The gates of the City Guard Battalion's compound were shut tight.
Before the gates, Chen Shi'an sat upright in a backed chair, with Du Gang, Pi Hou, and more than twenty men from the Demon Hunting Camp gathered behind him in a fan.
Outside the City Guard Battalion's compound, spectators stood packed in ring upon ring.
Confusion showed on every face. None knew what Chen Shi'an intended to do.
After roughly half an incense stick's worth of time, hurried hoofbeats came from the distant street.
The spectators scattered, opening a path.
A party of more than ten riders came galloping toward them.
At their head rode a burly middle-aged man with a two-inch scar on his left cheek. He was Wang Tianye, Commander of the City Guard Battalion.
As he approached the compound gates and saw them tightly shut, with Chen Shi'an sitting upright before them in his own high-backed chair, fury burned inside Wang Tianye.
Before his warhorse had come to a complete stop, he leaped from its back and landed ten paces in front of Chen Shi'an.
Still sitting upright in the high-backed chair, Chen Shi'an lifted his eyes slightly. "You took too long. Any longer, and you would have had to go to the Demon Hunting Camp to see me."
Wang Tianye stared coldly at Chen Shi'an. "You, Chen, had better not think I'm afraid of you.
"I only tolerated you time and again because you were going to compete in the Gathering of Heroes.
"Yet today, you actually dared to attack my City Guard Battalion.
"In light of your taking fourth place in the Gathering of Heroes for our Windrise Stronghold, apologize and beg my pardon right now, then get lost, and we'll consider this matter settled..."
Chen Shi'an laughed. "Oh? You didn't start fighting the