The convoy did not linger long in the close-defense zone. It retraced its route, carrying Huai City's exhausted military and political leaders and the distinguished guests they could not afford to offend. But the reception was not over. The final stop was the No. 1 Cave construction camp, a project one of those guests had built himself.
Huai City's leaders had planned to heap praise on him when they arrived. They would say that clearing out the Poison Swamp Zone was an achievement for their generation and a boon to generations to come. Flatter him first, and dealing with him later would be easier.
But now, would following that plan amount to endorsing his policy of "expanding outward" and "seeking space in the Wilderness"? Would it signal to the established interest groups in Huai City, An City, and Xia City that they supported the An-Xia Line?
At the very least, would it give the young "Living God" and the increasingly restless An Baizhan something to hold them to?
What a joke!
They might be the people in power under the existing system of city governance, but a careless remark from them could unsettle far more than Huai City alone...
Even the most conservative reading led to an unsettling question: was Xia City, an East Asian metropolis that housed three Transcendental Species and had integrated them rather well with its civic and military forces, no longer satisfied with its current sphere of influence?
The same went for An City.
It went against the instincts shaped by decades of the City-State System. But this youngest of men had overturned people's expectations more than once already.
"Dark clouds overhead. That's a lot of pressure." Zhao Xi, traveling with the Deep Blue Walkers on the flank, clicked his tongue. "We've only passed one junction,