The man from Luo Er said, Five years ago, two fugitives from the Kingdom of Luo Er escaped to the Free Valley. Now that Hua Xia has established itself in that valley, according to the rules, you need to hand them over to us for their sentencing.

Ji Fengyans gaze turned a notch chillier at the mans words.

The various nations had a rule among them that no one was to harbor a criminal wanted by another kingdom. Otherwise, it would be the equivalent of slapping the other kingdom in the face. In the most severe cases, it might even lead to war.

But this was not a hard and fast rule. It varied according to the comparable strengths of the two countries involved.

If a small nation harbored another countrys fugitive, it would extradite the criminal to avoid a war, because of its own weak state. Nevertheless, such clear-cut cases only occurred when there was a huge disparity in the power of the two nations involved.

If the two kingdoms were of comparable strengths, neither would dare to declare a war over such a matter.

In addition, the moment a nation handed over the fugitive, it admitted that it feared the power of the other kingdom, and chose the cowardly path of submission.

It could be said that such cases seldom occurred among the various kingdoms. Even if a couple of fugitives fled into another nation, few countries were willing to sour ties with another kingdom over such a minor matter.

This situation would only occur when there was a huge disparity in the countries powers. The nation handing over the criminal would suffer a great humiliation, and no country was willing to endure that. Meanwhile, there was also no country willing to cross another kingdom over a few fugitives.

But looking at the current state of things

Things appeared to have changed.

The few dozen men before Ji Fengyan had come not just from one nation, but from several different kingdoms.

And this was because of the prior reputation of the Free Valley.

In its earlier days, the rumored powers of the trigram protected the Free Valley, and criminals who had nowhere else to go would enter the valley to seek refuge. Fearing the Free Valley trigram, the various nations did not dare to enter the valley to capture those fugitives.

But now

The Kingdom of Hua Xia had consolidated the Free Valley. It was no longer an outlying entity, but a proper kingdom.

And these people had come to make use of the might of their own nations to force the newly established Kingdom of Hua Xia to compliantly hand over their fugitives. It was clear that they had the audacity to make such demands as they had completely no regard for Hua Xia.

Ji Fengyan did give any response. She cast a sweeping glance across the bunch of fierce-looking men, while an ambiguous smile played upon her lips.

I guess the rest of you have come with the same purpose?

Thats right, The crowd answered in unison.

The ruler of Hua Xia should be well aware that to go against another nation for a few criminals will not be the right choice. There are so many fugitives hiding inside the Free Valley, that their presence is also a threat to your country. For the future of Hua Xia, I hope you will hand over all the wanted fugitives. The man from Luo Er lifted his chin as he spoke forcefully. His harsh tone showed that he did not regard Ji Fengyan as a ruler at all.

Liu Kai was gnashing his teeth in anger at the mans words. This bunch of guys was obviously trying to bully them. They had not dared to enter the Free Valley to capture their criminals when there was no one in control there. Now, they wanted to take advantage of the new situation to force Hua Xia to hand over those fugitives!