After the first person launched an attack, others soon followed suit. The situation at the gates quickly fell into chaos as everyone started flinging their spirit energy all over the place.
Shi Sheng simply stood further back, watching the chaos expressionlessly.
Shi Sheng’s indifference towards governing Four-Square City was particularly convenient for the original guards. Added to the fact that she was truly pretty, they actually protected her of their own accord.
Fortunately, the truly influential people hadn’t arrived yet. The ones who were standing at the gates were either their scouts, or the forces sent out by some minor powers, so they weren’t too hard to deal with; Four-Square City’s people soon quelled the troublemakers and chased them out of the city.
“City Lord, what did we chase them out for?” Once the gates had been shut, the Spirit Sage from before walked over to Shi Sheng and asked.
‘Although it felt great to beat them up, once their main force arrives, there’s going to be trouble.’
Shi Sheng’s lips tugged upwards. Just when Big Man thought she was about to reveal an astonishing revelation, she spoke lightly, “Didn’t like the look of them.”
‘Didn’t like the look of them… so you chased them out? The new City Lord sure is wilful…’
“How come there’ve been so many people entering the city lately?” Shi Sheng hadn’t been in Four-Square City during this period of time. The moment she returned, she’d been greeted by a city full of unfamiliar faces.
‘Were they forming a tour group to sightsee Four-Square City?’
Big Man was surprised. “City Lord, you didn’t know?”
“Know what?” ‘Did something important happen while I(bbb) was gone?’
Big Man’s lip twitched. ‘City Lord actually didn’t know about something so important! Is she really our City Lord?’
After he had organised his thoughts, Big Man spoke, “There’s been some abnormal signs coming from Sunset Forest recently. Rumours say that a rare treasure is about to appear. The people outside are here for that.”
“Treasure? What treasure?”
In Xuanhuan worlds, whenever a powerful object appeared, it would generate a lot of turbulence in the world, attracting many powerful factions over in a dispute to seize control.
Of course, the biggest beneficiaries were always the leads. They’d take this opportunity to strengthen themselves or just make a fortune and possibly cultivate some feelings for each other in the process.
It could be considered the most important trope in the Xuanhuan genre.
Big Man awkwardly scratched his head. “Well, there’s no way of telling for sure right now, is there? We have to wait till the treasure appears or after we enter Sunset Forest. But quite a number of people have gathered this time; seems like the treasure this time must be really valuable. City Lord, should we…?”
Big Man didn’t finish his sentence, but Shi Sheng still understood what he was trying to ask.
“Should we join in?”
“If you guys want to, go ahead. What’re you asking me for? I don’t bother with this kind of stuff.” Shi Sheng spread her hands. “Just make sure you keep a good eye on the gates. And toss the people that already entered the city back out.”
Once she’d finished giving her orders, she turned around and left.
Big Man couldn’t help but wonder why his new City Lord was so… unique. ‘When other people become the City Lord, they’re all eager to establish their prestige. But look at her! She doesn’t bother about anything city related, and she disappears for ages at a time! City Lord, your position is going to be usurped at this rate!!!’
……
As expected, ever since Shi Sheng gave the order to shut the gates and more people arrived by the day, the number of people looking for trouble increased.
But it wasn’t that easy to enter the city.
As Four-Square City was situated on the outer edges of Sunset Forest, it was only natural that it would have a strong defensive formation in place. Once the formation was activated, the people outside couldn’t do a thing.
Perhaps due to the fact that too many people had gathered in one place, magic beasts would frequently come out of Sunset Forest. By the time night fell, the area outside the walls were practically filled with the sounds of crying and howling, causing one’s scalp to crawl.
“City Lord? City Lord, are you here?” Outside the City Lord’s mansion, Big Man was shouting with a booming voice, his expression slightly anxious. But even after shouting for a long while, there was still no sign of a response from within.
“She couldn’t have gone outside the city, could she?”
