The "defiance of the rules" Chu Ge sensed should have been a relatively serious matter.
When Qiu Wuji said "smash their heads to pieces" in public, that was a case of "breaking the book" by acting out of character, which registered to the author as a sense that something was "wrong." Yet the book's contents had not changed. What had changed was the real world, so the feedback took the form of interference from the Heavenly Dao.
Just as in the battle against the Poison-Hand Demon Lord, it was correcting a plot that had gone off the rails.
As Chu Ge watched intently, Qiu Wuji sensed it too.
It was as though the laws of the Heavenly Dao had descended around her, seemingly intent on suppressing all her "irreverence," all her "selfhood," back into place.
The others did not experience it so directly, but they could feel a pressure like dark clouds blotting out the sun, like the warning signs of an approaching heavenly tribulation.
Someone rejoiced wildly and demanded, "Qiu Wuji, what shady deed have you committed to bring down heavenly punishment?"
The crowd stirred.
This really did seem like heavenly punishment, or at least its precursor.
Qiu Wuji's long hair stirred gently as she raised her head to the sky.
She seemed able to sense a pair of eyes in the clouds, watching coldly. Qiu Wuji set her face and glared back.
Then that coldness turned to astonishment, then to an indulgent smile, before vanishing with a whoosh.
The rain cleared, and the sky turned blue.
Everyone: "???"
Was even heaven avoiding her?
City Lord Xie of Skyreach City rose to his feet and laughed heartily. "I speak what is in my heart. Who says Qiu Wuji has to speak a certain way? What a joke. Sect Master