North of Jizhou, in a dense forest.

Two women, who had been running and hiding the entire night, crawled in among the trees and climbed up into the canopy.

They had to rest. If they kept running like this, with no sleep and no pause, they wouldn’t need anyone to catch them — they would leave their lives behind in the wilderness themselves.

To keep from falling while they slept, they tore strips from their clothing into makeshift cords and lashed themselves to the branches.

They didn’t dare sleep on the ground. The trees here were tall enough and full enough that even in early winter, the remaining leaves still gave them a solid cover.

When a person has calmed down and is thinking only of how to survive, the mind becomes remarkably sharp.

“Sleep during the day, move at night.”

Chudong looked at Quenan and said, “You sleep first — I’ll keep watch. After midday, I’ll sleep and you take over.”

Quenan asked, “Sister, are we going back to the northern steppe? If our master finds out, he’ll be furious… Six of us left, and only two coming back… he will…”

Chudong shook her head. “Not two. One.”

She looked at Quenan and said, “You go back. Tell our master what happened. If he still holds any bond with his disciples, he’ll come south to the Central Plains — and the debt for senior brother’s death can still be settled.”

“If he doesn’t come… at least one of us who can avenge them still remains.”

Chudong drew a slow breath and said, her voice steady and certain, “I am not going back to the northern steppe. I’m going to Yanshan Camp to find the eighth master. He needs to know that Li Chi already knows it was his men who made the move.”

Quenan understood at once. “Sister, you mean — have the eighth master find another way to eliminate Li Chi? Because he’ll be afraid of Li Chi coming after him, so he’ll be desperate to act quickly.”

Chudong nodded. “Walk with me as far as Yanshan, then keep heading north. If our master is willing to come south, lead the way for him. If he refuses…” She paused. “Junior sister, find a chance to leave. You know our master has never kept useless people around. If he doesn’t come, it means he considers us both useless.”

Quenan shook her head. “I want to stay with you and kill that Li Chi.”

“Junior sister, you staying behind wouldn’t help me much.”

Chudong said, “Even together, could we kill him? If we could, then why did we have to run? Why did senior brother and the others have to die? Don’t act on impulse — think clearly.”

Quenan bit her lip, then nodded. “Fine. I’ll go back.”

Chudong gave a soft sound of acknowledgment and leaned against the trunk. “Sleep now. I’ll wake you after midday.”

She bound herself to the branch as well — she wasn’t certain she could stay awake until then. She was wounded and bone-tired; after running the entire night, her strength and endurance had nearly run dry.

—

Seven days later. Yanshan.

Chudong looked up at the outline of the mountain range before her and was silent for a moment. Then she said to Quenan, “Go. If our master won’t come south, then don’t come back either.”

Quenan’s expression shifted. “Sister, leaving you alone here…”

Before she could finish, Chudong cut her off. “If I avenge them, I’ll come find you in the north. If I don’t… if you wait too long and I never come, then you’ll know I’m dead.”

Quenan was silent for a moment, then gave Chudong everything she had on her. “Sister. Take care of yourself.”

Chudong nodded, drew a long breath, and started up the mountain.

—

Yanshan Camp.

After Yu Chaozong returned to his study, he turned and closed the door. He stood at the threshold for a moment, making certain there was nothing unusual outside, then crossed to the desk.

Zhuang Wudi came out from behind the folding screen and looked at Yu Chaozong. “Big brother — did you find anything?”

Yu Chaozong shook his head. “Not yet.”

He sat down behind the desk and looked at Zhuang Wudi. “You’re certain the person who sent a letter to Jizhou Military Governor Zeng Ling came from our Yanshan Camp?”

Zhuang Wudi thought it over. He wasn’t entirely certain — it was still only a suspicion.

When Zeng Ling had told Li Chi about it, his reasoning was that the only people in the city who knew Li Chi’s identity were unlikely to have informed on him to Zeng Ling — therefore it must have been someone from Yanshan Camp.

