Shisan Lang hung in the air wearing only undergarments, shackled by chains, his body covered in wounds. Blood dripped from his bare feet onto the ground, forming a half-congealed pool. Several jailers had taken turns whipping him until they were exhausted. Unable to sustain the effort through the latter half of the night, they went off to slack, allowing him to catch some sleep.

Though the salt-water-soaked whips stung the skin painfully, the wounds were less likely to fester, so there was nothing to worry about. The young man’s eyes observed his nose, his nose observed his heart – for a moment he was free of distractions, with all four elements empty, sleeping quite sweetly.

Suddenly the chains swayed slightly from above. Shisan Lang jolted awake from his dream, opened his eyes, and looked up to see Wei Xun crouched on the crossbeam like a large cat, winking and smiling at him.

Shisan Lang’s heart immediately settled, and his blood-streaked face broke into a smile.

Wei Xun drew his dagger and sliced diagonally at the chains. Without the sound of metal against metal, just a soft hiss, the iron chains were cut through like mud. Shisan Lang landed barefoot, and once his hands were free, he exerted force to break the shackles on his wrists. The tendons on his forearms bulged as he snapped them in two attempts. Pulling out his wrists and swinging them back and forth, he shook his stiff shoulders and immediately felt refreshed throughout his body.

Wei Xun casually freed the other prisoners hanging from the beam as well, descending from the air like a blue feather, landing silently.

Shisan Lang asked aloud: “What about Jiu Niang?”

Wei Xun smiled teasingly: “Is she all you remember?”

Shisan Lang lowered his eyes but didn’t directly deny it.

Wei Xun said: “She’s fine, drinking tea at the Reflection Hall.”

Huo Qi Lang also jumped down from the beam, carrying a heavy bamboo cage in his hands.

Seeing these two standing side by side, Shisan Lang felt even more confident. He hurried to find his monk’s robes and shoes, holding them to his chest. Curiously looking at the bamboo cage, he saw it writhing inside with several large white snakes coiled and intertwined. He asked: “Where did Seventh Senior Brother catch such large white snakes?”

Huo Qi laughed: “It’s all Wei Da’s fault for being so demanding. White snakes aren’t that easy to find. I only found tiger-striped snakes, then borrowed a bowl of white paste from a mounting shop and painted them one by one. What a hassle. If we’re going to cause trouble, let’s do it quickly – the color will fade soon.”

The three senior brothers moved without their feet touching the ground, quickly opening all the prison cell doors. The jailers seemed to be in a death-like sleep, with not one coming out to stop them – apparently Wei Xun had knocked them all unconscious. They had the prisoners who could still walk carry the wounded who couldn’t move, evacuating everyone from the cells and releasing the snakes.

Shisan Lang asked: “What about the lookouts outside?”

Wei Xun said: “I’ll draw them away. You two take your time and run slowly.” With that, he parted from the other two and left on his own.

Before dawn broke, great commotion arose from the direction of the county office. Officials awakened from their dreams, not knowing what had happened, all rushed toward the center of Xiagui County. They saw the night watchmen and clerks fleeing from the main gate, pale-faced and shouting about snake demons seeking revenge. In the county office courtyard, several large white snakes as thick as arms reared their necks, opened their bloody maws, and flicked their tongues.

The mysterious pearl theft case remained unsolved, and stories of snake demons seeking justice had already taken deep root in people’s hearts. Though officials didn’t mention it, everyone involved believed it implicitly. Now with strange events erupting all at once, everyone was terrified out of their wits. The timid only cared about their own escape, paying no attention to the prisoners in jail.

Someone else shouted loudly: “There’s someone on the roof!”

Everyone looked where he pointed and saw a tall, thin figure in a blue shirt standing leisurely on the roof of the county office’s main hall, calmly surveying the entire Xiagui County office.

“It’s the Blue-Shirt Guest! It’s that master thief!!”

Though no one could clearly see his features, the officials had long searched for this legendary martial world thief under Bao Lang’s command, firmly imprinting the image of wall-scaling abilities and blue clothing in their minds. With just one glance, they immediately cried out. Those with blades drew them, those without went for bows, arrows, and iron nets, hoping to capture this chivalrous thief through sheer numbers.

As they gradually gathered, Wei Xun laughed lightly and began running at extreme speed. He leaped and bounded across the rooftops of numerous buildings, dodging and weaving like an agile blue bird or an elusive blue ghost – now eastward, suddenly westward, then turning north, then south again, never stopping for a moment. All the officials could only follow him like a kite being jerked around.

