A Man Like None Other

After all, as far as the city lord mansion was concerned, every prisoner was a resource. If someone died, it was a waste, and Ricky didn’t want that responsibility on his shoulders.

He had seen countless brawls in his time, but the way Jared had effortlessly dispatched over a dozen cultivators was unlike anything he’d witnessed before.

“Wait a second,” Ricky muttered to himself. “I’ve seen this guy before. He came here once… to visit someone.” He turned to the guard beside him. “What’s this kid’s story again?”

“He got locked up for hitting Niel Buckley, the son of the Buckley family,” the guard explained.

“They arrested him on the spot.”

“Hitting Niel? That sounds like he was asking for trouble,” Ricky said, frowning.

sent over five hundred purple spirit coins,” the guard continued. “Even Mr. Reese coughed up money to get him out. Everyone knows how tightfisted that guy is. If he’s spending, it’s because this

he tried to piece the puzzle together. “Hmm. Maybe he’s got connections

Ricky, should we step in? If he and Claude go at it…” The guard trailed off, leaning

enough of Claude and his constant grandstanding. If someone’s finally going to knock him down a peg, let it

Claude gets hurt, how will we

do anything? The Lord hasn’t shown up in ages. Who knows what’s going on in the city lord mansion?”

at Ricky’s tone and said nothing

absence, his three beast generals had taken over, but their constant disagreements left the city’s administration

was rampant, and people like Ricky found plenty of opportunities to line their pockets. Bribes for releasing prisoners or allowing visits were routine. Even Donovan, the official in charge of celestial stone transactions, operated

stemmed entirely from the city lord’s absence. With no one at the helm, countless individuals seized

city lord been in charge, Niel wouldn’t have been so brazen, running roughshod over others without a care for the damage he caused. But how could his father, one of the beast generals and a supposed enforcer of the