Zhan Xin’s mood was still quite good. The dream buried in his heart for many years was stirring restlessly once again, and this time, it seemed the realization of that dream was no longer distant. Zhan Xin lifted his head, borrowing the remaining glow of the setting sun to gaze at the gray-white city wall. Written on top of the wall were two large characters—Ancheng.

After so many years, he would actually see that person again. Would he really have what he himself wanted? Zhan Xin only felt that he was being toyed with by fate.

The daylight inside Ancheng suddenly darkened considerably, so Zhan Xin quickened his pace. When walking past a corner of a long street, Zhan Xin stopped. He felt he could not move forward anymore, because his gaze had been drawn to something and could no longer be shifted away.

A girl was holding up a fan painting, whispering privately. Turning her head slightly, she discovered a tall man standing behind her, staring at her without even blinking. The girl let out a soft cry, dropped the fan painting, and ran away. The fan painting shop owner, seeing this, became furious and shouted: “What are you doing? You’ve ruined my business!”

Zhan Xin said nothing. He slammed a silver ingot on the owner’s shelf, held up the fan painting, and faced the twilight sunlight with an intoxicated smile on his face. The fan painting shop owner felt he had encountered a madman, resentfully collected the silver, and left. Zhan Xin swayed the fan painting. Actually, the fan painting did not have much scenery—only a high-gated mansion hidden among natural mountains and waters. Outside the gate was a swing gently swaying upward, with a handkerchief embroidered with a lady fallen beneath the swing. In Zhan Xin’s ears, he seemed to hear the voice of a girl with a sweet voice, laughing playfully and saying: “My handkerchief fell outside, I’ll go find it.”

Zhan Xin’s eyes radiated an unusual gleam, firmly fixed on that large gate.

The door opened little by little, and a slender figure slowly flowed out, so beautiful…

The door opened wide. In Zhan Xin’s eyes, all things behind the door surged forth, brilliant and dazzling! Zhan Xin lost himself completely. Even when he finally heard a miserable scream, Zhan Xin did not understand that this scream actually belonged to himself!

Li Si was exhausted. The inconceivable scenes that had occurred over these past two days passed through his mind, causing Li Si to toss and turn, unable to sleep. Li Si turned over and discovered a strange black shadow appearing at his door, pressing against it and pounding hard on the door.

“Who is it?”

“It’s me, Feng Cheng. Head Constable Li, something has happened!”

Li Si opened the door and asked: “What is it?”

“Another—another person has died!” Feng Cheng was nearly crying. Li Si was no better off. This was what they called “good things don’t come in pairs, but misfortunes come together.”

Late at night, at the county yamen, in the corpse-storage room.

Li Si looked at the newly delivered deceased and noticed that Feng Cheng’s complexion remained terrible. Li Si felt something was amiss and asked: “Did you discover something?”

Feng Cheng nodded and retrieved a small silver badge from a nearby small shelf. On the silver badge, several characters were engraved in seal script—Liufeng Hall Zhan Xin Respectfully Serves. Li Si was also a person of the imperial court. Although he was unwilling to associate with the false faces of officialdom, he had heard of the reputation of Liufeng Hall. It was an official power established single-handedly by the current Crown Prince, containing many important court ministers. This so-called “Respectfully Serves” meant someone who could be called by name, so presumably his official rank would not be low either.

“Head Constable Li, this is serious trouble now. A person from Liufeng Hall has died in Ancheng. I estimate Ancheng won’t lack for a storm of blood and carnage.” Feng Cheng said with a miserable expression.

“It’s useless to say more. First, let’s examine the deceased.”

Zhan Xin lay flat on the corpse bed, his facial features relaxed, a trace of strange smile frozen at the corner of his mouth, his eyes slightly open, as if looking at or remembering something. His clothing was neatly arranged without anything unusual. Feng Cheng’s forehead was covered in sweat. He sighed and said: “Strange. Not a single wound was discovered anywhere on his entire body, yet the person died like this. How could he have died?”

Li Si also carefully examined him from top to bottom. His gaze collected, and he suddenly said: “Constable Feng, look at his right hand.”

Feng Cheng hurried to look and saw Zhan Xin’s right thumb standing upright with four fingers slightly gathered, all appearing to be exerting force. Feng Cheng detected some clues and said: “Could it be that before he died, he had something in his hand, gripping it with this right hand? But after death, nothing was discovered. Was it taken by someone?”

Li Si nodded and said: “There’s this possibility. An outsider coming to Ancheng like this shouldn’t go unnoticed. Constable Feng, increase the manpower. We need witnesses who were present at the time.”

Feng Cheng nodded in agreement, sighing inwardly: It seems this constable from outside truly has some discernment.

“But what about his cause of death? It couldn’t be just a sudden death for no reason, could it?” Feng Cheng wondered doubtfully.

Li Si’s gaze shifted, meeting Zhan Xin’s gaze. Li Si’s heart stirred. He bent down slightly and lifted Zhan Xin’s slightly opened eyes. A needle as thin as gossamer was deeply stabbed into Zhan Xin’s eyes, penetrating more than half, with only the tail of the needle remaining outside.

