Changes on the Clear Sand River

The demon ape was slain, and the winds and clouds above the Clear Sand River changed at once.

That day, Water Manor soldiers dragged the demon ape's huge, charred corpse ashore. Under Wang Ming's direction, they skinned it and stripped its bones before the assembled crowd,

dividing up the materials.

Xu Yuan kept his promise, splitting some of the more valuable materials equally among the three families. The lesser scraps of flesh, blood, sinew, and bone went to the Water Manor soldiers who had fought and the many low-ranking Rogue Cultivators who had come to watch.

The gesture was fair and won hearts. Cheers rang across the Water Manor docks as everyone praised the warden's generosity.

After that battle, eyewitnesses spread the tale of Xu Yuan subduing the demon with lightning. Word swept through the entire Clear Sand River basin at astonishing speed, then spread to more distant markets and lineages.

In an instant, his image changed from a "Jade Dragon Palace envoy" with powerful backing but unknown strength into a "true-cultivator warden" of vast, unfathomable power.

Along both banks of the Clear Sand River, cultivators and mortals alike spoke of "Warden Xu" with awe.

The authority of the Clear Sand River Water Manor rose with him.

Afterward, Wang Ming took the Water Manor's writ and led its soldiers on renewed patrols of the river, meeting no obstruction. Matters that once required the three families' approval—or suffered their covert interference—now went forward at a single command.

More of the taxes and transit levies collected at riverside docks and ferries also began flowing, openly and rightfully, into the Water Manor's coffers instead of the three families' private purses.

The Zhao Clan needed no further persuasion. Thoroughly frightened, its head, Zhao Gan, lost all appetite for defiance. He did not dare disobey