Approximately an hour later.

Inside the main hall of the City Lord's mansion, voices buzzed, creating a somewhat chaotic atmosphere.

A dozen or so men in various attire were seated around a massive stone conference table, each holding a black stone cup, swirling the scaled beast blood within, and chatting merrily.

Chenyang sat in the seat closest to the head of the table, lightly caressing his stone cup with one hand, while the other remained concealed in his sleeve. He never raised the cup to drink the blood. Even when acquaintances came to clink cups with him, he only symbolically touched the cup to his lips before setting it down again.

Beside him on the stone table sat a rather large black stone box, sealed tightly.

"Captain Chenyang, what's the situation? The City Lord suddenly summoned us all here. Is there some important announcement to be made? Can you give your old buddy a heads-up?" a tall man with protruding fangs and wearing white bone armor asked with a wide grin.

"Captain Moulin, it's not that I don't want to tell you, brother, but I honestly don't know either. Don't worry, everyone hasn't arrived yet. Once they're all here, the City Lord will naturally tell us," Chenyang replied with a smile.

Upon hearing this, the man simply chuckled and said no more.

Just then, the main hall door was slowly pushed open by a young man with ox horn tattoos on his cheeks, and then three more people walked in one after another.

The first to enter was a one-horned burly man. If Han Li were here, he would certainly recognize him as the one who usually presided over the arena battles in the Ninth District.

Following closely behind were two demonic men in crimson robes, one with a round face and the other with a square face. Each held a thick book and a brush with vermilion bristles, precisely the two record officials.

"Brother Chen, besides those who went out hunting, everyone has arrived," the tattooed youth who pushed the door open said to Chenyang via voice transmission.

Chenyang nodded silently, and the youth went out and closed the stone door.

After the one-horned man and the other two had taken their seats, Chenyang still didn't rush to speak, but silently sized up everyone in the hall.

After waiting for a long time, someone finally grew impatient.

A demonic man with a face like dark red dates and horns on his head spoke up loudly, "Chenyang, what the hell are you up to? You summoned everyone here saying the City Lord has important things to announce, but why hasn't the City Lord appeared after so long?"

As soon as he said this, the noise in the hall subsided, and everyone turned to look at Chenyang.

"Captain Xiong Pi, why are you so impatient to wait for the City Lord for a moment? Why not drink a few more mouthfuls of scale beast blood to calm down? The City Lord is usually reluctant to let us drink this stuff," Chenyang said with a smile, not getting angry.

The red-faced man with horns, named Xiong Pi, picked up his heavy stone cup and took another sip of beast blood.

When they had nearly finished their cups of beast blood, Chenyang slowly stood up and walked to the head of the conference table, the seat that only Du Qingyang could usually sit in, and sat down with a swagger.

At first, people didn't pay attention, but soon they were all drawn to his extremely inappropriate behavior and looked over with strange expressions. The entire hall instantly fell silent.

"Chenyang, how dare you sit in that seat? Are you trying to die?" At this moment, the fanged man named Moulin slammed the table and stood up, exploding in anger.

"Bastard, hurry up and get down..." Immediately afterward, two more city guard captains stood up, glaring at him furiously.

Seeing this, Chenyang remained unmoved, simply stretching lazily and slowly sitting up straight.

"Everyone, don't be anxious, and listen to me for a moment. The important matter that the City Lord wants to announce today is only one..." At this point, he paused and slowly scanned the crowd.

The others in the hall didn't understand what Chenyang was going crazy about today, and they all waited quietly for him to finish.

"Du Qingyang feels that his virtue is not worthy of his position, and he wants to abdicate the position of City Lord to me!"

As soon as Chenyang said this, it was as if boiling oil had splashed into water, or a thunderclap had struck dry land. The entire hall immediately erupted.

"What are you talking about? Abdicate to you?" Xiong Pi raised an eyebrow and asked loudly.

"What kind of thing are you to dare to covet the position of City Lord?" another person shouted loudly.

"Chenyang, are you planning to rebel?" Moulin kicked away the stone chair beside his feet and said sternly.

"He's crazy, he must be crazy..."

…

With a loud "bang"!

Chenyang slammed his palm on the stone table and also stood up abruptly.

The conference stone table immediately cracked and groaned, and spiderweb cracks spread out instantly.

Seeing this, everyone stood up in shock.

"Fellow colleagues, you might as well ask the City Lord for confirmation to see if I, Chen, am suffering from a mental breakdown?" Chenyang glanced over the crowd and said coldly.

"Where is the City Lord? I want to see him," Moulin shouted loudly.

"If you want to see the City Lord, that's easy," Chenyang said with a smile, raising his hand and pushing.

The black stone box placed in front of him was pushed out by his palm, rolling a few times on the table. With a "snap," the lid opened, and the "thing" inside fell out.

It was actually a head covered in dirt, broken into two pieces.

Everyone was shocked at the sight.

