"Jiang Bei!"
Wen Shiqing was the first to lose patience. He spun around and stared at Jiang Bei, asking in confusion, "Th-this... what exactly was going on? Lord Lu came all this way to receive us. Why... why didn't you leave with him? He clearly said someone would make arrangements for the city's people afterward!"
Zhou Yunnan frowned deeply, equally bewildered. "That's right, little friend Jiang Bei! Lord Lu holds a high position and great authority, and he personally came to rescue us. The proper course should have been to return with him to the Tianyao Alliance at once! Yet you said you still had important matters to handle? Dongyao City has been reduced to such ruins—aside from the people, what could be more urgent than escaping this predicament?"
Pei Xiu, Cheng Poyue, and Xiao Zhantian all looked at Jiang Bei with the same bafflement on their faces.
Jiang Bei drew his gaze back from the distance and looked at their anxious faces. His voice was calm, but cold. "Nothing particularly special. It's just that if we had truly gone with him, then by now... we would probably have become corpses strewn across the ground."
"What?!"
"Jiang Bei, what did you mean by that?!"
"Lord Lu... why would Lord Lu harm us?!"
Wen Shiqing, Pei Xiu, Zhou Yunnan, Cheng Poyue, and Xiao Zhantian all underwent a drastic change in expression, freezing where they stood.
Jiang Bei did not answer directly. Instead, he looked at Wen Shiqing and asked, "Elder Wen, you said earlier that Alliance Leader Gu personally went to the Holy City every year to visit Lord Gao, and that Lord Gao greatly favored and appreciated him?"
Wen Shiqing nodded instinctively and said urgently, "That's right! The Alliance Leader said so himself—it was absolutely true! What is it?"
"The