Early August.0

A letter arrived for Li Yuan, sent through a trading guild. It was from Yan Mu, and it was filled with disappointment. However, the letter never spelled out exactly why he felt that way; it only said he wanted to come back.0

Li Yuan gazed at the letter thoughtfully, suspecting a hidden story behind Yan Mu’s words. Through a few rounds of correspondence, he pieced together that Yan Mu was most likely a disciple of some major power on par with the Sacred Fire Palace.  2

Before long, Li Yuan used his own channels to dig up news of yet more upheaval in the Central Plains. The previous year, the emperor had gone back on his promise to open the Great Zhou Treasury. Though he had once vowed to share its contents, he ultimately reneged, something Li Yuan could understand. After all, the treasury held the imperial family’s deepest reserves; once the emperor allowed outsiders to strip those treasures away, how could the throne still call itself the throne?0

But naturally, large sects like the Sacred Fire Palace would not take no for an answer....0