Li Si pinched the needle tail and slowly drew out the silver needle. Feng Cheng stared in amazement, opening his mouth wide and saying: “Killing someone with a needle in the eye—unheard of, completely unheard of!”

Li Si looked at the silver needle, his expression growing colder bit by bit, murmuring: “The killer had already prepared to kill. I have a premonition that this killing game has not yet ended and will continue to occur.”

Hearing this, Feng Cheng’s expression became solemn.

Li Si stared at Zhan Xin’s calm gaze and said in a low voice: “But what exactly did he see that made him smile even in death?”

Li Si was staring, entranced, when a scream suddenly transmitted into the corpse-storage room. Feng Cheng’s complexion instantly turned deathly white, stammering: “Could it be—could it be that another life has been lost?”

Feng Cheng’s words had barely fallen when Li Si had already rushed out. The sound came from behind the corpse-storage room. Li Si circled around the black house. Behind the corpse-storage room was only a high wall piercing into the night. Li Si did not hesitate—his entire person flew up like a giant night bird.

Outside the wall was the beef noodle shop that Li Si frequently visited. Could something dangerous have happened to the old man?

This side of the wall was very dim. Li Si’s feet suddenly slipped, and at the same time, a strong odor rushed toward him. Li Si’s brain buzzed—this strong smell was so familiar—it was blood!

A large pool of blood appeared prominently beneath Li Si’s feet, spreading through the courtyard like a small river. Li Si’s heart turned cold. Whose blood was this? Could it be that the old man had already been harmed? Could he be the third victim in this series of bizarre murder cases?

There was only one path. Li Si stepped into the pool of blood and shouted toward the shop: “Old sir, are you there?”

No one in the shop responded—only a bit of candlelight flickered in the corner. Li Si had just prepared to walk toward the shop interior when his feet suddenly tightened. Li Si looked down. In the dark red pool of blood, a pair of bloody hands grabbed Li Si’s feet, gripping tightly and not letting go.

Following this, a weak voice came: “Save me, save me…”

“Is that you?” Li Si discovered that the person at his feet was precisely the noodle shop old man. But at this moment, the old man was covered all over with bloody filth, a pair of eyes looking at Li Si with lingering fear. If one did not look carefully, one fundamentally could not distinguish whether he was human or ghost.

“Old sir, what exactly happened here?” Li Si asked.

The old man’s cloudy eyes were filled with terror, his voice eerie, saying: “A door—there’s a door there!”

A door? Li Si’s heart jumped in alarm. His gaze followed the old man’s and looked over, but at the end of his line of sight was only a dead tree. Where was any door?

The old man struggled to stand up, his gaze filled with horror as he said: “Head Constable Li, I’m not lying to you. Just now, there really was a door on that tree—a pitch-black door. After the door opened, a great deal of blood gushed out, and also, also a human face!”

“A human face?” Li Si was alarmed once again and asked.

The old man nodded: “At the time, I wanted to escape. But that human face was like it was alive—it swam over and stuck to my face. I screamed miserably once, then had no more memory. When I woke up, I saw you.”

The sharp branches of the dead tree pointed toward the sky. Li Si looked at it, and suddenly a strange and terrifying thought arose in his heart—could the door be the legendary ghost gate through which hundreds of ghosts travel at night?!

The noodle shop old man had received quite a fright. All night long, he talked to himself. Li Si, worried he might have an accident, accompanied the old man until daybreak. When the old man’s snoring rose continuously, only then did Li Si yawn and walk out of the noodle shop. The wind at dawn was the coldest—this was also when people were most vulnerable.

The various terrors of last night seemed to have already dissipated without a trace in the dawn light of the new day’s arrival. Li Si’s mood gradually calmed. He began to use his mind to calmly place himself outside the situation, seeking an alternative path to think. Sometimes it was just like this: those in the game were confused, while observers saw clearly.

Li Si turned from the noodle shop alley into another narrow lane. At the end of the narrow lane was the county yamen main gate.

In the thin daylight, a figure kept following behind Li Si. Li Si quickened his pace, and the person behind followed like a shadow.

After turning into a lane entrance, the figure stopped in its tracks, because Li Si had disappeared. The figure stood dazed in place. The top of its head suddenly itched, as if someone were scratching its scalp. The figure looked up—Li Si was bracing both legs against the wall, positioned in mid-air. Li Si looked at the figure and suddenly smiled: “It’s been a while. Following me so early in the morning—truly hard work. How about I treat you to a meal?”

The tall, thin figure gave a cold laugh. His hand moved toward his waist. After a flash of golden light, both the tall, thin figure and Li Si disappeared.

—They, one, two—where are the people?

Yu Laotou, the owner of the beef noodle shop, rubbed his eyes. Last night’s dead tree ghost gate had left him terrified. Having lived for decades, this was the first time he had encountered something that made his back tingle just thinking about it. Yu Laotou secretly decided he must cut down that dead tree. Yu Laotou lifted his head to look at Li Si in the corner of the shop, thinking: This Head Constable Li stayed up all night watching over me last night—truly a good constable.

