In the empty Half-Step Hall, Wang Li was drenched in sweat, practicing diligently with a crescent moon halberd.

Though summoned to the palace to study, Wang Li still maintained the habit he’d kept since childhood—at least four hours of martial practice daily. But since there were usually classes during the day, he could only schedule martial practice for early morning and evening.

Actually, this was quite a good excuse. Those young masters wanting to win him over were all weak and frail. Wanting to practice martial arts with him, they couldn’t even last half an hour. After a few days, they all sensibly stopped approaching, giving him some peace.

Hook, peck, thrust, slash… Wang Li concentrated wholeheartedly on wielding the crescent moon halberd in his hands, feeling through the trembling of the halberd shaft in his palms whether these movements were executed properly. The crescent moon halberd in his hands was standard military issue. He was still young, and though his stature was already tall and robust for his age, his grip strength still didn’t match an adult’s. He couldn’t yet flexibly use higher-grade halberds.

Really wanted a Azure Dragon Crescent Blade. Father’s Azure Dragon Crescent Blade called “Golden Money Leopard Tail” was simply awesome!

Wang Li imagined himself holding that Azure Dragon Crescent Blade, invincible and unmatched on the battlefield. For a moment, his movements became bold and sweeping, wielding it with tremendous force.

The sun gradually tilted west. The sunset originally shooting through the window lattice lengthened its shadows accordingly, finally slowly fading. Half-Step Hall also became dim and unclear without lighting lamps. But the whistling sound of weapons cutting through the air within didn’t diminish because of this.

“Clang!” A sound of metal clashing rang out in Half-Step Hall, followed by another muffled thud of a weapon hitting bluestone bricks.

Wang Li knelt on one knee, panting heavily. Large drops of sweat slid down his cheeks and body. He wiped his sweat-soaked palms on his body, but the effect wasn’t good because his Hu robe was also soaked with sweat.

Wang Li stood up frowning, thinking this newly made crescent moon halberd was actually quite good. If it were a wooden shaft, situations like ge where the ge head gets stuck on the battlefield and separates would easily occur. This crescent moon halberd was cast as one piece, but because the halberd shaft was iron, the weapon body was too heavy and easily slipped from hands due to sweating like this.

Standing quietly in the darkness pondering for a while, recalling his grandfather’s and father’s teachings, Wang Li judged it was still that he hadn’t trained enough—insufficient grip strength. Moreover, if his palms also had calluses thick enough like his grandfather’s and father’s, the halberd would never slip from his hands no matter what.

Wang Li resolved to extend his training time by another half hour and slowly walked to the wall to pick up the dropped crescent moon halberd.

On the ground lay not only the crescent moon halberd but also two weapons—one golden gan and one golden ge—actually knocked down from the wall by the crescent moon halberd. Because the golden weapons were too heavy, several white marks had been smashed into the bluestone floor.

Wang Li sneered once. With such commotion here, no one came to check—showing how isolated he’d become.

Not to mention having eunuchs voluntarily light lamps for him.

He came to the palace as an attendant reader and absolutely couldn’t bring servants into the palace. Fortunately, having grown up in military camps since childhood, he didn’t care about such things. But when he searched Half-Step Hall, he discovered the lamp oil and flint stones usually kept in the cabinet were gone. He could only resentfully punch the air.

Forget it. If he couldn’t light lamps, he’d have to go to the archery range. At least it was open there—even without lamps, he could practice martial arts by moonlight. Just that there were no barriers around, a bit cold. But he wasn’t afraid of that either.

As for the golden gan and ge fallen on the ground, Wang Li didn’t try to pick them up and rehang them on the wall. First, the place they originally hung was too high. If lamps were lit, he could rehang them, but now in pitch darkness, he had no mood to do so. Second, eunuchs would come clean tomorrow morning anyway. Why waste time lightening those petty people’s workload?

Wang Li pushed open Half-Step Hall’s main door, looked up at the bright moon on the horizon, and contentedly strode away holding his crescent moon halberd.

When the moon slowly climbed the treetops, the Qin Empire’s youngest Superior Minister was teaching Ying writing as usual. He still wore that green robe, though it had been maliciously slashed in many places with sharp instruments, but all had been painstakingly mended with thread as much as possible.

Because bamboo scrolls were too precious, the green-robed youth used a shallow tray filled with sand, having Ying use a wooden stick as a brush to practice writing. The content taught was from the “Analects.”

Ying was actually a year older than the green-robed youth. He could understand the principles in the “Analects,” so using it to practice writing achieved twice the result with half the effort. The green-robed youth didn’t teach in sequence. Because the bamboo scrolls were scattered, he taught whatever he randomly turned to. Tonight he happened to reach a passage from “Analects: Ji Shi.”

“Qiu has heard that for those who possess states and families, the concern is not scarcity but inequality, not poverty but instability. Where there is equality, there is no poverty; where there is harmony, there is no scarcity; where there is stability, there is no danger. It being so, if remote people are not submissive, cultivate civil virtue to attract them. Having attracted them, make them content. Now You and Qiu, assisting their lord, cannot attract remote people who are not submissive, and cannot defend the state when it splits and fragments. Yet they plot to mobilize arms (gan and ge) within the state. I fear Ji Sun’s worries lie not in Zhuanyu but within the screen walls.”

