Changsun Wuyou rushed to the front courtyard. Qiu Bo’s body lay there, covered with a white cloth.

She ran to it, crouched down, and instinctively reached out to lift the cloth — but her hand stopped midway.

Still trembling.

“Have you… confirmed it?”

Her voice too carried a faint tremor.

Pei Lang stood nearby, red-eyed, and answered: “Confirmed. It’s Qiu Bo.”

As he spoke, he clenched both fists, the veins on the backs of his hands standing out.

“Whoever killed Qiu Bo — pray they don’t fall into my hands.”

When Pei Lang said those words, what he bit down on was not his teeth, but his hatred.

In the end, Changsun Wuyou never dared to lift the white cloth. She was afraid.

Only now did she suddenly realize: she had thought herself strong enough after Yuwen Shangyun’s death.

When the person she cared for most was gone, what more was there to fear?

But now, with another person close to her dead, she found she still could not accept it, still was not prepared.

She could not even bring herself to look at the face of the dead.

Because she knew that if she truly looked, the pain inside her would be more than she could bear.

Everyone watched her with quiet aching, because they knew why her reaction was so complex.

If she had not told Qiu Bo to return to Jingzhou, he would not have been killed.

Whoever killed Qiu Bo had been watching this villa. She had thought this place was safe and hidden — but now she realized that her confidence had been worth nothing in the face of life and death.

“Though Qiu Bo was getting on in years, his martial arts remained formidable.”

Changsun Wuyou rose slowly: “To kill Qiu Bo so quickly and withdraw unscathed…”

She looked at Pei Lang: “It means our enemy also has the capability to enter the villa and kill at will. They killed only Qiu Bo — it is a warning.”

“Could it be Prince Ning Li Chi’s people?”

Pei Lang asked through clenched teeth.

“No.”

Changsun Wuyou said: “Prince Ning Li Chi has no time to play this cat-and-mouse game with us. If he had evidence, he would have long since ordered his army to surround the villa…”

She murmured to herself: “Prince Ning holds in his hands a divine weapon.”

That divine weapon was the formidably battle-hardened, undefeated Ning Army.

To deal with Changsun Wuyou’s group, he need only send a Ning Army unit of two thousand men.

No need to risk a frontal assault — just volley arrows into the villa nonstop, and everyone inside would either be shot dead or burned alive.

“If not Prince Ning Li Chi, then who?”

Pei Lang suddenly turned to look at Chu Xu: “It was you!”

Chu Xu looked at Pei Lang the way one looks at an imbecile: “You have truly lowered my understanding of what an idiot can be.”

Pei Lang lunged and grabbed for Chu Xu: “It was you! You followed Qiu Bo, and yesterday you mocked and sneered at him. Qiu Bo told me to watch out for you, said you couldn’t be trusted — so you killed him!”

Chu Xu’s brow furrowed slightly.

“Young Master.”

Chu Xu turned to Changsun Wuyou, his tone oddly measured: “Do you also believe I killed Qiu Bo?”

Changsun Wuyou shook her head: “You were in my study all morning in conference. You never left. How could it be you?”

Pei Lang pointed at Chu Xu: “He has other men under him.”

He turned his gaze to the two men who always followed behind Chu Xu.

These two men were vastly different in age and appearance — one in his forties, the other in his twenties — yet they shared one striking quality: pallor. A bloodless, absolute pallor.

They looked like people who had spent their whole lives underground, never seeing daylight. Not a trace of color in their faces — more like two people who had been dead for a long time.

These two men were Chu Xu’s right and left hands. One was called Wu Fa, the other Wu Tian. They were blood brothers, despite being twenty years apart in age.

Earlier, when Chu Xu had killed one of Changsun Wuyou’s subordinates in the teahouse for showing disrespect, Wu Fa and Wu Tian had employed a technique of bizarre, unrivaled precision to rapidly suture the dead man’s wound, so that barely any blood had spilled.

“Those two!”

