Not long after Chen Qiu left, Ji Taiping, Great Xia's foremost sword cultivator, descended above Autumn Reach City carrying sword intent that blotted out the sky. Though anxious and furious, he still lowered his voice and rasped,
"Please, have the Autumn Reach City Lord come outside for a talk."
Great Xia's foremost sword cultivator.
It was a title pursued by the younger generation of Sky Prodigies; it did not mean one was invincible. Great Xia had three hundred and sixty-five major cities, and the city lords of most of them were Golden Core cultivators who also carried Great Xia Fortune.
Their strength could not be underestimated. Though they would most likely be no match for him, a city lord represented the Great Xia Kingdom after all. He could not simply barge into Autumn Reach City without restraint—that would make him no different from a demonic cultivator.
Yet Chen Qiu and the others had long since fled. Liu Zide was not as fast as Chen Qiu's group, but he was hardly slow either. Using Random Teleportation Talismans he had purchased beforehand, he had slipped out of Autumn Reach City under cover of night and was now on the road to Fortune City under a new identity.
The operation they had only just set up instantly shattered into pieces, everyone scattering in separate directions.
However—
What they had left behind had already spread through Xuzhou's forty-seven major cities like dandelion seeds, taking root and sprouting. After only a few days of fermentation, it would erupt into a terrifying wave of public opinion unlike anything anyone had ever seen.
Conversation fodder was like a spiritual narcotic. As long as people talked to one another, it would spread.
Though the City Lord's Manor was responsible for controlling public opinion, for the moment they were