriage and holding the title of former alliance leader of the Thirty-Six Western Regions Kingdoms, they ought to be the first received by the Protector of the Western Regions.
Who would have thought Qing Chen would leave them waiting and let the Persian Kingdom's delegation enter the Governor-General's Office first?
Yet dissatisfied as they were, the Loulan envoys dared not make a scene.
Everyone knew that the Origin-Initial Devil Sect's true ancestral seat, the Great Black Heaven Mountain Range, stood in the Persian Kingdom's heartland.
And besides being Great Jin's Protector of the Western Regions, Qing Chen was also the Deputy Branch Master of the Origin-Initial Devil Sect's Primordial Magnetism Branch!
That connection alone might place Persia beyond comparison with the other six kingdoms in Qing Chen's eyes.
"Altai,