Xuanzang and the others came along the city wall to the northeast corner. Li Zhi had arranged ahead of time for Li Lie to be waiting there; a rope was tied to the battlement, and the group descended by rope, reached the ramp of the outer city in a few steps, climbed up the wall by the ramp, and then descended by rope again.

Outside the city wall, Li Zhi had brought elite retainer troops and five surviving Star Generals, along with several tens of horses, and was waiting beyond the walls. Everyone mounted and rode off at full gallop.

After they had ridden more than ten li, Wang Junke had already dispatched a large force of cavalry in pursuit. Li Lie and the others immediately wheeled their horses back and set an ambush in a grove of Euphrates poplars, to block the enemy troops.

By this time Kuimu Wolf had resumed the appearance of Lv Sheng. His body was further weakened; he was bent almost double over his horse’s back, barely able to sit upright. Yuzao rode up in concern: “Lv Sheng — shall we rest?”

“No need,”

Lv Sheng said, clenching his teeth and holding on. “We must reach Dunhuang before Wang Junke, launch a surprise attack on Linghu Zhan, rescue Zhai Wen, and return to Yumen Pass.”

Yet the pursuing troops broke through Li Lie’s ambush quickly and came catching up behind them. The group, with three horses per rider, pushed through until dawn — covering a distance of over a hundred and fifty li in direct flight and plunging deep into the foothills of the Qilian Mountains — before finally shaking the pursuit completely.

The valleys on all sides were blanketed in thick snow. The weather was bitterly cold, and Lv Sheng’s body had already been beyond endurance; after riding all night through the chill of the cold air, he immediately fell ill — his whole body burning hot, blood pouring from his mouth and nose.

Yuzao wanted to tend to him, but Lv Sheng refused; he told Xuanzang: “Twelve should not know what I endured in the dungeon. Their fate is already wretched enough — why should she become utterly despairing of human hearts? Please trouble the Dharma Master instead.”

Xuanzang agreed and personally attended to Lv Sheng’s daily needs. Lv Sheng was well-versed in medicine; after describing his condition in detail and having people gather medicinal herbs in the mountains, they boiled medicines for seven or eight days before he finally managed to struggle through this near-death crisis.

Only then did Li Zhi let out a breath of relief. In those days he had people scouting paths through the mountains, but all roads to Dunhuang had been sealed by Wang Junke. The group had no choice but to follow the Qilian Mountains into the Wild Horse Mountain, entering Tuyuhun territory, then circling around to Yangguan, making a great loop of a detour.

Through many days of arduous wandering, Lv Sheng grew more withered and gaunt by the day, thin as a sheet of paper. In the end he was lying in a merchant caravan’s great wagon when they entered Dunhuang.

Dunhuang was Li clan territory; they settled into a concealed warehouse, and various medicines, various streams of information, came flowing in. Everyone listened, and exchanged glances that said what words could not.

It turned out that on the day after the Guazhou uprising, Wang Junke, Niu Jinda, and Cui Dunli had each written their own account, dispatching them to Chang’an by military express courier traveling five hundred li per day.

The couriers bound themselves to their horses, changing horses but not riders, eating and drinking and doing everything else on horseback, traveling day and night without pause. No matter how many post horses were killed off, the three thousand li of distance was covered in just six days.

It was said that when the courier arrived at the Golden Light Gate, he was so exhausted he died on his horse’s back. The horse carried the corpse and continued walking through the streets of Chang’an. But by military regulations, no one dared approach. In the end it was a clerk dispatched from the Ministry of War who led horse and rider to the Ministry, where the body was finally removed from the saddle and the express dispatch retrieved.

The three memorials arrived together, and the entire court was thrown into an uproar. A Prince of the Second Rank committing treason — let alone in Hexi, this was the greatest affair in the whole of Great Tang, the kind that would be entered into the historical record. The Emperor and his Chief Ministers drafted the imperial decree through the night; the Emperor’s pardon edict, dispatched by five-hundred-li express, was sent to Guazhou, ordering Cui Dunli to continue his role as imperial envoy and read out the edict.

“What does the edict say?”

Li Chan asked urgently. Yuzao looked at him and quietly gripped his hand, feeling him trembling.

“His Majesty declared Li Qi guilty of treason, had him removed from the genealogy of the Zong Zheng Temple, and his status reduced to that of a commoner.”

Li Zhi said.

Li Chan had no concern for this: “What about my mother and my brothers?”

“The edict did not mention them. Word is that His Highness the Prince had people take them away before the uprising; it is unclear whether they were captured by the court.”

Li Zhi said.

Li Chan sat there blankly. Yuzao held him, and asked in a low voice: “And my father?”

“Your father is the greatest winner in this whole rebellion. He leapt two ranks from County Earl straight past Duke of a Commandery, and in one stroke the Emperor granted him the title of Duke of Peng Kingdom and Commander-General of Guazhou.”

Li Zhi smiled bitterly. “Using the blood of a Prince of the Second Rank to purchase a full dukedom — he has climbed to the pinnacle of what a subject can attain. His Majesty, moved by Zhai Shu’s loyalty and righteousness, bestowed on him posthumously the title of Prefect of Yanzhou and General of the Valiant Guard. A position at the rank of Fourth Grade Lower — in one stroke, the Zhai clan can parlay this into hereditary privilege for two generations.”

“I had indeed underestimated that man.”

Lv Sheng said evenly. “I never expected the aristocracy to produce such a man of resolute spirit.”

