Xue Wei was surprised that even some random cultivators and mercenaries were able to guess that he was not a Primordial Beast. But if that was the case, why were the upper echelons eager to make him out to be one?
"What do you know?" someone suddenly said from a table not far away. "They are using this as an excuse to take down Xiao Lei," he spoke in a low voice as he slowly moved towards the table.
"Take down Xiao Lei?" one of the burly men asked with confusion, and the man who was coming towards them nodded his head vigorously.
"In this kingdom, when you think about the most illustrious person, who is it?"
"Primordial Beast Hunter Xiao Lei."
"Indeed. In most kingdoms, it would be the King or the Emperor or his princes, but here it is a measly hunter. He is not even nobility!"
"It is the upper echelons of society who are certain that this nephew of his is a Primordial Beast, and they are hunting him with everything they got under this premise."
"But in fact, what they want is to make this Xue Wei out to be a Primordial Beast to lower Xiao Lei’s reputation. They want to turn on him, make him less famous. If they could, they would have killed him outright for being more famous, more well-liked, and more powerful than the royal family."
"They might even accuse him of being an accomplice of the Primordial Beasts as they did with his friend, that person from the Tie family."
Everyone in the restaurant felt enlightened when they heard this, but they also felt fuming anger in their chests.
Although they had been whispering, the entire restaurant was now so silent that one could hear a pin drop, as everyone had been listening in on the conversation.
"But Xiao Lei is a hero of mankind. He has fought for humanity and has continued to strive to do the best for our kingdom. To be treated like this is truly disgusting," someone muttered, and many nodded their heads.
"Right now, Xiao Lei is out hunting Primordial Beasts, putting his life at risk. Meanwhile, the humans he is trying to protect are all trying to get rid of his only flesh and blood."
"I bet it was someone who colluded with the Primordial Beasts to do this! It has to have been planned. They wanted to get rid of Xiao Lei, so they made this plan long ago and leaked information to the Ice Harpy. How else is it possible for her to have done as she did?"
"It is obvious that the Primordial Beasts hold a grudge against Xiao Lei. How can they even consider working together with his flesh and blood?"
Many started speaking at the same time, and all of them were at first slightly angered, but then they compared it to their own situation and they became livid with anger.
"It is easy for the nobles to put all the blame on Xiao Lei and his family! They can do whatever they want to just because of their heritage!"
"They never risk their lives, yet those who do gets treated like this?!"
"It is people like that Tie Haolong who are true men! Fighting for brotherhood! Doing what they believe is right!"
"Let us go spread the facts about this kid's fate!" someone exclaimed, and the others lifted their hands, shouting, "Yes!"
After that, they all rushed out of the restaurant and split on the street. They went to drinking houses, gambling dens, pleasure houses and so on, spreading out to tell the truth about Xiao Lei.
Even now, the people in the Outer City trusted Xiao Lei. They had more faith in Xiao Lei than they did the royal family, and they were willing to spread the news of him being mistreated even if it meant that they would be punished severely.
In fact, a few of them hoped that someone, and not themselves, would be punished so that they could claim that the nobility was doing everything in its power to kill the truth.
Xue Wei had stayed in the restaurant. His emotions were in turmoil.
He knew that his uncle was a hero to mankind, but to see how the average cultivator was willing to take his side that easily made him feel his heart swell with emotion.
He was proud of his uncle, the man who had the power to cause such devotion amongst the common folk.
Xue Wei was in deep thought. He had always thought that the people up high had just wanted to get rid of him, but was there perhaps some other reason behind their actions?
Was there perhaps a conspiracy against his uncle, such as these people had assumed?
The Ice Harpy had appeared back in Tiankong City, and it seemed that every action she had made was against Xue Wei.
It made sense that she held a serious grudge against Xiao Lei, who had killed so many Primordial Beasts. Maybe she decided to take her revenge on Xue Wei instead?
Had she worked together with someone else all along, or was it all just a coincidence? Xue Wei felt that he needed to know. If someone wasere going after his uncle, he truly wished to get to the roots of it and protect his Uncle. The only downside was that he was too weak.
Xue Wei was simply far too weak to be able to get to the bottom of anything right now. He was not even able to save himself if he ran into a Primordial Beast hunter, but he still wished to do his best.
After finishing his meal, Xue Wei left the restaurant and headed towards the Inner City.
He found that Tie Haolong had been sentenced to death for aiding a Primordial Beast in escaping, and his execution was to be carried out fourteen days after, as they had to wait for Tie Haolong to arrive at the capital first.
