Di Renjie sat in the middle of the street in Daixian Ward. The street was empty—today, anyone who didn’t need to go out wouldn’t. Xie Li’s main gate was shut tight, Gao Jianwu’s main gate was also shut tight, and the gates of all the other households were the same.

It didn’t matter. Di Renjie knew that behind every gate, pairs of vigilant eyes would be watching him. Soldiers were searching house by house, not seeking to find anything. These surrendered captives weren’t worried about anything being discovered in their homes—they were worried about extra things appearing in their homes. This was the simplest form of framing, and also the most effective.

The gate of Yeon Gaesomun’s household opened. Rong Hua, dressed in a blue cloth skirt, walked out through the courtyard gate with a small bundle on her arm. She paid no attention to Di Renjie, merely signed her name in the registration book beside her, then boarded a carriage that had come to fetch her. Throughout the entire process, she never looked back, nor showed the slightest trace of reluctance.

Di Renjie watched Rong Hua’s carriage depart into the distance, then suddenly stood up and pushed open the main gate of Yeon Gaesomun’s household. The courtyard was extremely desolate—the dilapidated garden was overgrown with wild grass. Only the front hall was relatively clean. Yeon Gaesomun sat alone in the sunlight, drinking wine. A white robe wrapped around his emaciated frame, appearing oversized. Looking at the style of the garment, this must have been his clothing from before—back then, Yeon Gaesomun must surely have been a handsome young man, graceful as jade.

Now things were different. His hair was half-withered, half-flourishing, and his body curled up inside the white robe, appearing quite comical.

“I won’t offer you any of this wine. There’s nux vomica in it. When I drink it, it stops the pain. If you drink it, it will kill you.” Yeon Gaesomun raised his hand to drain the cup, smiled at Di Renjie, and continued drinking and eating. From that brief glance, Di Renjie saw the red spots at the bottom of Yeon Gaesomun’s eyes. Even though he didn’t understand medicine, he knew this person didn’t have long to live.

“Back then, your master locked my wife and me in a cage, allowing us to bear and raise children inside. I used to think this was the ultimate humiliation. Now that I’ve thought it through, I should actually thank him for giving me one last chance.”

“Now you’ve sent troops to trap me in this residence again. Do you also want to watch how we live? Forget it, you’re a junior, and this old man still wants some face, so I sent Rong Hua away. Young man, sit with me and chat for a while.”

Di Renjie shook his head. “I need to wait for a cruel murderer to appear. I won’t chat with you.”

“You think you can wait for the murderer to appear just by sitting here like this?” Gaesomun stopped his wine cup and turned to look at Di Renjie.

“Yes. I feel I was invited here by the murderer. Since he’s the one who invited this guest, he surely can’t fail to see me, his guest.”

“What makes you say that?” Gaesomun’s interest seemed to grow stronger.

“Six murder cases, with the death toll increasing each time. This last family extermination case had the most deaths. The murderer’s method of operation seemed extremely hasty. On the first corpse, he had the patience to make twenty-three cuts. Later on, it gradually decreased. By the sixth corpse, it had been simplified to just four cuts. On the very last corpse, there was just a single cut to the throat—identical to the method used to kill those three thief-catching martial guards. At first, I thought the murderer had grown impatient, but after calculating, I learned that he needed to hurry—he absolutely had to return by a certain time. I inadvertently drew a circle on the map and was surprised to discover that all six murder scenes were located on this circular line. So I presumed to come to the center of this circle to see what exactly he was trying to do. In all of Chang’an, the only place that requires reporting one’s identity after the wards open is Daixian Ward.”

After listening to Di Renjie’s account, Gaesomun nodded. “Time truly is a big problem. The timing of each murder case is too concentrated. This is a flaw.”

Out of politeness, Di Renjie answered Gaesomun’s words, but this didn’t mean he had any obligation to engage in idle chat with him. He nodded to Gaesomun and was about to leave his courtyard.

“Actually, you don’t need to go to so much trouble. After tonight, everything will vanish into thin air.” Gaesomun spread his legs, closed his eyes, and basked in the sun like a lazy old dog.

Di Renjie’s ears twitched back and forth a few times. He wanted to ask what exactly he knew, but forcibly held back, pushing open the door and walking out.

After Di Renjie left, Gaesomun stood up. He truly was very busy, continuously adding fire oil into a bamboo tube fitted with a funnel. He never lit lamps at night, but the lamp oil allocated to him by the court was never lacking. Accumulated day by day, he had stored up several large vats.

The ward’s water dragon cart was parked in the rear courtyard of Gaesomun’s residence. Because only his place was relatively spacious, and Gaesomun didn’t need anyone to serve him, he had sent all his household guards to Rong Hua’s place. Rong Hua would bring him food every day and sometimes stay overnight with him. Most of the time, in this three-section mansion, only he lived alone like a lonely ghost. Therefore, it was only natural that the fire brigade would place the water-filled dragon carts at his residence.

