The door opened and closed, leaving the study silent once more.
Xu Qinghuan sat back down in the high-backed armchair, her slender fingers tapping the blood-stained goatskin map on the table.
Suddenly, the sound of military boots echoed in the courtyard, followed by a rough voice from outside: Xu Zhan’s.
“Li Sheng! Keep a close eye on that Helian bastard—don’t let him kill himself!”
Li Sheng acknowledged.
Then, the door was shoved open, and Xu Zhan strode across the threshold.
Xu Zhan grinned, revealing two rows of white teeth, even showing his back molars.
“Little sister! This time, we’ve landed a big fish!”
He bellowed as he walked to the desk, pulled out a chair, and sat down heavily, legs wide apart.
His rough hand reached into his chest, fumbled around for a while, and pulled out a flat object wrapped in layers of oilcloth.
“Smack!”
The oilcloth package was slammed down hard onto the rosewood desk, causing a few drops to spill from the teacup.
Xu Zhan leaned on the table’s edge, his voice brimming with barely contained excitement.
“Too bad… that bastard Wei Qian didn’t make it to Zhenbei City.”
Xu Zhan picked up the cold tea on the table, took a big gulp, and casually wiped the moisture from his chin.
“During the melee at White Wolf Valley, when our Breakthrough Camp tossed fire-grenades, the Helian cavalry scattered in panic.”
“Those beasts went mad, running wild everywhere.”
“That coward Wei Qian was unlucky—a mad horse kicked him square in the chest, shattering his sternum on the spot.”
“On the way back, lying on his horse, he coughed up three big mouthfuls of black blood, struggled a few times, and then died.”
He pointed to the oilcloth package on the table.
“But it doesn’t matter—we lost a living witness, but we have this dead proof!”
The outermost layer of the oilcloth was wrapped extremely tightly, the rope digging deep creases into it, with dark red bloodstains from Wei Qian’s final coughs still visible.
“When the Breakthrough Camp brothers searched the body, they stripped him naked and even pried open the soles of his shoes with knives.”
“Guess what?”
“This thing was sewn into the innermost layer of his undergarments, hidden right against his crotch!”
“Before he died, his hand was still clamped over that spot so tight we couldn’t pry it open.”
“In the end, Old Wu had to smash his finger bones one by one with a knife handle to get this out.”
Xu Zhan straightened up, slapping his breastplate, making the metal plates clatter.
“This has to be the smuggling ledger!”
“I knew this thing was too important for ordinary business, so I held back my curiosity on the way—didn’t even untie the sealing rope.”
“It’s completely untouched. I brought it all back for you to decide!”
Xu Zhan crossed his arms, raised his chin, and waited for a few words of praise.
Xu Qinghuan leaned back in her chair.
Her eyes fell on the oilcloth, stained with blood and some unidentified black grime.
She didn’t even reach out her hand.
“It’s fake.”
Two words, crisp and clean.
The smile on Xu Zhan’s face froze instantly. He said incredulously,
“How could it be fake!”
“This was sewn into Wei Qian’s crotch! Who would stash a fake ledger in a place like that?”
“When that bastard died, his eyes were wide open—he wasn’t resigned to dying, clearly because he couldn’t bear to let go of this deadly leverage!”
“If it weren’t the ledger, why would he guard it so hard?”
Xu Qinghuan set down her teacup, tilted her chin up slightly, and gestured toward the oilcloth package.
“Don’t believe me?”
“Open it yourself and see.”
Xu Zhan scoffed, drew the dagger from his waist, and—
The blade slid along the edge of the oilcloth, cutting the rope.
He roughly peeled away the greasy, waterproof outer layers.
There, he revealed a yellowed, thread-bound booklet with no writing on the cover.
“I told you—something this dangerous wouldn’t dare put a title on it!”
Xu Zhan muttered as he casually flipped to the first page.
His eyes landed on the page.
The next moment, the expression on Xu Zhan’s face froze.
Expectation quickly turned to shock.
Xu Qinghuan leaned back in her chair.
“Second Brother, read it out loud.”
Xu Zhan’s throat bobbed, his voice dry, tinged with an absurd sense of disbelief.
“Great Qian… Penal Code…”
“Volume Four… Theft and Banditry Section…”
Unable to accept it, Xu Zhan flipped through several pages quickly. The handwriting was dense and cramped.
“Whoever privately smuggles military equipment past the border… shall be beheaded, their family exiled three thousand li…”
“Whoever commits treason and colludes with the enemy… shall be executed by slicing, their entire clan wiped out…”
These clauses were all circled in red ink aplenty.
Not only that—
Beside these critical clauses, tiny, crooked characters were crammed into the margins.
Xu Zhan leaned in to read, reciting aloud:
“Slicing hurts too much; must bribe the executioner to stab the heart first.”
“If caught, it’s certain death. Must never go back to the capital.”
“Buddha, protect me—just do this one more job and then I’m done.”
Xu Zhan’s tough face turned red with fury.
Bang!
“Wei Qian—this cowardly weakling with a broken brain!”
Xu Zhan cursed loudly, kicking a nearby stool over.
“Smuggling military gear—running a crime that gets nine generations killed—and this idiot sews the penal code into his underwear to scare himself?!”
“I thought it was some earth-shattering secret ledger!”
