Changing Faces

Duàn Yì found it quite strange. In the operation to suppress the White Lotus Sect, he had only been the nominal leader; in truth, the people of the Zhenbei King's Mansion should have handled everything from start to finish.

Yet something had gone wrong midway through. A disciple of Divine Marquis Wei had appeared and beaten the mansion's people until they had no temper left. Had Duàn Yì not stepped in and captured him, Xia Hong would likely have lost all face.

And that was not all. During the later assault that destroyed the Blade Factory, it had primarily been Qin Xin, using the Heavenly Demonic Qin in conjunction with the character-commanding technique of the Eight Dragon Sounds, who had brought down nearly a hundred able-bodied men. She had even inflicted considerable harm upon Shen Mozhi's family, allowing the mansion's experts to capture them with ease.

No matter how one looked at it, his performance throughout had been commendable, even beyond expectations. It would have been one thing if Xia Hong had not rewarded him, but Xia Hong had instead acted distant and wary. Naturally, Duàn Yì was displeased.

He did not consider himself subordinate to Xia Hong. If Xia Hong made him unhappy, he would not simply take it lying down. He immediately struck back, using the suppression of the White Lotus Sect to remind Xia Hong that without him, the Zhenbei King's Mansion might already have suffered a tremendous loss of prestige.

That was tantamount to tearing open an old scar. But who had told Xia Hong to be so poorly prepared and stumble so badly?

As the ruler of a region, Xia Hong commanded no fewer than a million men. Few dared show him disrespect to his face. Instinctively, he flew into a rage, and a terrifying