Xiaowu, this unremarkable young man of no great renown, had somehow managed to meet Daochai’s blade head-on in a direct clash — not only startling Daochai, but startling Li Chunfeng as well, and equally startling Ma Qingzhi, the proprietor of the Hongbin Tower who had been keeping them company on the side.

Many years had passed since anyone had dared to face Daochai in direct combat.

Not even Jingtai had ever harbored such intentions — though Li Chunfeng knew that, when it truly came to it, their master Li Sanzhou’s strength was absolutely no less than Daochai’s.

Yet this was not the most astonishing thing. What was even more astonishing was Li Sanzhou himself.

He had not been among the forces attacking Qingyuan. Instead, he had come early to hide here inside the Hongbin Tower.

But this did not suit his standing, nor did it suit his character.

Though he resided in Liaoyang City, in his eyes every last person in Liaoyang City was beneath him — less noble than the soles of his shoes.

Li Sanzhou was a man as proud as a peacock. How could he stoop to hiding away and launching a sneak attack?

And yet he had done exactly that.

The cabinet was not far from Mazi Wu. Li Sanzhou burst through it, striding forward through a shower of flying wood splinters, and planted himself before Mazi Wu. With one palm, he struck downward toward Mazi Wu’s heart.

In that instant, XiaoWu’s eyes flew wide open.

With a cry, Xiaohu hurled himself sideways with all his might, his body angling through the air as he threw himself in front of Mazi Wu. His long saber came too late to swing — only just in time to be raised across his own chest.

Li Sanzhou’s palm crashed heavily down upon Xiaohu’s long saber. The next breath, Xiaohu’s arms buckled under the force; the saber was driven back into his own chest, and he toppled backward, colliding with and knocking Mazi Wu to the ground as well.

Mazi Wu was simply too old in years. Though his martial arts could not be counted as anything remarkable, in his youth he would never have been knocked down in turn by a flying Xiaohu. Age must be accepted — there was no falseness in that saying.

The saber was driven into Xiaohu’s own chest by the force of the impact, and under that enormous power, who could say how many ribs had broken? The pain was fierce enough to kill, yet even so, his first thought was to help Mazi Wu up — but the moment he moved, a mouthful of blood sprayed out.

Li Sanzhou strode over quickly and drove a kick into Xiaohu, sending him skidding sideways through the air.

He looked down at Mazi Wu. Mazi Wu was looking back up at him.

Then, all at once, Mazi Wu let out a long, slow sigh. “You have disappointed me. You should not be this kind of Li Sanzhou.”

Li Sanzhou smiled. “And yet you should be exactly this kind of Mazi Wu.”

After those words, Li Sanzhou raised his foot. He did not bring it down at once. He held it there, suspended in the air, and said: “You should not have taken those people in.”

Yet Mazi Wu showed not the slightest trace of fear. That face of his, so deeply lined with wrinkles, carried even a faint smile. He said: “It is you who should not have.”

Li Sanzhou said: “Once you are dead, you will no longer need to think about who should and who should not.”

Mazi Wu said: “No need to think about it — it is simply you who should not have. I had thought the one who could see farthest in this Liaoyang City should have been you. I never imagined… it would turn out to be myself.”

Li Sanzhou nodded. “You are such a fine man. You may as well go and die.”

Then the foot came down.

And in that very instant, someone arrived at his back in the blink of an eye.

It was a blade that no one in Liaoyang City could easily stop — a blade that had, moments before, slashed out an arrogant and unmatched stroke. Yet that stroke had been blocked by an insignificant nobody of no great renown.

He had been somewhat startled. Only somewhat.

Because he knew that stroke had not been his strongest. And because the man he had been cutting at was not his primary target.

Daochai’s blade.

Li Sanzhou sensed the threat from behind — a threat so present that feeling it was already like standing at the gates of hell.

If Li Sanzhou brought that foot down, Mazi Wu would die beyond all doubt.

But if he brought that foot down, he too would die beyond all doubt. Daochai had been waiting for him to kill Mazi Wu — because in that moment, no matter who it was, their focus would be divided.

The blade came.

Pfft!

Li Sanzhou did not bring the foot down. Instead he wrenched himself around with the supporting leg alone, his foot grinding against the floorboards as he pivoted half a turn. The foot that should have come down swept outward after the turn and drove into Daochai’s abdomen.

