There is an old saying: a great merchant’s goods reach every place, his footsteps touch every land, his ambition races toward every opportunity, his calculations are precise in every matter, his strength is devoted to every task, his authority grasps at everything… Nowadays, most of the great merchants in the markets of Yandu came from Weiyan, and the Ping family was among the most outstanding of Weiyan Commandery.

Chen Dasheng looked at Ping Shen earnestly and said, “Shopkeeper Ping speaks too heavily. Please don’t call me your ancestor — this is nothing more than idle talk others have made in jest.”

Ping Shen set his cloak on a nearby chair, and had only just sat down when he saw Marquis Chen personally lift the teapot to pour water for him. In an instant, the shopkeeper shot up as if there were a nail beneath him, repeatedly saying he did not dare accept such treatment.

But Chen Dasheng continued earnestly pouring water for him anyway. Ping Shen, having no choice, could only bow with both hands cupping the cup, thanking him again and again.

His manner made Chen Dasheng laugh.

Then, recalling something from the past, he said to Ping Shen, “In the old days my family was poor, and the land we farmed belonged to a landlord’s household. Back then, if the family wanted a little firewood, rice, oil, and salt, we relied on planting some mixed vegetables along the field edges to sell…”

Ping Shen quickly said this must have been difficult, but Chen Dasheng shook his head. “Ah, these past years I’ve often found myself thinking — my first twenty years, the days I was proudest and happiest, were those poor days at home. Now, even eating gold and swallowing silver, it’s not nearly as joyful as it was then!”

Ping Shen didn’t know what he meant, so he said nothing and simply listened attentively.

Chen Dasheng continued, “What I mean is, dealing with shopkeepers like you reminds me — back then, when the family harvested mixed vegetables we didn’t dare eat much of it ourselves. We’d dry it out and sell it to the restaurants in the city for a bit of pocket money. I remember, I was seven, I think…” Chen Dasheng’s voice drifted for a moment. “Yes, seven! That was when I first saw tofu in a restaurant. I remember it so clearly — the head shopkeeper called it ‘white jade soup.’ Eight coppers for a bowl, and you could sit respectably at a window seat in the shop to eat it.

“That seat was excellent — sitting there you could see the finest boatwomen on the river back in my hometown. My older brother said then that once we had money, we’d come sit in the restaurant and spend those eight big coppers to eat a bowl in style. But — once he’d finally saved enough, the shopkeeper looked down on his tattered clothes, seeing he was just a boy from a vegetable-selling family used to hard labor, and had the tofu brought out for him to eat squatting under the shop’s window… I remember it so clearly. My brother, such a big grown man, ate while crying.”

Ping Shen listened with humble deference. Hearing Chen Dasheng recount such a thing, he didn’t know how to respond, and said with flushed cheeks, “That wasn’t a real businessman — a true businessman would never do such a thing! In our trade, this is the most taboo of all. We always say that bullying customers is the mark of a low-class operation; it will never rise to a two-story establishment.”

Chen Dasheng smiled. “Shopkeeper Ping speaks rightly. Afterward, my family would rather sell our vegetables for less than sell to him again.”

Ping Shen naturally understood the wealthy and powerful of Yandu, and he was well aware that this Marquis Chen had come from indentured servitude. Selling sweet words was a basic skill of the trade, so he smiled and nodded. “That’s exactly the retribution deserved. I once heard the elders in my family say that great wealth and honor must be earned through three disasters and three tribulations. Now that the Marquis has wealth and status, thinking back on the hardships once suffered, that was merely passing through tribulation. Suffering a bit in one’s youth is truly a good thing.”

Having said this, he lifted his teacup, studied it carefully, took a sip, savored it and swallowed before praising it: “This tea liquor is clear and transparent, the fragrance when smelled seems to be there and not there, and one sip leaves a lingering aroma in the throat. Could this be this year’s tribute tea from the Southern Four Commanderies, picked before Qingming?”

Chen Dasheng had no idea what he was talking about and said in bewilderment, “Is that so? There’s this much to say about it? I had no idea — this was given to me last month by Zheng Aman. Is it good tea? Then I owe him quite a favor.”

