Word of Ning Yi’s brush with assassination near the side gate didn’t spread far. After some time had passed, several servants, along with Xing’er—currently the most readily available of the three maids—hurried over, and quickly secured the small courtyard.

The clan assembly had only just concluded that very evening, and immediately such a sensitive incident had followed. Whoever had orchestrated the attempted assassination—or perhaps abduction—remained unclear for now, and this was hardly something that could be handled openly; it could only be dealt with quietly, through the Eldest Branch’s own internal resources. By the time Xing’er arrived, Ning Yi had already led several servants in searching the nearby area, and had promptly captured a suspicious newly hired carriage driver.

The steward overseeing this section had been drinking, and evidently hadn’t yet heard about what had happened at the clan assembly. Seeing Ning Yi arrive with a group of men, he’d tried, without understanding the situation, to intervene—until Xing’er arrived as well, relieved to find Ning Yi unharmed, bowing to him before turning her elegant brows into a cold frown and informing the steward icily that she intended to report him to the head steward. The steward sobered up at once and hastened to apologize.

Xing’er, only seventeen, was pretty and refined in appearance, though among the three maids she’d always held the position of eldest sister, with a forceful, assertive temperament. Toward anyone she felt she could confront, she tended to imitate Su Tan’er’s manner, delivering a few cold, cutting remarks; and if the offending party happened to be of comparable standing from another branch, someone she couldn’t easily push around, she’d nonetheless argue relentlessly and refuse to let the matter drop, on more than one occasion nearly earning herself a household punishment for standing up on behalf of the Eldest Branch’s servants and maids. Over time, others had grown accustomed to this maid’s stubborn, formidable nature. Ning Yi found her anger today rather amusing, though for now, the more pressing concern was clearly this matter of the attempted abduction.

“This was clearly premeditated—hard to say for certain who’s behind it. I’m fine for now, but do you know where Tan’er’s gone off to?”

Whatever the Second and Third Branches, or the Xue and Wu families, might be plotting, the target had generally always been Su Tan’er herself. Ning Yi had assumed everything was settled by now, and hadn’t expected this sort of unexpected complication to arise. Hearing this, his mind immediately turned to his wife’s whereabouts. Xing’er, hearing him bring this up, seemed to suddenly recall something.

“Young Miss… she should be fine, but as for where she is right now, I honestly don’t know either…”

“Hm?” Ning Yi frowned. “What’s going on?”

“Young Miss went to handle the matter of the attack on the Old Master. Juan’er should know—let me go find her.”

Xing’er’s expression shifted, and she stuck out her tongue before running off. Ning Yi’s mind churned with confusion. In the adjacent room, servants were still interrogating the four infiltrators they’d captured. A moment later, Juan’er came rushing in, out of breath. “Young master, are you all right?” She’d clearly heard about the assassination attempt from Xing’er as well. From the room nearby came the sound of a captured assassin screaming in pain.

Tonight, Chan’er, Juan’er, and Xing’er all had their own business to attend to. Ning Yi had assumed that, given how violent this whole affair was likely to get, Xing’er would probably have the higher tolerance for it—but it was only now that he realized Juan’er, upon hearing the screams from within, showed no particular discomfort either. She simply glanced inside with a slight frown, then turned promptly to ask whether Ning Yi had been hurt. Ning Yi explained what had happened and voiced his concerns; after a moment’s hesitation, Juan’er relayed what she knew.

“Young Miss went with the Old Master and the others to Ten-Step Slope, to deal with the matter of his assassination attempt—they’re trying to root out everyone involved and finish it once and for all. They’ve even brought in Chief Cheng of the Hundred Blades Alliance to help. There are a lot of people involved, it should be fine… Young Miss only found out today, it turns out, that the mastermind behind the original assassination attempt on the Old Master was… was Steward Xi Junyu. There’s someone behind him…”

As she mentioned Xi Junyu’s name, Juan’er, who had been keeping her head slightly lowered, stole a glance at Ning Yi—only to find his gaze already meeting hers, and quickly lowered her head again, pressing her lips together. Compared to the other two, Chan’er’s temperament tended to be gentle, Xing’er’s bold and forthright, while Juan’er was generally the quietest and most reserved of the three sisters—though she was never careless in her actual work, her manner in daily life sometimes gave people the impression of shyness and timidity. Xing’er hadn’t known any of this, and yet it turned out Juan’er was the one who did.

Ning Yi looked at her with the wary eyes of someone regarding a secret agent, then frowned and asked about this Hundred Blades Alliance she’d mentioned. It turned out to be a sizable gang operating within Jiangning—not especially flashy in its public presence, but wielding considerable real power. Its leader, Cheng Lie, was on close terms with Su Boyong, and represented, in effect, the greatest force the Su family could call upon within Jiangning’s criminal underworld.

