"What's going on?"
Ian Song frowned, staring at the tightly shut gates of Vermin-Ape City. His face darkened slightly—he was the new Governor, but the city gates were locked against him. Clearly, someone was trying to embarrass him.
"Hmph! These fools have no idea who they're dealing with!" Xavier Cheng snorted coldly, his eyes flashing with killing intent.
"You there, go order them to open the city gates!"
Ian's expression returned to normal as he instructed one of his personal guards.
"Yes, sir!"
A personal guard stepped forward and shouted up at the city wall, "Open the gates at once! The Governor has arrived—are you trying to commit treason?"
The city's grand defensive array was still fully active—even a Creator-level expert would have trouble breaking through.
Despite Ian's rebuke, the soldiers on the wall acted as if they hadn't heard a thing, completely ignoring him.
The personal guard grew angry and shouted again, but it was useless—someone was clearly playing deaf.
"Looks like they're trying to keep you, the Governor, locked outside the city!"
Mona Meng chuckled, feeling that the people inside were seriously underestimating the situation.
Before coming to take office, Ian had already looked into the power structure of Vermin-Ape City.
Inside the city, the Lee Family acted as the local tyrants. For years, every Governor had either been a direct Lee or someone the Lees recommended.
Torch-Tiger City's Governor had long been dissatisfied with this, which is why Ian was sent here to take charge.
After all, Ian's cultivation was only at late God Emperor Realm.
But his true strength—especially his mastery of formations—was terrifying. The Lee Family, however, didn't know this. They thought Ian was just a God Emperor and didn't take him seriously, so they simply shut him out.
The Lee Family had dominated Vermin-Ape City for years, with three Creator-realm experts in the clan, over a hundred Emperor-level fighters, and thousands of God Emperors. Of the ten thousand city guards, at least eighty percent were under Lee control.
Even if the Governor was a Creator, he still couldn't do much about the Lee Family.
And Creator-level experts had no interest in coming to a poor little city like Vermin-Ape.