“What happened?” Lu Yun recomposed himself and shoved all random thought out of his mind.

“Nothing much. I ran into a rival and we had an altercation,” Zhuo Bufan responded awkwardly. “Young master and mistress, I’d wanted to arrange an internal position for you, but now that my rival is here… If you remain at alliance headquarters, you’ll likely meet a nasty death at his hands as well.”

He explained the current layout of the land with an unhappy expression. An incredibly unpalatable surprise had been waiting for him earlier—his faction in the alliance had almost been completely uprooted. Anyone having to do with him had either betrayed him, left the alliance, or been killed under flimsy pretexts.

As the newest members of his camp and personally...