The moment Li Diudiu draped herself over Yu Jiuling’s back, she had no idea she was about to open the door to a whole new world.

Li Diudiu carried Yu Jiuling’s large pack on her back, while Yu Jiuling carried Li Diudiu on his.

“Ready?” Yu Jiuling asked.

Li Diudiu nodded. “Ready.”

Then Li Diudiu experienced for the first time what it truly meant to launch like a catapult… Yu Jiuling pushed off with both feet and shot forward in an instant.

Li Diudiu had been trying to maintain some dignity, feeling awkward about clinging to someone, but that initial launch nearly sent her flying off his back. Her body lurched sharply backward, and her head swung downward.

Fortunately, Li Diudiu’s core was strong enough to haul herself back up through sheer will.

Yu Jiuling sprinted off with Li Diudiu on his back, and from the moment he started running, no one in this world could have caught up with him.

Li Diudiu felt what it truly meant to move like the wind itself — it was far more exhilarating than riding a horse.

By now the sky had already grown dark, curfew was nearly upon them, and the patrol unit from the Military Preparedness General’s residence was already out on the streets. The soldiers in that unit were laughing and chatting when they suddenly saw something streak across the far side of the street.

“What on earth was that!”

Someone rubbed their eyes.

“People — but how can anyone run that fast?”

“Even with a dog chasing me I’ve never run that fast.”

“Should we give chase and see what’s going on?”

“Give chase? To what?”

The speaker stretched out a hand and pointed — Yu Jiuling was already carrying Li Diudiu far, far away.

In the distance, Zhang Tailai stared at the two vanishing figures, rubbed his eyes, and muttered to himself, “Looks like we’ll need to completely rethink our strategy…”

Li Genda leaped out from the shadows and stood beside Zhang Tailai. “That’s the first time I’ve ever seen someone use another person as a mount — and have that person be faster than a horse.”

Zhang Tailai said, “We are proper assassins, after all — lightness techniques are our area of expertise…”

Li Genda nodded. “I understand. This absolutely cannot get out. We didn’t lose our target — we were openly and squarely left in the dust. If that got around it would be deeply humiliating.”

Yu Jiuling carried Li Diudiu on a lap around the city, then, following Li Diudiu’s directions, circled back home. When Yu Jiuling set her down, Li Diudiu had the distinct sensation that her hair still hadn’t caught up with her yet.

“You have to teach me.”

That was the first thing Li Diudiu said when she landed.

Yu Jiuling gave an embarrassed laugh. “Young master, this truly depends on natural talent.”

Li Diudiu said, “Then teach me the parts that can be trained. My innate gifts aren’t a match for yours, but the training that comes through effort should be able to make up for some of it.”

Yu Jiuling said, “It’s actually not that complicated — you just run.”

Li Diudiu nodded. “Alright then, we run. Once I’ve got this skill down, I’d like to see who could ever catch me.”

She looked Yu Jiuling up and down. “You excluded.”

—

Zhang Tailai and Li Genda did not return to the Yiji Hall. When carrying out an assignment, they would not lightly return to the hall — they worried about being followed back.

Yiji Hall had several courtyards within Jizhou City that served as their safehouses. When an assassin found themselves in danger or was carrying out an assignment, they would temporarily lodge in these places.

When they returned to the small courtyard, the two assassins responsible for tailing Li Chi that evening came over to ask how things had gone. Zhang Tailai glanced at Li Genda, and Li Genda was also thinking about how best to answer.

“Basics established.”

After a long silence, Li Genda told Liu Yingwu, “Li Chi spends his days at a teahouse called Yunzhai — that’s how he makes money, and he goes there every afternoon. However, this person is very cautious; he didn’t return home at night at all, and instead kept moving around the city.”

Liu Yingwu nodded. “Then we’ll make our move inside Yunzhai Teahouse.”

They looked toward the one from Class A. Feng Wuliu sat in the courtyard as if his thoughts had drifted far away. Hearing their words, he nodded and said, “I’ll go to Yunzhai Teahouse tomorrow afternoon to survey the terrain.”

