“Someone once told me that the simpler the torture device, the more suffering it causes a person. The cruder the torture implement, the more violent the consequences. In my view, the untransmitted secrets of your gold-touching captain lineage are nothing but a joke. Dragon-seeking and positioning? Sunken coffins? Bronze outer coffins? Vertical burial pits? Box tombs? Is there anything I don’t know?” Throughout his speech, Yun Ye kept smiling, his tone gentle, treating Yellow Weasel as intimately as an old friend.

The despair in Yellow Weasel’s eyes grew ever more intense. The gentler Yun Ye was, the more desperate he became. He struggled to lift his body but was bound by the ropes and couldn’t move at all. The veins on his neck bulged wildly as he opened his mouth and shouted, “You already know everything—why are you still treating me like this? If you have the guts, just kill me with one stroke!”

“Why? The reason is somewhat laughable when spoken aloud. Now listen well—you’re not allowed to laugh, okay? The reason I’m torturing you isn’t because you robbed someone’s ancestral grave. In my view, their delusion of remaining wealthy even after death, wanting to take the wealth created by the common people of this world into another world—this is a serious act of smuggling that causes tremendous waste. When you people dig up their burial treasures and bring them back into the light of day, returning them to circulation, you have merit, not fault.”

Yellow Weasel couldn’t understand what Yun Ye was saying. He only understood that Yun Ye said he had merit. “Since this humble one has merit, why capture me? Wouldn’t it be better to let me continue earning merit?”

Yun Ye extended his index finger and kept shaking it. “No, no, no. You’re a menace. Menaces must be punished, otherwise heavenly justice cannot be manifest.”

He took out the black donkey hoof he’d obtained from Li Gang and tapped it lightly on the wooden board.

“This is the real reason why I’m punishing you.”

“A black donkey hoof? This is merely a ritual implement I commonly use. Since you’re familiar with our gold-touching lineage, you know that black donkey hooves must be used when opening coffins. What’s wrong with that?” Yellow Weasel was somewhat confused.

“Was the black donkey yours? You killed a black donkey for no reason and nearly caused a family of six to be torn apart and destroyed. You weren’t short of money to buy a donkey, yet you had the thought to steal it. From this, one can see you’re a bad seed. For the sake of that villager who was nearly driven to suicide by you, I’m punishing you. What’s wrong with that?”

“It’s just one villager household. As a marquis, do you really need to stand up for them?” Yellow Weasel was completely confused. There were marquises like this?

“Shut up! Without the common people, who would I be a marquis for? I’ll compensate for this donkey on your behalf—I’ll just extract four or five jin of blood from your body to make some tofu to eat.” After speaking, he stabbed Yellow Weasel’s wrist bound beneath the wooden board.

Yellow Weasel’s soul flew beyond the heavens. He heard his blood dripping into the basin with a tapping sound—and it was even a copper basin at that!

“Eh? You’re crying? Aren’t you supposed to be a tough guy who’s traveled north and south? This has only just begun and you can’t endure it already? This reminds me of an incomparably strong woman I once heard about. The torture she endured was beyond your imagination. For a great ideal, her spirit overcame the pain from her flesh. She stubbornly withstood various cruel tortures, such as this kind.”

Yun Ye picked up a bamboo needle from the wooden tray and lightly pricked Yellow Weasel’s face a few times. “Take it and slowly hammer it into your fingernail gaps with a small mallet until it comes out through your finger. Last time I accidentally caught my finger in a door—the pain broke my heart. I don’t know how that brave lady endured it. You rob graves and dig up corpses, so you must have great courage. Enjoy it slowly. If a good person can withstand this torture, someone evil like you should have no problem.”

Sweat poured from Yellow Weasel’s face like rain. He struggled to keep his eyes open, preventing them from closing. His pupils followed Yun Ye’s hand movements, his eyes unblinking.

