More often than not, substance and face were one and the same. With substance came face; with face came substance. Like growing rich and prosperous, like earning one's name on the golden list.
Yet at other times, substance and face stood in conflict—you could not have both. If you wanted face, you had to grit your teeth; if you wanted substance, you had to toughen your skin. Like lending money to relatives and friends, like selling smiles in the pleasure quarters.
Everyone wanted both substance and face, but most of the time, people only outsmarted themselves. In others' eyes, they became people who got the bargain yet still acted coy about it. Especially in a business like borrowing a tiger's might to extort others—getting the substance was already good enough. Wanting face as well was harder than climbing to heaven.
If the Fire God General sent by the Star Emperor Temple was considered the substance, then Zhang Tie's method of securing face could only be called masterful. With a single sentence, he made Yuan Lang regard him with instant respect, feeling that His Majesty the Dragon Emperor was indeed just and magnanimous, broad-minded and grand in bearing.
What Zhang Tie said was—
"Has the Star Emperor Temple found anything while investigating the Dark Emperor Temple in the Thousand Forest Central Domain?"
Zhang Tie no longer spoke of compensation, no longer "nitpicked" over the vast gap between the Star Emperor Temple's apology and his own demands. He no longer mentioned the Fire God General, nor did he bring up the Star Emperor's mistakes. Instead, he directly asked about the Dark Emperor Temple and the Demon Emperor.
This question carried considerable weight. To Yuan Lang's ears, Zhang Tie had asked it from the standpoint of a leader of the human race. And