Just as Wu Tian was about to take the city lord's order, Liu Taijun suddenly retracted his arm and warned: "This item was issued by the Shadow Guard Commander himself. You must not lose it, otherwise our lives will be in danger. In addition, you must return it to me as soon as possible after the election begins."
“Yes.” Wutan nodded, took out the city lord’s order, looked at it briefly, and put it in his arms.
In fact, although Liu Taijun has strong limbs, he is smarter than Xu Yuan. He has two purposes in giving the letter of recommendation to Wu Tian.
First, the leader of the Shadow Guards has issued a rule that the city lord cannot participate in the fight for the Shadow Guards, and the Shadow Guards cannot participate in the fight for the city lord. In other words, as long as a letter of recommendation is given to 'Li Feng', then 'Li Feng' will no longer be able to compete for the position of city lord.
Second, running for Shadow Guard is extremely difficult and dangerous. Throughout history, few losers have managed to survive safely.
There is an election for Shadow Guards every year. Each city can only send one person each time, for a total of nine people. Although the number is small, the competition is very fierce.
Once the person he recommends is successfully selected, the Shadow Guard Commander will reward the person with a large amount of resources. Therefore, generally speaking, the people recommended by the city lord are basically the strongest people in their respective cities.
The so-called election is nothing more than a fight, one game after another, elimination, and only the top three can be officially named Shadow Guards.
There are cultivation level restrictions for those who can participate in the election. The lowest level must be no weaker than the initial stage of the Divine Transformation Period, and there is no upper limit for the strongest level.
This brings us to the gap between the nine cities. Everyone in the Dark City knows that there is a huge gap between each of the nine cities.
In every previous Shadow Guard election, the top three places were basically taken by three upper-class cities, because they had rich resources and many treasures. Even if they were at the same level, they were able to overwhelm people from middle and lower-class cities.
The second largest group of cities is the medium-sized city, where some individuals were lucky enough to become shadow guards.
As for lower-level cities like the Ninth City, even the city lord and deputy city lord's cultivation is only at the initial stage of divine transformation, not to mention that the guardians and city guards below are basically at the Hundred Dynasties stage or below, and there are very few repairers at the Divine Transformation stage.
Therefore, in the annual Shadow Guard election, these three cities are always at the bottom of the list and can only serve as stepping stones for others. No one has ever succeeded.
Liu Taijun saw this point and wanted to use this election to kill these two ungrateful and rebellious little beasts.
You can't judge a person by his appearance. Although Liu Taijun is a big man and doesn't seem to have any scheming intentions, he is actually a ruthless character who will take revenge for any slight. He will do everything he can to get rid of anyone who offends him.
Even if we take a step back, if the two succeed in the election, there will be no harm to him, and he can also get a large amount of resources. If they fail and die, he cannot blame others, because it was his own choice and he had specifically reminded them.
Liu Taijun said in a deep voice: "I remind you once again, running for Shadow Guard is extremely dangerous. The other party will kill you in every possible way. If you regret it now, it's not too late."
"Thank you for your kindness, Lord City. I have made up my mind, so there is no need to persuade me."
Wu Tian smiled faintly, his expression was calm and peaceful. As for Liu Taijun's little thoughts, he knew it! But he was too lazy to care about it. After all, he was just a passer-by here and would leave after finishing his work.
"Since you have made up your mind, no matter how much I say, it will be useless. Okay, I wish you success." Liu Taijun had an extremely sincere smile on his face. As for what he was thinking in his heart, only he knew.
"Yes! Throughout history, no one in our Ninth City has ever succeeded. I hope you can work hard to break this defeat. Then, our Ninth City will finally be able to hold our heads high in the Dark City." Xu Yuan said with a smile.
Wu Tian smiled faintly and said, "Nothing is absolute, I can't guarantee it!"
"Haha! Just do your best, just do your best." Liu Taijun laughed dryly, then glanced at the private room and asked in confusion: "By the way, why don't I see Zhuang Luochen?"
At this time, Cang Zheng suddenly stood up, pointed at the dishes on the table, looked at the two people and said with a smile: "We feel really ashamed to have the two city lords come here in person. How about you stay and have a meal together?"
"Well!"
Upon hearing this, Liu Taijun and the other man froze up. Looking at the delicious food on the table, they not only lost their appetite, but instead felt as if they were about to die, and broke out in cold sweats.
"No, we are busy with official duties and cannot waste even a moment. Goodbye!" Xu Yuan forced a smile uglier than crying, bowed to Wutan and the other man, then touched Liu Taijun beside him, gave him a wink, and then turned around and left without looking back.
"Yes, yes, yes. We have official business to attend to, so we won't stay any longer. Enjoy your meal, brothers. Goodbye!" Liu Taijun said with a bow. He did not ask about Zhuang Luochen's whereabouts anymore and turned around to chase after Xu Yuan.
When turning around, Wu Tian and the other man clearly noticed that Liu Taijun reached out to wipe the cold sweat from his forehead.
"You bastard, you dare to plot against me? I can only do this in the Dark City. If it were in the Samsara Continent, I would have skinned you alive!" Cang Zheng said viciously to the empty doorway.
Then, he suddenly slammed the table and angrily said to Wu Tian: "What do you mean? Since you are sure to get the recommendation letter, why do you still want Shishi to go to the Eighth City? If you don't explain it clearly today, don't blame me for being rude to you!"
"It's not for you."
