Wei Shubin stood at the low railing of Cuiyun Peak’s watchtower, gazing into the distance. Not far below, the fire at the Great Peace Hall had been mostly contained and hadn’t spread further, but the smoke-filled flames remained bright and conspicuous. Numerous lights flickered nearby, and she could faintly hear commotion—presumably palace guards with torches running about, clearing the palace and hunting down assassins.
Looking further out, there was only endless darkness. Dawn was approaching, and with the strict night curfew both inside and outside the palace, Chang’an slept peacefully, while even the night patrol officers of Wuhou Street were likely stealing moments of rest. Besides the scattered stars and half-moon in the dark blue sky, no light showed the existence of the Tang Dynasty’s capital.
Faint voices came from behind, distant, with what sounded like maniacal laughter.
Wei Shubin turned her head and realized the sound was coming up through the wooden ladder opening in the middle of the observation platform.
Li Yuangui and Consort Yin De were on the second floor below, and the laughter came from a woman. Wei Shubin couldn’t make out what they were saying. Concerned, she walked over and sat down by the ladder entrance, hugging her knees, and leaning against Chai Yinglu. The Daoist priestess comfortingly wrapped an arm around her shoulders, their shared body warmth making things at least a bit warmer.
The wooden ladder below was quite high, making voices unclear, but Wei Shubin heard Consort Yin De saying “You’ll have to rack your brains to figure it out yourself,” before the conversation was interrupted. A Hu person demanded to know “where Li Yuan was and if there was another way in,” to which Consort Yin De gave vague answers before crying out in pain, apparently having been hurt.
A thunderous shout nearby startled both women. Looking over, they saw the crossbow-wielding black-clad guard at the platform edge yelling urgently in the Hu language, while noisy clamor approached from below.
Wei Shubin stood and walked to the platform edge to look north, seeing a mass of torchlight dots flowing toward the watchtower like a tide—the Great Peace Palace guards had finally discovered the black-clad assassins’ stronghold and were launching a major assault.
The crossbowman shouted something toward the ladder entrance, then turned to look at Wei Shubin with murderous intent.
Realizing this fierce man might be considering killing them to prevent complications, Wei Shubin unconsciously stepped back half a pace, crossed her arms over her chest, and raised trembling eyes to meet his gaze. She couldn’t communicate with this Hu person; words were useless. Before his imposing, weapon-laden frame, she appeared very small and delicate, only hoping the assassin would consider her unthreatening and not worth the trouble.
Thank heaven, the masked Hu man frowned, hesitated a moment, then turned back to focus on the palace guards outside. By now the attacking guards were within range of the tower. The Human aimed his crossbow, released, and then reloaded with practiced efficiency.
Shouts from guards below indicated someone had been hit. Wei Shubin boldly peeked over—and a volley of arrows whistled up.
She stumbled backward, falling onto her backside on the platform. However, the guards shooting upward posed little threat—only a few arrows cleared the platform top, falling weakly askew. The black-clad assassin didn’t even bother dodging, focusing entirely on sniping below.
There was movement at the ladder entrance behind her. Turning from her seated position, Wei Shubin saw bound hands appear, followed by disheveled hair, then Consort Yin De’s blood-stained, battered face and body.
The favored consort, used to a life of luxury, now struggled to climb the high ladder with bound hands and bleeding wounds. She panted heavily, and with just a few steps remaining, she couldn’t move any further, just sobbing loudly at the top of the ladder.
Remembering their plan required keeping Consort Yin De alive to threaten Crown Prince Li Chengqian, Wei Shubin shifted to help pull her up. However, Chai Yinglu, who had been sitting at the ladder entrance, acted first.
The Daoist priestess stood, grabbed both of Consort Yin De’s arms and forcefully hauled her onto the observation platform, then slammed her down. The evil woman cried out as she crashed heavily to the floor, unable to get up.
Earlier that evening at Great Peace Hall, Chai Yinglu had suffered considerable humiliation at Consort Yin De’s hands; now she was collecting payment with interest. Having lived at Zixu Temple for some time, Wei Shubin was very familiar with her benefactor’s nature of never accepting a loss, and couldn’t help but smile.
But this was hardly the time to enjoy revenge. The shouting below grew closer and more intense. Though the black-clad crossbowman at the edge was accurate, one person shooting arrows couldn’t stop the palace guards from surrounding the tower.
What should they do now? Wei Shubin struggled to her feet, made her way to the ladder entrance, and grabbed Chai Yinglu to ask: “Sister Ying, we—”
Before she could finish, the wooden ladder suddenly shook again as someone else climbed up. The two women looked down to see a large black-clad man with a crossbow quickly ascending, presumably coming to reinforce the sentry.
“Be careful,” Chai Yinglu whispered to Wei Shubin, nodding toward the sentry at the edge, “Watch out for these Hu bandits.”
Wei Shubin realized—yes! They were hostages taken from Great Peace Hall by these assassins, powerless and innocent. Now that the palace guards had come to eliminate the assassins and rescue them from danger, what did she have to be nervous about? She just needed to avoid losing her life in the chaos…
The clamor outside suddenly quieted for a moment, then grew louder, sounding strange—like people were shouting “Fourteen” something. Wei Shubin’s heart contracted then expanded, blood rushing up as she let go of Chai Yinglu and ran to the platform edge.
Below the tower entrance, hundreds of torches illuminated a semicircular clearing. In the middle were four people—three black-clad, masked figures with weapons who had pushed forward a tall, slim youth wearing a brocade vest, apparently holding him hostage to threaten the guards.
Wei Shubin’s mouth opened wide as she drew in a breath, but her throat constricted. She raised both hands to cover her mouth, preventing herself from screaming or crying out, her legs too weak to stand.
The black-clad assassins had torn off Li Yuangui’s disguise and pushed him out of the tower as a hostage against the palace guards.
It worked, at least temporarily—the guards below were hesitating, not daring to attack.
A light click beside her; Wei Shubin glimpsed the black-clad crossbowman drawing his string. A scream immediately came from below as a guard fell, struck by the arrow.
This seemed to enrage the guards, and the commotion rose again. But then an even more piercing shriek rang out on the observation platform, along with a woman’s scream:
“What are you doing!”
Wei Shubin whirled to look south—Consort Yin De’s robes and sash traced an arc through the night sky, vanishing beyond the tower’s far railing, leaving only a long, shrill scream that seemed to go on forever.
The black-clad assassin who had just climbed up had thrown Consort Yin De over the railing and was now attacking Chai Yinglu, apparently under orders to dispose of the hostages. However, the Daoist priestess was much stronger and more agile, reacting quickly to dodge the first strike and grappling with him in close combat, avoiding a fatal blow.
“Sister Ying!”
Wei Shubin cried out, trying to run to Chai Yinglu’s aid, but her legs had long since given out. After just one step, she fell heavily face-first to the ground, her head spinning and vision going dark.
Male shouts in the Hu language and female screams of struggle merged into chaos. Wei Shubin thought she heard another light click of a trigger, a crossbow bolt leaving its string.
Note: Regarding “Hell” in the Tang Dynasty: In early Daoist development, there was no concept of “hell,” but after Buddhism entered the Central Plains during the Eastern Han and the Northern and Southern Dynasties period, while the two religions competed and merged, they borrowed many elements from each other. By the Tang Dynasty, Daoism’s “Underworld Bureau” system was quite mature, and the “Ten Kings of Hell” had taken shape. In daily life, ordinary people and religious professionals often casually borrowed terms from each other’s faiths, so it’s not surprising that Chai Yinglu, though a formally ordained Daoist priestess, would use Buddhist terms like “hell.”