Ping Shen sighed. “Good tea doesn’t begin to describe it. This is something you couldn’t find for a hundred strings of cash per tael.”

He then lifted the teacup again and sipped it with reverence. Seeing how much he enjoyed it, Chen Dasheng refilled it for him with a smile, saying, “With my background, being able to recognize characters is already remarkable. Good tea, good wine — it’s all the same to me, just something to quench thirst and dissolve worries. Our good days have only lasted a year or so; it wasn’t until coming to Yandu that I learned there’s a whole art to fragrance, tea, and wine. Shopkeeper Ping, with your broad knowledge, you can identify the origin of something with just one sip — that’s truly remarkable, quite a skill!”

Having said this, he generously pushed over that shabby teapot for Ping Shen to drink from as he pleased.

That teapot of his was a freebie thrown in by the porcelain shop at the corner when he bought thirty coarse porcelain bowls — the owner didn’t even charge for it.

Ping Shen was a tea lover, known even for his reputation as a “tea connoisseur.”

Seeing this little young master push the teapot directly in front of him, he laughed, and accepted it as if grateful, though instead of pouring water he began examining the shabby pot itself.

After admiring it for a while, he looked up and said to Chen Dasheng with a smile, “Heh heh, if you want to sell something for a good price, you need to give these objects some history, some story — otherwise how would the wealthy be willing to pay a high price? But truly, once you’ve reached your position, everything returns to its essence! No one would dare put on airs in front of a true deity like you. So tea is tea, wine is wine, fragrance is fragrance — returning to their roots, they exist only to quench thirst, dissolve worries, and dispel gloom.”

Ping Shen set down the teapot, stood, and bowed to Chen Dasheng. “The Old Ancestor adjusted the commercial taxes, giving the merchants of the realm a new path forward. If the Young Ancestor has any orders today, we dare not refuse!”

Hearing him speak this way, Chen Dasheng laughed and asked, “Shopkeeper Ping agrees so readily — aren’t you afraid I might arrange some enormous difficulty for you?”

Ping Shen looked up and smiled. “An enormous difficulty? The Young Ancestor wouldn’t arrange such a thing for me. You and I have only known each other a few days — let alone trust, we’re barely even familiar faces.”

Chen Dasheng nodded. “That’s exactly the reasoning. It’s just a small matter. So then, does Shopkeeper Ping know Wu Xiu, the Overseer of the Ministry of War’s Changying Treasury?”

Ping Shen sat back down and thought for a while before recalling who Wu Xiu was.

In the register of nobles he kept in his head, Wu Xiu wasn’t even on the list.

Once he remembered, he asked, “Could this be the descendant of the former dynasty’s military scholar Wu Yisheng, the younger brother-in-law of Tan Weitong of the Court of Imperial Stud?” Speaking to this point, Ping Shen raised his hand and folded down four fingers: “The crippled one?”

Chen Dasheng nodded. “Precisely him.”

Ping Shen thought it over. “If it’s him, this is simple enough. But I wonder, Young Ancestor, how exactly should the subsidy be given? How long a timeframe?”

Having been steeped in commerce for generations, Ping Shen could guess Chen Dasheng’s purpose at once, though he had no interest in inquiring into the grudges between them.

Chen Dasheng thought about it. “Timeframe? Five years, I suppose. If not five, then seven or eight is fine too. Shopkeeper Ping, you’re experienced — help me think this through. If I want to feed him an appetite that consumes fifty thousand strings a year, how should I go about feeding him?”

Ping Shen lowered his head and thought for a while. “Fifty thousand strings isn’t a huge sum here in Yandu, but since the Marquis’s plan has a short timeframe, the flow will appear larger. If you want it to leave no trace, the setup needs to be complete — my Ping family alone can’t sustain this. If the Marquis wants it handled properly, we’ll have to break it into pieces. Several fellow townsmen from Weiyan Commandery, along with the Xing Prince’s family, various clan relations, and the Great Marquis Yang’s family all have some connections — each family will contribute face and take a share. If you agree, I’ll go down and arrange everything properly for you, and I guarantee it will be handled securely.”

Chen Dasheng was quite curious and asked, “What do you mean by breaking it into pieces?”

