Dawn. The sunlight was pleasant. A gentle breeze, just right. By any ordinary measure, it should have been a beautiful day.

But for Dachu’s Emperor Yang Jing, this day brought only more bitter news to pile on top of his irritation.

After a full night of uninterrupted counting, the Court of Judicial Review officials tallied the remaining silver actually held in the vault at less than seventy thousand taels.

Two million eight hundred thousand taels — the silver Dachu’s very survival now depended on — had been swapped away just like that.

There had been a time, in Dachu’s most prosperous era, when the Finance Ministry’s silver vault had held so much silver it couldn’t even be counted.

In those days, the figures were numbered in the hundreds of millions.

When the news reached the Imperial Study, the young Emperor seemed to age thirty years in an instant. His entire bearing aged — he looked, to those watching, like a man in the last years of his life.

The Emperor opened his mouth — perhaps to say something — but in the end, not a single word came out.

He didn’t even have the energy to be angry anymore. The moment he steadied himself against the desk and sat down, every person in the room felt a pang of sorrow so strong they all wanted to go over and help him.

After a long silence, the Emperor asked: “Where has Gui Yuanshu gone?”

“Your Majesty, the Chief Justice has gone to the home of the criminal Yao Zhidong. He should be conducting the search and seizure there at this moment.”

The one answering was the head eunuch Zhen Xiaodao, who did not dare to raise his voice above a murmur.

“Understood,” the Emperor said.

He nodded once, and fell silent again.

The Imperial Study went utterly quiet. Even the sound of breathing seemed too loud, so everyone began to breathe with careful, deliberate softness.

Zhen Xiaodao prayed inwardly, begging heaven not to send any more bad news — any more bad news, and the Emperor might not be able to hold himself together.

But the bad news came anyway.

A Ministry of Rites official rushed over from the Heroes’ Assembly grounds, arriving breathlessly outside the Imperial Study — his labored gasping audible to everyone inside.

“Your Majesty…”

Zhen Xiaodao cautiously called out.

The Emperor’s eyes had gone somewhat vacant. He looked up. “What is it?”

“Deputy Minister of Rites Yang Wan requests an audience.”

The Emperor nodded. “Let him in.”

Deputy Minister Yang Wan hurried in and dropped to his knees. “Your Majesty…”

“More bad news?” the Emperor asked.

Yang Wan glanced up at the Emperor for just a moment, then immediately bowed his head again. His voice trembled slightly as he spoke. “Last night, officials from the Court of Judicial Review conducted arrests at the camp, taking dozens of people into custody.”

The Emperor was startled.

Hadn’t Gui Yuanshu spent the entire previous night at the Finance Ministry’s vault? After a sleepless night there, he had rushed off to conduct the search of Yao Zhidong’s home — when had he found time to send people to make arrests at the Heroes’ Assembly camp?

“Who was arrested? Why didn’t Gui Yuanshu report this?” the Emperor asked.

Zhen Xiaodao also looked puzzled. He bowed and replied: “To my knowledge, the Chief Justice dispatched no personnel to the camp. His people were barely sufficient for the vault alone, and now they’ve gone to Yao Zhidong’s house as well…”

Yang Wan was of imperial lineage and held a noble title, so at least he wasn’t too frightened to speak before the Emperor.

He said, still kneeling: “Your servant now suspects the people who arrived at the camp last night were not from the Court of Judicial Review at all.”

The Emperor frowned slightly. “What exactly happened?”

Yang Wan then described in full detail what had occurred at the Heroes’ Assembly camp the previous night.

Shortly after dark, a unit of Court of Judicial Review officers had arrived at the camp bearing the Chief Justice Gui Yuanshu’s token, claiming they had come to arrest people in connection with a case.

Yang Wan of course knew the Emperor had tasked Gui Yuanshu with the investigation, and so he had harbored no suspicion whatsoever. Furthermore, those men’s official robes, insignia, weapons — even their waist plaques — were absolutely indistinguishable from the real thing.

These officers from the Court of Judicial Review entered the camp and began making arrests from a list of names. Before long they had taken several dozen people into custody.

They then ordered the drums struck, summoning all residents of the Heroes’ Assembly camp to assemble immediately on the drill grounds.

Tens of thousands of people had been out making trouble in the streets all day. Those who had been looting and smashing in the chaos were beyond counting, and many had only just returned to the camp.

