Denglian Mountain. The northern shore of Little South Lake.

Li Chi sat on the lakeshore wearing a bamboo hat, fishing rod in hand. The float had bobbed up and down several times already, yet he had not once pulled up the line.

Xiahou Zuo was crouched by the water’s edge, scratching little channels in the dirt with a small stick. He was planning to divert water from the lake and use it to irrigate the Yu Jiuling he had just planted in the ground.

Yu Jiuling had insisted on competing with him, claiming his recent diligent training had brought him great progress.

One move was all it took for Xiahou Zuo to put him flat on the ground, tailbone aching from the fall, sitting in the dirt and refusing to get up.

Yuan Wuxian had also made it over by now and was off to one side chatting idly with Dantai Yajing.

Dantai Yajing lowered his voice and asked: “Are you familiar with that General Dantai?”

Yuan Wuxian laughed. “What’s this? Did he frighten you?”

Dantai Yajing sighed. “When I was at the Academy of Civil Learning, I thought my abilities had few equals, and that I would one day lead armies and become a great general. Later, when I was training new troops for the court, I was quite full of myself as well. Now that I’ve come to Prince Ning’s side, I realize how much I’d been sitting at the bottom of a well, thinking I understood the sky.”

Yuan Wuxian said, “Wait until you’ve met the Grand Marshal. Then you’ll understand that what you’ve seen now truly amounts to nothing. Your current state of mind is probably about where General Dantai was the first time he saw the Grand Marshal.”

Dantai Yajing said, “I had long heard of Grand Marshal Tang’s undefeated name, but…”

He let out a quiet sigh and couldn’t bring himself to say it aloud.

He had assumed that Tang Pidi’s so-called undefeated reputation was empty, because Prince Ning’s army had always been fighting rebel forces — and he knew perfectly well what those rebel armies were worth.

What he had merely assumed was just that — an assumption. When had Prince Ning’s army ever fought anything other than the most formidable enemies?

Dantai Yajing asked, “Is the Grand Marshal considerably stronger than General Dantai?”

Yuan Wuxian thought for a moment, unable to find a suitable comparison. He smiled. “Don’t burden yourself with all that. The Grand Marshal is the Grand Marshal, General Dantai is General Dantai, and you are you. What’s the use of comparing?”

Dantai Yajing understood the meaning beneath those words. What Yuan Wuxian hadn’t said plainly was: *Why make yourself miserable? What cannot be surpassed simply cannot be surpassed. Just be yourself.*

When they were taking Yingzhou, how spirited he had been.

His opponent had been Xie Di — a classmate from the Academy of Civil Learning who had never thought much of him.

Back in those days, people said Dantai Yajing was the top talent at the Academy. But Xie Di had always just sneered at that. The flatterers would say Xie Di should be considered the top instead, and Xie Di didn’t even bother competing directly with Dantai Yajing for the title.

But this time when they fought, Dantai Yajing had crushed Xie Di completely. Who truly deserved the title of the Academy’s finest was now beyond dispute.

Yet that high-spirited exhilaration, the moment he learned that Dantai Yajing had covered a thousand li in under two weeks — vanished entirely, replaced by nothing but awe.

Yuan Wuxian had been about to say: *If Grand Marshal Tang Pidi had gone instead, Prince Ning might have arranged to meet Xie Xiu right outside his own front gate.*

Yuan Wuxian said, “General Dantai’s father is General Dantai Qi, the great commander holding Liangzhou. He grew up surrounded by that world, which is far more real and grounded than anything we studied in the Academy.”

It was meant as a word of comfort, but Dantai Yajing felt not an ounce of comfort from it.

“I had thought…”

Dantai Yajing let out a long sigh. “Coming to Prince Ning’s side, among the military officers, I would surely stand out above the rest.”

Yuan Wuxian said, “You’ll get used to it in time.”

Dantai Yajing: “…”

He turned his head and caught sight of Xiahou Zuo over there digging trenches to channel water, and thought: *Who would ever imagine that this man, who looks so childishly absurd right now, is the great General Xiahou who has defended the northern frontier and repelled the Black Barbarian invasions time and again?*

Before coming to Prince Ning’s side, he had thought he already stood at the heights of the human world, capable of surveying all beneath him.

