With a thunderous rush, everyone poured out of the caves and halls.
This was the basic attitude any sect adopted when confronted with imperial authority.
After all, they lived and made their livelihoods within an imperial realm. Never provoking imperial authority was the first ironclad rule.
From the largest cave below, the old pavilion master, Ding Jishuang, hurried out with the chief executor and several elders. The seven top elders who had soared into the sky earlier swiftly gathered behind him. All of them looked deeply unsettled, for the grand commander's personal arrival in the dead of night filled them with a terrible foreboding.
The old pavilion master, Ding Jishuang, strode forward and cupped his hands toward the sky. "Your personal presence brings luster to our humble Heart Pavilion, Grand Commander. May I ask what brings you here so late at night?"
"I have already told you. An inspection!" Huo Gang said coldly. "Inspector Li, if you please!"
With that, he stepped back, yielding the leading position to a court official behind him.
The official walked forward unhurriedly. Beneath the golden radiance of imperial authority, his figure came into focus before everyone's eyes.
The pavilion master's eyes flew wide...
Everyone beside him stared with equally wide eyes...
Even a woman who had just returned from the city planted one foot atop a tall tree and stared at the official aboard the flying boat above the Heart Pavilion, utterly unable to believe her eyes.
She was Qing Ying.
She had accompanied her executor into the Capital City, playing an inconsequential role throughout, standing guard outside and trying to guess what her executor was discussing with the prince.
At first, she had been able to guess a little.
Later, however, she had been completely at a loss.
For her executor's path had