"And with that kind of financial power, they must have gained the city lord's support... So, is there no room left for any reconciliation between the city lord and me?"
Thinking about this, Zhou Xiong’s heart turned ice-cold.
Was defending Pukou City truly going to be this difficult?
As he stewed in frustration, his gaze suddenly caught sight of a middle-aged man not far away, violently throwing eggs at him. Almost like a moment of divine inspiration, Zhou Xiong instantly recognized the man.
Last night, that same man had spoken up for him.
He believed that everything Zhou Xiong did and said was utterly flawless—an ordinary civilian.
But now...
There he was, right in the crowd!
And he was the most energetic one of all, hurling eggs with gusto.
"It’s you!" Zhou Xiong roared.
The man was startled and blurted out, "Not me, not me."
"It is you! It is you!" Zhou Xiong insisted.
"Absolutely not me, absolutely not me," the man denied desperately.
"No, it’s you."
"No, definitely not me."
"If it weren’t you, why are you denying it?" Zhou Xiong instantly seized on the logical flaw in the man’s words, landing a fatal blow.
That left the man stunned for a second, before he clenched his teeth and tried to bluster, "Not me, not me.
I’m just a good citizen defending love."
Hearing those words, Zhou Xiong’s head seemed to explode.
Wait—last night, this man had been firmly on his side. How could a single night bring about such a huge change?
Could the Love Mutual Aid Alliance of Pukou City really wield such tremendous power?
Was it so easy to transform a person?
Reflecting on this, Zhou Xiong lifted his gaze and spotted many familiar faces—people who had once been honest, simple farmers of Pukou City. Yet now...
They had all become fervent followers of the Love Mutual Aid Alliance.
Zhou Xiong’s heart sank like a stone.
Could the change really be this fast?
He had just had a solid night’s sleep. And when he woke up, his most cherished foundation—the people’s support—had been turned completely upside down.
He’d even lost that last pillar of strength!
"General, let’s head back," one of his guards put in urgently.
In truth, it wasn’t that the guard wanted to persuade Zhou Xiong to return—it was that he couldn’t take it anymore. Standing beside Zhou Xiong, the things being thrown at the general often missed him and hit the guard instead.
Who could endure that?
To make matters worse, they couldn’t just start a massacre.
Nearly half the city was gathered here.
How many people had the nerve to go on a killing spree against half a city?
Zhou Xiong responded like a wooden puppet, letting the guard pull him back to the mansion. Sitting in a chair, he was as dazed as a statue, his mind struggling to process everything.
Outside, the clamor hadn’t stopped. The chants kept ringing out, demanding that he get out of Pukou City, demanding that he pay for Miss Wanqing’s life, demanding that he fall on his own sword.
Zhou Xiong’s heart was caught in a cycle of collapse, reconstruction, and then collapse all over again.
It wasn’t until dusk that the crowd gradually dispersed.
Most likely, they were going home for dinner and rest.
Only then did Zhou Xiong breathe a slight sigh of relief and start pondering his next move.
The city lord was against him.
The Love Mutual Aid Alliance wanted him dead.
Even the people’s sympathies were set against him.
He felt completely stripped of any support.
"Surely I can’t just surrender to Ren Tianye?"
This thought suddenly flickered through Zhou Xiong‘s mind, but he quickly suppressed it.
"No, absolutely not!"
Just then, his guard came running in.
"General, someone is at the gate asking to see you."
"It doesn’t seem to be from the Love Mutual Aid Alliance or the city lord’s faction. She doesn’t look like she’s from Pukou City. However, she claims to be an old acquaintance of your master."
Zhou Xiong frowned slightly: "An old acquaintance of my master? A woman?"
"A woman—an elderly one."
"No way. My master regarded love and romance as fleeting clouds all his life. He had an old acquaintance?" Zhou Xiong said. "Show her in."
After a moment, an old woman entered through a side gate. Her face was aged, but her spirit was vigorous, and she gave off an impression of being anything but ordinary at first glance.
Zhou Xiong took a look at her and asked directly, "Who are you? And why do you claim to be an old acquaintance of my master?"
"I am Sun Rong. You may call me Granny Sun," she said. She was the one who had volunteered to come and persuade Zhou Xiong on Ren Tianye’s behalf. "Your master and I both once belonged to the former Demon Suppression Bureau, so I suppose that makes us old acquaintances."
