“You are nothing but a madman!”

Linghu Demao fixed his gaze on Lv Sheng and said coldly: “Wiping out every gentry clan in the realm — that is something no one in the world can do!”

“Master — do you think I can succeed?”

Lv Sheng smiled and asked Xuanzang.

“Difficult!”

Xuanzang thought for a moment, then shook his head with a bitter smile. “Perhaps you could win against the Dunhuang gentry clans, or even bring down the Five Mountain Clans of Shandong — but the gentry are not merely the gentry. They are a facade built by those with vested interests to protect those interests. If the Li, Cui, Lu, Zheng, and Wang families fall, others will rise to take their place. If the label of gentry crumbles, it will simply be reborn under a different name. As long as there are interests to be had, people will find a way to preserve them. The reason the gentry clans are resented is simply that their method of maintaining those interests is too lazy. That is why military men like Wang Junke, who have fought their way up with blade and spear, look down on the gentry clans — but what Wang Junke ultimately wants to do is merely to become one of them or take their place.”

“The Master should speak with care!”

Linghu Demao said coldly. “Do not invite trouble with loose words!”

“These are not loose words — they are the truth of the world!”

Xuanzang bowed deeply toward the great Buddha, pressing his palms together. “With the Buddha as witness — if what this humble monk has seen is not the truth, but merely loose talk and slander, I am willing to enter the Hell of the Torn-Out Tongue.”

He turned to face Lv Sheng: “The road of seeking the Dharma has always been narrow, and along it lies great terror — precisely because one wrong step leads astray and into the abyss, as in the cases of Wu Qi, Shang Yang, and Wang Mang.”

“But why did Li Kui, Wu Qi, Zou Ji, Shen Buhai, Shang Yang, and even Wang Mang follow one another in an unbroken line?”

Lv Sheng said. “Because they all saw — this world had reached a moment when it could no longer avoid being changed. As for who will be remembered in history and who will be reviled for eternity — no living man can know. Only at death’s door is the final judgment made.”

“A final judgment?”

Linghu Demao sneered. “Everyone — this man cannot be allowed to live! Even if the seven epitaph steles are never found, perhaps they will remain buried underground forever with this man’s death, never to see the light of day. But if he lives past today, we will never have another day of peace!”

Zhang Yan raised his hand to cut off his son: “Bi, my life and death do not matter. The epitaph steles are worth more than this old man’s life.”

Zhai Fa Rang pressed his palms together: “Amitabha. Li Chunfeng the Scholar has already promised to help us decode the star chart and locate the epitaph steles. This old monk has already seen through life and death — no need to worry.”

Yin He Lan said in a heavy voice: “You set an ambush today, was it not precisely to kill this demon? Why all this dithering? If the two of them die, this old man will be buried with them!”

Yin Shixiong was alarmed: “Second Uncle!”

Yin He Lan laughed coldly: “Linghu Demeng worked himself to death for the sake of seven steles and was left unburied for three years. Is one life worth so much? Stand down!”

Yin Shixiong wept: “Yes, yes — I obey Second Uncle’s order.”

Linghu Demao shouted: “Zhan — here is your chance for revenge. Kill him!”

“Shu!”

Zhai Chang looked at Zhai Wen, his expression anguished. “Protect your younger sister.”

Zhai Shu nodded silently. Linghu Zhan drew his broadsword. The retinue behind him drew their bows, pointing them at Lv Sheng.

But Lv Sheng only smiled slightly, completely unmoved, as if listening for something.

Just then, one of the retinue members came rushing up to the ninth level of the tower in a panic, drenched in sweat, his body covered in bloodstains, shouting: “Report, Lord Linghu — disaster! Someone has broken open the branch dam of the western grotto!”

Everyone froze. Linghu Demao urgently asked: “Which branch dam?”

“The Ganquan River… on this south-cliff side — the Ding Family Dam!”

The color drained from every face in the room. Some people’s entire bodies began to tremble.

Xuanzang did not understand, and asked Zhai Fa Rang beside him. He then learned that on the western grotto side of the Ganquan River, a slight ridge ran along the middle of the riverbed, splitting it into two tributaries. The southern tributary was smaller, but its channel ran directly close to the south cliff face, causing the cliff banks to be easily eroded by the water and making them unsuitable for carving grottoes.

During the Northern Wei period, to carve this great Shakyamuni Buddha and build the seven-tiered tower, a dam had been constructed at the fork point of the tributary, blocking off the branch flow and diverting it into the main channel. The donor who had contributed the most at the time was a benefactor with the surname Ding, and so the dam was named the Ding Family Dam.

Once the Ding Family Dam was built, the river channel moved away from the cliff face. The grottoes carved above were safe from then on; the very foundation of the seven-tiered tower had been built over the former riverbed. But if the Ding Family Dam were breached—

Everyone’s scalps prickled. All other grievances were set aside in an instant. Together they ran out through the passageway. Even the four elders who had been sitting as stiffly as dried corpses — Zhai Fa Rang, Zhang Yan, and the others — all followed.

“Master, please.”

Lv Sheng made a gesture of invitation toward Xuanzang, and together with Zhai Wen accompanied him as they walked out.

Xuanzang gave him a long, deep look, then followed the others out through the passageway and stood on the plank walkway, gazing upstream along the Ganquan River.

