In the early years of the Northern Song, after the Treaty of Chanyuan was signed in 1004, during the Jingde era, Song and Liao appeared to cease hostilities and resume trade, but undercurrents were already stirring. Within the court, the war faction, led by Privy Councilor Cao Wei and frontier general Zhong E, whose early appearance lays the groundwork for later expansion into new territories, was locked in bitter conflict with the peace faction, led by Chancellor Wang Dan and Vice Chancellor Wang Qinruo. Their struggle was no longer confined to court debates. It had seeped into the great martial arts sects, where they used the power of the martial world to fight over territory, compete for intelligence, and manipulate public sentiment. In the martial world, some sects attached themselves to the war faction, others leaned toward the peace faction, while those that stayed neutral were still dragged into the conflict. Then the “Martial World's Supreme Treasure,” the Chart of Mountains and Rivers, containing maps of Song-Liao border defenses and the distribution of martial-world forces, and valuable to both court and martial world, became the fuse that ignited the conflict. The entire Listening Snow Tower sect, a neutral school entrusted with the treasure, was slaughtered in a single night, and the treasure vanished without a trace. The martial world was shaken, the court grew alarmed, and a great espionage war spanning both court and martial world began.
