When Fang Xidao’s expression grew complicated as he looked at Lü Wuman, Lü Wuman knew he was close to persuading this Qianban.
Just like the other times he had succeeded, this was merely another success — one that somehow didn’t feel worth celebrating.
And yet it was different, because this time, the person before him was someone close to Prince Ning, the Qianban of the Tingwei Army.
For the great undertaking he intended to carry out, winning over a man like Fang Xidao would be an enormous advantage.
“Qianban, think carefully about whether what I’ve said is reasonable.”
Lü Wuman said: “This is not a matter of who gains and who loses — it is a matter where both sides benefit.”
Fang Xidao nodded: “You make a fair point.”
Lü Wuman’s eyes lit up with pleasure.
Fang Xidao asked: “But how can I be certain you harbor no ill intent toward Prince Ning?”
Lü Wuman said: “Qianban, I will not interfere with your daily affairs, nor will I seek meetings with you often. Unless absolutely necessary, we need not even be in contact for long stretches of time.”
“Without your permission, I will not approach Prince Ning — I can even stay away from Jizhou entirely.”
Fang Xidao nodded again: “What exactly can you do for Prince Ning?”
Lü Wuman said: “If Prince Ning has need of gold and silver, simply send someone to contact me — I will inform you later of how to do so.”
“I will deliver gold and silver to Prince Ning through means that appear entirely above suspicion. There will be no slip-ups. These things, we handle with ease.”
“I will also identify and recommend suitable candidates to Prince Ning, but I will first submit them to you for review. If you find them acceptable, you may introduce them to Prince Ning.”
Lü Wuman smiled: “And if you need me to gather intelligence on your enemies, I will spare no effort.”
This time, Fang Xidao fell silent for a long while. After a considerable pause, he asked: “Then what do you want in return?”
Lü Wuman said: “Before Prince Ning unifies the Central Plains, I ask for nothing — I will devote all my strength to serving him.”
Fang Xidao asked again: “And once Prince Ning has unified the Central Plains?”
Lü Wuman said: “By that time, my position within Shanhe Seal should already be quite elevated… so I imagine I will want for nothing, either. I trust Qianban understands my meaning.”
Fang Xidao slowly exhaled and said: “Understood.”
Lü Wuman asked: “Then what is Qianban’s answer?”
Fang Xidao said: “When I return, I can refrain from mentioning this to Prince Ning for the time being. When the moment is right, I will introduce you to him — on the condition that I must first confirm you bear no ill intent toward him.”
“Many thanks, Qianban!”
Lü Wuman bowed deeply: “From this day forward, my life is bound to Prince Ning, to Qianban, to the Ning Army, and to the countless people who stand behind Prince Ning.”
Fang Xidao took a deep breath at this, then turned to leave: “When I return I still have much to consider. I won’t be leaving Guan County for the time being — you certainly know where I’m staying, so come find me whenever you need.”
He strode away, and Lü Wuman followed behind to see him off.
The two of them left the underground vault and returned to the surface. In that small courtyard, Lü Wuman bowed: “I await your good news, Qianban.”
Fang Xidao acknowledged this with a sound, then turned and walked away.
In the moment he turned, his wide sleeve swept briefly through the air. Lü Wuman looked up at him, and the smile that had been spread across his face abruptly stiffened.
“Almost…”
He said those three words softly.
Suddenly he lunged forward and slapped his palm toward Fang Xidao’s back.
Fang Xidao seemed to have been on guard — hearing the sound behind him, he immediately surged forward while spinning around, and from his left sleeve, a chain whipped out.
The chain shook in midair and coiled around Lü Wuman’s wrist.
At that instant, triumph flashed across Fang Xidao’s face. He channeled power into his palm and yanked the chain back; simultaneously, from his right sleeve, an iron spike thrust out.
“Break.”
With a crack, the finely crafted chain snapped apart in an instant.
Lü Wuman flicked his wrist, and the coils of chain around it were tossed aside without a thought. The broken links clattered to the ground with a crisp, ringing sound.
