The woman who had lowered her scarf wore a face etched with hardship well beyond her years. What held that hardship together was hatred.

She had not yet reached the age where such weathering came naturally, yet she seemed to have lived twice what others had.

Not all women necessarily understood each other best — but a woman reading another woman would always see more clearly than a man reading a woman.

So when Gong Shu Yingying took in that face, she knew with certainty: the person this woman wanted to kill was not just one person.

Because the hatred in her eyes could never be extinguished by killing only one person. That hatred was what was keeping her alive.

“Who is it you want to kill?” Gong Shu Yingying asked. “If the person you’re after is beyond your current ability to reach, adding one more to the count won’t change much. I have no reason to throw my life away.”

The woman answered, “The person I want to kill is inside Jizhou. His name is Li Chi — and everyone connected to him.”

At those words, Gong Shu Yingying’s eyes lit up, bright and sharp.

“Oh my…” Gong Shu Yingying said with a laugh. “What a coincidence. I also have someone I want to kill. And what an even greater coincidence — my target happens to be someone close to Li Chi.”

At that, the woman smiled too. She clasped her fist toward Gong Shu Yingying: “My name is Chu Dong.”

Gong Shu Yingying said, “Names don’t matter.”

Chu Dong asked, “Have you come from Jizhou? What is the situation there? I had an employer who was with the Yanshan Camp. When I came back from beyond the frontier and went to the Yanshan Camp to find him, he had already marched south to attack Jizhou.”

Gong Shu Yingying let out a quiet sigh. “Then your employer is gone.”

Chu Dong frowned. “What do you mean?”

Gong Shu Yingying said, “I stayed outside Jizhou for more than half a month. Every day I went to watch what those men were doing when they got together to slaughter each other — so I know very clearly. Not only is your employer gone, the entire Yanshan Camp army that marched on Jizhou is gone with him. Tens of thousands of men, vanished like smoke. Men, ah — their games always have to be played so large, and so when they lose, they lose terribly. In women’s games, the one who loses might be a single man. In men’s games, the one who loses can be hundreds of thousands of lives.”

Chu Dong was silent for a long time.

Her employer was dead. Now she could only rely on herself, and things were going to get far more complicated.

The one consolation was that she had long since stopped caring about the employer anyway. This vendetta had nothing to do with him anymore.

Chu Dong said, “Then take us to Jizhou.”

Gong Shu Yingying looked them all up and down with a smile. “The way you all look right now, you won’t make it to the city gates before the garrison shoots you full of arrows.”

Chu Dong fell silent again.

“Though it’s not without hope,” Gong Shu Yingying said. “As long as you have a way to draw Li Chi and his people out of Jizhou, killing him might not be all that difficult.”

She paused and corrected herself: “Actually, it will still be very difficult.”

Chu Dong was quiet for a moment, then turned her head to look at the powerfully built man beside her — clearly wary of him.

“Let’s make camp here first,” Chu Dong said. “Get a read on the situation in Jizhou before we move on.”

The man’s brow furrowed slightly. The sharpness in his eyes wasn’t deliberate — he had only glanced at Chu Dong casually, but she was already afraid.

He looked at her and said, “You told us: if we came, we could join the Yanshan Camp. That employer would give us a great deal of money, and most importantly, he would make me a general. The Yanshan Camp is now gone, its army of tens of thousands wiped out. What reason do we have to remain here?”

At those words, fear bled into Chu Dong’s eyes, too strong to suppress.

She needed these people. Without this force, she had even less chance of killing Li Chi and the others.

More to the point, she might die for it — she knew all too well how savage this man was.

After the Northern Madmen were killed, their band had scattered, but many had regrouped and returned to that earthen fortress, carrying on their trade as before. Beyond the frontier, across all that vast open land, there were of course other bandit groups besides the Northern Madmen, but none had matched their numbers.

And behind all these raiding bands, large and small, stood the shadow of a single person.

His name was Xiu Miluo.

He was neither a Central Plains man nor a steppe man — he was a Black Wu man, and one of particular standing. Among the Eight Tribes of Guiyue, the most exalted clan was the Kuokedi, and he was of that clan: his full name was Kuokedi Xiu Miluo.

His father held a nominally respectable position within the Kuokedi clan, heir to a hereditary title, but by nature was a coward.

Their clan’s territory had been encroached upon again and again, and his father could only seethe in silence.

After yet another seizure of their land, his father had taken to his sickbed in fury. Xiu Miluo had picked up his blade.

The Black Wu state had been founded for several hundred years. Titles of nobility had proliferated beyond counting — whether granted at the founding or bestowed in subsequent generations, there were five or six hundred of various rank. These nobles held lands but little actual power. A man of Xiu Miluo’s background wielded far less influence than some bureaucratic families.

On top of that, the territory kept shrinking. The longer the inheritance ran, the smaller the parcel became, as each generation’s share was carved out of what their parents held.

Xiu Miluo took up his blade and went alone. He walked into the household of the noble family that had been preying upon his — and killed one hundred and seventy-odd people.

The matter alarmed the Khan-Emperor of Black Wu. The Khan-Emperor, Kuokedi Dashi, ordered the man brought to the capital, personally overseeing the case.

The final judgment: Xiu Miluo would be beheaded — but the land that had been seized from his clan was, by the Khan-Emperor’s order, to be returned.

Xiu Miluo was far too capable a fighter for Kuokedi Dashi to truly waste.

From that point on, Xiu Miluo received a mission from the Khan-Emperor. He left Black Wu alone, and beyond the northern frontier, above Dachu, he began cultivating the outlaw bands there — raiding and destabilizing the Chu state.

Over the years, the most formidable force he had built up was the Northern Madmen. And the Northern Madmen had been destroyed.