“Additionally, the aristocratic clans are also winners in this affair. The seven clan heads who gambled right that night — though they took a beating and had their retainers killed in the fighting — still earned a heaven-filling merit for the court. The Emperor granted them the honorary title of Dispersed Grand Master.”

A note of admiration mixed with loss could be heard in Li Zhi’s words.

“Do not worry — our war has not ended.”

Lv Sheng said evenly.

Xuanzang was taken aback, and suddenly thought of the epitaph steles. Indeed — as long as those steles were not recovered, the war between Lv Sheng and the aristocratic clans had not ended.

“Has there been any news of Zhai Wen?”

This was Lv Sheng’s deepest concern.

Li Zhi fell silent for a moment, seeming to weigh his words. Lv Sheng’s eyes sharpened.

Li Zhi quickly said: “Lv Sheng, do not misunderstand. Lady Zhai is unharmed. Only — though the courtyard in the Linghu family’s compound was heavily guarded, Lady Zhai was not there; it was only a trap set to catch you.”

“Where is Zhai Wen?”

Lv Sheng was greatly startled.

“Three days ago, she was taken away by people Wang Junke dispatched.”

Li Zhi said bleakly. “The court has ordered him to suppress the bandits at Yumen Pass — she is most likely being used as a hostage to hold you.”

Lv Sheng’s expression slowly contorted into something savage; the room fell into a complete hush, as everyone understood that this had struck Lv Sheng at his most vulnerable point.

Yet Lv Sheng’s expression gradually relaxed. He picked up the paper and brush from the table, wrote a letter, and handed it to Li Zhi: “Zhigong, have someone deliver this letter to the daughter of Zhang Bi — Tiao Niang.”

Li Zhi took it, puzzled: “And then?”

“When she reads the letter she will come with you. Bring her to Yumen Pass.”

Lv Sheng said, each word deliberate.

Yuzao felt a pang of unease: “Lv Sheng — though my father used pressure to make the Zhang clan agree to the marriage contract, in my father’s heart, Tiao Niang may not hold such great weight.”

Lv Sheng smiled: “I have my own arrangements.”

Since Zhai Wen was not there, there was no reason for the group to remain in Dunhuang. Li Zhi naturally would not be going with them to Yumen Pass, so he made proper arrangements and helped them slip out of Dunhuang City.

The official road to Yumen Pass was under extremely tight surveillance. The group went west from the city through the Great Sandy Expanse, following the dried-up bed of a seasonal river north. They first spent a night camped beside the riverbank, and on the second day Li Zhi had already sent people to escort Tiao Niang to them.

When Tiao Niang saw Lv Sheng, she cut straight to the point: “You say you can help me defeat Wang Junke?”

“That is correct.”

Lv Sheng said.

“How to defeat him?”

Tiao Niang asked.

“Simply follow my instructions.”

Lv Sheng said.

Tiao Niang bit her lip: “And after defeating him? Can the marriage contract between me and the Wang family be dissolved?”

“It can.”

Lv Sheng said without hesitation.

“Then I will do as you say!”

Tiao Niang said at once.

Yuzao listened to the exchange between the two and found it bizarre beyond all measure — this woman, who was in name her future sister-in-law, was filled with eagerness to dissolve the marriage contract with her elder brother, yet she felt not the slightest resentment. She silently sighed to herself: if she were in her brother’s place, knowing all their father had done, she too would feel ashamed to take a wife.

After Tiao Niang joined the group, they entered the dried-up riverbed and followed it for two days. But within this riverbed they discovered signs of a large number of people having passed through — animal dung and buried waste everywhere.

Lv Sheng and Li Chan dismounted and made a thorough examination. After a brief calculation, both men wore heavy expressions.

“Who are these people?”

Xuanzang asked.

“Master — it was a military force.”

Li Chan said. “An army of more than a thousand men passed through here three days ago.”

“Wang Junke has sent men to seize Niutou Beacon Tower.”

Lv Sheng said evenly. “Niutou Beacon Tower is to the west of Yumen Pass, built on a remnant Han-dynasty signal tower. It is easy to defend and difficult to attack. Wang Junke intends to cut off my escape route to the Western Regions.”

“Which is to say,”

Xuanzang considered it, “Yumen Pass has become a place of death?”

“Who says otherwise?”

Lv Sheng said with a sigh. “Unfortunately, even knowing it is a place of death, we must still go — because Wang Junke is going there with Zhai Wen.”

No one spoke further. They picked up their pace, and after one more day’s travel they gradually caught sight of the green of the Shule River’s banks; the magnificent Yumen Pass appeared before them, crouching like a great dragon. The last time Xuanzang had come to Yumen Pass he had traveled along the Shule River banks, and with the river banks for cover his sense of it had not been great. This time, looking at Yumen Pass from far across the desert, he was truly awed by the power and might of the Han dynasty — it was as if a city extending for hundreds of li had been built up from flat ground in the middle of the desert.

Only now it was desolate and ruined, as if a heavenly deity had taken a blade and an axe to it, leaving it scarred and battered.

Pumi Ti was the Registrar of Yumen Pass. He immediately led a group of wolf soldiers charging into the city, announcing the return of the wolf god. In an instant, the silent Yumen Pass seemed to come alive; countless followers, young and old, came out of the city to greet them. All along the way, people offered fine wine, singing and dancing with joy, joyfully escorting their divinity back into the fortress city.

Lv Sheng climbed to the rooftop of the fortress city and looked down at the dense mass of people below; he raised a hand, and the crowd fell silent, gazing up at him.

