On the heights of Incense Table Mountain, Li Chi sat gazing at the distant hills in silence. He had been at it for some time.

Dantai Yajing walked up behind him, thinking: when Li Chi fell into this kind of contemplation, he usually found a way through.

They had all grown used to it. No matter what problem arose, if Li Chi took it seriously, it stopped being a problem.

From the very beginning, following Li Chi had taught Dantai Yajing one thing: Li Chi’s mind was full of pitfalls. Whenever he was thinking quietly, he was figuring out which pitfall to deploy, and who to deploy it against.

Sometimes it wasn’t just one pitfall—it was a chain of them, each leading into the next.

And so Dantai Yajing didn’t press him. He waited for Li Chi to surface.

After a long while, Li Chi let out a long exhale.

Dantai Yajing immediately asked, “Have you found a way?”

Li Chi said, “Which kind do you mean?”

Dantai Yajing said, “Weren’t you thinking through how to defeat the enemy?”

Li Chi said, “No—I’ve been thinking about how to explain this to Old Tang when we go back empty-handed, so he won’t laugh at us.”

Dantai Yajing exhaled in turn, long and slow.

He was a proud and self-assured man, but he could see plainly enough: there was no realistic chance of winning this battle.

The enemy had constructed a supreme fortress. According to He Shanxue, this stronghold built into the mountain was essentially impossible to breach by assault.

This man called Chang Xing had spent two years gathering every scrap of manpower, material, and wealth for hundreds of li in every direction—perhaps for a thousand li—and funneled all of it into building this fortress.

A place like this could weather not just an age of chaos, but perhaps the end of the world. Even if floodwaters swallowed the earth, they might never reach his mountain city.

He Shanxue had said that while Dongye Mountain wasn’t particularly steep, the paths up were few. And now, running around the mountain at mid-elevation, that four-zhang wall of hewn stone enclosed the city entirely. Every path up had been sealed.

Chang Xing had sent men to quarry the mountain stone for the walls. The solidity of what had been built from that material was not hard to imagine.

Li Chi asked Dantai Yajing, “What are you thinking about?”

Dantai Yajing said, “Helping you figure out how to avoid Old Tang laughing at us.”

The two looked at each other and smiled with the same rueful expression.

It wasn’t as though Li Chi had never won battles against overwhelming odds. But that kind of battle required seizing the terrain. Whether it was mountain terrain or river terrain, there had to be something to work with.

This time, the terrain belonged entirely to the other side.

“I understand your ‘hold position, let them come to you’ approach better now,” Dantai Yajing said, settling down beside Li Chi and gazing at the distant hills. “Develop Jizhou steadily, wait for others to attack—and no one who comes will break through.”

“But when we take the initiative like this, it shows just how limited our hand is.”

He looked sideways at Li Chi. “Is Old Tang trying to get rid of you?”

Li Chi let out a noise somewhere between a laugh and a sigh.

Dantai Yajing wasn’t wrong. Li Chi understood all too well what the best approach to growth in this turbulent era looked like.

It was the principle that Li Chi’s mentor lived by—the art of keeping a low profile and enduring.

In Li Chi’s master’s view, in times of upheaval like these, whoever could endure longest had already secured their place in the final reckoning.

Of course Old Tang understood what that meant—he had long understood Li Chi’s approach.

But this time, Old Tang had insisted on sending Li Chi himself to lead the assault, and with only twelve thousand troops.

Did Old Tang not know how hard this battle would be to win?

Even Tang Pidi at his most arrogant was never simply reckless.

At that thought, Li Chi’s eyes suddenly lit up.

The moment Dantai Yajing saw that brightness, he knew the pitfall strategist had finally found his mark.

“What have you thought of?” Dantai Yajing asked, unable to suppress the urgency in his voice.

Li Chi said, “I’ve thought of… you’re right. Old Tang really is trying to get rid of me.”

Dantai Yajing: “…”

The thread of anticipation he’d just pulled taut made a small, deflating sound and went slack.

An interesting soul, when losing wind, loses it in small, neat puffs.

A dull soul, when losing wind, even if it sounds the same, still sounds flat and common.

Li Chi stood and stretched his arms wide.

“We’ve already spent a day here. We set out again first thing tomorrow morning.”

“I still haven’t figured out why Old Tang trusts me this much,” Li Chi said, “but since that man trusts me… let’s do it his way.”

Dantai Yajing sighed. “I thought you’d found the pitfall. Turns out you’ve just made peace with walking into it yourself.”

—

The following morning, Li Chi led his forces down from Incense Table Mountain.

On the descent, He Dengke and He Shanxue followed the whole way down with their several hundred men.

Li Chi looked back at them. Both brothers smiled, slightly abashed.

“We want to follow you,” He Shanxue said. “Your Highness—hiding here on Incense Table Mountain isn’t a solution. No matter how long we hide, what does it accomplish?”

He Dengke said, “Shanxue and I built this force to protect the people and keep order. But this force no longer serves any meaningful purpose.”

“Chang Xing’s power is too great. Our few hundred men couldn’t stop his soldiers.”

Li Chi said, “If you truly want to follow me, then wait here until I return.”

He Shanxue understood what Li Chi meant, but shook his head. “That won’t do—Your Highness goes off to fight while we crouch in the rear, then join up after you’re done? What kind of thing would that be?”

He Dengke clasped his fists. “Your Highness, the two of us at minimum know Jieshi Prefecture fairly well. Even as guides, you have need of us.”

Li Chi considered for a moment, then nodded. “Very well.”

Both brothers were pleased.

