When they had come south from the northern reaches, the six of them could not have imagined it would end like this.

If they had never encountered Li Chi and his people — if they had bypassed Jizhou entirely and gone straight to the south — they would have left a trail of bloodshed across every mile.

Thousands of miles of road, thousands of miles of killing.

And yet there are things in this world that cannot be avoided.

“Wait.”

Qitian, soaked in blood, looked toward his companions. Yao Bei had both arms broken. He was raving and screaming, impossible to stop. In another sense of the word, he was already gone.

The two women had sunk to the ground. They seemed to have lost their spirits for a time. They likely had no strength left to fight either.

And what if he still had a blade in hand? What would that change?

So the Qitian charging toward Zhang Yuxu halted his steps. His gaze moved from his companions, scanning the crowd.

“Which of you gives the orders here? Which one is Li Chi?”

He asked.

“What do you want to say?”

Ye Zhangzhu was closest. He asked.

Qitian said to Ye Zhangzhu, “I want to trade a secret for those two women’s lives.”

Qitian pointed at Chudong and Quenan.

Yao Bei was already beyond saving. There was no bringing him back from where he had gone. The person still alive there was nothing but a shell. His soul was gone.

“Say it then.”

Ye Zhangzhu answered.

“Give those two a chance to leave the city.”

Qitian said, his voice rough and dry. “We came south not only to avenge our master at Dragon Tiger Mountain — we also came because someone hired us to kill a man in Jizhou named Li Chi. The person who hired us was an underling of the Eighth Chief of the Yanshan Camp. If you send someone to Dafang Town to look, you will know I am telling the truth.”

Li Chi had already walked forward. He looked at Qitian and said, “I am Li Chi.”

Qitian turned to face him immediately. He looked at him carefully. And then his expression became complicated.

He had not expected it. This whole time, the young man selling sugar-roasted chestnuts at the alley mouth was his intended target.

From the very beginning, the man they had come to kill had been standing right there, watching them — like someone watching a performance. And in truth, they had been a performance.

Before Qitian spoke, Li Chi had already signaled to Yu Jiuling. Yu Jiuling went over and helped Zhang Yuxu step away. Zhang Yuxu had lost considerable blood, but fortunately they were right next to the Shen Medical Hall.

Yu Jiuling called over several people to carry Zhang Yuxu inside, then returned to the alley.

Li Chi had not entered the fight because, before Zhang Yuxu had charged toward Qitian, he had said something to him.

At the time, Ye Zhangzhu was still fighting Qitian. Zhang Yuxu had said to Li Chi: “Chief, I need to go over. If these people truly mean to go to Dragon Tiger Mountain and kill, then this is something I have to face. I am a disciple of Dragon Tiger Mountain. My master is as a father. My martial brothers are as brothers. So please, Chief, give me a chance. Whatever the outcome, I have to try to settle this myself.”

After saying this to Li Chi, he had charged toward Qitian and intercepted Ye Zhangzhu before he could strike again.

Now Qitian said to Li Chi: “I know it’s unfair to negotiate terms at a moment like this. You have already won. There’s no reason you should listen to anything I propose. But I still hope you will give me one chance. I’m not asking you to simply release those two. I only ask that you give them two hours.”

He looked Li Chi in the eyes. “Let them out of the city with a two-hour head start, then pursue. If they’re caught again — then it’s their own ill fortune.”

Li Chi nodded. “Agreed.”

Qitian blinked.

He had not expected Li Chi to agree so readily. He had barely dared hope.

“You agreed?”

“I agreed.”

Qitian drew a deep breath, then turned toward Chudong and the others and called out: “Go now. Get out of Jizhou quickly. If your luck holds, get out of the Central Plains entirely. It’s beautiful here, but it is not our home. Listen to your senior brother — as long as you can run, you run.”

Li Chi waved a hand to the people closing in around them, signaling them to open a path.

When Qitian had finished shouting, he looked at Li Chi and asked, “Why did you agree?”

Li Chi answered, “I didn’t want them to die in front of you.”

Qitian said nothing.

Li Chi said, “Tell me.”

Qitian looked one more time toward Chudong and Quenan. The two women had helped each other to their feet. Chudong was standing facing him. Then, all at once, she tore open the blood-soaked part of her robe and laid that bloody strip of cloth over her own head.

Qitian’s body went rigid. Then his shoulders began to shake violently.

Chudong, the cloth covering her head, bent low in a bow toward him. A moment later she turned and walked away. Quenan dropped to her knees and pressed her forehead to the ground three times, then rose and ran after Chudong.

“You won’t go back on your word?”

Qitian asked Li Chi.

Li Chi nodded. “I won’t.”

Qitian made a sound of acknowledgment. He said, “Do you have wine? Something strong.”

Li Chi answered, “No. And if I did, I wouldn’t give it to you. My wine is for my brothers. I agreed to your request — but not out of respect for you. Out of respect for my own judgment.”

Qitian stood in silence for a while. Li Chi knew perfectly well his words would not move Qitian in the slightest. He was simply buying time.

Li Chi was not worried. Because Li Chi knew those two women were not going to get away.

He also had no intention of sending people to intercept them early. Even pursuing after the full two hours, he was confident in the outcome.

“The one who wants you dead is the Yanshan Camp’s Eighth Chief.”

Qitian spoke after a long silence. “Our coming south was genuinely to avenge our master. But we were short of travel funds, and were hired along the way to come to Jizhou and kill you. The person who hired us was an underling of the Yanshan Camp’s Eighth Chief. If you send someone to Dafang Town to look, you will know I am telling the truth.”