With that, he went back inside.

Li Genda lowered his voice and said to Zhang Tailai, “We actually haven’t finished gathering information. If the Class A man goes in and doesn’t succeed, then what?”

Zhang Tailai said, “That’s his problem, isn’t it… we’re the ones getting fifty taels, while he’s getting two hundred. Maybe he can kill in a single strike.”

Li Genda thought about it and figured that was fair enough. In any case, their cut was fifty taels — if the man getting two hundred couldn’t do the job cleanly, that wasn’t their concern.

—

Meanwhile, back at Li Diudiu’s home.

Yu Jiuling said, “I believe that person was definitely watching you. He only glanced over for a moment, but the look in his eyes was wrong.”

Li Diudiu said, “I noticed.”

Yu Jiuling said, “Working at the Zhiyin Tavern, I see too many people every day — especially those drinking together, laughing, arguing, every sort of mood and every sort of look. After watching people long enough, you start to see past all the laughing and arguing into their hearts, reading their intentions from their eyes.”

He said to Li Diudiu, “I believe that the moment that person brushed past you, there was an instant when he thought about striking.”

Li Diudiu had felt it too. In that very instant they passed each other, she had instinctively closed her hand around the dagger hidden up her sleeve.

“I still need to go to Yunzhai Teahouse tomorrow.”

Li Diudiu looked toward Yu Jiuling. “Help me with something.”

Yu Jiuling understood at once. “Understood!”

—

Li Diudiu didn’t know who had sent these people. By all logic, she had no enemies left in Jizhou City, and it shouldn’t be people from the mountain bandits either — going by the timeline, there was no way those bandits could have returned to Yanshan, gathered reinforcements, and come back in time.

What she didn’t know was that not a single one of those mountain bandits had managed to return. The seventh leader was no pushover — after that day, he had killed every last person Li Diudiu had left alive.

It wasn’t Yanshan Camp’s people, and her former adversaries had all left Jizhou. Li Diudiu thought it over for a long time and still couldn’t figure out who wanted her dead.

This unsettled her. Not knowing anything about the enemy — that feeling was deeply uncomfortable.

—

Late at night.

At the small courtyard where the assassins lodged, Liu Yingwu had the watch for the night. There was nothing in particular to guard against — it was simply habit. No one knew they were assassins, no one knew what they intended to do, but as professional assassins they were long accustomed to making sure they were in a secure position first.

After eating some late-night food, Liu Yingwu climbed up to sit on the rooftop. On a winter night this deep in the cold season, a bitter wind blew straight into his face — an ordinary person couldn’t last long out here.

Liu Yingwu pulled his cotton jacket tighter and wondered to himself why he had chosen the late-night watch shift. The second half of the night was colder…

Huddled on the rooftop, his mind began to wander, and somehow he found himself thinking about whether he would continue in this line of work.

The realm was in chaos now, and the assassin’s trade was genuinely difficult. With his abilities, if he left Jizhou City and picked any rebel army to join, he might even end up a high official someday.

And yet here he was, freezing for a mere fifty taels of silver and still having to read other people’s faces.

The more he thought about it, the more indignant he felt.

Then he heard a knock at the door.

Someone knocking at the door in the dead of night — it made every hair on Liu Yingwu’s body stand on end in an instant.

What frightened him wasn’t the knocking itself. What frightened him was that he had not detected anyone approaching at all — and whoever it was had come right up to the front door and knocked openly.

Liu Yingwu immediately leaped down from the rooftop. Having gone without movement for a while, his blood had stopped circulating well in the cold, and both Achilles tendons sent stabbing pain shooting through him as he landed.

But he had no time to worry about that. He shouted at once: “Everyone up!”

After shouting, he drew his weapon and ran to the entrance, pressing his back against the door panel and calling out: “Who’s there?”

BANG!

The door panel was smashed through with a single fist. That fist drove in from outside and struck Liu Yingwu squarely in the temple, and the blow sent him flying sideways. His head crashed heavily into the ground.

