The moonlight was bright, and as Xi Junyu’s voice rang out through the mountain forest, the Liangshan soldiers were still advancing silently through the distant trees. Yan Qing took a step back, his gaze sweeping across those around him—Song Jiang ahead, Dai Zong behind. He clenched his fists, exhaled a breath, and then, finally settling his mind, burst out laughing.

“So fast… it seems you’d already suspected me before this. Since when?”

“Since when we were still up on the mountain.”

Having endured such prolonged suppression and misunderstanding, Xi Junyu was, at this moment when the clouds had finally parted and the moon shone clear, more than willing to share his insights with others. Hearing Yan Qing’s question, he laughed, then his expression turned serious.

“Getting suspicious of you, Brother Yan, was truly no easy thing. You got along too well with everyone, and you played the part too convincingly. After Young Master Lu passed away, no one on the mountain would ever have thought to doubt you. But the first time I let my gaze linger on you was a month ago, when I staged my attempt to slip away from the mountain…”

“The Military Advisor, like everyone else at the time, understood that there was a mole among us, and understood too the damage such a mole could do. But he was hidden among the leadership, and we had no way to investigate him. What I could be certain of was one thing—that I was someone Ning Liheng absolutely intended to kill. So if I tried to slip away, that mole was bound to take notice. At the time, I used myself as bait, to draw him out into the open, and confirmed a few people. Brother Yan, among them, you were the one who struck me as the strangest…”

As he spoke, Xi Junyu’s voice gradually grew clearer, and he spread his hands, even carrying something of the same air Ning Yi himself had. Since the great battle had not yet begun, Song Jiang and the others didn’t mind letting a bit of time pass here, indulging in the pleasure of catching the traitor red-handed before the fighting started.

“Some things, once you start questioning and investigating, always reveal some trace or another. Many people didn’t want me to leave—that wasn’t strange in itself, being torn wasn’t proof of being a mole. But you—you actually showed concern about it, why? After Young Master Lu died, all you cared about was revenge—it wasn’t strange at all that you’d set your sights beyond Liangshan. But that you cared about internal matters within Liangshan—that was harder to explain. Of course, you got along well with everyone, so occasionally asking about things couldn’t confirm anything either, and it was possible you wanted to have me captured, to use me to get revenge on Ning Liheng—that was possible too… so at the time, I couldn’t be certain.”

Xi Junyu tilted his head slightly, pausing with something between a smile and a smirk. “But once doubt had taken root in my mind, certain things had to be thought through… We went back over the entire course of events at Dulong Ridge, and cross-referenced it against Ning Yi’s movements the whole way. Late in the third month, the massacre in Jiangning; by mid-fourth month he’d already set out for the capital, then ran into Zhu Wu and the others intercepting the canal shipment. Late fourth month, early fifth month, he entered the capital—even if he was just building connections there, that would still take some doing. Sometime in the fifth month he came to Shandong, and by late fifth month we were already fighting at Dulong Ridge. In such a short span of time, how much could he possibly have accomplished?”

Yan Qing laughed, shaking his head. “He crushed you all in three days.”

“Exactly.” Xi Junyu remained composed. “But when the battle at Dulong Ridge began, we never anticipated a mole among the mountain’s own leadership at all. Looking at the whole affair, if there hadn’t been such a mole, there was no way he could have succeeded. And for it to work, this mole couldn’t have been someone hastily recruited—he staked the outcome of his whole gambit on placing himself in mortal danger, banking on a mole as the riskiest part of his plan. That meant this mole had to be formidable, had to be shrewd—someone with both skill and wits, with the means to act, and someone he could trust! At that point it struck me—what if the mole hadn’t been planted after he arrived in Shandong at all? What if, in some place we’d overlooked, he had already laid the groundwork before that? There’s only one place that could be…”

“The canal.” Xi Junyu nodded, lifting his chin, looking down at Yan Qing with disdain. “During the canal incident, four people came back. Brother Zhu Wu couldn’t have been the one, since he wasn’t present. Brother Zhang Shun was killed at Dulong Ridge. That left you and Brother Yan Shun—I suspected both of you, and when I suspected you, I even laughed at myself for overthinking things. According to Brother Zhu Wu’s account, he personally witnessed Young Master Lu’s death, and he himself was only captured for half a day—there was no way Young Master Lu could have been turned in that time, no time at all. When we came down the mountain, Brother Yan Shun didn’t come along, and I too, at one point, thought I’d been wrong. But my guard around you—I never once let it down. And then, at Fengping County, I saw you slip a note into the arms of a dead constable… that’s when I was certain it was you.”

“Clever your whole life, and still tripped up by your own cleverness in the end—but really, it could only have been you!” Xi Junyu pointed at him, laughing. “Formidable, shrewd, skilled in martial arts, with the means to act—and on top of that, on good terms with most of the brothers on Liangshan! And you’re the only one who fills in that last piece I could never quite make sense of. Why would he stake so much on this particular mole, if we rule out the possibility that he simply has boundless resources and countless backup plans. Yan Qing… it’s because between you and Young Master Lu, it wasn’t brotherhood… it was romance! You catamite—”

The moment these words left his mouth, several people around them wore strange expressions, some nearly bursting out laughing. Yan Qing’s face, which had until then still carried a somewhat easygoing look, now lowered slightly, his whole demeanor already radiating naked killing intent.

Yan Qing had a mild temperament, but his features carried a handsome, virile air, and combined with his formidable martial skill, he had good relations with many people on Liangshan. But the nature of his relationship with Lu Junyi had never been simply that of master and servant—something some people on the mountain vaguely knew but chose not to speak of. Though Yan Qing was Lu Junyi’s household servant, in his early years he had indeed started out as a catamite.

