Ning Chen had the finished proclamation sent back to the capital at top speed, to be presented to the An Emperor, who would then send it down to every prefecture.

He was confident that within a month, the Myriad Nations Society would find out what life was like for rats crossing the street.

What Ning Chen didn't know was that besides Tantai Qingyue, the woman emperor of the Wu Kingdom had also gotten word about Kang Baobao, and she was furious.

When she learned that Ning Chen had been attacked and wounded, the woman emperor's face had stayed so dark these past few days it looked ready to drip water, and her civil and military officials were scared out of their wits.

She issued an edict outright, ordering the Bureau of Counsel to put everything into tracking down the Myriad Nations Society.

The Bureau of Counsel was the Wu Kingdom's equivalent of the Great Xuan's Inspectorate.

True to form, she was domineering to the extreme. Her order was a single line: Confirm their identity, and kill them without pardon!

Meaning that once someone was confirmed as Myriad Nations Society, they were to be cut down on the spot.

Ye Xingjue and Kang Baobao were probably sick with regret by now. Couldn't they have just stayed nicely hidden? They had to go and provoke Ning Chen.

That day, the army of 160,000 advanced on Xiangzhou, stretching across the land as far as the eye could see.

Xiangzhou was no more than three days away.

Xiao Yanxi rode up alongside Ning Chen's carriage.

She brought her horse close to the carriage's little window. "Yunniang has written back."

Ning Chen lifted the curtain over the little window. "What does she say?"

Xiao Yanxi handed him a secret letter.

Ning Chen opened it and read. Suddenly he gave a cold laugh. "This woman sure has a big appetite."

Yunniang's terms for working with them were a hundred thousand taels of gold and two hundred thousand taels of silver, plus a post in one of the six ministries, of no lower than the third rank.