What he said was no lie. Though the small mountain village they lived in was remote, it still had ties to the outside world. After the busy farming season, many young people would head to the county town to look for work. There, amid streets and alleyways, they heard some rumors about Meng Zhao and naturally brought them back to this little mountain village.
Moreover, this reputation was a positive one. Countless young people regarded him as a goal to strive toward, admiring and worshipping him. This showed just how much Tong Lie's affair had benefited Meng Zhao.
To put it bluntly, at that time Meng Zhao truly possessed a measure of the stature of a great hero of the Human Clan. It was only that the battle had ultimately not been fought. Otherwise, if Meng Zhao had rallied the martial world of the Northern Lands and the expectations of countless members of the Human Clan, then defeated Tong Lie, he would have become the truly unrivaled number one figure in the Northern Lands. The love, recognition, and support he received would have far surpassed that of the Beitang Imperial Clan.
So sometimes, they really had to thank Tong Lie for knowing which way the wind blew and not charging blindly onward. Given that Meng Zhao had been strong enough to heavily injure the Heavenly Demon Palace Lord, if Tong Lie had truly gritted his teeth and accepted the battle back then, he would most likely have been defeated.
His defeat itself would not have mattered. But if he had lost himself to Meng Zhao and even allowed Meng Zhao to gain incomparably vast prestige, glory, and renown, that would have been unacceptable to them and to the Beitang Imperial Clan.
"Then... it is said that Meng Zhao has colluded