When Lu Chonglou woke, he was dazed and disoriented. He saw what seemed to be a person sitting before him radiating light.

He tried to raise his hand to rub his eyes, then realized his arms and legs had no strength — no, it was more as though he had misplaced all four limbs entirely.

A moment later he came to understand: the person was not emitting light. Outside the window behind them, there was sunlight.

With that awareness restored, the next sensation to arrive was a scorching pain in his throat.

So when he opened his mouth to say water, a cup was already being held to his lips.

Only then did Lu Chonglou see clearly — the person sitting beside him was the Prince of Ning himself. His mind immediately rang like a bell, and out of reflex he moved to rise and bow.

Li Chi’s hand rested lightly on Lu Chonglou’s shoulder, and he tipped the cup so Lu Chonglou could take a few sips.

“My lord…”

Lu Chonglou called out — his voice hoarse, so strange it seemed not to belong to him, as though it came from somewhere indeterminate in his body.

“The physician says the poison in your body hasn’t fully cleared yet. Clearing it won’t be quick.”

Lu Chonglou nodded with difficulty, feeling as though his neck, too, was somehow wrong.

“Everything is swollen. Don’t move around.”

Li Chi looked at Lu Chonglou’s face. If the physician hadn’t confirmed there was no longer any danger to his life, Li Chi would have thought he might not hold on much longer.

The poison had caused extraordinary swelling — his face was tremendously puffy, his neck thickened by a full size, and his lips in particular were so plump they barely resembled lips.

“Rest easy and recover.”

Li Chi looked once more at Lu Chonglou, trying his best to offer comfort: “Right now you look, beyond anything else, extraordinarily ugly — but everything else seems to be in order.”

Lu Chonglou: “Your servant is guilty.”

Li Chi smiled: “Before you lost consciousness, you managed to tell your men everything that happened in broken fragments, so I have a rough picture. What guilt is there — from the moment you bit down and crushed that worm, all guilt vanished. What remains is all merit.”

Talking was plainly too much of a struggle for Lu Chonglou, so Li Chi let him be and rose to leave.

But before going, he couldn’t help looking twice more — then muttered to himself: “How can one person look this ugly.”

Yu Jiuling, standing behind Li Chi on a crutch, heard this and couldn’t suppress a burst of laughter.

On his way out, Li Chi didn’t forget to say to Yu Jiuling: “Don’t you ever get poisoned. He has such a fine constitution, and even he ends up this hideous from poisoning. If you were to…”

Yu Jiuling: “Must you be so unkind?”

Li Chi stepped outside. Tingwei officers were all waiting at the door, and Fang Biechen was among them.

He had long heard that the Prince of Ning was unlike other men. Watching now, seeing this style firsthand, he could not help but feel a stirring in his heart… He truly is different.

Yan Xiansheng bowed: “My lord, regarding the attack on Lord Lu, perhaps Fang Biechen can speak to it.”

Li Chi nodded and looked at Fang Biechen: “Walk and talk. I still need to get to the camp. Everyone follow along.”

As he said this, he looked at Yu Jiuling: “You go rest.”

Yu Jiuling: “I won’t—”

Li Chi shot him a look, then walked over and scooped Yu Jiuling onto his back — which gave Fang Biechen quite a fright.

Guards moved to help, but Li Chi waved them off. He glanced at Gao Xining and smiled: “Have the Tingwei Office make a wheelchair later. This fellow’s gotten fat.”

Yu Jiuling grinned — these past days of doing nothing but eating and sleeping had certainly added to him.

At the outer gate, attendants came forward to help Yu Jiuling down.

Li Chi held out his hand to Yu Jiuling, who dug around and placed a few copper coins in it.

Li Chi actually held them up to examine — then smiled: “Our own minted coins really are the finest.”

This scene left Fang Biechen stunned. He was still in a daze for the scene that followed, which he was certain he must have misread — it was no longer a matter of being stunned, but of simply finding it unbelievable.

Li Chi passed those coins to Gao Xining: “Keep them safe. These were honestly earned.”

In the carriage, Fang Biechen sat across from Li Chi, thoroughly ill at ease.

This was the Prince of Ning — the greatest figure in the realm. Who could deny it now? Any time he wished, he could become the new master of this land — the emperor ten thousand would bow before. He had not yet proclaimed himself emperor only because he himself was not willing. Had he followed his subordinates’ wishes, a new dynasty would long since have been founded in Daxing City.

“Tell me about Jiang Wei.”

Li Chi looked at Fang Biechen.

Fang Biechen came to himself at once and told everything he knew in careful detail.

Just as Jiang Wei had predicted: because of what had happened to Lu Chonglou, whatever lingering feeling Fang Biechen had still harbored for Jiang Wei was now extinguished entirely.

Using the Half-Day Worm to kill him — what a vicious method. And the man who used such a method had once called himself his blood brother.

Fang Biechen had once believed the greatest achievement of his life was not fine clothes on his back, but having two brothers he could die alongside.

Looking back on those years now felt like another lifetime.

After Li Chi heard Fang Biechen out, he nodded. His own judgment had already taken shape.

A man willing to kill his own brother to climb higher — such a man was genuinely terrifying. Never mind someone cunning and reasonably capable in a fight; even an utterly ordinary person, once stripped of all limits, becomes extraordinarily dangerous.

