Confronted with the staggering quantity of gold and silver hidden on this island, Li Chi told himself he must remain calm — he could not appear so provincial and easily impressed.

But there truly was so much money — so very much. So much that not only Li Chi could not hold himself together, but not a single one of Yu Jiuling’s group could manage it either.

In others’ eyes, this was silver. In Li Chi’s eyes, it was armor, broadswords, repeating crossbows, and crimson battle banners planted atop the enemy’s walls.

The wooden chests that had held the gold and silver had long since rotted apart, making everything even more visually direct — this kind of impact could make one’s head swim with dizzy waves.

Unlike the silver ingots used in Dachu, the currency of the Zhou dynasty had been silver cakes. The silver cakes here were numerous enough to make one’s scalp crawl.

“This sand.”

Di Chi looked at Li Chi: “In all my years traveling the world, I can say with certainty this is unique to this place. Your Highness, come look at this.”

He led Li Chi to a corner where several newly made wooden boxes sat — inside them, to everyone’s surprise, were arrows.

“I made my own molds — Your Highness, please look.”

Di Chi drew out an arrow. The arrowhead was made entirely from the sand — white as jade, and when the torchlight fell upon it, tiny points of brilliance reflected back like scattered stars.

“The back mountain is entirely this sand and white stone. On the western side of the island — it should have been glutinous rice paddies Yang Sheng planted in his time. Yang Sheng and his people are all gone, yet that western wetland grows on year after year with no one tending it. It’s impossible to understand how it just keeps growing.”

“When we arrived here, the only weapons we’d brought were spears but no arrows, and we feared the court might track us down, so we made them ourselves.”

“Using glutinous rice water mixed with this island’s unique white sand — once dried in the sun, the hardness rivals that of iron arrowheads. If they can be mass-produced, they would save a great deal of iron.”

Li Chi took one and weighed it in his hand — it was not light. Since they had been made in molds, the white sand arrowhead was conical in shape.

Li Chi called for a bow, nocked the arrow, drew the bowstring with full force, and released — the arrow shot forward, spinning rapidly through the air.

Because Di Chi’s group had lacked material to make fletching, without the stabilizing tail, the arrow’s flight path differed from that of an ordinary feathered arrow.

*Crack.* The arrow struck a stone pillar, the arrowhead shattering.

Li Chi went to inspect it — the pillar had a small crater in its surface.

With that kind of force, even a soldier wearing leather armor would have almost no chance of stopping it.

Xiahou Zuo could not help but exclaim in admiration: “These arrows used for plunging volley fire — their power would be devastating.”

“That is not all.”

Di Chi said, with a trace of quiet pride: “The reason we found this place was because of that…”

He pointed to the *Record of the Treasure Ship* in Dantai’s hands.

Di Chi said: “Yang Sheng had grand ambitions — he wanted to build a great treasure ship to sail the seas. Fearing the Zhou Son of Heaven would find and eliminate him, he thought to go overseas and make himself an emperor. There is a unique species of tree on this island, which we call Phoenix Cypress. It is the only timber capable of building a ship of that size — but the quantity was simply too limited, not enough to build such a large vessel.”

Li Chi could not help but let out a quiet sigh: “What a pity.”

“I was referring to when Yang Sheng was alive — when there was not enough.”

Di Chi smiled: “Several hundred years have passed since then. The Phoenix Cypress on this island is now sufficient to construct that kind of warship.”

Perhaps it took Yang Sheng many years to find this place, to confirm that Phoenix Cypress could build such a massive ship. But luck was against him — the timber was too scarce, and he spent his whole life without living to see the opportunity.

One generation plants the trees, a later generation enjoys the shade; one thousand people gather money, a later generation sweeps up the whole pot.

Di Chi said: “In those years, we built the ships that sailed everywhere searching for Yang Sheng’s trail — I was the one who oversaw construction. I can still work now. If Prince Ning does not think me unworthy, I am willing to build that one-of-a-kind, invincible warship for you.”

