When Cao Lie heard those shouts, he showed not a trace of panic — at least, that was how he appeared.

When the Horse Gang’s men clamored to charge, when they screamed that they would shoot him with arrows, he neither retreated nor cried out. Instead, he signaled Ye Xiaoqian — who had already raised his repeating crossbow — to lower it.

Fortunately, the shouting was fierce, but no one dared be the first to actually release an arrow.

Perhaps it wasn’t that they lacked the courage — only that no one dared be *first*.

In this delicate moment, whoever fired the first arrow and killed a Ning Army official would face a fate too terrible to contemplate.

Cao Lie’s confidence rested entirely on his read of Luo Jiuhong. A great hero who commanded tens of thousands of Horse Gang followers across all of Shu Province could not possibly be a simpleminded man.

When Cao Lie had introduced himself, he had deliberately included those four words: *the Ning King’s sworn brother.*

That weight alone was enough to make Luo Jiuhong pause and weigh whether killing him was worth the cost.

Every man carries a set of scales in his heart. And the higher a person’s position, the more precisely they calibrate that scale.

At this very moment, if Luo Jiuhong allowed his men to kill Cao Lie, the price the Horse Gang would one day pay could mean tens of thousands of lives spent to settle the account for one man.

Luo Jiuhong was the chief of the Horse Gang. He knew which way those scales tipped.

“Stand down!” Luo Jiuhong shouted.

The clamor around him fell silent at once.

For those who *wanted* the Horse Gang and the Ning Army locked in a fight to the death, this chaotic moment had offered the perfect opportunity: one arrow, and Cao Lie would be dead — with no chance of salvaging the situation afterward.

With Cao Lie dead, even if the Ning King arrived personally with his army, even if Luo Jiuhong knelt before him and begged forgiveness — the Ning King would never forgive him.

But who wasn’t afraid to die?

At this particular moment, whoever loosed the first arrow — even before the Ning Army could react — Luo Jiuhong himself would be the first to strike them down.

Besides, there was a nagging doubt in their minds: surely the Ning King’s sworn brother had someone close by who could block arrows?

Of course he did. If someone had truly fired at Cao Lie, Ye Xiaoqian would have been the first to step in front of him.

That was his duty as a Senior Officer of the Court Magistrate’s Office.

Luo Jiuhong leaned forward from his saddle and looked down at Cao Lie. “Are you truly the Ning King’s sworn brother?”

Cao Lie said: “If the Chief finds that difficult to believe, you may take me back to your stronghold right now. Once the Ning King arrives in person, you can ask him face to face.”

Luo Jiuhong snorted. “You’re trying to use the Ning King to pressure me?”

Cao Lie replied: “Not at all. I simply want you to understand — the fact that I am willing to stand at the city gate and wait for you, willing to openly invite you to oversee Sir You’s autopsy together, shows that I have nothing to hide.”

A voice rang out from behind Luo Jiuhong: “Who knows what you’re up to? You killed our Fourth Head, and now you’re putting on this act of false sympathy — you’re just trying to make fools of us.”

Cao Lie looked toward the voice, but could not identify who among the crowd was speaking.

He called out: “Which hero is speaking? I cannot see you from here. If you distrust me so deeply, come stand before me — look me in the eye and say it to my face.”

Naturally, no one stepped forward.

Luo Jiuhong studied Cao Lie for a long moment, then swung down from his horse and walked slowly to the cart.

For all that it was only a few steps, his legs seemed to carry the weight of iron.

When he reached the cart and lifted the white cloth covering the body, and saw You Yuren’s ravaged face — the blood flooded into his eyes in an instant.

One small mercy, at least: You Yuren had been killed first, then hung on the post after death.

Someone hanged while still alive dies with a far more horrifying expression — the tongue protruding grotesquely.

Sir You’s eyes were still open. Even in death, after so many hours, those eyes still seemed to hold astonishment, fury, and utter disbelief.

Cao Lie said quietly: “I did not know Sir You well. May I ask — how was Sir You’s martial ability?”

Luo Jiuhong answered: “Among the Horse Gang, Old Four’s martial arts placed him in the top ten, without question.”

Cao Lie pointed to the body. “The fatal wound is in the front — a single thrust from the front, straight through to the heart. If Sir You’s martial skill was genuinely formidable, the chance of someone getting close enough for a frontal thrust through the heart is very low, unless…”

He met Luo Jiuhong’s eyes. “Unless it was someone Sir You trusted. A single strike, and he was dead before he could react.”

Luo Jiuhong’s eyes narrowed — not only with fury, but with something colder. Killing intent.

“Are you telling me that my fourth brother was stabbed to death by one of his own?”

He snapped his gaze to Cao Lie, and the red in his eyes looked ready to spill over.

Cao Lie said: “Even if the Chief is unwilling to believe it, even if the Chief finds it unthinkable that one of your own brothers would strike Sir You down — I still stand by my conclusion. Sir You died at the hands of someone he knew.”

“Sir You’s two personal bodyguards have vanished since his death. I have deployed everyone I have to search for them, but so far there is no trace.”

Cao Lie continued: “If the Chief believes there is falsehood in what I say, then I will hand this county town over to you right now. My men and I will withdraw to a location of the Chief’s choosing, under guard by your people. The investigation will be conducted entirely under your authority.”

