The piercing cry from the direction of the outhouse startled everyone, Deputy Magistrate Gao Youxin included.

He looked at Fang Yuzhu. The expression on Gao Youxin’s face moved from bewilderment to fury — and Fang Yuzhu’s face went through the exact same transformation.

Both men spoke at almost the same moment, though they said entirely different things.

Gao Youxin pointed at Fang Yuzhu: “And still you dare deny it!”

Fang Yuzhu shouted: “Who is trying to destroy me?!”

A boom — the gates were smashed open from outside, the door panels flying to either side, and then dozens of armed guards marched in.

The moment Gao Youxin saw this, he knew it was over. In that instant, one thought alone filled his mind.

Protect yourself.

“Fang Yuzhu, how dare you!” Gao Youxin immediately raised a hand and pointed at Fang Yuzhu. “You would dare deceive this official like this! Men, seize him!”

“Don’t you dare!”

By now Fang Yuzhu had understood that this was a setup, and the men pouring in wore garrison military uniforms — clearly the same force that had fought him at Linbing County. He was not about to sit and wait to be taken. Seeing Gao Youxin move to betray him, he flew into a rage and decided it was better to fight his way out.

“Take him.”

At Fang Yuzhu’s word, his disciple Jù Hé immediately stepped forward and made a grab for the front of Gao Youxin’s robe. Gao Youxin was a Deputy Magistrate who practiced martial arts, but his skill was nowhere near Jù Hé’s. He saw Jù Hé coming but could do nothing to avoid it — Jù Hé’s speed was astonishing.

He barely had time to cry out before Jù Hé seized him, wrenched him down to the ground, and placed a foot on his back, pressing his sword tip to the back of Gao Youxin’s head.

“Anyone who moves, he dies!”

Li Chi’s people didn’t care in the slightest about Gao Youxin’s life or death, and kept advancing without any hesitation.

“It’s no use — they’re here for us.”

Fang Yuzhu drew his sword, narrowed his eyes, and by the light of the torches made out the figure striding at the front of the group. Something in his memory stirred.

Then it came to him in a flash — wasn’t this the man who had stood before him in Gao County and killed his disciple Chudong right in front of his face?

“Everyone, break through and out!”

Fang Yuzhu roared.

“Crossbows!”

Dantai Yajing called out.

The dozens of elite personal guards immediately raised their repeating crossbows. These were the finest among the finest fighters — their formation was tight and coordinated, their teamwork seamless as they advanced.

The repeating crossbows fired in rapid sequence, and the dense volley of bolts swept through the Eastern Mound Way followers in an instant; screams and cries broke out immediately.

“Fang Yuzhu!”

Just as Fang Yuzhu was moving to flee from another direction, a roar rang out — and a figure came sweeping over the heads of the crowd.

In midair, a dragon cry rang out as Zhang Yuxu’s sword left its sheath.

Fang Yuzhu glanced at the young Daoist and parried his blade. The moment he saw Zhang Yuxu’s stance on landing, he recognized what he was looking at.

“Someone from Dragon Tiger Mountain?”

Fang Yuzhu’s brow furrowed slightly.

On the other side, Li Chi saw the one who had grabbed Gao Youxin also trying to flee — he immediately stepped forward.

Jù Hé felt a dark shape blur before her eyes, then a flash of brilliant light erupted in front of her face.

She dared not be careless; her sword swept wide.

A clang — her blade struck Li Chi’s saber. The arm that held the sword went immediately numb and tingling.

This person’s saber was devastatingly powerful and forceful.

In an instant, Jù Hé made her assessment: this opponent could not be taken head-on. Her sword swirled, and by torchlight, a bloom of sword flowers opened in the air.

But the sword flowers were only to draw the eye — the true thrust came after, driving toward Li Chi’s throat.

Li Chi slashed down. His blade work was broad and forceful, without delicacy; her sword was light, swift, and sinuous as a viper — but neither did her sword dare meet his blade head-on. She could only slip around the edge of his attacks and look for openings.

“Why do you hound us so relentlessly?!” Jù Hé demanded as she fought.

Li Chi paid her no attention.

“You press too hard!” she said furiously.

