Fang Biehan looked at the face of this man who had once been his closest brother — a face now twisted with something he could barely recognize — and felt a sudden, hollow estrangement. He had always understood Jiang Wei. But he had never imagined Jiang Wei would carry a scheme this far.

He was a man of stubborn conviction, but not a fool. Now that Jiang Wei had deliberately sent him away, and now that he stood here seeing it all — much of it was becoming clear to him.

“What are you *doing!*” Jiang Wei was already beyond reason. The sudden return of Fang Biehan had stirred a fury in him he could no longer suppress.

“What am I doing?” Fang Biehan held Jiang Wei’s gaze. “What are *you* doing?”

“I’m doing what needs to be done — *great things!*”

Jiang Wei bore down on him, eyes burning. “Do you know why I never liked bringing you along all these years? Because you are confused. Because you can’t tell what matters. Because you are *immature.* You’re like a child who never grew up.”

Fang Biehan stared back at him and kept his voice low. “Erlí was the same. You put your voice in his head until he forgot who he was. You’re like a demon — whispering in his ear day after day, telling him to do whatever it takes, even if it costs him his life…”

He took one step forward. Jiang Wei took one step back.

“Do you think the only ones responsible for Erlí’s death are these people? You are too.”

“You talk nonsense!” Jiang Wei spat. “You’re the one who never pushed yourself — sitting there cradling your precious dignity, too proud to get your hands dirty. Men like us — if we don’t *fight,* do you think any of what we have now just appeared? Do you?!”

He grabbed Fang Biehan by the front of his robe. “If it hadn’t been for me and Erlí looking out for you all these years — if we hadn’t covered for you every step of the way — do you think you’d be wearing a Senior Banner Officer’s uniform right now?!”

“You think I care that much about this uniform?” Fang Biehan seized Jiang Wei’s collar in return. “What did you used to say? *We’ll be different from the rest of them. We’ll do what’s right and never have to be ashamed of it.* Those were your words.”

“I changed!” Jiang Wei screamed. “If I hadn’t changed, how could I survive in a world that eats people alive? How would I ever accomplish anything I actually wanted? You live every day hugging that clean conscience of yours — I *can’t* do that!”

“We put on these uniforms. That means something. I refuse to accept that I will spend my entire life beneath people who were simply born into the right family. We’re both in the Mu Camp — and just because our blood isn’t noble, we get stepped on at every turn. You saw it too!”

“If I don’t *scheme,* if I don’t *fight with everything I have* — how am I supposed to compete with people who had everything handed to them from birth?!”

His eyes had gone red. “I told you to leave. You should have left.”

“You told me to go back — was it really to keep me safe?”

The question landed, and Jiang Wei went quiet for just a breath.

Then he threw off Fang Biehan’s hand. “Go. Now. You have no part in this anymore. I still have my future ahead of me. If you want to throw yours away, do it somewhere else — just stay away from me.”

He turned to go. Fang Biehan caught his shoulder. “You need to stop.”

Jiang Wei threw him off again and called out to Zhong Taolüe: “Come restrain him!”

Zhong Taolüe vaulted forward immediately, blade sweeping down toward Fang Biehan’s neck.

Fang Biehan had no choice but to pull away.

By now, several Banner Officers who had served under Yang Dingshan had come to Jiang Wei’s side, bowing low. “Sir, what are your orders?”

Jiang Wei pointed toward Mister Ye and the others. “Kill them all. Leave the bodies.”

Those officers signaled their men, who surged toward Mister Ye’s group — still with superior numbers, still with crossbows.

Jiang Wei sank to the ground, face the color of cold ash.

He stared at the fighting ahead, murmuring to himself: “I schemed for all of this. I calculated everything. I cannot allow anyone to ruin what I’ve built. *No one.*”

These past years, he had spent himself building his hidden network within the Mu Camp. On the surface, he had lived like a dog — a man who bowed his head and endured every indignity.

He knew full well how Dou Qusheng and Yang Dingshan and their kind looked at someone of his birth. But that contempt was exactly what he had used.

All of this time, working in the shadows — quietly, steadily reaching out to the men who were trodden on just as he was. Men of common birth who bled and fought for their noble masters and received nothing in return. That included Zhong Taolüe and others like him.

Jiang Wei was too sharp. He knew exactly how to make a person feel understood — and few in the world were better at using words to make a man willing to die for him.

The men he had persuaded came to see him as their leader, their guide to a different fate.

Through his persistent influence and provocation, those men of common origin had grown to despise the Dou Qushengs of the world with a slow-burning hatred.

Zhong Taolüe was the deepest piece he had ever placed — installed beside Dou Qusheng himself, waiting years for the moment when he could be used to strike.