In the black depths of the river gorge upstream, torches flickered and glittered. From the empty valley came faint shouts and the clash of blades — the sounds of fierce combat.

“What is happening?”

Linghu Zhan seized the reporting retinue member roughly by the collar and demanded sharply. “Why is there still fighting?”

The retinue member began to weep: “Just now, for no apparent reason, the Ding Family Dam swelled up more than a zhang high — it was as if… as if the earth-dragon had turned over. The dam could not hold against the force of the water and simply split open. We brought people to plug the breach, but then we were attacked by a group of men in black. More than ten of our brothers were killed or wounded. Later, Captain Ma Hongda sent reinforcements and we drove those men off… it’s coming — it’s coming!”

The retinue member suddenly screamed. Xuanzang and the others rushed to lean over the railing and look — a shimmering white torrent came surging forward in full force. The towering waves struck the foundation of the seven-tiered tower in an instant. Everyone felt the ground shudder underfoot, and several people lost their footing and fell.

Earlier, to trap and kill Kui Mulang, the plank walkways and arched bridge had been filled with soldiers and armored men. As the sudden violent shaking struck, countless people cried out in alarm. Many fell directly from the walkways, letting out long, trailing screams as they plunged into the churning flood below.

“Who ordered the dam opened?”

Linghu Demao demanded in a sharp, furious voice.

“I did.”

Lv Sheng answered calmly from nearby.

“You—”

Linghu Demao demanded sharply: “Why did you open the dam?”

Lv Sheng laughed loudly and looked at him with mockery: “Can’t you guess?”

Linghu Demao and Zhai Chang exchanged a glance, a chill running through them both, but in that moment could not pierce his intention.

“This was a plan Four Brother worked out three years ago,”

Zhai Wen suddenly said. “It was supposed to be put into action long ago — but in these past years, he was always imprisoned by Kui Mulang and never found the right opportunity. The Assistant Prefect of Yumen Pass, Zheng, is Four Brother’s clansman — also surnamed Lv. Even after Four Brother lost his memory and forgot his identity, Zheng kept staying by his side and carried out the plan that had been drawn up earlier.”

“What plan?”

Zhai Chang asked urgently.

“Watch and you will see.”

Lv Sheng laughed.

At this point, as the cliff face was steadily eroded by the flood, the foundations gradually began to hollow out. The plank walkways were packed with soldiers and pilgrims who had come to worship. The crowd cried out in all directions but had nowhere to go, and could only scramble to find grottoes to take shelter in. The section of the arched bridge connected to the cliff face also swayed and trembled violently. The soldiers on the bridge frantically pushed toward the north bank, but the grotto entrance on the north side of the bridge was relatively narrow. In the panic, people jammed together in a crush, and progress slowed to a crawl.

“Everyone—”

Li Chunfeng called out urgently. “The cliff is going to collapse — are you still going to stand here and watch?”

Everyone snapped to their senses at once and rushed pell-mell into the passageway, running into the seven-tiered tower.

The water surged and crashed, repeatedly striking and hollowing out the cliff face. With a thunderous roar, a section of the cliff some twenty or thirty zhang in length could not withstand the battering and immediately gave way, sending the plank walkways above along with the grotto eaves crashing down. The people on the walkways and at the grotto entrances cried out as they were carried with the earth and stones, tumbling into the raging torrent.

The thunder of collapsing cliff face rose and fell without cease. Great swathes of the south cliff crumbled away. Human bodies mixed with sand, earth, and timber were swept downward in one sweep — a scene of carnage as terrible as the lowest circle of hell.

With a final crash, the foundation of the seven-tiered tower could no longer withstand the hollowing, and split apart. The great tower was like a massive tree felled at the base — its outer shell toppled, each story collapsing in turn, crashing into the river.

By this time Xuanzang and the others had already run into the seven-tiered tower, all pressing themselves against the inner walls in terror. They watched as the sealed high tower before them seemed to be split open by an invisible blade — first cracking apart from bottom to top, story by story, the floor splitting down the middle. Then, slowly, the cracked portion pulled further and further away, tilting and falling away.

Linghu Demeng’s and Li Ding’s shriveled corpses were too far away for anyone to retrieve in time. They fell with the collapsing half of the seven-tiered tower into the river, and with them several scribes and retinue members who had been standing too close to the outer edge.

Then everyone saw the night sky. They saw the full moon. They saw the arched bridge and the lantern light on the far bank. The people who had just moments before been inside the great tower felt as if a shell had been stripped away from around them, leaving them exposed directly beneath the open night sky.

Before them lay a scene of even more terrible carnage — the arched bridge was beginning to break apart.

The bridge itself was connected to the tower, and when the tower collapsed, the bridge began to fracture at the junction. Section by section it fell, massive chunks of bridge deck crashing down and sending towering sprays of water surging skyward.

The soldiers on the bridge ran frantically toward the north bank — but the bridge was too crowded to move quickly. Despair showed on face after face as they screamed and reached out, grabbing at nothing, unable to stop themselves from falling away with the bridge under their feet. As each section of the bridge broke off, the people on that section fell with it. For a moment, the sky was filled with soldiers falling.