“Some of us come from Great Tang, some from Tuyuhun, some from the Turks, some from Gaochang, some from Yiwu, some from Yanqi — and some even from Tubo and Qiuci. This Yumen Pass is the crack between the Western Regions’ countries, and you are all people living in the cracks. Why were you willing to live in the cracks? Because with me here, the crack is paradise!”

Lv Sheng roared. “With me here, we can laugh and scorn all nations; with me here, we can roam the great desert freely; with me here, we can make the world’s most exalted kings bow down and pay tribute; with me here, we can live the most dazzling and glorious life that this present life and all past and future lives have to offer!”

“Hiyah! Hiyah! Hiyah—!”

The people below screamed and shouted until their throats were raw.

“And yet — all of this is soon to fall into ruin.”

Lv Sheng said with a desolate sigh. “I came from the celestial court, and the mortal world is a blade that cuts me down day by day. When I first descended to earth, I foretold that I could only remain in the mortal world for three years; that time is now nearly spent, and before long I must return to the heavenly court and transform into a star shining for eternity.”

The people in the city were all stunned; even Yuzao and Li Chan standing at the side were pale with shock. They had not known that Lv Sheng’s life was nearly at its end; they had wholeheartedly believed he was going to face off against Wang Junke in a decisive battle, and had never imagined he would be settling his affairs.

“All of you — the bond between us in the mortal world has run its course. The court of Great Tang has dispatched soldiers to encircle and destroy us, and Yumen Pass can shelter you no longer. Go!”

Lv Sheng’s expression held a deep sorrow. “The road going west into the Bai Long Dui desert has already been sealed. There are great armies to the east as well. Gather your livestock and set out immediately — head north, cross the Shule River, and enter the Demon City. As long as you can pass through the Demon City to reach Yanqi, you will be free.”

“Exalted divinity,”

someone asked through tears, “even if we reach Yanqi — who will shelter us there?”

Lv Sheng stood silently on the city wall for a long while, unable to answer, and let out a sigh as he walked into the fortress city.

From outside the city came the sound of weeping that stretched for miles.

It was already the Youshi hour. The desert sunset slanted across the fortress city, and there was a beauty to it — desolate and ruinous.

Lv Sheng sat on the step before the door of his cave dwelling, silently taking in that feeling of ruin. He suddenly stood up and said: “Dharma Master — would you walk with me?”

Xuanzang nodded, and the two followed the thick city gate of the fortress city and walked out. The people in Yumen Pass were busily gathering up their belongings; Pumi Ti and the wolf soldiers were distributing cattle, sheep, camels, and other livestock by head count.

The two walked through room after room, past tree after crooked tree of Euphrates poplar, reaching the edge of the soldier city, where the ruins of a signal tower stood half-collapsed. This was where Lv Sheng and Zhai Wen had lived for three years.

“Dharma Master, do you know why there are always people in this world who rebel?”

Lv Sheng asked.

“Ambition. Injustice. Having nowhere left to live.”

Xuanzang said simply.

“The Dharma Master sees clearly indeed.”

Lv Sheng smiled. “Yet from my perspective, what is truly intoxicating is the magic of creation. For a rebellion to succeed is to possess a nation — one can, according to one’s own heart, create an entirely new kingdom. Whether it is the whole world, or this Yumen Pass — it is the same. When Zhai Wen and I first arrived here, it was in this bleak and crude, ruined pass that we saw the future of our dreams. Over these years we built houses, recruited displaced people, divided up and organized everything, and shaped Yumen Pass into the perfect homeland of our imagining.”

Lv Sheng pushed open the gate of the small courtyard and led Xuanzang inside.

The courtyard had been many days without its occupants, yet it was tidy — clearly someone came frequently to sweep. Even the chickens in the chicken coop were clucking away, pecking at the ground.

Lv Sheng’s face was full of melancholy. He touched the objects in the courtyard one by one, as if tracing every trace that Zhai Wen had ever existed there: “Since my sudden enlightenment in Guazhou at your hands, Dharma Master — a flash of insight, waking me in an instant — my memories of both myself and Kuimu Wolf have merged into one. Yet strangely, the memories of Kuimu Wolf have grown somewhat hazy.”

“Such is the nature of ghost possession. A person is like a vessel — a single vessel can hold only one measure of water. If you drip ink into the water, it turns black; yet it is still that one measure of water. Now that the water has turned clear again, the dark memories will naturally grow hazy.”

Xuanzang said.

“Yes. Now all I can remember are the days with Zhai Wen in this small courtyard.”

Lv Sheng said with a smile. “Dharma Master, the thing I am most grateful to you for is this: you helped me veil those dark memories. When I was Kuimu Wolf, my heart was filled with nothing but brutality — I only wanted to vent it all in a great release. I truly do not know how Zhai Wen endured those years. I think that in her heart, the most beautiful memories must also be this small courtyard.”

Lv Sheng did not go inside. He leaned against the doorframe and sat down, gazing blankly at the desert sunset.

“Dharma Master — Wang Junke’s army will arrive tomorrow. Tonight I want to stay here, as if Zhai Wen were still present.”

Lv Sheng said.

Xuanzang bowed deeply and turned away in silence.

Lv Sheng sat there just so, and as the sun sank into the desert he closed his eyes and drifted into sleep, as though waiting for his wife to come home.

“Boo-oo-oo—”

That night Xuanzang slept deeply, until the sound of a horn “boo-oo-oo” startled him awake. He pushed open the door and walked out. Inside Yumen Pass it was utterly still — the livestock, the wagons, the people of yesterday had all vanished without a trace. He followed the ramp and climbed up onto the city wall. Outside the city, across the sandy expanse, a vast army slowly spread across the horizon before his eyes!