“This affair, actually, was arranged jointly by the Old Master and Young Miss. Young Miss hadn’t dealt much with these matters before, so Juan’er doesn’t know all the details either—this time, they didn’t tell young master because they were afraid you’d worry…”

Juan’er explained further, and Ning Yi began to piece the situation together. Su Boyong wasn’t a man without a temper of his own; having been left paralyzed by this assassination attempt, revenge was surely inevitable. Going forward, with Su Tan’er now in charge of the household, she too would need to start engaging with matters of this kind more directly. What struck him as particularly meaningful, though, was the tone in Juan’er’s voice when she mentioned Xi Junyu—he could more or less guess at some of the underlying reasons himself, though he’d genuinely never considered before now that the assassination attempt might have been orchestrated by one of the family’s own stewards.

“Someone behind him.” Ning Yi nodded. “Who?”

“Uh, that’s still unclear right now…”

…

“Uncle Cheng, who exactly are they?” In the courtyard at Ten-Step Slope, Su Tan’er was also asking questions of the man beside her.

Outside the courtyard, the fighting continued, though the number of combatants remained relatively small, making the overall shape of the battle difficult to discern. A moment earlier, one member of the Hundred Blades Alliance had burst through the front gate, covered in blood, though the two sides still seemed to be in the probing, testing stage of the conflict. Several wounded now lay within the courtyard, groaning, bleeding—a genuinely gruesome sight for a woman to witness. Su Tan’er’s expression remained unchanged as she stood there, though one hand had quietly clenched at the hem of her robe. This wasn’t the first time she’d witnessed something of this nature; years ago, on a journey out of Jiangning, she’d once run into bandits along the road who demanded payment for safe passage, leading to a fight in which she’d seen bloodshed on a considerable scale. But regardless, this sort of thing was simply not something one ever fully grew accustomed to.

Beside her stood the middle-aged man who had been speaking with her father earlier—tall, powerfully built, in his early forties, with hair and beard half-turned white, bearing a fierce, imposing presence like something between a lion and a tiger, a great blade resting near his hand. This was Cheng Lie, chief of the Hundred Blades Alliance. He now tilted his head, listening to the sounds coming from outside.

“Hard to say for certain yet. There’s quite a few of them—we didn’t manage to spring the ambush cleanly at the start, so now it’s come down to a direct fight. Hmph. Not Jiangning men, these ones.”

“Not from Jiangning?”

“Unfamiliar faces. Bold, willing to fight hard—the style suggests they’re from out of town. Probably one of those groups of desperate men who drifted into Jiangning during the flooding a while back.”

Jiangning’s prosperity naturally attracted no shortage of underworld figures and those working the shadier edges of business, with outsiders drifting in each year to try their luck or carve out territory. During times of natural disaster or upheaval, this sort of desperate migrant—people who’d lost everything and arrived in Jiangning like some ferocious dragon crossing the river—only multiplied further. For the many smaller gangs and factions in the city, such men often posed a genuine threat; those who’d already lost everything and had nothing left to fear could prove extraordinarily destructive. But for a force like the Hundred Blades Alliance, the impact was considerably less severe. Cheng Lie merely tilted his head slightly.

“Don’t worry, niece. Even a powerful dragon can’t outmatch the local snake on its own turf—there’s no need to worry about these rough outsiders. They think they’ve brought enough men, but tonight we’ll make sure they die cleanly and completely. As for the outsiders who’ve come to Jiangning to scrape by this year, we’ve got a fairly good sense of who they all are. Once we determine exactly which group these belong to, I can guarantee that whoever didn’t show up tonight won’t manage to leave Jiangning alive either. This whole matter… hm…”

Cheng Lie spoke with steady, commanding confidence—brimming with self-assurance, and indeed, he genuinely had the strength to back it up—but only partway through did he seem to remember he was speaking with his young niece. He hesitated for a moment, then simply waved a hand. “No point dragging this out any further with them—let’s move.”

At this point, figures stood positioned beneath the eaves and hidden in the shadows all around the courtyard; invisible from outside, the small space had effectively become a heavily fortified stronghold. As he waved his hand, someone beside him immediately opened a bamboo tube, and the moment the firework shot into the sky and burst, a sudden cry rose from outside. “Kill—!”

In that instant, an answering roar surged forward like a tidal wave, thundering through the night sky. “Kill—!”

“Charge—!”

The Hundred Blades Alliance members positioned throughout Ten-Step Slope launched their assault simultaneously, sweeping like an angry tide toward the woods surrounding the small courtyard, clashing at close quarters. The outsiders who had also gathered nearby were now genuinely forced into the open, and the sounds of fighting flared instantly into fierce intensity. Six or seven men rushed out through the courtyard gate as well. Amid the sudden chaos, something occurred to Su Tan’er, and she called out a question to Cheng Lie.

“What?” Cheng Lie hadn’t quite heard her over the noise, and shouted back.

“Uncle Cheng! I wanted to ask! Among these outsiders, is there anyone from the Ezhou area?” Su Tan’er called out loudly.

“Ezhou?”

“Yes, I just remembered—the man who framed my father, he was originally from Ezhou!”

“There’s people from all over here, but Ezhou… yes, there’s a group, quite a few from around that region, and their leader’s named Ou Peng—watch out! The roof!”