There were also Banner Officers near Yang Dingshan, all persuaded and brought over one by one.

What Jiang Wei had been waiting for was an opportunity — one where he could kill both Dou Qusheng and Yang Dingshan, while their own subordinates stood as witnesses to testify on his behalf.

His journey to Qianmian County had been exactly that wait.

He had reasoned it through: with the Chu Emperor Yang Jing now in Shu Province, Prince Ning Li Chi would no longer be seeking to persuade Shu Province into surrender. The Prince’s side was strong enough to have sent Mo Lili to bring Yang Jing back — which told Jiang Wei clearly enough that Prince Ning’s intention for Shu was simple: conquest.

The Court of Justice would send agents into Shu Province again to gather intelligence. And the only viable entry point into Shu Province was through Qianmian County — through a hidden mountain pass beside the Kaoshan Pass, accessible only to masters of exceptional skill.

So Jiang Wei had positioned himself there and waited.

What Fang Biehan did not know — what almost no one knew — was that Mo Lili’s mission to steal Yang Jing from Daxing City had not been solely the work of Dou Qusheng and his faction. Jiang Wei had played a hand in it as well.

He understood Mo Lili the way one understands oneself — because Mo Lili was his brother. And over the years, Jiang Wei had reshaped that brother so thoroughly that Mo Lili had no thoughts left that were truly his own. He had become something close to a puppet.

Turning your closest friend into a tool was, it turned out, far easier than turning a stranger.

Jiang Wei had been certain: give Mo Lili those orders, and Mo Lili would complete them even if it killed him.

He had even conceived Mo Lili’s fallback strategy himself — the idea that instead of seizing Yang Jing directly, Mo Lili should find someone close to Li Chi and use that person as leverage. He had told Mo Lili that Prince Ning prized loyalty above everything else, especially the brothers who had fought beside him from the beginning — and the woman he loved most. Capture any one of them, and Prince Ning would release Yang Jing in exchange.

The rest was easy to see from there.

With Yang Jing inside Shu Province, the moral justification for Prince Ning to wage war was airtight. No one could accuse him of lacking compassion. Some who despised the Great Chu would even cheer for the campaign.

And after that — it was all predictable. Prince Ning, preparing to strike at Shu, would send the Court of Justice in again. Jiang Wei had been waiting for exactly that.

He had also calculated that Yang Dingshan would try to steal the credit — which was why he’d sent Fang Biehan down the main road as a decoy.

And he had told Fang Biehan to return to Qianmian County after luring Yang Dingshan away — not out of any concern for Fang Biehan’s safety. It was a contingency. If Military Commissioner Pei Qi grew suspicious of him, Fang Biehan would be the sacrifice: delivered up, tongue cut out, hands broken, unable to communicate anything. A living man stripped of all testimony.

If the Commissioner learned that Fang Biehan had been behind everything, and that Jiang Wei had handed him over personally — the Commissioner’s suspicion of Jiang Wei would ease considerably.

But Fang Biehan had come back.

This was the one link in the chain that had broken, and the fury it ignited in Jiang Wei was beyond measure.

Because Fang Biehan had stood on the other side, the effort of killing all of them had become considerably harder.

He was still running through his options when he heard it — the thundering of hooves.

Jiang Wei’s face went white.

He turned.

On the hillside: a tide of cavalry, dense and vast beyond counting, pouring down the slope.

The banner flying at the front — Jiang Wei’s eyes went wide.

Military Commissioner Pei Qi. In person.

There were too many riders to count, cresting the hills and flooding down like a wave.

In that instant, Jiang Wei sprang to his feet and sprinted toward them.

“Military Commissioner!” he shouted as he ran, his voice carrying above the entire battlefield. “Senior Banner Officer of Qianmian County, Fang Biehan — has defected to the enemy!”

“In order to avenge Mo Lili, he secretly allowed agents of the Court of Justice inside our borders and is attempting to assassinate the Military Commissioner!”

The words struck like a thunderclap — scattering the clouds above and, along with them, the soul of Fang Biehan.

He had heard every word. Not one had escaped him.

He deflected a stroke from Zhong Taolüe with his saber and looked at the figure sprinting away from him — a man he knew and yet no longer recognized at all. The ache in his chest was like a fist closing around something vital.

“Move!” Mister Ye swept in, one palm sending Zhong Taolüe flying backward, and pulled Fang Biehan by the arm.

Had Mister Ye not acted in that moment, Zhong Taolüe’s blade would have found the neck of a man too stunned to move.

While the cavalry were still descending the slope, the group seized riderless horses and broke into a full gallop back the way they’d come.

Military Commissioner Pei Qi watched from above, his expression iron. He raised one hand — and the Shu Province cavalry surged forward in pursuit.

—