Pei Lang pointed at them: “They’re like demons. Even if it wasn’t Chu Xu’s own hand, he may have directed them to do it.”

He demanded of Chu Xu: “You didn’t leave the villa — but did those two also never leave?”

Everyone looked toward Wu Fa and Wu Tian, because these two had indeed left early that morning.

Even more damning: not long after their return, Changsun Wuyou’s people had discovered Qiu Bo’s body.

“Enough.”

Changsun Wuyou rebuked sharply: “Is this how our own people treat each other — mutual suspicion?”

Pei Lang said: “Young Master, I am not making wild accusations. If those two are innocent, why do they not explain where they went this morning?”

Changsun Wuyou said: “Those two went out on business at my arrangement.”

She looked at Pei Lang: “If you intend to suspect them on these grounds, does that not mean you suspect me as well?!”

These words left Pei Lang utterly speechless. How could he ever suspect Changsun Wuyou?

“Young Master… we cannot let Qiu Bo’s death end like this, just let it pass. Let me investigate. I swear I will find the killer.”

Pei Lang said with reddened eyes: “I swear it — I will find out!”

Changsun Wuyou raised a hand: “Take people to make arrangements for Qiu Bo’s burial. Get a coffin — he is to be given a proper burial.”

Pei Lang opened his mouth to say something more, but Changsun Wuyou had already turned and walked away.

Half an hour later. The study.

Changsun Wuyou looked at Chu Xu: “Many people in the villa now suspect Wu Fa and Wu Tian. I know it is impossible that they were responsible, but…”

Chu Xu shrugged: “I understand what you mean, Young Master. You want them to temporarily leave so as to prevent tensions from escalating.”

Changsun Wuyou nodded: “There are other matters that need attending to as well. Li Chi made me lose the person I cared for most, so he must lose those he cares for most in turn. The primary target is Gao Xining, but she has Tingwei Army protection and is difficult to reach. The other target is Shen Ruzhan.”

Chu Xu’s brow furrowed: “Do not touch her.”

Changsun Wuyou’s brow furrowed in turn: “What do you mean?”

Chu Xu said: “Exactly what I said — do not touch her.”

Changsun Wuyou’s voice turned cold: “Have you forgotten your place?”

Chu Xu said: “Have you forgotten that you merely hired me?”

Changsun Wuyou glared at him furiously. Chu Xu met her gaze with an expressionless face.

After a brief silence, Chu Xu spoke in an incontestable tone: “If you touch her, I will slaughter the Changsun family until corpses blanket the ground.”

Changsun Wuyou’s gaze slid away from his eyes. She was quiet for a moment, then said: “Then have them go to Jizhou — kill Gao Xining’s grandfather, kill Yan Qingzhi, kill whoever, it doesn’t matter, as long as they are not staying in this villa.”

“Agreed.”

Chu Xu rose: “I will make the arrangements.”

Changsun Wuyou slowly exhaled: “Qiu Bo was right. Someone like you should not be trusted.”

Chu Xu said: “Did he also say that someone like you is not worth being loyal to?”

Changsun Wuyou’s expression changed: “What do you mean by that?”

Chu Xu said: “Nothing in particular. There are things others cannot see — I perhaps can. Things others have not noticed — I perhaps have.”

Changsun Wuyou shot to her feet: “Chu Xu!”

Chu Xu shrugged: “Don’t be so indignant about it. You are simply my employer. I covet your silver — so all you need to do is ensure you can keep meeting the sum I require, refrain from touching the people I forbid you to touch, and I will not meddle in anything else.”

Changsun Wuyou seemed to be holding back a burning fury, yet had no outlet for it.

Chu Xu turned and walked toward the door: “Young Master, you are not, in truth, as strong as you believe yourself to be. And the opponent you have chosen to fight happens to be the most formidable person in this world.”

He stopped at the doorway and looked back: “If you were not genuinely paying me well, I would have left by now. Because… it is very likely you will drag me down with you.”