At last only a third of the arched bridge remained. The broken end of the span pointed diagonally toward the night sky. The soldiers on what remained lay flat against the bridge deck, not daring to move a muscle.

Some soldiers looked in bewilderment toward the opposite bank. What they saw before them left them speechless. The towering seven-tiered tower had entirely vanished — stripped away completely. They were looking directly into the interior. There, a great statue of Shakyamuni Buddha was set into the cliff face, one hand raised in the gesture of fearlessness, gazing upon them with compassion.

Around the Buddha, people crowded densely together, pressing themselves against the cliff wall, their expressions still showing the shock they had just passed through, and they stared back across the open void. Above the Buddha’s head was the dome of the heavens covered in the constellations of the universe. Six hundred and twenty-seven stars were set into the dome. Under the covering of the red glass discs, they blazed with crimson starlight, that light now shining down on the terrified faces of those below.

When the cliff face collapsed, it revealed the observatory on the top of the stone mountain. The great astronomical instruments still rotated, driven by waterpower.

Stranger still — beneath the astronomical instruments stood three human figures.

“Master Xuanzang — let’s go!”

Xuanzang was staring at the catastrophic scene before him, his mind a blank, when suddenly he heard Lv Sheng call out sharply in his ear. He turned in astonishment — and three lengths of rope fell before him, each with an iron ring at the end.

He watched as Lv Sheng first helped Zhai Wen, who put one foot through an iron ring and gripped the rope with both hands. Then Lv Sheng stepped into another ring himself, and tossed the last rope to Xuanzang.

“They’re running — kill them!”

Linghu Demao came to his senses and shouted. Everyone was crammed onto both sides of the great Buddha, pressing tightly against the cliff face. What remained of the nine-tiered tower had been torn away, leaving only half a shell — no one dared to move. Xuanzang found himself near Li Chunfeng and several scribes. Linghu Zhan, coming to his senses, raised his blade and slowly edged along the fractured rim of the floor toward them.

The others scrambled frantically to find their bows and arrows, preparing to shoot them down.

Xuanzang by instinct gripped the rope, stepped into the iron ring — and suddenly from above came the sound of a horse’s whinny, and a tremendous force seized the rope, lifting him clean off the ground.

“Hey, wait for me!”

Seeing Linghu Zhan come charging like a madman, Li Chunfeng assumed he was coming to kill him. In a great panic he grabbed onto Xuanzang’s rope, and the two of them were pulled upward together.

Xuanzang, Li Chunfeng, Lv Sheng, and Zhai Wen — all four were swept sharply upward.

Linghu Zhan paid no attention whatsoever to Xuanzang and the others, and shouted: “Don’t go!”

He hurled his broadsword. The blade flashed like a length of white silk as it sliced through the air and cut through Zhai Wen’s rope. Zhai Wen cried out in alarm as her body plunged straight down. Just as she was about to fall through the fracture, Linghu Zhan and Zhai Shu both lunged forward — both of them simultaneously shooting out their hands to grab Zhai Wen’s clothing. Zhai Wen was left dangling in midair.

By this time Lv Sheng and the other three had already been pulled up the mountainside by the galloping horses and fell sprawling on the cliff edge above. Lv Sheng scrambled forward hoarsely shouting: “Wen’er—”

Zhai Wen lifted her face and smiled at him with desolate calm: “Four Brother — I will do as you say.”

“Live — live well!”

Lv Sheng was in tears and seemed about to say more. Below, the retinue members opened their bows and fired a volley. Xuanzang pulled Lv Sheng out of the way just in time as several arrows whistled past their cheeks.

“Lv Gentleman — if you don’t leave now, it will be too late.”

Yu Zao’s voice sounded suddenly in his ear.

Lv Sheng and Xuanzang scrambled up from the sandy ground at the mountain top, and then looked around in astonishment. Yu Zao and Li Cheng were standing to one side — and beside them stood a man in black.

The man in black clasped his hands and said in a low voice: “I am Li Lie, acting on the orders of Lord Zhi. I have come to assist Gentleman Lv!”

It was the hour of Yin — the gray of dawn between night and day.

The great desert had already begun to show pale light. Six people, twelve fast horses, galloped northeast along the valley between the Qilian Mountains and the Ganquan River. Behind them the echoes of the valley rang out — the thunder of hoofbeats like rolling thunder. Xuanzang rode his horse and looked back. Two li behind them, a rolling cloud of dust rose as though it were a whirlwind, chasing them down their very path.

Lv Sheng paid no attention whatsoever to the scene behind them. He rode ahead of the group, his expression deeply grim.

It turned out that after Yu Zao’s party of three had rescued Lv Sheng the previous night, they had ridden at full speed with each person on two horses. Though Lv Sheng was reluctant to leave Zhai Wen, he knew that in such circumstances he could not save her, and could only leave with the others. Yet by the time they had been running through the mountains for two hours, they discovered that pursuers had caught up from behind.

Following the Ganquan River would eventually bring them into Dunhuang City’s territory. If they could not shake the pursuers, none of them would escape.

“Four Brother, the Linghu and Zhai clans’ reaction speed is indeed quick enough — they’ve been on our heels all night.”

Yu Zao said.

“As expected.”

Lv Sheng said mildly. “Without this much ability, how could they have fought me so long?”