Xue Wei checked into another inn than the first one he had resided in a little more than a year prior, and he quickly went to his room. He had to figure out how to save Tie Haolong.
In his room, Xue Wei sighed deeply and sat on the bed. He had come this far, and he was now in the capital, but what could he actually do? Was it possible for him to somehow intercept them and release Tie Haolong?
Xue Wei did not doubt that if he succeeded in releasing Tie Haolong, he would flee the kingdom together with him and head for the center of the continent.
Just as Xue Wei was deep in thought, he heard someone knocking at the door. "We brought you a meal on the house," a male voice sounded from outside of the room, and Xue Wei jolted.
He spread his spiritual energy and sensed that the entire inn was crawling with experts, all of them of high rank, the majority being Sky Warriors. He sighed.
"Seems like I will be incapable of rescuing Haolong now," he sighed.
As he spread his senses, he could see that the entire inn was surrounded, and there was even a group of experts flying in the air on Fierce Beasts. He knew that he was done for.
"I apologize, Uncle," he continued to talk to himself, "I was incapable of protecting myself, and now they will likely come after you. Whether or not they did it intentionally, they will use this to get rid of you. I hope you never return to the Heping Kingdom, which is filled with ungrateful bastards."
Xue Wei was seated on the bed and looked at the door. He did not even move to the window to attempt to escape, because he knew that a large group of cultivators was waiting for him outside, and an escape from here would be impossible.
Since this was the case, why not just wait casually for them? They had claimed that he was a Primordial Beast, so they would not kill him right away. Instead, they would try and tame him with the help of a Diviner.
Xue Wei called out, "Stop pretending already, just come in." A rustling sound could be heard from outside the door before it was kicked in and a group of cultivators swarmed into the room, their eyes vigilant and their faces contorted with hatred.
"Primordial Beast spawn!" someone yelled and was about to spit on him when Xue Wei used the Forbidden Rush to move away. His movements were elusive and elegant.
He avoided the spit. The expert who had tried to spit at him was quickly slapped on the back of his head by another expert.
"What do you think you are doing?!" he exclaimed. "This kid has decided to come with us – as things are now, do you want to anger him? As long as he is docile, things are good. If he transforms back into a beast, then who knows what kind of danger we have to face!"
Xue Wei just stood at the back of the room with his arms crossed over his chest and gave the speaking experts a rather annoyed look. Did these experts truly believe he was a Primordial Beast? Then again, they were members of a noble family, so it was likely they would believe anything said by their ancestors.
"Now, come with us," the one who had berated the other expert behaved neither politely nor arrogantly. He was on the contrary very neutral.
Xue Wei shrugged his shoulders and followed them. He was surrounded inside a pack of twenty Sky Warriors, nineteen on the ground in a formation around him and one in the sky.
From this, one could see just how difficult it was to get one's hands on a flying Fierce Beast.
They had made it to the castle, a place where Xue Wei had been twice before for some business, yet this time he was not heading towards the Jade Palace, nor was he heading towards the Crown Prince's chambers. Instead they were going towards the prisons.
They had marched through the majority of the Inner City, and many had seen him. The captors had even walked a longer way to ensure that everyone knew that specifically their family had captured him.
They had a crest on their chests, and although Xue Wei did not know which family this crest belonged to, the rest of the city did.
When Xue Wei had reached the castle, the entire city was in an uproar, as news of his capture spread through the Inner City to the Outer City like rings in the water.
His captors treated Xue Wei rather well; none of them tried to torture him or make him feel humiliated, but they were not friendly either.
It was clear that they understood that this case had to be treated with caution. Xue Wei was assumed to be a Primordial Beast, but it was not certain that he was one. If he was not, then why could he transform his arms?
If he was not, why would the Ice Harpy refer to him as her brother? Everyone knew that the Ice Harpy hated humans more than anything. She took great pleasure in slaughtering humans when she was bored.
The city was bustling with life and rumors; people were arguing all the time about what they were going to do, and what Xue Wei’s fate would be.
The majority did not believe that he was a Primordial Beast, but no one dared to say it out loud. They feared retaliation from the nobles.
Xue Wei paid no attention to it all. He knew that it was likely that there was no one who had worked together with the Harpy, but they decided to act accordingly and use the timing of her stunt to their advantage.
He was likely to be declared a Primordial Beast and then be executed. This way they could start their next move against Xiao Lei, and take some of his fame and power away from him.
Xue Wei could not help but sigh as he stood in the cell he had been given, glancing about. He was still regretting his actions from before, but now everything was out of his hands. The only thing he could do was to wait and see what would happen.