A procession of about a hundred men escorted a carriage out of Maoyang County. Zhang Tang personally saw Xu Ji off to his carriage.

As Xu Ji stepped in, he silently cursed Zhang Tang’s ancestors back eighteen generations — and still it wasn’t enough.

What Xu Ji truly feared was that Zhang Tang would decide he too was garbage.

In their conversation yesterday, he had asked Zhang Tang what exactly he had come to Yuzhou to do.

Zhang Tang’s answer had been… *clear out the garbage.*

Unwilling to leave it there, Xu Ji had asked one more question: how much garbage?

Zhang Tang’s answer had been… *however much there is.*

So Xu Ji suspected that in Zhang Tang’s eyes, he was garbage too — the same kind of garbage as those seven thousand who had just been wiped out.

If he had known ahead of time what kind of man Zhang Tang was, he would never have left Fengzhou and come to this place.

His only intention in coming had been to show his face — so that when the Tingwei Army filed its report, there would be a line somewhere noting that Xu Ji had been involved throughout.

Every vision of convenience he had nursed was transformed into a belly full of grievance the moment he laid eyes on Zhang Tang.

Working alongside a man like Zhang Tang — how could there be even the smallest sliver of anything pleasant?

The procession had traveled several dozen li out of the city when Xu Ji had his men check whether anyone was following.

His men fanned out and returned about a quarter of an hour later to report that no one was visible. Xu Ji had been on the verge of climbing out immediately and making his escape — but he lost his nerve.

“Don’t rush, don’t rush…”

Xu Ji repeated this to himself over and over, urging himself to stay calm. Only with a clear head could he make the right decision.

“Send someone ahead to scout the road. Work out the distances and timing carefully. Find a town or some inhabited place — somewhere I can stay tonight. I’ll make my move after dark.”

Having given the order, he felt somewhat steadier inside.

Though truly steady he could not be — he didn’t trust for a moment that Zhang Tang would actually fail to have someone watching him.

After half a day of tense, careful progress, they stopped to rest. The men sent ahead returned and reported that roughly two hours further on was a town where they could spend the night. Beyond that, the next habitable stop was three or four hours away — meaning they’d arrive in the middle of the night.

Xu Ji turned his plan over carefully and decided it should work well enough. His miscalculation at Maoyang was a lesson — he would have to think further ahead from now on.

Zhang Tang, that lunatic, had been explicit enough. When it came to whether Prince Ning would choose to believe him or believe Zhang Tang, Xu Ji chose to bet that Prince Ning would more readily believe Zhang Tang.

Then, suddenly, a wild thought surfaced in Xu Ji’s mind.

*Zhang Tang has to die.*

Zhang Tang had not yet had the time or opportunity to formally report the case. If he were to die now, Prince Ning would presumably never learn about Xu Ji’s delay.

Zhang Tang hadn’t been wrong — not a single word.

Xu Ji had delayed deliberately. A man of his acuity — how could he truly have been unaware? He had noticed the anomaly in the Yin family long ago.

The moment he first learned that the Yin family was operating nearly unchecked, his instinct had been to report it immediately to Prince Ning.

But he had wavered almost at once.

First, because Yin Xin’an was someone he had recommended. Would he be implicated by association with the Yin family’s crimes?

Second, because at that point the Yin family’s activities had still been small in scale — little more than finding ways to line their own pockets. If he had reported it then, Prince Ning’s response would likely have been nothing more than stripping the Yin family of their posts and banishing them.

When a case was too small, he would be the one caught up in it.

When a case was large enough to shake the earth, he wouldn’t be caught up in it — he would be earning merit for it.

As for the fear of implication by way of his recommendation — that was actually something he didn’t need to worry about quite so much. He had only been the one to recommend Yin Xin’an; it was Master Wu — Master Wu of the “Warrior Grandmother Fish” school — who had formally placed Yin Xin’an as Prefect of Dengzhou. If anyone was to bear the weight of that appointment, Master Wu had the greater claim. And Xu Ji himself was not Yin Xin’an’s superior — one was in Dengzhou, the other in Fengzhou — so it was entirely reasonable that he would have no knowledge of Dengzhou’s affairs.

