This being his first time trading with criminals, Ning Ji felt a bit nervous, and had mentally rehearsed quite a few contingency plans.

But the actual exchange turned out to be simple, and afterward, summing it up, his immature conclusion was mainly this — he was a genius.

It was the hour of Wei on the twenty-third of the sixth month, not long after the arena opened for the afternoon, when a burly man named Huang Shan appeared at the edge of the grounds, making furtive “psst, psst” sounds to draw his attention. As usual, Ning Ji stood up with an expressionless face, went to the small rest room to fetch a bundle, slung it over his shoulder, and walked out toward the grounds.

The two of them met in an alley beside the martial arts arena — though it was a side street, it wasn’t actually very secluded, and Huang Shan hesitated as he approached. “Young Master Long, why don’t we find somewhere—”

“What is it?” Ning Ji frowned, displeased.

“For something like this, shouldn’t we find a more hidden spot…”

Ning Ji looked at him. “This is my own territory. What’s there to be afraid of? Did you bring the money?”

His eyes were cold and detached. Though over the past decade or so the skills he’d actually practiced most were battlefield medicine and small-unit combat, the people he’d been exposed to since childhood had been a truly varied bunch, and though he had little practical experience negotiating or setting traps for people, his theoretical knowledge of such things ran deep.

Back when his father had been teaching his elder brother, he’d once said that the most important thing in negotiation was to drag the other person along at your own pace, while in something like play-acting, the most important thing was to remain composed no matter what happened — the best role to play was a lunatic or an egomaniac, someone who only listened to his own words and paid no mind to what others thought. Once you’d thrown the other person’s rhythm into chaos, whatever you did next would be right.

His elder brother’s attainments in this area weren’t high — he’d spent years playing the modest, courteous gentleman without ever breaking through. He himself was different, though; his mind stayed calm, and he wasn’t afraid at all… he reassured himself inwardly. Of course, in truth he wasn’t very afraid to begin with, mainly because the burly man across from him wasn’t much of a fighter — it wouldn’t take more than three strokes to cut him down.

This counted as his first time putting theory into practice, but the burly man, seeing his air of taking it all for granted, genuinely believed him, and patted himself down.

“The money… of course I brought it…”

“Then hand it over — what are you waiting for? There are patrols in the camp. The more you act guilty, the more they’ll watch you. Dawdle any longer and I’m leaving.”

“Here, take it…”

The burly man pulled a silver ingot from his robe to make up the remaining six strings of cash he owed, and seemed about to say something more, but Ning Ji casually took it from him. His heart had already settled, and he held back a laugh, swinging the bundle in his hand to knock it against the man’s body. Only then did he weigh the silver in his hand and wipe it with his sleeve.

“Is this worth six strings?”

“There’s extra — I weighed it before I came, it’s…”

“Fine, I’ll count it as six strings. Look at you, fussing like an old woman, and you call yourself a martial arts master? Put you in the army and you’d get yourself killed! What’s there to be afraid of — I’m not the only one in the Huaxia Army doing this business…”

“Huh? There are others…?”

The boy had earlier made breaking discipline sound extremely dangerous, driving the man to keep raising the price, and only now did such a remark slip out — the man named Huang Shan suddenly felt he’d been swindled. But then the youth called Long Aotian glared at him.

“What’s so strange about that? So what? Even if I told you, do you think you could find them?” He wiped the silver against his chest once more and tucked it safely into his pocket. “All right. You’ve bought goods from me, Long Aotian — that makes us friends. If something comes up in the future, you can come find me. I’m a military doctor’s son, I know plenty of people. But I’m warning you, don’t go around blabbing about it. Investigations up top are strict — some things can only be done privately.”

He said all this with a rascally, high-handed air, then returned to his usual deadpan face and turned to walk back. Huang Shan followed a couple of steps, looking utterly incredulous. “So the Huaxia Army… is like this too?”

Ning Ji stopped, blinked, and looked at him with his head tilted. “Isn’t it like this on your side?”

“Well, it’s not that… it’s just that I thought…”

“Idiot! I’m leaving. Don’t follow me.”

He shoved his hands in his pockets and calmly walked back to the arena, and only once he’d ducked into the nearby latrine did he burst out laughing.

He really was amazing — he’d led that idiot around by the nose the whole time. And Uncle Zheng Qiming still dared say he wasn’t a genius! He calmed himself down for a while in the latrine, put his deadpan face back on, and returned to sit down at the arena.

In his mind he weighed his next steps: as long as the medicine was in their hands, he could lead them along like a dog on a leash whenever he liked. Or should he go eavesdrop on their plans tonight? No — he also needed to keep tabs on the old and young mongrels; he couldn’t neglect one for the other… These days assassination plots, even actual attempts, were happening in Chengdu every single day; the army had long since prepared for it, so nothing serious would come of it. Besides, the mongrels had no martial skill, so eavesdropping on them was easier. As for these villains, it was hard to say whether they had any skilled fighters among them — there was no need to take that risk alone…

After thinking this over for a while, he caught sight of a figure approaching from the side out of the corner of his eye, laughing and repeating “one of us, one of us” to the people around him. Ning Ji’s face scrunched up like a steamed bun, and once the man had sat down beside him with a fawning grin, he ground his teeth and said in a low voice, “You just finished buying from me, and now you’re afraid people won’t know it, is that it?”

