However—
Chen Qiu quickly withdrew his gaze from the Zhang Clan Patriarch. He had merely turned back for a look out of idle curiosity.
About two hours later.
Chen Qiu's group finally arrived in grand fashion above Handsome Men City. With Chen Qiu at the lead, they descended directly into the city rather than entering through its gates. The city guards had just been about to question them, but upon seeing the Zhang Clan Patriarch trailing behind the group with his head lowered, they promptly understood and slunk back away.
"Boss."
In an alley, an armored man looked at the departing group and whispered, "Shouldn't we at least symbolically stop them? These people are being far too unruly. If the City Lord blames us later, it'll be hard to deal with."
"Stop them symbolically. Even if they insist on forcing their way in, we don't need to truly stop them. Then the City Lord can't blame us either. We did try to stop them; we just failed, that's all."
"Stop my ass!"
The captain of the guard squad smacked his subordinate on the head irritably. "That melon of a brain of yours needs fixing. Did you see who that was? The Zhang Clan Patriarch of Tai City—a famous figure around these parts, a Void Refinement Early Stage cultivator."
"And yet he was trotting along at the back of that group, not even daring to lift his head."
"Take a guess at what sort of people those at the front of the group are."
"Are they people we can afford to provoke? Or rather, people Handsome Men City can afford to provoke? And that man at the front looked quite young. For all we know, he could be some great clan's young master. You want to go symbolically stop someone like