A group of more than ten people, looking utterly disheveled, fled into Lingshan County. Judging by their appearance, they had clearly been beaten — most of them had bruised and swollen faces.

Not long after entering the city, they vanished as though swallowed whole by some invisible void.

Yin Yong, the trusted aide of Zhuge Jingzhan, led a contingent of men in pursuit to Lingshan County, but even he dared not make too conspicuous a show of it.

They knew that Sun Chong, the garrison commander of Lingshan County, was one of Xun Youjiu’s men. With only thirty-some li remaining to the main camp, they had to tread with extraordinary care.

Those dozen or so men had run with uncanny speed — not a single breath wasted the entire way. Even if they had stopped to relieve themselves, they shouldn’t have been able to reach Lingshan County this fast.

Before entering the city, Yin Yong could not help but pause to deliberate: go in, or stay out?

If they went in, there might be a trap waiting. The whole affair had an air of suspicious strangeness about it.

Yet to simply let those men go felt deeply unsatisfying. Heaven knew why they had come to cause trouble in the first place.

While he was still wavering, Zhuge Jingzhan himself arrived with another contingent of men, having apparently given chase as well.

“Sir, do we go in?”

Yin Yong asked urgently.

Zhuge Jingzhan considered for a moment before speaking. “Someone has deliberately lured me to Lingshan County. This county town is in all likelihood a dragon’s den.”

Yin Yong said, “Then let us not enter — we go straight back to the main camp. Surely the lord commander would not refuse to hear you out, sir, without even giving you a chance to speak?”

Zhuge Jingzhan laughed coldly. “When the birds are gone, the fine bow is put away; when the cunning hare is dead, the hunting hound is cooked… Do you truly believe this was Xun Youjiu’s idea? Would Xun Youjiu really dare to be so bold?”

Yin Yong’s expression shifted rapidly. If this was Lord Commander Yang Xuanji’s intention, what point was there in fighting back?

“Sir… perhaps we should just leave.”

Yin Yong said, “The more I think about it, the more wrong it feels. A group of people suddenly appears to stir up trouble, claiming to be Xun Youjiu’s men sent to take over the force — they throw the first punch, get beaten for it, then immediately turn and run. By all rights, they should have fled straight back to the Dun Mountain main camp, yet instead they entered Lingshan County…”

He glanced back toward the city gate. “I think you’ve guessed right, sir. The county is already snared in a heaven-and-earth net.”

“The lord commander will not move to kill me now.”

Zhuge Jingzhan’s mind was becoming clear, and he murmured as if to himself: “Because of the Yuzhou flood, he believes I damaged his reputation… Therefore, if he wants me dead, it would only be after he captures Yuzhou — he is letting me go off to procure provisions as a pretense, while using my absence from the camp to strip me of all real power. The move now is likely to detain me first, then wait until Yuzhou falls to execute me publicly…”

Having reasoned this through, Zhuge Jingzhan let out a heavy breath.

“In Shu Province and Liang Province, winning the people’s hearts — that was my counsel that won them for Yang Xuanji. The Jing Province territories have also submitted, and that too was my achievement… My lord, my lord, you ought not to be so foolish!”

Zhuge Jingzhan wheeled his horse around. “We will not enter the city, nor return to the main camp.”

He spurred his horse forward, leading his force straight in the southeast direction.

The change was so sudden that it seemed no one had anticipated Zhuge Jingzhan would leave without a moment’s hesitation or the slightest trace of reluctance.

By any ordinary reckoning, he should have fought once more — ridden straight back to the main camp to eliminate Xun Youjiu. With Yang Xuanji sorely lacking in capable advisors, Zhuge Jingzhan might still have had a chance to turn the tide.

But he abandoned Yang Xuanji, whom he had so laboriously served, without a single instant of hesitation. His decisiveness spoke for itself.

He led his several hundred men eastward and southeast toward the county town where they had earlier gathered provisions — if he was going to leave, he intended to take those supplies with him.

Along the way, Yin Yong could not help asking, “Sir, where are we going?”

“We will bypass Jing Province and defect to the great rebel, Brother Tiger Li.”

Zhuge Jingzhan said, “Had it not been for the matter in Yuzhou, the best candidate to replace Yang Xuanji would in truth have been Prince Ning, Li Chi. In other people’s eyes, the world appears to be in chaos, yet those who truly possess the power to contend for supremacy are but two — Brother Tiger Li and Yang Xuanji. They think Brother Tiger Li has more soldiers and more generals, while Li Chi’s forces are limited and no match… yet all of them are nothing but short-sighted fools.”

