Third Watch, the main hall of the General’s mansion.
The drumbeat of the night watch struck three times, its lingering echoes slowly fading along the rafters.
Tie Lanshan sat behind the large desk, his knuckles tapping absently against the rim of an empty wine cup.
The deployment register lay open on the table, the ink long since dried. The entire midnight watch had passed, but he had hardly turned a single page.
Xu Qinghuan had cast too big a bait this time.
Using the real garrison map of the Northern Pass to lure the wolf chief of the grasslands—Tie Lanshan had spent most of his life with his tongue on the blade, yet he had never played a gambit with so little room for retreat.
If the map were truly lost… though it was half genuine and half false, the hundred thousand lives in this city could hardly fake their existence!
Suddenly, the sound of military boots landing on the stone slabs came from the outer courtyard.
Could it be that Xu Zhan had returned?
Just as the thought struck him, Xu Zhan stepped over the threshold, his black armor splattered with dark red shreds of flesh and half-coagulated blood.
This ghostly visage of a reaper crawling out from a pile of corpses left the night guards trembling so much that their hands went weak, their blades nearly clattering to the ground.
Xu Zhan strode up to two steps before the desk, clasped his fists, and delivered a proper military salute.
“Raid Battalion Commander Xu Zhan, reporting the return of the city defense map by order!”
Tie Lanshan’s eyelid twitched. The stone that had weighed on his heart through the entire night finally settled.
He rose abruptly, not even waiting for Xu Zhan to kneel properly, and hurried around the large desk.
With both hands, he grabbed Xu Zhan’s left arm and pulled him firmly upright.
“Good to have you back! No need for formalities!” Tie Lanshan released his grip.
Xu Zhan wasted no words. His left hand reached into the lining of his armor, tugged out a roll of bloodstained sheepskin, and slapped it onto the table with a sharp smack.
Two fragments of the map fit together seamlessly, their torn edges locking tight without a gap.
Tie Lanshan’s fingers pressed against the seal, tracing slowly along the seam. The texture of the leather beneath his fingertips let him exhale the stale air from his lungs.
The rough feel of the hide under his finger made the boulder that had hung over his chest for half the night finally shatter.
He let out a long, deep sigh.
“The map is safe. Not a single brick of the Northern Pass has been lost.”
But Xu Zhan added, somewhat regretfully.
“There’s one thing I must report to the Marshal. It’s a pity… none of the big catches from the Helian side showed up. Their leaders are far too cautious, so they only sent a thousand-man commander with a few dozen scouts.”
Tie Lanshan’s hand, still holding the map, froze for an instant.
The big fish had slipped the hook?
Xu Qinghuan had stirred up such a commotion, even risking the city defense map—this fatal weakness—as bait, and all they had reeled in were a few minnows.
Tie Lanshan’s heart first sank.
That meant the tens of thousands of Helian soldiers beyond the pass remained a bomb ready to blow at any moment.
If Chen Changfeng had grown suspicious, the battles to come would only be tougher. Most of this scheme had fallen short in the end.
But as his mind turned, a strange, inexplicable lightness bubbled up from the depths of Tie Lanshan’s soul.
That unfailingly calculating Magistrate Xu, who manipulated everyone in the Northern Pass like chess pieces, had finally missed a beat.
So she wasn’t truly a goddess after all. In the face of a wary old fox like Chen Changfeng, she still had to take her lumps.
Tie Lanshan rubbed his nose, feeling that his own petty thoughts were hardly worthy of the occasion.
He quickly coughed twice, forcing that notion back down. His face hardened, his features arranging themselves into a pose more dignified and severe than before.
“Just as expected.” Tie Lanshan knocked on the table, steering the conversation back. “Since the promise of an insider was false, the map and the men being real is enough. But what about those two traitorous bastards?”
Xu Zhan replied with a grave expression.
“He Minghu had his chest staved in. Ma Jin’an was nailed to the rocks. Both died thoroughly.”
“The map was recovered from their bodies.”
Tie Lanshan slammed his palm onto the desk. “Excellent! Treason and collusion with the enemy—a fitting death. Those two have been skimming grain pay for years; they should have been butchered long ago.”
He followed this with a sigh. “But because they were imperial officers, I could never find a good excuse.”
“Their deaths alone can’t settle their debts!”
Tie Lanshan paused, his gaze sweeping over Xu Zhan’s armor, matted with blood and mud. “Did you bring the Raid Battalion on this mission?”
“Yes.”
Tie Lanshan’s brows drew tight.
“For the map retrieval, you’d need elites. And with the enemy trying to save their men… how are our casualties?”
“None lost.”
Tie Lanshan froze.
Not a single loss? On an open, barren marsh, fighting to seize the defense map from Helian elites while also slaying two formidable traitor generals—
And to come out without a single death?
“How many Helians came in total?”
“Twenty armored heavy cavalry, led by one called Aletan. At three li out, there were several hundred roving horsemen on standby to support.”
Xu Zhan’s face was expressionless, as if he were reporting a ledger.
“I killed He Minghu and Ma Jin’an, crippled over a dozen heavy cavalry. The rest lost their nerve and fled. I didn’t give chase.”
The hall fell silent.
From the courtyard outside, the night watchman struck the gong for the fourth watch.