“No, no, Young Master Long, aren’t we all one of us now? Look, that’s my boss — my boss, remember?”

Ning Ji turned his head to look at the ring, where one of the two duelists was tall and half bald — the very bald man he’d glimpsed from a distance the day they first met. Back then, he’d only been able to tell from the man’s gait and breathing that he practiced internal-style martial arts; now, watching him fight, he could confirm the man’s leg techniques were fierce and forceful, drawing on several different schools, and that his hand technique was the “Chang Family Mountain-Breaking Palm,” a branch of the Mountain-Breaking Palm that shared several moves with the “Stele-Smashing Palm.” Ning Ji knew it well, since its most conspicuous move was called the “Heaven-Overturning Seal.”

“That’s my boss — his name’s Huang Jianfei, and folks in the martial world call him the Mountain-Breaking Ape. Take a look at that skill, Young Master Long, what do you think?”

So this scowling, jowl-faced bald man had actually given himself such a dashing name… Ning Ji rested his face in his hand. This fellow cultivated internal-style energy, which gave him great endurance and staying power, while the external forms he practiced leaned toward the fierce and forceful — it looked impressive enough to watch, but since he hadn’t managed to balance hardness with softness, and had over-mined and overdrawn his internal energy, that was exactly why he’d gone half bald. His father’s side practiced the Six Broken Paths — if it weren’t for Auntie Hongti… bah, bah —

He spat on the ground, cutting off that train of thought. How could a bald man like this even be mentioned in the same breath as his father — the very thought made him uncomfortable. Beside him, Huang Shan looked a bit puzzled. “Wh-what’s wrong? My boss’s skill…”

“…No matter how skilled he is, someday when he’s wounded, won’t he still end up lying on the ground looking up at me?”

“But my boss’s skill really is formidable. Young Master Long, you’ve spent years in the Huaxia Army — among all the experts you’ve seen, I wonder how many could surpass my boss…”

“Do I look like someone who knows martial arts to you? Your boss, some bald man, think he’s so great? I know how to use a musket, I know how to use grenades too. Someday I’ll bring a musket over — bang! One shot and your boss is dead. Then I’ll grab a grenade — whoosh, bang! Blow you to pieces, believe it or not.”

“Uh…” Huang Shan was dumbstruck.

Ning Ji glanced left and right. “You dawdled like an old woman during the deal, wasting my time, and now that we’ve just finished you come bother me again — if something goes wrong, can you take responsibility? I’m starting to think you’re actually with the military police. Aren’t you afraid of dying? Where’s the medicine — give it back, I’m not selling to you anymore…”

“Young Master Long, Young Master Long, I was careless…” Huang Shan finally understood, waving his hands. “My fault, my fault — I’ll go now, don’t be angry, I’m leaving right away…” He kept repeating this as he turned and walked off, though inwardly he felt reassured. Judging by the boy’s attitude, this surely wasn’t a trap set by the Huaxia Army — otherwise, with an opportunity like this, wouldn’t they be desperately trying to pry information out of him…

Though he looked simple and honest, being in a foreign land he naturally kept up a basic level of vigilance. After this additional encounter, feeling that there was nothing suspicious about the other party, his mind finally settled, and he went out of the arena to meet a thin companion waiting there, recounting the whole process in detail. Not long after, Huang Jianfei, the “Mountain-Breaking Ape,” having won his match for the day, discussed matters with the two of them for a while before the group set off on the road home.

The members of the Huang family were staying in a compound on the eastern side of the city, chosen because it was close to the city walls, allowing for the fastest escape if trouble broke out. They were retainers of a great household near Baokang in Hubei — retainers in name, but in truth little different from household slaves. That county lay in mountainous terrain, between Shennongjia and Wudang Mountain, all of it hill country. The great landlord who controlled the area was named Huang Nanzhong; he was said to come from a family of scholars, but in truth he also had extensive dealings with the martial underworld.

Much like Bàdāo, who was essentially a native chieftain of the Miao frontier, surviving in the stretch of mountains between Shennongjia and Wudang without relatively strong private military strength was simply difficult. The Huang family had multiplied here for generations; they habitually trained the local farmers into militia with a certain degree of fighting capability, and the household guards had likewise been handed down generation after generation, their loyalty never in much doubt. When the Jurchens had swept through Xiangfan, they’d had little energy to spare for harassing the surrounding mountain regions, and it was for this reason that the Huang family’s strength had been preserved intact.

This time, coming to the southwest, the Huang family had formed a merchant caravan of more than fifty men, led personally by Huang Nanzhong, who had chosen only the family members he trusted most. Countless impassioned words had been spoken before they set out, all pointing toward achieving some world-shaking feat. His fifty-odd men, pitted against a Jurchen army, wouldn’t leave so much as scraps behind — but here in the southwest, he held an advantage far greater than others possessed: the purity of his own party.