At the front of the army were set ten heavy trebuchets, their throwing arms towering higher than Yumen Pass itself, being slowly pressed down and loaded with stone projectiles.

Lv Sheng stood alone at the battle-eroded parapet, and when he saw Xuanzang had come, he said with a smile: “The Dharma Master has woken? I was just about to invite you here to look.”

“Where are the young lord and Yuzao?”

Xuanzang asked.

“Last night they accompanied Pumi Ti to escort the common people to the Demon City.”

Lv Sheng said.

No sooner had he spoken than the sound of horns rang out — “boo-oo-oo.” The soldiers knocked out the wooden wedges; the throwing arms snapped sharply upward, hurling the pouches into the air. A projectile of over a hundred jin traced a clear arc in the morning light and came crashing down on Yumen Pass.

Lv Sheng was perfectly composed, unmoving, continuing to speak: “Trebuchets attacking a city — this is not commonly seen these days. One must credit Wang Junke for hauling them over hundreds of li of great desert to get here.”

“Boom boom boom—”

Ten consecutive crashes. The projectiles struck the ramparts, the rooftops, the interior of the fortress city; the entire ground shook and heaved. Two or three projectiles struck the area around the wall and the wall collapsed under the impact, sending dust billowing up to the sky. Shattered earth and stone went flying in all directions.

Xuanzang and the others could barely keep their footing and nearly fell; only Lv Sheng stood steady and called out loudly: “Actually there is nothing to fear. I have studied this carefully — a trebuchet hitting a person directly is a matter of luck.”

“These were not brought here to hit people!”

Xuanzang called back. “They are to destroy the city’s defensive works!”

“Ha ha!”

Lv Sheng laughed heartily. “My Yumen Pass has no defenses at all. Wherever I stand, there is an impregnable stronghold of a great wall!”

Boom — even as Lv Sheng was speaking with such heroic spirit, a great section of the wall beneath his feet collapsed, and he stumbled and fell to the ground.

“Switch to stone-fat jars!”

From the command position, Wang Junke watched the figures moving on the wall top and said coldly.

“Brother Xuan,”

Niu Jinda at his side frowned, “there seems to be almost no one in the city. Why not send troops to attack?”

“Indeed!”

Cui Dunli also said. “The walls of this Yumen Pass are ruined and broken, full of gaps on all sides — there is no point in continuing to use trebuchets.”

Wang Junke shook his head: “The reason I hauled trebuchets hundreds of li through the desert is precisely because I do not wish to engage in close combat with Kuimu Wolf and the Star Generals. In our previous encounters I came to know well Kuimu Wolf’s strange methods, and feared that if he used some technique to escape, I would miss him. It is simpler to bombard Yumen Pass from a distance until it becomes a sea of fire and rubble. As long as he flees out, we encircle and kill him in the great desert — and that demon will have nowhere to run.”

“My lord Wang’s foresight is excellent.”

Linghu Demao inserted himself. “I heard from Zhan that in Qingdun Garrison, Kuimu Wolf controlled the garrison soldiers’ minds and made them attack each other. As long as there are soldiers around, there are vulnerabilities. This way of bombarding from a distance — let us see how he resists.”

Linghu Demao, Zhai Chang, and the various clan heads pressed close around Wang Junke on horseback, their hearts surging with intense emotion as they watched Yumen Pass falling into ruin, every face filled with anticipation. Three years of nightmare — it was finally about to end. As long as Kuimu Wolf — or in other words, Lv Sheng — was dead, even though the epitaph steles had not been recovered, this could be accepted as an outcome.

“Boom boom boom—”

Ten clay jars filled with rock-fat oil were lit and hurled into Yumen Pass. Instantly the whole city was engulfed in fire, burning from top to bottom in roaring flames.

Yet in the places where the fire had not yet spread, Xuanzang and Lv Sheng and the others still stood there, not moving.

“Great crossbows!”

Wang Junke was provoked into fury. “Shoot! Anyone who can make them run gets a heavy reward!”

The soldiers quickly pushed forward several crossbow carriages and began skillfully loading crossbow bolts, cranking the capstans — creak creak creak — winding the strings taut.

Just at that moment, from somewhere in the rear of the military formation, an old Taoist priest came riding slowly forward on a donkey. The priest wore his hair bound in a Taoist bun, pinned by a wooden hairpin, and was dressed in Taoist robes, swaying to and fro as he came. He passed through the great army formation, yet not a soul dared to stop him.

“Immortal Hou!”

When Wang Junke saw the Taoist priest, he quickly clasped his fists on horseback, his manner extremely deferential.

Linghu Demao and the others frowned slightly at this. This Taoist priest was called Hou Li, and several days earlier, when Wang Junke was formally installed at Guazhou as a Duke and Commander-General, this man had ridden his donkey over to offer congratulations. Wang Junke had treated him with a reverence that was almost absolute — listening to his words like a command — and had even brought him along on the march to encircle and destroy Yumen Pass. Whenever this old Taoist priest calculated with his fingers and said the timing was inauspicious, Wang Junke would flatly order the whole army to halt.

However, in the current atmosphere at court, holding Taoism in high regard was very much in fashion; the highest ministers at court all enjoyed associating with Taoist priests, participating in rituals, and discoursing on scriptures while wandering the peaks of Zhongnan Mountain. Even Cui Dunli could find no grounds to object to this.

