Yu Jiuling had been seized by the back of the neck and hung there like a bird. Even so, though his four limbs dangled freely, he could not find the strength to so much as twitch.

“You are a man of the government. I would ask you to tell me where Prince Ning can be found.”

Yu Jiuling thought: *your mother’s grandmother — and he even used the word ‘ask’.*

He did not understand why, but at such a critical and dangerous moment, Yu Jiuling felt not a single tremor of fear.

“You want to kill Prince Ning?”

Yu Jiuling suddenly laughed. “What could be simpler — release me, and I’ll take you to do it.”

The man holding Yu Jiuling was silent for a moment, then said: “I do not wish to harm the innocent.”

Yu Jiuling’s laughter stopped. Unable to turn his head, unable to struggle, but he could still speak.

He slowly exhaled. “Do not wish to harm the innocent? The one you want to kill is Prince Ning. Every single person in Yu Province and Jizhou — not one of them is innocent of ties to him.”

The man at his back seemed to pause.

Yu Jiuling said: “Your martial skills are great, your abilities are formidable. I cannot escape, so I suppose I won’t bother trying. But I will leave you with one thing to remember — in the future, whatever you do, do not tell your children. Do not tell your children’s children. Do not ever let them know that you were the one who tried to kill Prince Ning.”

“Why?”

The one behind him asked.

“Because…”

Yu Jiuling smiled. “Your descendants, if they ever knew — they would never be able to hold their heads up again. They would feel dirty.”

He said this with a smile, and as he spoke, he spent every last ounce of effort to curl a single finger.

But that was enough.

Hidden in his sleeve was a paper packet of powder. He hooked a finger around it, drew it out, and tore it open. The powder spilled down.

This was no poison. It was a peculiarly-scented powder used by the Tingwei forces when tracking a target. Once a small amount of it was on a person, no matter where they hid, they could not escape.

The smell was nearly imperceptible to humans — it had been concocted by the physicians of Shen Medical Hall and supplied exclusively to the Tingwei forces. Yu Jiuling also carried some on his person. The mastiffs trained by the Tingwei forces could detect this scent and follow it unerringly. Unless the target submerged themselves in water and refused to emerge, they would be found.

Yu Jiuling slowly exhaled and closed his eyes.

“Kill him.”

Qu Nanhuai drifted over from not far away and said under his breath: “This man is a hawk and hound of Prince Ning Li Chi. If we don’t kill him we’ll be exposed. He absolutely cannot be left alive.”

Lord Fang looked at Qu Nanhuai, his expression complex. But in this rainy night, Qu Nanhuai could not make out his face clearly.

Lord Fang reached into Yu Jiuling’s sleeve and pulled out a Tingwei iron spike.

This spike had been custom-made for Yu Jiuling by Gao Xining. It appeared only about a chi in length, but when extended it was the same as a normal iron spike — about three chi long.

Gao Xining had said that Yu Jiuling was everyone’s indispensable “Ninth Sister,” and so if at all possible, everyone should teach Yu Jiuling one skill to keep him safe.

She said: I have no great skill to teach Ninth Sister, so I’ll give him two things instead.

One was this custom-made iron spike. The other was a senior Tingwei officer’s rank medallion.

Gao Xining had also said: Ninth Sister is not in the Tingwei forces, but he is the only person outside the Tingwei who can use a senior officer’s medallion to mobilize them.

That was a mark of recognition — recognition of Yu Jiuling as family. Because Yu Jiuling would never betray Li Chi or any of them.

Lord Fang picked up the iron spike and looked at it. He had sensed that the person in his grip had, at a certain moment, reached for something in his sleeve.

He examined it carefully, then with a flick of his wrist extended it — *shhk* — out to its full three-chi length.

*Thud.*

The spike entered from Yu Jiuling’s back and burst out through his chest.

