Gu Yun answered with an 'Mm', narrowing his eyes that were starting to blur again, casting his sight towards the flourishing Lou Lan with thousands of lights in the distance. A young Lou Lan boy was playing a one-stringed instrument on the city wall like a madman, laughing and smiling as he looked in Gu Yun's direction.

Gu Yun no longer had the heart to frolic with these Lou Lan people who only ever knew how to eat and drink. He returned the pieces of papers to Shen Yi: "Silence him."

Shen Yi's pupil contracted.

"Eliminate him and get rid of all traces," Gu Yun's lips appeared almost stilled, all his words seemed to be contained inside: "Those bandits as well, just say they wanted to escape, our force had no other choice but to slay them down — this matter between the two of us, if it were to leak out, it could only be from you. Immediately investigate the origin of that treasure map."

Shen Yi: "Roger."

He asked again moments later: "Marshal, I have heard a rumor from the capital that Wei Wang has been imprisoned?"

Gu Yun glanced at him: "You even said yourself that it was only a rumor, the imperial decree has not been sent down yet, don't make any speculations, get to work."

Shen Yi responded with a 'yes'. The exhaustion on Gu Yun's face had not yet faded away. He stood still in one spot, pressing the corner of his eyes, he could only hope that he had overreacted about this treasure map of unknown origin.

The Dragons disaster at the Eastern Sea was not yet stabilized, but the Northwest already had this strange occurrence. He kept having the feeling that these events were no coincidence.

Half a month later, two reports of the Jiangnan situation were laid out in front of Long An Emperor Li Feng.

Li Feng tapped his desk, a man over forty with a long beard quickly came forth, brightening up the steam lamp for him. This man was the blood-related imperial uncle of His Majesty - named Wang Guo - currently the most favored subject of the imperial court.

Li Feng opened the first one - it was written according to what Gu Yun and Yao Zhen had discussed that day, sugarcoating all of Jiangnan's officials from big to small, then applauded them for their merits and goodwill at the end. The Emperor did not say anything after he finished reading. He proceeded to pick up the second one.

This one was a confidential report, the way it was written was entirely different from the previous one, it said: