Inside the study of the Estate of the Marquis Suppressing the North, the candlelight flickered, casting the towering figure of Qin Lie onto the massive map of the Northern Frontier spread across the wall behind him, its edges as sharp as a blade.
The air was filled with the scent of top-grade pine-soot ink and the distinctive, bracing chill of the northern steppes.
A wolf-hair brush hovered over the inkstone, a heavy drop of ink trembling at the tip—ready to fall yet stubbornly clinging, reflecting the candlelight like a nocked arrow poised to fly.
Chapter 343