Lord Fang tossed Yu Jiuling aside onto the roof. The spike he discarded as well — it rolled down the slope of the roof and hit the ground with a clang.

Lord Fang said nothing. He turned and vanished into the night.

Qu Nanhuai glanced at the figure lying not far away. Rain was already falling on the body. The man had gone completely still.

Qu Nanhuai raised a hand. “Let’s go.”

One after another, dark shapes slipped away.

—

Yu Jiuling lay on the roof. He felt his eyelids growing heavier and heavier. The searing agony in his chest told him this time it was truly over.

He had once heard people say that in the moments before death, in the span of a very brief time, a person relives their entire life — and whatever lingers longest in the mind is what that life held most dear.

But right now, he did not seem to have any lingering person or thing filling his mind. No regret. No fear.

He summoned the very last of his strength, reached into the deerskin pouch at his side, and drew out the signal device the Tingwei forces used to call for their comrades.

A moment later, a burst of flame rose from the rooftop — blossoming in the misty drizzle of that night, so brief in that darkness, yet in that single instant, the most brilliant thing in the sky.

Not long after, several dark figures swept in from a distance. One stepped on something and picked it up — and found it was a Tingwei iron spike.

The figure immediately looked up, and then vaulted onto the roof.

A bolt of lightning split the sky at that exact moment, and there, not far ahead on the roof, lay a figure.

—

Less than half an hour later. The Tingwei yamen in Yuzhou City.

Li Chi swept in like a gale, and a cluster of people gathered there parted when they saw him arrive.

Li Chi’s steps, in that instant, became impossibly heavy. He did not dare walk forward. Each step felt like the greatest challenge he had faced in his life up to this moment.

“Don’t worry too much. It’s nothing serious.”

A voice came from beyond the cluster of people that had not yet fully parted.

Li Chi looked across — and found it was Master Ye, traces of blood on his clothing, working alongside physicians from Shen Medical Hall to bandage and treat Yu Jiuling.

“Whoever struck him seems to have done so deliberately.”

Master Ye looked toward Li Chi and said: “Precisely pierced through — a penetrating wound fore and aft, yet no vital organs touched. Mortally intimidating, yet not lethal…”

Li Chi walked quickly to the bedside and looked down. Yu Jiuling’s complexion was ashen, as if he had slipped into unconsciousness.

“Ninth Sister, he…”

Li Chi looked to Master Ye.

Master Ye said: “He regained consciousness a short while ago. Passed out again from the pain when we were stitching the wound.”

—

A short while later. In the covered corridor of the courtyard.

Li Chi asked Master Ye: “What else can you make of it?”

Master Ye said with some puzzlement: “If Yu Jiuling’s surviving was truly a coincidence, then it can only be called a miracle. The one who struck him intended to kill, yet failed to hit any vital organs — but the probability of that being accidental is vanishingly small.”

Li Chi said: “So this person deliberately chose not to kill Ninth Sister. But if he didn’t intend to kill, there was no reason to strike at all.”

Master Ye said: “That is precisely what I cannot work out. He could have chosen not to act at all — but having acted, he deliberately refrained from killing. I cannot fathom what he was trying to accomplish. Was it a warning to us?”

Li Chi shook his head. “Even a fool wouldn’t do something that would only invite our fury.”

Master Ye nodded: “So indeed — I cannot make sense of what this was meant to achieve.”

“Ninth Sister is awake.”

From behind them, Gao Xining burst out of the room and called out.

Li Chi and Master Ye ran back at once. The moment they rushed inside, they heard Yu Jiuling’s voice:

“Is this the underworld? Looks vaguely familiar… Let me tell you, I am a man of Prince Ning’s — you know who Prince Ning is, don’t you? The sovereign of the realm! The sovereign of the realm! Are you afraid?! If you little demons dare mess with me, I’ll send a dream to my boss and have him come deal with you… Have you met him? Let me tell you — Prince Ning has a maw of blood, did you know that? One word from him and it rains blood and steel, did you know that!”

