The two stood facing off in the courtyard for a while.

A moment later, the household’s people were roused — Jin Yongsheng, the chief steward of the Equality King’s “Renzi” hall, Yan Tiehe of the Yan family, and others, arriving one after another.

Seeing this chaos, Jin Yongsheng, Yan Tiehe, and the rest naturally moved first to separate the two who stood confronting each other, asking what had happened. But both were too angry to speak — neither Yan Yunzhi nor Shi Weiyang would say a word. Outside the courtyard, shadowy figures lurked, whispering to one another. For the moment, all anyone could do was try to calm the two down and keep the matter from growing any bigger.

In truth, men like Jin Yongsheng and Yan Tiehe had seen enough of the world that, from the expressions and bearing of the two facing off, and from the small clues that had slipped out, they could roughly guess what had happened — it wasn’t complicated at all.

But this was the kind of matter that could be made small or made large.

If the Equality King, Shi Baofeng, was still willing to go through with the marriage alliance with the Yan family, then a young man’s bit of mischief would amount to little — at most the Yan family would be given some concession in future business dealings. But if the marriage truly could not proceed, and the Yan family wanted to make an issue of it, then the Shi family would need to prepare a different kind of response.

But these were matters best negotiated in private. No one wanted this kind of scandal aired in front of a crowd of onlookers. The Yan daughter’s reputation would certainly suffer, and as for Shi Weiyang bullying a young woman during a major gathering like this — once it got out, it would hardly be something a few words about “a bit of romantic mischief” could smooth over.

At this point Shi Weiyang’s arm was bleeding, and Yan Yunzhi had been slapped across the face — a deeply humiliating blow, though thankfully neither injury was serious. With practiced coordination, the group calmed things down and dispersed the onlookers outside. Jin Yongsheng was the first to drag Shi Weiyang away, while Yan Tiehe spent more time trying to console Yan Yunzhi.

“Young Master Shi… these past few days he’s been out entertaining guests, greeting people left and right, and got someone plied with drink into doing something like this… it really was improper. But he was drunk, after all… perhaps it’s best to wait until he’s sober before questioning him about it… the truth is, out here in the world, a man is often not entirely his own master. He’s still young, after all…”

So it went, one round of comforting words after another. Yan Yunzhi’s face stayed cold and she said nothing, until finally, after a while, she nodded.

“I understand, Second Uncle. I still need to tend my wounds tonight — you should go back and rest.”

“You…” Yan Tiehe wanted to say more.

Yan Yunzhi said, “Second Uncle, I am a daughter of the Yan family. What else can I do? Please, go on back.”

Hearing this, Yan Tiehe finally nodded helplessly and turned to leave. Before he went, he added, “Don’t let this weigh on you. I will see justice done for you.”

…

Second Uncle left the courtyard.

Yan Yunzhi stood beneath the dim lantern light for a while before finally turning, her gaze calm, and walking back into her room.

She sat before the mirror, looking at the side of her face where she had been struck, touching the marks left on her wrist where she had been gripped. She was silent for a time, then rose and dug through her luggage for clothes suited to traveling by night in black, along with some silver and a few essential garments, which she bundled into a small pack.

She blew out the oil lamp in the room and sat quietly by the window, watching through a crack for the state of the hidden sentries outside.

It was already past midnight, and the Gathering of Worthies estate was silent, as if everyone had gone to sleep.

But Yan Yunzhi knew there were plenty of hidden watchers posted in this area. Their main purpose was to keep outsiders from coming in to cause trouble; ordinarily they wouldn’t concern themselves with the comings and goings of guests within the compound. But at this moment, it was entirely possible that Second Uncle had already had a word with them. Besides, after what had just happened, if she were seen sneaking out, they would surely notify Shi Weiyang and Jin Yongsheng at once.

She would have to wait a while, until the watchers outside believed she had gone to sleep, before she could make her move.

Shi Weiyang had never been a good match for her, and by now, Yan Yunzhi — who had never held much fondness for him to begin with — had given up on him entirely. Remembering the whispers of the crowd of onlookers earlier, she found she could no longer bear to stay quietly in this place.