“For now, don’t leave the Tingwei Office.”

Li Chi looked at Fang Biechen: “Once this matter is resolved, you’ll be free to go where you please.”

Fang Biechen said: “My lord — I want to handle this myself.”

Li Chi looked at him, was quiet a moment, then shook his head: “Everything that has passed is a wound. If you go after Jiang Wei yourself — even if you win — you’ll only be adding another.”

Fang Biechen fell into thought at that, head lowered, silent for a long while.

“Yan Xiansheng told me.”

Li Chi said: “He made you a promise — that if you wished to leave, you could go wherever your heart desires, and he would see to the arrangements.”

Fang Biechen said: “But staying here, I can be useful.”

Li Chi said: “You staying is certainly of great value. But what Yan Xiansheng promises is what I promise.”

“I want to stay.”

Fang Biechen raised his head and looked at Li Chi with utter sincerity: “Between Jiang Wei and me — whatever way it ends… it’s better that I face it myself.”

Li Chi hesitated a moment, then nodded. “Then go speak to Yan Xiansheng. Anything you want, anything you need, ask him. Once your matter is settled — whether you stay or go…”

He glanced at Yu Jiuling. “Nine’er decides.”

Fang Biechen was startled. He had not expected the Prince of Ning to say such a thing. Why should this Yu Jiuling decide?

But he was no fool, and understanding came quickly.

Because Yu Jiuling’s leg had been injured by their camp’s people.

Yu Jiuling smiled: “Understood.”

Li Chi looked at Fang Biechen and said, in a calm but very sincere tone: “Yan Xiansheng says you’re his friend. Yan Xiansheng is something like both a teacher and an elder brother to me. So you are my friend as well. But…”

Li Chi looked at Yu Jiuling: “He is my brother.”

In that moment, Fang Biechen’s feelings were something he could not put into words.

The Prince of Ning who had spoken these few sentences did not resemble an all-conquering strongman who now commanded the realm — he resembled a rough wanderer of the jianghu.

And yet precisely because of that, Fang Biechen suddenly understood why the people under the Prince of Ning were so unlike anyone else.

People doing the same sort of work — those in the camp and those in the Tingwei Office — they were people of entirely different worlds.

Yu Jiuling extended his hand toward Fang Biechen: “For me, Yan Xiansheng is also like a teacher.”

Fang Biechen instinctively reached out and clasped his hand. In that moment, it was as though a door appeared before him — and from inside, Yu Jiuling stretched out his hand and drew him through.

—

The camp.

When Li Chi stepped down from the carriage, Grand General Tang Pidi was already waiting with many of the camp’s officers.

When they saw the Prince of Ning descend, all of them saluted in precise unison.

This was Fang Biechen’s first time seeing so many Ning army officers together, his first time seeing the legendary Grand General Tang Pidi.

He saw Tang Pidi’s gaze pass over his face — it did not linger — yet Fang Biechen felt his heart lurch.

“Are all the troops assembled?”

Li Chi asked.

Tang Pidi nodded: “In numbers, still a little short — and training is still needed. Each man individually is excellent. What they lack is coordination as a unit.”

Li Chi stepped forward, and Tang Pidi and the many officers fell in behind him.

Fang Biechen quietly said to Yan Xiansheng: “A military camp — I had better not go in.”

Yan Xiansheng asked: “Do you know what the loneliest thing in the world is?”

Fang Biechen shook his head.

Yan Xiansheng asked Yu Jiuling: “Nine’er, do you know what the loneliest thing in the world is?”

Yu Jiuling smiled: “Treating yourself like an outsider.”

Yan Xiansheng glanced at Fang Biechen, then hoisted Yu Jiuling onto his back and followed the others in.

Fang Biechen took a deep breath, lengthened his stride, and caught up: “Let me.”

Yan Xiansheng stopped — but did not answer. Yu Jiuling, however, grinned and said: “Then I won’t stand on ceremony.”

And so Fang Biechen ended up with Yu Jiuling on his back.

Li Chi and Tang Pidi glanced back, then walked on.

In that one glance, Fang Biechen caught Tang Pidi’s eyes again — and this time it was different. The first look had made him afraid. This one did not.

—

On the open ground of the camp, a unit of what appeared to be around a thousand soldiers was assembled — all infantry. From the way they stood in formation and everything else about them, they were clearly new recruits.

“These soldiers were all selected from among the Chu army’s surrendered troops.”

Tang Pidi said to Li Chi. “Every one of them is from Yuezhou — specifically from the Guichuan region. Every man here is of the Jishan people.”

When Tang Pidi first began preparing for the Shuzhou campaign, he had set his mind on a problem.

Shuzhou’s terrain was extraordinarily complex — mountains and ranges crisscrossed it, and the most important cities throughout the region were all mountain citadels.

To fight effectively in such an environment, an extraordinary force was needed.

Learning that the Guichuan area of Yuezhou was home to the Jishan people — who had lived for generations in ancient jungle under the harshest conditions — he had hit on an idea.

These soldiers were the finest hunters.

They had the ferocity of wolves, the agility of apes. For a Shuzhou campaign, they would be an unconventional force without equal.

“The numbers are a little small.”

Tang Pidi looked at Li Chi: “In terrain like that, if we had ten thousand of them, they would be unstoppable.”

—