To kill and set fires, one should choose a dark and windy night. Yet Gaesomun deliberately chose such an ill-timed night when a large moon hung in the sky. To conserve his strength, he didn’t even jump over the wall—instead, he brought over a ladder and climbed up it. Stretching his neck to look at the soldiers patrolling back and forth on the street, he then jumped down from the high wall.

The Tang people had arranged his and Gao Jianwu’s residences together with extremely poor taste, which gave Yeon Gaesomun great convenience. According to protocol, Gao Jianwu could keep sixteen household guards. This requirement wasn’t very strict for Tang people—those who couldn’t be called household guards or retainers could be called domestic servants. But for Goguryeo people, the requirement was extremely strict—sixteen household guards meant exactly sixteen household guards. One extra person carrying weapons would be considered exceeding the regulations.

Tonight, the warriors were all very tense, not knowing what the Tang people outside wanted to do. To avoid angering the Tang people, they didn’t even wear their waist swords when patrolling at night, and only two were visible.

Gaesomun walked lightly along the path. On both sides were tall, dense peonies. Large blooms of peonies swayed slightly in May’s gentle breeze—without fragrance, yet extremely gorgeous.

Cold light flashed, and the bodies of the two household guards fell into the peony bushes, crushing countless flower branches. Gaesomun picked up a pink peony from the ground and, after looking at it for a while, finally remembered why Rong Hua used to bite his nose.

Mountains full of azaleas, the woman more charming than the flowers—why hadn’t he known to pluck the most beautiful azalea and place it in Rong Hua’s hair? No wonder it had provoked the beauty’s playful anger. Glancing at the moon, it seemed a bit late now.

Carefully tucking this peony into his bosom—if he successfully killed Gao Jianwu, he would make a trip to the neighboring ward and give the flower to Rong Hua. Women were like that: being good to them, they didn’t know it unless you expressed it with these things.

A gush of fresh blood spurted from a maid’s neck, her head lolling to one side. Gaesomun kicked this woman who had come out to relieve herself at night into the garden. The garden’s soil was soft, producing almost no sound.

Years of being a formidable warlord had tempered Gaesomun’s will to be as firm as steel. As long as he achieved his goal, how many people died was not within his consideration.

The side rooms were completely quiet. Gao Jianwu’s servants all slept here. Gaesomun burst into laughter—at a time like this, they could sleep like dead pigs. Silently drawing his short blade, he swiftly slashed each person’s neck. These cuts were very deep, almost severing half the head. Standing beside the enormous communal bed, he admired the fountains of blood for a while. Seeing the blood fountains no longer gushing, he pulled the blanket from the communal bed to cover their heads—not out of mercy, but to cover the bloody smell so it wouldn’t spread outside too early.

“Old Imperial Physician, after a person’s kidneys are completely destroyed, how long do you think such a person can survive?”

Di Renjie sat on a low couch in the Imperial Medical Bureau, seeking instruction from the old imperial physician.

“Such a person cannot survive. If the kidneys are destroyed, the person dies. This is inevitable.” The old imperial physician also liked this intelligent and polite young man, and gave a definite answer.

“But there’s a person whose kidneys are completely finished, yet he’s still alive. This afternoon I even saw him—he was sitting there properly, drinking wine.”

“This is impossible. The kidneys are the foundation of innate vitality. The kidneys govern water, receiving and storing the essence of the five organs and six viscera. If they’re damaged, the pain is unbearable, the whole body accumulates water and swells, urine cannot be discharged, and death is certain. However, this old man once heard Elder Bai from Luoyang say that some people of great willpower can still control their bodies for a short time. Even after the kidneys completely cease functioning, they can still survive for as long as a month. But this method is even more miserable than death. If it were this old man, I definitely wouldn’t recommend it to patients.”

Di Renjie suddenly stood up and asked the old imperial physician with cupped hands: “Old Imperial Physician, is it by taking highly toxic substances like nux vomica to achieve the effect of fighting poison with poison?”

“How did you learn of this? Indeed so. However, we call it ‘exchanging life.’ At the beginning, one only needs to take a small amount of nux vomica to relieve pain, but the toxicity of nux vomica when it takes effect is equally excruciating. While enduring this pain, the whole body sweats, similarly achieving the effect of expelling water from the body. But we urinate to expel toxins, not to expel water, so this method only keeps the toxins from our consumption of grains within the body. The next time one wants to achieve this, the dosage of nux vomica must be increased, and the pain will also double. Inadvisable, inadvisable.”

After Di Renjie circled the room twice, he asked again: “Old Imperial Physician, suppose this person was previously a martial arts master—after doing this, could he still do things that ordinary people cannot?”

“Hehe, the kidneys are the root of life. If that place is ruined, how can one maintain a strong body? Unless he obtains the help of medicinal power, he can support himself for a short time. Over time, he will become a puddle of mud.”

Hearing the old imperial physician’s words, Di Renjie hastily thanked him and quickly walked out of the Imperial Medical Bureau. Mounting his war horse, he galloped toward Daixian Ward. Everything was clear now—Gaesomun was the murderer. After enduring tremendous pain, this fellow hadn’t chosen to rest at home, but had chosen aimless killing to vent the suffering in his heart. Why did the knife wounds on Zhang Dehai’s family members become fewer and fewer? One reason was that he needed to hurry back in time for roll call. Another reason was that his physical strength couldn’t support it…

Having cleared out the side rooms on both sides, Gaesomun leaned wearily against a pillar. He pulled out a Goguryeo ginseng from his bosom and chewed it down like a radish. Leaning against the pillar, he sat down. After a while, he slowly stood up. Now it was time to clear out the inner quarters.

