The destruction of Dongtai Prefecture City did not remain confined to the prefecture.
Within days, the news spread throughout the Great Qian Dynasty, carried by messengers, intelligence networks, martial halls, noble families, government officials and wandering martial artists, until even distant prefectures had begun discussing the terrifying incident that had occurred beneath the city.
The name of the Incense Fire Cult, once treated by many great powers as nothing more than an annoying hidden organisation that occasionally caused trouble among the common people, had suddenly acquired an entirely different weight.
They had summoned a Rank 4 Vicious Soul.
A monster possessing combat power comparable to a Grandmaster.
That single fact was enough to make countless forces realise that the Incense Fire Cult was no longer something that could be treated lightly.
If the Empress Dowager and the mysterious Grandmaster had not arrived in time, nobody could say how far the disaster would have spread.
A Vicious Soul was not merely powerful.
It was difficult to kill.
The surrounding Yin Qi could continuously restore its body, while its ghostly domain could command weaker ghosts and Specters, turning an entire region into a hunting ground. If such a creature had been allowed to devour the Yang energy of thousands upon thousands of living beings, its strength would only have continued rising.
The consequences would have been unimaginable.
The imperial court reacted accordingly.
An imperial decree was issued throughout the Great Qian Dynasty, ordering a comprehensive suppression of the Incense Fire Cult and all organisations suspected of having connections with it.
The decree was far more severe than previous orders.
Yamen offices and the Demon Suppression Division were granted broad investigative authority, suspected cult strongholds could be searched, suspected cultists could be detained, and those confirmed to be members of the Incense Fire Cult could be executed without waiting for lengthy investigations from higher authorities.
For the first time in many years, the entire dynasty entered a state of vigilance.
Martial Halls tightened their security, noble families investigated their own servants and retainers, merchants began examining the backgrounds of people entering their territories, and even seemingly insignificant organisations became cautious about whom they associated with.
Nobody wanted to wake up one morning and discover that a rumour had connected their organisation to the Incense Fire Cult.
After all, the imperial decree had made one thing very clear.
The court would rather kill a thousand suspicious people than allow another Vicious Soul to appear.
Yet while the dynasty was investigating the Incense Fire Cult, another matter had also attracted considerable attention.
Who was the Grandmaster who had appeared during the catastrophe?
The Empress Dowager had already been recognised as one of the two Grandmaster-level figures present that day, but the other person remained mysterious.
The imperial court naturally wanted to know.
The Emperor therefore issued another decree, intending to reward the mysterious Grandmaster for his contribution in preventing the disaster.
That immediately caused countless eyes to turn towards Dongtai Prefecture.
Some were searching through martial halls, some were examining noble families, while others were secretly investigating every Grandmaster who had appeared in the region during the relevant period.
For ordinary people, this might have been frightening.
For Lin Sheng, however, it was hardly worth worrying about.
He had already made his decision.
After reaching the Golden Body Realm, he was no longer going to deliberately hide himself like before.
Of course, that did not mean he would suddenly become arrogant and flaunt his strength everywhere.
There was a difference between hiding and keeping a low profile.
Lin Sheng intended to maintain the latter.
He would no longer conceal himself whenever circumstances required him to act, but neither would he deliberately announce his existence to the entire dynasty.
Moderation was enough.
Besides, there was still much he needed to investigate.
The Incense Fire Cult had become increasingly dangerous, and the mysterious forces behind it were unlikely to stop simply because one ritual had failed.
While the dynasty was dealing with the aftermath, the Su Family and Zhou Family had already begun their own movements.
The negotiations between the two great families progressed rapidly.
The Zhou Family was the weakest among the Four Great Families of Dongtai Prefecture, but weakness did not mean stupidity.
For generations, the Zhou Family had maintained connections with a powerful force in the provincial capital, and although the exact nature of those connections remained unclear, it was enough to make the other families cautious.
The Su Family had no intention of swallowing the territories of the Wei and Liu Families alone.