Truthfully, Zhuge Jingzhan felt a real pang of regret.

Had he known it would come to this, how much better it would have been to go straight to Prince Ning Li Chi. With his intimate knowledge of Yang Xuanji and the Tianming Army, Li Chi would have had a seven or eight in ten chance of defeating Yang Xuanji with Zhuge Jingzhan’s assistance.

With such a contribution to his name, he would certainly have been put to great use under Li Chi.

It was all because of his own momentary madness — he had actually destroyed the dam to cause a flood.

“I know too much of Yang Xuanji’s affairs. No matter where I go, I will be valued — everywhere, that is, except Yuzhou…”

Zhuge Jingzhan sighed deeply. “I wonder whether Prince Ning might be willing to show some flexibility. If I could help him defeat Yang Xuanji and ultimately take Daxing City, the matter of the Yuzhou flood might be set aside and forgotten…”

Yin Yong said, “In truth, it might be worth trying.”

He thought it over for a moment, then said to Zhuge Jingzhan, “Send someone ahead to Yuzhou to make contact — request that Prince Ning place the blame for the flood entirely on Yang Xuanji. If the people of Yuzhou only know that it was Yang Xuanji’s wrongdoing, then sir, the possibility of seeking refuge there is not entirely closed.”

Zhuge Jingzhan considered this carefully for a while, but ultimately shook his head. “Too risky.”

They traveled on, retracing their path, and had barely made it halfway when they were suddenly intercepted by a messenger who had ridden up in a frantic rush.

“Sir!”

The messenger trembled visibly as he spoke. “Someone infiltrated the county town and set fire to the provisions we had gathered — burned them all to nothing…”

Zhuge Jingzhan’s eyes snapped open wide.

A sudden appearance of a dozen troublemakers, claiming to be Xun Youjiu’s men sent to take over the force — who had thrown the first blows and gotten beaten for it by Zhuge Jingzhan’s men…

Zhuge Jingzhan’s mind rapidly replayed every event from the beginning, and only then did he realize the full extent of the trap he had walked into.

“They deliberately lured us away…”

Yin Yong had already grasped it too.

The enemy had anticipated that Zhuge Jingzhan would pursue those dozen troublemakers. Once he led his force away, they set fire to the provisions…

And now, at the critical moment when they were preparing to cross the river and attack the Ning Army, the hard-won provisions had been burned to nothing. Could Zhuge Jingzhan possibly escape the blame?

“Xun Youjiu!”

Zhuge Jingzhan let out a furious roar — any semblance of his usual composure had long since vanished.

“For your own selfish ambitions, you would disregard the lord commander’s great campaign to march north! You have destroyed the provisions and supplies — are you not afraid of his wrath?!”

He cursed again and again, his expression darkening to the extreme.

Those provisions — he had gathered them with such painstaking effort. Not just grain and rations, but a large quantity of timber intended for building rafts to cross the river.

This fire was enough to convict Zhuge Jingzhan right then and there.

Xun Youjiu was this vicious and this reckless — throwing aside the greater cause. Zhuge Jingzhan’s rage was so fierce he felt as though smoke was pouring from all seven orifices.

“Sir!”

Yin Yong urged, “We absolutely cannot return to the main camp now. The moment we do, Yang Xuanji will already have ambushes waiting. The instant you set foot in that camp, you will be seized.”

Zhuge Jingzhan gave a long sigh.

Xun Youjiu, in his bid to supplant him, had been this ruthlessly calculating.

“Let us… go!”

Zhuge Jingzhan raised his hand and wiped his eyes. In his grief and fury, he had actually begun to weep.

He had followed Yang Xuanji for six or seven years — had already been at Yang Xuanji’s side before the man had even raised his banner in revolt.

He was a celebrated scholar of Xinling City in Shu Province. It was Yang Xuanji who had personally paid him a visit, calling upon him again and again before he finally agreed to leave his seclusion and offer his service.

Over these past years, under his guidance, Yang Xuanji had won the hearts of the people, developed farmland, trained soldiers, and allied with the great clans — step by step, every stratagem had come from Zhuge Jingzhan.

