"Is the Imperial Academy principal fighting someone?"
"Was the Imperial Academy principal beaten up by a student's parent?"
"Was the Imperial Academy principal being hunted down by a student's father because he had an affair with the student's mother?"
Rumors stopped with the wise, but never with the idiots. Nothing spread faster than news except gossip that people loved to hear.
Along the streets of eastern Flame Capital, ordinary citizens who had been kept awake by the commotion and rushed over to watch the excitement pointed toward the "deep-blue barrier" rising in the distance while hotly discussing which noblewoman the Imperial Academy principal had been fooling around with. Some said it was the First Minister's newly acquired beautiful concubine; others said it was the beloved wife of the Marquis of Misconduct. They had done their best to overestimate the other party's status, yet still failed to guess correctly.
Suddenly, the pleasant sound of wind chimes drifted over on the breeze. The people looked toward it, but only caught sight of a silver streak flashing across the rooftops, moving so fast that they could not even capture the other party's shadow!
"It's the 'Restraint' Martial Pillar, Silver Bell Earl Crane Tear!" a slightly more knowledgeable martial artist cried out at once.
Although Flame Capital had more Martial Pillars than anywhere else in the world—the entire Outer Eight Districts had no more than a handful of Martial Pillars in almost every district, averaging out to less than one per city—Flame Capital alone had more than ten. However, Martial Pillars were either entangled in miscellaneous duties or devoted to exploring the limits of humanity. To ordinary people, Martial Pillars were still legendary figures, so naturally they could hardly contain themselves upon seeing one.
For martial artists, knowing the information on Flame Capital's Martial