Li Cheng was puzzled: “How did they manage to move their horses across the Ganquan River and up onto the Qilian Mountains?”

Under ordinary circumstances, a person might climb up the south cliff and scale the stone mountain without too much difficulty. But the Ganquan River gorge was deep, and getting horses across and up would be extraordinarily difficult.

Lv Sheng said: “Go ten li upstream along the Ganquan River, and at the bend there is a large lake. The Ziting garrison is stationed on the lakeshore. The river valley at the lake’s edge is extremely flat. They must have deployed their forces directly from the Ziting garrison.”

As the pursuers drew steadily closer, everyone felt a growing heaviness in their hearts. Ahead and beyond the next mountain valley lay the Pingcao Lake pastureland. The Ganquan River widened here suddenly, and the wetlands formed by its fork were lush with water and grass. The season was late autumn with tall grass, herds of cattle and sheep, and horses galloping freely — an expansive, beautiful sight.

Yet as everyone rode out of the gorge, their hearts went cold. There was absolutely no place to take cover here.

“Whoa—”

Lv Sheng suddenly reined in his horse to a halt, turned it about, and stood at the mouth of the gorge, staring coldly at Linghu Zhan.

Xuanzang and the others were startled and pulled their horses to a stop alongside him. Looking back, the cavalry had already nearly caught up from the gorge. They could even make out the gnashing, furious face of Linghu Zhan at the very front.

Just as Linghu Zhan led his cavalry into the gorge, a wooden clapper suddenly sounded from both sides of the hill slope. From amidst the tall grass and scattered rocks, over thirty men in black suddenly appeared, all with drawn bows and nocked arrows, unleashing a volley.

Linghu Zhan’s cavalry were completely unprepared. No one had anticipated that after a whole night’s pursuit, they would find an ambush waiting here. Instantly everything fell into chaos — screams, the sounds of horses falling, furious curses filling the air.

“Charge up the slope!”

Linghu Zhan roared and spurred his horse first, charging toward the hillside.

These men in black were also highly skilled warriors. Their archery was extremely accurate — several of them drew a concentrated volley together, and Linghu Zhan’s horse was struck by multiple arrows at once. The horse shrieked and tumbled to the ground, and Linghu Zhan rolled down the slope.

The battle erupted suddenly and ended suddenly. Within a short time Linghu Zhan’s cavalry were nearly all killed or wounded. The ground was strewn with corpses and the injured, while riderless horses wandered in every direction.

Xuanzang and the others watched this savage scene from a distance. They saw Linghu Zhan, his hair disheveled, rise to his feet and plant his broadsword in the ground as a support, shouting hoarsely: “Who are you people? How dare you ambush soldiers of the Ziting garrison — are you not afraid of having your clan exterminated?”

From beneath a massive boulder at the top of the slope, a figure in black slowly stepped forward. Covered from head to foot in a black robe, the figure looked silently at Linghu Zhan for a moment, then raised one arm as if about to give a signal — hesitated for a long while — and finally pointed in the direction they had come from, without saying a single word.

Linghu Zhan knew he had been spared, yet in his heart he was unwilling to accept it. He bellowed: “Lv Sheng! Even if you run to the ends of the earth, I will kill you!”

Lv Sheng stared at him expressionlessly, his gaze fixed and unblinking.

Linghu Zhan sheathed his blade, with great difficulty helping up the few survivors, mounting them on horses, and driving them away.

The figure in black watched Linghu Zhan disappear into the distance, then slowly descended the slope and came to stand before Xuanzang and Lv Sheng. Lifting the face covering, the figure smiled at Lv Sheng: “Congratulations, Gentleman Lv — your great revenge is finally accomplished!”

Everyone was startled. This person was none other than the head of Dunhuang’s Li clan — Li Zhi!

Although Xuanzang had known that Lv Sheng and Li Zhi were secretly allied, he had never imagined that the clan patriarch himself — a man of such stature — would personally take the field to ambush Great Tang cavalry. It showed just how much importance the Li clan had placed on this plan. Thinking it over further: in a clash of this magnitude, tantamount to armed rebellion against the court, whoever Li Zhi sent would not be trusted to act. He would have to come himself.

Lv Sheng showed not the slightest surprise at Li Zhi’s appearance. “Why didn’t you kill him?”

“I did not want Linghu Demao to go mad,”

Li Zhi said. “Linghu Zhan is the son Linghu Demao loves most. If he died, what reckless acts Linghu Demao might carry out would be impossible to predict. Better to have everything proceed according to the original plan.”

Lv Sheng remained silent, which was tantamount to tacit acceptance of Li Zhi’s reasoning.

Li Zhi knew the thorn in Lv Sheng’s heart, and offered comfort: “Lady Zhai is the legitimate daughter of Zhai Chang — she will be fine. We will find a way to rescue her later.”

Lv Sheng let out a long breath: “Send someone to find out news of Wen’er. I must have a report every day.”

“Done.”

Li Zhi looked around at the group with a helpless expression. “Last night’s turn of events was truly beyond all anticipation — the Master from Chang’an, the Scholar from court… ah, and the Prefect’s daughter, and the Li family’s young gentleman.”