Ping Shen smiled. “When a gambler enters the game, his heart always has its superstitions — which house’s luck favors him, at what hour his hand is strongest? Given enough time, they’ll invent their own set of rules about dressing and speaking — what hour to leave the house, which foot to step in with when entering the gambling hall. We can only slowly cultivate him, let him work out this set of rules himself — that’s when it’s easiest to act.

“Today he loses five strings at this house, tomorrow he wins back ten at the wrestling grounds. The city has many gambling establishments — some small operations run by two or three idle men on the street corner, others where a single game involves tens of thousands of taels, and still others where wealthy young masters clash in impromptu wagers of seventy or eighty thousand taels over a verbal dispute. That Wu Xiu, at most, has the appetite for ten or eight strings. If we want to cultivate his hands and feet to grow bolder, we must break it into pieces.”

Ping Shen’s whole explanation of “breaking it into pieces” left Chen Dasheng utterly dumbfounded. He mulled it over for a long while before asking, “Don’t tell me these impromptu wagers among wealthy young masters are also connected to you all?”

Ping Shen smiled proudly, poured himself a cup of tea, and sipped it carefully before saying, “I won’t hide it from the Young Ancestor — these are simply a few life-preserving skills I learned in the past. My master used to say that people are no different from crickets, songbirds, or fighting cocks — if you want to scheme against someone, it all comes down to your skill at teasing them out. Finding the exact itch that matters depends on how far you’ve mastered the craft.”

Chen Dasheng asked him, “So what level has Shopkeeper Ping reached?”

Ping Shen blinked. “With Wu Xiu? Just the level of a light tease. Rest assured, Marquis — those of us from Weiyan Commandery hold honesty and trustworthiness as the very first lesson of doing business. Ordinarily, when nothing’s amiss, we never lightly provoke anyone. But the life of a merchant is cheap — to us, someone who skims one or two layers of profit off us is a good person; someone who skims four or five layers is a patron; and if it’s over half, that’s an enemy. One needs methods to preserve one’s life when out in the world too.”

The more Chen Dasheng listened, the more astonished he became, and inexplicably his mind wandered to something his wife had once said… “Seventh rule: taverns commoners can’t afford, brothels with courtesans, gambling dens, places for dogfighting and cockfighting — the moment you see them, retreat fifty paces and stay far away…” And then his grandmother had added that anyone caught gambling would have their legs broken!

So it really was true after all — everything she’d said turned out correct!

If the family ever established an ancestral hall in the future, this seventh rule should become the very first article of clan law. Breaking a leg would be the lenient punishment — any descendant found gambling more than a hundred coppers should be expelled from the clan entirely.

Ping Shen had good patience. Seeing Chen Dasheng lost in thought, he stopped talking and waited quietly, until Chen Dasheng finally worked it through and asked him, “So then, why bring in the Xing Prince’s relatives and the others?”

Ping Shen smiled. “Money entering eight households is what counts as a genuine gamble with real wins and losses. If it only enters my one family, that’s clearly a setup — no one’s a fool. Wu Xiu is, after all, the son of an official family; he has his own backers. If he loses his temper and goes to investigate after losing everything, could he really demand restitution from eight different households all at once? There will always be people he simply cannot afford to provoke.”

Chen Dasheng had learned something new again. He nodded and asked, “And if this matter, if the silver he loses was embezzled from his official duties, and it alarms the court, then what?”

Ping Shen smiled. “Even His Majesty couldn’t demand silver back from the old Empress Dowager’s maternal family, could he? Not to mention this money isn’t even from the Empress Dowager’s household alone. Wouldn’t you agree? We’re all honest businessmen — he came in on his own and lost his silver; no one dragged him through the door.”

Chen Dasheng thought it over and laughed. “Indeed, exactly so. Shopkeeper Ping speaks well.” Then, he pointed at the gold on the table. “There are two thousand taels of gold here, worth roughly twenty-three thousand strings in cash. When the shopkeeper leaves, he’ll take it with him. Rest assured — this year twenty thousand strings, next year forty thousand. I will never let you suffer a single copper’s loss.”

