In the early parts of the war, the Holytides had seized three prefectures. After the war finished, Seventh Prince had accepted their return as part of the surrender. However, to date, they had not been transferred back to Sea-Sealing County.3

It was nothing unusual. Seventh Prince had recaptured the provinces, and Sea-Sealing County was prepared to pay for their return. However, Seventh Prince had not been inclined to negotiate the matter before. What was more, he had army forces garrisoned throughout those prefectures. Because it was a human matter, the Holytides didn’t interfere. Another factor was that those three prefectures had mines that produced a lot of spirit stones, as well as other valuable forging materials. Those things would be instrumental in Sea-Sealing County’s future recovery from the war. As a result, the prefectures couldn’t simply be abandoned.0

And now, at long last, Seventh Prince had invited Xu Qing to negotiate their return.3

“Marquis Yao hopes you can go, but he didn’t give his approval yet. You need to make the final decision, Fourth Sib. In terms of your personal safety, I wouldn’t worry about it too much. If anything untoward occurs, Seventh Prince will be held responsible. Given his personality, I doubt he would be so foolish as to allow something like that to happen.”5

Master Seventh...1