It had not taken ten days. Just five days after the Chief of the Exorcising the Dragon Gang arrived at the Blackwater Guard, Great Director of Fate Yin Tianqi formally issued a proclamation and signed the documents announcing the Demon-Suppressing Guard's cooperation with the Exorcising the Dragon Gang to the entire Northern Lands.
It was called cooperation, but the provisions that members of the Demon-Suppressing Guard would join the Exorcising the Dragon Gang as individuals, that the Guard as a whole would receive allotted positions of Dragonhead, Great Chief, and Chief, and that the Gang would establish a Traveling Office and institute commanderies and counties in the Northern Lands after the war made it perfectly clear: the Demon-Suppressing Guard was effectively merging with the Exorcising the Dragon Gang, with the latter swallowing up the former.
Once the proclamation went out, there was little room left to turn back.
That very day, Lan Dawen, Commander of Fate of the Anche Guard, resigned outright and returned home, fulfilling his political promise... This single example was enough to show that the internal upheaval in the Demon-Suppressing Guard Yin Tianqi had mentioned yesterday was almost inevitable, and would be intense, frequent, and widespread.
Unlike Lady Lu, who had returned to Listening to the Waves City overnight, Zhang Xing waited until the proclamation went out. Once he saw the whole city boiling with excitement and countless Battle Regiment messengers riding off, he too acted without hesitation. He left only a liaison team headed by Jia Yue, with Xu Jingzu handling its actual affairs, while he, Bai Yousi, and Qin Bao led several staff officers and the White Wolf Guard party, including Hei Yan, straight back along their original route.
They had come with their banners flying high. When they left, the red Exorcise-Character Banner was