“The timing is about right. The Chenshi hour corresponds to earth — use stone projectiles to smash, this is giving. Kuimu Wolf corresponds to wood — earth generates wood, and wood generates fire. By now we have entered the Sishi hour, corresponding to fire — use stone-fat jars to burn, this is taking. Yin and yang revolve in an unending cycle. Give, and then take — this demon will certainly be defeated.”

Hou Li said, exuding the air of one with all the answers.

Niu Jinda, Cui Dunli, and the clan heads all stared with their mouths hanging open. Wang Junke had just spoken at great length presenting his strategy of non-contact warfare, and now everyone understood: the idea of using trebuchets to attack was nine-tenths the brainchild of this old Taoist priest.

Wang Junke, however, was utterly trusting: “Hmm — if we can capture and kill Kuimu Wolf in this battle, it will be entirely thanks to the Old Immortal’s guidance.”

Niu Jinda was reaching the end of his patience and was about to speak; Cui Dunli smiled bitterly and tugged him back, saying quietly: “Duke Peng is in high spirits, Prefect Niu — let him indulge himself. In any case, this battle cannot be lost.”

Wang Junke was now speaking with great enthusiasm: “Old Immortal, why not divine what kind of death Kuimu Wolf will meet this time? Old Niu, His Excellency Cui, and all the clan heads are welcome to place wagers — let us make a little sport of it.”

Everyone smiled bitterly.

Hou Li laughed heartily: “Very well — the old Taoist will divine it.”

Hou Li closed his eyes and began counting on his fingers; suddenly he opened his eyes with a puzzled expression, frowned and pondered a moment, then closed his eyes and began counting again.

This time he counted for much longer, and his expression grew increasingly grave.

Wang Junke was somewhat puzzled: “Old Immortal?”

“Duke Peng — how has Kuimu Wolf’s fate suddenly become entangled with the young Lady Zhang?”

Hou Li opened his eyes, a look of puzzlement on his face, and turned to glance at Zhang Bi.

Wang Junke and Zhang Bi both changed color. Hou Li was somewhat uncertain: “Let me calculate again.”

Hou Li drew from the saddlebag on his donkey fifty stalks of yarrow, took the great deductive number as fifty, then removed one — this one was the void number of the Supreme Ultimate, set aside and not used, leaving a total of forty-nine. The forty-nine yarrow stalks were divided at random between left and right hands; the left and right hands thus represented the division of heaven and earth, yin and yang. One stalk was then taken from the right hand and hung between the fourth and third fingers of the left hand — suspended as one, to represent humanity. Heaven, earth, and humanity — the three powers — were thus divided. Then the four phenomena were formed.

Everyone watched with intensity. Hou Li’s yarrow stalks were arranged and combined in calculation, determining the first line of the hexagram. A hexagram has six lines, requiring eighteen separate calculations. But on the very third calculation, a yarrow stalk suddenly snapped. Hou Li’s face gave a slight twitch, and for a long while he said nothing.

“Old Immortal — what has happened?”

Wang Junke asked in a trembling voice.

“If my calculation is not mistaken, Lady Zhang is at this moment inside Yumen Pass!”

Hou Li said in a solemn voice. “Today is the great trial of her life and death. In my urgency I attempted to divine her gate of survival, but unexpectedly the heavenly secrets blocked me!”

Wang Junke was immediately frantic: “Zhang Gong — is Tiao Niang not in Dunhuang City?”

“I… I do not know either!”

Zhang Bi was also in a panic.

“My sword!”

Wang Junke bellowed. His personal guard troops immediately brought out his broad sword.

Wang Junke seized the broad sword, spurred his horse, and went galloping straight toward Yumen Pass. The assembled company erupted in an uproar. Niu Jinda immediately bellowed: “Cease fire!”

“This… what manner of conduct is this?”

Cui Dunli was incensed. “A man of ducal rank — abandoning his great army to go charging in and hacking about on his own. If something goes wrong, what then?”

“I will go.”

Ma Hongda picked up a long lance, and with his personal guard, set off in pursuit.

Zhang Bi also stared blankly, not having expected Wang Junke to care about his own daughter to such an extent that he would not even spare his own life. Vaguely, he felt something was not quite right.

Wang Junke charged to the base of Yumen Pass. By now the wall had long since been smashed by the stone projectiles into a broken ruin, with gaps on all sides. Wang Junke spurred his horse through a gap and rode up a slope of collapsed earth, arriving at the top of the Yumen Pass wall. The wall-top was scattered with flames burning in clusters; he charged left and wound right through the fire, and suddenly saw a great Heavenly Wolf crouching silently in the midst of the flames.

“Kuimu Wolf!”

Wang Junke leveled his broad sword with a shout. “Where is Tiao Niang?”

Kuimu Wolf strolled slowly out of the flames, the roaring fire unable to injure him by so much as a hair. His green eyes fixed on Wang Junke, and then he suddenly let out a howl; and Xuanzang, accompanying Tiao Niang, appeared atop the fortress city.

“Outrageous!”

Wang Junke bellowed.

“And the same to you.”

Kuimu Wolf said. “Where is Zhai Wen?”

Wang Junke’s eyes blazed with fury, yet without hesitation: “Good — we exchange!”

Just then Ma Hongda also came charging up on horseback, and Wang Junke swung back and said: “Hongda — go down and have Linghu Zhan bring Zhai Wen up here!”

Ma Hongda looked at the young woman Li Chan was holding in custody — clearly she was Tiao Niang — and immediately grasped the current state of affairs. He hesitated: “My lord Duke — Zhai Chang and the clan heads are also down there—”

“Never mind him!”

Wang Junke said coldly. “Hongda — this is important to me.”

Ma Hongda hesitated briefly, then took his men and descended the city wall, riding back to the military formation.