Everything Yang Xuanji had achieved was the fruit of Zhuge Jingzhan’s heart and blood. Yet now an outsider had schemed against him in this way, and Yang Xuanji himself — whom he had devoted himself so fully to serving — intended to have him killed.

In such grief and fury, Zhuge Jingzhan’s entire body trembled, feeling as though a surge of blood was pressing against his chest, barely held in check.

“He has shown no loyalty — I cannot be blamed for returning the favor. Let us go and join Brother Tiger Li.”

Zhuge Jingzhan gave the order, and his men began to move.

—

Time moves back one day.

Cao Lie told Yu Jiuling and Cen Xiaoxiao: within three days, Zhuge Jingzhan will die.

At that moment, neither Yu Jiuling nor Cen Xiaoxiao knew what the plan was — but they saw the confidence in Cao Lie’s eyes.

Cao Lie looked at Yu Jiuling. “Whether this succeeds or fails rests entirely with you.”

—

Half a day later. Xinghua Tower.

Yu Jiuling looked like a man who had drunk himself thoroughly sideways — so unsteady that he couldn’t stand, couldn’t even sit straight.

Holding his wine cup, he said to Gao Qingsheng and Bai Hua: “Lord Gao, Lord Bai, I have a great secret — one I cannot tell a soul, for if I speak it, my life will be forfeit.”

Gao Qingsheng and Bai Hua had also been drinking quite a lot, though neither had lost their composure the way Yu Jiuling had. Hearing him say this, the two men exchanged an instinctive glance, thinking: this fellow is hiding something?

Yu Jiuling shuffled himself close to Gao Qingsheng’s side and said in a bleary, half-drunk tone: “I know Lord Gao is one of Master Zhuge’s closest confidants, so I don’t mind telling you — truth is, I’m not from Xinling at all. I’m not Master Zhuge’s fellow townsman.”

Gao Qingsheng’s eyes snapped wide open. Bai Hua’s expression changed as well.

Bai Hua immediately asked, “Then where did you come from?”

Yu Jiuling raised his hand and pointed north, then pressed a finger to his lips. “Shh… can’t tell you. If I tell you, everything falls apart. I can only say it to Master Zhuge.”

He leaned back, as if he could no longer hold himself upright, and half-collapsed against the chair, murmuring to himself: “You probably won’t believe it… heh heh… The day Yang Xuanji’s army falls is not far off. Zhuge Jingzhan broke the embankments in Yuzhou to drown the common people, and not long after returning, he could already see that Yang Xuanji intended to have him removed — so he sent someone in secret to deliver a letter to my king…”

Gao Qingsheng’s face changed dramatically. He clapped a hand over Yu Jiuling’s mouth. “Don’t talk nonsense!”

Yu Jiuling shoved Gao Qingsheng’s hand away. “How is it nonsense? If you don’t believe me, just wait and see — within one day, Zhuge Jingzhan will set fire to the grain and supplies he’s gathered, leaving the Tianming Army without the means to cross the river. Then he’ll make a pretense of defecting to Brother Tiger Li, but in reality he plans to circle around and travel north to defect to my king… Hic… He saw through Yang Xuanji’s treachery long ago. Yang Xuanji wants to replace him with that Xun fellow, and how could he possibly accept that?”

Gao Qingsheng again reached out to cover Yu Jiuling’s mouth. “Stop talking nonsense — who exactly are you, to come here and slander Master Zhuge this way?!”

“Let him speak!”

Bai Hua shoved Gao Qingsheng aside, then grabbed Yu Jiuling by the collar and shouted, “You’re one of Prince Ning Li Chi’s people?!”

Yu Jiuling looked back at him, bleary-eyed but strangely proud. “Of course I’m one of Prince Ning’s people — his man in life, his ghost in death…”

Gao Qingsheng said urgently, “This man is clearly a spy, deliberately sowing discord — how can you listen to a word he says?!”

Bai Hua let out a cold scoff. “Then you can go explain yourself before the lord commander.”

He kicked Gao Qingsheng off his feet, then turned and instructed Sun Chong: “Bind them all and guard them well. Once I’ve seized Zhuge Jingzhan, I’ll bring them all before the lord commander together.”

Sun Chong immediately complied and ordered his men to bind both Yu Jiuling and Gao Qingsheng firmly.

Yu Jiuling let out a heave and vomited, then toppled to the floor, appearing entirely insensible.

But as he slumped down, the corners of his mouth curved almost imperceptibly into the faintest smile.

—