The Discourse Ranking's Ten Thousand Questions finally alarmed the entire Qing Kingdom court.
Just as Fang Yun had said, the bureaucratic system possessed an incomparably massive inertia. Yet in a society where officials stood above all else, most of the true elite were within that bureaucratic system.
Thus, when Qing Kingdom realized that it had been driven into a desperate corner in public opinion, it did not, like Fang Yun, think of reform at the first opportunity. Instead, it looked for someone to take the blame.
This was the habit of every race's elite class.
Before long, Qing Kingdom issued a proclamation.
It admitted that the county magistrate where the deceased family had lived had been corrupt in office and had already been escorted back to the capital. The local prefect was demoted to Seventh Rank, while the provincial governor was transferred elsewhere.
The proclamation also stated that although the deaths of the family of seven had been caused by the Dragon Race, Qing Kingdom did not intend to shirk responsibility and had begun studying how to ensure the food and clothing of the affected commoners.
Finally, Qing Kingdom condemned the Dragon Race and the Water Hall, hoping that the Sacred Academy would uphold justice.
That very night, the Eastern Sage Pavilion sent letters separately to Fang Yun and the Qing Lord, ordering both sides to proceed to the Eastern Sage Pavilion to discuss the conflict between their nations.
One hour after the summons was issued, a document from the Crafts Hall forced the Qing Lord to convene an emergency court session in the dead of night.
Under the pretext of technological innovation needs, the Crafts Hall withdrew all Craftsmen School scholars of the Sacred Academy from Qing Kingdom and suspended all technological and mechanism support for Qing Kingdom. Since