Regardless of whether they were willing, they were gathered on the drill grounds to wait. Shortly after, the Court of Judicial Review officers conducted an open public interrogation of those who had been arrested — there on the elevated platform, before everyone.

What Yang Wan heard made him more and more frightened with every moment. He felt increasingly that something was wrong, and urged the Court of Judicial Review officers to halt the interrogation temporarily.

But the officers showed him not the slightest deference and continued questioning.

Under the application of punishment, the detained men began to confess quickly — and their confessions were remarkably detailed.

Yet it was precisely what those confessions contained that had thoroughly alarmed Yang Wan.

One of those who confessed declared publicly that he had been planted at the Heroes’ Assembly by Finance Minister Zheng Tuohai — placed there to participate in the competitions, but with a predetermined official position already arranged for him when it was over.

If it had been one or two such individuals, perhaps it would have been manageable. But of the several dozen arrested, every single one had been arranged by either Zheng Tuohai or Prime Minister Yao Zhidong.

Their testimonies were nearly identical — because the mission they had been given when entering the Heroes’ Assembly was identical.

Yang Wan had thought the Court of Judicial Review officers would stop there, but they had not. Right then and there, they demanded that those arrested point out any other collaborators still among the crowd.

This was when things truly spiraled. Those identified on the spot numbered over a hundred. How many more had not been identified was anyone’s guess.

Every one of these individuals had been placed at the Heroes’ Assembly by powerful figures at court — and without exception, every one already had a predetermined position waiting for them.

In other words, the Heroes’ Assembly had never had the slightest pretense of fairness or impartiality. No matter how capable those who had traveled from the provinces to the capital might be, no matter how well they performed in the competitions — in the end, they would only ever become common soldiers. Every officer position had already been decided in advance.

The camp erupted.

By now it was nearly dawn — the darkest hour before morning.

The Court of Judicial Review officers who had caused this chaos vanished with terrifying speed, disappearing as if they had been ghosts.

The furious fighters and wanderers from the martial world spread out like a wildfire. First they burned down the camp, then they surged into the streets and began smashing and looting in all directions.

The commander of the Thirteen Gates had just been killed. The city patrol forces had no one to lead them. The situation was completely out of control.

Yang Wan had rushed through the night to Shiyuan Palace to request an audience, but at the palace gates he was refused entry — there was no imperial summons, and the guards said they did not dare to bear the responsibility.

He pleaded and argued, but the guards wouldn’t open the gate, saying they wouldn’t take the blame.

Fortunately, less than half an hour later, the hour came for the palace gates to open at their regular time, and Yang Wan was finally able to enter and report.

“Your Majesty, please order the Palace Guard deployed immediately to pacify the unrest. Tens of thousands of people are surging through the streets, smashing and looting everywhere. If we wait much longer, I fear the entire capital will descend into chaos.”

When the Emperor heard Yang Wan say this, every last drop of color had drained from his face.

Was there any hope of this Heroes’ Assembly continuing?

Those seventy or eighty thousand people — they were supposed to have been a trump card in Emperor Yang Jing’s hand, the seed of a great army. Instead, they had become an army of seventy or eighty thousand insurgents.

The capital, which had only barely been holding onto a semblance of calm, had in an instant plunged into an inferno.

“You… you’re all going to anger us to death!”

The Emperor spat a mouthful of blood and toppled straight from his chair.

Cries of alarm filled the Imperial Study.

The Emperor had suddenly fallen unconscious. The entire room dissolved into panic. And in Daxing City, with all this chaos unfolding — who was going to clean it up?

It was only then, in their terror, that people realized: there was no one who could step forward.

Prime Minister Yao Zhidong had been arrested before those seventy or eighty thousand people had even erupted — the timing seemed precisely calculated.

The Minister of War? Minister of War Zhao Jingzhong had been beaten to death by those people. And Deputy Minister of War Jiang Qianneng had already fled.

The Finance Minister? Finance Minister Zheng Tuohai had also been beaten to death by those people. And the commander of the Thirteen Gates had been killed by them too.

Every capable person — gone, all at once.

Even the head eunuch Zhen Xiaodao had by now sensed that something was deeply, disturbingly wrong.

But what use was realizing that now?

With no one to take charge, the chaos in Daxing City would continue. Even if those people eventually exhausted themselves and scattered from the capital, the city would already have been ravaged, riddled with wounds beyond counting.

