As the third day’s morning light fell into the small courtyard, Ada returned with fifty dust-stained cavalrymen. He glanced at the heads of the various prominent families who had stood waiting at the courtyard gates all night, then, amidst their expressions of unspoken hesitation and intense envy, he walked freely into the courtyard.
At that very moment, the family heads of Shantong Prefecture etched Ada’s appearance deeply into their minds, realizing how they should handle their relationship with Zhou Tieyi's chief guard in the future. The old saying that when a man achieves the Dao, even his chickens and dogs ascend to heaven—this was precisely what it meant.
Walking into the courtyard, although the sound of machinery echoed noisily from the mines outside, here it was utterly silent. The surrounding darkness was deep and profound, preventing the morning light from the outside from truly blending with the courtyard; the two sides felt as if they belonged to two separate worlds.
Chapter 427