“The lower classes have only two ways to gain status and position: attach themselves to noble families, or accumulate military merit. I can see this child is quite ambitious and surely won’t be content to serve at the beck and call of noble youths; as for accumulating military merit...” Brian Sutton gave a light laugh. “It’s hard enough for a commoner to earn military merit on the battlefield—I wonder how long this child can endure in the army?”

Gregory Clark had never served in the military, but knew that even a commoner with exceptional martial skills had no better chance of surviving on the battlefield than an ordinary foot soldier.

“This child is already of age. Though he hasn’t mentioned it to me, I know he’s long harbored thoughts of leaving the academy.”

“He’s eighteen, yet spends all day under the shadow of the Yingyan Flower, and looks a bit frail—he hardly seems fifteen. Does he want to become a wandering warrior? The boy certainly has ambition.”

Gregory Clark was slightly taken aback and probed with a few questions, but although Brian Sutton paid attention to the child, he showed no intention of taking him in as a retainer. After a short while, Gregory Clark left the west wing.

William Harper entered the room, and Brian Sutton said, “The Wu clan is also descended from the people of Yanyun?”

William Harper replied, “I’ve heard it mentioned in the clan.” Remembering what Brian Sutton had just said to Gregory Clark, he added, “Yanyun is barren for lack of water. The Xi people built the ice dam there by divine power. Perhaps the hatred of a thousand years ago has long been forgotten, but the Xi people regard the ten-thousand-foot ice dam atop Yanyun Mountain as the will of the God of Star and Light—a great miracle left on this continent by the great god Xi He. Benlei Plain lies beneath the ice dam; unless the Xi people are driven out of Benlei, there’s little that can be done.”

Although the Xi clans never numbered more than a thousand, they were a race of divine descent. Every adult Xi possessed awakened innate power, making them the most formidable warriors on the continent. A hundred Xi could tear through the steel ranks of ten thousand armored soldiers. In the past, the Kingdom of Qinglan expanded downstream along the Yiyun River, and each campaign was accompanied by over a hundred Xi warriors, who achieved great military feats. They were an indispensable factor in Danaliu’s successful ascension to emperor and the founding of the empire in the sixty-seventh year of the Mohe Era.

To drive the Xi out of Benlei Plain would require mobilizing half the empire’s strength.

Brian Sutton shook his head and said, “The ice dam cuts off Yanyun’s water, but causes the meltwater from the heavenly lake atop the northwest mountains to flow into the Yiyun River, which floods disastrously every year during the rainy season. Every emperor has hoped to resolve this, but none have matched the greatness of Emperor Liu. ” He glanced at William Harper, who was lost in thought, seemingly calculating how many troops would be needed to drive the Xi from Benlei, and smiled. “I’ve never commanded an army and know nothing of military affairs, but I do know that not everything must be solved by force.”

“Then how can the Xi be driven from Benlei Plain?”

“Emperor Danaliu established the Mohe Orthodox Church as the state religion, worshipped the descending god Mohe as the creator deity, and diminished the status of the God of Stars on the continent. The Xi, as the bloodline of the God of Star and Light, thus fell out with the empire and withdrew to Benlei Plain. The southern states, awed by the empire’s might, willingly became vassals and sent tribute every year, but their faith in the God of Stars only drew them closer together. Nearly a third of the conquered population were branded heretics and either slaughtered or exiled. Those exiled north of Jinwei Mountain settled by Lake Beijia, called themselves the Beijialuo, and worshipped the evil god Tule. Over two hundred years, they founded the Beijia Empire, while millions of commoners perished in the Black Gravel Wastes. The decline of the empire began the moment it was founded.”

William Harper looked westward, his gaze seeming to pierce the eaves, through the layered peaks of Yanyun Mountain, falling upon the Black Gravel Wastes, that land the world called the Heretic’s Domain.

In the first hundred years of the empire, the Black Gravel Wastes west of Yanyun Mountain and the icy lands north of Jinwei Mountain were the empire’s most important places of exile. Those exiled north of Jinwei Mountain were relatively fortunate: three thousand li north, on the icy plains, they discovered the vast Lake Beijia, thousands of li across, and settled around it, multiplying and conquering the native tribes. Two centuries later, a powerful Beijia Empire emerged.

The exiles in the Black Gravel Wastes could only, surrounded by savage beasts, in winds that could shatter stones and under suns that could melt the black gravel, build scattered fortresses and struggle to survive. Of those who managed to survive, not one in a hundred remained.

Though heretics may not deserve pity, the empire’s expansion truly halted because of this. Perhaps, as you said, the empire declined.

“Did the Mohe scriptures or the river of thousands of years of history bury something?” Brian Sutton asked himself. After a long silence, he returned to the main topic and asked William Harper, “Gregory Clark acquired his martial skills in the Star Temple of the county city—no easy feat. It’s rare for Yan to begin focused cultivation at eighteen. Little Wu, did you also reach this stage at eighteen?”

William Harper replied, “I inherited my clan’s secret techniques and received your careful instruction, so I barely achieved this. Yan’s talent far surpasses mine. If I hadn’t sensed no star power in him, I would have thought he was one of the awakened.”

“Don’t belittle yourself, little Wu. You’ve been by my side since you were fifteen, inevitably burdened with chores. The academy is isolated from the world, which helps lay a foundation. It’s only natural that his roots are deeper than yours—it’s not about talent.”

“Do you intend to keep him by your side in service?”