“Quite the performance, Qianban.”
Lü Wuman narrowed his eyes slightly and said: “You almost fooled me.”
Fang Xidao’s expression held a trace of puzzlement — and a trace of disappointment.
Lü Wuman pointed at Fang Xidao’s hand: “At a certain moment, you must have already been swayed by what I said. So you forcibly gouged your own palm to use the pain to restore your clarity.”
He sighed: “So it was almost — almost I persuaded you, and almost you fooled me.”
Fang Xidao looked down at his own hand. Along the edge of his palm was a smear of blood.
Deep within him, he too gave a quiet sigh. It really had been almost.
Lü Wuman said: “Was all this truly necessary? Was what I said wrong?”
Fang Xidao replied: “In that moment, I genuinely was swayed by you. It was truly a temptation that was difficult to resist — I must say, your methods are formidable.”
“You chose your location well. In a vault full of gold and silver, that place makes the desires in any person’s heart take root and flourish.”
“Using the mass of gold and silver to first soften my defenses, then following it with words that seemed eminently reasonable.”
Fang Xidao looked into Lü Wuman’s eyes and said: “But at the end of the day, what your kind seeks is to seize control of the Central Plains!”
“What ‘serving Prince Ning,’ what ‘no selfish motives?’ Let us speak plainly, shall we.”
Fang Xidao said gravely: “Your kind takes hold of a dynasty, hollows it out with painstaking effort, drains it of its wealth — and once you’ve stripped the nation of nearly everything, you’ve ruined it entirely, so you move on to the next, and bleed that one dry in turn.”
“When the Great Zhou had been eaten hollow by your kind, you simply let its collapse run its course and hastened its end, gorging yourselves on the profits of war.”
“When Great Dachu was newly founded, you began seizing commerce and court affairs — feeding without end on Dachu’s body, drinking deep of the blood of a prosperous age.”
“You told me just now — men who are unfit should not be emperor?”
“You were not wrong. Only in your eyes, every qualified imperial son is precisely the kind you deem ‘unfit.'”
Fang Xidao pointed his iron spike at Lü Wuman: “Among Dachu’s imperial sons, is there truly not a single person of quality?”
“It is your kind — manipulating from the shadows — ensuring that only the incompetent and foolish ascend to the throne, so that your kind may drain the nation and bleed the people however it pleases.”
“And when a nation like Dachu has been sucked dry, when you find there is nothing left to profit from, you go and find new opportunity.”
Fang Xidao said: “If I am not mistaken, you never truly intended to support someone like Yang Xuanji.”
“You judged that the great clans behind Yang Xuanji already possess the strength to contend with you.”
“Just as the merchants on the Jinzhou side — when they stand beside the prefectural governor, you lose your grip on him.”
Fang Xidao said coldly: “You speak of ‘safeguarding the Central Plains?’ Without your Shanhe Seal, the Great Zhou might have endured a few more years, and Dachu would not have fallen into such corruption.”
“Even if my lord does unify the Central Plains one day, his descendants too will be poisoned and harmed by your kind, and his realm too will be bled dry.”
Lü Wuman shook his head and let out a long sigh.
“You are too clever.”
He stepped forward: “Clever enough to have cost yourself your life.”
Fang Xidao gave a cold snort: “And you think it will be as easy as you say?”
He whipped the remaining half of his chain, sending it snapping toward Lü Wuman’s throat.
Lü Wuman raised his left hand and seized the chain. His palm surged with power, and the chain snapped taut in the air.
With a crack, the chain broke again.
In that same breath, Fang Xidao’s iron spike had already thrust to Lü Wuman’s throat.
Lü Wuman raised his right hand and closed two fingers together.
With a faint crack, the iron spike was pinched between his fingers as if embedded in stone — unable to advance another inch.
Lü Wuman swept it aside, then drove his left palm into Fang Xidao’s chest.
Fang Xidao channeled power into his legs and retreated sharply backward, covering several steps in a single breath.
He had barely steadied himself when two dark shapes came hurtling at him with the speed of lightning.
