Zhong Heng had not touched a blade in a long time. Back in the day, though he had never been much of a master, he had carried a blade at his side every day. Now, standing amid a room full of weapons, he felt a chill creep through him.
"Things are getting a little complicated," he said.
This was the armory of the Protectorate General's residence. It held a vast array of swords and blades of every kind, along with a few long-handled weapons. The Dragon King was interested in just one of them—a spear he had been holding and inspecting for a long time.
"What have you heard?" Gu Shenwei had just come from the army camp outside the city to South City. Though the two places were only twenty or thirty li apart, the flow of information was still too slow. He had decided to take charge in South City in person, in case anything went wrong.
The first to report to him was neither Little Xu Yi nor Long Fanyun or Hu Shining, but Zhong Heng, who should have been in North City taking part in the negotiations. The chancellor always knew exactly where the Dragon King was in public.
"Quite a few people are saying the Dragon King seized the Meng Family's wealth and kept it hidden away. Now he's short of money and has started spending it. They say the gold nugget that catcher Wu Xuan was carrying was payment from the Dragon King."
"Am I really so desperate for money that I wouldn't even remove the Meng Family's mark from it?"
Rumors never bothered with details. The whole city was abuzz with talk, especially among the merchants, who were already preparing to demand repayment from the Dragon King.
Over the past few months, and