Oh... right, my apologies, it does seem quite unexpected. After all, under normal circumstances, a High-level Empowerer from the Old Era in your country coming to the Imperial Capital, and the Roman Catholic Church choosing to invade your borders for face-saving reasons, and then making a double-pronged attack, would indeed be the worst possible outcome you could have anticipated.
And as for those from the Self group, it's unlikely they would lose their minds and get involved with me, a Holy Coffin Knight of the Roman Catholic Church. After all, what they want is not the absence of Xia Yue, nor for the Celestial Strategy Mansion to disband. What they have always wanted is to break away from the Yellow Springs Mainstream and gain true freedom, so it seems unlikely they would do something like this.
And persuading them to cooperate with me... indeed took quite a bit of effort, even at the cost of something tremendous, like the Heirloom Seal of the Realm.
