Chapter Fifty-Eight: Tong Meng Rides Alone, Dominating the Lonely Fortress

After everyone had finished their introductions, Tong Meng rose and returned the gesture, saying, “Friends from the various sects, I greet you all. Once this contest concludes, the City Lord’s Mansion will open its doors for several days, and I shall offer a modest banquet to welcome you for a gathering.”

As the city lord, his primary role was as an administrative chief, and only secondarily as a warrior. Maintaining order was essential for any political future. The art of favoring one group while suppressing another was one he had mastered, presenting himself with impeccable courtesy and never foolish enough to offend all the sects with arrogance.

The heads of the major families watched Tong Meng’s performance from their own pavilions, observing with cold eyes and inward disdain.

Especially the five great families, who, though not weaker than the sects, had always been at odds with the city lord. Fortunately, their internal enmity was deep, preventing them from forming a united front, thus granting the city lord the chance to win over the smaller families to counterbalance the powerful ones. The members of the five families folded their arms and looked on with scorn, recalling the miserable state in which Tong Meng had first arrived.

When the nation was founded, those who had followed the dragon all received high office and great wealth. Some remained in the capital in positions of power, others became regional governors, most shielding their descendants, who likewise sat in the halls of authority. Tong Meng’s ancestors were founding heroes, and he was their direct heir. Yet a single misstep left him constrained at every turn.

When the current emperor was still crown prince, Tong Meng had grown too close to one of the other princes; though he harbored no ambitions, it nonetheless led to imperial displeasure. He was dispatched to this isolated city of Wuzhou, without even a single soldier granted to him.

He was lord of the city in name, but the place was remote—exile in all but name. None of the offspring of high officials were willing to come. The previous lord had left for reasons unknown, abandoning his post for years. The local magnates had long enjoyed unfettered lives, resisting any new restrictions. They unanimously chose to strip Tong Meng of real power, wishing to leave him as a hollow figurehead.

He was a man of ambition, arriving with only a few hundred loyal guards after a year’s arduous journey across mountains and through the Eastern Capital, finally reaching this northeastern wilderness. After untold hardship, his guards perished, leaving him to enter Wuzhou alone, ragged and destitute.

His first days in office left him utterly despondent. Wuzhou was far beyond imperial reach, the local families running affairs themselves. To the new city lord, arriving so forlorn, they felt only enough fear of the imperial family to refrain from harming him—otherwise, there was no respect at all. They tripped him at every turn, scheming to render him powerless. The five great families became his mortal enemies then, irreconcilable.

Tong Meng endured humiliation for years, first lulling the families into complacency. Then, through various means and promises of benefit, he drew the smaller families to his side, using their numbers to oppose the five great families.

After decades of painstaking effort, he carved out a bright path in the narrowest of gaps, subduing twelve masters to serve him, establishing the Wuzhou army, and gathering a host of formidable commanders under his banner.

A city cannot have two masters; as city lord, he required his authority to be singular and supreme. If the five families stood, Tong Meng knew no rest.

Yet even now, he dared not strike at them directly. He knew well that his current position existed only because their interests clashed so deeply, each acting independently and waiting to devour the others. Should he attack one, he could not guarantee the other four would not awaken and unite against him; then, who would prevail was uncertain. Though Wuzhou appeared prosperous on the surface, beneath it lay hidden currents and looming danger.

Tong Meng’s greatest delight now was befriending the sects outside the city. If he could secure their support, his chances of success would increase dramatically.

Having grown up in the central capital, he had witnessed many political games in the heart of power, far more than these local magnates, and his insight surpassed theirs. He knew that throughout Liuyun Country, indeed the whole continent, the highest cultivation reached was the Golden Core stage. Aside from differences in individual strength, as long as he gained superiority in numbers, he could dominate Wuzhou. He needed more powerful allies on his side.

The civil bureaucracy was too tangled, filled with people planted by the families, connections intertwining everywhere; he dared not trust it too deeply. But his military officers were all hand-picked from the wilds and lone cultivators, especially the twelve commanders, each exceptionally skilled and fiercely loyal.

Unfortunately, only eleven remained—his deputy commander of the southern district had been wiped out, in a most brutal fashion. The spies he sent found no clue; he ceased investigating, convinced it was a warning from one of the five families.

This incident infuriated him, but whether he investigated or not hardly mattered; he would only be at peace when all five families were destroyed, regardless of which one had struck.

Still, this grand event in Wuzhou had drawn heroes from all corners—truly Tong Meng’s great opportunity. Seventy years ago, during the last major cultivation contest, he had not yet arrived in Wuzhou and did not know the various factions. He would not miss the chance to forge alliances this time. Many itinerant cultivators from other regions had arrived, presenting him with the chance to recruit more masters.

The “Rainy Night Rogue” Liu Changqing was wildly arrogant, daring to travel north from the southern lands, openly challenging Wuzhou’s greatest master, Bai Muyun. Ordinarily, having an outsider defeat a warrior from his own territory would be a humiliation for Tong Meng as city lord.

But “Jade Sword and Silver Thread” Bai Muyun was the head of the Bai family, the foremost of the five great families. A prodigy since youth, wielding a jade sword, undefeated within his clan, and in a single night defeating the champion of every major and minor family. He ascended to clan lord in his early twenties, a talent of rare brilliance and peerless grace.

He was Tong Meng’s thorn in the flesh, his greatest nemesis, whom he longed to eliminate.

Tong Meng knew little of Liu Changqing, but had sent his spies to investigate. Liu hailed from the prosperous southern city of Rainy Night, a lone cultivator wielding a jade flute, challenging countless sects and families, with over ten renowned masters defeated. He acted erratically and arrogantly, always alone; none could deal with him, and he repeatedly escaped assassination attempts.

He delighted in challenging the sects’ champions publicly, putting them in an impossible position—unable to avoid him, unable to defeat him, losing face either way. He had made enemies everywhere, earning the infamous title “Rogue,” thus “Rainy Night Rogue,” which he bore with pride. Traveling north, he had passed through at least a dozen city-states and wild lands, emerging unscathed and victorious.

At each stop, he would announce his next target in advance, forcing them to wait in anxious anticipation of their defeat—a display of extreme arrogance, making enemies of the world.

The more intelligence he gathered, the more Tong Meng delighted, and the greater his confidence in Liu Changqing. Should Liu defeat Bai Muyun, it would suppress the Bai family’s arrogance, and best of all, if he could kill or cripple Bai, Tong Meng would have one less formidable enemy.

Yet regardless of Liu’s victory or defeat, Tong Meng would benefit.

As city lord, he hoped that this outsider, “Rainy Night Rogue,” would win. If he could win Liu to his side, it would be as if he had grown wings. Still, as he glanced at the upper floors of the family pavilions, it seemed likely that, except for the Bai family, the others shared the same wish.