Zhou Xiong suddenly understood.
So that was it.
Still...
Wariness quickly rose in his heart.
The former... Demon Suppression Bureau?
What exactly was that? His master had never mentioned it while alive. But he knew all too well what the Demon Suppression Bureau was.
That was a department under Ren Tianye’s command, infamous for its power to execute first and report later, with special imperial authority. It had launched wave after wave of purges against love-crazed fools across the land.
Deep down, Zhou Xiong actually approved of it.
But unfortunately, he was on the opposite side.
So in his eyes, the Demon Suppression Bureau was a great enemy.
Staring hard at Granny Sun, he said, "So you’re a persuasive envoy sent by Ren Tianye?"
Granny Sun gave Zhou Xiong an approving glance before replying, "No wonder he took you as his disciple—your reactions are quick."
"That’s right. I’ve now pledged loyalty to the Duke, and at his command, I’ve come to invite you to do the same."
She let out a sigh and went on, "I arrived last night, but I didn’t come to see you right away. And good thing I didn’t—I had the chance to witness the chaos and... absurdity of Pukou City."
"Alas, these love-crazed fools under heaven are growing more intense and terrifying by the day—ten times more rampant than in our time. No, more than ten times."
"If only our leader from back then hadn’t disappeared. Had we managed to stop them, the world wouldn’t have degenerated to this extreme."
Granny Sun seemed to be speaking to herself, yet also painting Zhou Xiong a picture of those days. After a pause, she continued:
"Your master and I, back in the day, were both dedicated to stopping these madness spreading pests. Then, we didn’t succeed.
But now, the Duke has arrived. He’s carved out a promising situation. And as a descendant of the former Demon Suppression Bureau, I believe you’d be willing to pledge your allegiance to him as well."
"Come on, join the Duke, and together, we’ll restore the world to its proper state."
When she had first volunteered for this task before Ren Tianye, Sun Rong had been sure it would be easy. She assumed that as soon as she spoke, Zhou Xiong would surrender on the spot and hand over Pukou City.
But to her surprise, Zhou Xiong shook his head.
And he did it with a firm resolve.
This left Granny Sun taken aback.
"You disagree?"
"What, haven’t you seen what’s been happening these past two days? Pukou City has become a haven for love-crazed fools. There’s no room for you here!"
"They’re frenzied. They’re tormenting you like this.
Now, you’ve lost the support of the city officials, and you’ve lost the hearts of the people. You have nothing left."
……
lity and could only live as an ordinary mortal. He only wished to live a peaceful life. Yet he didn't know— The dog he adopted, because it ate his food, became a legendary demon king. The kitchen knife he casually forged became a peerless divine weapon, causing numerous experts to fight desperately for it. The young disciple he took in became an immortal lord that led an era, due to cultivating the techniques Ye Feng taught him. Even the skeletons he looked down on the most were ominous demon kings that suppressed countless worlds. Many years later, looking at the void shattered with a punch, Ye Feng murmured to himself: It turns out the peerless kings were myself all along...
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
rowess are unmatched, commanding a million-strong army! Yet, the Emperor wants to depose him for the sake of a false prince? Hold on, are you throwing me into some female-oriented romance plot? How can I tolerate this? With a grand wave of his hand—the Nine Clan Extraction Technique! Slander the Emperor? Very well, all of you shall die! ... The False Prince: "Although I am not the biological son, Father and Mother love me more. The throne should be mine!" The Female Lead: "Qin Xiao, you are the Emperor, and I am a commoner. If you wish to marry me, you must abdicate. Otherwise, you will never have me!" The Empress: "After we divorce, you must give me half the empire!" The Transmigrator Consort: "You worthless Emperor, why should I kneel to you? All men are equal—I advise you to be kind!" The Great General: "The enemy general is my childhood sweetheart. For her sake, I willingly abandon the frontier defenses!" The Retired Emperor: "Although Yu'er was adopted, I prefer him. Qin Xiao, you should abdicate and let him become Emperor!" ... Very well! So this is how you want to play? Facing this twisted world of female-oriented tropes, Qin Xiao grins and raises his hand to unleash—the Nine Clan Extraction Technique! I am the Emperor. Why would I bother reasoning with you? Seal the gates! Leave none alive!