But Shopkeeper Ping smiled and shook his head. “Marquis, if arranged this way, you’d be looking down on me. Small as this venture is, it’s still a business — five thousand strings in principal is enough, and who knows, your principal may well double in the end.”

Chen Dasheng’s eyes lit up, and he smiled and asked, “I’d love to hear the details.”

Ping Shen pointed at the plates of gold. “It’s late autumn now, heading into year’s end — every year the big games happen around this time. Rest assured, once this game plays out, I guarantee Wu Xiu will strike it rich. And once an ordinary man comes into wealth, the way he spends it always follows the same pattern. He’ll want a respectable three-thousand-string courtyard house in Yandu; from the Six Steeds stable’s twelve grades of horses, he’ll surely buy one worth a hundred thirty strings, upper-middle grade.

“With a house comes the need for fine furniture, a courtesan to warm his bed, a kitchen maid to cook fragrant meals, and during festivals he’ll need to appear generous and impressive before relatives and friends. Add it all up, piece by piece, and it comes to at most four thousand seven hundred strings, leaving three hundred strings as his capital for next year.”

Chen Dasheng still couldn’t quite grasp the logic and asked in confusion after thinking it over, “Then how will next year’s money be given to him?”

Ping Shen laughed softly. “Piece by piece, of course. Five thousand strings is a large sum — with that much money, friends multiply. Once the first man strikes it rich with five thousand strings, there will be five thousand others behind him thinking the same way. How could someone running the gambling house ever lose money on the deal? Rest assured, whether the appetite you want to cultivate is fifty thousand or a hundred thousand strings, or even a million, we can deliver it for you.”

Chen Dasheng’s heart turned cold as he listened, and back and forth he found himself savoring his wife’s words. Thinking it over carefully now, it all rang true — though his wife had spoken of trivial things like five-string shoes and hundred-string sashes, thinking back, wasn’t it really no different from what Shopkeeper Ping was describing?

As long as he lived simply and modestly the way his wife advised, then even if the Emperor himself set a great trap here in Yandu, he need not fear it. In the end, a person simply needed to stay grounded.

Thinking further that these were words his wife had once mentioned, a hint of pride crept onto his face.

Ping Shen, ever perceptive, noticed Chen Dasheng’s expression of satisfaction and suddenly felt this young ancestor seemed rather unfathomable. Shouldn’t he have been won over by this display of skill and taken Ping Shen into his service from now on? Why didn’t that smile seem directed at him at all?

Chen Dasheng, having quietly praised his wife in his heart, called out toward the door once his moment of satisfaction passed: “Si’er?”

Before long, Guan Si’er came in smiling and asked, “Brother, you called me?”

Chen Dasheng nodded and pointed toward the small storeroom. “That red box Wan Chunyang brought a few days ago — bring it for Shopkeeper Ping. Also pack up the tea leaves Zheng Aman gave us, and bring those along for him too.”

Ping Shen showed no reaction until he took the box Guan Si’er handed him, opened it, and was instantly stunned.

Nothing else — inside the box lay a gilded plaque engraved with the character “She.”

Chen Dasheng smiled at Ping Shen. “Special-issue plaques, I could have as many as I want, but I’ve never been willing to give you that one. Gambling dens, wrestling grounds, brothels — these are all places I despise. Yet having employed you, I shouldn’t wrong you either.

“So let me give the Ping family a leg up instead. I’ve heard that recently the merchant households in the capital have all been trying to secure official status. As it happens, though I have no other talents, matters involving the Twenty-Four Offices are something I can still manage.”

Ping Shen held the plaque with trembling hands. What was this? This was the genuine status of an imperial merchant. With this, his family could change its very standing and be counted among official households.

He clutched the box and dropped to his knees with a thud, stammering out his vow of loyalty, when suddenly a voice came from outside the door: “Captain! Hurry, an assassin has entered the palace…”

Ping Shen jumped in fright, and the box slipped from his hands. Just as it was about to hit the ground, a hand darted in and caught it low against the floor — Guan Si’er, smiling, handed the box back to Ping Shen. “Shopkeeper Ping, this is something important — please hold it steady.”

“Yes, yes, yes! Certainly steady, quite secure!”