Changsun Wuyou sank into her seat, deflated like a punctured bladder.

After Chu Xu was gone, she stared vacantly at the doorway.

“Am I truly… not enough?”

Another half hour later, Pei Lang came rushing back in, looked at Changsun Wuyou who was still in a daze, and said: “Young Master, something else has happened.”

Changsun Wuyou looked at him: “Now what?”

“Wu Fa and Wu Tian are dead.”

Pei Lang said: “Killed. Their bodies are hanging from a tree by the roadside less than two li from the villa.”

Changsun Wuyou stared at Pei Lang sharply.

Pei Lang immediately shook his head: “Not me. I never left the villa.”

The next instant, Pei Lang seemed to sense danger and lurched sideways — though his body was enormous, his reflexes were far from slow.

Bang!

A grinding stone flew in and struck the door frame, shattering the door to pieces.

Pei Lang spun to face what was behind him: the lethally cold Chu Xu, bearing down on him.

“It had nothing to do with me!”

Pei Lang shouted: “I never left, not for a single moment.”

As Chu Xu came striding forward, Changsun Wuyou immediately stepped into the doorway: “Chu Xu, calm yourself. This could not possibly have been Pei Lang.”

Chu Xu looked at her, then at Pei Lang: “If not you, then who?!”

Pei Lang said: “Many people saw — I was handling Qiu Bo’s funeral arrangements the entire time. I never left for a single moment.”

Chu Xu drew several deep breaths, then turned and walked out.

Moments later. The front courtyard.

Qiu Bo’s body had not yet been moved and still lay in the courtyard. Now two more bodies had appeared beside it.

Both dead men had a wound on their neck — fine, and perfectly straight.

What was most unsettling was that the wounds had been sutured closed, so there was little blood on the neck.

In other words, they had been killed by a weapon of extraordinary sharpness in an extraordinarily short span of time, and then their wounds had been sealed in an even shorter span of time.

Everyone looked at Chu Xu.

Chu Xu’s own face had gone somewhat frighteningly pale.

He snarled: “What are you all staring at? Do you think I killed them?!”

Yet even he could not explain, could not even begin to guess, who had killed Wu Fa and Wu Tian.

And in this manner.

Not long ago, he had killed one of Changsun Wuyou’s subordinates — arrogant, disrespectful, and of no consequence.

That person’s wound was identical to the wounds now on Wu Fa and Wu Tian.

“Cease sending anyone out for now.”

Changsun Wuyou commanded in a voice that trembled slightly, then suddenly raised her voice: “Go tell everyone — without my permission, no one is to leave the villa!”

“Yes!”

Pei Lang responded at once, shouting several times to the onlookers gathered around.

Everyone answered in assent, yet every heart was gripped with fear.

Since morning, three people had gone out. Three people were dead.

Qiu Bo was skilled with hidden weapons. He died by his own weapon — the plum-blossom throwing dart — struck through the temple, which was precisely Qiu Bo’s own method of killing.

Wu Fa and Wu Tian died in the same manner they themselves used to kill. Just like Qiu Bo, it gave the uncanny illusion that they had killed themselves.

“This is bad!”

Pei Lang suddenly cried out: “I just sent people out to buy a coffin!”

His words had barely left his mouth when the sound of bells reached them — the bells of a horse carriage.

Everyone looked toward the main gate. A carriage appeared in view and stopped at the entrance, without a driver.

It was their own carriage — the one Pei Lang had sent out earlier.

The carriage had no enclosed cabin, since it was meant to haul back a coffin.

Now there was something on the flatbed, covered by a canvas sheet.

Pei Lang strode to the gate and yanked the canvas back, expecting bodies underneath.

There were no bodies.

No coffin either.

What lay beneath the canvas was a pile of wooden grave markers, each one engraved with a name.

Qiu Bo. Wu Fa. Wu Tian.

Also Pei Lang.

And Changsun Wuyou.

—