The White Lotus Sect laborer had all ten fingernails and toenails pulled out from the roots, his left eye blinded by wax oil dripping on it, with only his right eye remaining.

Just as the transparent wax oil was about to drip on his right eye, the laborer confessed, “…Intelligence Hall is… Madam Wen Si, the madam of Red Sleeves Beckoning. When high officials and nobles come to Red Sleeves Beckoning to conduct business, the walls have ears—everything is recorded by Madam Wen Si’s male procurers and sent to the cult leader. The cult leader presents Ming Dynasty intelligence to An Da Khan in exchange for protection of the White Lotus Sect.”

Red Sleeves Beckoning was right by Jishuitan Lake!

The night before last, cult leader Zhao Quan had held a banquet on the pleasure boat at the Lakeside Inn, and had also invited the courtesan from Red Sleeves Beckoning to perform song and dance!

Lu Bing said, “Immediately send word by carrier pigeon to Commander Lu, telling her to bring men to surround Red Sleeves Beckoning at once.”

Lu Ying was closer.

Lu Bing looked at the lightning, thunder, and torrential rain. “In this weather, carrier pigeons easily get lost. Release several, and also dispatch fast horses. We absolutely cannot let this message slip through.”

Lu Bing had worked as an Imperial Guard for many years and was meticulous in every detail. His subordinates received orders and departed.

Just then, guards brought the confession of the Royal Arsenal technician. This man was greedy for life and afraid of death—he confessed before any torture was even applied.

It turned out he was lustful and frequently visited low-class pleasure quarters, seeking cheap prostitutes and such. He would never go to places like Red Sleeves Beckoning where even a pot of tea cost one tael of silver.

Five years ago one evening, he was stopped on the road by an unfamiliar woman. The woman was shabbily dressed and gaunt, but good-looking. The woman told him that she would sleep with him once for just a full meal.

He bought the woman a basket of steamed buns. The woman wolfed them down voraciously, wrapped the remainder in a handkerchief, and indeed led him to a small shack where vagrants gathered outside the city.

The woman voluntarily undressed, and beneath her crude clothing was an exceptionally beautiful woman. He immediately pounced on her, gave the woman some money, and took her three times.

Later, whether from exhaustion or some other reason, he lost consciousness. When he awoke, he was still on top of the woman, his hands around the beautiful woman’s neck. The woman’s eyes bulged wide, her tongue protruding halfway, already dead, her body cold.

He panicked and tried to flee, but a man entered and blocked him in the shack, claiming to be the woman’s husband and threatening to drag him to the Shuntian Prefecture office to accuse him of rape and murder.

Still undressed, he knelt and begged for mercy, kowtowing until his forehead bled. The man finally relented, saying he only needed to cooperate in one matter—not only would he not report him, but he would give him money so he could possess beauties throughout the realm.

Actually, after that incident, which left deep psychological trauma, he could no longer even achieve an erection. His wife despised him and they slept in separate rooms—how could he seek other women?

Following the man’s demands, he claimed the man was his distant cousin who had lost all his family and come to the city seeking relatives. He introduced his “cousin” to the Royal Arsenal’s hiring staff and even gave bribes to arrange for his “cousin” to work odd jobs in the Royal Arsenal scrap warehouse.

For these five years, every month he deliberately marked dozens of perfectly functional firearms as “defective” and sent them to the scrap warehouse. Then after work, he would visit his distant cousin’s home to “socialize” and repair the firearms.

As for who his “cousin” really was and where the firearms went, he was too timid and cowardly to ask anything.

The technician cried with snot and tears streaming: “…He gave me some money, but I didn’t dare use it! Besides, I’m already ‘incapable,’ so even if I had money there’s nowhere to spend it. I dug a hole under the floor bricks beneath my bed and put all the silver there—I haven’t spent a single coin.”

The jailer could hardly believe it. “Dozens each month? For nearly five years? Almost a thousand pieces? Even if you had a thousand heads it wouldn’t be enough to chop off! You were just this obedient? Completely under someone’s thumb?”

The technician cried, “At first, my cousin said it would just be one year, then he wouldn’t bother me anymore. But after one year came another year, after two years came two more years. Initially he threatened me with that woman’s corpse, then later he threatened me saying I’d already stolen for a year and the quantity was enough for execution.”

