Li Diudiu had a long saber — one Xiahou Zuo had prepared for her back then. It was a fine blade, but when leaving the city it hadn’t been this kind of hundred-fold-forged military saber, in order to avoid drawing attention.
She walked to the doorway and crouched down, studying the two blades. The dark sheaths were not their original color — the wood grain had been stained much deeper by blood soaked in and dried many times over.
Li Diudiu casually took one, drew it from its sheath, and with a resonant ring, a surge of cold air burst forth as though exhaled from the blade itself.
The blade’s surface was already clean of blood, yet the smell of blood still lingered there.
The saber was just over three chi long — a two-handed blade, the body perfectly straight, with a long fuller running down each side.
It was a heavy blade. An ordinary man would find it very strenuous to wield single-handed.
“Fine saber.”
Yu Jiuling came over, reached up and patted his own head — couldn’t bring himself to do it — then yanked a hair from Li Diudiu’s head instead. He held it out to her with a solemn expression. “Here, test how sharp it is.”
Li Diudiu looked at the hair, then looked at Yu Jiuling.
Yu Jiuling said, “Don’t be shy.”
Li Diudiu said, “Now I truly believe what you said — that a great many people at the tavern wanted to hit you.”
Yu Jiuling gave a heh-heh laugh and crouched down, full of curiosity.
“Quick, try it.”
He held the hair out to Li Diudiu. Li Diudiu reached for it — but didn’t catch it, and the hair drifted and fluttered to the ground.
Yu Jiuling said, “No rush, I’ll pull another one.”
Li Diudiu: “No need! I can find it.”
She scrabbled around on the ground until she found the hair, balanced it on the blade’s edge, then blew a firm breath across it — the hair actually snapped in two.
Yu Jiuling said in amazement, “That’s impressive — truly splitting a hair upon the blade.”
He stretched his hand toward Li Diudiu’s head again. Li Diudiu quickly ducked aside. “We’ve already tested it — why pull more?”
Yu Jiuling earnestly said, “My elders always taught that one chopstick breaks easily, but a bundle of chopsticks cannot be broken. One hair breaks easily, but a bundle of hair—”
Li Diudiu said, “Whether a bundle of hair breaks or not is irrelevant. What is certain is that you’d go bald.”
Yu Jiuling said, “Young master is so stingy.”
He looked toward Changmei Daoren. “Daoist?”
Changmei Daoren backed up several steps, waving his hands repeatedly. “There isn’t much — there really isn’t much left up here.”
From the inner room, the seventh leader said, “Genuine Dachu garrison hundred-fold-forged sabers still in use today are none of them new blades. In the beginning the Bureau of Works’ armory could still forge them, but later corners were cut, and while they were still called hundred-fold-forged, the quality dropped considerably. Both of these sabers are old blades. On the black market they would each fetch a hundred taels.”
Li Diudiu’s eyes lit up. She would never sell them, of course — but merely hearing they were worth a great deal made her happy. Already quite happy before, now add one more layer of happy.
Changmei Daoren looked at that smile on her face and let out a sigh. “Just look at yourself.”
Li Diudiu said, “Whatever you say.”
Every time Changmei Daoren said something to her, Li Diudiu’s “whatever you say” bounced it right back, and every time Changmei Daoren was left without a response.
“You rest now.”
Li Diudiu looked toward the inner room. “Get a proper night’s sleep. When you wake up, I’ll make you something to eat.”
The seventh leader said at the same unhurried pace, “No need. It’ll be terrible.”
Li Diudiu: “…”
She walked to the doorway, looked at the seventh leader, and said, “Do you always speak this directly?”
The seventh leader nodded. “Yes.”
Li Diudiu asked, “Has anyone ever tried to hit you for it?”
The seventh leader shook his head. “They’re all dead.”
Li Diudiu closed her mouth.
The seventh leader leaned back, pulled the blanket over himself, and said, “Be more careful from now on. The people who want you killed are Yiji Hall — I found that out. Yiji Hall is Jizhou City’s largest underground assassins’ guild. There were five assassins tailing you in total. I’ve killed them all.”
Li Diudiu said, “Even so, they were the ones who arranged the attempt on my life. Now that you’ve killed them, the debt has a head and the grievance has an owner—”
The seventh leader: “I went to Yiji Hall afterward. After killing about a hundred or so people there, I left.”
Li Diudiu: “What the—!”
Changmei Daoren’s expression changed. He hadn’t realized until now how serious things were. After this tremendous killing spree the seventh leader had carried out, Yiji Hall having suffered such devastating losses would certainly dispatch large numbers of elite killers to come for Li Chi.
