The roof caved in. People dropped down amid the falling roof tiles. Everyone inside was drawn by the noise, and in an instant, almost simultaneously, they all looked up — and then the flying debris and billowing dust made everyone instinctively dodge aside.

That reflexive flinching was precisely why these men, appearing from nowhere, had chosen to come in from above.

Some people raised their arms to shield their eyes. Others ducked and shied away.

The black-clad figures landed swiftly. Their movements were fluid and perfectly coordinated. In their hands were not ordinary swords, but broad-ringed sabres heavier even than the standard infantry blades of the Dachu provincial forces.

These men wore all black, with dark blue cloth masking their faces, and dark blue sashes around their waists.

Uniform dress. Swift movements. Seamless coordination.

The moment they touched down, the killing began. Those jianghu fighters who had been caught completely off-guard had almost no ability to resist these black-clad figures.

Had this sudden turn of events not materialized, Xie Huaide’s men could have managed easily enough.

But this was exactly the situation described by “the mantis hunts the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind.” And these people had not only just begun watching Xie Huaide’s group.

The dwarf reacted with uncanny speed. The instant the roof tiles began to fall, he bolted, grabbing Xie Huaide by the arm, his mouth emitting a series of urgent grunting sounds — ah-ba, ah-ba.

He was short of stature. Life had already been unkind to him — and on top of that, he was a mute.

“Save my third brother first!”

Xie Huaide shouted the command, then drew his blade.

The dwarf hesitated briefly, but still obeyed. He turned and charged, seizing Xie Huainan by the belt with one hand and yanking him toward the exit.

Several black-clad figures quickly converged on the two of them, their responses almost perfectly synchronized.

“Five-man squads?”

Xie Huaide’s eyes went wide.

Those black-clad figures were not jianghu fighters. Their coordination, their movements — one look at how they shifted position and it was clear: this was the five-man squad formation used by Dachu’s provincial forces.

“Men from the court?”

Xie Huaide called out instinctively.

But even as the words left his mouth, he understood. How could these possibly be court troops? And what capacity would the court have left to involve itself in something like this?

The court was barely keeping itself afloat. Daxing itself was on the verge of collapse.

And so Xie Huaide understood. These were not Prince Ning Li Chi’s men. That left only one possibility: they belonged to the Mandate King, Yang Xuanji.

“Second Brother, run — these are Yang Xuanji’s people!”

Xie Huainan’s voice rang out at the same moment.

But Xie Huaide turned to face the black-clad figures. “Stand down, all of you. We are of the Xie Family. We came here to bring Xie Huainan back ourselves. We are fighting for the same goal. The Xie Family serves the Mandate King.”

The answer he received was a volley of repeating crossbow bolts.

The lead figure among the black-clad men pointed at him, and immediately a five-man squad approached — five men simultaneously raising their repeating crossbows and firing in rapid succession.

Xie Huaide’s face drained of color. He swung his long blade frantically, deflecting two or three of the bolts, but two still found their mark.

One in the shoulder. One in the abdomen.

Knowing he could not pull the bolts free, Xie Huaide continued swinging his blade to keep the black-clad men at bay as he retreated step by step.

“Aba, go save my second brother!”

Xie Huainan called out in a hoarse voice.

The dwarf responded with two quick grunts — ah-ba, ah-ba — which seemed to mean that Xie Huainan should get himself out of the warehouse first.

Xie Huainan nodded, then swept his gaze around. A corpse lay nearby. He went over and picked up the long blade lying beside it.

But his martial skills were genuinely limited. He had barely lifted the blade when a five-man squad of black-clad soldiers surrounded him.

“The Azure Cord Army… it’s the Azure Cord Army!”

Xie Huainan finally recognized the identities of these black-clad figures. They were Yang Xuanji’s personal soldiers.

These men had been handpicked by Yang Xuanji from among his million-strong forces — every one of them a first-rate warrior. To say that each was among the finest fighters in the army would not be an exaggeration.

To capture Xie Huainan, Yang Xuanji had actually deployed his Azure Cord Army — soldiers he never sent out on external assignments. This alone revealed how determined Yang Xuanji was to have Xie Huainan in his hands.