Within half an incense stick’s time, Chen Dasheng had already led his men into the Daliang Palace.

At this moment, the Daliang Palace was already in complete chaos. As luck would have it, tonight the Golden Guard was at full strength on duty, and during the first half of the night, Liu Daya, seeing nothing amiss, had shared a couple of drinks with several of his brothers.

Halfway through their drinks, they saw a white-robed Buddhist nun walking along the palace walls, treading across the palace tiles, entering the Daliang Palace.

Anyone entering like this was naturally taken for an assassin. Liu Daya led his brothers forward to surround her, but this nun’s martial skill proved extraordinarily deep — several dozen men closed in on her, but within just a dozen exchanges she had already slashed a great many of them with her sword.

This was clearly someone with the deep internal cultivation of an old recluse — and this nun shouted even as she cut people down: “…Ten-odd years of sworn brotherhood, and you’re the first to betray it! Yang Zao! Come out, Yang Zao…”

The nun, naturally, had no idea in which bedchamber His Majesty was sleeping tonight. Unable to call him out, she began tearing through the entire inner palace.

Along her path, ordinary men couldn’t withstand even a single move from her. Fortunately, she did not kill easily; if anyone stood in her way, she showed no mercy and struck without hesitation, each strike a wound a foot long, instantly draining the fighting spirit of anyone who bore it.

At this moment, His Majesty had been swept up in confusion and, protected by his personal guards, had made his way to Eunuch She’s small courtyard.

There was no other choice — that nun had entered every one of the great halls along her path; no matter how thick the palace gates were, one sweep of her sword split them in two. One could see just how formidable she was.

Eunuch She, startled awake, threw on his robes without lighting a lamp and said to the guards: “Extinguish every light in the palace. Let her rampage as she will. She’s the disciple of Qin She of the Southern School of martial arts — she now goes by the name Qing Buyi… she’s also the senior martial sister of Tan Shize. That level of skill Second General Tan possessed — much of his internal energy was secretly transmitted by her. Even if all of you attacked together, it wouldn’t be enough to stop her blade.”

Having said this, he frowned and asked the astonished Emperor, “Weren’t we told not to let word leak out? It’s only been a few days — how did she already learn of it?”

The Emperor’s expression was strange. Once he’d been settled into a seat by his attendants, he said after a long moment, “Her coming here doesn’t matter much in itself. But listening to her tone? Something feels wrong. I wonder who’s been whispering nonsense in her ear — does she think I’m the one who killed Second Brother Tan? How could that be!”

Eunuch She asked, astonished, “How could this be? Isn’t Qing Buyi no fool? How could she believe such a thing so easily?”

At this point, a nearby guard, Fang You, who had been standing to the side, spoke up: “Grand Eunuch, our captain went up to intercept her earlier and tried to explain, but she cut him down with her sword all the same. Our captain said this nun might have lost her senses entirely.”

“Qing Buyi has gone mad?!” Eunuch She exclaimed in shock. Just then, from the rooftop not far off, ghostlike as if patrolling the night, the nun began to sing: “The wind clears, the season turns cold, the bright moon hangs high in the sky’s hue. The beauty arranges her winter garments, ten thousand knots of the fulling mallet’s toil. Clear dew condenses like jade, cold wind rises in the depths of night. My beloved does not return to rest, wandering carefree beneath the bright moon. Wild geese fly south, young swallows point north. The traveler struggles to bear such longing…”

Eunuch She, moved by something within, sat down slowly and sighed. “The Midnight Songs of the Four Seasons… a woman consumed by devotion… consumed by devotion! What a pity…”

The Emperor sighed as well, and finally said, “Forget it. For Second Brother Tan’s sake, don’t harm her. She’s a pitiable soul too. Just let her be…”

But before he could finish, a tremendous crashing sound was heard, as if some palace hall had had half its roof torn off by the mad nun.

Eunuch She let out a cold laugh. “You still say not to harm her? Better worry about yourself! Change your clothes…”

“I am the Emperor of Great Liang — how could I fear battle? Absolutely not!”

The mad nun, from the rooftop, cried out with heartrending grief: “…Yang Zao, he trusted you most! He trusted you above all! And you betrayed him!”

