What happened in Huo County could not be hidden. Even after the Bai Family had been wiped out and the swordsmen who had followed Huo Shan in the ambush were killed, there would still be survivors who slipped through the net. After all, there were other servants and other disciples.
There might even have been other townsfolk involved—the clerks at the pharmacy, minor yamen officials, guards and servants from the Yang and Liu families, and so on. As a rebel organization built on secret associations, trust between people was far too fragile. Naturally, the problem had to be addressed organizationally, striving for thoroughness wherever possible.
If one group had been planted in ambush, another group had to be planted to monitor them. There might even have been a third group hiding somewhere.
On the other hand, Wang Yan had not issued a gag order. He had been so high-profile that even if he wanted to silence people, he could not. As more than a month passed, word of what happened in Huo County naturally spread through ordinary business exchanges.
Of course, no one mentioned the White Lotus Sect. That would just be asking for trouble. Everyone preferred to play dumb. So long as you did not mention the White Lotus Sect or rebellion, I would treat it as an ordinary conflict among the lower classes.
Thus, those connected to the matter only learned that a formidable man had appeared in Huo County and wiped out an entire local prominent family overnight. But the news spread only so far. Huo County was, after all, a small place, and the Yang, Bai, and Liu families could only throw their weight around there. In larger places like Lu'an and Shucheng, they amounted to nothing.
Everyone merely treated it as an amusing story. No