Moulin's eyes widened, and he suppressed the shock in his heart, raising his hand to brush away the disheveled hair on the half of the head, revealing a dirty and incomplete face hidden underneath. It was none other than the Qingyang City Lord, Du Qingyang!

"City Lord..." Xiong Pi exclaimed in shock.

Everyone's expression changed, and their reactions were different in an instant.

Only a few, like Moulin and Xiong Pi, glared furiously, while most were frightened and at a loss, appearing somewhat at a loss.

The two record officials looked at each other, and the hands holding their books and pens actually began to tremble uncontrollably.

On the other hand, the one-horned burly man had a calm look and seemed relatively calm.

"You killed the Lord, Chenyang, you deserve to die!" Moulin said through gritted teeth, his eyes cold.

"Everyone, the City Lord is dead, and the culprit is Chenyang. Let us work together to kill him and avenge the City Lord!" Xiong Pi's eyes flickered slightly, and he said.

As soon as these words came out, everyone looked at each other, but few actually dared to step forward.

Du Qingyang was able to become the lord of this city because he relied more on military deterrence. Naturally, there were those who were loyal to him, but it was impossible for everyone to be.

"Whoever can kill this thief, I, Moulin, am willing to make him the new City Lord," Moulin shouted violently, seeing this.

As soon as these words came out, the atmosphere in the hall changed subtly, and many people began to walk forward, trying to surround Chenyang in the center.

"You want to kill me? Can you do it?" Chenyang asked in a loud voice, his expression unchanged.

With that said, the stone door of the hall was suddenly smashed open, and the tattooed youth led a dozen strong men in bone armor into the hall, surrounding Moulin and others in the center.

"Chenyang, you want to succeed with these miscellaneous soldiers?" Xiong Pi sneered.

As soon as he said this, he clenched his fists, and a wave of Gang Qi was released from his body. "Bang bang" sounds came from his body, and one after another Xuan Apertures lit up.

However, after only a dozen or so sounds, the sound stopped abruptly.

Not only did no more Xuan Apertures light up on Xiong Pi's body, but his body softened and he fell directly to the ground.

Immediately afterward, the sound of falling to the ground resounded continuously in the hall. One figure after another fell down, lying crookedly on the ground. The only ones left standing were Chenyang and the people brought by the tattooed youth.

"The scale beast blood has... has white Xuan beast bone powder..." Xiong Pi supported his upper body and said tremblingly.

Chenyang picked up his cup of beast blood and walked to Xiong Pi, pouring it on his face little by little.

"Now you know? Don't you think it's too late?" Chenyang sneered and said slowly.

Xiong Pi sighed heavily and fell down.

Chenyang ignored him, walked slowly past him, and said, "Everyone, what do you say now? Do you want to be a loyal minister and follow Du Qingyang, or share this great Qingyang City with me?"

The hall was silent, deathly silent.

…

In the adjacent side hall.

"It seems that Fellow Daoist Gu was right. This Chenyang has long planned today's events. Letting us in this side hall isn't really for us to help, but to show us his skills," Han Li said with a smile, listening to the movements in the main hall.

"The reason why I chose to conspire with this person on that day was also because I saw that this person had great ambition and was not someone who would live under others for a long time. Conspiring with such a person can be twice the result with half the effort, but if you are not careful, you will backfire," Gu Qianxun said faintly.

…

At this time, in the main hall, after a brief silence, Chenyang's voice suddenly rang out:

"Everyone, don't worry, as long as you are willing to follow me, I will only give you more than Du Qingyang gave you in the future and will never treat you badly. But if you have any second thoughts, you will be courting death..."

As soon as he finished speaking, his figure blurred slightly, and he instantly came to the side of a short, thin old man, stepping down heavily and directly crushing his wrist into a bloody mess.

He groaned, and the tightly clenched palm slowly opened, revealing a palm-sized strange white bone inside.

"The star bone of the explosive scale beast contains such a strong star power. It is really rare... Fellow Daoist Wu Heng, why didn't I notice that you were so loyal to Du Qingyang? You even wanted to detonate this star bone and desperately wound me?" Chenyang picked up the white bone and said slowly.

"City Lord Du has the grace to save my life. Since I cannot fulfill my duties in life, I will be loyal in death. Kill or slice, do as you please," the old man said weakly, clenching his teeth.

"Chenyang, do you think that you can replace City Lord Du by killing him? How can the main city recognize you as a rebellious traitor! When the main city's envoy arrives, what will your end be?" Xiong Pi said coldly, closing his eyes.

"Haha... It's really troublesome for you two to think about me. It's a pity that Xuan City has never cared about the turmoil in the subordinate cities. As long as the tribute is not delayed each time, will they care whether the Qingyang City Lord is surnamed Du or Chen?" Chenyang laughed loudly.

"Forget it, kill me..." Wu Heng said with a miserable smile on his face, realizing what was going on.

As soon as he finished speaking, Chenyang struck down with a swift fist, hitting his lower abdomen.

A blast sounded, and Wu Heng's body suddenly exploded, with blood and flesh flying everywhere, his death being extremely tragic.