“Lord Chengyu,”

Xuanzang said with a rueful smile. “This humble monk should have realized sooner — over these years, every act Lv Gentleman and Kui Mulang carried out must have had a major power behind them in Dunhuang secretly providing assistance. I never imagined it would turn out to be your Li clan!”

“Has the Master forgotten?”

Li Chunfeng said. “The day Kui Mulang came to Dunhuang, the place he stayed was the Li clan’s Old King Temple.”

Li Zhi let out a sigh: “I will not deceive the Master — secretly assisting them in day-to-day matters is one thing. But last night we went to war against the five great clans and ambushed imperial soldiers. If any word of this were to leak out, it would spell utter ruin for us. So — I beg everyone’s discretion.”

“You may rest easy,”

Lv Sheng said coldly. “No one will reveal your secret. Besides — after last night, the five great clans have been utterly routed. Clan extinction is imminent. They will have no heart or mind to come looking for your trouble.”

“Indeed.”

Li Zhi laughed with great satisfaction, his mood supremely buoyant.

Xuanzang still had some questions: “Lord Chengyu need not worry. That you paid such a price to help Lv Gentleman — even this humble monk could not have anticipated it. Given that Lv Gentleman even dug up the Li clan’s graves, you should by rights be mortal enemies.”

Li Zhi’s smile faded. He glanced at Lv Sheng and said: “I will not deceive the Master — to this day I still deeply detest Fourth Brother Lv.”

Lv Sheng gave a mild smile, not in the least bothered.

“But I despise the five great clans even more,”

Li Zhi said through clenched teeth. “Linghu’s ambitions swelled, and they set their hearts on using the epitaph stele affair to place themselves at the head of all the other clans. My father was unwilling to submit. He quietly reached an agreement with Fourth Brother Lv to redeem the epitaph stele — yet for this he was jointly coerced by the other clans. To protect the family, my father was forced to take his own life. Even after death, his body was not permitted to be buried in the ancestral graveyard, but was left on display in that seven-tiered tower for three years as a warning. This debt of blood — if it goes unavenged, I am unworthy to call myself his son!”

The situation became clear to everyone at once.

“To bring down the five great clans, my Li clan is willing to be ground to dust!”

Li Zhi stared toward the direction of the western grotto with a savage smile. “But fortunately, last night’s plan succeeded, and I have finally avenged my father!”

Li Cheng was puzzled: “You keep talking about a plan — what exactly was the plan last night?”

Li Zhi said each word deliberately: “The ultimate goal of last night’s plan was to have the secret of the five great clans’ private research into celestial phenomena exposed in full public view — in the sight of thousands upon thousands of eyes!”

By the time Wang Junke led his men to the western grotto, Linghu Demao and the others were already standing on the waterfront docking area of the Dayun Monastery by the river, staring blankly at the great Shakyamuni Buddha on the opposite bank.

The cliff face on the far side had been stripped of an entire layer by the water. Many of the plank walkways, grotto eaves, and even outer grotto chambers on the outside of the Buddha grottoes had already collapsed, with some niches exposed directly to the open air. The seven-tiered tower had entirely disappeared, and the great statue now lay completely exposed — its hand still raised in the gesture of fearlessness, its gaze calm and gentle as it looked upon the living beings on the opposite bank. The celestial star canopy atop its head was also clearly visible, still emitting a faint reddish glow.

The previous night, the gentry clan members had already set about demolishing the observatory on top of the stone mountain. But the celestial star canopy had more than six hundred individual stars in total, which made dismantling them extremely cumbersome. By daybreak the work was still not complete. Afterward everyone had simply given up in despair — it had already been witnessed by more than a thousand pairs of eyes, and there was no way to deny it regardless.

The weight of the Tang law code settled heavily on the mind of every clan patriarch. The predawn wind swept over them, carrying a chill that cut to the bone. The sweat on their backs evaporated instantly, and they felt cold down to their very marrow.

Only now did everyone understand: the back-and-forth scheming against each other with Lv Sheng the previous night, the traps laid and fallen into — in the end they had fallen into his. Lv Sheng had placed himself in mortal peril, nearly dying — all in order to draw the five great clans to this observatory. Then, with one devastating stroke, he had stripped away the seven-tiered tower and exposed their most lethal secret to the eyes of the world, to the eyes of the court.

Wang Junke arrived at the dock with his personal guard and retinue and was also stupefied for quite some time by the sight.

In the river, the bodies of the dead and fragments of broken brick and tile still floated. In fact, from early that morning, large numbers of corpses had been drifting down through Dunhuang City’s irrigation canals, sending the entire city into an uproar. Dunhuang County organized crews to begin pulling bodies from the water, and by some accounts more than a hundred corpses had already been retrieved in just two hours.

Among the dead were not only soldiers, but also pilgrims who had come to the western grotto to worship the Buddha. For a time, the sound of weeping filled the entire city.

On the road to the western grotto, Ma Hongda — who had narrowly escaped with his life the previous night — had already met him and given a full account of events. Wang Junke had not imagined that the Dunhuang gentry clans would be so recklessly bold as to behave in this manner. His heart was a mixture of relief and dread, a hundred flavors mingling.

“Gentlemen — how is this mess to be cleaned up?”

Wang Junke murmured.

