No one liked being held under someone else's thumb.
Even here in the Southern Province, everyone understood the law of the jungle. But when they truly became the meat on someone else's chopping block, who could calmly accept it all?
Many people had long disliked Xie Qiming.
He had always treated everyone except Sikong Xue as less than human. On top of his formidable strength, he was vicious whenever he acted, and everyone else had suffered plenty because of him.
Everyone's tolerance had its limits.
Take Sikong Xue. She was not particularly easygoing in ordinary times either. To keep the enormous framework of Scorching Sun together, she needed to appear sufficiently forceful and cold.
Yet the reason everyone had still been willing to follow her was that Sikong Xue rewarded and punished fairly. Whatever she said, she did.
They had indeed received quite a few punishments due to her temperament, but whenever it was time to hand out benefits, Sikong Xue had never been stingy in the slightest.
The cultivators in the city all consumed Blood Demon essence to temper their bodies and absorbed Great Sun Crystals to cultivate their arts. Both were local specialties.
Scorching Sun had been the city's builder before this. Although it had lost all its elites in that failed surprise attack, the resources left behind still remained.
Logically speaking, Sikong Xue could have gathered all those things and flown far away. Before long, she could have broken through to the Nascent Soul Realm, or even gone a step further. By then, supporting all living beings might have been another matter, but protecting herself would have posed no problem whatsoever.
Yet for her ideals and her father's last wish, she had resolutely chosen to distribute those things among those around her.
That was why Scorching Sun