Full Fragrance House was a fairly well-known teahouse in Black City's Outer City.
As soon as Zhou Chen sat down, he noticed that business at the teahouse was much quieter than before.
He recalled several guards at the warehouse discussing how City Lord Tian had recently led the Azure Guard to arrest every member of an entire second-tier noble house on charges including tax evasion. All its assets had been confiscated, and every relative had been sentenced to beheading.
Once the news spread, panic gripped many noble houses in the Outer City.
That second-tier noble house had long since pledged allegiance to the Four-Family Alliance. City Lord Tian's actions were no different from openly declaring war on the alliance.
Yet strangely, the Four-Family Alliance had made no move at all.
By all rights, after something so serious, the alliance should at least have done something to steady the hearts of those beneath it.
Zhou Chen took a sip of tea and pondered privately. Does the Four-Family Alliance have some other scheme, or are they truly afraid of the new city lord and choosing to hold their ground?
City Lord Tian himself was a Third-Rank Martial Artist. Each of the two noble houses and two martial halls he had brought with him also had a Third-Rank Martial Artist holding the fort. With the Flying Eagle Martial Arts Hall, which had pledged allegiance to him, his side now had six Third-Rank Martial Artists in total.
The Four-Family Alliance, meanwhile, had only four Third-Rank Martial Artists. On paper, its strength was considerably weaker than the new city lord's.
Apparently, the Four-Family Alliance had been making frequent visits to the Zheng Family Martial Arts Hall and Plum Rain Martial Hall lately, hoping to win them over.
But Master Zheng and the master of Plum