The old City God left the rear hall of the Imperial Horse Immortal Bureau.
He followed the path along the edge of the pasture.
On the way, he encountered several trembling gray-robed immortal clerks and even nodded pleasantly to them, as approachable as ever.
Only after he had traveled ten or twenty li.
With not a trace of the Immortal Office's aura left around him.
Did the old City God slowly stop.
He turned and looked back toward that vast pasture.
Beneath the sunlight, his warm, humble face gradually clouded with a gloom that would not disperse.
Red Erlang was dead.
It would be a lie to say it did not hurt.
But to say fury had seized his heart and thrown him into disarray would be even more absurd.
After grinding through so many years in the Heavenly Court's local bureaucracy, his heart had long since been tempered as hard as bedrock.
In truth, before coming to Luminous Yang Commandery, he had already guessed this assignment would not be easy.
What an illustrious lineage the Zhang Family had.
Its elders were influential officials who carried weight in the Celestial Administration Office.
Had some ordinary rogue cultivator without backing offended a member of the Zhang Family.
Zhang Shiren would only have needed to drop a hint, and countless people would have scrambled to settle the matter beautifully.
Why would he need to offer a substantive post as a Principal Seventh Rank chief judge to entice a lowly eighth-rank local official like him...
That meant the waters behind this girl ran deep.
Deep enough that Zhang Shiren was unwilling to wade in himself.
At that thought.
The old City God tightened his hands slightly behind his back.
In truth, he had never expected to settle matters with a few words during