The dagger flipped open the door bolt. Like a ghost, he slipped inside, then gently closed the door. Standing under a tree dappled with light and shadow, he almost merged into one with the large tree.

A pebble fell on the stone path, making a series of crisp sounds. Four household guards quickly rushed over, backs against the large tree, searching everywhere for the source of the sound. Not finding the cause, they only saw a mountain of blades rushing toward them…

Each corpse had only sixteen knife wounds. This made Gaesomun feel sorrowful despite himself. A year ago, he could still steadily deliver thirty cuts. Now it was only half of what it used to be. There was no time for sorrow now. Bypassing the corpses, he slowly walked into the caisson ceiling. He had no favorable impression whatsoever of those paintings overhead. Goguryeo’s caisson ceilings were painted with three-legged crows; the Great Tang’s caisson ceilings were all covered with elaborate patterns and bats—extremely ugly.

Two blades flew out, making a light sound as they pinned two dozing household guards to the wall. One wasn’t pinned firmly and his body fell down, knocking over a giant vase beside him. Gaesomun didn’t go to catch it, because dense footsteps had already come over.

After a loud clang, Gaesomun retrieved his two blades and rolled through the second gate. Before his form had stabilized, two blades slashed toward him. His feet suddenly kicked off and his body continued to rush forward, plunging into the embrace of the household guard blocking his way. The short blade that sprang from the knife handle instantly shredded the internal organs of the giant man who had raised his war hammer high. This person was the one who posed the greatest threat to him.

When those household guards saw that the person before them was Gaesomun, they turned to run. As Goguryeo’s invincible fierce general, few people had the courage to confront Gaesomun.

The long blade with a chain flew out once more, severing the neck of one of the guards. The head flew up, and the corpse continued running forward three to five steps before falling heavily to the ground.

The other long blade was quite unsatisfactory—the blade got stuck in that household guard’s cervical vertebrae and couldn’t be pulled out. Gaesomun stepped on the head before finally pulling out the blade. His left side was no longer quite obeying commands.

“Gao Jianwu, come out. Let’s talk. If you don’t mind losing face, shout loudly and see if the Tang people outside can save you.” This fellow was, after all, the King of Goguryeo. Gaesomun felt he should at least leave him some dignity.

“Murder! Gaesomun is murdering! Help!” Gao Jianwu didn’t care about losing face at all. Tearing his throat, he began shouting loudly. Not only was he shouting, the other household guards also began shouting, with women’s voices mixed in.

Gaesomun furrowed his brow because he had already heard urgent hoofbeats coming from the street. Di Renjie was, after all, a clever person—he would figure out what exactly was happening. His own time truly wasn’t much.

With a raise of his hand, the leather bag at his side was tossed high by him. Countless blades slashed through it, and the fire oil inside the leather bag splashed all over the entire room. After blowing on his fire starter and lightly touching it to the curtains, a pale blue flame leaped up. In no time, the entire hall was already ablaze with raging fire.

To guard against Gaesomun killing him, Gao Jianwu had cleverly blocked all the windows of his bedroom. Now this place had become his tomb. A large man roared as he charged out from the inner room, followed by another man and two women.

Not seeing Gao Jianwu emerge from the long corridor, he was perhaps waiting for a better opportunity.

The fire was fierce. When that man charged to Gaesomun’s side, his clothing was already on fire. Yeon Gaesomun, with a cloth wrapped around his face, lightly stepped aside. That large man tried to jump out the window, but after Gaesomun’s chain blade circled his neck once, only his head flew out the window.

The two women cried out and ran back, but were each stabbed down by Gao Jianwu with his sword. The last man very decisively gave himself a cut. Yeon Gaesomun in white robes stood in the great fire like a demon god.

The main gate was knocked open. Outside, water dragons also began spraying water on the house. Gaesomun, battling fiercely in the great fire, knocked away Gao Jianwu’s long sword and severed his hand and foot tendons. Completely disregarding the flames on his own body, he strangled Gao Jianwu’s neck and said to him: “The first time I saw you as a child, I disliked you. I’ve always wanted to cut off this tongue of yours. With this foul mouth of yours, who knows how many edicts bringing disaster to the country and people you’ve conveyed. I never imagined it would only be today that my wish is fulfilled.”

The long blade stabbed in through Gao Jianwu’s mouth. Watching him convulse like a dead pig, Gaesomun released Gao Jianwu and spread his arms, preparing to welcome his own doomsday. His waist hurt very much now, extremely much.

A rope wrapped around his waist and abdomen, forcibly dragging him out through the window. Falling to the ground, looking at Di Renjie standing at his head, he said: “You destroyed my peony. If you compensate me with one, I’ll tell you something.”

Without thinking, Di Renjie plucked the largest one from the nearby garden and placed it on his chest.

Holding that flower, Gaesomun appeared extremely happy, then said to Di Renjie: “Run quickly!”