Yet the blade still landed on Li Sanzhou — one stroke sheering off half of his shoulder, blood spraying forth, Li Sanzhou’s left arm sailing up into the air.

And Li Sanzhou’s kick connected with Daochai’s lower abdomen. The force of that kick sent Daochai flying backward to crash down onto the floor.

Both men fell to the ground. On Li Sanzhou’s side, blood rapidly stained a large expanse of the floorboards red; it seeped through the cracks between the planks and dripped down to the first floor.

Someone on the first floor looked upward, sidled one step to avoid the falling drops of blood.

Li Chunfeng lunged with one great stride to Li Sanzhou’s side, rapidly tearing away cloth and twisting it into a strip of makeshift bandage to bind off Li Sanzhou’s shoulder.

At the severed arm, blood continued to pour out like a torrent.

Li Sanzhou’s complexion had gone a frightening white. He looked toward Daochai, who had also fallen to the floor and was equally ashen-faced, and the fury in his eyes was nearly blazing out of him like flame.

“Daochai!”

Li Sanzhou roared: “You actually dared to ambush me!”

That kick had been brutal. After Daochai hit the floor he simply sat there — it took quite some time before he could catch his breath again.

His lower abdomen was in screaming agony, yet he was coldly sneering.

“You are truly too naive, Li Sanzhou. Why did you have to be so foolish?”

Daochai looked at Li Sanzhou with undisguised contempt. “Why did you think I would ever sincerely join forces with you?”

Already so gravely wounded, then goaded into fury on top of it, Li Sanzhou could not contain it — a mouthful of blood sprayed out.

Daochai sat there, gasping in great heaving breaths. “Did you think — that in order to kill Mazi Wu, I would have no choice but to agree to you? Did you think — that being the first man in Liaoyang City would drive me to madness?”

He looked toward Mazi Wu, who had already risen and moved to one side. He gave Mazi Wu a slight nod.

Mazi Wu returned the nod.

Seeing their exchange, Li Sanzhou finally understood: Mazi Wu and Daochai had already come to an arrangement. This day had been planned for the purpose of eliminating him.

Yet Mazi Wu and Daochai had not anticipated that Li Sanzhou would be hiding inside the cabinet…

Because this was not Jingtai’s territory — this was the Hongbin Tower.

Moreover, word had come earlier that Li Sanzhou had already led Jingtai’s people to attack Qingyuan. And so both Mazi Wu and Daochai had relaxed their vigilance somewhat.

In this moment, Li Sanzhou’s furious mind suddenly cleared as well. He understood now how things stood.

He had sent Li Chunfeng to meet with Daochai to forge an alliance. Daochai had received her in person. And then the very next day, Mazi Wu had come to Jingtai to request an audience with him.

At the time, Mazi Wu had said to Li Sanzhou: if you truly need someone to help you, I am the one you should be seeking.

At the time, Li Sanzhou had taken this for either a threat or a gesture of goodwill.

But it had been a pretense. Mazi Wu had already secretly contacted Daochai, and the two of them had reached some manner of agreement.

Here in the Hongbin Tower, their shared target had been the elimination of Li Sanzhou.

Now: Xiaohu was gravely wounded. Mazi Wu was no longer capable of fighting. Li Sanzhou was gravely wounded. Daochai was gravely wounded as well.

Of those remaining in the room with any capacity to act, in truth it seemed there was only Li Chunfeng.

The Hongbin Tower’s proprietor Ma Qingzhi stood apart from all of this. The three great figures of Liaoyang City had simply chosen not to trust one another — that was why this location had been selected in the first place.

Ma Qingzhi had been caught up in it against his will. How could he possibly have declared his allegiances at so early a moment?

From Ma Qingzhi’s perspective, it would be best if they all died.

And indeed, the moment the fighting broke out, Ma Qingzhi had quietly withdrawn his position, retreating to the side near the door.

“Chunfeng!”

Li Sanzhou shouted: “Kill them!”

Li Chunfeng rose at once, snatched up the long saber Xiaohu had dropped on the floor, spun around, and brought a stroke slashing down toward Mazi Wu.

A person capable of serving as the manager of Jingtai — how could they truly be an ordinary mortal?

This stroke of his, though lacking the imposing aura of Daochai’s blade, was still more than sufficient to ensure Mazi Wu’s death.

Watching that stroke, Li Sanzhou burst into great laughter. “You lose after all!”

Whoosh!

A dark shadow streaked past before Li Sanzhou’s eyes in a single instant, so fast that Li Sanzhou could not make out at all what it was.