If he had known about it while the case was still small, what would Prince Ning think? *Why were you so closely involved with Yin Xin’an? Is this some form of factional scheming?*

But when it was a great case — then he could say he’d stumbled across it by chance, and come forward with a timely warning just as disaster was about to break.

The more he thought along these lines, the more the devil inside him gained ground.

If he could somehow find a way to kill Zhang Tang — even kill all of Zhang Tang’s men — the case would grow even larger…

And he would still be saving himself.

Once the thought appeared, it spread through him like an avalanche, impossible to contain.

After a long, long time, Xu Ji exhaled slowly…

And all at once, he found himself somewhat inclined to go to Dengzhou after all.

If he arrived in Dengzhou before Zhang Tang and arranged things with Yin Xin’an’s people — there were at least one or two ten-thousand-strong forces under Yin Xin’an’s command in Dengzhou — he could set an ambush, and when Zhang Tang arrived with his men, catch the entire Tingwei black cavalry force in a single net…

And then what?

Xu Ji’s mind raced.

That plan could get rid of Zhang Tang, but it wouldn’t let him walk free. He would also have to silence Yin Xin’an’s people. That was the most difficult part — if he used the Yin family’s forces to kill Zhang Tang, who would he use to kill the Yin family?

His mind spun in circles, his expression flickering through countless changes.

He didn’t know how much time had passed before he was forced to abandon the idea entirely. He could find no answer for how to deal with Dengzhou’s forces. If there was truly an army of twenty thousand or more there — possibly even larger — it was simply beyond him to arrange their silencing.

*If only I were a sword immortal.*

Once he had cooled down, Xu Ji was so frightened by what had just passed through his own mind that a cold sweat broke out all over him.

What had come over him? All he had ever wanted was a little credit — so how had he suddenly become a devil?

The moment he came back to himself, he felt a cold drenching clarity.

And then he understood something further… No wonder those who took one wrong step kept taking more. Only now did he feel it in his bones — once you take that first wrong step, you need a hundred more wrong steps to patch it up, and by the time you realize it, you’ve walked so far there’s no finding your way back.

*Exhale.*

Xu Ji drew a long, slow breath.

In this most pivotal moment of his life, something in him had broken wide open.

“I’ve changed my mind.”

Xu Ji said: “We’re going to Dengzhou.”

It was only a small misstep. To keep going further, step by step — that way lay an abyss. And past the abyss lay the point of no return.

He had always been a man of exceptional acuity — and it was precisely that acuity that always had him seeking the shortcut.

“Sir, what’s the matter?”

His man asked.

Xu Ji exhaled heavily and said: “Nothing. I simply don’t feel like going back to Fengzhou anymore.”

He wouldn’t tell his men what had passed through his mind in the space of less than half an hour.

Maoyang County.

Hundred Magistrate Gu Qixi asked Zhang Tang: “Sir, are you truly not sending anyone to follow Xu Ji? I suspect he intends to slip back to Fengzhou.”

Zhang Tang shook his head, his tone even and unhurried: “No need… The road is his to choose, and there are only two choices — left or right. If he chooses correctly, I’ll keep his secrets for him. He genuinely serves the people well — the residents of Fengzhou live better than those in most other places, and that is in no small part his doing. If he chooses wrong… then let him die with a good name intact. I’ll report to Prince Ning that he was unfortunately killed during the course of the investigation.”

Gu Qixi nodded, understanding dawning: “You have a kind heart beneath it all, sir.”

Zhang Tang said: “I don’t like him. But he doesn’t deserve to die. I cannot bring myself to kill a man simply because I don’t like him — I can only determine a man’s fate by whether he deserves to die.”