The lead black-clad figure was one of the three generals of the Azure Cord Army’s personal guard battalion, by name Guo Wei. That he had become one of those three generals was proof enough of his ability.

Even on the open battlefield, amid vast armies, Guo Wei could charge and carve through enemy ranks with ease. Yang Xuanji had once remarked that Guo Wei was a true match for ten thousand men.

The mute Aba had charged back into the chaos to save Xie Huaide, who despite the two crossbow bolts lodged in his body was still shouting that they were on the Mandate King’s side.

But no one listened. No one paid him any mind.

It was coincidence in one sense — and yet not coincidence at all.

The Mandate King Yang Xuanji’s campaign to suppress the Xie Family included one specific order: capture Xie Huainan and bring him back, dead or alive.

Strategist Pei Chongzhi, both to restore his standing in Yang Xuanji’s eyes and to allow the Pei Family to cleanly sever all ties with the Xie Family, had personally devised this scheme.

When he and his men arrived at Youzhou City, he had planned to act himself — but as chance would have it, he and Xie Huaide’s group had entered the city on the same day, both arriving through the water gate dock.

At the dock, none of the locals recognized Xie Huaide. But Pei Chongzhi identified him at a glance.

The Pei and Xie Families had long been close, their members frequently in contact. Pei Chongzhi was a figure of considerable importance within the Pei Family, while Xie Huaide was the second-born legitimate son of the Xie Family — the two had known each other from a very young age.

By seniority, Xie Huaide would have called Pei Chongzhi “Uncle.”

From the first day Xie Huaide led his men into the city, they had been under the surveillance of Pei Chongzhi’s people.

Pei Chongzhi had brought more than just jianghu masters from among Yang Xuanji’s retinue — he had also brought an entire unit of Azure Cord Army elites, one general and three five-man scouting squads.

Before dawn, Xie Huaide had already laid his ambush along the route Xie Huainan would have to travel.

Xie Huaide then moved to a more distant vantage point, watching the whole situation through a far-seeing glass.

But what he did not know was that he was not looking at the whole picture. He himself was inside the picture. Pei Chongzhi was watching from even further away, through his own far-seeing glass, and what Pei Chongzhi saw was the actual whole.

Pei Chongzhi had seen Xie Huaide’s every arrangement with perfect clarity. And so, after leaving the main street, he had gone directly to the warehouse and set his ambush there.

Pei Chongzhi’s people arrived at the warehouse about a quarter of an hour before Xie Huaide’s group brought Xie Huainan in.

“We are on the Mandate King’s side!”

Xie Huaide was still shouting: “Stop fighting, we are our own people!”

General Guo Wei looked at him briefly. His gaze was cold and full of contempt.

“The Xie Family — as expected, a pack of shameless wretches. Afraid to die, so now they claim allegiance to the Mandate King. Utterly disgusting.”

Guo Wei turned and issued the order to his men: “Kill them all. Move quickly.”

His Azure Cord Army had no interest in individual duels with jianghu fighters. They operated entirely in five-man squads.

One-on-one, they might not have the advantage. Five-on-five, they were unbeatable — even five against seven or eight would pose no great difficulty.

Xie Huaide had brought a sizable force, and the warehouse also held a good number of Pan Guangmei’s personal guards. But together they were still losing ground.

The trading house’s guards and security men were men who dealt with river pirates in ordinary times — when set against the Azure Cord Army elites, they barely had the strength to fight back.

People died quickly. Courage drained from many who still had it, and they turned and ran toward the main warehouse doors.

Someone hauled the massive, heavy warehouse doors open. What met them was a volley of crossbow bolts.

Pei Chongzhi was waiting just outside the front doors. Before him, four five-man squads stepped forward: the front two squads rapidly emptied their repeating crossbows, then immediately stepped back. The rear two squads moved up and emptied theirs in turn.

The guards and security men who had tried to break out through the warehouse doors lay in heaps on the ground.

Four five-man squads advanced in alternating fashion. After each had fired twice and emptied their bolts, all of those jianghu fighters who had been trying to escape had fallen.

“Close the doors.”

At Pei Chongzhi’s command, several Azure Cord Army soldiers turned and heaved the great warehouse doors shut once more.