Looking around — flames and rubble on all sides, with no one else present — Wang Junke’s expression darkened: “How did you know Tiao Niang was important to me?”

Kuimu Wolf said with mockery: “I am a great divine spirit of the heavens — how can the affairs of the mortal world escape my eyes and ears?”

“A great divine spirit of the heavens?”

Wang Junke laughed coldly. “I have killed men without number, and have yet to kill a divine spirit. Today let my blade taste the blood of one.”

“Ignorant.”

Kuimu Wolf said evenly.

Wang Junke had no more desire to speak with him. The two fell into a tense silence and waited. They waited for over half a quarter-hour; from the wall top they could faintly make out what appeared to be a dispute in front of the military formation. Wang Junke glanced at it — he understood clearly in his heart. Bringing Zhai Wen to use against Kuimu Wolf was all well and good; but to actually hand her over to Kuimu Wolf was a violation of the clans’ most vulnerable pride. After all, it was their greatest humiliation that Kuimu Wolf had abducted Zhai Wen, and now that she had been rescued, to send her back — how could that be?

Both watched with concern at the movements below, tacitly ceasing hostilities.

They could see the formation growing restless; Ma Hongda brought troops and seemed to forcibly drive the clan heads back to the rear camp, leaving only Zhang Bi standing there in awkward isolation. Then from the formation two war horses came galloping toward Yumen Pass.

Kuimu Wolf visibly relaxed. It was Zhai Wen and Linghu Zhan approaching.

When they reached the ruined base of the wall, Zhai Wen and Linghu Zhan dismounted and climbed through the rubble onto the wall. Zhai Wen looked at Kuimu Wolf, and in her eyes appeared a tenderness: “Kui Sheng!”

“Hold there!”

Wang Junke blocked Zhai Wen with his broad sword and fixed his gaze on Kuimu Wolf. “And Tiao Niang?”

Xuanzang accompanied Tiao Niang up from below the wall. Wang Junke saw that Tiao Niang was unharmed, and only then let out a breath of relief, laughing coldly: “So Dharma Master Xuanzang has become a bandit who holds people hostage!”

“If it means stealing back justice for the world, the humble monk would gladly do it.”

Xuanzang said.

Wang Junke gave a “hmph,” ignoring him: “Exchange.”

Kuimu Wolf and Wang Junke faced each other from three zhang apart, with several clusters of burning fire between them. Zhai Wen and Tiao Niang went around the flames, each walking toward the other side. The two women walked slowly, winding the atmosphere tighter and tighter like a coiling spring. Wang Junke narrowed his eyes and fixed them on Tiao Niang as she came step by step closer, pressing both thighs tight against the horse’s flanks and tightening his grip on his broad sword. In Linghu Zhan’s hand was a bow, the right hand trembling slightly, as if slowly drawing back the string.

Kuimu Wolf’s body slowly contracted, his haunches rising, as if about to spring forward in a leap.

Zhai Wen and Tiao Niang passed between the flames and brushed by each other. Xuanzang’s heart began to pound wildly.

Before the military formation, Niu Jinda and Cui Dunli stared at Zhang Bi, making him deeply uncomfortable.

“Master Zhang,”

Cui Dunli said evenly, “you also saw what just happened. Those six clan heads do not blame you for their suspicions. By ordinary reckoning, no man would take the risk of offending six great clans just to use another man’s daughter as a hostage to exchange for his own. Let alone that Yong’an and your daughter are not even married yet — even if they were married, it is hard to imagine anyone having the heart to do such a thing.”

“Prefect Niu has also said,”

Niu Jinda added, “even if they were married, most people would never dare to do such a thing.”

“His Excellency Cui, Prefect Niu — all you have said, am I not aware of?”

Zhang Bi smiled bitterly. “To speak frankly — I myself do not have the determination to use another family’s daughter to rescue my own. The Zhang and Zhai clans have coexisted in Dunhuang for seven hundred years and will coexist for a thousand years more — I absolutely do not wish to make a mortal enemy of them.”

Niu Jinda and Cui Dunli exchanged a glance. It seemed Zhang Bi was genuinely in the dark as to why Wang Junke would do such a thing.

“Where has the Taoist priest gone?”

Cui Dunli looked around, and the old Taoist priest’s figure was nowhere to be seen. “Perhaps this old Taoist priest knows the inside story.”

“He apparently found the dispute among the clan heads tiresome and returned to his tent on his own.”

Niu Jinda said. “He must know — but he likely will not be willing to speak.”

The group was somewhat troubled. Just then, a squad leader from camp came running over: “His Excellency Cui — someone in the rear camp requests that you come to meet him.”

Cui Dunli was taken aback: “Who?”

“Unknown. Only that the Excellency must certainly come.”

The squad leader glanced around and said in a low voice: “That person is carrying an imperial edict.”

Cui Dunli and Niu Jinda’s faces changed. An imperial edict, yet without ceremony or procession, and summoning a secret meeting…

“This is a secret edict!”

Niu Jinda said in a grave voice.

“I will go immediately.”

Cui Dunli said decisively. “It seems something of great import is about to occur today. Prefect Niu — if anything happens, you control the whole army.”

Niu Jinda’s face set itself in a solemn expression as he nodded.

Cui Dunli immediately turned his horse and followed the squad leader through the military formation, riding into camp.

The squad leader led him directly to his own campaign tent. Cui Dunli lifted the tent flap and entered, and found a man standing with his hands behind his back, admiring a painting hanging on a wooden frame — something Cui Dunli had painted just the previous night when sleep had eluded him.

