The nine families were the families of Gongshu, Dugu, Zuo, Fang, Long, Hua, Gongsun, Xuanyuan, and Tao.
Feng Wu had dealt with most of them. Some were her friends, and some were her enemies.
The four forces were Firmament Palace, the Sumeru Temple, the Shadowless Sect, and the Beggars' Gang.
They each had their own territory in the empire, but they all had a branch in the imperial capital.
When the news spread in the capital city, it was soon delivered to the other corners of the empire, as if it had grown wings.
The common folk were only amazed at the existence of the Divine Phoenix Blood, and they went about their own business after that.
That wasn't the case with the major families and forces.
They were influential players for a reason.
Most of their backgrounds went back thousands of years.
Their favorite thing was to keep valuable information to themselves and only share it within their inner circles.