Merit Office, main hall.
The once-bustling place rapidly fell silent as the inner hall doors opened with a thunderous crash.
People counted it out. A quarter-hour had passed!
Thus, they all raised their heads to look toward the inner hall doors, their expressions varied.
Some gloated over others' misfortune, some pitied the world and its people, while some treated it as none of their business and remained indifferent.
All living beings wore different faces!
Yet they surely understood in their hearts that poor fellow would not be coming back.
With that expectation in mind, when they saw the white-haired youth walk out of the inner hall unharmed, as though nothing had happened, tens of thousands of people were dumbfounded on the spot.
"Ah???"
No one knew how many people let out startled, wordless cries by instinct, their faces betraying their loss of composure.
A sheep had entered a tiger's den and come out alive?
Where was the fierce tiger?
This unbelievable sight left everyone's minds blank. They simply could not fathom what was going on.
If An Ning had come out alongside Li Tianming, they might have found it easier to understand. But this Thousand Soldiers Commandant did not like showing her face, and she came and went like a ghost; no one could find a trace of her.
"Uh..."
The black-skirted women at the windows also stopped working, their pretty faces blank as they stared at Li Tianming.
The teasing and cold disdain they had previously shown Li Tianming had long since vanished from their faces.
Li Tianming, however, was not disturbed in the slightest. He walked up to the black-skirted woman from before, took out his ink-black Imperial Soldier Token, and said, "I've passed Lord Mu Qing's assessment. Exchange it."
At his words, the black-skirted woman's expression turned