He was like a dead tree. Like a clay idol — cracked through. Like that last sliver of dying sun, about to fall into endless dark.

He was Zhuang Wudi.

He looked as though someone had plastered him head to toe in mud. His hair was a wild tangle, every trace of his former bearing gone; his eyes were empty, yet wet.

When he had been the seventh leader of the Yanshan Camp, he’d asked after nothing and drunk his days away, like a man already spent — and waited only for Elder Brother Yu Chaozong’s word.

When he had been the Second-in-Command, he had left the stronghold behind, quit drinking, and been bright as a child in sunshine.

He was watching the sunset and weeping. The sunset watched him back, wondering why he wept.

Behind him in the shadows, two figures looked at each other and gave a silent nod. They crept closer.

Zhuang Wudi still watched the red-streaked western sky. He seemed like a man who had already lost his soul — only the shell left behind.

The two figures reached him. The nearer one suddenly accelerated, clamped a hand over Zhuang Wudi’s mouth from behind and yanked him backward. The other scooped up his legs. Together, they lifted him and carried him swiftly into the dark.

—

Presently, in the woods.

They set Zhuang Wudi down and pulled the dark cloth from their own faces.

“Zhuang Elder Brother — are you all right?”

One of them asked with urgent concern.

Zhuang Wudi looked at them blankly. His eyes were still hollow.

The trees had closed around them, the darkness deep. The man assumed Zhuang Wudi simply couldn’t see him clearly, so he leaned in and kept his voice low. “Zhuang Elder Brother — it’s me. Don’t you remember? I’m Gang Gang.”

The other man steadied Zhuang Wudi by the shoulder. “I’m Chen Dawei.”

Zhuang Wudi’s expression remained wooden. No sign of recognition. He seemed not to know either of them.

Gang Gang was urgent. “Zhuang Elder Brother, we need to get you off the mountain tonight. Things have come to a head — there was no other way.”

Chen Dawei offered a quick explanation: “We’re Li Chi’s people. We met in Jizhou, back then — do you remember? We followed Elder Yu Chaozong here to the Yanshan Camp. Can you think back?”

“After we arrived,” Gang Gang continued, “Elder Yu said that with our abilities we’d do best under Huang Jinjia’s command, since Huang Jinjia handles all matters of intelligence-gathering.”

“Our lightness arts are decent, and we’re reasonably resourceful, so we were put to work as scouts.”

Zhuang Wudi remained wooden, utterly unresponsive.

Chen Dawei and Gang Gang had arrived at the Yanshan Camp not long before being assigned by Yu Chaozong to serve under Huang Jinjia. Huang Jinjia controlled all the hidden posts and informants outside the camp’s boundaries — and their talents fit the work well. So Huang Jinjia had them doing rounds of the various county informant networks, which had kept them away from the stronghold for three full months. They had returned just that day.

The first thing they heard on return was the news of Yu Chaozong’s catastrophic defeat. They asked around hastily, learning that Zhuang Wudi had come back too — and learning the condition he was in.

They had been about to go to him immediately when something strange intervened and forced a delay.

Huang Jinjia had summoned all the leaders in his faction for a meeting. By military rank, Chen Dawei and Gang Gang were captains — and they should have been summoned. But Huang Jinjia hadn’t called them — and had, evidently, taken steps to ensure they were watched.

Both were quick-minded men. They guessed that something significant was about to happen, and decided to go and see for themselves.

Chen Dawei’s background was in the Thousand Gates school — his lightness arts were decent, though not as refined as Gang Gang’s. Gang Gang had never stolen a thing in his life, but the techniques of the Sparrow Gate were drilled into him with extraordinary precision.

He slipped into Huang Jinjia’s compound and listened. What he heard chilled him to the bone — froze every pore.

Shock. Then fury.

He got out and found Chen Dawei. There was no time to hesitate. They came for Zhuang Wudi at once, afraid that delay might already be too late.

“Zhuang Elder Brother.” Gang Gang’s voice was pressing. “Huang Jinjia called all his captains and above together to plan something — he’s moving to seize the First Leader’s seat of the Yanshan Camp.”

“And to solidify his claim,” Chen Dawei said, “he plans to kill you.”

“He intends to frame Xilizi for it,” Gang Gang said. “He’ll claim Xilizi’s men killed you. Then he’ll kill Xilizi — in the name of avenging you — and clear away a rival in the process. Once you and Xilizi are both dead, he believes he can sit comfortably as First Leader.”

Something finally stirred in Zhuang Wudi’s blank gaze — perhaps hearing the words *First Leader* had prodded some small flame back to life.

“Zhuang Elder Brother, you’re like this now… what are we supposed to do?”

Gang Gang let out a sigh. “Looks like there’s nothing else for it — we sneak you off the mountain tonight, then get back to Jizhou as fast as we can to bring word to Li Chi. This Yanshan Camp — no reason to stay.”

Chen Dawei nodded. “But — all the roads down the mountain are sealed. The watch is tight. We need a plan.”

Gang Gang thought for a moment. “Here’s what we do — I’ll draw off the guards blocking the road, and you carry Zhuang Elder Brother down while the way is clear.”

Chen Dawei immediately shook his head. “Absolutely not. What about you?”

“Don’t worry about me. You know my lightness arts — even if I can’t fight through that many of them, I can still get away.”

“Not a chance,” Chen Dawei said. “Right now both Xilizi and Huang Jinjia are itching to move against each other — the mountain is locked down tight, sentries everywhere. You won’t make it out.”

Gang Gang smiled. “Don’t fret. I’ll catch up to you. Just don’t waste the opening I make — when the guards are drawn off, you move fast with Zhuang Elder Brother. Faster the better.”

