When he opened his eyes in the midst of his meditative trance, he saw that figure in the darkness, and the fierce, murderous intent that came with it.
Deep in the night, rain poured down outside.
“Cloud-Splitting Hand” Sha Wanshi, the finest fighter under Dong Pang’er’s command, had spent recent years challenging masters throughout the north, building up a formidable reputation for himself. Through the efforts of those who talked him up, he had gradually earned the title of a man unmatched throughout the Central Plains.
In the martial world, reputations formed within their own separate circles. Zhou Tong’s title as “First Under Heaven” rested, first and foremost, on the genuine strength he had proven over the years, and second, on his position as head instructor at the Imperial Boxing Academy, taking on all challengers who came his way. Beyond that, titles like “First of Heshuo,” “Sword King of Jiangnan,” or “First Spear and Staff of Hebei” cropped up now and then in the martial world as well—anyone who could hold such a title for any length of time generally did have real strength to back it up.
Sha Wanshi’s growing fame owed something to his military background as well: though people in the martial world liked to talk about using force to defy the law, in practice they still feared the government and the army a great deal. Claim to be “First Under Heaven” within the ranks of the army, and few in the martial world would actually come knocking to test the claim. But of course, his own skill was quite formidable in its own right as well.
This time, he had come to Green Wood Stronghold together with Dong Pang’er’s envoy, with the intention of challenging Blood Bodhisattva should negotiations fail—if he could defeat her, suppress Green Wood Stronghold’s arrogance, then everything else would be easy enough to discuss. Only, in the days since arriving at Green Wood Stronghold, he had yet to even lay eyes on Blood Bodhisattva, and the first thing he encountered instead was an assassin.
In the dead of night, he couldn’t even make out the outline of the figure that had suddenly appeared in his room. But the chill that swept through him in that instant felt like a boundless sea of blood. The intruder came without a sound; Sha Wanshi, at the very peak of his cultivation at that moment, struck out with both palms, one after the other, in a swift chopping motion.
A boom sounded, and the very air in the darkness shook.
The sea of blood parted; killing intent, sinuous as a serpent, silently closed in on his flank. Sha Wanshi swung one palm sideways like a spear thrust.
Boom! Crash! Bang—
He stepped down off his bed; behind him, the bed frame shattered, the footstool before it silently crumbled to pieces, and with each thundering step forward the earthen floor of the room sank beneath his feet. In the space of a few brief moments, he covered three strides and threw five punches, the muffled sound of displaced air making the whole room hum—and then, at last, he finally landed a hit.
Against the force of his punch, the figure blocked and parried, then suddenly pressed back with counter-force—power that was not pure hardness, but had, in combining with softness, become ferociously overwhelming, enough to genuinely startle Sha Wanshi. In the next instant, a palm struck silently beneath his right ribs, driving him back two steps.
Sha Wanshi surged forward in pursuit; the figure pushed through the door and out. He charged outside after it, and a sharp gust of wind came slicing through the rain, slamming into his chest and kicking him back inside. By the time he charged out the door again, amid the howling wind and rain, the intruder had already vanished into the storm.
…
Far off, the intruder’s figure cut through the curtain of rain, racing up a steep cliff face in the darkness.
…
The rain fell through most of the night, finally stopping by morning. Since it was summer, the traces of the downpour didn’t linger long on the ground, and by the time the sky brightened, the valley was once again bustling with activity.
That morning, Lou Shuwan went out to the trading post outside Green Wood Stronghold, where she also met with a minor chief who had come from a nearby stronghold to gather information. After detailing the current state of affairs in Lüliang, she went so far as to write out a letter for him to carry back to his stronghold, to ensure that even if his own chief happened to be a fool, the letter would still find its way into the hands of someone with real judgment.
In theory, if the person who came wasn’t someone of real standing within their own stronghold, this kind of indirect persuasion, filtered through an intermediary, would carry too little weight. Given enough time, the most effective approach would have been for her to travel through Lüliang in person—doing so might even have let her raise troops on the spot to pressure Green Wood Stronghold directly. But as noon approached, word came from within the stronghold that the Chief had returned to the mountain and could receive the honored guests from outside that afternoon.