“Eat.” After Li Si said the word “eat,” he wolfed down three bowls of steaming hot spicy beef noodles. This Yu Laotou was probably grateful for his care and gave him a free meal—this could not be wasted. Li Si set down the third empty bowl on the table before saying his second sentence: “Why aren’t you eating?”

The person sitting across from Li Si had a tall, thin build with a golden blade fastened at his waist. He said indifferently: “You said you’d treat me to a meal. I thought it would be some kind of delicacies from the mountains and seas, but it’s just noodles.”

“Ha, you still have the nerve to say that. Following behind my ass so early in the morning—if I hadn’t recognized you, this old friend, first, I’m afraid I would have already smashed my fist into your face.” Li Si looked at the person before him and said, “Xuan Yuanshan, do you know why I could recognize you at once?”

Xuan Yuanshan shook his head.

“It’s because of that face of yours, cold as the thousand-year-old ice of Tianchi. It would be hard for me not to recognize you.” Actually, Li Si knew that Xuan Yuanshan had received inhuman training since childhood. Although he had trained exceptional skills, he had simultaneously developed this eternally unchanging cold face. Li Si had long since had no other recourse but to accept this helplessly. Li Si wiped his mouth. “Really, eating a meal with you is even more uncomfortable than going to see Old Man Yama. Even what goes into my stomach is cold. I’m not eating anymore.” Li Si said with a burp.

“You’re not eating anymore?” Xuan Yuanshan asked.

“Not anymore.”

“Good.” Xuan Yuanshan picked up his chopsticks and methodically began eating the noodles before him. Li Si watched with amusement and said: “I thought you weren’t going to eat!”

Xuan Yuanshan just focused on eating his noodles, coldly releasing a sentence: “When two people are together, at least one person must be completely alert.”

Li Si smiled. This was Xuan Yuanshan—his old friend Xuan Yuanshan whom he had known for ten years, and also one of the current three great god-catchers, “Golden Blade” Xuan Yuanshan. Li Si looked at Xuan Yuanshan with warmth in his gaze.

Xuan Yuanshan finished eating. He ate very cleanly. After finishing, he used his personal handkerchief to wipe from inside to outside once before looking at Li Si and saying: “Ask. I know you have a bellyful of questions to ask me.”

“Good, I was just waiting for you to say that.” Li Si paused and asked, “You’ve always stayed in Jinyang Prefecture. Why have you traveled thousands of miles this time to come to this western frontier small city?”

“For one person.”

“Who?”

“Zhan Xin, the Crown Prince’s Ritual Teacher.” Xuan Yuanshan answered without reservation.

“As expected, it’s him.” Li Si sighed and said, “I’m afraid this time he won’t be able to return.”

“Why?” Xuan Yuanshan’s gaze turned cold as he asked.

“Because he’s already dead.”

“Oh.” Xuan Yuanshan looked indifferently at the empty bowl. “I still want to see him.”

Zhan Xin’s facial features were stiff, with light-colored corpse spots appearing on his skin. Xuan Yuanshan looked at Zhan Xin, thinking to himself that he had seen Zhan Xin a total of three times. Once was in the ritual hall of the Crown Prince’s residence, when he was teaching ritual to the Crown Prince. Another time was in the Ministry of Justice prison, when Zhan Xin, bearing the Crown Prince’s token, imprisoned an entire family of over twenty people of an external official. And the third time was this moment, yet they were already separated by life and death. Xuan Yuanshan looked at the fatal silver needle beside Zhan Xin’s corpse and fell silent for a moment.

Li Si could not help but ask: “Don’t you want to ask me who killed him?”

“If you knew, you would have told me already. You’re not saying anything, which means you still don’t know. Since you don’t know, naturally I have no need to ask you.” There was no emotional fluctuation whatsoever in Xuan Yuanshan’s words. Li Si always felt something odd when hearing him speak, murmuring: “Xuan Yuanshan, in all these years you’ve been working as a constable, has anyone ever told you that you’re like a monster?”

“Yes!” Xuan Yuanshan suddenly squeezed out a trace of a smile from the corner of his mouth, though it looked not much better than crying, saying: “They always say I’m a monster, because I keep company with monsters all day long.” After Xuan Yuanshan finished speaking, he glanced at Li Si meaningfully.

Li Si felt anger rising in his heart. Xuan Yuanshan continued: “Since Zhan Xin is dead, the Crown Prince will definitely not let this rest. I don’t know his relationship with the Crown Prince, but since he could mobilize me to search for Zhan Xin, it shows the Crown Prince values him greatly. I estimate that before long, the Crown Prince’s people will arrive. Li Si, you must prepare early.”

Li Si smiled and patted Xuan Yuanshan’s shoulder, saying: “I had no preparation before, but now that you’ve come, I have preparation.”

Xuan Yuanshan turned his head to look at Li Si. Li Si was smiling—the very wicked kind of smile.

Xuan Yuanshan gave a soft snort, thinking to himself: Very unfortunately, he had boarded the pirate ship once again.