At that moment, a man of roughly forty rode forward. He did not dismount — he looked down at Cao Lie with cold, contemptuous eyes.

After a pause, this man asked: “Young Master Cao, you just introduced yourself as coming from Yuzhou. That makes you the young marquis of the Cao Clan, then?”

Cao Lie nodded. “That’s me.”

The man said coldly: “Hasn’t the Cao Clan been almost wiped out by the Ning King? To send Young Master Cao all the way here like this — it seems the Ning King doesn’t value you very much. Could it be he sent you here deliberately… to die?”

Cao Lie asked: “And you are?”

The man answered: “I am Sun Jingyi, Second Head of the Tiger Gang. I ask that Young Master Cao answer my question honestly.”

Cao Lie replied: “I’ll answer in two parts. First — if the Second Head’s guess is correct, and my lord truly intended to use a borrowed knife to kill me, then I strongly advise you: do *not* kill me.”

“Second — if the Second Head is wrong, and my lord sent me here not because he wants me dead, but because he *trusts* me — then I still advise you: do *not* kill me.”

He looked at Sun Jingyi. “If the Second Head thinks about it for even a moment, he should understand exactly what I mean.”

Sun Jingyi asked: “Is that a threat?”

Cao Lie said: “If the Second Head sees it as a threat — then yes.”

Sun Jingyi leapt from his saddle in one motion and strode toward Cao Lie. With a sharp ring of steel, he drew his blade and rested it on Cao Lie’s shoulder.

“So let me ask you, Young Master Cao — do you think I dare kill you or not?”

Cao Lie said evenly: “That move was actually quite irrational, Second Head…”

“Why irrational?”

“Because if you don’t actually intend to kill me and are only trying to frighten me, you’re about to look rather embarrassed. And if you truly do intend to kill me — you’ll be even more embarrassed later, because you will be the first one handed over to die.”

Sun Jingyi seemed to be provoked. A cold laugh escaped him.

His blade suddenly lifted, hung in the air for just a breath — then swung down with full force.

*Clang.*

As the blade fell, a sword appeared at Cao Lie’s neck from the side.

The sword caught the falling blade, and in the next instant, Ye Xiaoqian launched himself into the air, delivering a rapid series of kicks at Sun Jingyi’s chest.

Sun Jingyi fell back two steps, raised his left arm to block the barrage of kicks, steadied himself, then gripped his blade with both hands and slashed at Ye Xiaoqian’s throat.

“Kill!”

With that battle cry, the force of the strike surged explosively.

This blow — like the one before it — looked nothing like a threat. There was genuine killing intent behind it.

*Clang.*

Sun Jingyi’s long blade was knocked upward, and he stumbled involuntarily several steps back.

Looking up, it was the chief himself — Luo Jiuhong — who had deflected Sun Jingyi’s strike with the sheath of his own blade. The rebound force alone had been enough to knock Sun Jingyi back.

Sun Jingyi’s expression shifted. He turned to Luo Jiuhong and cried: “Big Brother, don’t let this man’s tricks fool you! He’s only acting tough because he’s afraid to die!”

He charged at Cao Lie again with his blade.

At that very moment, a dark shape plummeted from the air, trailing a flash of silver.

A spear, gleaming with cold light, thrust from the side — arriving even faster than Sun Jingyi’s blade.

This spear was also aimed at Cao Lie.

The figure descending from above shouted: “Second Brother, I’m here to help you kill this bastard!”

“Insolent!” Ye Xiaoqian’s voice cracked like thunder.

His wide sleeve unleashed a wave of force, crashing into the spear shaft from the side.

One strike, and the spear was knocked off course — the tip plunged into the stone road with a shower of sparks.

In the next instant, Ye Xiaoqian’s sword thrust out, tracing a brilliant plum blossom pattern through the air.

The sword glare flickered — the blade was already at the spear-wielder’s throat.

*Clang!*

A sharp ring.

Luo Jiuhong’s right hand descended. His blade, still sheathed, knocked Ye Xiaoqian’s sword nearly free from his grip.

His other hand reached out and caught Sun Jingyi’s blade at the spine in midair.

One foot stamped down — the silver spear was pinned beneath it, immovable.

One man. Standing between three.

Right hand halting Ye Xiaoqian’s sword. Left hand seizing Sun Jingyi’s blade. One foot crushing the spear to the ground.

Luo Jiuhong’s face was like a storm cloud.

“Whoever dares move again — do not blame me for showing no mercy.”

Eleven words. Each one struck like iron on stone.

Not a warning. Not a threat. A verdict.

Disobey, and die without exception.

Second Head Sun Jingyi glanced at the spear-wielder — Third Head Liao Feijiang. They looked at each other and, in the same moment, stepped back.

“Big Brother. We don’t dare.”

Both bowed simultaneously.

Luo Jiuhong’s gaze moved to Ye Xiaoqian’s face. He looked into the young man’s eyes. “And you — do you dare?”

Ye Xiaoqian suddenly smiled, drew his sword back with a flowing flourish, petals of steel in the air.

“Elder, whether I dare depends on whether you cross the line.”

Ye Xiaoqian stood tall. “You can keep your own men in check. But you cannot keep the Ning King’s soldiers in check. Not even if all three Purities descended and the Buddha himself appeared in true form — none of them have authority over the Ning King’s men.”

—