Leave the Gathering of Worthies, go into the city of Jiangning, kill Li Yanfeng — or else find that boy from the southwest who had sullied her honor, and die together with him!

She made up her mind, and waited quietly in the dark for the night to deepen further, for her chance to come.

But the chance came sooner than she expected.

Not long after, from the northern side of the city, which had been quiet until then, signal arrows and flares suddenly shot up, and after that came the faint glow of rising flames.

An inexplicable disturbance was building somewhere in the distance of the city. The commotion there continued for a while, and within the Gathering of Worthies, guest after guest was startled awake. Some ran through the lanes between the courtyards, passing on news, and more people began gathering outside, asking what exactly had happened.

Yan Yunzhi quietly pushed open her window and slipped out as silently as a black fox. The Tan Sword Style she practiced was suited to assassination and stealth. She crept cautiously from within the Gathering of Worthies toward the outside, and once at the perimeter, disguised herself slightly, blended into the crowd gathered to watch the commotion, and simply walked out the main gate with her pass token in hand.

On the north side of the city, the disturbance was continuing to spread. She caught snatches of conversation among the crowd: “…the Yama King, Zhou Shang, has lost his mind — he’s sent out several thousand men, killing anyone in sight…”

She had been in the city for several days, staying inside the Gathering of Worthies without ever going out, and had not imagined that the situation in Jiangning could be this chaotic. But there was no room left to worry about all of that now. Once out of Zhong’an Ward’s main street, Yan Yunzhi tightened her clothes, gripped her short sword, and walked in the direction opposite the disturbance. Her most urgent task was to find somewhere suitable to hole up. She had experience surviving in the wilds and mountains, but within a city like this, she still felt some unease and unfamiliarity.

But at this point, there was no longer any other choice.

Li Yanfeng…

Long Aotian…

Just wait…

As for Shi Weiyang, who had taken liberties with her earlier, she had already cast him from her mind and had no wish to think of him again.

The wind was fierce, the fire fierce.

On the east side of Jiangning, as the obscure young woman named Yan Yunzhi walked out of the Equality King’s Gathering of Worthies, one of the two men on her mind — Li Yanfeng, the “Monkey King” who had come from Tongshan — was standing at that very moment atop a building on the north side of the city, watching a crowd not far off at a street corner, waving clay pots wrapped in flame and shouting as they set fire to the surrounding buildings. The clay pots shattered against the houses and burst instantly into roaring flame.

Chaotic fighting was spreading through the streets.

Just yesterday morning, the old sect leader Lin Zongwu, renowned as the greatest martial artist under heaven, had — in full view of the crowd — single-handedly overwhelmed four opponents and crushed his way through Zhou Shang’s Five Directions Ring, striking a heavy blow to the Yama King’s arrogance within the city. No one had expected that, that very night, barely past midnight, a number of blade-wielding gangs under the Yama King’s banner would launch a frenzied assault on the many territories the Wheel-Turning King held within the city.

By day it had been a one-against-four contest on the ring; by night, the fighting Zhou Shang had brazenly stirred up was a full-blown brawl on the scale of a thousand men, showing utter disregard for the city’s baseline of order or any unspoken understanding among its factions.

Atop the roof, Li Yanfeng watched the scene unfold, his heart trembling faintly, his blood running hot.

He too was a rising figure who had clawed his way up from the bottom. In the past, when others spoke of how formidable the Fairness Party was, he had, on the surface, listened with proper respect — but coming to Jiangning this time, he inevitably felt something of the urge of a strong dragon wanting to test its strength against the local snake. Yet he had never imagined that this branch of the Fairness Party, the Yama King’s faction, would prove so ruthless a player — that the very same night their sect leader had humiliated them on the ring with his martial skill, they would answer with hundreds upon hundreds of lives and rivers of blood splashed straight back.

“The one directing this is ‘Heaven’s Slayer’ Wei Xuwen.” Tan Zheng, the “Heaven Blade,” arrived from behind and stepped up onto the roof to stand beside Li Yanfeng.

Li Yanfeng said, “Where is he? Shall we go pay him a visit?”

