Chapter 458: Chapter 43: The Will of the People Cannot Be Deceived

As the brief subtitles slowly vanished, the scene erupted in chaos.

"The ending isn’t released immediately, do you have any shame!?"

"The sixth act tomorrow? Do you think this is a TV series!?"

"Refund, refund!"

"If you don’t play the ending today, we’re not leaving!"

"Get the crew leader out here to speak!"

"Kill all the cliffhangers!"

The vast Golden Jade Grand Theater was almost overturned by the fiery rage of the audience, with tens of thousands inside scorning and hundreds of thousands outside criticizing, leaving the theater’s management in utter distress.

Moments later, a troop of Silver Armored soldiers charged into the theater, demanding accountability for the chaos, prompting the theater manager to wish he could self-destruct on the spot.

An impromptu musical drama had incited such trouble; in reality, they were even angrier than the audience. As they prepared to confront the crew backstage, they found everyone had vanished without a trace... thus forcing the innocent staff to bear the brunt of the audience’s rage.

The Spirit Cat Crew’s leading actors had long studied the script and were well aware of the drama’s end result. The audience’s reaction aside, as soon as the Golden Jade City’s temporary government learned of the plot, they would surely come knocking.

Thus, before trouble arrived, the crew swiftly retreated along their pre-planned route, avoiding the throngs and summoned guards outside, heading straight for Moonlight Lake outside Golden Jade City.

This area was their pre-designed refuge, with an array set to hide traces. The props and equipment were top-grade, urgently deployed from QingCyan Cloud yun City and Shen City, especially from Shen City, which had sent the entire newly developed equipment from Lingshan High-tech Zone, sparing no expense.

With such lavish equipment, combined with the Celestial Divine Sword’s detailed design and operation, the crew seemed to vanish from the entire Xiangzhou Continent the instant they entered the refuge area, leaving no trace.

——

Thus, Golden Jade City was mostly sleepless that night.

The restless audience, teased by the musical drama, was disregarded, as the city’s interim government leadership was a nest of anxious ants.

"Where’s Zhao Xinyu, still not found?!"

Zhao Hongwu sat at the desk, his voice full of exhaustion and irritation.

A Golden Armor General standing across from him looked embarrassed, saying: "We’ve searched the inn he’s staying in top to bottom and even asked a reputable Fortune Teller to deduce his whereabouts, but so far, no results, as if he never existed..."

Zhao Hongwu snapped: "Never existed!? Then Zhao Xinyu, who attended the joint strategy meeting and proposed United Strength, is he collective hallucination?!"

"But there’s truly not a clue to be found." The Golden Armor General was sweating and his voice trembling, "We followed your orders, had our men stake out the inn entrance, with an array monitoring him; until your emergency command arrived, the monitoring showed he was inside. When we broke into his room, we found he vanished without a trace."

"Are you saying the incompetence is due to equipment defect? You’ve made a mess and are quick to shirk responsibility! I’m telling you, I don’t care about the process, only the result. If Zhao Xinyu’s whereabouts aren’t found within an hour, then take off your Golden Armor, and start as an infantry tomorrow!"

After yelling at his subordinate, Zhao Hongwu bowed his head, tightly pressing his temples, feeling his Primordial Spirit throbbing as if it were about to leave his body.

When the last act’s line from the musical drama appeared, he and his brother Zhao Hongwen almost lost control in the VIP seats.

The plot was too terrifying! When the line appeared, it seemed like hearing Zhao Chenlu’s chilling laughter in his ear!

The prime suspect was naturally the mysterious figure Zhao Xinyu, who suddenly claimed to be the ex-husband of Zhao Chenlu, seen as the person Zhao Chenlu raised from a young girl.

Yet Zhao Xinyu originally barged into the City Lord’s Mansion, faced countless Great Cultivators of the Mountain-Overturning Realm and Rain Cover Realm, attending the strategy meeting alone, amid the crowd. What Illusion Technique could hide his true form?

So Zhao Hongwu immediately sent people to find Zhao Xinyu, hoping to bring him in front of himself smoothly, to tell him the musical drama was entirely fictional, baseless, and tomorrow’s public trial was Zhao Chenlu’s execution date.

However, Zhao Xinyu mysteriously vanished.

His disappearance was even scarier than him suddenly proclaiming himself as the female lead; the fear from the unknown far surpassed any confirmed risks.

"I should’ve known it wouldn’t be so simple, Zhao Chenlu’s reputation, how could she be suppressed easily... she’s surely left a backdoor, we’ve all been deceived by her!"

At the desk, Zhao Hongwu fell uncontrollably into a state of hysterical anxiety, while Zhao Hongwen beside him also frowned deeply, unable to say a word.

In the next moment, the door swung open forcefully, and a fierce lady strode in, speaking loudly: "Zhao Chenlu is human, not a deity; she will stumble, fall into despair, there’s no need to overestimate her prowess. If she was truly that formidable, she wouldn’t be trapped by me in the Seventeen Linked Rings now, pulling all these underhand tricks."