Into each water dragon cart, he could only add a small portion of fire oil—exactly thirty percent of each water bucket. Oil was lighter than water, so the oil floated on top. The water dragon’s outlet was at the bottom, so what would be sprayed out at first would be water, but later what would be sprayed out would be fire oil. And by that time, people would have already formed habitual thinking and would still use the pressure levers to push that fire oil out to fight fires.

Gaesomun had finally finished filling the oil with great difficulty, and was already panting like an old ox. Severe pain came from his kidney area. He hadn’t urinated for three days now. Who would know that beneath his loose robes was a distended, swollen belly?

Returning to the front hall, Gaesomun trembled as he pulled a small paper packet from his bosom. Using a small spoon, he scooped out three spoonfuls of nux vomica powder, carefully using another piece of paper to scrape off the excess powder on the spoon. The maximum dosage was three spoonfuls—no more, and absolutely no less. Perhaps only he could manage to swallow nux vomica powder dry. His body had lost the function of expelling water, and at this time, every additional bit of moisture was an enormous torment for him.

Saliva sent the powder down. Gaesomun prayed devoutly, only hoping he could survive this ordeal. He needed nothing else, only praying that heaven would grant him one more night’s time.

His stomach felt like it was on fire. This was a very familiar sensation of pain. Gaesomun hunched over, both hands gripping the pillar tightly, biting his own clothing to prevent himself from crying out. After the toxicity of nux vomica took effect, it would bring him three hours of numbness. During this time, he wouldn’t feel any pain. These three hours were what he needed.

For these three hours of peace, he needed to endure a full two hours of suffering in exchange. Today’s dosage was truly somewhat large. His stomach had already begun to bleed. In order not to lose the medicinal effect, he swallowed back the poisoned blood that overflowed from the corner of his mouth. His entire body trembled like a leaf in the wind.

In the evening, Gaesomun slowly sat down. Sweat had soaked through his clothing, and there was also a puddle of water beneath his feet—this was the only way he could expel water. His body became more relaxed, but his eyes became even more bloodshot.

Not daring to waste time, his exhausted body needed to recover and rest as quickly as possible. Today’s time was too precious. He wedged an incense stick between his fingers, then thought it inadequate and added two more before finally collapsing onto the soft couch and falling sweetly asleep.

In dreams, one knows not the passage of time. The instant Gaesomun lay down, he returned to his sweetest moments. Back then, his dignified father would stand under the eaves with his hands behind his back, supervising his martial practice. The cloth band tying his hair would flutter gently in the evening breeze, while countless household guards and retainers knelt in attendance around them.

“Son, this move is called the Eight-Direction Concealed Blade Style. You must make the enemy unable to discern from where you’ll strike, achieving the effect of catching them off guard. What are you doing? The blade tip is right under your buttocks—I can see it from where I’m standing. Are you planning to draw your blade from your crotch? Use this move twice more, and won’t the Yeon family line be cut off?”

“Watch—the Eight-Direction Concealed Blade Style should be used like this…”

Back then, Rong Hua was so beautiful. When Pyongyang’s azaleas bloomed, they covered the mountains and fields. Rong Hua in her red dress would run through the flower clusters. No matter how she hid, he could always catch her at the first moment. She would pretend to kiss him, then mischievously bite his nose, not releasing it until he completely surrendered, then continue the game.

Rong Hua could always bite his nose. What she didn’t know was that most of the time, he had offered his nose to her…

Beautiful dreams always ended with the appearance of Yun Ye’s sinister face, without reason or logic, viciously stabbing golden needles into his waist…

Actually, the incense wasn’t necessary. Just as it was about to burn out, Yeon Gaesomun opened his eyes and sat bolt upright from the bed. He stripped off his clothes and jumped into a large wooden tub filled with clear water, burying himself completely underwater. Only when he was nearly drowned did he emerge to gasp for air—the feeling at this moment was like being reborn.

Today he washed very carefully. Gaesomun looked at his distended belly with disgust—it was the reason he could no longer wear his warrior’s garments from before. Today was a great day; he had to pay proper attention to his appearance no matter what.

When the warning smoke rose from Chang’an’s beacon tower, he and Rong Hua had cried while embracing. Finally, they had waited for an era of great upheaval. What had those fools been doing when they were desperately resisting the Great Tang’s elite troops in Goguryeo? Why did they only know to resist when they had reached a dead end?

He couldn’t do much—perhaps he couldn’t do anything at all. The Great Tang was still using Gao Jianwu’s name to command Goguryeo. If he eliminated Gao Jianwu, he would surely be able to throw Goguryeo into chaos. Only when Goguryeo’s situation became uncontrollable would his son Feng Ji have the possibility of returning to Goguryeo.

The second watch drum sounded. Gaesomun dressed himself. Everything on his body was black. Two blades were tucked at his sides, and two more were strapped to his back. He continuously stroked the war blades—the position of each blade was perfectly suitable.

Taking a deep breath, he looked at the bright moon in the sky and spoke one sentence: “Today, let me, Yeon Gaesomun, eliminate the national traitor for Goguryeo!”