Li Chi nodded. “You knowing the name Dafang Town is proof enough that what you say is true.”

Qitian said, “I hope you are a man of your word. Even though I myself have never been. But I have decided that in this last moment, I will use my word kept — to buy your word kept.”

He looked at the weapon in his hand, then suddenly flung it.

The blade became a streak of light. In an instant — a thud. It punched through Yao Bei’s chest. The double-headed blade drove through his body and flew on for quite some distance before clattering to the ground.

In an instant, Yao Bei stopped screaming. He looked down at where his heart was. And in the last moment of his life, he let out a wail.

“Senior Brother — I’ve always been afraid of blood.”

He said this, and then Yao Bei collapsed, and was still.

“He was always afraid of blood.”

Qitian gave a bitter smile. “I was the one who told him: face what you fear. Only then can you stop being afraid. So he started killing. Killed a great many people — to prove to himself he was no longer afraid. He even drank blood. I never thought that all the way to the end he was still afraid.”

He exhaled slowly. His gaze searched the crowd, as if looking for Zhang Yuxu. But he didn’t find the young Daoist among the faces.

“His master must be better than mine. His senior brother must be better than me as a senior brother.”

He said this, and then bent down and picked up the broken blade from the ground — the one Ye Zhangzhu had snapped in two. With the hilt, the remaining blade was about a foot long.

“Master. Giving this back to you.”

Qitian pressed the hilt against the crumbling wall beside him. A thud. The hilt drove into the wall. The wall had already collapsed in chunks and pieces.

He stepped back a few paces. Then he accelerated and charged forward, head raised, neck driving into the edge of the broken blade.

The blade cut through half his neck. Blood ran down the blade like a small waterfall.

A man without sufficient ruthlessness could never do what he had just done.

Li Chi looked at Yu Jiuling and said, “Ninth Sister, go tell Dantai — have him and Jia Ruan take a hundred scouts and head out of the city to pursue.”

Yu Jiuling asked, “Are we really waiting the full two hours? The sky is nearly dark. If we go right now there’s still time. Once it’s dark, tracking them will be much harder.”

Li Chi looked at the body hanging on the wall, and then nodded. “We wait.”

Yu Jiuling sighed, turned, and ran out. As he passed Tang Pidi, Tang Pidi said something quietly to him.

“When you get there, tell Dantai — go now. You go too.”

Yu Jiuling gave a faint nod and ran on past.

*That’s exactly what I was thinking*, he thought to himself.

Li Chi had not noticed Tang Pidi and Yu Jiuling’s exchange, because he was already thinking about the matter of the Eighth Chief.

He did not know that the Eighth Chief was Sun Rugong. So he still couldn’t say with certainty why this Eighth Chief was so determined to be rid of him.

Tang Pidi walked to Li Chi’s side and said, “If what this man said is true, then the reason this mysterious Eighth Chief wants you dead is one of two things: either he has a grudge against you, or he wants to kill you and take your place.”

Li Chi made a sound of agreement. Those were the two most reasonable explanations.

This Eighth Chief had arrived at the Yanshan Camp and immediately helped Yu Chaozong take the cities of Daizhou and Xinzhou. Yu Chaozong likely held him in high regard. And Li Chi was not even at the Yanshan Camp — yet he sat in the position of Third Chief. Not only this Eighth Chief: there must have been many who resented that arrangement.

Among all the brothers in the mountain stronghold who had fought and bled alongside Yu Chaozong — what right did Li Chi have to sit in the third seat?

More than a few people must have felt that way.

Li Chi said, “Before Brother Zhuang left, he gave me a letter — said he was going to slip back to the stronghold and quietly look into who this person is.”

He paused, then continued: “So someone needs to get word to Brother Zhuang quickly. If he goes back and it gets out, the Eighth Chief will move to have him killed immediately.”

Tang Pidi said, “Don’t worry. The way Brother Zhuang went back — he had no intention of letting anyone know.”

Li Chi said, “This Eighth Chief has a vicious heart. I’m not at ease. Better to send word. I’ll write to Brother Yu as well. If Brother Zhuang goes back, he’ll do everything possible to avoid everyone — but he certainly won’t hide it from Brother Yu.”

Tang Pidi said, “If writing a letter puts your mind at ease, send it first thing tomorrow morning. But if it were me — I’d go straight to the Yanshan Camp and chop off that Eighth Chief’s head in front of everyone.”

Li Chi said, “If I actually left now, the business of helping Brother Yu take Jizhou would fall apart. Unless something goes wrong, there will be enemies at Jizhou’s gates within ten days.”

Tang Pidi knew Li Chi was right. If Li Chi set off for the Yanshan Camp, none of them would feel comfortable letting him go alone — they would all go with him.

And then the Yanshan Camp stronghold would have only Luo Jing’s people left. The city of Jizhou would be handed over freely to Luo Geng and his son.

All the careful arrangements Li Chi had put in place — and it would end up being a gift to the Youzhou army. That would be a truly painful loss.

What Li Chi needed now was to help Luo Jing conceal his troops — and to use the opening this created, with Luo Jing’s men acting from within the city while his father Luo Geng attacked from without, let the Youzhou army break into Jizhou — then Li Chi would find a way to drive the Youzhou army back out again.

“Deal with what’s in front of us first.”

Li Chi smiled. “A man who has to hire assassins to kill me — how hard can he be to deal with?”