The clan patriarchs had been in discussion throughout the remainder of the night. Linghu Demao slowly said: “It remains to be seen how Lord Prefect intends to handle this matter.”

“How I intend to handle it?”

Wang Junke exploded in fury. “Thousands of pairs of eyes witnessed it. How do you expect me to handle it? Do you think in Shazhou I alone can keep the sky from falling? Do you think the court is deaf and blind?”

Seeing his fury, Linghu Demao actually relaxed slightly: “It appears Lord Prefect is still willing to shelter us — that makes things easier to resolve. We can fabricate a story: Kui Mulang set up this celestial star chart here, intending to invoke the spirits of the Twenty-Eight Lunar Mansions to descend and cause chaos in the world. We led a great army to surround and exterminate him, and in the end his demonic array was destroyed. We will proclaim this throughout the entire city, and the common people will certainly believe it.”

“A fine story!”

Wang Junke said, his face expressionless. “Whether the common people believe it or not is beside the point. My concern is the court.”

Yin Shixiong coughed: “Lord Prefect, submit this account in your memorial, and the court will certainly dispatch a censor to investigate. This old man and Lord Demao will write to Lord Linghu the Assistant Minister and Lord Yin the Assistant Minister, and make advance arrangements with the Censorate.”

“Ha — making arrangements with the Censorate?”

Wang Junke looked at him sidelong. “Do you think the court is your own private shop?”

Yin Shixiong said with some embarrassment: “Perhaps the Imperial Consort could be approached—”

Wang Junke cut him off: “The Empress is known throughout the court for the strictness of her regulation of the imperial harem. The Imperial Consort interceding to interfere in court affairs? A preposterous fantasy!”

Zhai Chang said: “Since Lord Prefect considers everything we have proposed unworkable, he must have a better idea to enlighten us.”

Wang Junke thought for a long while: “Where is Kui Mulang now?”

“He fled northeast along the Qilian Mountains,”

Linghu Demao said. “This little one has already led troops in pursuit.”

Wang Junke nodded: “Very good. The story you fabricated is not bad — it simply lacks persuasive force. As long as we can produce evidence to convince the court, the court will naturally believe us.”

“What evidence shall we produce?”

Zhai Chang asked.

“Conveniently enough, the grounds we submitted to court earlier for calling up the garrison militia was that Kui Mulang was colluding with the Eastern Turks and the Tuyuhun to invade Shazhou. Yesterday I received a confidential order from Prince Linjiang that the Jugu She of the Eastern Turks entrenched at Yiwu was growing restive, with signs of moving south.”

Wang Junke said. “In that case, our earlier claim that Kui Mulang was working with the Eastern Turks is now confirmed by events. Now that our forces have destroyed Kui Mulang’s scheme to invoke divine spirits at the western grotto, he is fleeing northeast — he must be intending to go to Guazhou to rendezvous with the Turks for an inside and outside attack. As long as we lead a great army to Guazhou and capture Kui Mulang there, does that not clinch the evidence of his role in inciting chaos across the realm?”

“But…”

Yin Shixiong interjected, “there is every likelihood that he wants to flee back to Yumen Pass!”

Wang Junke said coldly: “As long as we seal off all the westward passages, where can he go if not north? Even if he doesn’t go there of his own accord, we will drive him there!”

“An excellent strategy!”

Linghu Demao commended him. “If we capture and kill him, then plant a star chart on his corpse — even the Censorate’s investigators will have nothing to say.”

Wang Junke gave a cold inward laugh, but nodded along with apparent enthusiasm: “Excellent plan!”

The clan patriarchs let out a collective breath of relief, though privately they could not help but feel bitter. Now that Wang Junke held their weakness in his grasp, they were bound to his wagon, like it or not.

The Pingcao Lake Pastureland.

The lake surface, mirror-still, reflected the snow on the peaks of the Qilian Mountains. Cattle and sheep came to the lakeside to drink, and the reflected mountains in the water rippled with their movements.

A shepherd’s wooden hut stood by the lake. Lv Sheng, Li Cheng, Yu Zao, Li Chunfeng, and Li Zhi sat before it. Retinue members were roasting a whole sheep over a fire, and as the meat was done, it was sliced off in strips, skewered on red willow branches, and respectfully offered to everyone. Xuanzang sat alone to one side, gnawing on a hard, dry wheat cake.

About a li away in every direction, Li Lie rode on horseback, leading his people in keeping watch.

Li Zhi briefed them on the current situation: “We are on the south bank of the Shennong Canal. Cross the canal and you reach the post station of the prefecture seat, with the ancient Guasha road right beside it. Wang Junke’s troops have already sealed off every key pass and are hunting for all of you everywhere.”

“Including me and Yu Zao?”

Li Cheng interjected.

“Of course not,”

Li Zhi smiled. “I myself didn’t know you had gone up to the top of the stone mountain at the western grotto — how would Wang Junke know?”

Li Cheng let out a breath of relief.

Li Zhi continued: “Wang Junke has already issued orders to mobilize the garrison militia. Assembly is currently underway at the three military garrisons of Shouchang, Xiaogu, and Xuanquan. But when he originally applied to the court for authorization, the stated grounds were the suppression of Kui Mulang. Today he has announced that he has received official correspondence from Prince Linjiang: the Turks intend to attack Guazhou, and the entire army is to advance east and support Guazhou.”

