Exorcising the Dragon
On the hillside, after Golden Spear Master Zhang Bofeng left, Great Wei's Imperial Uncle Cao Lin gradually lost his air of having every calculation in hand, growing bewildered and forlorn instead.
Yes, he was a Great Grandmaster. Even now, though Great Wei had effectively collapsed and he could scarcely advance any farther along his Dao Path, he remained a Great Grandmaster, one of this world's foremost wielders of violence.
But as a leader, Cao Lin had been far too much of a failure.
The most obvious example was that even Li Qingchen had betrayed him.
To put it bluntly, a misunderstanding such as the one over Zhang Bofeng's attitude could seemingly have been cleared up if Imperial Uncle Cao had wanted to ask. But why had he not asked? Why had he believed a single remark from Li Qingchen?
Early on, naturally, it was because the situation had not reached that point, or because their diverging positions had seemed tacitly understood by both sides; back then, there had been neither need nor reason to ask. Later, once the Great Wei Dynasty's fig leaf had suddenly been torn away and the situation had plunged into collapse, he had become somewhat afraid to ask.
Yet none of these was the real reason. What was truly pathetic was that he had no one he could trust with the task.
Who could he send?
Great Wei had taken Guanlong as its foundation, squeezing every other region without hesitation to fatten Guanlong alone. Yet after Great Wei collapsed, Guanlong's nobles had unhesitatingly chosen estrangement and betrayal. The moment the Bai Clan showed itself, everyone had swarmed over, impatient to gather around it... even if Zhang Bofeng possessed the bearing of a Great Grandmaster and had not readily become another's tool, had the