"Pfft."
A soft laugh escaped Zhang Yunshang's lips, like a spring breeze thawing a frozen lake.
"That's right. In a few days, you're coming with me to Tianjin to meet my father."
Zhang Yunshang studied Li Xiang with interest, a sly glint in her bright eyes. "Don't worry. The stories going around are all rumors. My father eats ordinary food, not people."
Li Xiang paused. The intelligence he had gathered on Zhang Jiuchuan, the heavily armed marshal of the Tianjin Warlord, rose to mind.
Zhang Jiuchuan, nicknamed Butcher Zhang, was rumored to possess a profession above Man-Slayer. Murder was said to run in his bones. To suppress the terrifying Killing Intent within him, he supposedly ate a fresh human heart every morning and drank half a pot of warm human blood each night. He delighted in slaughter and treated lives like weeds—a demon through and through, dressed in human skin.
If a living King of Hell whose very name could stop a child crying at night suddenly wanted to meet someone, anyone would feel a chill at the back of their neck.
"Rumors stop with the wise." Zhang Yunshang's smile faded. Her expression grew earnest, her voice carrying the pride of someone defending her father.
"My father is extremely strict with his troops, but under his rule, Tianjin is one of the few prosperous, peaceful places in this Age of Chaos."
She rose and walked to the enormous map of the north, then lightly touched Tianjin's outlet to the sea.
"Six years ago, a terrible drought struck Tianjin. The land lay scorched for a thousand miles, and the people harvested not a single grain. At the Dragon King Temple outside the city, water demons claiming the Dragon King had granted them authority seized the chance to extort money. They even