Disaster Had Struck
For the past few days, Yangzhou City had been rife with undercurrents and panic. Wherever people gathered—in the streets and alleys, teahouses and taverns—someone was always whispering about the unsettling rumors:
First, the Yangzhou prefect had been beheaded in his sleep, and not a single guard or servant in his entire residence had noticed.
The next day, all seven men of the Liu Family in the west of the city had died silently in their own Chamber of Secrets.
That same day, in the south of the city, the Old Master Zhao—wealthy beyond measure and mentor to most of the immortal officials in the surrounding prefectures—had inexplicably died in his study. His head was nowhere to be found.
On the third day, in the north of the city, Old Master Zou, who had reached the peak of Foundation Establishment, and his three sons, all immortal masters, had perished at the training grounds behind their home. Their heads had been cut off, too.
There were more than a dozen other cases, but there was no need to go into detail.
In short!
In just a few days, more than a dozen influential officials, gentry, immortal masters, and wealthy merchants in Yangzhou City had met grisly deaths, each in a different way. And they all had one thing in common: the victims were either prominent figures in Yangzhou City or deeply entrenched power players in the Yangzhou region!
So, for the other "big shots" still alive, the situation was naturally rife with undercurrents and panic. Each murder was like a sword hanging over their heads, ready to fall on them at any moment.
However, to the ordinary people of Yangzhou, these deaths might have been nothing more than after-dinner gossip—or perhaps a form of "divine justice" they hardly