And as for the Heroes’ Assembly — it had completely turned into a farce.

Under emergency treatment from the imperial physicians, the Emperor finally regained consciousness a little over an hour later.

Forcing himself to stay alert, the Emperor ordered the Palace Guard deployed immediately to maintain order in the capital. As he looked around him, he realized — as Dachu’s Emperor — he had almost no one left to use.

When his gaze landed on Chief Justice Gui Yuanshu kneeling not far away, the Emperor’s eyes suddenly widened.

But in that same moment he also understood: the Court of Judicial Review officers who had caused all of this could not possibly have been sent by Gui Yuanshu.

A hand, working from the shadows, had steered all of this.

It had held this Emperor of Dachu in its palm — toying with him at will — while the hand’s master remained untouched, at perfect ease.

“You need not kneel. We know this has nothing to do with you.”

The Emperor steadied his breath before continuing: “Go handle the internal unrest as quickly as you can — pacify the people, restore order. Right now… right now, you are all we have left to rely on.”

Gui Yuanshu kowtowed urgently, then rose and departed at speed.

By now, Gui Yuanshu had gone nearly two days and two nights without sleep. Even his complexion had taken on an ashen cast.

“Hui Chunqiu, go with him.”

The Emperor gave one more instruction, and the commander of the Palace Guard, Hui Chunqiu, promptly acknowledged the order and ran out to catch up with Gui Yuanshu.

“Lord Gui.”

Hui Chunqiu caught up and asked: “Do you have a picture of all this? I have the feeling that every single thing that has happened can now be connected into one chain.”

Gui Yuanshu gave a bitter smile. “I’ve only just pieced it together myself. Looking back, it seemed like unrelated people doing unrelated things — but from the very beginning, someone had already decided they wanted to destroy the Heroes’ Assembly.”

Hui Chunqiu nodded. “And who might that person be?”

He looked at Gui Yuanshu. Gui Yuanshu smiled bitterly again.

Who indeed?

Who else could it be?

Every single one of these events had begun happening only after that person arrived. And in the eyes of everyone at court, that person was nothing but an unlearned, spendthrift wastrel.

Perhaps, if Gui Yuanshu were to stand before the assembled court at this very moment and declare that this entire affair was the work of Cao Du, barely anyone among them would believe him.

There would even be those who said: Gui Yuanshu, you’ve failed to catch the real culprit, so you’re just pointing at some random no-account wastrel to deflect blame?

Who could believe that Cao Du had secretly orchestrated all of this — step by step, calculating every move, like a craftsman carving a masterpiece of peerless ingenuity, without a single flaw?

And the reason that made it most impossible for Gui Yuanshu to speak that name — several of his best brothers had at one point accepted favors from Cao Du.

If this case were investigated further, and he truly found evidence proving Cao Du was behind it all — what would the consequence be?

“Lord Hui.”

Gui Yuanshu looked at Hui Chunqiu. “I have something I need to attend to at the Court of Judicial Review first. Wait for me among the Palace Guard — I’ll arrive shortly.”

Hui Chunqiu nodded. “Alright, make it quick. I’ll go speak with the Palace Guard general first.”

Gui Yuanshu acknowledged him and then let out a long, heavy breath.

He left Shiyuan Palace to find Zheng Shunshun, Zhao Shanying, and the other two still waiting for him. All four looked equally worn and haggard.

“Come with me to the post station.”

Gui Yuanshu mounted up. All four men followed, trading glances — they all sensed something was off.

When they arrived at the post station, there was no trace of Li Chi or any of his party. The place was empty.

When they asked the station attendants, they were told that the young marquis and his group had headed out early in the morning — said they were going to take in the sights and watch the excitement. So no one had thought anything of it.

Zhang Youdong instinctively asked whether they should go look for them.

Gui Yuanshu sighed. “By now, they’ve probably already passed through the city gates and ridden off into the distance — and I imagine they were laughing heartily as they went.”

He walked slowly into the room where Li Chi had stayed and spotted a letter on the desk.

With a sense of urgency, he tore it open. But on the paper, there were only a few short lines:

*These past days I have done nothing but scheme against you, and truthfully, I feel… not the slightest bit bad about it. In fact, I find it rather delightful. However, I do still remember that I promised to get you new clothes. If you are willing to come to Jizhou, you may choose between Tingwei robes and a general’s armor — whichever you prefer.*

The signature read… *Your Father.*

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