Xu Qing sat there quietly. Eventually, he looked up, his heart and mind trembling as wave after wave of shock crashed into them.0

“The lieutenant governor....” he murmured.15

Xu Qing hadn’t dealt much with the lieutenant governor, but he had always respected him.0

The reason for that was his skill in alchemy, which reminded Xu Qing of Grandmaster Bai and the grand elder from the Swordsage Court in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. He remembered how kind the lieutenant governor had been when he first arrived in the county capital, and also what Honor Guard Sun had said about the ‘virtuous achievement’ of inventing the pallid bolus. Once the war started, Xu Qing had noticed repeatedly how exhausted the lieutenant governor seemed. Back when dealing with the Demi-Immortals, the lieutenant governor had almost immediately picked up on Xu Qing’s ruse, and had played along. True, the lieutenant governor had quickly fit in to the new arrangement when Seventh Prince arrived, but that alone didn’t mean much.12

Later, the lieutenant governor was responsible for many things that benefited Sea-Sealing County. He worked with the deputy palace lords for the three palaces to successfully submit many official requests to Seventh Prince. After Xu Qing had just returned, it was the lieutenant governor who dealt with the cabal of nonhumans who...3