The seventh leader standing at the door gave a casual push — the door bolt snapped with a crack — and he stepped inside with an utterly calm expression. He glanced at the figure lying on the ground, struck as he was by that tremendous blow, the man was already unconscious.

The seventh leader walked slowly forward. As he passed Liu Yingwu, he raised his foot and brought it down on Liu Yingwu’s neck. A crack sounded. Liu Yingwu’s body shuddered once — he didn’t even have time to cry out before he was stamped to death.

“Who dares come seeking death!”

Li Genda was the first to come charging over. He launched himself through the air, thrusting his sword straight at the seventh leader’s throat. The seventh leader didn’t even pause — only at the last moment did he tilt his head slightly to the side, letting the blade pass just beside his neck.

Li Genda’s thrust found nothing but air, and in that instant he knew things had gone very wrong.

The seventh leader slipped past the long sword, then shot out his hand and seized Li Genda by the throat. With one hand he lifted the man into the air, exerted force, and somehow swung Li Genda’s body around until it was upside down.

What kind of wrist strength did that take?

Gripping the throat, spinning the man upside down — head toward the ground.

Then driving him down into the floor with crushing force.

When the seventh leader rose, Li Genda’s brains were slowly spreading across the ground. The seventh leader, without so much as glancing at the fallen body, continued walking forward at the same unhurried pace, as though he had never stopped at all.

“Friend!”

Zhang Tailai was shaken to the core by what he had just witnessed. His face had gone white. Backing away step by step, he said, “We have no grievance between us — surely this is some misunderstanding? We’re all people of the rivers and lakes, we can talk this through.”

The seventh leader looked at him, noticed Zhang Tailai’s right hand moving behind his back — probably reaching for some kind of hidden weapon — but paid it no mind whatsoever.

He had no interest in talking to Zhang Tailai. The moment that right hand went behind his back, the seventh leader’s long saber cleared its sheath. He spun it half a rotation in his hand, then hurled it.

The blade flew straight and true toward Zhang Tailai. Zhang Tailai had devised all manner of sudden strike techniques in his head, but there was no time to use any of them. The blade pierced straight through his chest and out the other side, the handle slamming into his sternum, and the tremendous force launched his body backward through the air.

With a dull clang, the saber pinned itself into the wall, nailing Zhang Tailai there.

Zhang Tailai’s hand dropped from behind his back. A paper packet fell to the ground — a packet of powdered lime.

Another assassin, Wang Chengxu, had been quietly hiding in the shadows behind the seventh leader the entire time. Seeing the thrown saber kill Zhang Tailai, Wang Chengxu immediately unslung his repeating crossbow for a sneak attack.

In that very instant, the seventh leader suddenly spun around, then covered the ground in one great stride and charged into the shadows. His feet pushed off the frozen earth, which burst apart beneath him.

With a snap, the seventh leader seized the repeating crossbow in one hand and crushed it in his five fingers until it cracked apart.

He pulled it backward, wrenching the crossbow away from Wang Chengxu’s hands, then jabbed the crossbow into Wang Chengxu’s temple.

Wang Chengxu’s skull nearly split open. A section of the crossbow was driven into his temple, sinking into his cranium.

The seventh leader didn’t look at the collapsing corpse. He turned and walked into the building again.

“You’re an assassin too?”

Feng Wuliu of Class A emerged from the room carrying his saber. He hadn’t moved — first, because he had no concern for the lives of those Class B assassins; second, because he had wanted to use the opportunity to observe how this sudden arrival fought; and third… just now he hadn’t found an opening to act.

And yet, observing the man’s technique had made no difference whatsoever.

The seventh leader walked to within roughly half a zhang of Feng Wuliu and stopped, studying Feng Wuliu’s saber — seemingly quite interested in the blade.

“Your saber is a straight-bladed military saber from the Dachu garrison troops — and moreover, it’s a hundred-fold-forged blade.”

The seventh leader extended his hand. “Give it to me.”

Feng Wuliu furrowed his brow, then gave a cold laugh. “Come and take it.”

—