Zhao Lingbo’s words finally calmed the Zhao Brothers down.

Zhao Hongwu asked, "In your opinion, what should we do now? Continue using the United Hearts Array? Or switch to your Broken Moon Sword Array? Or use both?"

Zhao Lingbo pondered for a moment and then said, "I suggest..." 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

Before he could finish, a familiar voice interrupted, "Of course, the United Hearts."

As soon as the voice came out, everyone’s eyes focused on where it was coming from.

There was Zhao Xinyu, standing proudly at the front gate.

He still had that plain middle-aged face, now looking utterly disheveled, his clothes scorched and stained with blood, as if he were a soldier who just fought his way out of a battlefield.

Naturally, it was Wang Jiu.

This night was crucial for ensuring the successful rescue of Zhao Chenlu. The identity he had infiltrated the enemy with could not be abandoned. However, he had to help Shen Qingming and others retreat smoothly from Golden Jade City and hide near Moonlight Lake, so he was spread a bit thin.

Now with some freedom, he had to play his role well.

"You dare show up!?"

Seeing Zhao Xinyu, Zhao Hongwu was furious and instinctively prepared to unleash the Immortal Treasure in his hand to tear him apart.

But his brother Zhao Hongwen grabbed his hand and said, "Wait, don’t be reckless."

Then he turned and asked, "Where did you go earlier?"

Wang Jiu smiled, "Where else could I go? I was captured by the people of Cyan Cloud City, almost died without a trace."

"The people of Cyan Cloud City!?"

"Who else could it be? Right now, in the entire Golden Jade City, who else would stand so unwaveringly on Zhao Chenlu’s side other than those few Cyan Cloud people?" Wang Jiu said, "Though I don’t know what benefits Zhao Chenlu promised the Cyan Cloud people, they are truly using any means to rescue Zhao Chenlu. Designing such a morale-shaking musical theater was one thing, but they even attempted to silence me..."

Listening nearby, Zhao Lingbo frowned and asked, "So you’re saying that the whole musical theater was entirely fabricated, just the Cyan Cloud people trying to seize the opportunity to disrupt public morale and fish in troubled waters? And to make the plot seem realistic, they attacked you, intending to silence you?"

Wang Jiu said, "Of course, the musical theater was completely fabricated. You’ve been her personal maid for years; you’d know if she had long-term opportunities to keep a girl outside, wouldn’t you?"

Zhao Lingbo snorted, "Still, I never knew about someone like you."

Zhao Xinyu said, "She never invested so much effort in me. We merely had a physical relationship, so it was easy to keep it hidden."

"Hmph!" Zhao Lingbo’s anger surged, and she had to admit that there were indeed many things about her master Zhao Chenlu that she did not know, even as her personal maid, she couldn’t control all of Zhao Chenlu’s time.

There were always times when Zhao Chenlu’s whereabouts were mysterious... To have a kept girl as in the musical theater seemed unlikely, but if it was merely to handle physical needs, the time was indeed enough... Reflecting upon this, Zhao Lingbo nearly ground her teeth in anger.

At this time, Wang Jiu said again, "The Cyan Cloud people are putting on this drama now to cause us to disrupt ourselves. If we discard the United Hearts Array we’ve already prepared at this moment, it really would mean releasing Zhao Chenlu."

"However, the public sentiment in Golden Jade City might..."

Wang Jiu said, "Public sentiment isn’t a toy you can knead as you please. Do you think just one musical theater can change the minds of millions? Can it erase Zhao Chenlu’s actions of the past twenty years from people’s memories? Besides, with me here as a witness, what other tricks do they have?"

Such righteous talk left the Zhao Brothers speechless.

Wang Jiu continued, "Alright, enough with the idle talk. What to do next is up to you. I was severely wounded by the Cyan Cloud people and need to heal quickly. Do you have any Grotto Heaven Blessed Lands here..."

"...Of course, wait a moment, I’ll find someone to take you there."

After Wang Jiu left, Zhao Hongwu asked, "What do you all think, is he... trustworthy?"

Zhao Hongwen bitterly smiled, "Trustworthy or not, we have no choice now. Besides believing him, what else can we do? It’s a case of riding a tiger and finding it hard to dismount."

"Speaking of which, I have an idea," Zhao Lingbo said. "Although I also believe that millions’ wish power won’t change with just one musical, to be safe, tomorrow, let’s have our people perform the sixth act?"

"Ah?"

"Designed by us, to reassure the city’s populace," Zhao Lingbo said. "No matter what plot the Cyan Cloud people have, no matter what spectacle they plan to perform tomorrow, at this time, we are still the masters of Golden Jade City, and we also control the media! Using our media resources advantage, we can forcibly launch our designed sixth act, making their plot immediately fail."