Li Chi looked at him, then shook his head: “But in the inland waterways, only a handful of rivers could accommodate a ship of that size, and even those would require enormous manpower to assist.”

Di Chi paused for a moment at that — he had overlooked this problem.

A vessel of this scale could only be used at sea. Sailing the inland rivers would require people on the banks hauling it with ropes — a ship over forty zhang long might need a vast number of people to pull it along.

“If the Central Plains were at peace…”

Li Chi slowly exhaled: “A great treasure ship like this must certainly be built someday, to sail the oceans and see the whole wide world. But for now it would serve no use. Better to build several smaller warships instead.”

Di Chi nodded: “That is also good. For warfare, smaller ships are more practical.”

Having seen the treasures of the place, Li Chi went outside and arranged for men to return and bring more ships to carry away the gold and silver.

Twelve hundred soldiers divided into two groups — one group loading, one group transporting to the ships.

Li Chi had expected some gain when they came, but not one so vast as to seem beyond belief.

All around the lake island were hot springs — even the lake bed around the island had them — which was why the island seemed perpetually shrouded in mist year-round.

Li Chi and his men thought: well, since we’re here anyway… why not take a soak?

The hot springs were, it must be said, absolutely superb — the water temperature perfect. Soaking in it, all the weariness seemed to wash away in an instant.

Lying in the water, gazing up at the deep blue sky — the comfort was beyond words.

Several days later, the craftsmen Li Chi had recruited from the local area arrived, and began building a shipyard on the island using local materials.

The resilience and hardness of the Phoenix Cypress left even Li Chi astonished.

Behind the island, there was a small boat Di Chi’s group had built themselves — barely two zhang long, something they had made in idle hours.

Di Chi gave a demonstration for Li Chi: even when struck by the white sand arrows, the hull showed only a small dent — the effect much the same as striking the stone pillar.

If this material were used to make furniture and ornaments, sold to wealthy patrons, it might fetch quite a good sum too.

Li Chi promised Di Chi that they would remain on the lake island to oversee the construction of the shipyard and the building of the warships, and when Li Chi was truly ready to assault the Dachu capital, he would send men to bring Di Chi and his people over.

Before departing, Di Chi asked if there was anything Li Chi wished to instruct. Li Chi said: keep all the offcuts — carved into bracelets and the like, they could be sold.

Di Chi was baffled.

That lake island which in the eyes of the local villagers was the eerily mysterious Island of Hell — once a large number of craftsmen arrived, it held little mystery anymore.

Xiao Nan Lake, North Bank.

Li Chi was fishing here again. Word had come that Jingzhou Military Commissioner Xie Xiu would arrive by afternoon.

Sitting not far from Li Chi this time was not Yu Jiuling, but Adviser Shen — Shen Rujian.

“Xie Xiu is clever in the wrong ways.”

Shen Rujian said in her quiet, unhurried voice: “I have already told him — if he still comes with a probing heart, he need not come at all.”

Li Chi made a sound of acknowledgment, and said nothing.

Shen Rujian glanced at him again. Seeing the way Li Chi was, she guessed he was still angry.

Xie Xiu had in fact arrived later than expected — somewhat discourteous of him, though it could not all be laid at his door, for a new complication had arisen in those days.

After Xie Xiu killed Yang Songshi, he had all but swept clean the people Yang Xuanji had left planted in his Jingzhou Army.

He had assumed that would be the end of it — but Yang Xuanji had evidently not trusted him at all. Just as Xie Xiu was setting out to meet Li Chi, men sent by Yang Xuanji had also arrived.

Not envoys, but an army.

Yang Xuanji worried that Xie Di would not be able to stop Li Chi, and had even less confidence in Xie Xiu. With the Liangzhou armies already having advanced to Jingzhou while the Jingzhou Army was slow to arrive, Yang Xuanji had grown suspicious.

So Yang Xuanji dispatched one of the four great generals of his Heaven-Decreed Army — An Nuan — at the head of a hundred thousand troops into Jingzhou.