"For me?" Cang Zheng was stunned, then angrily said: "It's none of my business, don't talk nonsense and shirk responsibility!"
Wu Tian said calmly, "Running for the Shadow Guard position is a great opportunity to gain experience. Since your mother wants me to train you, you should follow me in everything I do. As for my decision to let you play in the Ninth City, it was because Shishi was there. If you were to go, she would definitely go with you."
"That's why you made up a bunch of lies to deceive me and Shishi's pure heart. You are such a complete liar." Cang Zheng was furious. He thought he could just stand by and watch, but he didn't expect that he had already been accounted for by Wutan.
Seeing this, Wu Tian couldn't help wanting to laugh. He rolled his eyes and said jokingly, "You'd better pray that Shi Shi can't get a recommendation letter. Otherwise, you'll have a hard time in this election."
"You bastard!"
Cang Zheng was already extremely angry, and when he heard this, he was even more furious. He slammed his hand on the dining table and stood up suddenly. The huge table could not bear the load and suddenly shattered, and the "delicious" dishes were scattered all over the floor.
However, he pointed at Wutan and couldn't say a word for a long time. In the end, he could only spit out the word "bastard" to vent his unhappiness.
"Let's go! Now that we have received Jiucheng's letter of recommendation, it's time for us to go find Shishi." Wutan didn't care. He said lightly, then rushed out of the window and blended into the vast crowd.
"Shameless bastard, you'd better not fall into my hands in the future, otherwise you will be in big trouble!" Cang Zheng said harshly and followed him helplessly.
…
The eighth city is only ten thousand miles away from the ninth city. With the speed of Wutan and his companion, they walked while enjoying the local customs and culture, and it only took them half an hour to enter this dilapidated city.
As expected by Wu Tian, the Eighth City was similar to the Ninth City. In some aspects, the Eighth City was even inferior to the Ninth City.
For example, the cleanliness of the city.
Although the ninth city was in ruins, the city was very clean. However, the eighth city was not only in ruins, but the streets were also filled with all kinds of garbage. Fortunately, it was not a hot summer day, otherwise the whole city would be shrouded in stench.
"That Dark City Lord is a piece of shit. The cities under his jurisdiction have become like this, but he doesn't manage them properly. He just plays mysterious all day long. He deserves to be cut into pieces!" Cang Zheng looked around with disgust, and naturally attributed the terrible environment here to the mysterious Dark City Lord.
"Hey! Brother, why are you here? I was just going to look for you!"
As the two of them entered the city gate, a crisp sound of surprise rang in their minds. Looking up, a smile suddenly appeared on Wutan's face.
But Cang Zheng was crying out in grief in his heart.
"It's over, it's over. Looking at the girl's bright smile, she must have gotten a letter of recommendation. Why am I so miserable? How about I tell the girl that Wu Tian is lying? No, if that's the case, Wu Tian will definitely not let me go. What should I do? God! Buddha! Immortal Banban! Please show me a way forward!"
A beautiful figure trotted over from the crowd, her face filled with an angelic smile: "Brother, why did you come here in person!"
Looking at the woman in front of him, Wu Tian's eyes were very gentle. He reached out to wipe off the snowflakes on her face and said with a smile: "Anyway, we are all going to the First City, so we just rushed here and saw if there was anything we could do to help you. Now it seems that I was worrying about nothing."
"Shishi, did you get the letter of recommendation?" Cang Zheng asked tentatively without giving up.
"Of course! Don't you see who is coming?" Shishi smiled proudly, took out a palm-sized token from her arms, shook it in front of Cangzheng, and then handed it to Wutan.
Cang Zheng stared at the city lord's order engraved with the number 'eight' and felt like banging his head against the wall. Then he looked at Shishi with his eyes filled with resentment, which made Shishi confused and thought that her brother was bullying her again!
Wutan shook his head and winked at the little guy who poked his head out of Shishi's arms.
The little fellow pursed his lips and beguiled reluctantly: "Little girl, you see these two cities are dilapidated and there is probably nothing to do there. And if we go to the Blood Altar, the little emperor will probably be worried. Why don't we go to the Star Realm! I heard from Brother Wuhao that the imperial medicine may be born soon!"
"Really?" Shishi asked in surprise, and then she was amazed: "Imperial medicine! I have never seen it since I was a child. I am really curious!"
"Xiao Wuhao said this himself, so it can't be false. And your trip to the Star Realm will be a good opportunity for you to urge Luo Qiang to take good care of the medicine fields. Remember, don't let him be lazy." Wutan fanned the flames and made Shishi look forward to it.
"Okay, nephew Luo Qiang, I haven't seen him for a long time. To be honest, I miss him so much." Shishi nodded and agreed without hesitation. Seeing this, Cang Zheng on the side was puzzled. This little girl was really naive and was fooled by just a few words.
Ignoring the protests of the Bird Saint and the Insect King, Wutan found a hidden place, waved his hand, and sent them and Shishi directly into the Star Realm. As for the Violent Ape and the Gold-Eating Rat, they gloated over his misfortune in silence.
Afterwards, Wu Tian threw the lord's order of the lord of the eighth city to Cang Zheng and said calmly: "There is still a month before the recruitment of shadow guards. We still have plenty of time. Why not go to other cities first?"
Soon, Wutan and the extremely depressed Cang Zheng disappeared in the crowd, but they did not notice that there was a man in black who had been following them stealthily.
—
Recommended works by Lao Mao: (Chaos Emperor)
(End of this chapter)