Within the unfinished Swan Defense Line.
As the army of the Way of Great Peace arrived, the ordinary people grew nervous, afraid they would be taken prisoner and slaughtered on a whim.
Yet Zhang Jiao did not massacre them as they had imagined. He merely spoke calmly to the subordinates around him.
His subordinates nodded in unison. With a sweep of one hand, a staff appeared in Zhang Jiao's grasp. Its shaft had nine bamboo joints, making it look like an utterly ordinary bamboo pole.
The Nine-Section Staff waved gently, and strange runes coalesced in the air, turning into paper talismans. The talismans floated overhead before invisible soul power burned them to ashes, which dissolved into clear water.
Bowl after bowl of talisman water was handed out.
"Th-this... is this some kind of poison?" Someone's hands trembled as he stared at the bowl he held, his lips quivering.
"It is not poison." Zhang Jiao slowly walked to the highest point of the defense line and raised his hand.
Nine Soul Rings slowly descended around his feet—two yellow, two purple, three black, and two red—proving his status as a Titled Douluo. "This is a bowl of 'a full meal,' a 'full meal' that will let you stand on your feet again! Once you drink this talisman water, you will possess the strength to overthrow the old nobility of the Heaven Dou Empire!"
"Are you willing to join my Way of Great Peace?"
The people blinked blankly. They looked down at the talisman water in their hands, their eyes gradually growing unfocused, as though they had recalled something...
"Soybeans! There are soybeans in it!" A skeletal man suddenly shouted in excitement.
The man yelled at the top of his lungs. From the way his skin clung tightly to his ribs, he had