Hearing someone enter, the man turned, smiling as he looked at Cui Dunli.

Cui Dunli immediately froze: “Li Chunfeng!”

The man was none other than Li Chunfeng, whom he had not seen in many days! That night of the Guazhou uprising, Li Chunfeng had reportedly become entangled with Xuanzang, Kuimu Wolf, and the others, and had afterward disappeared without a trace. Wang Junke had even wanted to apprehend him, and yet here he was — in the military camp.

“His Excellency Cui, I hope you have been well.”

Li Chunfeng smiled and clasped his fists.

Cui Dunli asked with suspicion: “You are the imperial envoy carrying the secret edict?”

Li Chunfeng drew from his sleeve a brocade pouch, embroidered with a dragon in reddish-yellow silk thread: “There is a secret edict — but it is not addressed to His Excellency Cui. There is no need to open it to verify its authenticity, I trust?”

“None whatsoever.”

Cui Dunli had no more doubt; he had frequently carried imperial edicts on missions, and could clearly tell this was genuinely the palace’s case for imperial edicts. “Yet may I ask — to whom is Li Chunfeng here to deliver the edict?”

“That person cannot be named yet.”

Li Chunfeng said. “But this person is closely connected to the exchange of hostages now taking place at the front of the formation, and if the matter is not clarified, I cannot deliver this edict. His Excellency Cui — this edict was written in His Majesty’s own hand.”

Cui Dunli was startled into a look of grave seriousness. Most imperial edicts were drafted by the Secretariat, reviewed by the Chancellery, and then dispatched by an imperial envoy. For the Emperor to bypass the Secretariat and write an edict in his own hand was something extraordinarily private and extraordinarily important. This edict, let alone Cui Dunli who was merely a Deputy of Transmission, even if taken to any of the prefectural princes and generals-governors, would have to be followed without question.

Cui Dunli did not hesitate for a moment: “What does Li Chunfeng need me to do?”

“I wish to know why Tiao Niang is so important to Duke Peng.”

Li Chunfeng said in a solemn voice.

“This…”

Cui Dunli was momentarily taken aback and smiled bitterly: “In truth I do not know.”

“This matter must be clarified as soon as possible!”

Li Chunfeng said. “I am told that the old Taoist priest Hou Li has returned to his tent. Have His Excellency Cui bring him here — I will ask him face to face.”

“This…”

Cui Dunli was troubled. He had also concluded that Hou Li knew the inside story, yet hesitated somewhat. “Li Chunfeng — that Taoist priest holds himself apart from worldly affairs, and Duke Peng has great reverence for him. If he is unwilling to speak, what then?”

Li Chunfeng’s eyes flashed with a cold gleam: “Then arrest him and interrogate him under torture!”

Just as Zhai Wen and Tiao Niang brushed past each other in the instant of exchange, Wang Junke’s thighs clamped against his horse’s flanks; the war horse surged forward in a burst. Wang Junke let out a great shout, and his broad sword swept down at Zhai Wen.

Kuimu Wolf cried out, his body flashing with the speed of lightning, springing into the air to hold Zhai Wen and dart away to safety. But Wang Junke had already calculated the precise timing of his response; a cold laugh, and the broad sword changed course to sweep at Kuimu Wolf’s waist. Kuimu Wolf held Zhai Wen and was in midair with nowhere to dodge, and just as this single stroke seemed about to cut the two of them into four pieces, a sharp cry rang out — and Linghu Zhan’s arrow shot from his bow, aimed straight at Wang Junke’s throat!

Wang Junke had not expected Linghu Zhan to suddenly turn against him, and in his shock and alarm bent low and ducked his head, sweeping his broad sword backward — “ding” — the arrow struck the wide flat of the broad sword and ricocheted off.

Kuimu Wolf barely avoided the sword below with Zhai Wen in his arms, but Wang Junke recovered in fury and with a flip of his wrist brought the sword around — “thump” — slashing open a wound on Kuimu Wolf’s back. A stream of dark black blood shot out.

With a crash, Kuimu Wolf landed on the ground in a roll and gently laid Zhai Wen down.

In a single instant, three parties had exchanged several blows in midair — like lightning, like falcons — all in the blink of an eye.

Wang Junke reined his horse and wheeled back, roaring in fury: “Linghu Zhan — are you plotting rebellion?”

Linghu Zhan led Tiao Niang to a distance and brought her to safety. Tiao Niang’s face broke into a look of delighted surprise, and she gazed at him with longing. Linghu Zhan notched another arrow, walked back forward, and said with a bitter expression: “By the terms of the marriage contract, Zhai Wen is still my wife. You harm her before my eyes — are you treating me as if I do not exist?”

“And you still consider her your wife?”

Wang Junke was furious. “This woman spent three years with Kuimu Wolf in intimacy — how can you be so obstinate? I kill Kuimu Wolf to avenge you!”

“I will kill Kuimu Wolf myself. And I will never permit anyone to harm Zhai Wen.”

Linghu Zhan drew his bow slowly, his expression bitter. “I am indeed a conflicted person. Though life in this world is by nature always caught between two things, I pour out all my passionate spirit to make heaven and earth perfect and without flaw — exactly as I wish!”

By now Kuimu Wolf had also handed Zhai Wen to Xuanzang and stepped forward on all four limbs to the center of the wall. The three stood in a triangle facing each other: “Linghu Zhan — if you wish for vengeance, today is your last chance.”

Linghu Zhan laughed heartily: “Heaven has granted what I wished. In battle a man should die. Today let the three of us settle every debt of gratitude and grievance, and not stop until one of us falls.”