Gu Qixi bowed: “Your words, sir — I will remember them.”

“You don’t need to remember them… What I do, what I say — none of you need to remember any of it.”

Zhang Tang closed his eyes, and after quite a while, spoke again: “Do you know why I always rotate my subordinates? Each Hundred Magistrate and each black rider unit — no one serves under me for more than a year. When the year is up, I petition the Grand Tingwei to have them reassigned and replaced.”

Gu Qixi shook his head: “I don’t know, sir.”

Zhang Tang said nothing in reply — just returned a faint, even: “If you don’t know, you don’t know. In time, you’ll understand.”

He would not tell Gu Qixi: *it is for your own good.* A man like Zhang Tang would likely not come to a good end. The people around him would be caught up in it too — so he could only keep rotating them through, never letting any of them stay long enough to become truly loyal to him. Being Zhang Tang’s devoted subordinate was no good thing.

Learning Zhang Tang’s ways was likewise unlikely to lead anywhere good.

Zhang Tang had seen this all very clearly a long time ago. The things he did carried too much blood. Never mind his subordinates — even his family would be implicated.

And so he had chosen not to have family. He kept collecting medicine from the Shen Clinic — he had even made certain he could have no descendants.

After speaking with Gu Qixi, Zhang Tang thought to himself: *I alone will be the butcher. I cannot have my family and descendants be butchered in turn.*

And besides — he knew, even with Prince Ning being a different kind of ruler than the cruel emperors of old, even if Prince Ning would do everything in his power to shield him in the end — his family still would not be able to live in peace.

He had killed too many people. Too many people wanted to kill him in return. As long as he had a wife and children, they would never know a quiet day.

Better to simply never have them.

Gu Qixi watched the Thousand Magistrate’s expression shift across his face — but he could not truly grasp it, could not see through to what his superior was thinking in this moment.

On the other side of things.

After resting through midday, the procession set out again. Xu Ji’s escort was composed of men of no small ability — a man of his foresight would naturally not be careless in the matter of his own protection.

The hundred-odd men of the procession were divided into two groups: eighty were veteran soldiers he had personally selected, seasoned in a hundred battles. The remaining thirty-some were martial arts experts he had recruited from the jianghu world. Two kinds of guards, inner and outer, each with their own role.

With his course now decided and his mind clear on what to do — and what he should do — Xu Ji found himself considerably more at ease.

The procession moved faster than it had that morning, arriving at the town ahead of schedule, a full half-hour early.

If they did not rest here for the night, the next habitable stop was three or four hours further — meaning they would arrive in the dead of night.

The town was of decent size; the streets were lined with shops, and there were inns.

Xu Ji had his men commandeer an inn outright, announcing his identity openly.

The innkeeper, hearing that the Prefect of Fengzhou had arrived in person, didn’t dare dawdle for a moment — he bustled his staff into action, preparing the rooms and even putting out fresh bedding.

After Xu Ji’s escort settled in, the two unit commanders went to confer. Jiao Jun, the leader of the jianghu experts, turned to the other: “Old Luo, same as usual.”

The other man was in his thirties, with an air of cold and hardened toughness about him.

He smiled and gave a nod: “Fine. You take the inner guard; we’ll handle the perimeter. Two rotating shifts each — you pick the watchword.”

Jiao Jun thought a moment, then smiled: “Safe passage. Hoping we all make it through this trip safe and sound.”

Commander Luo Jiu nodded: “Done.”

Roughly four or five li outside the town, a force had long since taken up position and was already waiting.

At their head were three people — the Xie family’s twin brothers, and the Wang family woman.

Xie Xing looked toward Wang Xiaoxiao: “You first, or us first?”

Wang Xiaoxiao said: “How can the Xie family be so lacking in courtesy? Next time you speak to me, you address me as ‘elder sister’ first.”

She exhaled slowly, then smiled: “Because you have no manners — you go first.”

—