“That shouldn’t be the case… City Lord was still inside the city when the formation was activated. If she’d left, there’s no way we wouldn’t have known.”
“Then how come she’s not coming out? Should we go in and take a look…?”
Although this suggestion was a bit improper, Big Man still agreed.
Even if the City Lord’s mansion was called a mansion, it was really nothing more than a compound that could easily be entered with a proper jump.
The courtyard was completely bare; not even a piece of furniture or greenery in sight. The only light source was coming from one of the rooms.
Big Man knocked a couple times, but there was no response. He exchanged glances with the others before attempting to push the door open.
The door wasn’t locked, so it opened easily.
Big Man thought he’d come to the wrong place upon seeing what the inside of the room was like. It was filled with books that had been randomly tossed around the room. Other than the bed, chair and table, books practically dominated the entire room.
There wasn’t even any space for one to enter the room.
Big Man lowered his gaze, whereupon his lips started twitching. ‘The hell is this? “Secrets of a Spring Palace”1? “A Flower’s Secret”2? Just what kind of immoral things has City Lord been gracing her eyes with?! Also, where the hell did she even get so many books???’
“What’re you guys doing?”
Big Man was startled and jerked his head around to look at who was behind him. He was greeted by the sight of a shadow standing atop the compound’s wall. The shadow leapt down and slowly walked into the light, revealing to everyone who it was.
Big Man felt like his worldviews were in a constant state of renewal. “City Lord… why did you climb the wall?”
‘Is the door just there as decoration???’
“Too lazy to open the door.” Shi Sheng answered before her gaze floated to the room’s open door. “What’re you lot doing?”
‘You were too lazy to open the door, so you climbed the wall…? *flips table* Just which one is the more tiring method ah?!’
“Uh… We saw that the light was turned on in this room, so we thought you were inside, but nobody answered when we called, so…” Big Man explained.
Shi Sheng simply stared at him for a few seconds. Her stare made Big Man wish there was a hole in the ground for him to burrow into.
“Why were you guys looking for me?” Shi Sheng walked into the room, kicking aside the books that got in the way and generally making an even bigger mess as she entered.
Big Man and gang were inwardly exasperated upon seeing this. Big Man didn’t dare to follow her into the room, so he could only speak from the doorway, “The people outside have teamed up and are trying to break through the defensive formation. There are quite a few of them; I don’t know how long the formation can last. So…”
There were already some people from the great clans arriving. If those people joined in the effort to breach the formation, it probably wouldn’t last much longer.
“They can’t break in,” Shi Sheng waved her hand as she spoke, “Go back and sleep. Stop bothering me about unimportant stuff.”
Big Man, “…” ‘This isn’t an unimportant matter though, ah, City Lord! This concerns Four-Square City’s survival! If those people get in, won’t they wish to settle scores?!’
But Shi Sheng simply maintained her expression of impatience throughout it all. Even though Big Man spoke till his lips wore out, Shi Sheng didn’t make a peep. In the end, she simply told them to go back home again before slamming the door in their faces.
The-Most-Wilful-City-Lord-In-Four-Square-City’s-History has logged on.
Shi Sheng sat down on the chair, casually flipping through the pages of the book in her hand. The book’s title was actually rather normal, called The Ancient Past.
The words in the book were extremely small. The author was probably a young lady as could be deduced from the exquisite handwriting. There were even some pictures occasionally drawn.
The pictures depicted magic beasts; you could find nearly all the ancestors of the current-day magic beasts here.
The first half of the book documented magic beasts, while the second half documented extraordinary medicinal ingredients and forbidden arts.
Shi Sheng flipped to the last page. It was very clear that one of the pages had been torn out. And on the page before, the forbidden art called “Scarlet Yearning” was described.
It was a very nice name for a forbidden art, but it was used only on males.
Only the first half of the record for this forbidden art had been left intact; the other half had been torn out.
Based off of the format of how the previous items had been recorded, it was likely that the method to undo the forbidden art was written in the portion that had been ripped out.