Cheng Lie hadn’t even finished speaking before he suddenly roared, spun around, seized his great blade in his left hand, and hurled a nearby iron ring—its purpose unclear—with his right, straight toward the roof of the room where Xi Junyu was being held. A figure had apparently already reached that rooftop; the iron ring struck violently, tearing through the thatched roofing, and the figure reacted in that same instant, swinging a great blade of his own from behind and hacking down forcefully against the incoming ring.

CRACK—sparks flared bright against the night sky as the iron ring was knocked away, the figure staggering several steps across the roof, stumbling through the thatch before tumbling down into the room below.

“Ahh—!”

“Die!”

Amid the sudden burst of chaos, Su Boyong—who had just had a guard wheel him back inside after Su Tan’er’s exit, apparently exchanging a few words with Xi Junyu—was now emerging again, glancing back once behind him. Beside Su Tan’er, Cheng Lie’s figure had already rushed toward the room at astonishing speed, hacking straight through half a window shutter and charging inside with a thunderous crash. The room had only a single oil lamp, and figures now churned in wild confusion within it—clang, clang, clang, clang! Blades whirled and spun, sparks bursting continuously amid furious battle cries; tables, chairs, and wooden shelving were hacked apart, sent flying through the air, illuminated by the flashing sparks.

A figure came crashing out through the window with a thud—tall and gaunt, this was the same Hundred Blades Alliance member who had originally subdued Xi Junyu and remained stationed in the room. He was a genuinely capable fighter, but had evidently just been beaten badly, rolling several times across the ground before spitting out a mouthful of blood and struggling back to his feet. Su Tan’er had instinctively started to rush toward her father, but Su Boyong waved a hand to signal it wasn’t necessary—Guard Geng had already emerged from the room, blade in hand, backing out. There were still three people inside the room: Xi Junyu, Cheng Lie, and the intruder who’d just been knocked down from the roof. The fighting continued, sparks flying wildly, and there was no telling whether Xi Junyu, caught in the middle of it all, had been struck down or not.

“Die!” Inside the room, Cheng Lie suddenly bellowed, and with a tremendous crash, another figure was sent hurtling out through the window. This man gripped a steel blade, half his body already drenched in blood, his headscarf knocked away, in a state of utter disarray—clearly the intruder himself. Scrambling up from the ground, he let out a furious roar and charged at Su Tan’er like a man possessed. The tall, gaunt Hundred Blades Alliance member shifted a few steps sideways and blocked him with his own blade; the two weapons clashed, the intruder roaring as his blade spun rapidly in his grip, throwing off a dazzling cascade of sparks. But this time, the gaunt man had already learned the intruder’s rhythm, and after two more exchanges, forced him back.

The Hundred Blades Alliance members positioned nearby, beneath the eaves and in the shadows, began closing in from all sides.

“Go!” Inside the room, Cheng Lie’s voice rang out sharply, and Xi Junyu came stumbling out, kicked forcibly through the doorway. Before he could steady himself, a great blade came to rest firmly against his neck. Cheng Lie stepped out of the room, holding the blade with one hand, and turned his gaze toward the man now surrounded within the courtyard. “Who are you?”

The blood-soaked swordsman, half his body drenched in red, brushed his hair aside and said through gritted teeth, “The name’s Ma Lin!”

“Fine. Kill him.”

Cheng Lie wasted no further words, tilting his head to the side just as the sounds of fighting near the courtyard gate suddenly grew fierce and intense—the whistle of weapons cutting through the air, two Hundred Blades Alliance members sent flying, while two others fell back and scattered apart. Cheng Lie’s own blade flashed, deflecting a projectile that came hurtling toward him, and the great blade settled back once more against Xi Junyu’s neck. Appearing at the courtyard gate now was another tall, powerfully built man, wielding an iron spear. He stepped across the threshold, standing there, surveying the scene within the courtyard—his own comrades scattered about, and… a courtyard full of enemies.

“I know you. Ou Peng—so it really is you.” Cheng Lie shook his head. “You outsiders certainly seem to be enjoying yourselves here in Jiangning.”

“Just scraping together a living, that’s all.” The tall man raised the spear in his hand. “Whoever stands between me and my next meal, I kill their whole family. I know your surname’s Cheng—are you going to let this pass or not?”

Cheng Lie’s brow furrowed, then he broke into a faintly ferocious smile, speaking one deliberate word at a time. “I think… perhaps I won’t, after all.”

Throughout the courtyard, every Hundred Blades Alliance disciple present understood at once that Cheng Lie had truly lost his temper now, and prepared to charge straight at Ou Peng. Ou Peng slowly retreated back over the courtyard threshold, then, in an instant, spun around and bolted off to one side.

“Kill these fools who don’t know when to quit!”

His face darkening, Cheng Lie swung his great blade in a single motion, striking Xi Junyu down to the ground with a sharp crack, nearly half his face already swollen. Then he advanced, blade in hand, toward Ma Lin at the courtyard’s center, while several men had already begun pursuing outward through the gate, joining their comrades already stationed outside in the chase after Ou Peng. In an instant, the sounds of fierce combat near Ten-Step Slope rose to an almost boiling frenzy!

At that same moment, two carriages had already rolled out through the Su estate’s side gate, heading out toward the city’s outskirts…