"I saw what you were capable of back in the royal capital. All these years, I've never been able to figure out how you did it. With abilities like yours, would you really fear the Yuan Family?"
Yuan Tian stared straight at Zhang Yuanrang.
Neither man's daughter was with him now, so they could speak freely.
"You can't figure it out? You can't understand how an ordinary man like me could lay out such a heaven-shaking scheme?"
Zhang Yuanrang suddenly laughed.
"I actually didn't do much. A lot of those things were already there. I merely set them all off at once. But this situation is different from the last one."
Zhang Yuanrang shook his head. "The Yuan Family rules Azure City. They're the local serpent, the ones who hold absolute power."
"In the face of absolute power, petty cleverness and schemes are utterly useless."
"Back then, the King of Wei really was gravely poisoned, but it was a slow-acting poison. I happened to have seen it before. It was a mortal poison, specifically designed to give martial men like us a chance against cultivators. The fire in the imperial harem happened because someone wanted to seize the queen's position. As for all those natural disasters, poor precautions were all that lay behind them."
"In the end, the state treasury was empty, and corrupt officials needed to be executed to replenish it. I merely gave things a push."
Zhang Yuanrang shook his head as he spoke.
He had made himself perfectly clear.
Back in the royal capital, he had merely been the one giving things a push. Here in Azure City, he was the one being swept along by power. He could not break free, so naturally, he could not be that so-called driving hand.
He told Yuan Tian these