She drew a deep breath. Her sword technique unfurled — floating, continuous, unbroken. Where before she had been giving way, she now reversed course and pressed forward. Her style suddenly grew vicious, each strike a killing blow. But Li Chi’s feet never moved; he stood rooted to the spot. His blade held a curtain of light before him, and however ferocious her sword, it could not break through the space where his saber moved.

Near the outhouse, Yu Jiuling was hiking up the hem of his deep red gown as he walked out, one hand gathering the fabric, the other trying to salvage his hair, which had come quite disastrously loose.

The hairstyle had been notably towering to begin with. It was now listing badly to one side and unraveling. Anyone who saw him in this state would find it difficult to believe nothing untoward had happened to him — yet his stride had the air of a man who had done the untoward to someone else and was now making a run for it.

“Heartless lot,” he muttered, taking in the fighting that had broken out.

He was about to head over there when he suddenly remembered he was still supposed to be a woman, and hastily covered his face with one hand.

Fortunately Li Chi had given him a disguise earlier, so his face was different from his own; anyone not looking closely couldn’t tell.

At that moment, Magistrate Liu Shengchun arrived with his men. He took one look at the brawl and knew things had gone badly wrong. His eyes went straight to the figure in the deep red gown, and he pointed: “Quick, go protect the General’s wife!”

The constables immediately charged toward Yu Jiuling. The gown was too long — Yu Jiuling had been holding it up with one hand but still managed to step on the hem, lurched, and toppled flat on his face.

The fall was spectacular. The two buns stuffed inside the gown were both squashed flat.

Several constables rushed over and fumbled about trying to help him up. Yu Jiuling, pitching his voice high, said: “Don’t help me — I can manage.”

He struggled to his feet. Seeing Dantai Yajing heading in his direction, he immediately shrieked at the top of his register: “Husband!”

This one word very nearly dispatched Dantai Yajing on the spot.

Dantai Yajing felt himself deeply insulted.

Meanwhile, Li Chi’s exchange with Jù Hé grew longer, and the more he fought the more inwardly astonished he was — her skill was truly formidable.

He had expected to finish her quickly and go assist Zhang Yuxu. He hadn’t anticipated she would be his equal.

At this rate, there was no prospect of a quick resolution.

“Dantai!”

Li Chi glanced over and saw Zhang Yuxu was losing ground against Fang Yuzhu. He called out immediately: “Help him!”

Dantai Yajing nodded, spared one look at the disheveled, tousled Yu Jiuling, and immediately turned and walked away, not wanting to look a moment longer.

Yu Jiuling, seeing Dantai Yajing start toward him and then walk away, promptly cursed: “Faithless wretch!”

Dantai Yajing stumbled.

Moments later, Dantai Yajing and Zhang Yuxu joined forces to hold Fang Yuzhu — this traitorous Daoist’s martial arts were extraordinarily powerful. Back at Linbing County, knowing the cause was lost, Fang Yuzhu had never drawn his sword at all. So Dantai Yajing had had no sense of the man’s depth, and arriving now he could see that Zhang Yuxu already bore several wounds.

“Are you all right?”

“It’s nothing,” said Zhang Yuxu.

“Brats!”

Fang Yuzhu saw the young Daoist had been reinforced and said furiously: “You call yourself a Dragon Tiger Mountain wanderer — with skill like that, what business do you have entering the world? Is there no one in your master’s school better than you?”

“I’ll handle him myself!”

Zhang Yuxu, stung to anger, pressed forward.

“No need to rise to his bait.”

Dantai Yajing’s long lance was unwieldy in close quarters, and fearing he might hit Zhang Yuxu, he found himself somewhat hampered.

Then, from nearby, Jù Hé cried out: “Master! I can’t hold this one!”

Li Chi’s saber sent her sword flying with a powerful stroke — he had deliberately traded force with her, and with her blade being light and thin, it couldn’t withstand the repeated impacts. She had tried to avoid clashing directly, but could not. Her sword was nicked all over.

Now it flew from her hand. Jù Hé felt a cold shock of fear and immediately ran toward Fang Yuzhu’s position.