“Just last month, I really couldn’t take it anymore and told my cousin that if he kept pushing me I’d go insane—I’d rather die. My cousin told me to hold on a bit longer, that by year’s end he definitely wouldn’t come looking for me anymore. I thought, since I’d come this far, I might as well work until year’s end. Who would have thought the Imperial Guards would come knocking!”

“I deeply regret this now. I shouldn’t have lost control of myself and followed that streetwalker to the shack for such sordid business. If I’d just done it once and left, perhaps nothing would have happened later, but my lust made me do it three times. I shouldn’t have been scared by my cousin into kneeling and begging—this was their honey trap. That woman must have been strangled by my cousin to frame me. If I had just charged out of the shack then, my cousin wouldn’t have dared stop me, and I wouldn’t have been blackmailed into stealing firearms…”

The rest of the confession was all the technician’s words of regret, which so infuriated Lu Bing that he slammed the confession on the table. “As a man, if he can’t control his three-inch flesh, what use is he? If he can’t control it, then he doesn’t need it! Cut it off!”

The jailer received orders and departed. A guard entered carrying a cage with two wet pigeons inside, and also held two wax-sealed thin bamboo tubes.

The guard said, “When our men were searching the laborer’s house, two pigeons flew successively into a nest under the eaves. We caught the pigeons and discovered bamboo tubes tied to their feet—these are carrier pigeons.”

The guard opened the bamboo tubes. Inside were a note and a white pill. The note read: “Your identity has been exposed. The cult leader bestows medicine to help you ascend to the paradise of eternal life. Swallow the pill immediately and release the carrier pigeon to return with word.”

The other bamboo tube contained an identical note and pill.

The guard said, “We were very lucky. Both their carrier pigeons got lost in the stormy night and only flew over after we had captured the laborer. Otherwise, the laborer would have taken poison and killed himself, the technician knew nothing, and we never could have discovered that Intelligence Hall was the madam of Red Sleeves Beckoning.”

Lu Bing read the note repeatedly, his brow deeply furrowed. Having worked in this profession for years, his intuition and perception were unmatched. Outside, lightning flashed and thunder roared, while his mind buzzed. Suddenly, like a bolt of lightning splitting the night sky, Lu Bing realized what this note meant. His hand loosened involuntarily and the note fluttered to the ground.

The guard thought Lu Bing was having another stroke and rushed to call Imperial Physician Song.

“Stop!” Lu Bing shouted loudly. “Immediately send word by carrier pigeon—release all the carrier pigeons we have and tell Commander Lu not to approach Red Sleeves Beckoning! Only set up roadblocks near Red Sleeves Beckoning, but don’t go in! Don’t go in! Don’t go in! Whatever happens, don’t approach!”

“Also dispatch all our fast horses with the same message, in case the carrier pigeons are lost.”

This old fox Lu Bing had perceived Intelligence Hall’s intentions.

Since the madam of Red Sleeves Beckoning was Intelligence Hall who had built the All-Goods Trading House, she knew all about the tunnels and contacts. When the fisherman on Jishuitan Lake diverted Lu Ying’s pursuers, cult leader Zhao Quan had already quietly run to Red Sleeves Beckoning to seek Intelligence Hall’s protection.

Intelligence Hall and the cult leader were making worst-case preparations. They expected that if Military Strategist Wu Dianyong, one of the Four Great Propagators, couldn’t withstand severe torture and betrayed the cult leader, that would be a small matter—after all, Wu Dianyong didn’t know who Intelligence Hall was or about the secret tunnel under his bed. They could just treat the Military Strategist as an expendable pawn.

But once Wu Dianyong revealed that the firearms in the All-Goods Trading House underground warehouse came from two people at the Royal Arsenal who were stealing from their posts, exposing the laborer and technician, the laborer would be arrested by the Imperial Guards—and the laborer was Intelligence Hall’s person who knew Intelligence Hall was Madam Wen Si of Red Sleeves Beckoning. The Imperial Guards would definitely deduce that the cult leader was hiding at Red Sleeves Beckoning.

During the night curfew, movement was impossible, so Intelligence Hall could only use carrier pigeons to tell the laborer to take poison and kill himself to silence him. The note also instructed the laborer to immediately release the returning carrier pigeon after taking the medicine to indicate receipt, so Intelligence Hall’s identity wouldn’t be exposed.

However, on this stormy night, carrier pigeons were easily startled or lost their way. The carrier pigeons were delayed by about half an hour, and the laborer had already been captured by the Imperial Guards.