Xiu Miluo personally stepped in, reassembling the remnants of the Northern Madmen’s followers. And it was at this moment that Chu Dong arrived.

After hearing Chu Dong’s account of the situation in full, Xiu Miluo’s sharp instincts recognized an opportunity — a chance to throw the Central Plains into chaos.

The Khan-Emperor’s mandate had been to stir up disorder in Dachu, but even the Northern Madmen at the height of their arrogance had never dared enter the heartland of the Central Plains.

Now, an opportunity had presented itself. If Xiu Miluo could use this to enter the Yanshan Camp, he would have a far grander stage and a far grander goal.

If not for the temptation of the Yanshan Camp, a man of Xiu Miluo’s standing would never have needed to come to the Central Plains himself.

Now the Yanshan Camp army had been destroyed, tens of thousands of troops annihilated. His goal no longer existed. As far as Xiu Miluo was concerned, returning beyond the frontier was the better option.

Chu Dong spoke up at once: “Even though the Yanshan Camp’s army has been defeated, there are still tens of thousands of trained fighters at the mountain stronghold. Li Chi is an enemy of the Yanshan Camp — this defeat may well have had something to do with him. If we kill Li Chi and bring his head to the Yanshan Camp, we would earn the trust of those men.”

Xiu Miluo’s eyes flickered. He needed to weigh how much substance was behind Chu Dong’s words — whether it was worth staying.

“Are you certain Li Chi is an enemy of the Yanshan Camp?”

Xiu Miluo asked.

Chu Dong nodded. “Certain. The person who originally hired us to kill him was the Eighth Chief of the Yanshan Camp.”

Xiu Miluo asked again: “When does your master arrive?”

Chu Dong paused, gathered her words, then explained: “My junior martial sister went beyond the frontier to bring my master into the passes. I don’t yet know the situation, but I expect he’ll arrive soon.”

Xiu Miluo considered for another moment. At this point, the whole affair held little appeal.

The only thing that still tempted him was the force currently at the Yanshan Camp stronghold — rumored to number in the tens of thousands.

“If…” Xiu Miluo looked at Chu Dong and said, “we kill Li Chi, but cannot enter the Yanshan Camp, I will break you — then hand you over to them to deal with.”

He jerked his thumb toward the bandits behind him.

Chu Dong’s expression shifted visibly. She knew exactly what it would mean to fall into the hands of those men.

In this world, there were many fates far worse than death.

Xiu Miluo then turned his gaze to Gong Shu Yingying. After a moment’s silence, he said, “If your intelligence proves wrong, I will break you too, and hand you over to them.”

Gong Shu Yingying paid him no mind whatsoever.

In her estimation, this man was nothing more than a backwater brigand from the wilds beyond the frontier. A man like that was a mere insect — a particularly uncouth and degraded variety at that, not worth as much as an ordinary Central Plains commoner.

So she gave a disdainful snort, raised the crossbow, and aimed it directly at Xiu Miluo. “I’d advise you not to be so bold. This is not the frontier lands. I can kill you whenever I choose.”

Xiu Miluo replied calmly, “You cannot.”

Gong Shu Yingying sneered. “Would you like to test that?”

Xiu Miluo answered with the same quiet evenness: “By all means.”

Those two words gave Gong Shu Yingying pause. She could see that the man was genuinely confident — even with her crossbow trained on him, he was still certain he could kill her.

But a woman like Gong Shu Yingying was not the kind to let fear govern her convictions.

So she nodded: “Then let’s find out.”

She squeezed the trigger, and a bolt shot forward.

The distance between them was only a few zhang — precisely the range at which a repeating crossbow dealt its greatest damage.

One click of the trigger, and the bolt screamed toward him. She hadn’t aimed for a vital point — just his shoulder.

At that distance, a crossbow bolt could close the gap in an instant.

But the moment the bolt left the bow, Gong Shu Yingying’s eyes went wide. The target she had been aiming at was gone.

In a blink, she found the tall, powerfully built man had moved — he was now standing at his horse’s head, and the bolt had struck empty air.

By instinct, Gong Shu Yingying fired a second bolt, still aimed at his shoulder.

But before this one arrived, the man stepped diagonally — one stride carried him more than a zhang — so that instead of standing directly opposite her, he was now slightly to her left.

Gong Shu Yingying’s expression changed sharply. She fired a third bolt, a fourth, a fifth — she could feel the danger now, real danger, a matter of life and death. So she stopped trying to aim for the shoulder. She just kept shooting.

She was a killer. When she sensed mortal danger, she went for the kill — whoever the target was.

But once again, she missed.

Xiu Miluo stepped forward once more — from slightly to her left, one stride brought him to the right side of her warhorse.

One stride: more than a zhang.

Her bolts struck the earth, one after another, raising small puffs of dust.

Xiu Miluo stood beside her mount, calm-faced, watching her. Then he raised his fist and drove it into the horse’s neck.

The horse screamed and toppled sideways. It hit the ground and did not rise again — a single punch, and the warhorse was down.

Gong Shu Yingying leapt clear, ready to press her attack — but as she looked at Xiu Miluo standing there, making no further move, she thought better of it.

She landed lightly, and the grace of that movement earned a trace of satisfaction from Xiu Miluo. If this woman were worthless, there was no reason to keep her.

He said to Gong Shu Yingying, “You should remember this. The next time you defy me, I will show you that my words are never threats — they are simply the announcement of a result.”

He paused, then turned and walked back. As he walked, he said, “They will enjoy what your body has to offer. You’d do well to take care of yourself.”

The bandits broke into laughter — a sound like a pack of wild animals.

Xiu Miluo spoke one word to them: “Go play.”

With whooping cries, the bandits charged toward those already wretched townspeople. The screech of metal scraping metal rang out, one after another — the sound of sabers clearing their sheaths.

—