He pulled Li Diudiu into the side room and lowered his voice. “This person acts with extreme ruthlessness and gives no thought to consequences. Having killed so many of Yiji Hall’s people, Yiji Hall won’t let this rest.”
Li Diudiu shook her head. “Master, even if those five men had just been the ones to come and kill me, and I’d killed those five, Yiji Hall would have sent more people anyway. The fact that they dared to move means they were confident — perhaps they weren’t afraid of being identified, or perhaps they were certain they couldn’t be traced back to them. That gentleman counter-attacking to Yiji Hall was something Yiji Hall did not anticipate.”
Changmei Daoren thought it over. “Why don’t you first leave Jizhou City and find somewhere to lay low for a while?”
Li Diudiu said, “There’s no running from this. If I leave Jizhou, they’ll follow me out of Jizhou. Wherever I go, they’ll follow.”
Changmei Daoren said, “But if Yiji Hall is truly as he says — the largest assassins’ guild in all the northern borderlands — if they unleash their full strength…”
Li Diudiu said, “I’ll think of a way. When I have a plan I’ll tell you.”
With that, Li Diudiu stepped out of the side room. She knew the master’s worries were certainly well-founded. If Yiji Hall was powerful, they might already be conducting a large-scale search for where she lived.
“Jiuling.”
Li Diudiu turned and called toward the room.
Yu Jiuling ran out. “What is it?”
Li Diudiu said, “Go to Yunzhai Teahouse for me. It shouldn’t be too late yet. Go see Steward Sun and Madam Sun, and tell them to close for a few days — don’t open until they hear from me, and go into hiding. Don’t stay home for now.”
“If they have nowhere to go, bring them here. I don’t want to implicate them. If Yiji Hall’s people already know I go to Yunzhai Teahouse every day, they’ll go there and press the couple for information regardless of whether Steward Sun and his wife know where I live.”
After hearing Li Diudiu out, Yu Jiuling responded at once: “Don’t worry, I’ll go right now.”
Li Diudiu called after him: “If Steward Sun is too reluctant to close up over the daily losses and won’t leave, knock him out.”
Yu Jiuling called back in agreement, pulled open the courtyard gate, and charged off. The sky hadn’t yet lightened, and with Yiji Hall in chaos, they shouldn’t have dispatched anyone to Yunzhai Teahouse yet.
—
Li Diudiu went back and closed the gate, then sat down again to think. Who else might be implicated…
She didn’t worry about Xiahou Zuo — Yiji Hall wouldn’t dare touch him even with ten times the courage. They could arrange for someone to kill her, but they would absolutely never admit to it, and if they were quick and clean about it, they couldn’t be traced back to Yiji Hall. Counterstrike going to Yiji Hall directly was something they had not foreseen.
What about Gao Xining?
She thought… if Yiji Hall’s people discovered how close Gao Xining was to her, would they send someone to seize Gao Xining and interrogate her?
The moment this occurred to her, Li Diudiu’s heart began to race.
Just then, rapid knocking sounded from outside the gate. Li Diudiu ran to the entrance. “Who is it?”
“Me.”
Xiahou Zuo answered from outside. “Open the gate.”
Li Diudiu pulled the gate open. Xiahou Zuo strode in, looked at Li Diudiu and said, “Is the business at Yiji Hall connected to you?”
Li Diudiu was taken aback.
She asked, “How did you know?”
Xiahou Zuo’s expression shifted. He looked Li Diudiu up and down, and only then let out a breath of relief.
“You’re not hurt?”
“No. The one who went to Yiji Hall wasn’t me — it was the warrior sent by Yanshan Camp. He found out Yiji Hall had dispatched assassins to kill me and went to Yiji Hall himself.”
Xiahou Zuo thought to himself: quite reckless, this one… but well done. He would have done the same.
He asked Li Diudiu, “The people in the Azure Formation just ran to inform me that something major had happened in the city. Yiji Hall is in a frenzy… Do you know why Yiji Hall sent people to kill you? And who went to Yiji Hall to hire the assassins?”
Li Diudiu shook her head. “I don’t know. By all logic, no one in Jizhou City should need me dead that badly.”
Xiahou Zuo was silent for a moment. “Don’t go outside today. Stay here. I’ll handle this — whatever the outcome, I’ll be back before nightfall.”
Li Diudiu said, “Let Gao Xining know to go into hiding.”
Xiahou Zuo had already turned to leave. Hearing this, he turned back and glared at her. “Your own life is still up in the air, and you’re already thinking of that girl.”
Li Diudiu said, “I can’t implicate people.”
“Are you thick?”
Xiahou Zuo sighed. “This business probably involves her.”
Li Diudiu didn’t follow for a moment. She thought it over, then realized — she looked at Xiahou Zuo and asked, “Because the Xu family went to propose to Administrator Gao on behalf of Xu Qinglin and was refused?”