“That’s just Father’s pretense,”

Yu Zao murmured. “His true intention is to rebel, to make a surprise attack on Guazhou.”

“Indeed!”

Li Zhi nodded. “Wang Junke has demanded that the eight great clans contribute twenty thousand piculs of grain and twenty thousand bolts of silk as military provisions. Although I was not present, the Li clan was also forced to contribute money and supplies. After the incident at the western grotto last night, the five great clans have been taken in hand by Wang Junke — they will certainly bind themselves utterly to his campaign.”

“But is that not what you hoped for?”

Xuanzang said mildly.

Li Zhi was momentarily taken aback, then gave a rueful smile: “Master, my goal was to take revenge on the five great clans — not to plunge Dunhuang into warfare and chaos. Dunhuang is a frontier prefecture, always unstable. In the twelve years since Great Tang was founded, there have already been three uprisings. In every uprising, the gentry clans suffered the greatest losses.”

“Is that so?”

By now Xuanzang had also become quite well acquainted with the history of Dunhuang. He replied mildly: “Were they not also the greatest beneficiaries?”

During the Sui dynasty’s Daye years, Li Gui seized control of the Hexi region. After Li Yuan established the Tang dynasty, he sent a edict of appeasement and made friendly overtures, calling Li Gui his cousin and appointing him as the Prince and Inspector-General of Liangzhou. But Li Gui then proclaimed himself Emperor, refusing to submit. This provoked fierce opposition from the Hexi gentry clans, and in the end it was the An clan of Liangzhou that moved, seized Li Gui, and delivered him up.

This was in the second year of Wude. By the third year of Wude, the Prefect of Guazhou, He Ba Xingwei, had rebelled again. In the fifth year of Wude, with the support of the gentry clans, the Wang clan of Guazhou killed He Ba Xingwei and resumed allegiance to the Tang.

The court was also deeply wary of the power of the gentry clans throughout the Hexi prefectures. In the sixth year of Wude, the court dispatched He Ruo Huaiguang as Inspector-General of Guazhou in an attempt to break up the gentry clans. The result was a devastating counter-move by the clans. Collateral branch members of the Dunhuang Zhang and Li clans — Zhang Hu and Li Tong — staged a rebellion, killed He Ruo Huaiguang, and declared support for the clerk Du Fuming as City Lord.

This uprising had much that was strange about it, and there were whispers at the time that it was actually a negotiation and show of strength between the Dunhuang gentry clans and the court — two subordinate members of the Zhang and Li clans put forward merely to test the waters. The entire rebellion was full of peculiarities. For one thing, the armies of Gua and Sha prefectures were simply unwilling to come to Dunhuang to quell the uprising, forcing the court to bring troops from Liangzhou a thousand li away to suppress it — and even those troops were beaten back by Zhang Hu and Li Tong.

Then Zhang Hu and Li Tong attacked Guazhou, but this army that had defeated the Liangzhou Inspector-General’s forces was turned back by a mere Assistant Prefect of Guazhou and retreated to Guazhou.

What followed was an exchange of letters and negotiation between the Dunhuang gentry clans and the court, with the two sides haggling over terms. In the ninth month, with the support of the Dunhuang gentry clans, the clerk Du Fuming suddenly seized and killed Zhang Hu and Li Tong, sent their heads to Chang’an, and declared surrender.

From that time forward, there was no further uprising in Dunhuang or Guazhou.

Li Zhi also understood what Xuanzang meant, and did not conceal it: “The Master is perceptive — I will not hide it. Li Tong was my nephew, and it was indeed at my instigation that he and Zhang Hu rebelled. But the court had been bearing down on the Dunhuang gentry clans too harshly — they wanted to use He Ruo Huaiguang to scatter and dismember us. It was also after that uprising that the court recognized our gentry clans’ position in Guazhou and Shazhou, and since then we have had relative peace. Of course, as our show of sincerity, we gave up control of the military. Even now the only military power we hold is the Linghu clan’s western pass garrison, the Song clan’s Zijin garrison, and a single Zhai clan garrison watch — fewer than a thousand men altogether. And now look — Wang Junke has seized all three clans’ military power, leaving us gentry clans entirely at his mercy.”

Xuanzang asked directly: “And what of this time?”

“This time my Li clan will resolutely support the court in suppressing the rebellion!”

Li Zhi said decisively. “Wang Junke is himself a seasoned Tang general, commanding heavy forces, and with the support of the five great clans, once he launches a rebellion, it could be worse than any of the previous three uprisings — the entire Longyou region might be engulfed in war and turmoil. I will absolutely not allow Dunhuang and Guazhou to be plunged into war and slaughter!”

“I believe Lord Chengyu’s sincerity,”

Xuanzang said with a wry smile. “Because your objective has already been achieved. Once Wang Junke is crushed, the five great clans are traitors and accomplices in rebellion. Your revenge is now complete.”

Li Zhi burst out laughing: “Precisely so!”

“And what do we do from here?”

Xuanzang asked.

“We cannot remain in Dunhuang — Wang Junke will find us sooner or later.”

Lv Sheng said. “The only option now is to go to Guazhou, deliver the news to Prince Linjiang, and help him suppress Wang Junke’s rebellion.”