This world truly had no shortage of mountains rising above mountains, each peak looking across at the next.

Xiahou Zuo noticed Li Chi’s float dipping up and down and couldn’t help asking, “Why don’t you reel it in?”

Li Chi said, “The fish in this lake haven’t done anything wrong. Why should I take their lives?”

Xiahou Zuo said, “Speak plainly.”

Li Chi said, “I’m not hungry yet.”

Xiahou Zuo gave him a sideways glance and went back to digging.

Li Chi asked him, “You’re digging a channel to divert water — what for?”

Xiahou Zuo said, “Shh… I’m redirecting the water over to Yu Nine-Junior, and while he’s not looking, I’m going to pee into it.”

Yu Jiuling: “…”

Just at that moment, Li Chi suddenly rose to his feet, eyes wide. Xiahou Zuo seemed to sense something as well and stood up alongside him.

“What is it?”

Yu Jiuling immediately called out. Seeing that both Li Chi and Xiahou Zuo had suddenly turned grave, while he himself couldn’t make out anything, he felt uneasy.

“Something’s in the lake.”

Xiahou Zuo said, “It looks enormous.”

Right where Li Chi had been fishing, an immense dark shape had shifted beneath the water. If it were a fish, it was far larger than any person. A creature of such size, if one were submerged in that water, could easily be swallowed whole.

And it didn’t quite look like a fish either. It was very long.

The massive shadow moving in the depths sent an instant chill of fear through everyone’s heart.

Xiahou Zuo said, “Go down and have a look?”

Li Chi said, “Better be careful.”

Xiahou Zuo said, “I know.”

Then he scooped up Yu Jiuling and was about to hurl him into the lake. Yu Jiuling nearly soiled himself on the spot.

“What does it look like?”

Xiahou Zuo set Yu Jiuling back down. Yu Jiuling’s legs had gone weak.

Li Chi shook his head. “Couldn’t make it out clearly, but it’s absurdly large. If it’s some kind of giant python, it looks thick as a barrel. Everyone should keep their distance.”

The group acknowledged this and moved back from the water’s edge.

Li Chi sent his personal guards out to find local fishermen in the area. Before long, a guard returned with an old man who appeared to be around sixty years of age.

The old fisherman bowed hurriedly when he saw them. In the eyes of ordinary folk like him, officials and men of power were far more terrifying than any fearsome beast in the water.

Li Chi pulled the old man to sit down, then poured him a cup of wine. “Is there something in this water? Just now we saw an enormous dark shadow pass by.”

The old man quickly replied, “If it please Your Lordship — yes, there are indeed dangerous creatures in these waters.”

Not knowing Li Chi’s identity, but seeing that everyone was dressed in fine silk, he figured calling him *Your Lordship* was safe enough.

Li Chi had a natural gift for conversation, and before long, the old man had let his guard down and was chatting freely, saying more and more, finding the conversation increasingly agreeable.

From what the old man told him, Li Chi gathered that the creature in the lake was likely an enormous python — possibly not just one.

Among the nearby villagers, there had been those who had been swallowed by the beast. The earliest incident involved a woman washing clothes by the lake, who was seized in its jaws as it surged suddenly from the water and dragged under, disappearing almost instantly.

Later, the villagers had organized, taken small boats out onto the lake, and attempted to hunt it. They searched for many days and found nothing.

The old man said that a layer of mist hung over Little South Lake year-round, growing denser the closer one moved to the center, and none of the local people dared venture into the heavy fog. During that snake hunt, one small boat had been caught in an undercurrent and drawn toward the lake’s center. Everyone assumed the worst.

Yet the next day, that same boat returned. The people on board said that at the very heart of the lake there was actually a small island. They had gone ashore — all six of them — but only two came back.

What was remarkable was that neither of the two survivors knew how the other four had died. They had heard screams, and when they looked, the others were simply gone.

