Rumors Bewitched the Commoners, Stirring Rebellion; the Emperor Beheld the Machinery and Marvelled at Its Craftsmanship

Over the next few days, whispers filled the streets and alleys of Lieren City.

At some point, a secret and terrifying rumor had wound around every commoner's heart like a creeping vine.

At first, it was just a few men in short jackets, squatting in a corner and whispering among themselves.

"Have you heard?

That Blood Butcher's 'land distribution' is just a sham!"

A woman passing by pricked up her ears, only to hear the even more horrifying words that followed: "He wants to use the land to win our trust first. Once we all believe him, he'll gather us together and slaughter the city with the evil art of Caisheng Zhege!

From the eighty-year-old to the toddler who's just learned to walk, he won't spare a single one!"

The four words "Caisheng Zhege" were like a poison-tipped needle, sending a chill through everyone's heart.

Who in Lieren City hadn't heard the tales of this wicked art?

They said it could strip the flesh from the living and break their bones, using their resentment and blood essence to increase its practitioner's power or create monsters to harm others.

Now that this rumor was being pinned on Blood Butcher, it was surprisingly easy to believe.

After all, the story that Blood Butcher knew the art of Caisheng Zhege had long since spread through the various states.

And to him, slaughtering people and massacring a city was as ordinary as chopping melons and vegetables.

The rumor spread farther and farther, from the silk shops on North Street to the grain stores on South Street, then on to the tenant farmers' villages outside the city.

The commoners had already been half-skeptical about the promise of "a hundred mu of land for every family."

They had lived their whole lives without ever seeing a