"My lord, please calm your anger!"
"This subordinate... this subordinate truly was somewhat negligent!"
His voice trembled, yet he was still trying hard to explain.
"However, Yunlan City's ancient clans and sects have been entrenched in the city for thousands of years. Their influence is deeply rooted, and some even existed before our Holy Land!"
"When Senior Brother Song took office twenty years ago, they were already behaving this way!"
"So by now, it has become customary..."
Jiang Fan stood with his hands behind his back, looking down at him from above.
"Customary?"
"Does something being customary mean they can treat the Patrol Office of my Mystic Heaven Holy Land as a banquet hall for maintaining their connections?"
Zhao Qianjun pressed his forehead tightly to the ground.
"My lord, there is something you do not know!"
"When Senior Brother Song and I came to take office together, Senior Brother Song once flew into a rage over this as well. He even ordered that outsiders be strictly forbidden from entering the Patrol Office without permission!"
"But in the end... those forces were respectful on the surface, yet secretly joined hands to hollow out many of the Patrol Office's powers..."
Jiang Fan frowned.
"Hollow out? How did they hollow them out?"
Zhao Qianjun's voice was low.
"All of Yunlan City's resource allocation, trade-route access, and mining operations are controlled by the major forces!"
"The decrees issued by the Patrol Office are nothing but scraps of paper without their nod. Senior Brother Song wanted to rectify things back then as well, but..."
His gaze was complicated.
"But those forces had long since become one. If my lord were to pressure them by force, they would use the excuse that unrest in the city was affecting tax revenue and complain to the Holy Land!"