She shook her head again. “I don’t think Xu Qinglin is that kind of person.”
Xiahou Zuo said, “Stop speculating. Remember what I said — don’t leave today. Not anywhere.”
With that, he walked away in long strides. Li Diudiu followed to the gate to see him off. Xiahou Zuo turned back: “Get inside!”
Li Diudiu responded and retreated into the courtyard.
—
Xiahou Zuo walked quickly to the mouth of the alley where a carriage waited. He climbed in and gave the order: “Yiji Hall.”
Li Diudiu’s home was not very far from Yiji Hall. In less than two quarters of an hour, Xiahou Zuo’s carriage stopped outside Yiji Hall’s gate.
At this moment, large numbers of Military Preparedness soldiers were moving back and forth on patrol outside Yiji Hall. With such a major incident at Yiji Hall, even the grand steward had come rushing back from the Fengming Mountain Daoist temple, and everyone knew that winds of blood and rain were on the air.
After receiving word, the Military Preparedness forces immediately moved to place the area under surveillance.
Xiahou Zuo’s carriage stopped. He looked left and right, then took a long saber from the driver’s hands and walked straight toward Yiji Hall’s front gate.
The people at the gate blocked him with sour expressions, one of them extending a hand. “Apologies, Yiji Hall is not receiving guests today.”
Xiahou Zuo looked at the man. “Do you know who I am?”
The man was no more than a Class C assassin with little experience, and he shook his head. “I don’t care who you are. Leave now, or don’t blame me for being discourteous.”
Xiahou Zuo’s saber swept sideways. The man’s throat was instantly opened.
The abruptness of it was overwhelming. In an instant, everyone froze.
Xiahou Zuo looked at the remaining Yiji Hall men and said, “I am Xiahou Zuo. Go in and tell your Steward Song I’ll be waiting in the reception hall.”
Several of the men stood in stunned silence. After a moment, one came to his senses and hurried back into the compound. Xiahou Zuo followed him in, and no one dared to stop him.
He walked to the entrance of the front hall. The grand steward who had rushed back came out, face iron-dark, and looked at Xiahou Zuo.
“Xiahou, young master — have you come to declare war?”
Steward Song asked.
Xiahou Zuo looked back at him. The two held each other’s gaze.
After a moment, Xiahou Zuo said slowly, “Li Chi is my closest brother. You arranged to have him killed. I will not pretend ignorance. You just said — have I come to declare war? Steward Song. Do you have the standing to ask that question?”
He walked past Song and strode into the main hall.
After stepping inside, he swept his gaze across the room and asked, “Who took the contract?”
No one answered.
Xiahou Zuo pointed his saber at the person nearest to him and said, “Whether it’s you or not, if no one answers me, I start with you. I haven’t come to declare war — I’ve come to kill. If you have enough nerve, strike back and kill me.”
The person’s face drained white as he retreated a step, shaking his head. “I don’t know.”
Thud!
Xiahou Zuo’s blade fell.
“Enough!”
Steward Song strode in from outside, glaring at Xiahou Zuo. “Do you think you can frighten Yiji Hall this way? Without Li Chi’s life to settle this account, it will not end. Xiahou, young master — can you protect him for the rest of his life? Or can you slaughter all of Yiji Hall?”
Xiahou Zuo ignored him, walked to the second-nearest person, and asked, “Who took the contract?”
Steward Song’s expression darkened further and further. Several times he was on the verge of ordering his people to act — and several times he held himself back.
What did being the largest assassins’ guild amount to?
This man was the son of Prince Yu.
Touch Xiahou Zuo, and troops would arrive within moments.
Even at this very moment, knowing Xiahou Zuo had entered Yiji Hall and begun killing, the Military Preparedness forces would have already gone berserk — their report would already be flying upward. With Prince Yu and the Military Governor both absent from Jizhou, if the Military Preparedness General allowed Yiji Hall to kill Xiahou Zuo, the second to die would be the General himself.
So in all likelihood, it wouldn’t be long before the Military Preparedness General’s troops surrounded Yiji Hall so completely that not even water could trickle through.
Xiahou Zuo looked at the man before him. That man had already frightened himself into trembling, his eyes darting back and forth to Steward Song. Song stood with clenched teeth, saying nothing.
Thud!
Another one.
Xiahou Zuo moved toward the third person — and before he could even ask, Steward Yu stepped forward and said, “It has nothing to do with him. Wang Deng took the contract.”
Wang Deng heard his name and his knees nearly buckled.
Xiahou Zuo’s gaze moved slowly to Steward Yu, then asked, “In that case — who is Wang Deng?”
—