NOVEL NEXT Chapter 372: Rules of the Game in the Abyss Era
Lu Heng's attitude was very firm, but this also gave certain media outlets room to use the situation to their advantage.
The countries that the ASE Alliance controls, or indirectly controls, along with their media, began to greatly exaggerate the "brutal" actions of the Great Xia superpower users, portraying them as inhuman devils.
As it turned out, the human world's population size was simply too large.
When a group's numbers reach a certain point, a lot of irrational blind follower behaviors emerge.
And in the information network era, this phenomenon is infinitely magnified, with 10% of people making 90% of the noise, while the silent majority, even if they are clear-headed, can't alter the outcome of collective irrationality.
History has proven more than once that truth is held in the hands of a few.
Progress in civilization is often carried forward by giants bearing the heavy load.
The best outcome for ordinary people is to quietly become the silent majority.
Thus, the ideological battlefield that demonizes the Great Xia superpower users silently erupted.
Before many even realized what was happening, criticism and insults against the Great Xia superpower users flooded the internet and media.
This smokeless war of ideologies indeed produced significant effects.
Not only did the hostility of the White Eagle Federation and Lion Heart Empire towards them worsen, but it even led some of Great Xia's superpower users to start internal conflicts.
After the Abyss Descent, there were many situations where superpower users from different countries cooperated with each other.
Some teams consisted of multi-racial members, and after the smokeless war began, many Great Xia superpower users in mixed teams started to face exclusion.
After the exclusion began, many Great Xia superpower users started to blame Lu Heng.
As a result, within Great Xia, in the superpower user circles, someone began to slander Lu Heng's team.
With the backing of groups manipulating public opinion behind the scenes, for a while, voices condemning Lu Heng were everywhere.
...
These voices of condemnation were already affecting real life.
When Lu Heng appeared at the Quenching Castle, he occasionally sensed strange glances sneaking upon him.
This situation never occurred before.
The Quenching Masters, Forging Masters, and Engravers who could enter the Quenching Castle were all strictly selected and had decent character.
Even so, some of them were influenced by ideological factors.
It is imaginable, this ideological war indeed had an effect, and the impact was spreading.
Xie Shi'en originally returned to the Capital City to spend more time with his teacher's wife, but upon the sudden emergence of this event, he hurried back.
When Lu Heng learned that Xie Shi'en had returned from the Capital City, he gathered the four team members to meet at the Quenching Castle, setting the time in the afternoon.
In the afternoon.
Lu Heng arrived at the Quenching Castle, not going to the forging room, and directly entered a team-exclusive conference room in the castle.
While passing through the first-floor hall, he encountered Yuan Hecheng and his daughter.
Upon seeing Lu Heng enter, Yuan Yaoyao quickly walked two steps forward to greet him, saying, "Brother Lu, I've finally seen you."
"Yaoyao..." Yuan Hecheng tried to hold his daughter back, but he couldn't manage to.
He smiled and nodded at Lu Heng, respectfully calling him, "Captain Lu."
Lu Heng nodded in response, saying nothing.
Yuan Hecheng hurriedly said, "Yaoyao, Captain Lu has important things to attend to, don't disturb him."
Yuan Yaoyao waved her hand to her father behind her, "Dad, you go to work first. Don't worry about me."
Originally, Yuan Hecheng wanted to pull his daughter away, but he felt it might not be appropriate.
Actually, he didn't want his daughter to have too much contact with Lu Heng.
It wasn't because he had an issue with Lu Heng, he purely didn't want his daughter involved in dangerous matters.
Yuan Hecheng was aware of, and had seen the news about, the "verbal attacks" on Lu Heng in the media and online.
He scoffed at such defamatory remarks against the Great Xia superpower users and believed that Lu Heng must have had sufficient reasons for killing Gilbert Ocam.
He didn't think there was anything wrong with Lu Heng's character, but he still preferred that his daughter not be too closely associated with Lu Heng.
This thought was neither right nor wrong; he just wanted his daughter to stay away from danger.
Because Lu Heng was now caught in a massive vortex, and that vortex was very dangerous, he was just a Quenching Master focused on his straightforward job, but for his daughter's safety, he naturally didn't want her anywhere near that vortex.
Actually, Lu Heng could understand his feelings.
Because this mindset was the same as his parents', all parents hope their children grow up healthy and safe.
In the eyes of parents, no matter how old their children get, they are always their children.
However, in this instance, Lu Mingli and his wife couldn't make Lu Heng avoid the vortex because Lu Heng was at the center of it.
Lu Heng showed a sunny smile to Yuan Yaoyao and said, "Go with your father to work. I truly do have important matters."
Yuan Yaoyao didn't acknowledge him and followed behind, chattering, "Brother Lu, don't listen to those idiots online. They're both foolish and evil, I'm the person who understands Brother Lu the most. Really, I really do understand."
She wasn't lying, nor was she blindly "understanding," but had experienced something similar to Lu Heng.
Last time, when the Lion Heart Empire sent superpower user assassins to kill a Quenching Master, her father was targeted.
Once, when she was picking up her father from work to go home, they encountered an assassin at night.
As soon as the assassin pulled out a gun, her Light Computer calculated that the danger level exceeded 70%. She didn't hesitate and directly struck down the assassin with a Plasma Sword Light.
However, because she acted so quickly, the assassin hadn't fully drawn the gun, and in the surveillance video, it looked like she was randomly killing someone on the street.