Clang—
The sound drifted lazily in.
Tie Lanshan had just lifted a freshly poured cup of cold tea. His hand, moving toward his mouth, stopped still.
What had he just heard?
Twenty armored heavy cavalry! Those were the Helian court’s trump card! On the battlefield, ten Great Qian foot soldiers would exhaust themselves might even fail to bring down a single rider!
And Xu Zhan, alone, had killed over a dozen of these elite troops and returned in one piece?
Was this even humanly possible?
Tie Lanshan looked up.
Xu Zhan still stood tall in the hall, the blood and grime on his face unable to mask his utterly nonchalant expression.
His left hand casually fiddle with the vambrace on his wrist, as if he had just come back from training at the drill ground, not from hacking his way through a heap of twenty armored corpses.
He seemed entirely oblivious to the thunderous waves his light words had stirred in Tie Lanshan’s mind.
Through clenched teeth, Tie Lanshan ground out: “Twenty armored cavalry… all dead by your single arm?”
Xu Zhan was about to speak.
But a surge of heroic fury shot straight through Tie Lanshan’s crown. Acting on instinct, he raised his palm and aimed a heavy slap down onto Xu Zhan’s right shoulder.
It was the most sincere tribute and accolade among battle-hardened veterans.
As a general who had crawled out from mountains of bones and rivers of blood, Tie Lanshan knew better than anyone what terrifying brute strength and reflexes were needed to smash iron armor with bare weapons during a frontal charge.
Were there any such warriors left in the Great Qian army?
Tie Lanshan thought: at this moment, none in Great Qian seemed capable of such feats.
He had once had his right hand crippled in the prison dungeon. For a time, he was dismissed by others as a cripple who couldn’t even lift a blade.
A cripple? But this man was a living Xiang Yu reborn!
Tie Lanshan could no longer restrain himself.
Whoosh—
His broad palm swung down with cutting force.
And then, Tie Lanshan’s arm jerked to a halt.
That palm didn’t land on firm shoulder armor or solid muscle.
It cleaved straight through empty air.
By then, Tie Lanshan had come to his wits.
Xu Zhan’s right shoulder had been hacked clean off, root and branch, back in the death cell.
Now there was only a crumpled mass of cloth and an empty armor casing.
Tie Lanshan’s hand hung suspended in midair.
To pull it back was awkward; to drop it down was worse.
The surging, earth-shaking pride that had just filled his chest, all the rough praises he wanted to roar—every word of it stuck in his throat.
It choked Tie Lanshan’s already reddened face, paled and reddened it in turns.
The hall went completely silent.
The atmosphere grew so awkward that not even the draft blowing through dared to stir.
Xu Zhan turned his head, glancing at Tie Lanshan’s suspended hand, then at Tie Lanshan’s flushed face.
He silently sidestepped half a step to his left, bringing his thick left shoulder squarely under Tie Lanshan’s awkwardly hanging palm.
“Marshal,” Xu Zhan said, his voice still flat and emotionless. “Pat here. This one can take it.”
Tie Lanshan’s cheek twitched violently. His suspended hand landed dryly on Xu Zhan’s left shoulder, patting twice without much force. “Good... good lad...”
He squeezed out the words dryly, then turned and retreated, touching his nose.
He walked back to the large desk, plopped down into his grand armchair, grabbed his cup of tea, and tilted his head back to gulp it down.
He coughed twice, silently cursing his own foolishness—in his excitement, he’d forgotten this Living Yama had no right shoulder.
Xu Zhan paid no further heed to Tie Lanshan’s embarrassment. He stepped forward and picked up the sheepskin scroll. “Marshal, I’ll take the map back to the headquarters to report to the Imperial Envoy.”
“Go on, go on!” Tie Lanshan waved him away, wiping the spilled tea from his chest with his sleeve while muttering, “Hurry up and get that hot potato back to your sister. I don’t want to see the damn thing for another moment!”
“Marshal,” Xu Zhan said. “He Minghu had my right arm removed in the death cell.”
“Tonight, I smashed his entire right shoulder to pieces. Not a fraction off.”
“But as for the memorial denouncing treason, I beg the Marshal to write it clearly. Xu Zhan would be deeply grateful!”
Tie Lanshan’s hand, wiping his chest, froze.
He stared at the burly, retreating figure, its empty sleeve fluttering in the wind.
The right sleeve was blown up by the breeze, carrying a hint of desolation, yet exuding an indomitable ferocity.
“Xu Zhan, rest assured!” Tie Lanshan bellowed in a low, explosive voice. “Recapturing the city defense map, killing the traitor, and slaughtering the Helian heavy armor—this is a military merit that could break the heavens!”
“Before dawn, my eight-hundred-li rapid memorial will be sent to the capital.”
“For the commendations, rewards, and even your meritorious service in the night raid camp, I swear I’ll demand every bit from the court and return it to you without a single loss!”
A hint of joy flickered across Xu Zhan’s face, and he immediately saluted in gratitude. “Thank you, Marshal! On behalf of my men, I thank the Marshal!”
With that, Xu Zhan strode out of the mansion and into the long night.
For a long time, there was silence. Then Tie Lanshan let out a long sigh.
That girl Xu Qinghuan had a vicious hand, but her second brother was even more of an avenger.