“The evidence doesn’t confirm it, but I’m certain.”

Zhuang Wudi said, “Big brother, I suspect it might be the new eighth master. He’s the one whose background we don’t fully know.”

Yu Chaozong said, “I’ve considered that too. But it doesn’t make sense. He’s never met the third brother, and he didn’t come from Jizhou — there’s no apparent connection between them.”

He looked at Zhuang Wudi and said, “Still, I’ve already sent people to look into his hometown. A round trip takes at least twenty days.”

Zhuang Wudi nodded. He wasn’t certain who it was, but he was certain it was someone inside the camp who wanted the third brother dead.

“Apart from the eighth, the other masters have no quarrel with Li Chi.”

Yu Chaozong sighed. “I’m starting to wonder — could this be Zeng Ling’s way of sowing discord between us?”

Zhuang Wudi was struck by that. The more he thought about it, the more it held together.

The letter had been passed on to Li Chi by Zeng Ling. The handwriting revealed nothing — Yu Chaozong had examined it himself and couldn’t identify it. Of course, whoever inside Yanshan Camp had written it would have disguised their hand — perhaps writing left-handed.

Yu Chaozong said, “If Zeng Ling already knows the third brother’s identity, and he fears our Yanshan Camp, then driving a wedge between us would be entirely in his interests.”

Zhuang Wudi nodded slowly. The more he thought about it, the more it made sense.

Zeng Ling surely wanted Li Chi dead too — but he didn’t dare move against him directly, for fear of drawing the wrath of Yanshan Camp.

Jizhou was already beset from within and without, surrounded by powerful enemies on all sides. Add Yanshan Camp to the picture, and even a god couldn’t protect Zeng Ling’s hold on the city.

But if internal strife could be provoked — if Li Chi died at the hands of his own people, or if someone else in the camp died because of Li Chi — either outcome would suit Zeng Ling perfectly.

“Look into both possibilities,” Yu Chaozong said. “Now that I’m aware of this, I won’t let it go uninvestigated. There’s nothing more you can do by staying at the mountain fort — ride back to Jizhou and protect the third brother. Have him look into whether it was Zeng Ling stirring things from the shadows.”

“Also — tell him what Yanshan Camp is planning. Luo Geng has invited me to Youzhou for talks. I declined, but I’ve learned that Cui Yan and Liu Li both went. It seems likely that Luo Geng will march on Jizhou whether or not Yanshan Camp sends forces — so I intend to dispatch troops to Jizhou once Luo Geng moves. Go back and ask the third brother whether that’s feasible.”

Zhuang Wudi understood that these were serious matters. He had wanted to stay in Yanshan and find the informant himself, but the larger business couldn’t wait.

He trusted completely that his big brother would root out the guilty party. He trusted completely in his big brother’s loyalty to Li Chi. So he nodded at once.

“Understood. I’ll prepare tonight and head back to Jizhou at first light tomorrow.”

Yu Chaozong said, “We have been waiting for the right moment for a long time. When I first established a foothold in Yanshan, it was to build solid strength — to secure survival first, then seek advancement. Now Yanshan Camp’s army stands at nearly a hundred and fifty thousand, and the people’s loyalty is behind us. The moment has come.”

Zhuang Wudi said, “Big brother, you should still wait for word from Li Chi.”

Yu Chaozong said, “I’ll try to wait — but the situation shifts by the hour. If Jizhou goes into lockdown and I still haven’t heard from the third brother, I can only march.”

Zhuang Wudi urged, “Big brother, didn’t Li Chi write about this in a letter before?”

Yu Chaozong said, with a trace of helplessness, “The shape of the realm does not stay fixed. When the third brother wrote that letter, Luo Geng hadn’t yet decided to march. What was true then is not the same as now.”

Zhuang Wudi knew he was not good with words and likely couldn’t talk his big brother out of anything, so he said, “I’ll go pack my things. I’ll leave today.”