Xuanzang nodded quietly. For the moment, this was the only viable course.

“And what about me?”

Yu Zao’s eyes reddened. “Lv Gentleman — tell me what I should do.”

Lv Sheng looked at her quietly: “I hear the bridal party sent by Prince Linjiang has already arrived in Dunhuang?”

Yu Zao said nothing.

“Go back!”

Lv Sheng looked at Yu Zao with gentle sadness. “Go back and be married, Little Bighead Fish. After the wedding, the Wang family clan will have nothing more to do with you. Begin your life anew. Li Cheng has been at your side all along — I can see that he cares for you deeply. I believe you will find happiness in the future.”

Li Cheng sighed quietly to himself, his heart full of indescribable feelings.

“The fish is in the water plants, her head adorned with ornaments. She with the adorned cheeks — how joyful to share the wine…”

Yu Zao wept, choked with tears. “You told me — you said I was short, that I should grow tall quickly! I worked so hard to grow tall. I wanted to reach your shoulder, to stand side by side with you. But now I have grown up, and the dream is broken.”

Lv Sheng’s expression grew complex and sorrowful. He had never imagined that a playful jest from years ago could have planted such a deep-rooted seed in the heart of a thirteen-year-old girl. During the years when Lv Sheng had been thriving in Chang’an — exchanging poems with scholar-officials, losing himself in singing houses — he had long since put that matter entirely from his mind. It was only after things went wrong for him in Dunhuang, when Yu Zao followed her father here and came all the way across the vast desert to find him, that he came to know a bond of fate had been formed.

It was a pity — his body was occupied by another, and his heart too was occupied by another.

“Yu Zao—”

Lv Sheng had been searching for the right words for a long while, and was just about to speak when Yu Zao interrupted him.

Yu Zao, tears on her face, smiled gently as she looked at him: “Lv Gentleman — I will do as you say and go back to be married. But I want to walk the same road as you — to go back, to cut down the rebels, to suppress the uprising.”

Everyone felt a pang of compassion, for the person most harmed in all of this was neither Lv Sheng nor Li Zhi, but Yu Zao. The “rebels” she spoke of was her own father.

“Yu Zao—”

Li Cheng said.

Yu Zao raised her hand to silence him, and said with resolution: “My father has committed this act of treason. As a daughter of the Wang clan, I truly cannot bear to see our ancestors dishonored. I will go back with you and be married. When you see my father, you must persuade him to personally escort me to the wedding — try to lure my father into Guazhou. Perhaps… perhaps if he is seized, the rebellion will simply collapse.”

Tears suddenly streamed down Yu Zao’s face.

“But I wish to ask Lv Gentleman to grant me one request.”

Yu Zao said.

“Speak!”

Lv Sheng said urgently.

“I wish to ask you to abduct me on my wedding day!”

Yu Zao said each word deliberately.

Lv Sheng froze, and looked at Li Cheng.

“The way you abducted Zhai Wen that year,”

Yu Zao said with desolate calm. “I only hope that on my wedding day you will take me away, carry me through the sky for just a moment. I do not ask to stay by your side forever. I only want to add one memory to the life I will live in a great household’s inner chambers. I am to marry someone I do not love, and I may even have to send my own father to the execution ground with my own hands — all of this is fate’s arrangement. I will not struggle against it, nor run away. But the rest of my life will be bleak and dim, and I want something to smile about when I look back on the past someday.”

Lv Sheng stared at her blankly, suddenly feeling a pain that cut straight to the very core of his being.

“Yu Zao,”

Lv Sheng murmured. “This will ruin you — it will leave you like Wen’er, unable to hold your head up for the rest of your life. And it will create another Linghu Zhan who despises you to the very bone.”

Yu Zao, tears falling, slowly turned her eyes to Li Cheng.

“No, Lv Gentleman, this is something Yu Zao and I have discussed,”

Li Cheng’s expression did not change at all. “On the observatory at the western grotto, I… I made her a promise.”

Everyone looked at Li Cheng in astonishment.

Li Cheng’s voice suddenly cracked: “For the rest of my life I want to give her happiness. But I don’t know if I can manage it. In the moments when I cannot, I hope she can have a small consolation to hold onto.”

“I… I cannot do this!”

Lv Sheng struggled, his expression conflicted. “I am just an ordinary person. I cannot fly through the sky. I have never stood in the Celestial Court and watched the death and fall of the stars.”

“Please make this possible, Lv Gentleman!”

Li Cheng suddenly knelt down and prostrated himself to the ground.

Lv Sheng stood rigid for a long while, then at last murmured: “Very well — I promise you.”

Note: Ziyang Zhenren in the seventy-first chapter of Journey to the West refers to Zhang Boduan, a Daoist priest of the Northern Song dynasty, whose dates are historically irreconcilable with this story. He has therefore been replaced here with the Western Han Ziyang Zhenren Zhou Yi Shan.

Elephant Chess (Xiangqi) had only four types of pieces in the early Tang dynasty: the Horse (Tianma), the Senior General (Shang/Xiang), the Chariot (Zhiche), and the Six Armor Infantry (Liujia). The Advisor (Shi/Gong Shi) and the Cannon (Pao) did not appear until the mid-to-late Tang period.