Getting a Sugar Mommy in Cultivation World!!
Chapter 693 - 693: The Traitor

The city square was quiet, yet the air was heavy with smoke, blood, and the weight of the dead. Citizens, soldiers, and elders stood shoulder to shoulder. The sky was gray, and the towering walls of the city were now stained with blood.

The cracks and the broken parts of the walls had widened; the impact the beast tide had left on it was clear as day.

The citizens of the city, along with the soldiers who fought and survived the beast, were gathered in the area to listen to the city lord spare a few words. Xu Shang stepped onto the blackened platform in his weather-worn armor, his beard curled at the edges, his eyes sunken yet burning with will.

His presence alone silenced the crowd as they all focused on him. "People of Aradonia…" he paused, taking in each one of the faces present in the square before continuing.

"For three months, we have stood together against the endless tide of beasts."

"For three months, we watched our brothers and sisters bleed beside us."

"For three months, we buried the young and the old alike, and we asked the heavens why — and still, we held the line."

Tears welled up in the eyes of those who lost their loved ones. Xu Sheng even caught some glares and curses directed at him from the people present but acted like they did nothing.

Instead he turned to look at the wounded soldiers on the side, wrapped in bandages and casts.

"I do not have words strong enough for your courage, nor gold rich enough to repay your sacrifice. This city lives — because of you."

But a three-figure standing in the air appeared in his peripheral vision, causing his voice to grow stiffer.

"But you should also know that our survival was not ours alone.

The righteous sects sent their disciples — three cultivators of notable strength. They stood with us and drew their swords against the beasts and helped us live through this devastating period.

They fought beside us when the skies darkened and when the walls cracked. For their efforts…"

As his voice drifted into the air, the speech went on, and the people started to offer their gratitude to the disciples of the three sects, completely forgetting others who bleed to keep them alive.

Xu Shang also knew that this was bound to happen, but there was nothing he could do. So I kept the speech about them short and perfunctory.

"We will rebuild, as we always have. Let this day mark our defiance — of death, of despair, and of fate. Aradonia stands not because of fate… but because of us."

He pressed on the last words before leaving the stage and making his way towards the city manor. The three disciples saw the speech and took their leave towards their sects.

…

For three months, the people of the city of Aradonia lived in fear and dread, but after Xu Shang announced that the beast waves were successfully defended, the people in the city felt relieved for the first time.

They finally started to see the importance of the army campaigns and the force recruitments. Had it not been for them, the city might have fallen, and they would have died.

Just when his reputation in the city started to rise little by little, something unexpected happened.

A rumor started to spread around the city.

"What? The city lord used up all our hard-earned money?"

"Why would he do that? Didn't he increase the tax, saying that it was to prevent the beast tide from happening?"

Doubts started to creep up in the hearts of the masses, and in one month his reputation dropped even lower than it was before the tide.

Inside her personal quarters, Andis sat in a lotus position, her eyes closed and her breath rhythmic. She was shrouded in a veil of qi, which entered her body in an orderly manner.

"Huff!" She exhaled a breath of turbid air and opened her eyes; the qi around her dispersed.

"Finally, I have managed to reach the first level of the qi gathering realm." She clenched her hands into a fist. "It took me months of handwork to reach this place."

Just as she took a step forward, a transmission entered her mind: 'It's time.'

The voice sounded impatient, but Andis had grown used to it and did not panic. She slowly straightened her clothes and walked out of the room with her signature cold eyes.

But from the start to the end, she failed to notice the presence of a man in her room.

The man she once begged to save her life.

It was… Noah.

He looked at the woman's retreating back with a distant look on his face. There was no regret or any pity in his eyes.

After a while he let out a strained sigh and muttered, "I did not see that coming. I can already see how this trial will end."

As the last words left his mouth, his body had already disappeared from the spot.

Andis rushed out of the courtyard and made her way towards the building that was the second biggest step of her life.

She traced the steps she took three months ago and entered the same room at the far end of the hall she did the last time.

Once she opened the door, she saw the same back.

"We meet again, Miss Andis." The figure slowly turned around and stood face-to-face with the woman.

"Miss Yin Qi." Seeing the young woman who saved her in the beast tide months ago, Andis bowed deeply and showed respect to her. She raised her head and asked curiously, "I thought we still had some time?"

"But then I heard about how good you have been behaving and spread those rumors even faster than I had imagined." The disciple of the righteous chuckled with an amused look on her face as she saw the look of surprise on Andis's face.

"How did you know?" Seeing that the woman had already seen through her facade long ago, Andis asked without any pretense.

"It was me." A shadow stepped from the back of the room, shocking Andis even further.

Staring at the man before him, Andis narrowed her eyes sharply. "I never expected it to be you… Gong Ho."

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