Fang Xidao swept one away with his iron spike and blocked the other across his chest.
Two sharp clangs rang out as sparks flew from the iron spike.
What had come flying at him were iron rings — the shattered remnants of the chain that had fallen to the ground, now kicked up by Lü Wuman.
In that same instant, Lü Wuman had already closed the distance, and his hand shot toward Fang Xidao’s throat.
At the same time, he raised his left hand — pinched between his fingertips was a small signal whistle. He flicked it—
A piercing shriek shot up into the sky and carried far into the distance.
Fang Xidao twisted aside, and drove a kick into Lü Wuman’s abdomen. Lü Wuman made no attempt to dodge or deflect.
The kick landed squarely.
Yet at the instant Fang Xidao’s foot connected, Lü Wuman’s abdomen suddenly hollowed inward, then violently rebounded outward.
Fang Xidao could not keep his footing and was thrown backward.
He had barely steadied himself when another iron ring came flying at him.
This time it had not been kicked — Lü Wuman was gripping one in his hand.
The iron ring punched clean through Fang Xidao’s right shoulder. It was no bladed weapon, which made the terrifying force behind the throw all the more apparent.
With a dull thud, a spray of blood mist burst from the back of Fang Xidao’s shoulder. The ring carried on without losing momentum and struck the courtyard wall nearby.
A chunk of brick was smashed loose, and debris scattered through the air.
Lü Wuman glanced at the wounded Fang Xidao and said with some regret: “Qianban — why does it have to come to this?”
Fang Xidao looked back at the courtyard wall — it was not far now. He drew a long, deep breath, then turned and moved toward it.
But in that very instant, two dark shapes came flying over the top of the wall from outside.
Fang Xidao’s expression shifted; he immediately dodged to the side.
Yet the two shapes plummeted straight down and hit the ground without moving.
Only then did Fang Xidao see clearly — they were two people, bound hand and foot. One was Wang Xian. The other was Zhao Ke.
The gate of the small courtyard was pushed open, and a middle-aged man in a long robe stepped in with unhurried strides.
This man’s face was covered. In one hand he carried a person who had been rendered unconscious — effortlessly, as though carrying nothing at all.
Fang Xidao recognized the person being carried, and his eyes snapped wide open.
“Do you recognize him, Qianban?”
The masked man lifted the person in his grip a little higher: “This would appear to be Qianban’s companion?”
“Release him!”
Fang Xidao let out a hoarse shout.
The masked man raised the person still higher, eyes smiling: “What’s this fellow’s name again? Gang Gang, wasn’t it? Truly… a most… crude and crude name.”
He opened his hand, and the elevated Gang Gang dropped hard to the ground.
The masked man smiled: “As you wish — I’ve released him.”
Fang Xidao let out a roar of fury, and his iron spike drove toward the man.
That man lifted his foot and placed it on Gang Gang’s head: “You move — he dies.”
Fang Xidao’s steps halted abruptly. He glared at the man with eyes already shot through with blood.
With a dull thud—
Gang Gang’s skull was crushed flat under that man’s foot.
The cranium caved in and split open, and blood and brain matter sprayed outward in all directions.
“No—!”
Fang Xidao let out a cry of anguish.
The masked man smiled and said: “You hold still — and he dies all the same.”
He stepped back a pace, glanced down at his shoe, and seemed mildly vexed: “I specifically changed into a new pair when I came here.”
He raised his head and looked at Fang Xidao: “You’re wondering — how did someone as guarded as Gang Gang get captured so easily by me?”
The man raised a hand and pulled the cloth covering from his face.
In that instant, Fang Xidao’s expression went rigid. The color drained from his face as though every last drop of blood had been drawn out at once.
Lü Wuman’s brow furrowed: “You shouldn’t have!”
The man smiled at Lü Wuman: “I shouldn’t have — but I truly wanted to see the look of astonishment on Qianban’s face.”
He turned to face Fang Xidao: “Qianban, I am now the Three-Province Inspector — rank four senior grade. I believe… you are supposed to pay your respects to me.”
—