Wan Zhongshan gathered all the higher-ups, elders, and hall masters for a meeting. In the end, they reached a consensus to ignore Zhang Xing, but they could not provoke him either.
The same thing happened in the City of Light.
They were the closest to the capital and were the first to receive the imperial edict among the three major forces.
Ben Vader was different from the rest of the Li family. He looked like a typical westerner with white skin and blue eyes.
He had been the City Lord of the City of Light for 38 years and was 76 years old this year.
In other words, he was the City Lord when he was 36 years old. It was the best time to be young and promising.
But the deputy City Lords and dozens of elders in the City of Light knew that he was sent here.
The reason was simple. It was the result of internal strife in the family.
In the beginning, Ben Vader was conflicted. He felt that a lowly City Lord was not on par with his status.
He always wanted to return to the Temple of Light one day.
But the days passed just like that, and soon, it had been thirty-eight years. He had long since gotten used to everything here.
All the people in the City of Light had become his most loyal subordinates.
Those who opposed him were all killed. So, he did not have the extravagant hope of returning to the family.
He felt that it was quite comfortable to be a local tyrant here.
But these days ended on the day the allied forces were defeated.
And when the new Emperor's imperial edict arrived, days felt like years.
He could not sleep or eat well. He was restless all day.
The entire Li family had been chased out of the capital. Li Sheng and Li Huang had been killed. He knew what his fate was.
He wanted to ask for help from the Ten Thousand Feet Mountain. They were too far away.
He wanted to ask for help from the family. They were even further away. Before the message could be sent back, he might be killed by Zhang Xing.
Ben Vader had been hesitating, worrying about his gains and losses. In the end, he couldn't stand the torment and wrote a letter to Zhang Xing personally, surrendering.
He promised that he would bring gifts to congratulate the new Emperor on the day of his ascension.
The leader of the Mercenary Guild, Lu Zhe, had the opposite attitude.
I can't beat you. Can't I run?
So, the moment he received the imperial edict, he gathered all the higher-ups in the guild for a meeting.
He also promoted a new batch of people to the leadership of the guild and handed over the authority of the guild leader to them.
He claimed that he was only letting his successor, Sha Wenbin, take over temporarily and that he would be back soon.
The reason was that he was invited by his superior guild to lead a portion of the members to participate in an exchange meeting held by the guild in Shuang Fu Nation, a grade five empire.
At the same time, he also suggested that the successor, Sha Wenbin, should make his own decision on whether or not to participate in the new Emperor's coronation.
As for what instructions Sha Wenbin wanted him to give, Lu Zhe waved his hand and said, "I have a good relationship with the Li family, so I won't say anything."
After saying that, he led his family and all the subordinates who had participated in the crusade against Zhang Xing and left the Mercenary Guild in the dark of the night.
Ten days later, on his way to the Imperial Capital, Sha Wenbin found the corpses of President Lu Zhe and Vice President Su Yingjie in a mountain range.
Their deaths were very tragic. All of their corpses were badly mutilated, but their heads were intact. It was obvious that they had been attacked by magical beasts.
Sha Wenbin and the others felt their scalps go numb as chills ran down their spines.
No matter how stupid they were, they knew that Lu Zhe had been killed by a surprise attack from the Magical Beast Army commanded by someone else.
Sigh!
This was fate. Lu Zhe thought that he had passed the burden to his subordinates and escaped secretly. But in the end, he did not manage to escape death.