“…Speaking of which, we’ve mostly gathered background on everyone Blood Bodhisattva plans to meet. There’s the wealthy He Shuyuan, connected to the Qi family—he’s a man who can call the shots across both the Hebei and Hedong circuits in his own right. He’s set his sights on Lüliang because his family deals in salt, iron, and tea, and he wants a foothold here that doesn’t run through Yanmen Pass. His power base is already the largest of anyone’s, which is actually why I think it’s fairly unlikely he’ll succeed here.”
At midday, Lou Shuwan met up with Tian Shi, Yu Yulin, and the others, bringing along a few aides and advisors to analyze the overall situation.
“…There’s Deputy General Xiao Cheng from the Martial Victory Army—by all accounts, he’s here to cause trouble. The Martial Victory Army is the one that garrisons Yanmen Pass, and Green Wood Stronghold snatching business out from under their noses left the two sides with little to discuss to begin with. But now that there’s an amnesty edict in play, it’s possible there’s internal discord within the Martial Victory Army itself, and they want to bring Lüliang under their own control instead—I’ve heard before that the forces around Yanmen Pass are already far too tangled and complicated…”
Hearing Lou Shuwan bring this up, Yu Yulin nodded. “The Martial Victory Army holding Yanmen Pass is mostly tied up with the frontier tax revenues. Frontier taxation is a major matter for the entire Wu dynasty, and it’s not only the army that has a hand in it. Cai Jing’s civil officials in the capital, Tong Guan’s military men, the Ministry of Revenue’s tax collectors, the Emperor’s own privy treasury—all of them have people planted here. On the surface it looks harmonious enough, but in truth, things have long since become a tangled mess. If one faction among them wants to court Lüliang for a bit of extra profit, that wouldn’t be at all strange.”
“In that case, they might actually have some real chance here.” Lou Shuwan nodded, marking a line beside Xiao Cheng’s name in the small notebook at her side.
“Then there’s Dong Pang’er and his people—they themselves accepted amnesty and surrendered to the court, so they’ve got heavy underworld flavor about them. The ones who came are basically treating everyone at Green Wood Stronghold like sworn brothers already, same as us. There’s also that one said to have quite formidable skill—General Yu, do you know of him?”
“Cloud-Splitting Hand, Sha Wanshi. I know a bit about him.” Yu Yulin said. “His skill is quite good—probably a notch above mine, even. Coming here, it looks like he means to challenge Blood Bodhisattva. Though… heh, he probably doesn’t stand much chance. Blood Bodhisattva’s skill has already reached the level of a true grandmaster. Short of someone like Iron-Armed Zhou Tong himself showing up, I doubt anyone could put up much of a fight against her.”
“…She’s a woman, and yet this formidable…” Lou Shuwan mused for a moment, then simply smiled and said quietly, “Well, let’s set Dong Pang’er’s people aside for now. That leaves, in terms of real contenders, the Demon of the Heart and ourselves.”
“But there’s been no sign of the Demon of the Heart making any move these past few days—he hasn’t even shown himself yet,” Tian Shi said.
“That’s right…”
Lou Shuwan frowned, sighing softly, and the room fell quiet.
After a moment, one of the advisors spoke up. “Could it be that the men he’s left here are merely a decoy? That he himself has gone elsewhere, or perhaps… like us, he’s scheming to work on the other stronghold chiefs?”
Lou Shuwan’s eyes lit up briefly, then she shook her head. “The very reason they came into the mountains was to establish ties with Blood Bodhisattva—and Blood Bodhisattva even took personal action on their behalf after Little Raider offended them. Even setting aside profit, it wouldn’t make sense to turn on them so quickly.”
“But given his reputation as the Demon of the Heart, it’s hard to judge him by ordinary logic. Perhaps he’s already scheming against Blood Bodhisattva herself…”
“Enough.” Lou Shuwan cut the advisor off. “We came into these mountains to cooperate with Green Wood Stronghold, drawing the other strongholds together to pressure them—purely for the sake of profit. Once terms are settled, we’re friends. The Demon of the Heart has come here through his ties with Blood Bodhisattva—if he ends up betraying her in the end, that would be a genuine betrayal, and there’d be nothing left to negotiate; it would come down to open conflict. Why would he be so foolish?”