One purpose was to reinforce Xie Di; the other was to pressure Xie Xiu to move his troops quickly to Jingzhou.

Yang Xuanji’s intention was to transfer Xie Xiu’s Jingzhou Army away, then have An Nuan’s hundred thousand take over Jingzhou.

In this way, he would sever Xie Xiu’s wavering hesitation.

Moreover, Xie Xiu and Xie Di were of the same clan. Without making arrangements, he might lose Jingzhou entirely.

An Nuan, leading a hundred thousand elite soldiers, entered Jingzhou’s borders. This left Xie Xiu with no choice but to make his own arrangements, which delayed his appointment with Li Chi.

Shen Rujian studied Li Chi’s expression, then after a silence continued: “His mind is firmly made up now. He personally led his troops to block An Nuan, and once his dispositions are settled, he will come directly. Earlier he sent a messenger — he should arrive by afternoon.”

Li Chi turned to look at Shen Rujian: “You think I’m angry at Xie Xiu?”

Shen Rujian was mildly taken aback: “Aren’t you?”

Li Chi said, with some gravity: “Gaining Xie Xiu would be a tremendous asset to me. Without him, it is no great loss. But you are Ning’er’s elder sister, and Ning’er has said you are close to her and she to you — so you are my elder sister as well. Without the slightest precaution, without a word to anyone, you entered Jingzhou on your own and made contact with Xie Xiu. If something had happened to you…”

Li Chi did not continue. He was too angry to.

Shen Rujian suddenly smiled — a beautiful smile.

“Ah… so you were angry at me.”

She said with a small smile: “I knew what kind of man Xie Xiu was, so going to see him was not terribly dangerous.”

Li Chi said: “You knew what kind of man Xie Xiu was. I did not. You trusted him — I did not.”

Had anyone else said this to Shen Rujian, she would naturally have been offended. But at this moment she was delighted beyond measure.

That young woman regarded her as an elder sister. She had been genuinely happy about that. And now the Prince of Ning before her also regarded her as an elder sister — the feeling became all the more remarkable.

“Very well.”

Shen Rujian looked out at the lake surface: “I was in the wrong this time.”

Li Chi made a sound through his nose.

Shen Rujian said: “You are a grown man. A grown man ought to have magnanimity. I’ve already admitted my fault — you cannot keep holding onto it.”

Li Chi slowly exhaled.

In this moment, Shen Rujian did not fully understand him. Even though she was somewhat moved and pleased, she likely had a small thought in the back of her mind — that Li Chi was performing, as a man of ambition would.

What she could not comprehend was something she had no way to understand: Li Chi, who from childhood had only his master for company, who had never had brothers or sisters — once he accepted someone, the emotion that it produced in him.

Seeing that Li Chi said no more, Shen Rujian did not press further. She sat for a moment, then rose: “I’ll go make some preparations. Perhaps Xie Xiu will arrive soon.”

Li Chi made a sound of acknowledgment without lifting his head.

Shen Rujian returned to her tent. She sat down and thought carefully. She truly wanted to know — how much sincerity lay in what Prince Ning had just said, and how much artifice.

As she lowered her head, she suddenly caught sight of the jade pendant Gao Xining had given her, hanging from her sash.

And then she recalled something Gao Xining had once said to her.

Everyone thought Li Chi was casual and careless — but his heart was small. Small to the point that once he set up walls, they were as solid as bedrock.

Why would he set up walls?

Because once someone entered his heart, they became someone he needed to protect. He would make himself into a city wall — a city wall that could not be broken even by ten thousand men besieging it.

He was petty — petty to the point that whoever wronged someone he cared for, he would retaliate without mercy.

His upbringing had made him this way. Those who became his own people were both his vulnerability and his most jealously guarded domain.

And so Shen Rujian suddenly understood: she had already been placed inside the city that Li Chi held in his heart.

At the thought, Shen Rujian could not help but smile again.

Beautiful.

This feeling — incomparably beautiful.

—