He Shanxue said, “Your Highness—I’d like to recommend two more people to you.”

Li Chi asked, “Who? Where are they?”

He Shanxue said, “On Chang Xing’s side. In Dongye City.”

Li Chi: “????”

He Dengke heard this and immediately realized who his brother had in mind—he couldn’t help but laugh.

“That couple?”

He Shanxue nodded. “Them.”

Li Chi, seeing the brothers’ expressions, grew even more curious.

He Shanxue smiled. “They’re actually a married couple. The husband is called Wu Naiyu—he was once quite famous throughout Jizhou.”

Li Chi suddenly recalled.

This person had indeed been well known in Jizhou—though that was over a decade ago.

The Four-Page Academy was never short of remarkable figures, and many who left after completing their studies quickly made names for themselves across the land. But those who became famous while still at the Academy were rare—over the past ten-plus years, only a handful.

In the past decade, the Academy’s most prominent figures had been Xiahou Zuo, followed by Tang Pidi and Li Chi.

Before that, in the decade prior, the academy’s most talked-about figure had been Wu Naiyu.

The things this man had done—even Xiahou Zuo couldn’t match them.

During his time at the Academy, he never attended a single class. Whatever instructor was teaching, he simply didn’t go.

At first, one of the instructors grew furious and called him in for a stern reprimand.

Wu Naiyu yawned and said: you’re not as good as I am—why should I sit and listen to you?

This outraged the instructor to the point of near-explosion. In a fit of anger, he challenged Wu Naiyu to a contest. The result—in both scholarship and martial arts—was a complete and humiliating defeat for the instructor.

Wu Naiyu attended no classes, yet showed up every month for the examinations. While others hadn’t finished a third of the paper, he’d already handed his in and strolled away.

And yet every month, he placed first.

First place every month for twenty years—the Academy had produced only three such people.

One was Wu Naiyu. One was Tang Pidi in his own Academy days. One was Li Chi.

Tang Pidi, at the time, was not outwardly flamboyant—or rather, his manner of flamboyance was different from Wu Naiyu’s.

Tang Pidi attended class when class was held, sat exams when exams came, but seemed to exist in a world entirely separate from everyone else—a world no one else could enter.

Later, Wu Naiyu met a young girl while strolling through Jizhou City. She was sixteen or seventeen at the time, said to be remarkably beautiful, from a family that ran a small food stall—and she often helped out there.

Wu Naiyu fell for her at first sight, and so for nine months, he went to that stall for meals.

By the end of that ninth month, he had completed his studies. Gao Yuanzhang personally wrote him a letter of recommendation.

The headmaster also wrote him several letters of introduction to old friends and acquaintances in the capital, to carry with him and open doors for his future. The regard Gao Yuanzhang held for this man was plain.

In Gao Yuanzhang’s eyes, Wu Naiyu had the talent to bring order to an age.

Before leaving Jizhou, Wu Naiyu went to the girl to declare his feelings.

The girl gave a quiet smile and said: if you can give me a gift, I’ll say yes.

Wu Naiyu asked: what gift do you want?

The girl said: a love poem.

Wu Naiyu had no paper or brush with him at the time. He bit open his finger and, on the back of Gao Yuanzhang’s letter of recommendation, wrote a love poem in his own blood.

He Dengke said, “That man too is quite remarkable.”

He Shanxue said, “He told people that he knew he had talent, but no one in all the world was worthy of that talent.”

“He also said that the court of Dachu was like a dying tiger reeking of rot—foul beyond endurance. If he went there, he would either be killed by the stench, made sick by it, or bitten by the wretched beast. So he chose instead to enjoy the pleasures of life.”

He Shanxue continued, “And so he took the girl home to Jieshi Prefecture, and the two of them opened a small shop together.”

“After Chang Xing’s rebel forces took control of Jieshi Prefecture, they sent people to summon him several times. Wu Naiyu never responded.”

He Dengke said, “He was too well known in Jieshi Prefecture. Even Chang Xing didn’t dare have him killed, so he had both of them kept inside Dongye City.”

He Shanxue said, “Chang Xing once said: if you won’t serve me, I won’t let you go serve someone else. So you can grow old and die right here in Dongye City.”

Li Chi had a passing acquaintance with the legend of Wu Naiyu—Gao Yuanzhang had mentioned him several times.

Every time the subject came up, Gao Yuanzhang wore an expression of regret. He said Wu Naiyu chose a woman over his future, and had no grand ambitions, no thought for the world at large.

Having now heard the He brothers’ full account, Li Chi did not see a man without grand ambitions—only a man who refused to share in corruption.

He Dengke said, “I sought him out once. We spoke for three days. He and his wife received me warmly throughout. When he saw that I genuinely wanted to protect the people, he spent those three days teaching me military strategy and martial arts. Everything I needed to train these eight hundred militia—it all came from those three days.”

He Dengke exhaled a long breath. “That couple—they are both extraordinary. Wu Naiyu’s wife is not only beautiful—she has great talent as well.”

He Shanxue nodded. “People in Jieshi Prefecture have two lines to describe her appearance: ‘The moon goddess in the cold palace cradles the jade hare—but cannot compare to Su Xiaoshu in the mortal world.'”

He looked at Li Chi. “Su Xiaoshu is Wu Naiyu’s wife.”

Li Chi’s mind was already turning at speed.

Had Tang Pidi sent him to Jieshi Prefecture to assault Dongye City?

Or had that man already known, long before any of this, that Wu Naiyu and Su Xiaoshu were both here in Jieshi Prefecture?

—