Emperor Wu sighed helplessly. “I trusted him most too. When have I ever failed him…”

But the mad nun could not hear his explanation. After splitting open another palace gate, she leapt back onto a rooftop and sang mournfully once more: “In autumn I cherish the paired wild geese, in spring I’m moved by the paired swallows. The kite meets the pheasant in the wild fields, when the pheasant falls, who will witness it? I raise my head to look at the parasol tree, its blossoms so pitiable. May the heavens send no frost or snow, may the parasol’s seeds bear fruit for a thousand years… Ze’er, does your senior sister sing well?”

“A-Ze… I’ve prepared myself. When will you come to marry me…”

The Emperor and Eunuch She exchanged glances in the darkness, both shuddering.

This whole affair traced back several days, to dawn, when an inner-palace patrol officer had spotted a corpse in the lotus pond.

This was already considered bad luck. Word reached the personal guards, and then Jiu Si Tang, and then the coroners were called. Everyone scrambled to pull the body from the pond, only to fish out, along with the corpse, a severed head as well.

A severed head wasn’t so unusual in itself — after all, last year’s war of national annihilation at the Daliang Palace had claimed many lives; wasn’t that exactly why over a dozen wells in the Daliang Palace remained sealed to this day?

Everyone had died there at some point.

The moment the head surfaced, everyone recognized it — this was Tan Shize’s head. The flesh had entirely rotted away, so how could anyone still recognize it? Because the skull still wore its helmet.

The Emperor, soft-hearted, immediately ordered the Tan family summoned into the palace, explaining that this must have been the resentment of the former dynasty’s Black Cavalry Commandant, who had beheaded Second General Tan and thrown him into the river to leave his body incomplete.

As the old saying goes, an incomplete skeleton means an incomplete rebirth in the next life.

Now that the skull had been found, at least this fulfilled one wish — Tan Shize could finally have a complete burial. But this matter was unseemly, and with so many consorts in the palace, including the aging Empress Dowager, the Emperor issued a gag order.

This matter was kept so secret that even Eunuch She only learned of it the following day, and he hadn’t told Chen Dasheng either.

But who could have guessed how word had leaked through in the meantime, bringing this mad nun here in the dead of night?

Setting aside how the nun had gone mad, or how she’d become convinced the Emperor had killed Tan Shize, let us speak instead of her origins.

Back when Tan Shize had struggled so hard to build his achievements and win honor, it was all for the sake of pursuing Qing Buyi, who came from the Southern School’s foremost martial family, the Qin She. Tan Shize had fled from Huguo Temple and, next door, encountered Qing Buyi.

Any family able to build their residence next to Huguo Temple was no ordinary household — theirs was the foremost family of military scholars.

And by the time the Qin She lineage passed down to Qing Buyi’s generation, hers was the only remaining bloodline. It was, one could say, a doomed love — though the Qin She was a martial sect of the jianghu, it carried the character “Confucian” in its name, and with that character came strict rules and rites. The old sect master of Qin She would never, under any circumstances, marry his only legitimate daughter to Tan Shize, who at the time came from a third-rate clan, wasn’t even a legitimate son, but born of a concubine-servant.

Never mind Tan Shize — even had Tan Shiyuan himself come to ask, the old Qin sect master might not have looked favorably on him either.

All because of this mismatch in status, a pair of people in love became a pair consumed by madness, ending in one life lost and one soul driven mad.

Chen Dasheng had no idea that his own act of beheading Second Brother Tan and casting him into the lotus pond had brought this disaster upon the Emperor. He and several of his brothers hurriedly gathered themselves, strapped on their long blades, and rushed straight to the Daliang Palace.

The moment he entered the palace, he saw the outer halls strewn with blood. Liu Daya, who was closest to Chen Dasheng, had been slashed with a sword from his left shoulder down to his right ribs and now lay gasping for breath on the ground while the imperial physicians worked to save him.

Chen Dasheng looked down at Liu Daya’s wound and, drawing on his own experience, knew immediately that it was only a matter of several layers of skin torn open — with prompt bleeding control, he would survive. Their opponent had clearly shown mercy.