“You won’t find him.” Tan Zheng shook his head. “That man is vicious by nature and decisive in action, but he doesn’t fight for the sake of pride — he directs things from behind, and never stands at the front of a brawl himself… Others in the city are on the move too, tonight’s going to be chaos. For now, let’s just drive back this bunch of reckless dogs. I’m heading out — what will you do, Brother Li?”

“I’ll go with you.” Li Yanfeng smiled and picked up the iron rod at his side.

“Knew you would, Brother Li, young hero that you are. Let’s go!”

Tan Zheng laughed heartily, and the two of them leapt down from the roof and waved their hands; the shadowy figures around them, taking their cue, followed the two of them forward with a roar.

Chaos and slaughter were spreading through the city.

Wei Xuwen’s assault on the north side of the city had been like a spark to a fuse — at this moment, the scattered forces throughout the city that flew the Yama King’s banner to earn their keep, having endured half a day of suppressed anger, now lit their own fires and took up blades and spears, launching attacks on the territories of nearby rival factions and even on the homes of wealthy commoners.

Some wards had already sealed their roads, relying on street barricades built beforehand. Within the city, the enforcement squads under the Fairness King had begun moving to bring the situation under control, but in this short span of time they naturally couldn’t manage it. He Wen’s subordinate, the “Dragon Sage” Fu Pingbo, personally went out to hunt for Wei Xuwen, but for the time being, he couldn’t find any trace of the man responsible for it all.

Flames flickered and bloomed across the city, patch by patch.

The other enemy on Yan Yunzhi’s mind, the young hero Long Aotian — who was also the one responsible for some of what had happened — had, not long before, earned his first nickname as he stepped into the martial world. At this very moment, he sat dazed on a rooftop in the dark, staring blankly at the scene of chaos before him.

If it had been a few hours earlier, if this had been him at midday today, he would surely have been beside himself with excitement — running around eagerly, looking for excitement or a chance to right some wrong, or perhaps, spurred on by the morning’s events, plotting to simply go kill some big shot of the Fairness Party and leave his name scrawled on a wall to make himself known.

But at this moment, all those thoughts seemed to have vanished…

That whole thing was fake — who had written it up in the newsletter…

He had clearly killed the villains and the corrupt official back in Tongshan County, and even left behind an incredibly cool parting message — where in any of that was there anything about molesting some young lady…

What was there to want to molest about that ugly girl…

Little Aotian, who had always considered himself, in his whole life, someone who had only ever been toyed with by women, felt unbearably wronged. He could already picture the moment this name reached the ears of people he knew — just like two days ago, when he’d told that little bald fellow, so full of swagger, to just mention the name Long Aotian if he ran into trouble. Now what was he supposed to do, what expression would that fellow make when he heard this news… And worst of all was back home in the southwest — once this information got back there, he could already picture his father and elder brother staring in dumbstruck shock, not to mention everyone else roaring with laughter…

The whole reason he’d gone out to right wrongs and act the hero was in hopes that one day he’d make such a big name for himself that people back home would forget the embarrassment of him being toyed with by Yu Xiao’er. He was clearly the one who had gone out to do good — so how had the name “Pervert Devil” ended up splashed across the newsletter instead…

Who wrote it, damn it — he’d kill their whole family for it…

This young hero, who had been on real battlefields and killed no small number of Jurchen soldiers, found himself for the first time in his life facing this kind of predicament. Hearing the commotion break out outside, he climbed up onto a roof to watch, wandering about in a daze for a while, his heart nearly on the verge of tears.

The name Long Aotian couldn’t be used anymore…

But if he didn’t use that name…

The chaos in the distance kept spreading closer. Sitting on some rooftop, he didn’t even know where, he felt a tangle of emotions — bitter one moment, gritting his teeth with fury the next. Thinking of that newsletter, he decided that tomorrow, first thing, he would go find wherever that newsletter was published, drag out whoever had written the piece, and eat him, bite by tiny bite!

Fury blazed hot in his chest.

At some point, on the street below the rooftop, six or seven members of the Yama King’s faction, carrying torches and banners, came shouting their way over. Spotting an isolated house facing the street, they rushed over howling, banging on the door and battering at the reinforced windows and walls.