Instinctively he turned to look — and then he saw a blade had appeared in Li Chunfeng’s back.

Daochai, sitting slumped against the wall where he had fallen, had expended his last reserves of strength to hurl his own blade.

The blade struck Li Chunfeng squarely through the back of the heart, and the force of the stroke Li Chunfeng had been delivering abruptly drained away.

Blade in from behind, blade point emerging from the position of his heart.

Li Chunfeng instinctively looked down. Blood dripped from the tip of the blade.

With a crash, Li Chunfeng crumpled to the floor. The speed of his slash had slowed greatly; Xiaohu summoned every last ounce of strength and shoved Mazi Wu aside. The stroke carved a gash across Xiaohu’s body, then bit into the floorboards.

The floor was covered in blood. That blow sent it shuddering — a layer of blood droplets leaped upward, another layer of blood droplets fell through.

On the first floor, the one who had been watching looked up again, and stepped aside once more as blood fell past him.

Daochai sat where he was and broke into great laughing: “However proud you are — you still couldn’t do it, could you?”

The words had barely left his mouth —

Ma Qingzhi suddenly lunged forward with one stride. A short blade slid out from his sleeve. A single flash of white, and the short blade opened Daochai’s throat.

Daochai was sitting with his back to the wall; Ma Qingzhi was near the door. The two had not been far apart to begin with.

Daochai struggled to twist his head to see who it was. But before the turn was half-made, Ma Qingzhi’s knee arrived —

One stroke to open Daochai’s throat, then the knee crashed violently into Daochai’s face. Daochai’s head snapped violently backward. From the severed wound on his throat, blood came gushing out.

Ma Qingzhi stepped aside immediately. Not a single drop of blood landed on him.

“Ha ha ha ha…”

Li Sanzhou broke into laughter. Ashen from blood loss — and perhaps also still pale from the rage of before — his face was white as a ghost’s.

And yet he was laughing without restraint.

“None of you anticipated this, did you? Ma Qingzhi is also my man.”

When Li Sanzhou had laughed enough, he looked toward Ma Qingzhi: “Kill Mazi Wu. Kill all of them.”

Li Sanzhou used his remaining arm to prop himself up into a sitting position, leaning there as he looked toward Mazi Wu. “Did you guess at any of this?”

Mazi Wu nodded. “I knew. That is precisely why I said you should not have.”

Li Sanzhou asked with an expression of mockery: “And now — do you think it is you who should not have, or I who should not have?”

The person on the first floor had by now begun climbing the stairs. A moment later, the room’s door was pushed open by him.

Everyone looked toward the doorway. The man’s face wore a smile.

Xie Jingran.

Xie Jingran walked to Li Sanzhou’s side and produced medicine to dress Li Sanzhou’s wound. Li Sanzhou looked at him and smiled: “Are they not fools? That old fox guessed at something, and yet still appeared so foolish.”

Xie Jingran nodded. “Indeed rather foolish. I came to Liaoyang City to take refuge — who else could I seek out but you? After all, we are both people of the Shanhe Seal. For anyone else, I have not the slightest trust.”

Li Sanzhou nodded. “Most likely… that young master who thought I would stake my life for his sake is already dead inside Qingyuan by now.”

Xie Jingran continued bandaging as he sighed: “I also did not expect Cao Lie to come. That was a true stroke of chance… Yet it serves him right. He went looking for his own death.”

Li Sanzhou looked toward Mazi Wu. “You old thing — did you think you could use this kind of scheme to buy yourself a way out? Who are we? Could we ever mix ourselves up with the Tingwei Army?”

Mazi Wu let out a long, desolate sigh toward the heavens.

This had indeed been an unexpected development. Cao Lie was the young master of the Shanhe Seal. Li Sanzhou had not gone to Qingyuan — Cao Lie had gone in his place. Mazi Wu had not even known who Cao Lie was.

But he understood now: the one known as the young master had also been manipulated by Li Sanzhou — made into Li Sanzhou’s decoy.

The moment Cao Lie entered Qingyuan, he would be cut down by the Tingwei Army lying in ambush there. And the one they had been waiting in ambush to kill — had been Li Sanzhou.

Li Sanzhou said: “After you die, I will tell your disciples and descendants that it was the Tingwei Army who killed you — that their involvement implicated you… Those Tingwei officers should not think about leaving Liaoyang City alive.”

—