The Governor's reception banquet was in full swing. Lin Qi's divine puppet double had stolen the show at the feast; every move he made, every word he spoke, carried the aura of a mysterious, majestic ancient Eastern imperial dynasty. That mystery and majesty left the nobles of the Western Continent utterly enthralled, and they gathered around him like madmen.
Meanwhile, Lin Qi had donned the Phantom God Puppet and transformed into a weathered, dissolute, cunning, flamboyant middle-aged man. Dressed with solemn propriety in a red-striped silk bodysuit, he rode a small Donkey slowly toward the Governor's Office.
The Donkey ground his teeth and muttered under his breath, "Damn it, why do you all love riding on my back?"
Lin Qi turned a deaf ear to the Donkey's complaints. If he did not ride the Donkey, was he supposed to walk to the Noble Council at the Governor's Office? It was quite a distance from the harbor to the Noble Council. If he could avoid walking, why waste his strength?
Hooking a silk purse around his little finger, Lin Qi hummed a fisher's song from the North Sea coast of the Gallic Empire as he smilingly surveyed the streets of Port Vias. Though his face bore a smile, his eyes were icy as water, carrying a chilling aura of slaughter that kept others at a distance.
Long before the Blood Dragon Warship approached Port Vias, the spies under Lin Qi's command had already infiltrated the city and gathered the latest intelligence.
Karon, the Caesar Empire's southern governor, the Black Duke, had brazenly deployed the Dragon Wing Legion to invade the Vias Commercial Federation without imperial authorization, shocking the entire continent. Yet the Caesar Empire appeared to have made no response—or perhaps some upheaval had arisen within the Caesar Empire itself—so no