What took place inside was not so much a battle as a slaughter.

Xie Huaide had shouted himself hoarse, yet all he could see was his men being cut down one by one.

“We are on the same side… why won’t you listen?!”

Xie Huaide’s eyes turned red. He finally understood — no amount of shouting would do any good. So he swung his long blade in a frenzy, as if trying to release the rage within.

At that moment, a cry of alarm rang out behind him. Xie Huaide spun around instantly — he knew that voice too well.

What he saw when he turned was his third brother Xie Huainan being subdued by a five-man squad. With swift, practiced movements, they bound Xie Huainan. After Xie Huainan cried out, one of the Azure Cord Army soldiers grabbed his jaw, twisted and pulled — and dislocated it.

“Third Brother, don’t be afraid! Second Brother is here!”

Xie Huaide turned and charged toward them.

That five-man squad exchanged glances, then advanced in formation.

The two soldiers in the rear each extended one hand to hoist Xie Huainan up. The three in front cleared the path.

Xie Huaide threw himself forward like a madman, his long blade descending in a powerful downward slash toward one of the black-clad soldiers.

“Release my third brother!”

The three men at the front of the squad moved in sequence, their handoffs so seamless it made one’s scalp tighten.

The first soldier raised his blade to intercept Xie Huaide’s strike, locking it in mid-air. The second swept his blade horizontally, slicing open Xie Huaide’s chest. The third drove a kick into Xie Huaide’s chest, sending him flying backward to crash to the ground on his back, staring up at the ceiling.

In the next breath, the first soldier — the one who had parried the blow — had already withdrawn his blade. He drove it straight down, thrusting it into Xie Huaide’s stomach. It drove in clean and straight. The second soldier raised his foot and stomped on the flat of the blade, and the sword split Xie Huaide open from belly to chest.

The blade angled and cut out through one side of his neck. Xie Huaide’s upper body separated.

Xie Huainan’s eyes flew wide open — but with his jaw dislocated, he could not make a sound.

At this moment, Aba, who had already killed several soldiers, caught sight of what had happened. He let out a sharp, piercing cry, eyes blazing red, and charged back.

Aba closed the distance to those soldiers, rolling low to get in close beneath three swinging broad-ringed sabres. He carried two short blades — one strike each, and two black-clad soldiers had their abdomens sliced open.

The wounds across their stomachs were long. Their innards spilled out immediately.

Aba leapt upward, clamping both legs around another soldier’s neck. He stabbed at that man’s chest again and again, reducing the chest cavity to ruin in an instant.

Three men killed in rapid succession. Aba turned to rescue Xie Huainan. The two remaining soldiers dropped Xie Huainan and came at him with their blades.

Aba ducked between one soldier’s legs, driving both blades into that man’s lower back, twisting back and forth. The soldier let out a long wail.

In the next instant, Aba leapt up and drove both feet into the other soldier’s waist, knocking him down. Aba landed on top of the man, crouching on his head, and raked both short blades across his throat several times in quick succession.

The entire five-man squad that had killed Xie Huaide was annihilated in moments.

Drenched in blood, Aba ran to Xie Huainan’s side and grunted urgently — ah-ba, ah-ba — which probably meant: come with me now.

But at that moment, Azure Cord Army General Guo Wei had drawn his heavy-pull longbow.

While Aba was killing that five-man squad, Guo Wei had been watching. He extended his hand, and his personal guard passed him the long bow that had been carried on his back, then handed him three arrows.

An iron-core bow. Iron-feathered arrows.

Three arrows flew in a triangular formation, arriving in an instant.

Aba was still pulling at Xie Huainan. The first arrow pierced through his forehead. The second and third arrows punched through his left and right chests.

Guo Wei stood with an iron-cold expression, staring at the slight body that had fallen to the ground.

This single person had wiped out one of his five-man squads in a matter of moments.

“Take the man and go.”

At Guo Wei’s command, several soldiers moved forward, lifted Xie Huainan, and left.

Pei Chongzhi walked over and pointed at Xie Huaide’s corpse. A soldier stepped forward and cut off Xie Huaide’s head with one stroke. It was wrapped loosely in a piece of sackcloth, then carried out.

—