The passage was once again in Imperial hands—this was indeed good news, but things weren’t too great in actuality.

After investigating the situation, the imperial clan’s divination experts announced that the passage had become extremely unstable. Although travel was still possible, the level of danger would increase sharply. Ordinary experts would very likely fall during the journey.

The passage shouldn’t have collapsed this quickly, but the Eternal Flame seemed to have used the power of the surrounding void to reinforce the passage. After his powers waned, however, the void around the passage became unusually violent. The current passage was like a thread floating about in the tempest.

One way was to wait until the void calmed down and the passage became stable again. This would require a fairly long time, and no one knew how long it would take. Perhaps it would take long enough for the Evernight army to return to the neutral lands. Another method was for the empire to mobilize a heavenly monarch to stabilize the passage, making it usable once more. That, however,...