Everyone had entered the mountains together, and over these past few days of running back and forth, deep down Lou Shuwan had still been treating Ning Yi as her imagined adversary. Yet with the man making no move at all—not even showing his face—she found herself growing increasingly restless. As she sat mulling over the situation in the room, out in the courtyard beyond, other events were already unfolding.
Within Green Wood Stronghold’s inner compound, once these various outside groups had arrived, the stronghold had arranged for the core figures among them to all lodge together in a newly built cluster of small courtyards partway up the hillside. Over the following days, people would run into one another whenever they stepped outside, and once they’d sized each other up as rival factions, small frictions occasionally flared between them. But on this particular day, one such minor friction seemed poised to escalate into something much larger.
On the western side, at the entrance to the courtyard where Dong Pang’er’s subordinates were staying, figures moved in and out. A man in a lieutenant’s uniform was just heading out when he was suddenly bumped into, nearly stumbling. He opened his mouth to curse—but upon getting a clear look at who stood before him, his expression turned even more venomous.
“Damn it, looking for trouble, are you…”
Standing before him at the courtyard gate was a bare-chested young man, evidently fresh from training, his whole body glistening with sweat. He held a spear in both hands, resting it before him, standing right there in the doorway with a bright, brazen grin—clearly the most brash and arrogant of all the newcomers lodging in that opposite courtyard. Both sides had come into the mountains for business, and while there’d already been some mutual wariness on ordinary days, this time the man had actually come looking for trouble at their very door.
At that moment, the young man had his steel spear planted squarely across the entrance, and the rest of the men there began gathering toward the spot. Then the young man spoke up with a grin.
“This brother is Zhu Biao, the City-Burning Spear. I’ve long heard of Cloud-Splitting Hand Sha Wanshi’s great name—unmatched across the Central Plains—and I’ve come specially today to pay my respects and seek instruction… Hey, Sha Wanshi, are you in there?” His voice carried far and wide, and without waiting for a reply, he simply walked straight in. “I know you’re in there—I’m coming in!”
…
“…Whatever happens, Green Wood Stronghold is playing hard to get, and this deal won’t be easy to settle—we’ll just have to keep moving forward step by step for now… What’s going on over there?”
In the early afternoon, Lou Shuwan, Yu Yulin, and the others stepped out of their courtyard and saw the commotion breaking out among the courtyards ahead, and realized that a fight had broken out somewhere.
The scouts sent to investigate hadn’t returned in time. Taking a detour along the path, the group had just passed behind that courtyard when a loud boom rang out. Qiu Guyan suddenly stepped in front of Lou Shuwan, and just a zhang ahead, the crumbling earthen wall—soaked through by a day or two of heavy rain—burst apart with a crash, sending a figure flying out to land on the path before them. The man crashed to the ground, clutching his right side, and coughed up a mouthful of blood.
“‘Cloud-Splitting Hand’ Sha Wanshi?” Yu Yulin murmured beside her, staring at the figure with a look of puzzled shock.
The foundation of the neighboring courtyard stood roughly a meter higher than the path here, and a figure now appeared at the breach in the wall. Lou Shuwan and the others looked up to see none other than Zhu Biao, the Demon of the Heart’s own enforcer—he too bore some wounds, but at present he clearly carried himself like the victor.
“Old-timer, lucky enough to win a couple of exchanges there—sorry about that! Uh…” Zhu Biao turned his gaze toward Yu Yulin, then grinned. “And you over there—have we crossed paths before?”
Yu Yulin fell into a wary stance. Beside him, for some reason, Lou Shuwan burst out laughing, quite pleased.
He’s made his move…
“Let’s go,” she said quietly, “and go persuade Blood Bodhisattva.” She led the way, walking right past Zhu Biao.
She even glanced back at him with a smile as she went…
Zhu Biao, having just triumphed over Sha Wanshi, suddenly found himself feeling rather bewildered.