After waiting for half an hour without receiving the laborer’s reply, Intelligence Hall could definitely guess what had happened to the laborer.

These people who betrayed their country, harmed their own compatriots, and belonged to a heretical cult wouldn’t trust their subordinates’ loyalty, especially given the Imperial Guards’ notorious reputation for severe torture.

So Intelligence Hall would make the worst-case assumption—that the laborer had confessed Red Sleeves Beckoning’s secrets.

Given the White Lotus Sect’s deranged nature, they definitely wouldn’t surrender meekly, which meant… Red Sleeves Beckoning by Jishuitan Lake was now a trap!

Waiting for Lu Ying and the others to enter, then perish together!

Thinking that Lu Ying was about to fall into a trap—and it was information he had personally sent out, wanting her to achieve great merit by personally capturing Intelligence Hall—but Red Sleeves Beckoning was now a death trap waiting for prey to jump in.

If something happened, he would have personally caused his precious daughter’s death.

At this thought, Lu Bing became frantic with anxiety. Unable to remain at Imperial Guard headquarters directing operations, he stood up, put on a lined jacket, donned a bamboo hat and rain cape. “Bring me the sweating blood horse His Majesty bestowed upon me.”

He was going to personally ride to Jishuitan Lake to stop Lu Ying.

The guard hastily advised, “The rain is heavy and the wind fierce outside. Lord Lu’s body can’t withstand it. Please take a carriage instead.”

“No, carriages are too slow, far inferior to my precious horse.” Lu Bing picked up his Embroidered Spring Blade. “I’ve been summoned to the palace countless times on nights like this to handle affairs for His Majesty and resolve his worries. Even in heavy snow with icy roads, I went without fail. As a father, can’t I make one night ride through the rain for my own daughter’s safety?”

The guard knew Lu Bing’s mind was made up and brought the imperial gift sweating blood horse. There were only two in all of Beijing, belonging to Emperor Jiajing and Lu Bing respectively. Even Yan Shifan didn’t have one.

The sweating blood horse had a beautiful, slender build, much smaller than ordinary Dayuan warhorses. Her entire body was pale gold, emitting golden light even in the darkness. Except for a tuft of golden mane on her neck, the rest of her body was nearly hairless, with extremely thin skin—holding up a lantern for a closer look, one could see blue blood vessels on the horse’s body.

Truly a divine steed, almost too precious to ride.

Lu Bing fed the sweating blood horse a handful of beans mixed with salt, then mounted, gripped the horse’s sides, and shouted “Hyah!”

The golden horse immediately took off on her slender legs, like a bolt of lightning, vanishing into the darkness in an instant.

The guard stared in amazement—perhaps this was truly the legendary divine steed.

Lu Bing raced on the ground while a flock of carrier pigeons flew through the stormy sky above.

This sweating blood horse’s speed was actually no slower than the pigeons!

Thunder rolled continuously, lightning flashed and thunder roared, the wind grew fiercer, the rain more violent, as if evil spirits were howling.

The pigeons were timid—immediately some were scared to death with sudden cardiac arrest, falling one by one from the sky to the ground.

Continuously, pigeons died of fright, left formation, got lost, or simply landed on rooftops or tree branches as “deserter pigeons.”

The pigeons in the stormy night sky grew fewer and fewer, their formation in chaos, diminishing layer by layer like this book’s author’s hairline, becoming increasingly sparse.

But while the carrier pigeons in the night sky dwindled, Lu Bing riding his sweating blood horse on the ground showed no retreat—instead growing braver and faster as he rode!

The golden horse had already broken into full gallop, excitedly breaking through curtains of rain, her slender legs alternating at speeds invisible to the naked eye, running so fast her four hooves seemed barely to touch the ground.

Lu Bing was like riding a golden bolt of lightning that would never fade, cleaving through the night curtain and rain screen, striking toward Jishuitan Lake!

Author’s Note: Wang Daxia (feeling wronged): Look! Just look at other people’s fathers!

In the Jinjiang forums, the author is called “GuGu,” meaning pigeon. Although Lanzhou’s updates are more punctual than menstruation and basically never leave readers hanging, her hair is very much like the pigeon flock in the storm—falling more and more, becoming fewer and fewer. Since embarking on this path of no return called writing, Zhou’s hairs have successively proposed breakups, and those remaining are basically true love—though who knows how long true love will last. Zhou needs everyone’s comments for comfort.