But in this day and age, even if something existed between two men, it was generally considered a matter of refined taste, simply not something to be spoken of casually. It was for these reasons that Yan Qing had learned all manner of skills that let him move with ease through the pleasure quarters, earning himself the name “the Rake.” But after he came of age, his relationship with Lu Junyi was no longer necessarily a physical one—especially after he later rescued Lu Junyi and brought him up the mountain, by which point he was firmly established as a proper sworn brother, and no one brought up the old matter anymore.

But for Xi Junyu to say it now was nothing short of a deliberate insult—like pulling at a tiger’s whiskers, touching the rawest of nerves.

Xi Junyu, naturally unafraid of Yan Qing at this point, only smiled smugly to himself. But Yan Qing’s gaze had turned cold and forbidding, and Dai Zong, Wu Song, and the others all took a step forward.

Song Jiang said in a low voice, “One may know a man’s face, but never his heart. Brother Yan, I, Song Jiang, never once treated you unfairly, and yet you’ve done this to me. Good and evil always meet their end—today, exposed before us all, you have no grounds for complaint. That Ning Liheng is at Zhanjia Hollow this very moment; we’re going to strike and put him to death. This isn’t Dulong Ridge—the terrain here is open all around. We’re not going in to wipe out those two thousand men; we’re going in with everything we have, three thousand strong, to kill him! He won’t have much luck. If you repent, surrender now and submit yourself—perhaps some of the brothers will speak up for you when the time comes.”

Having said this, Song Jiang, as someone brought his horse over, didn’t wait for Yan Qing’s response and mounted up to leave. Behind him, Yan Qing lowered his head and laughed. “Heh heh heh heh, hahahaha— Song Jiang…”

The laughter sounded absurd. Song Jiang tilted his head slightly, and behind him, Yan Qing said in a low voice, “All that talk of yours about acting on heaven’s behalf—don’t tell me you actually started believing it yourself!?”

The words came out nearly through gritted teeth. Song Jiang glanced at him once. Yan Qing stood there, straightening his back, his whole bearing suddenly drawing upright. He drew a roll of oiled cloth from his robe, slapped it against his palm, and slowly began winding it around his hand. He shifted his stance slightly forward, and Dai Zong and the others adjusted their positions as well, guarding against any attempt to flee.

“That’s right, I, Yan Qing, am a man of lowly birth. But Song Jiang, you’re nothing but a bandit! Never treated anyone unfairly!? Do you take everyone for fools! My young master was originally a wealthy merchant of Daming Prefecture, with property, land, a household, a family. You call him a hero? So that gave you the right to drag him up this mountain to become an outlaw? One rebellious poem, one scheme, and you left my young master’s family destroyed and scattered! Do you have any idea, the very first time my young master went out that door, I begged him not to act on a moment’s impulse and come to Liangshan…”

The oiled cloth wound around his hand, and Yan Qing clenched his fist, producing a sharp cracking sound. Under the moonlight, his eyes gleamed sharp as a tiger’s.

“My young master wouldn’t listen to me, and in the end fell right into your scheme, left with no way out—only then did I have to urge him to come up Liangshan himself… Yan the Lackey, yes, I am a man of humble station—it makes no difference where I go. But I still know right from wrong, and I know full well whose doing this all was! Song Jiang! How dare you say, without a trace of shame, that you never treated anyone unfairly! You brought ruin and separation upon others’ families, and yet still stand there, righteous and proud, expecting their gratitude! How many people on Liangshan share this same story! Look at how Qin Ming’s family was slaughtered! And Xu Ning’s! Whether you thought of them as no better than pigs and dogs, I couldn’t say. But let me tell you this—ever since I came up Liangshan, in my heart I have prayed every single day for every one of you to die!”

He clenched the cloth wrapped around his hand tighter with his teeth, bones creaking faintly as he moved, his gaze fixed on Song Jiang, a cold, wolfish smile spreading across his face. Song Jiang pulled at his reins. “Kill him!”

“Heh.” Fist clenched, then released, Yan Qing stepped forward, shifted his stance, and the air around him turned genuinely dangerous. From beginning to end, this young man who had always carried himself with such mild manners on Liangshan had, at this moment, finally taken up the most vicious, aggressive stance of his life, making unmistakably clear that he had no intention of surrendering here. Ahead, Wu Song and the others moved to meet him—not that they feared Yan Qing, but at this moment, none of them truly dared underestimate him either.

Song Jiang spurred his horse and rode off, and in the darkness around them, some hidden figures began to withdraw with him as well. Just as Yan Qing settled into his stance, in the very next instant he suddenly charged straight toward Song Jiang!

Meeting him head-on was a fist swinging forward with the sound of tearing wind—this was “the Pilgrim” Wu Song, one of the two or three most formidable fighters on Liangshan, a man who had once killed a tiger with his bare hands. Behind him stood Chai Jin, Guan Sheng, and more than ten other elite Liangshan fighters of formidable skill.

But Yan Qing’s figure did not stop. His body surged forward, and as he crossed the distance in a single stride, both hands shot out to the sides and then clawed forward like a fierce tiger leaping in a gust of wind. With a crash, the two figures collided. Guan Sheng swung his great blade, Chai Jin moved to intercept, more than a dozen figures closed in, Dai Zong leapt from behind, a short blade thrusting out silently. Countless collisions, malice, and murderous intent mingled together, blotting out the moonlight.

A thousand miles away in the capital, Lu Junyi paused in his practice in the courtyard, sweat rolling down his bare torso. He looked up—the moon hung in the sky, especially bright… He walked toward his chamber, thinking to himself, wondering how things were going at Liangshan…