But before he could open his mouth to offer comfort, Liu Daya reached out, grabbed his arm, and said in a low voice, “Brother! Hurry! His Majesty is in Eunuch She’s courtyard. No matter what, protect His Majesty…”

Hearing this, Chen Dasheng immediately released his hand and turned to leave. His Majesty’s safety mattered little to him personally — but his adoptive father must not come to harm.

Rushing all the way, he finally reached his adoptive father’s courtyard, where he and his brothers saw several figures being violently cut down before them.

A woman’s hoarse voice roared: “I’d like to see who dares stop me!”

One figure fell before Chen Dasheng. He looked down in shock — it was Meng Dichen?

Meng Dichen sat up, clutched his chest, and spat out a mouthful of fresh blood before standing and rushing toward Eunuch She’s small courtyard.

Chen Dasheng, panicking, shouted, “Father!!”

He raised his blade and pushed through the door, only to see the ground of his adoptive father’s courtyard littered with bodies everywhere. This mad nun wasn’t exactly bloodthirsty — she was extremely skilled at wounding without killing, cutting people just as she had Liu Daya, a single slash left and right. If the wounded so much as moved carelessly afterward, the final layer of flesh would tear open and expose their organs.

From this alone, one could see just how formidable this mad nun’s skill truly was.

The small courtyard was desolate, the vegetables Eunuch She had planted scattered and crushed, blood flowing like a river across the ground. On the low steps, only two figures stood upright, while three others clung desperately to the Emperor, holding him back.

Amid the chaos, Chen Dasheng couldn’t make out who those three were, but he saw his adoptive father spread both arms wide, blocking the Emperor, glaring at Qing Buyi. “Do not harm my lord!”

The Emperor, also furious, shoved at Qingling and shouted, “My lord, my ass! I’m your elder brother! With me here, I’d like to see who dares harm you…”

Qing Buyi, covered in blood, her gleaming shaved head glinting coldly in the night, pointed her sword at Emperor Wu and sneered, “Yang Zao, come out and face death!”

But before she could finish, Chen Dasheng had already brought his brothers to stand between his adoptive father, the Emperor, and her.

Qing Buyi laughed contemptuously. “Another group of men come to die.”

Eunuch She, seeing his adopted son arrive, wanted to shout at him to run — wanted to explain that this was a member of the Qin She martial family, that this mad nun was unlike anyone he had ever faced before, that even if all the old recluses of Yugong Mountain came out together to fight her, they might well lose — but with the Emperor standing right behind him, he bit through his lip and held back.

Chen Dasheng swiftly raised his blade in front, his face showing not the slightest trace of fear. Instead, he reached out, grabbed his own collar, and said to his brothers, “Brothers, how many idle days has it been now?”

Tong Jintai and the others laughed from behind him, “Nearly a whole year of good food and drink, brother!”

Chen Dasheng laughed. “Then let’s shed some of that fat!”

With that, he grabbed his own collar and ripped his clothes open with a tearing sound.

Second Brother Tan had trained his men harshly, never providing armor — the Long Blade Battalion, when fighting, always went in wearing nothing but tattered cloth wraps and a loincloth.

As seven bare-chested young men bared themselves in unison, the mad nun, who had been rampaging for half the night, let out a shrill cry: “Yang Zao!! You’re shameless!!”

Having shouted this, the nun covered her face with her sleeve and leapt backward at once. Even as she vaulted far away, she continued cursing furiously.

“Yang Zao… you’re despicable!!!”

That… was it? She just left?

Everyone in the courtyard stared in astonishment, all looking at one another in a daze.

Chen Dasheng, feeling terribly awkward, touched his bare upper body as an autumn gust passed and he shivered again.

What was the meaning of this? He’d been eating His Majesty’s food for free all these days and had really wanted to show off some genuine skill for his lord — but the fight hadn’t even properly started, so why had she left already?

Silence fell over everyone. After a long moment, someone finally sat down with a thud. The Emperor sat on the ground, stunned at first, and then, for no apparent reason, began laughing behind his hands.

After laughing for a good while, the Emperor looked up at everyone and said, “Ha! Turns out she’s still an untouched maiden! You lot, how utterly lacking in manners! Hah! Well stripped!”