There were 5 men from the tower, 2 on the table with the fruit, and 3 on the table without it.
The leader, the one on the table with the fruit, had a long face with a pointed chin. He looked at Ning with his slimy face and put on a serious face.
Ning was sure he had been instructed how to act, so he was waiting for the man to answer his question.
"Yes," the man said. "You are undoubtedly a fraud. You are giving the poor citizens false hope with your lies. People, don't fall for this trap. You are being lied to. There is no such technique as this that can improve your Aether rank."
The crowd started whispering amongst themselves. Seeing the most trusted source in their city calling the scroll fake, they started to believe them.
"I suggest you stop this unfaithful business right now and hand over the scrolls to us, or we will be forced to shut down this production house," the man shouted.
"Are you saying that the people who used our scrolls yesterday and the day before that are frauds too?" Ning asked.
"They are, without any shadow of a doubt, actors that you paid to rile up the crowd into buying your fake scrolls," the leader said.
The crowd was getting increasingly sure that they had fallen into some sort of trap and were now waiting to see retribution dropped on the schemer's head.
"Hmm, if you say I'm a fraud by selling these scrolls, then you can surely tell me what I have to gain from these right?" Ning asked.
"Of course. You are trying to earn a quick buck and disappear," the leader said confidently.
"Is that so?" Ning asked with a smile. The leader saw his smile and got a little worried.
"How about this then? If you say I'm doing this all for money, then I will give it to them for free. I will even return the money back to the people who already paid. Can I give them the scroll now?" Ning asked.
The leader panicked a little. He hadn't thought Ning would go in this direction with his question.
"No, we cannot let this lie spread forward. We have direct orders from the tower to stop your unlawful activity," the man said.
"Under what authority?" Ning asked. "I'm just selling a scroll here. Leave quietly now and let me do my thing."
"Under what authority? The authority of the tower, you bastard. It doesn't look like you will stop it willingly. Men, destroy all of the scrolls!" the leader shouted.
"Any one of you so as touches the scroll will find a bone sticking out of your arm," Ning said in the voice that sent chills down the spine of everyone looking.
"St-Stop listening to him, and just do it," the leader shouted.
The men immediately took the scrolls that were on the table and started burning them.
"You've done it now," Ning said softly. Suddenly, all of the men felt their bodies unable to move.
Even the invokers who were supposed to have some resistance against bodily enchantments were forcefully being controlled.
They floated in the air and moved forward violently to crash with each other in the air before dropping to the ground before Ning.
Ning grabbed the leader's arm and said, "I told you I would break your arm." With that, he stepped on it.
"AAAHHH!!" the leader shouted. As promised, his arm was bent in the wrong direction, with blood gushing out of it and a sharp bone sticking out as well.
Listening to the leader's cries, the rest of the men got frightened. They tried to run away, but they couldn't move.
Ning pulled their arms forward and started crushing their hands. Unlike the leader, he only broke their palm bones. Still, the bones were sticking out of them, and they were bleeding.
"Now get the hell out of my sight," he told them.
The men slowly stood up, red from the pain, and glared at Ning. However, the fear in their heart stopped them from doing anything stupid.
They walked away to leave, but just then Ning stopped them again. "Remind your superiors. They have 1 more day. If they don't do what I told them to do… they will have to start looking for a new job soon," Ning told the men with a smile.
The men nodded and quickly walked away.
The crowd stared in awe and fear, so did the staff members that were selling the scrolls.
"Ah, sorry about the delay," Ning said nonchalantly and went back to his seat to redirect the group again.
A lot of the people in the crowd hesitated, but after seeing Ning's strength, a few of them started to doubt if the tower was correct in this situation.
They could already see them trying to use their powers to stop this sale, so it only went onward to legitimize the current operations in their eyes.
Most of the people still believed the tower, but on the small chance that the scroll did work, they had to get it.
So, within minutes, the line started moving again. People were sold the scrolls and quite a few of the people even got to eat the fruit.
For the next few hours, they peacefully sold the scroll. However, that changed when the crowd saw a group of people flying through the air on what looked like a carriage from far away.
The carriage landed on the road next to the crowd and they watched a few figures in purple robes walk out of it.
Ning looked at them as well and smiled when he saw the group. Finally, the big players were here to stop his work.
"Welcome, President Merilyn, Vice president, and… I don't know who you lot are, but welcome," Ning said to the group of 6 that had walked out of the carriage.
The group directly walked up to Ning, but Ning suddenly put up a hand to stop them.
"I know you are people with a lot of fame but, you cannot cut in line like this. Please go back to the end of the crowd.. You will get your scroll when the time comes."