Yun Ye seemed to have forgotten something. He picked up a bamboo syringe from the wooden tray. The thick needle was ground from the finest, hardest thin bamboo branches. Though it couldn’t compare to metal needles from later generations, using it to pierce skin and penetrate muscle was still no problem. The most wonderful thing was that it had a hole in the middle—it was completely a natural substitute for a needle.

“Have you heard of corpse poison? This is something I specifically extracted from a corpse’s mouth.” After speaking, he lightly pushed the syringe, causing some green liquid to spray out from the needle portion and drip onto the wooden board, producing many bubbles. Before long, the areas of the board that had been splattered turned black.

Yellow Weasel struggled desperately to twist his body to prevent the needle from touching him, shouting, “I submit, I submit! I’ll be your engineer! I’ll be your engineer!”

The needle still pierced into his body. Yellow Weasel shuddered a few times in despair, then stopped moving.

The door was suddenly pushed open. Zhangsun Chong, Li Huairen, Weichi, Li Tai, Li Ke, and a whole crowd of students rushed in. Each one covered their nose as they looked at the unconscious tomb raider who had lost control of his bowels and bladder.

“This damned tomb raider is really useless. We didn’t even actually bleed him, just scared him a bit, and he fainted. Bold? Bah!” Zhangsun was very angry.

“Little bug, hand over those two hundred wen quickly—no backing out! Who told you to bet that the tomb raider could endure it? I knew that once Young Ye made his move, that fellow wouldn’t have a good time.” Li Huairen happily collected his debt from Zhangsun Chong. At the Academy, each person only had one string of cash per month for pocket money to cover various expenses. Poor Zhangsun Chong would have to make do with steamed buns for the remaining days. No matter how wealthy his family was, it was useless—the Academy only recognized vouchers printed by the Academy.

“Ye-zi, what do you want a tomb raider for? This type of fellow should be strangled to death. You might as well kill him with corpse poison and rid the world of a menace.” Li Tai was indeed from the imperial family—when faced with matters, he was decisively ruthless without hesitation.

“All you know is killing. This fellow has a whole set of tunneling skills. When we need to find a coal mine, dig for jade, excavate a cave, or redirect water flow, we’ll all need him. Where else would you find such a good long-term laborer? Besides, this scoundrel is full of sins. He can’t even think about dying until he’s redeemed all his crimes.” Yun Ye was noncommittal about Li Tai’s suggestion.

“Then tell me, Ye-zi, can this method be used on the surrendered Turkic people? A few days ago, Court Gentleman Dou Zhong submitted a memorial saying there’s a group of Turkic people being hunted by Jieli Khan with no way to heaven or earth, so they ran to our Great Tang to seek help. Imperial Father is quite troubled—not because he fears Jieli Khan’s anger, but because these fellows submit today and rebel tomorrow, making them difficult to settle. Putting them anywhere is inappropriate. Officials of all sizes in the prefectures and counties refuse to let Turkic people enter their jurisdictions.” Li Ke was a good child with the innate wisdom to draw inferences from one instance.

“How many are there?” Yun Ye’s interest was immediately piqued.

“I heard there are over ten thousand people, men and women, old and young. The one leading them is called something like Boluo. Right now they’re barely surviving in the Yunzhong area.” Li Ke’s words explained why Yun Ye had encountered Dou Zhong at the palace gates some days ago.

Li Er was going to make his move against the Turks this year. This was one of history’s rare victories in warfare against nomadic peoples. Li Jing, Chai Shao, and Xue Wanche would shine brilliantly in this great battle, especially Li Jing, who would establish his position as a military deity of his generation with Turkic heads.

August—it would be in August, when autumn was crisp and clear, that the Turks would decline.

“A-Ke, why not conscript the young and strong into the military? Having them assault cities in battle formations or serve as death warriors wouldn’t be bad. As for the others, send them to the prefectures and counties to pave roads and build bridges. That way our dynasty wouldn’t need to conscript corvée labor, avoiding complaints spreading throughout the world.”