“Wooo—”

“Come out, come out…”

“This is Yama King territory now…”

“Come out and pay your dues…”

“Hahahaha, who can hide from us…”

Several of them found a length of wood and began ramming it against the door. Inside, someone braced the wooden door shut from within, and the sound of a woman’s screaming and crying could already be heard. This only excited the men outside more, and they roared with laughter.

“Come out! Come out…”

“Or we’ll set the house on fire…”

“Come out and let us boys have some fun…”

As the group reveled, the ones holding torches had already begun trying to set the windows alight. In the middle of this little carnival, a young figure walked out of the darkness. Troubled by certain matters weighing on his mind, his mood was low, his eyes gone a flat grey. “Hey,” he called out.

The group kept reveling, paying him no mind, so the young man, still walking toward them, called out again: “Hey. Your mother’s dead, or what?”

Someone noticed the figure. “What?”

“Who’s that?”

Two or three of them came up to meet him, and the others glanced over too. Seeing what the young man looked like, they sneered a little and turned back to keep battering at the door.

“You shouldn’t be doing this.”

“The hell…” The one in front reached out to grab him, his hand landing on the young man’s collar. The young man’s left hand came up at the same instant, seized the man’s hand, twisted it around with the motion, and his right fist came whistling in to slam into the man’s face.

The man’s body swayed in midair, then was flung sideways into a pile of trash and debris on the roadside with a heavy crash. Before the rest could even react, the young man had already snatched up a wooden club and, with a single strike, twisted the second man’s shin inward.

“I! Told! You! People! Not! To! Do! This! Damn it—”

The young man swung his club, and in that instant he was like a fierce tiger bursting out of the darkness, baring its claws with savage force. He charged into the crowd, swinging the club wildly, sending men rolling across the ground. Someone swung a blade at him and had his arm broken with a single strike. He kicked viciously at the “Yama King” men writhing on the ground, running from one to the next, kicking and dragging them into a pile.

“They! Never did! Anything! To you!”

“What right did you have! To go banging on their door!”

“The lot of you!”

“Have no reason—”

“No sense of decency—”

“Doing whatever you please—”

“Sullying an innocent woman’s honor—”

He kept beating the pile of men with his club, cursing bitterly all the while. Most of the Yama King’s men now had broken arms and legs, curling up and covering their heads as the blows kept landing. Some coughed up blood and still tried to give their names.

“I am… under the Yama King’s banner…”

“…if you’ve got the guts, leave your own name…”

“…a real man…”

By the end, such talk had died down, no one daring to speak further. The young man, still somewhat restrained, stopped swinging after a while, and stood glaring at them, his eyes bloodshot.

“Leave your name…”

“This old man…”

“Young master here…”

He hesitated a moment, then delivered one more flying kick.

“Young master here is the legendary Five—”

“Martial Alliance Leader! Long Aotian—!”

As if he had finally made up his mind, he shouted, “You lot of scum, remember this — if you dare do evil again, I’ll kill every last one of you—”

The young man’s voice rang out down the street. In that moment, he truly refused to believe it.

Once his heroic name rang out across Jiangning, he simply would not believe that foolish men and women would still be fooled by a single sheet of newsletter!

That, at least, was what he told himself in that moment. Whatever happened, the truth would come out on its own — he would never surrender!

Gathering of Worthies.

Because of the disturbance in the north of the city that night, Yan Tiehe, who had gone to bed and then risen again, uneasy at heart, went once more to the small courtyard where Yan Yunzhi was staying, and knocked to check on her. Not long after, he stormed into chief steward Jin Yongsheng’s quarters, his face like ice, and slammed his hand down on the table before him.

“…The rumors from Tongshan County were nothing but baseless talk…”

“My Yan family came to Jiangning, has kept to propriety this whole time, treated everyone with courtesy — and still, something like this happens…”

“If anything happens to Yunzhi because of this… the Yan family stronghold may be a small and humble one, but we have a backbone that will not bend—”

Jin Yongsheng apologized profusely, and immediately had men sent out to chase after Yan Yunzhi. After a while, once he’d sent Yan Tiehe off, he walked with a dark expression into the bedroom where Shi Weiyang was staying, and had someone wake Shi Weiyang directly with a cold, wet towel, then had him wash his face and drink a sobering broth.

