Fang Biehan watched Jiang Wei leave. When that figure disappeared from his sight, he murmured to himself:

“And where would I go?”

He said it, then turned back inside. He sat at the table and took out a letter.

It was a letter Mo Lili had made a special point of sending him before departing — telling him that this mission was likely more bad than good, and that this letter was to say farewell.

Originally, the Central Marshal appointed to carry out the mission to Jingzhou was Dou Qusheng. But Dou Qusheng met with the other two Senior Advisors in private.

If they could take the opportunity to eliminate Mo Lili, their opposition within the Curtain Camp would be severely weakened.

Mo Lili, Fang Biehan, and Jiang Wei — they were their faction’s only members. Remove a Central Marshal and replace him with one of their own, and they would be able to call the shots in the Curtain Camp.

So Dou Qusheng feigned a riding injury on the eve of his departure, claiming he was unable to travel.

Mo Lili had not been in Meicheng at the time — he was stationed in Qingmian County.

General Flag Officer Yan Xilai, acting under orders, forged a message to Mo Lili claiming Senior Advisor Jiang Wei had been injured — this before any order arrived from Military Governor Pei Qi.

When Mo Lili heard, he rushed to Meicheng to check on Jiang Wei. The moment he arrived, Military Governor Pei Qi had him called in directly.

And so Mo Lili, with no time to prepare, hastily assembled a team and led them off to the capital, Daxing.

Jiang Wei had not been in Meicheng at the time. By the time he returned, Mo Lili had already left with his force.

He waited — and what came back was the news of Mo Lili’s death in battle.

The moment Mo Lili died, the other two Senior Advisors immediately proposed adding Xue Lingcheng as a Central Marshal.

Xue Lingcheng was Dou Qusheng’s nephew. In one stroke, all the Curtain Camp’s power shifted to Dou Qusheng’s side.

Their next move, naturally, was to purge Jiang Wei and Fang Biehan. Even if neither of them had tried to avenge Mo Lili, they were going to be eliminated regardless.

The sky seemed to be brightening very quickly; even the crowing of a rooster sounded a little harsh.

By the time Fang Biehan pulled himself out of a deep haze, the eastern sky was already faintly white.

Jiang Wei had left. He was going back to Meicheng to use the Yan Xilai affair and bring charges against Dou Qusheng and the others to the Military Governor.

But both he and Fang Biehan understood clearly: on the strength of this matter alone, bringing Dou Qusheng down was all but impossible.

But this was only the beginning. Jiang Wei had always been a man of extraordinary stratagems — he had already laid out the full picture.

Fang Biehan could guess what Jiang Wei was planning. He was probably prepared to sacrifice himself to avenge Mo Lili, which was why he’d told Fang Biehan not to go back to Meicheng with him.

Looking out at the sky that was about to brighten, Fang Biehan stood, took a flask of wine, and poured it onto the ground.

“Erlí, you’ve gone ahead. We three brothers will be reunited in the underworld.”

He murmured those words to himself.

When he pushed open the door and stepped into the courtyard, the entire yard was filled with his soldiers and several Flag Officers.

Every one of them was looking at him. In every pair of eyes there was something complex — but the clearest thing was hope. They had placed their hopes for the future squarely on their General.

“What are you all… doing?”

Fang Biehan asked.

Flag Officer Pei Shujian stepped forward. A sleepless night had left his eyes a little red.

“General, now that you’ve killed General Yan — are we all going to be held accountable?”

Fang Biehan said, “Yan Xilai colluded with Prince of Ning Li Chi’s agents — that’s treason. He got what he deserved. How could you be implicated?”

“General,” Pei Shujian said, “you should treat us as your own people.”

“In the Curtain Camp, Dou Qusheng runs everything. He can make black look white. With him involved, the Military Governor won’t believe the story about Yan Xilai. And besides…” — he paused — “we all know full well that Yan Xilai sending someone to follow you wasn’t really about colluding with Prince of Ning Li Chi’s people.”

Fang Biehan’s eyes narrowed. His fingers curled, unconsciously moving toward the hilt of his sword.

But he didn’t reach for it — because he knew that what these men wanted was simply a way to survive. What fault was that of theirs?

If they were truly killed because of this, they’d be the most wrongly treated of all.

Once Dou Qusheng turned the tables, not one person on Fang Biehan’s side — subordinates and all — would survive.

So they were here, waiting for their General to show them a way out.

“General!” another Flag Officer, Yang Liulin, stepped forward, expression grave. “No matter what General Yan’s real reason for dying was, he deserved it. These years he’s been targeting you. We all saw it clearly. He got what he deserved… but, General — what about our brothers?”

Pei Shujian said, “General, whatever you’re going to do, we’ll follow. We only ask that you don’t leave us behind.”

Hearing those words, Fang Biehan suddenly understood something.

His subordinates were probably thinking he had already found a way out for himself — and right now, what other way out could there be?

The arrival, at this precise moment, of agents sent by Prince of Ning Li Chi — that’s why they concluded Fang Biehan had already secured a retreat. It wasn’t without basis.

Thinking of it that way, even Fang Biehan felt he should have been a man with a plan.

But he truly didn’t. He hadn’t thought about what came next. He only wanted to kill those people.

“General,” Yang Liulin said, “you’ve already acted — there’s no turning back. If you try to turn back, it’ll only be easier for Dou Qusheng to move against you.”