Yu Chaozong was taken aback. “There’s no need to rush.”

Zhuang Wudi said, “The matter is urgent. If I get back quickly and ask Li Chi what to do, it gives him time to prepare and coordinate when big brother attacks the city.”

After a moment’s silence Yu Chaozong said, “Then when you get back, tell the third brother — if Jizhou is besieged, all of you keep yourselves safe. If the third brother feels Jizhou is no longer tenable, come back at once.”

Zhuang Wudi acknowledged this, turned, and went to pack.

Yu Chaozong sat at the desk, turning over in his mind what the eighth master had just told him.

The eighth master, Zheng Gongru, had said: with Luo Geng marching, and Luo Geng’s son working from inside, if nothing went wrong, they would take the city at night and seize the initiative. After the Youzhou army entered the city, they would not willingly admit the Qingzhou and Yuzhou forces — the three sides would fall into conflict, and it would be a rare opportunity.

If Luo Geng ultimately took Jizhou and held both Jizhou and Youzhou, he could proclaim himself king of the north and stand against the imperial court as an equal.

Yu Chaozong had been thinking the same things. If he wanted to accomplish something great, he needed a proper foundation. Who would respect a man whose base was hidden in the mountains? If your troops are in the hills, you’re a bandit forever — and however you see yourself, in other people’s eyes you’ll always be the chief of brigands.

Yu Chaozong came from a distinguished family. His way of thinking was simply not that of a common man.

Even now, if he was being honest with himself, his instinct still ran toward winning the support and counsel of the great noble houses as quickly as possible.

The title of king of the north — if it fell to Luo Geng, it wasn’t easy to take away. If it fell to him, Luo Geng wouldn’t find it easy to take away either, nor would anyone else. Once that name was established, if he wished to advance further, he could move south with Jizhou at his back. If he wished to consolidate, he could stand independently on the strength of Jizhou’s position, establish his legitimacy, and proceed from there.

What Yu Chaozong wanted most in his heart — he was not willing to tell anyone. And the more unspeakable a desire, the more urgently it pressed on him.

He wanted to be emperor.

At the very least, emperor of the north.

He had turned over countless strategies in his mind, explored every possibility.

The most perfect path, of course, was to lead his great army in a direct assault on Daxing, the Dachu capital, and seize the imperial throne from the Chu dynasty’s hands in plain sight for all to see.

Power taken that way would be the most secure of all.

If an immediate march south proved impossible, then he would found a state in the north first. It needn’t take long — within five years, the people would adapt to the new order, and more and more would accept his imperial legitimacy. He could then govern the north with focus and rigor, draw the great noble houses to his service, and march south in strength. He was certain that within five years, the moment would come.

Even if by then the Dachu dynasty had already been toppled by someone else, he still had confidence that he could break into Daxing, claim the Central Plains, and make it his own.

These were the two strategies Yu Chaozong had laid out for himself. If he could not become emperor of the entire Central Plains in one decisive stroke, then he would first become emperor of the north, and then take the whole of the Central Plains from there.

Given his present standing and present strength, this way of thinking was not unreasonable.

But he could not say any of this openly to the people around him. The men who followed him were all of common birth. Common people could follow him to war, but they could not help him build an empire.

If he said these things to those around him, would he not lose every heart he had?

The more chaotic the situation in Jizhou became, the more urgently Yu Chaozong felt the emperor’s throne calling to him. In every age of turmoil, heroes arose — and who could guarantee that he would be the final winner?

Li Chi’s strategy was to wait. To wait for the most favorable moment.

But in this world, what he feared was that all the waiting might simply result in someone else having already proclaimed himself emperor while he, Yu Chaozong, was still the chief of a mountain stronghold.

Yu Chaozong let out a long, slow breath.

He looked at Zhuang Wudi packing in the corner, and turned over in his mind the question of whether the third brother’s strategy of playing the long game was truly the only choice there was.

—