They also said that on the island at the center of the lake, they had seen a structure like a palace — already ancient and crumbling. The place had a gloomy, forbidding air and they had not dared to enter.

Li Chi listened with growing curiosity, wondering who could have built a palace in such a place.

The old man further said that the two survivors described the palace as majestic and vast. Even from a distance, they could see that the main hall’s roof had partially collapsed, and it appeared that the great beast itself was coiled atop the roof.

They had brought two things back with them: one was a necklace strung from some kind of bone, with several beads spaced between the bone pieces — shimmering with color, the nature of which was unknown.

The other was an elongated object, clearly incomplete — a piece of a court tablet, broken at one end. The village schoolteacher had recognized it.

A court tablet — what could such a thing possibly be doing on an island in the middle of a lake?

When the old man finished, Li Chi’s curiosity was well and truly stirred.

The old man urged Li Chi not to set his sights on the island, saying the six men who had gone there had returned with only two, both pale and shaken, as if they’d lost half their souls.

Li Chi asked, “Does this Little South Lake have any river access?”

The old man replied, “The upper reaches connect to the Red River. Travel some tens of li upstream and you’ll reach Weian County town.”

Li Chi nodded. He had someone give the old man some silver as thanks. The old man didn’t dare accept it, but Li Chi tucked it into his hands and had a guard escort the man home.

The old man, still anxious, kept calling back as he was led away: “Don’t go there. People truly die there. That place might be the palace of the King of Hell in the realm of the dead.”

Li Chi thought to himself: *the palace of the King of Hell, built in the world of the living… Did he pay rent? Did he file the paperwork?*

*If not, someone should go collect on behalf of the living.*

“Nine-Junior.”

Li Chi calculated the time. Xie Xiu’s group should still be two or three days away, so he might as well go take a look at that island. What if there was treasure…

He called Yu Jiuling over. “Take some men to Weian County town and requisition every large boat you can find. We’re going to that island in the center of the lake to have a look around.”

Yu Jiuling was somewhat frightened. “If that place truly is full of man-eating giant pythons, it’ll be far too dangerous.”

Li Chi said, “Nothing to fear. And if it truly is the King of Hell’s domain, I want to ask him why he’s taken up residence in the human world.”

Yu Jiuling had no choice but to take men and head to Weian County town. It was only a few dozen li away, and within half a day they arrived.

The area had already been occupied by Prince Ning’s forces, and Prince Ning’s blazing-red battle flags hung from the city walls.

By half a day later, Yu Jiuling had procured over a dozen large vessels — some were cargo ships, some were official patrol boats from the county offices, and there was even one of the Great Chu’s warships, about twenty zhang in length, named the Wuwei. It had sat idle in the boatyard for a long time, but had been maintained regularly. In ordinary times there had simply been no use for it.

Li Chi was curious about what lay on that island. He even made a point of seeking out those two survivors from among the villagers to confirm that one of the two items they had brought back was indeed a court tablet.

The next morning, Li Chi led twelve hundred elite combat soldiers, brought every weapon and piece of equipment that could be carried, and also prepared ample fire oil and hunting nets. The fleet set out toward the center of the lake.

The deeper they went, the thicker the mist, just as described — along with a slightly acrid smell.

“There might be a hot spring on the island.”

Dantai Yajing looked toward Li Chi. “That could be why the mist is so heavy.”

Li Chi nodded, then asked, “Dantai — are you frightened?”

Dantai Yajing laughed heartily. “Me? You think I’m Yu Jiuling? Well… even not being Yu Jiuling, I’m still afraid…”

Li Chi gave him a sideways look. “What if there’s treasure on the island?”

Dantai Yajing narrowed his eyes. “If there’s treasure, who cares about being afraid?”

Li Chi smiled and asked again: “So what’s your threshold? Roughly how many taels of silver before fear stops being an issue?”

Dantai Yajing held out his hand and spread all five fingers. “Five taels and above — never mind pythons, not even demons could stop me.”

Li Chi said, “Come now — you come from a distinguished family…”

Dantai Yajing narrowed his eyes. “Who made me what I am now? Whose fault is that?”

Li Chi: “…”

—