Their casualties had been considerable, and controlling such a vast amount of territory required manpower, experts and administrative resources.
Therefore, cooperation with the Zhou Family became the most practical choice.
The two families began moving almost immediately.
Small powers that had attempted to seize portions of the Wei and Liu Family territories suddenly found themselves facing attacks from both sides.
One organisation would be destroyed by the Su Family today, another would discover Zhou Family experts arriving at its doorstep tomorrow.
Within a month, the remnants of the Wei and Liu Families had been hunted down almost completely.
Those who had escaped Dongtai Prefecture City attempted to flee into surrounding regions, but they soon discovered that the Su and Zhou Families had already spread their intelligence network outward.
One after another, the remaining branches disappeared.
The territories that had once belonged to the Wei and Liu Families gradually changed hands.
The balance of Dongtai Prefecture had been completely rewritten.
And at the centre of this change stood the Su Family.
With two Astral Gang experts now overseeing the family and Su Yang emerging as one of its most promising younger generations, the Su Family had gained both strength and momentum.
Their reputation had also changed.
Nobody dared to regard them as the same Su Family that had been struggling under the combined pressure of the Wei Family, Liu Family and Jade Sword Palace.
A month after the great battle, Lin Sheng was sitting leisurely within a quiet courtyard.
He was reclining on a sedan chair, his eyes half closed, seemingly enjoying the peaceful afternoon.
The courtyard was simple.
There were no magnificent stone pillars carved with dragons, no enormous spiritual formations covering the entire residence, no rare treasures scattered everywhere, and certainly no ostentatious display that would suggest a Grandmaster lived here.
Lin Sheng preferred it that way.
Suddenly, the surrounding air changed.
Lin Sheng opened his eyes.
A figure appeared at the entrance of the courtyard without making the slightest sound.
She stood there like a person who had walked out of an ancient painting.
Her long silver-white hair flowed down her back, each strand shimmering faintly beneath the sunlight. She wore magnificent phoenix-red robes embroidered with intricate patterns, the crimson fabric making her pale complexion appear even more striking.
Around her slender fingers were several mysterious runes.
They were not painted upon her skin.
They seemed to have been naturally engraved around her fingernails, glowing faintly with an otherworldly light as if each rune contained a trace of mysterious power.
Her presence was neither oppressive nor deliberately threatening, yet the moment she appeared, the entire courtyard seemed to become quieter.
The Empress Dowager had arrived.
Lin Sheng raised his eyebrows.
He sat upright on the sedan chair.
"You've finally come."
The Empress Dowager did not answer immediately.
Her beautiful eyes swept across the courtyard.
She looked at the ordinary wooden furniture.
The simple stone pathway.
The few plants growing beside the wall.
Then she looked at Lin Sheng.
Her expression became slightly strange.
"You're a Grandmaster."
She paused.
"Shouldn't your residence be a little more... eccentric?"
Lin Sheng stared at her for a moment.
"What exactly were you expecting?"
The Empress Dowager's lips curved slightly.
"I don't know."
Her gaze moved across the courtyard again.
"Perhaps a mountain of rare treasures, a lake filled with spiritual water, hundreds of formations, a palace constructed from jade, or some enormous statue of yourself."
Lin Sheng's expression became speechless.
"Why would I build a statue of myself?"
"Grandmasters are strange."
The Empress Dowager said this with complete seriousness.
"Perhaps you are strange in a different way."
Lin Sheng looked at her silver hair and the glowing runes around her fingers.
"Coming from someone dressed like this, that statement carries very little weight."
For the first time, amusement appeared in the Empress Dowager's eyes.
She stepped into the courtyard.
"Then I suppose we've both disappointed each other."
Lin Sheng leaned back against the sedan chair.
"Why did you come?"
The Empress Dowager's smile gradually disappeared.
Her gaze became serious.
"I came because there are things we need to discuss."
Lin Sheng's eyes narrowed slightly.
The relaxed atmosphere of the courtyard quietly vanished.