He stood. “You and I are brothers. I don’t act the scoundrel toward you. You said it yourself before we came: *acts of loyalty and honor are the greatest matter in the world — repaying them ranks first above all else.*”

Chen Dawei opened his mouth. Gang Gang shook his head. “If you were the right one for this, I’d stand aside for you. Right now I’m the right one — so don’t stand in my way.”

Chen Dawei opened his mouth again. In the end only two words came out.

“Stay safe.”

Gang Gang smiled lightly. “I’ll be fine.”

He turned and walked away.

One step — and then he stopped.

He tilted his head slightly. His wrist had been caught.

He looked down at that hand — filthy with grime and mud.

Gang Gang’s expression changed.

Chen Dawei saw it too, and went still with surprise.

The hand that had caught Gang Gang’s wrist was Zhuang Wudi’s.

“No need to go.”

Zhuang Wudi rose to his feet. He breathed out slowly and said: “There’s another way. Why risk your life for nothing?”

Gang Gang, overjoyed: “Zhuang Elder Brother — you’re all right?”

Zhuang Wudi sighed: “Of course I am. If I hadn’t pretended otherwise, they might have killed me that very first day — when they came to see me, they brought quite a few men, archers among them.”

Chen Dawei stared: “You frightened us half to death.”

“Those two and I were never close to begin with,” Zhuang Wudi explained. “If I hadn’t played the fool, their desire to kill me would have only grown heavier — because I’m the Second-in-Command, and they feared I meant to take the First Leader’s seat. So I had the most to fear from them. And yet I couldn’t bring myself to leave. I wanted to stay for Li Chi — to stay here and see clearly what happens in this stronghold, and be his foothold if he needs one.”

He looked at the two young men before him, a flicker of warmth in his eyes, and went on: “Only, I hadn’t expected those two to be this vicious — that even feigning weakness wouldn’t spare me. In that case, we leave together.”

Gang Gang raised a hand and rubbed at his eyes. He smiled. “As long as you’re all right. You nearly killed me with worry.”

Chen Dawei asked: “Zhuang Elder Brother — just tell us what to do, and we’ll do it.”

Zhuang Wudi said: “This Yanshan Camp was built by Elder Brother with his own hands — half a lifetime of sweat and blood. Now two small men want to seize it. Elder Brother is gone. By what right does his life’s work fall to them?”

He pointed toward where he had been sitting — the position of Yu Chaozong’s stronghold.

“You two go there and set it on fire. That is Elder Brother’s First Leader stronghold. The Hall of Brotherhood Alliance is there — burn that too, and the First Leader’s seat along with it. Don’t leave any of it for those two men.”

He paused a moment in thought, then continued: “That section is currently unguarded — the patrol only comes around every hour. You have more than enough time. Once the fire goes up over there, I’ll slip into Xilizi’s stronghold and set his stores ablaze. Xilizi will assume it’s Huang Jinjia’s doing.”

Chen Dawei’s eyes lit up. “After we burn that side, we’ll go set the supply depot on fire — and burn the stable as well.”

Zhuang Wudi nodded. “Then Huang Jinjia will think Xilizi struck first. Xilizi will think the same of Huang Jinjia. Odds are they’ll go straight at each other — and in that chaos, we slip off the mountain and back to Jizhou.”

“Back to Jizhou!”

Three hands came together in a tight grip.

They split up. Chen Dawei and Gang Gang went to burn Yu Chaozong’s stronghold — set fire to the Hall of Brotherhood Alliance first, watched the First Leader’s great seat catch and begin to burn, and then turned away.

The flames rose on that side, and the Yanshan Camp erupted in alarm. Men came running toward the fire from every direction.

In the confusion, Zhuang Wudi crept into Xilizi’s encampment. With only a few thousand men, Xilizi’s camp was spread thin, and compared to Huang Jinjia’s side it was the easier target. Zhuang Wudi found the hay stores at the rear, set them alight, and immediately turned and left.

As Xilizi’s side went up, Chen Dawei and Gang Gang were already in the shadows, hidden and waiting. Streams of people came rushing toward Yu Chaozong’s stronghold; other streams came rushing toward Xilizi’s encampment.

Xilizi heard that men were flooding in his direction. He assumed Huang Jinjia had made his move — trying to kill him under cover of the chaos — and gave the order to engage.

Huang Jinjia’s men had come partly to help fight the fires, partly out of curiosity. They barely had time to approach before Xilizi’s people opened up on them with a volley of arrows.

When word reached Huang Jinjia, he erupted in fury and ordered a counterattack against Xilizi.

These fires had not only set houses and hay alight. They had lit Huang Jinjia’s and Xilizi’s rage as well.

The entire Yanshan Camp descended into utter chaos — men fighting fires, men fleeing, men killing, men chasing each other through the dark.

Outside the stronghold walls, the three who had slipped out in the confusion met at the agreed-upon spot. When they came together, all three instinctively turned to look back at the raging fires high above them on the mountain slopes. For a long while, no one spoke.

A long moment passed. Then Zhuang Wudi breathed out, a long and slow exhale.

Whatever Chen Dawei and Gang Gang felt toward the stronghold was nothing compared to what Zhuang Wudi carried. He had set fire to it himself — to the place he had always, faithfully, kept faith with.

To Zhuang Wudi, this was not merely a stronghold. The Yanshan Camp was not merely a name. This place had also been his home.

But Elder Brother Yu was gone. Without the person, there was no home. The stronghold was full of nothing now but malicious, creeping shadows.

“Let’s go.”

After that long exhale, it seemed Zhuang Wudi had expelled something knotted and long-lodged from his chest.

“Nothing worth staying for here.”

And with that, he strode off down the mountain.