No sooner had his voice died away than his bowstring vibrated — and two arrows in rapid succession shot at Wang Junke and Kuimu Wolf.

Kuimu Wolf dodged out of the way, but Wang Junke had less fortune. He swung his blade to parry, but the arrow was aimed at his war horse’s underbelly. The shaft drove straight into the horse’s gut; the horse let out a long shriek and tumbled over. Wang Junke swiftly rolled clear of the horse and charged at Linghu Zhan with his sword in fury: “I will kill you first!”

Linghu Zhan moved through the flames, loosing arrows — “swish swish swish” — and Wang Junke swung his sword to parry them; in the end an arrow found him in the chest and abdomen. He was wearing armor, fortunately, and it had not gone deep. Wang Junke endured the arrow wound and pressed in close, swinging his blade down in a lightning slash. Linghu Zhan flung down his bow, flicked a fallen spear up from the ground with his foot, and thrust it forward. Clang clang clang — the moment the two exchanged blows it was brutal beyond measure; Linghu Zhan took consecutive strikes of the sword against his body, his armor’s plating sent flying in all directions, two gashes opening on him. He stumbled and fell back. But Wang Junke also took it badly — run through by Linghu Zhan’s spear, blood flowing freely.

After just one exchange, all three had been wounded. Kuimu Wolf was too proud to team up with Linghu Zhan against Wang Junke; when he saw the two separate, his body flashed, closed the gap, and charged. Wang Junke improvised a defense, trading several blows with Kuimu Wolf — and fell back step by step.

Suddenly a spear tip flashed — Linghu Zhan’s spear thrust in. Kuimu Wolf’s body vanished on the spot. In the moment of Linghu Zhan’s bewilderment, a nearby cluster of flames suddenly blazed up fiercely, and Kuimu Wolf burst out of the fire, wolf claws raking into Linghu Zhan’s shoulder. “Crack” — tearing through the beast-head armguard, tearing away a chunk of flesh and blood.

Linghu Zhan let out a cry of agony; then sword light blazed — Wang Junke seizing the moment to strike from the side. In Linghu Zhan’s rush to defend, his spear tip went to block it, but the force was overwhelming — “crack” — and together with the spear tip, it was hacked into his chest. The mirror-bright armor plaque shattered, and his whole body went flying one zhang and more, spitting blood as he crashed and could not rise.

“Ninth Young Master—”

Tiao Niang screamed and ran toward him, only to be seized by Wang Junke and hauled away. He turned and carried her off.

Tiao Niang struggled as he dragged her down the slope, and he flung her onto a horse’s back. Wang Junke and Ma Hongda also leapt onto horses, seized Tiao Niang, and rode off.

Xuanzang ran forward, trying to press his hands over Linghu Zhan’s wound, only to find that nearly half his body had been all but split open. He was barely clinging to life. Zhai Wen stood there in a blank stupor for a long while, then slowly walked over. Her legs gave way beneath her, and she sank down beside him: “Young Master Linghu—”

Linghu Zhan lay among the ruins, his gaze drifting and unfocused, but he gave a bitter smile: “Three years ago I already knew… sooner or later in this life I was bound to die for you. Heaven — truly granted what I wished…”

“I am sorry!”

Zhai Wen wept. “You should not have saved me. Why not let me die?”

“You too… are a person of bitter fate. I suffer — can you truly be happy?”

Linghu Zhan murmured. “In this tangled bond between us — it always had to end with one of us dead for the other to be free. Either me, or you. Just then, in that instant, I considered simply standing still and letting you die. Because beside me there is still Tiao Niang waiting for me; she waits for me to take her hand and grow old with her. But I suddenly thought of how you appeared in my dreams through these three years — lonely, fragile, helpless, afraid — I heard you call my name countless times, begging me to save you. I once made you promises in the depths of the night: I would save you, protect you with my life. You have changed — but could I, in the end, betray my former self and flee in shameful cowardice?”

Zhai Wen broke into loud, uncontrolled weeping. At this moment Kuimu Wolf changed back into the form of Lv Sheng — his robes also drenched in blood — and stumbled forward with faltering steps, then dropped to the ground with a crash, sitting heavily.

“Brother Linghu…”

Lv Sheng looked at him with a complex expression.

“You must be glad?”

Linghu Zhan looked at him with calm eyes. “You can keep her forever now.”

“No.”

Lv Sheng shook his head in desolation. “My lifespan is nearly exhausted. Neither of us is the winner.”

Linghu Zhan was taken aback, then suddenly burst into great laughter; blood from his mouth and wounds poured together: “How amusing this heaven-shaping force truly is — each of us has become a faithless one!”

Linghu Zhan struggled to raise his hand and stroked Zhai Wen’s face, leaving a streak of blood across her smooth skin.

“The beacon fires of the Shuofang shine on the sweet spring, from Chang’an the flying general rides out from Qilian. Armed with rhinoceros shield and jade sword, fine sons of good families, white horses and golden bridles, the gallant young men…”

Linghu Zhan stared up with unseeing eyes at the vast desert sky, murmuring the lines as if the whole of his life were revolving past his eyes. “I practiced my sword at six, learned military strategy at seven, at nineteen I cut down generals and captured banners. And yet in this life I am to die for a woman. This life…”

Tears flowed down Linghu Zhan’s face. He was smiling, and slowly closed his eyes.

Dispersed official titles were honorific designations denoting an official’s rank without carrying any actual administrative duties or powers. Dispersed Grand Master was of the rank Fifth Grade Lower.