A newly advanced Demon Venerable was already enough to draw the attention of many interested parties.
What was more, the title of "seventh-rank alchemist" involved the interests of numerous factions.
Now, although the area around Wei Tu's cave abode appeared as quiet and deserted as usual, quite a few factions had in fact dispatched spies to secretly observe it with their divine sense.
Gong Shulan's comings and goings were all seen by these people with perfect clarity.
And when they saw the "personal mark" Wei Tu had carved between Gong Shulan's brows... the shock in their hearts was easy to imagine.
"Could Demon Venerable Lianwu have joined forces with the Chief Dipper Trading Company? Or was this Kou... so bold that he dared humiliate Demon Venerable Lianwu and her beloved disciple?"
"The Chief Dipper Trading Company has two great Demon Venerables standing guard, and Demon Venerable Kou now has the potential to become a seventh-rank alchemist. It is not unimaginable that Demon Venerable Lianwu came to befriend him and had her beloved disciple serve Demon Venerable Kou."
"Who knows whether this demonic restriction between her brows is humiliation or pleasure to her? After all, she has caught a Demon Venerable's eye... Now she is displaying it before outsiders in such a boastful manner..."
Very soon, over ninety percent of the factions reached a consensus on this matter. They all believed that Demon Venerable Lianwu, Wei Tu, and Chief Dipper Demon Venerable were sending the outside world a signal that the two sides had already entered into cooperation.
After all, Wei Tu had no need to deliberately humiliate Demon Venerable Lianwu with such a petty trick of psychological victory.
Or rather—although Wei Tu might have humiliated and abused Gong Shulan, from the perspective of the two major factions, this was a