Ying listened mesmerized as Superior Minister Gan’s modulated voice echoed in the room, with punctuation and cadence just right. His voice was suppressedly low and especially pleasant. Though Ying knew few characters, he wasn’t a complete ignorant child. The Analects were sentences that would bring understanding through repeated reading and recitation. Ying unconsciously recited along with the green-robed youth, listening to his explanations of certain character meanings, quickly understanding this passage’s meaning.

“The concern is not scarcity but inequality, not poverty but instability.” Ying murmured to himself, his face that could already preliminarily be called handsome showing a fascinated expression. “These words are most praiseworthy.”

The green-robed youth couldn’t help curving his lips upward. Over these days, under his instruction, regardless of how well Ying learned characters, his speech had begun becoming refined and his bearing unconsciously imitated him. Not looking at that crimson-purple robe covered in patches, he truly had some semblance of Qin nobility.

After briefly introducing the background of Confucius saying this passage, and singling out several difficult-to-write characters to carefully teach Ying several times, the green-robed youth stood to add some lamp oil to the somewhat dimming lamp.

“It’s already bright enough.” Ying raised his head, somewhat regretfully watching the lamp the green-robed youth had refilled.

“Bad for the eyes.” The green-robed youth said flatly. When he was young and his family was poor, he practiced writing and read by moonlight, damaging his eyes until he saw things very blurrily. Later his master gave him acupuncture and several doses of medicine before curing it. Only his very capable master could accomplish this, and there were still aftereffects—he couldn’t see things clearly at night without light. It was said those famous Confucian scholars all had more or less some eye problems, difficult to recover from for life.

Ying expressed doubt about the green-robed youth’s statement, but the latter was technically his teacher. Respecting teachers and valuing the Way, he suppressed his complaints and followed this Superior Minister Gan’s requirements—straightening his back, sitting with standard posture to read and write.

The green-robed youth no longer looked at bamboo scrolls. Not to mention he’d long memorized all those scrolls backward and forward—he quite valued his eyes. He planned to close his eyes and rest for a while, incidentally thinking about his future direction.

But just as his eyes closed, he heard a “clang” and Ying’s startled cry.

He immediately stood up and discovered a stone had been thrown in from outside, breaking through the casement window’s thin wooden piece, nearly knocking over the oil lamp on the table.

With the window broken like this, cold wind whooshed in. Ying couldn’t tolerate it. Actually changing from his previous timidity, clenching his fists and gritting his teeth, he rushed out.

The green-robed youth didn’t worry about his safety but bent down to pick up that stone, discovering the outside was wrapped in a layer of white silk cloth, faintly showing ink traces.

He frowned and unwrapped it. That stone was actually top-quality black jade, and the silk cloth was also excellent silk. On the silk were over ten characters.

“Turn gan and ge into jade and silk—dare you meet at Half-Step Hall?”

The green-robed youth raised his eyebrows. “Turn gan and ge into jade and silk”—the metaphor was nicely put. But that final tone—no matter how he looked at it, it seemed like a declaration of battle.

Hearing Ying’s empty-handed and indignant return footsteps, the green-robed youth quietly put both jade stone and silk into his bosom.

After this incident, Ying had no mind to continue practicing writing. Deciding the other was jealous his room’s oil lamp was too bright, he simply blew out the oil lamp, used cloth strips to stuff the broken casement window, then lay on the bed quietly reciting today’s learned Analects passages.

The green-robed youth also lay down fully clothed but didn’t sleep. Only after waiting for Ying’s recitation voice to gradually quiet and confirming he was sound asleep did he quietly rise.

“Plot to mobilize arms (gan and ge) within the state… within the screen walls… disaster arising from screen walls…”

The green-robed youth continued reciting in a low voice the broken passages Ying hadn’t finished, then expressionlessly pushed open the door and walked into darkness.

Half-Step Hall was still some distance from Luming Residence. The green-robed youth avoided guards all along the way, not alarming anyone as he headed toward Half-Step Hall.

Since the other acted so secretively, naturally they didn’t want spectators.

Before long, the green-robed youth reached Half-Step Hall’s vicinity. Seeing the completely unlit hall, he unhesitatingly pushed the door and entered. Without moonlight’s illumination, the green-robed youth’s vision began blurring due to darkness. However, he’d been to Half-Step Hall a few times. According to memory, wanting to walk along the wall to the window, after walking several steps, he was nearly tripped by something on the ground.

The green-robed youth bent down, groped around, and discovered it was actually the golden gan fallen from the wall.

Something was wrong.

When the green-robed youth wanted to stand and quickly leave, alarm suddenly arose in his heart. He felt a great force strike from behind, hitting the back of his head hard, directly causing him to stumble awkwardly to the ground. He landed right on that golden gan, which pressed against his chest causing severe pain. His cry for help stuck in his throat—he could barely even breathe.

Feeling someone crouch beside him to examine him for a while, the green-robed youth wanted to reach out and grab the other’s garment corner, but his body seemed to have lost control. He could only raise his trembling hand but grasped nothing.

Warm liquid slowly flowed down his nape. Sharp pain prevented his brain from continuing to function, and consciousness began dispersing.

He struggled to keep his eyes open, wanting to see clearly who exactly struck this vicious blow, but his vision remained blurry.

Hearing that person drop the golden ge used for the attack and mercilessly turn to leave, he could only unwillingly let his arm fall.

Helplessly allowing darkness to slowly swallow him…