Pei Shujian said, “General, let me be direct about it. Why don’t we… turn against them?”

Even Fang Biehan was taken aback by that.

They were all Curtain Camp people — they understood better than anyone how airtight Pei Qi’s control over Shu Province was.

*Let’s turn against them* — said easily enough. But in practice, a single misstep would bring instant annihilation.

Fang Biehan even wondered: among everyone standing in this courtyard right now, there might be people Pei Qi had planted among them.

Every rustle here reached Pei Qi’s ears. Of course there were informants.

“General, don’t worry.” Pei Shujian said. “Since I dared to say it outright, I’m no longer afraid of anything.”

Fang Biehan shook his head. “What you’re all suggesting — I don’t quite understand what you mean. And don’t let your imaginations run wild. I haven’t thought about leaving the Curtain Camp…”

“General!” Yang Liulin stepped forward, his expression solemn. “At this point, it’s no longer up to you.”

Fang Biehan frowned. “What do you mean?”

Yang Liulin said, “You killed Yan Xilai to avenge Marshal Mo — that much we all see clearly. And so does Dou Qusheng.”

“If you die, we all die. If you run, we still die — because your skills are far superior; you stand a much better chance of escape.”

“But we don’t. We have nothing. All we could do is watch ourselves and our comrades be executed after you left.”

Pei Shujian said, “So, General — forgive us.”

Fang Biehan’s hand moved unbidden to his sword hilt. “Speak clearly. What exactly are you planning?”

Pei Shujian said, “After you killed Yan Xilai last night and came back here, we knew there was no way back from any of this. So the two of us talked it over and went out to meet someone.”

“Who?!” Fang Biehan’s voice sharpened with anger.

“Me.”

The voice came from behind the crowd of soldiers. As the speaker announced himself, the soldiers standing in the courtyard parted to either side, opening a path.

A man in a long, plain robe stepped through, folded his hands toward Fang Biehan in a bow.

“General Fang.”

“Who are you?!”

Master Ye smiled gently. “A couple of nights ago, the General spotted me from behind, didn’t he?”

Fang Biehan frowned. “You have the nerve to walk right into my compound?”

Master Ye said, “I didn’t walk in — your two Flag Officers invited me.”

Fang Biehan looked into Master Ye’s eyes and said, “You knew I’d already seen you, and yet you dared come back a second time. Aren’t you afraid of death?”

Master Ye said, “Not only did I know you’d spotted me — I also know that you killed another person who’d spotted me on your behalf.”

Fang Biehan’s eyes widened slightly, a chill entering them.

Master Ye said, “You saw me first. But very quickly someone else saw me too. I was about to slip up and kill the two of you quietly before leaving the town — but then I saw you strike first and kill the other person.”

He looked at Fang Biehan. “Right then, I knew I would have to come back.”

Fang Biehan gave a cold laugh. “You’re wrong. The person I killed was Yan Xilai’s man — I just didn’t want him stealing credit.”

Master Ye said, “Then why, afterward, did you tell Yan Xilai, and go out of town with your own force?”

Fang Biehan looked at Master Ye. For a moment he said nothing.

Master Ye said, “Let me answer for you. You saw me, realized I was working for the Prince of Ning, and immediately saw how to use my identity to get rid of Yan Xilai. Is that right?”

Fang Biehan asked, “How could you possibly know I wanted to get rid of Yan Xilai? You didn’t even know who Yan Xilai was.”

Master Ye looked at Pei Shujian. “Not long ago, when Flag Officer Pei came to find me, he told me you had killed Yan Xilai. So I surmised it was a personal matter — and asked Flag Officer Pei about it. He was very candid with me.”

Fang Biehan looked at Pei Shujian. Pei Shujian said, “General — we had no choice. We have to find a way to live.”

Master Ye continued, “You killed Yan Xilai’s man so that Yan Xilai wouldn’t immediately know someone had come — because you didn’t want him to act right away.”

“Then you told Yan Xilai afterward, knowing that with his backing behind him, he’d inevitably try to compete with you for the credit.”

Master Ye paused, looking into Fang Biehan’s eyes. “Flag Officer Pei also told me one more thing — last time, when our people infiltrated Qingmian County and all forty-odd of them were killed, it was actually Yan Xilai who did it.”

“But at that moment, Mo Lili had just left with his force for Daxing. Yan Xilai was worried you’d make trouble, so he handed that credit to you.”

Fang Biehan gave a snort. “You and I are enemies. Even if I had done it personally, I would have killed your people too.”

Master Ye said, “If you had personally done it, I wouldn’t be standing in front of you like this.”

Fang Biehan said, “You think you’d actually succeed here?”

Master Ye said, “No matter where we take our revenge for so many Bureau brothers killed — we will get it in the end.”

Fang Biehan said nothing more, only looked at Master Ye with eyes that held a faint chill.

Master Ye continued. “If you’re willing to submit to the Prince of Ning, I can promise you one thing.”

Before Fang Biehan could speak, Master Ye said, “I’ll help you kill Dou Qusheng first. Then you can decide whether to surrender or not.”

Fang Biehan’s expression shifted.

Master Ye said, “With your abilities — killing Dou Qusheng on your own — I don’t think you’d have much of a chance, would you?”

In that moment, a thousand thoughts turned over in Fang Biehan’s mind.