By this point, every band of righteous conspirators gathering in the southwest might well have grit mixed into its ranks, but Huang Nanzhong’s group would not — his was one of the very few outside clans to arrive with relatively strong armed strength of its own. In the past, because he’d stayed tucked away in the mountains, his reputation had never carried far, but here in the southwest, once word got out, countless people would try to win him over and befriend him.

Coming here, he carried two thoughts in mind.

If the Huaxia Army truly proved so powerful that no flaw could be found in it, then he would simply treat this trip as broadening his horizons. And with heroes rising up across the realm these days, once he returned home he could imitate this model and genuinely expand his own strength. Of course, in order to observe these matters firsthand, he’d sent several of his best men to take part in the great martial arts tournament — whatever happened, placing well would do no harm.

But these were only the most passive of his thoughts. He was also a Confucian scholar who understood the great principles of righteousness — if the Huaxia Army truly revealed an exploitable weakness, then these fifty-odd men of the Huang family would not begrudge their own lives, but would strike a world-shaking blow against it, carving the Huang family’s valor and righteous deed forever into future history, so that countless thousands would remember this glory.

Huang Nanzhong and his men had already been here for several days, keeping their private dealings to a minimum, only very cautiously choosing to exchange views with a few great Confucian scholars they’d known before and whose characters they trusted. Behind these connections, in fact, lay ties to Dai Mengwei’s faction as well. Huang Nanzhong was not yet certain when he might be able to act, but on this day, when Huang Jianfei, Huang Shan, and the others returned, they reported to him that the medicine had been bought.

They’d originally brought some of this themselves, but to avoid arousing suspicion they hadn’t brought much, so preparing more in advance now would also draw less attention. Huang Shan and the others then recounted for him the process of buying the medicine, which piqued his interest. Huang Shan sighed, “Who would have thought there were such dealings to be had even inside the Huaxia Army…” It was hard to tell whether it was a sigh of regret or of delight.

Seated in the master’s armchair in the hall, the family head Huang Nanzhong lifted his tea and blew on it calmly. “Wherever there are people, things are much the same everywhere — nowhere is ever a solid, unbreakable whole. The only question is how to find such an opening… Huang Ye, you’ve been tailing this boy who calls himself Long Aotian? Quite the audacious name he’s picked for himself…”

The thin man named Huang Ye was the one who had trailed Ning Ji home two days earlier. He nodded with a smile now. “That’s right. I followed him home the day before yesterday, and even got inside his residence. The fellow has no martial skill and lives alone; it’s a run-down but fairly large compound, located at… Judging from what Brother Shan says today, there shouldn’t be anything suspicious about him — though his temper is bad enough…”

Huang Nanzhong said, “Losing a father young and lacking proper upbringing is common enough — I’m not worried about his bad temper, only that he might be impenetrable. Since this transaction has already happened once, it can happen a second time, and after that it won’t be up to him to refuse… Of course, for now let’s not alarm him. Remember clearly where he lives — at the critical moment, that will prove very useful. This boy thinks a great deal of himself, and this careless little act of selling medicine has genuinely extended a connection right into the inner workings of the Huaxia Army. That’s today’s greatest gain. Both Huang Shan and Huang Ye deserve credit for it.”

Both retainers bowed and thanked him. Huang Nanzhong then asked Huang Jianfei about his impressions of the tournament, chatting a while longer. When night finally fell over the compound, he slipped out to quietly pay a visit to a great Confucian scholar named Lang Guoxing, currently residing in the city. This scholar’s reputation within the city now ranked among the foremost. After Huang Nanzhong’s arrival, Lang introduced him to another renowned old man, Yang Tiehuai — an elder respectfully addressed as “Lord Huai.” A few days earlier, while debating with the common folk of Chengdu in the street, he had been struck on the head by a stone thrown by some ruffian, and his fame within the city had since grown considerable.

Lang Guoxing was a staunch ally of Dai Mengwei, and knew Huang Nanzhong’s true background, but for the sake of secrecy, in front of Yang Tiehuai he made only the introduction without revealing anything further. The three of them then sat down to discuss matters, working out in detail their speculations about the intentions of the “demon” Ning. Huang Nanzhong took the opportunity to mention, in passing, that he had already opened up a channel inside the Huaxia Army — concealing the specific name involved, he revealed only that money had changed hands to get something done. The other two, well aware of the corruption endemic to the Wu Dynasty, understood at once with only the slightest hint.

“Wherever there are people, it can never be a solid, unbreakable whole. As I said before, there’s always some gap to exploit.”

“…Not surprising at all, not surprising at all.”

The two great scholars remarked so, their expressions calm and unruffled.

No mistake about it — I am clearly a genius!

— In that same night’s darkness, Ning Ji swam through the water with a splash, turning the thought over and over in excited delight.

Maybe when I grow up I really should become a spy in the Wu Dynasty — that sounds like fun too, heh heh heh heh, heh…