“Protect His Highness!” Li Fang shrieked, his eunuch’s characteristically shrill, high-pitched voice cutting through the howling north wind and piercing into the night sky filled with goose-feather snow.

Seeing that green light slashing toward them like lightning, Prince Yu froze momentarily.

Too late to retreat into the courtyard, Li Fang simply pushed Prince Yu into the carriage, slamming the door shut with a bang. He guarded the carriage door while three guards drew their sabers to defend the front of the carriage, their blade tips trembling uncontrollably—they were afraid too!

There was no coachman—Prince Yu’s mansion was so poor that guards doubled as drivers, one person doing two jobs for one salary.

Serving at Prince Yu’s impoverished mansion, receiving only that meager dead wage each month with no other benefits, wasn’t worth dying for.

But if Prince Yu came to harm, they would all die.

Just as the green light was about to charge forward, a thunderous boom erupted. A golden burst of fire exploded in front of the green light, with flying ice shards and snowflakes blooming in the air like a white lotus.

The thunderous sound actually stopped the green-glowing black specter’s attack. The specter halted in place, making gurgling sounds.

“Get Prince Yu into the main courtyard—leave this to us!” a voice called from behind.

The three guards looked back to see Wang Daxia and Lu Ying, each holding a flintlock gun aimed at the black specter. Wang Daxia’s gun barrel was still smoking—he had fired the shot.

This cilantro-hating cripple had quite good marksmanship.

Li Fang reacted fastest, opening the carriage door and helping Prince Yu down. Wei Caiwei also emerged from the rear carriage. She had no martial skills, but possessed experience from fighting black specters in her previous life.

When the black specter appeared, she poured alertness-enhancing medicinal liquid onto a stack of thick cotton face coverings (masks). The liquid soaked through the cotton padding inside—this was a formula she had developed this month in the palace, even personally wearing such wet face coverings and burning hallucinogenic smoke to test on herself.

Personal testing proved it worked, able to resist for a while.

Black specters weren’t frightening—they were just dogs—but the hallucinogenic black smoke was dangerous. Wei Caiwei had been seeking countermeasures all month.

After preparing, Wei Caiwei took the medicine-soaked face coverings from the carriage and tied them over the faces of Wang Daxia and Lu Ying, who were in a standoff with the distant green-glowing black specter while holding flintlock guns, wrapping their mouths and noses securely.

Unable to describe her previous life’s experiences, Wei Caiwei could only say, “Don’t be too nervous—just treat the black specter like a mad dog. These face coverings can prevent you from inhaling black gas and keep you conscious.”

The “don’t be nervous” was meant for Wang Daxia—Lu Ying feared neither ghosts nor spirits, but Wang Daxia was scared!

While tying the wet face covering on Wang Daxia, she could feel his face trembling and even hear his chattering teeth.

Wei Caiwei took a spare for herself and stuffed the remaining face coverings under Lu Ying and Wang Daxia’s armor.

After firing once, flintlock guns needed reloading with gunpowder and bullets. Wang Daxia finished reloading and was using a ramrod to pack the gunpowder and bullet firmly. Though afraid of ghosts, with his fiancée beside him, he couldn’t show cowardice, so he feigned composure:

“Quickly follow Prince Yu into the courtyard to hide. We’ll handle the black specter—it’s just a dog emitting green light. I’m not afraid.”

Wei Caiwei pretended to believe his nonsense. “Good, I’ll go now.”

Wei Caiwei ran toward Prince Yu and the others. Seeing Prince Yu moving toward the courtyard gate, the black specter also sprinted toward the entrance.

Lu Ying kept watching it, her gun muzzle following the green light’s movement before firing.

Boom!

Another gunshot. The green light stopped charging and let out a whimper.

By then Wang Daxia had used the ramrod to pack the gunpowder and bullet firmly, aiming at the motionless green light in the snow.

Just then, a sharp whistle sounded. The green light stopped pursuing Prince Yu, turning to run toward the whistle sound and disappearing into the bare woods.

Wei Caiwei, Prince Yu and the others also ran into the main courtyard, closing the gate.

Hearing the whistle, Wang Daxia thought: isn’t that calling a dog? A whistle made it leave—so he was no longer afraid of the black specter. While reloading gunpowder and bullets, he walked with Lu Ying to where the specter had been hit. By torchlight and snow-reflected light, they clearly saw several drops of dark red blood in the snow and… several scattered tufts of hair!

Lu Ying’s shot had wounded the specter’s fur.

The hair still glowed with green fluorescence. Lu Ying twisted the green fur between her fingers, and her fingers also picked up the green glow.

“It’s powdered fluorite,” Lu Ying said. “Someone is definitely playing supernatural tricks, using black specter legends to target Prince Yu.”

Wang Daxia removed his wet face covering and dabbed the dark red blood with his index finger, licking it with his tongue. “A fishy-sweet taste. Monster blood would be black and foul—this is clearly animal blood.”

Lu Ying felt nauseated. “Can’t you break the habit of tasting everything? A gentleman uses his hands, not his mouth. What if this animal has disease? Dr. Wei putting a face covering on you couldn’t stop you from using your mouth.”

Bah, bah, bah! Wang Daxia immediately spat it out, grabbed some icicles hanging from a tree to chew and rinse, spat out ice water, and put the wet face covering back on.

Lu Ying collected the green fur. “This is evidence.”