In truth, having received Fang Yuzhu’s true teachings, her martial arts were no weaker than Li Chi’s — only her momentum was a notch below his. Back in the day, when Fang Yuzhu had turned renegade and abandoned Dragon Tiger Mountain, one reason was that he could not accept the genuine Daoist who was Zhang Yuxu’s master. In martial arts talent, Fang Yuzhu had surpassed his peers; in other respects he had also seemed clever, so he had been entirely convinced that the position of True Daoist would go to him without question.

Jù Hé fled toward Fang Yuzhu. Fang Yuzhu’s expression changed.

“Master, run!”

She reached Fang Yuzhu’s side and cried this out urgently.

Fang Yuzhu, seeing she was unarmed, and thinking Zhang Yuxu’s strength was somewhat the lesser, said: “You hold him — I’ll go kill that one.”

Before the words were fully out, Jù Hé suddenly delivered a kick to Fang Yuzhu’s back, using the force of it to launch herself forward.

She cleared the courtyard wall in a single motion, clean and uninterrupted.

This was the last thing Fang Yuzhu could have anticipated — that the disciple he loved most would kick him in the back. He lurched forward several stumbling steps, barely managed to regain his footing, and then a blade came down on his shoulder.

Fang Yuzhu’s face went pale. He turned his head to look at the saber — the smell of blood hit him immediately.

“Something you’d like to say?”

Li Chi asked.

“I was ambushed by a traitor,” Fang Yuzhu said furiously. “You only took me because of that. Why should I submit?”

“Submit or don’t,” Li Chi said. “I have no intention of giving you the chance to submit. I love it when people refuse to submit.”

“You were many against few…”

Before he could finish, Li Chi smiled and said: “That’s perfectly normal.”

He glanced toward the courtyard wall. Jù Hé had likely made her escape by now.

“Do you know why your disciple kicked you?”

Li Chi said: “Because she understood — we want you far more than we want her. By delivering you into our hands, her own chances of escape were excellent.”

“Furthermore…”

Li Chi looked Fang Yuzhu in the eyes, his tone serious: “Her sword didn’t fly because I struck it away. She used the force of my blow to throw it herself. Your disciple — she truly did learn the greatest of your talents.”

Fang Yuzhu opened his mouth. For a moment he was speechless.

His eyes were full of fury, but what good was fury now? He had never in any way foreseen that he would be undone in this fashion.

With his martial arts, if he hadn’t been momentarily distracted, killing Zhang Yuxu would not have been especially difficult — even if he couldn’t escape completely unscathed.

“Release me,” Fang Yuzhu said. “I will work for you. With my skill, you’d be adding a tiger to your strength.”

Li Chi nodded. “I’m genuinely a little tempted.”

“Give me a year,” Fang Yuzhu said, “and I’ll deliver you hundreds of thousands of soldiers. This entire world will be yours.”

“The more you say, the more tempted I am.”

He looked at Zhang Yuxu: “Tie him up first, then we’ll talk.”

Zhang Yuxu looked uncertainly at Li Chi but obeyed, finding rope and binding Fang Yuzhu tightly.

Li Chi led Fang Yuzhu toward the rear courtyard, talking as they walked: “Let’s have a private word. I want to see just how persuasive you really are.”

Fang Yuzhu sensed there was something in this — otherwise Li Chi would already have cut him down.

Li Chi led Fang Yuzhu into the rear courtyard. Seventy-two graves stood there.

“Oh?” Li Chi stopped, speaking as if to himself. “Who is speaking? What are they saying?”

Fang Yuzhu was startled, looking at Li Chi. “What are you saying?”

Li Chi gave a slow nod. “I understand.”

He abruptly kicked the back of Fang Yuzhu’s knees. Fang Yuzhu was bound hand and foot — he had no way to resist. He crashed heavily to the ground.

Li Chi’s blade rose and fell.

A head rolled.

Li Chi looked at Fang Yuzhu’s body and said: “Just now, the old temple master told me — if I don’t kill you, my conscience will gnaw at me day and night, and I’ll be tormented beyond endurance. I’m afraid of suffering, and afraid of dying. As it happens, I also care a great deal about my conscience.”

—