Not long after, Shi Weiyang came somewhat back to his senses. He didn’t lash out at the respected Jin Yongsheng, but instead sat on the edge of the bed, going back over what had happened.

“I warned you about this before.” Jin Yongsheng’s voice was low. “If you want to play with women, spend your silver on it — spend what needs spending, nothing wrong with that. In this day and age, what woman can’t you have if you want one… but you had to force yourself on her? Is the Yan family’s daughter really so much sweeter than the rest? Did playing around at this gathering really feel that much better? One moment of you thinking with the wrong head, and do you have any idea how much silver it’s going to cost your father? What is the Yan family worth to us? Are you here to bring honor to your father’s name, or here to wreck everything?”

“Uncle Yong, I was wrong.” Shi Weiyang rubbed at his face with both hands. “I was… damn it, I’d had too much to drink, got carried away… I just kept thinking, if that bastard from the southwest could get away with it, why couldn’t I…”

“Has your head gone soft?” Jin Yongsheng cursed. “You think matters of contesting for the realm can be weighed against a few women? Forget whether that business in Tongshan was even true or not — even if it was, if you’d married her, you’d have had years to enjoy her! Once the Yan family’s assets are in your hands, is there any woman you couldn’t have then, one way or another! You’re supposed to hold back when it matters, keep your eyes on the bigger picture — did you forget everything your father ever taught you?!”

“Uncle Yong, I was wrong, I won’t do it again.” Shi Weiyang shook his head. “So now… what can be done? Will the Yan family… really leave?”

“What’s done is done — of course all we can do now is try to salvage it.”

“But between me and that… Miss Yan… after things went this badly… if I apologize, will that even get us anywhere…” Shi Weiyang rubbed his forehead, troubled.

Jin Yongsheng was silent for a moment. “…After things have gone this far, and the girl’s already left — even if she comes back, she’s not likely to think much of you anymore. Though even without this marriage tie, cooperation between the Shi and Yan families could still be worked out — but it does add a lot of unnecessary variables now… I’ve already sent people out to find her…”

“So once she’s found…”

“Once she’s found, quietly hold her back, and you…” Jin Yongsheng glanced at him. “You get what you wanted, don’t you — give her a proper ‘seeing to,’ make the rice into cooked rice, so to speak, and then… treat the girl well afterward. Bring her back after that… in a situation like this, as long as things can be smoothed over on the surface, she’ll have no choice but to marry you even if she doesn’t want to… it’s the surest way to handle it now.”

Hearing this, Shi Weiyang’s eyes lit up. “Uncle Jin really is something… in that case…”

“Don’t waste time flattering me. Once we find her, don’t cause any more trouble. As for how to handle a woman — I don’t need to walk you through that step by step, do I?”

Saying this, the corner of his mouth curved into a cold little smile, as though he were only making a joke. Shi Weiyang laughed along. “Of course not, I know what to do. Uncle Jin, this whole thing is my fault, and I’ll take full responsibility for it. That Yan girl… how long ago did she leave?”

“An hour or so, at a guess.”

“We need to find her fast, while she still can’t have gotten far. I’ll gather men and go after her myself.”

It was still the small hours of the night, the sky hung with a lonely moon, and the disturbance on the north side of the city was still ongoing. Shi Weiyang dressed and prepared to gather men to go out. Jin Yongsheng made no move to stop him this time. In the end, the younger generation of the Shi family had to be tested somehow — whatever the true motive, having the drive to act at all was, in its own way, no bad thing.

At that moment, Yan Yunzhi was making her way toward the southern edge of the city, feeling out this chaotic city in the darkness.

Ning Ji had begun beating down the disorderly, out-of-control members of the Fairness Party in the streets, preparing to spread the name “Martial Alliance Leader Long Aotian” tenfold louder than before.

Yan Tiehe and Shi Weiyang had each gathered their own men and set out from the Gathering of Worthies, searching through the dark night for Yan Yunzhi’s trail.

The city still roiled with chaos in the darkness.

High up in his palace hall, Xu Zhaonan looked down quietly on all of it.

Since the day the Wheel-Turning King had entered the city, the struggle among the five great factions had entered a new stage. The relatively calm stalemate — one that most people had believed was still far from breaking into open slaughter — had shattered at this very moment…