Wang Daxia looked toward the snowy woods. “Wonder where the black specter ran off to.”

Woof woof!

Dog barking sounded—Wu Xiaoqi and five other Embroidered Uniform Guards disguised as craftsmen came to provide support. Following Lu Ying’s arrangements, Wu Xiaoqi had taken a carefully fed and trained Shandong greyhound from the Embroidered Uniform Guard office that afternoon, smeared it with black ash and trimmed some fur, turning a pure white greyhound without mixed coloring—handsome enough to be the Wang Daxia of dogs—into a disheveled undercover stray dog and led it into Prince Yu mansion’s work sheds.

Hearing gunshots, Wu Xiaoqi immediately brought the greyhound Little Wang to support his superiors.

Lu Ying let Little Wang smell the green fur dropped by the black specter, patting the dog’s head. “This is it—find it.”

Little Wang howled and charged roaring toward the snowy woods. Lu Ying and the others hurried to follow the greyhound into the woods.

Two flowers bloom, each branch tells its tale. Wei Caiwei followed Prince Yu into the main courtyard, where a group of maids and matrons, hearing the commotion, trembled with fear.

Princess Yu barely maintained composure, sitting around a large round table with nine concubines. Today being the eldest daughter’s birthday, Princess Yu had ordered the kitchen to prepare a table of vegetarian dishes and several hotpots. Following Prince Yu’s request to gather the nine concubines, she waited for his return to dine together and stabilize “morale.”

Gunshots echoed outside while hotpots on the dining table bubbled with steam. Princess Yu sat motionless, the nine concubines not daring to move, having to sit despite their fear.

Princess Yu said, “Don’t be afraid, everyone. His Highness handles everything. If His Highness can’t manage, we certainly can’t either. Worrying and fearing are useless—just wait and see here.”

Princess Yu thought: However frightening black specters are, they’re not as scary as having no money!

Poverty is most frightening!

With this thought, Princess Yu gradually calmed down, calculating that she still had considerable salary remaining. If Prince Yu were harmed by black specters, the Imperial Clan Court and Ministry of Rites wouldn’t ignore Prince Yu’s funeral—no need for a widow to pay out of pocket.

Once Prince Yu was gone, with no children in the mansion, there would be no such expenses. Dismissing clerks and officials plus unnecessary servants would reduce expenses further. The remaining silver would suffice for her and the nine concubines’ retirement.

Anyway, life could continue either way. Whether I’m widowed or not makes little difference—I live a widow’s life regardless.

As Princess Yu pondered this, Prince Yu arrived at the main hall surrounded by Li Fang and guards. The last to enter was a woman wearing a face covering, showing only her eyes, who didn’t remove it even inside.

Princess Yu immediately stood up, leading the nine concubines to welcome her husband. “Your Highness, are you alright?”

Seeing ten women calmly sitting at the dining table waiting for his return home, he couldn’t be less composed than women. Prince Yu’s panicked heart settled, and he feigned composure, spreading his arms for Li Fang to untie his thick cotton robe. “I’m fine. Someone was playing supernatural tricks, using black specters to frighten me. That thing fears firearms and has been driven away. They’re pursuing it now.”

Only Li Jiubao recognized from the woman’s medicine bag that the masked woman who had just entered was Wei Caiwei. “Dr. Wei? How did you come?”

Wei Caiwei checked the windows one by one, saying, “I encountered His Highness Prince Yu at Guanghua Temple. Hearing His Highness mention last night’s mansion black specter, having treated palace servants injured by black specters, I followed to investigate. Unexpectedly we encountered the specter’s appearance and my protectors drove it away with gunshots.”

This Dr. Wei truly is the mansion’s savior! She got money from Yan Shifan, solving my urgent need and giving me money to renovate. Tonight she even coincidentally drove away the black specter! Princess Yu warmly invited Wei Caiwei to dine at the table.

With the black specter not eliminated, Wei Caiwei dared not remove her wet face covering. “I’ve already eaten dinner. Please enjoy your meal. I need to check the rear halls.”

Prince Yu said, “Li Fang, take two guards with Dr. Wei.”

“Yes.” Li Fang gestured. “Dr. Wei, this way please.”

Meanwhile, Lu Ying and the others followed Little Wang the greyhound out of the snowy woods. Without needing the dog’s guidance, they could see human footprints and dog paw prints like snow holes in the snow.

The greyhound indeed followed the paw print holes forward, finally stopping before a tightly closed courtyard gate, barking madly at it and clawing the door, scratching claw marks into the freshly painted vermillion gate.

Wang Daxia exclaimed, “Not good! Prince Yu’s mansion has a mole! They let the black specter through the main courtyard’s back gate! Dr. Wei is still inside!”

“Open up!” Wang Daxia frantically kicked the door. But no one responded.

Lu Ying distributed Wei Caiwei’s wet face coverings to Wu Xiaoqi and five subordinates. “The gatekeepers have been controlled. We’re going over the wall. Everyone beware of hallucinogenic smoke.”

Wu Xiaoqi and the others put on wet face coverings, threw rope-attached tiger claw hooks, and climbed over the wall.

Seven people scaled the wall to see two gatekeeping guards lying in the snow, with no external wounds. Lu Ying checked their breathing. “Not dead, just knocked unconscious.”

“Quickly save Dr. Wei.” Wang Daxia followed Little Wang the greyhound, charging to the front.

Author’s Note: Meeting these three people, the black specter is out of luck.