Reborn Divine Doctor: The Abandoned Girl's Legend
Chapter 1390 - 450: Fame Breeds Trouble
Although Situ and Lan Feng were often found mingling at the Red Sleeve Pavilion, they were acutely aware of the importance of this Jiu Provinces Hunting event. Their former Heroic Team had once reached the Jiu Provinces Heaven List. This time, by participating again, they hoped to surpass past achievements and strive for higher glory. Therefore, when Bo Qing initially suggested disbanding the Heroic Team, they were not pleased.
This time, they intended to persuade Bo Qing to reconsider. However, to their surprise, Bo Qing had already joined a new team. If it had been a renowned team, that would have been fine. But it happened to be a team from a small town, lacking any significant reputation, leaving Situ and Lan Feng, who were eager to follow Bo Qing, entirely dissatisfied.
"Bo Qing, it seems the rumors outside are true. Do you really think, after all you’ve worked for, that this person beside you is worth throwing it all away? This is the latest comprehensive ranking list of the Ancient Nine Provinces cities. Take a look, and then decide."
Lan Feng was much calmer than Situ. He took out a booklet and handed it to Bo Qing.
This booklet was similar to the Jiu Provinces Heaven List, except the Heaven List only showed the top two hundred names, while this booklet contained many more, covering over ninety percent of the mainland’s cities. Additionally, it ranked the personal strength of each regular city lord.
The city rankings of the Ancient Nine Provinces Continent resembled the martial arts categorizations of the Qing Province Continent, divided into the Nine Tiers.
The top ten cities, like Xuanwu City, were considered Super Cities.
The top thirty were First-tier cities, the top hundred were Second-tier, and the next two hundred were Third-tier. Beyond that, respectively, were Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Tiers. Newbie cities like Wuling City and Shui City, although prosperous, ranked around the Fourth or Fifth Tiers on the continent.
And within the bottom one hundred of all cities were the Nine Tier cities, plagued by poor management and poverty, devoid of popularity, perceived by demon hunters and newbies as utterly barren places.
Unfortunately, Huangquan City, which had struggled even with electing a new city lord, wasn’t even considered among the Nine Tier cities. In the eyes of small Divine Power Realm hunters like Situ and Lan Feng, Huangquan City was a non-entity.
The quality of the city and its team meant that, from its inception, the Huangquan Team was deemed insignificant.
This report also included information on Ye Lingyue.
A doodle-like sketch accompanied by a brief description, asserting that Huangquan City’s lord lacked strength, excelled in flattery, was tyrannical, had an affinity for male beauty, and was a useless lord without even the Power of Reincarnation.
As for the indicators symbolizing a city’s comprehensive strength: red, yellow, and green.
The red indicator representing comprehensive strength rated Huangquan City second to last. The yellow indicator, symbolizing population size, ranked Huangquan City third to last. The green indicator, reflecting the number of residents on the Earth List, was a zero for Huangquan City, with no one making the list.
After learning about the Heaven and Earth List at the city gates, Ye Lingyue glanced at these bleak statistics and felt somewhat humiliated as the lord of Huangquan City.
However, times have changed. Ye Lingyue believed that Huangquan City’s past was just that—past.
Since the day she took over as city lord, Huangquan City had begun to transform.
A new immigration policy, city defense construction, and the Huangquan Guard Army were all in full swing. Coupled with mining operations in Hong Meng Heaven, it was believed that Huangquan City’s comprehensive strength would soon improve.
If the Huangquan Team could shine in this Jiu Provinces Hunting, Huangquan City could undoubtedly rid itself of its poor reputation once and for all.
"Outrageous, this information is complete nonsense. I swear on my honor, everything here is entirely fabricated. It’s clearly a deliberate smear by those with ulterior motives."
Bo Qing couldn’t tolerate anyone disparaging Ye Lingyue. The city strength evaluation booklet he held was leaked from the Jiu Provinces Alliance.
Evidently, this was a deliberate act by some discontented members of the Jiu Provinces Alliance who were unhappy about the city lord situation.
Ye Lingyue knew Bo Qing was defending her, but facts were facts. Huangquan City’s weakness was well-known to all.
Moreover, she was indeed as described in the booklet—her personal strength was subpar.
The weakest among Ancient Nine Provinces city lords were individuals at the Small Divine Power Realm, with city lords like City Lord Ma even at the Great Divine Power Realm. As for Ye Lingyue, she was at the Heaven and Earth Tribulation Fifth Layer, roughly equivalent to the Sixth Layer in the Reincarnation Realm, which was significantly below average.
And what was this about flattery and chasing after men? Tyrannical, was she?
Who spread these ridiculous rumors?
Ye Lingyue couldn’t have known that, just as a human fears fame, a pig fears fattening up.
On Ancient Nine Provinces Continent, she wasn’t famous yet, but inside the Jiu Provinces Alliance, she was already a prominent figure.
First, she clashed with Patrol Envoy Lord Mu under Master Chen, then she single-handedly took down the Jin Wannian Commerce, which was closely tied to Jiu Provinces Alliance’s middle and high levels. At Shui City, she even taught the prospective city lord candidate Jiang Ce a lesson.
The consequence of repeatedly offending the Jiu Provinces Alliance was that someone spread rumors behind her back.
They claimed she was ruthless, pointing to her annihilation of Jin Wannian Commerce, sparing not a single soul.
Her partiality for male beauty stemmed from the fact that her team, aside from the middle-aged Senior Sister Wan Yun and the half-hearted Guangzi, consisted entirely of young, handsome men.
As for flattery, they said she lacked strength and appearance but used her wits to deceive the Huangquan city lord into granting her the position and gained unanimous approval from several newbie city lords, appointing her as city lord.
As the saying goes, good news never leaves the house, while bad news travels a thousand miles. In the end, these stories became the current version, causing both Ye Lingyue’s personal reputation and Huangquan Team’s renown to plummet.
"Ahem, everyone, let’s calm down. This information seems to be about me, but aside from not being strong in the Power of Reincarnation, the rest has nothing to do with me."
Ye Lingyue stood up sheepishly, seeing the tension in the air.
"Who do you think you are? We’re speaking with Bo Qing. When did it become your turn, a useless city lord, to speak up?"
Situ glared at Ye Lingyue.
"Situ, insult Ling Yue again, and I’ll take you on."
Bo Qing’s face darkened, a dangerous aura emanated from him, and his peach blossom eyes swirled with a fierce killing intent that neither Situ nor Lan Feng had ever seen.
"Fight, fine, Bo Qing, do you really think I’m afraid of you? At worst, we’ll go our separate ways—you take your solitary path, and Lan Feng and I will stay on our open road."
Situ shouted, his face flushed red with anger.
"Bo Qing, this matter started because of me. I’ll handle it."
As Bo Qing and Situ were about to square off, Ye Lingyue gently tugged on Bo Qing’s sleeve, speaking with an air of nonchalance.