Nonstop bitching about Houken. You people drool over many characters who are already useless in the story, ceased character development hundreds of chapters ago, are no longer relevant to the main character on-page, or are only 'interesting' because we haven't seen the extent of their 'oooh mystery', or are needlessly complex/simple without a story behind it. He was an important and interesting element to the story, and a major part of Shin's growth - and here he passes, appropriately and when he should. This was well done, not a situation to curse.
Honestly, I don't know how the story's going to continue after the subjugation of Zhao, if it will at all. We know next to nothing about the other states, all the major antagonists with any development are in Zhao, backstories of protagonists are in Zhao.