“To hell with this! I spent the whole journey busting my ass to protect this useless book!”
“If I’d known it was this junk, I’d have used it as fire kindling to grill lamb back at White Wolf Valley!”
Xu Zhan paced angrily back and forth in the study.
Xu Qinghuan couldn’t help herself; she chuckled softly.
She shook her head, looking at the scattered law book on the ground.
“Second Brother, you’re always in the army. You don’t understand the tricks of those in the capital.”
“What is Wei Qian?”
“He’s nothing more than a dog raised in the First Prince’s mansion—a pair of dirty gloves used for filthy work.”
Xu Qinghuan stood up, walked around the desk, and came face-to-face with Xu Zhan.
“Smuggling eight hundred sets of refined iron armor in exchange for eight hundred warhorses.”
“A crime so severe that it can turn father and son against each other, destroy a family, and annihilate a clan—do you honestly believe the master would hand the real ledger to a mere lackey?”
Xu Zhan was panting heavily.
“Then where’s the real ledger? Did he store it all in his head?”
“Even storing in the head doesn’t make the master comfortable.”
Xu Qinghuan clasped her hands in front of her, her tone dripping with undisguised mockery.
“The real ledger was either turned to ashes the moment the goods crossed the border.”
“Or it’s locked in the deepest hidden compartment of the First Prince’s mansion—with three bronze locks on the outside and death guards watching day and night.”
“Wei Qian sewing this penal code into his clothes was pure guilty cowardice.”
“Every time he struck a deal, he’d pull it out and read how he was going to die—just to soothe his own nerves.”
Xu Qinghuan turned and walked back behind the desk.
“If the First Prince was stupid enough to give such a fatal piece of leverage to a servant to carry around with him.”
“Then he should just pull himself out of the succession struggle, cut his own throat, and be done with it—spare everyone else the trouble.”
Xu Zhan listened to this analysis and felt a chill run down his back.
He scratched his disheveled hair, rubbing his face in frustration.
“These men in the capital, playing political games… they’re too cunning.”
“So many extra hearts—they’d suffocate a man to death.”
After venting, Xu Qinghuan still told her second brother: “To make a place for the Xu family in Great Qian, Second Brother, you need to learn properly how to fight these battles.”
Upon hearing this, Xu Zhan dropped his playful expression, furrowed his brow, and nodded slightly.
"Little Sister, after what you've said, something really doesn't add up here."
"The eldest prince, as a prince, has no military authority whatsoever."
"The major garrisons around the capital are all controlled by the emperor and the Ministry of War—he can't even transfer a single centurion."
"Not to mention that the capital's inner defenses have no pastureland for horses at all."
Xu Zhi tapped the table with one finger.
"Eight hundred warhorses—that's no small number."
"According to our Zhenbei Army's regulations, a single horse eats ten catties of fodder a day, plus black beans and refined salt."
"He's risking execution to trade eight hundred suits of fine iron armor to the Helian people for eight hundred warhorses."
"If he brings in that many horses, where can he hide them?"
"He can't hide them, and he can't afford to feed them!"
"This deal defies logic no matter how you look at it. What's he really after?"
Xu Qinghuan's smile faded, but she didn't answer right away.
Her gaze drifted past the window lattice, past the blazing midday sun outside, and toward the distant south.
Toward the capital.
Xu Qinghuan uttered four words.
"Something big is coming."
Xu Zhi stiffened and sat up straight.
"Because he… can't wait any longer."
...
The white-haired Taoist's legs gave way, and he collapsed onto a worn-out meditation cushion.
He lifted his head, letting out a bitter laugh that sounded worse than weeping.
"I've schemed half my life, turned you into a blade, and sent you to drink blood on the grasslands." The Taoist scrabbled at the debris on the floor, clawing at the ancient bronze coin that had split in two. "But now it's all ruined! All ruined!"
He held the broken coin up to Chen Changfeng.
"Look at this hexagram!" the Taoist said, his voice trembling with unconcealed fear. "Metal, wood, water, fire, earth—all the fires of this world are rooted in the Five Elements, each with its own laws of generation and restraint. But this flame blazing in the north—it's without root or origin! It doesn't belong to the Five Elements. It defies the way of Heaven!"
Chen Changfeng stared coldly at the mad Taoist and said nothing.
"That is a variable!" The Taoist grabbed Chen Changfeng's robe, staring up at him as he shouted. "This fire can burn the destinies of both the Great Qian and the Helian to ashes! You must not touch it! If you force your way against it, you will invite Heaven's wrath!"
Chen Changfeng lifted his foot and kicked the Taoist's hand away.
"Heaven's wrath?"
"Old man, you just stay on this mountain and watch," Chen Changfeng said without looking back, striding out the door. "Let's see if your Heavenly Way is stronger or if my Helian tribe's iron cavalry is harder."
He stepped over the threshold.
"That man—I'm going to kill him."
The sound of footsteps faded down the stone steps.
In the rear hall, the white-haired Taoist stared at the coins on the floor. His chest suddenly heaved violently.
A great gush of black blood burst from his mouth, spattering all over the broken compass.
The copper needle, still spinning wildly, was smothered by the thick blood and seized up completely.
The Taoist collapsed to the ground, gazing up at the hall's roof beam, and let out a long sigh.