Gao Xining stepped up to Yu Jiuling’s bedside. Yu Jiuling, overwhelmed from his ordeal and having lost a fair amount of blood, still had blurred vision.

When he saw Gao Xining appear, he visibly froze: “You’re the King of Hell? How come you look just like my elder brother…”

Gao Xining said: “Ninth Sister, you’re not dead.”

Yu Jiuling blinked: “Not dead?”

He shook his head. He could still raise his hand to rub his eyes. He looked again, and the world came into focus. He said in astonishment: “I’m not dead? Why do I remember just… *whoosh* — and it was over?”

Li Chi stepped up to Yu Jiuling and looked at him. “You ‘whooshed’ back again.”

Yu Jiuling saw Li Chi, startled for a moment, then suddenly laughed: “Boss, are you crying? You look really ugly when you cry… Wait, that’s not right — if I’m not dead, why are you crying? Am I actually a ghost?!”

—

Another half hour later. Gao Xining’s study.

Tingwei senior officer Yu Hongyi entered at a quick pace, crossed to Li Chi, and bowed: “The Tingwei forces have all been dispatched. No findings yet. Every inn in the city is being checked. By daybreak at the latest, there will be news.”

Li Chi nodded. “Their martial skill is formidable. Tell the Tingwei brothers to move in company-strength groups. Do not split up. If something is found, do not engage — report back first.”

“Yes!”

Yu Hongyi bowed: “This subordinate will also go to investigate.”

She turned and left.

Li Chi exhaled heavily.

Gao Xining came in from outside, carrying a basin of warm water. She wrung out a cloth and offered it to Li Chi: “Wash your face.”

Li Chi nodded. “How is Ninth Sister?”

“Asleep. Before he drifted off — just to make sure he was still alive — he absolutely insisted that someone prove it to him.”

Li Chi’s chest unknotted. He smiled and asked: “How did they prove it?”

Gao Xining said: “Master Ye said he would prove it and sent me out of the room. I don’t actually know how Master Ye proved it.”

Li Chi looked to Gao Xining: “Stay close to the Tingwei yamen for now.”

Gao Xining: “You think the Gate Master of the Sacred Blade Sect has arrived?”

Li Chi said: “My rough guess is that it’s him. But the style of this doesn’t quite fit, so I’m not certain. If it is the Sacred Blade Sect’s Gate Master, there would be no reason to spare Ninth Sister.”

Gao Xining nodded: “Don’t worry. I won’t go wandering off.”

—

At the same time. Yu Jiuling’s side.

Master Ye came out of the room and exhaled long and deeply. Ninth Sister was going to be fine — everyone felt an enormous weight lifted from their shoulders.

If Yu Jiuling had actually been lost tonight, Prince Ning would have turned Yuzhou City upside down. One sweep not enough to find them — then sweep again and again.

“Master Ye — how is he?”

Little Zhang Zhenren asked urgently, having just arrived. He had been at the disaster relief encampments in the city, treating displaced survivors, and only now had rushed over.

“Nothing serious. Just had a fright. He insisted that someone prove to him he was still alive.”

Master Ye smiled. “I said I would prove it. I told him: your chest was run through, and the only way to treat it — as agreed upon by the physicians — is to find something of the same diameter as the hole, cut it in two, and plug each end of the wound, front and back. Only then can you heal.”

Little Zhang Zhenren paused. “Master, by saying that to frighten him, he must have assumed you were going to cut off his fingers to plug the wounds — so he got too scared to let you prove it.”

Master Ye narrowed his eyes at Little Zhang Zhenren, then sighed softly. “You are truly naive.”

He walked away.

Little Zhang Zhenren stared at Master Ye’s retreating back: “What does that mean? Why would Master Ye say I was naive? What does any of this have to do with naivety?”

Master Ye smiled and said nothing, only continued on his way, shaking his head.

—