The common people living around the county office were also awakened by this great commotion. They all got up to watch, hearing chaos from the government office with people and horses in disarray, some shouting about white snakes claiming lives, others about flying thieves.

After running lightly for a while, Wei Xun suddenly realized no one was behind him. Looking back, he discovered he had run too fast with too little footstep noise, already leaving the main pursuit force behind. He folded his arms and stood on the eaves waiting for everyone, unconsciously raising his head to glance toward the Reflection Hall.

From afar, he saw a graceful figure holding a bow and arrow standing at that window, also looking in his direction. Wei Xun had originally left the bow and arrow for Baozhu’s self-defense, not expecting she wouldn’t remain idle but had found a good position to provide cover with her bow, preventing him from being shot down by other archers.

Wei Xun felt his heart suddenly flutter, his chest surging with heat like burning pepper, a fiery, stinging pain. He suddenly had an unprecedented thought: since he had already deliberately exposed his whereabouts today and accidentally broken roof tiles, why not make the best of it and temporarily abandon his usual thief’s practice of concealing his presence? He could create an earth-shaking commotion so she wouldn’t constantly be kept in the dark, unable to see anything clearly.

With this thought, Wei Xun jumped up and kicked a tile forcefully toward where the officials gathered, startling everyone. A clear whistle drew all attention to himself, then he exerted force with his feet, heavily trampling across rooftops in a mad dash, kicking and smashing all the roof tiles, ridge ornaments, and decorative animals in his path, raising a tornado-like gale that thundered across heaven and earth.

The forty to fifty thousand people of Xiagui County saw rubble and broken stones flying everywhere, a violent dragon of swirling dust sweeping through the air, charging left and right with tremendous momentum toward Lotus Temple’s multi-treasure pagoda. They also saw a blue figure emerge from the rolling dust clouds, twisting his waist like a dog and spiraling upward around the multi-treasure pagoda with grace like a swimming dragon.

The blue-clothed person extended his arms as he passed, simultaneously ringing the thousands of copper bells around the pagoda. His form spun faster and higher, causing the entire pagoda to shake and the bell sounds to be deafening. All the city’s people were left gaping in amazement, not knowing what catastrophe had occurred between heaven and earth to produce such strange phenomena of dragons soaring and serpents dancing.

Huo Qi swept onto the rooftop and pulled his junior brother Shisan Lang up with him. Watching Wei Xun create this earth-shaking spectacle from afar, she was extremely shocked and sighed: “Incredible, Wei Da is showing off!”

Shisan Lang was utterly amazed by Wei Xun and asked excitedly: “Is this move called ‘showing off,’ Senior Brother?”

Huo Qi Lang burst into laughter, reaching up to stroke his bald head: “You don’t understand, and you don’t need to. You just need to know he’s extremely happy right now.”

Wei Xun playfully engaged in back-and-forth with the relentlessly pursuing officials behind him, maneuvering through corridors and easily dodging various hidden weapons and arrows shot from behind. Suddenly, from the corner of his eye, he spotted a plate of peaches in a room he was passing.

He made a sudden stop, backed up a few steps, and nimbly flipped through the window. Wiping his hands on his clothes, he grabbed two ripe, reddened peaches – the smaller one he held between his teeth, the larger one he tossed and caught a couple times in his hand. Then he slipped out through another window and continued running while holding the peach in his mouth, teasing those poor, exhausted pursuers.

Only when he estimated that the prisoners in the county jail should have all escaped did he conceal his footsteps and tracks, circling around several times to confirm no one was following, then returned to the Reflection Hall.

Having witnessed that earth-shaking public jailbreak, both Baozhu and Yang Xingjian stared at him in amazement, not knowing what to say.

Wei Xun crunched on his peach and handed the other one to Baozhu.

Baozhu blankly reached out to take it, not knowing how to bite into it. Holding the whole peach and examining it repeatedly, she opened her small mouth and gently bit down, only managing to nibble off a bit of peach skin.

Wei Xun couldn’t help but laugh, remembering that this precious princess had never eaten whole fruit – she always had servants peel the skin and carefully cut it into small pieces. So he took the peach back from her hands, neatly broke it in half, and handed it back to her, simultaneously giving a mischievous smile with eyes full of teasing.

Only then did Baozhu slightly come to her senses, knowing he was mocking her inability to eat whole fruit. Her face reddened as she stammered: “Cutting it up to eat prevents eating worms.”

Wei Xun laughed: “Yes, yes, if half a worm appeared, that would be a disaster – tears would surely rain from the sky.”