The galloping horses and figures in black, like characters from a storyteller’s tale, were wanderers of the martial world, never truly settling.

Just then, a crow flapped its wings and settled on the roof of a tavern directly ahead. It stood perfectly still on the eaves, watching Chen Ji and Yun Yang gallop by, as if it were a sculpted guardian beast fixed to the building.

Under the moonlight, the crow’s feathers gleamed as if draped in a silver veil, appearing serene and mysterious.

Huh, a crow?

Chen Ji turned back to look at the eaves, only to find the crow had already flown off, its destination unknown.

He was certain he had seen this crow before in the back courtyard of the medical clinic. The way it had regarded him felt like the scrutiny of a superior being.

When he had first seen the crow, he had dismissed it as a delusion caused by extreme tension. However, seeing it again now, Chen Ji no longer thought so; the mysteries of this world far exceeded his imagination.

He pondered for a moment, then asked Yun Yang, “Lord Yun Yang, your Secret Service must be very knowledgeable. Have you ever seen anyone who can control animals?”

“Never,” Yun Yang replied casually.

“Are there cultivators, then? I’ve heard storytellers tell tales of gods and monsters; are they true?” Chen Ji asked.

“No.”

Chen Ji fell into deep thought. He was already on the path of cultivation and was certain there were other cultivators in this world, but why had he never heard of them?

What reason would compel cultivators to hide among the common folk and in the imperial court?

Rip.

Yun Yang turned to look, only to see Chen Ji tear off the lower part of his robe and tie it over his face.

“What are you doing? Working for my Secret Service is a legitimate affair; there’s no need to hide your identity,” Yun Yang said disdainfully.

“Lord Yun Yang, I’m just a small fry. It never hurts to be cautious,” Chen Ji replied casually. “Besides, you’ll need to protect my identity. Otherwise, if the Liu family retaliates against me, there won’t be anyone to help you earn merits in the future.”

Yun Yang considered it carefully and realized Chen Ji had a point. “Then cover your face more thoroughly… Whoa!”

He suddenly yanked the reins tight, bringing his horse to an abrupt halt on the dim street.

Chen Ji’s gaze swept over the scene; across from them, dozens of people sat astride their horses, still.

This group wore straw cloaks and bamboo hats, each with a long saber strapped horizontally across their back. A palpable aura of killing intent assailed them.

The leader looked up and glanced at Chen Ji. In the shadow beneath the bamboo hat, Chen Ji saw the middle-aged man’s gaze, sharp as a knife, making his cheeks sting.

“Who are these people?” Chen Ji whispered from horseback.

“‘Chief Justice Bureau’ personnel,” Yun Yang replied, tightening his reins and raising his voice. “Commander Lin, you’ve clearly traveled long and hard. You must have brought the Imperial Guards from Jinling, riding day and night.”

The middle-aged man said calmly, “You and Jiao Tu have caused such a huge mess. I’m here to escort both of you back to the capital to be dealt with by the Grand Chancellor.”

“Caused a mess?” Yun Yang sneered. “Jiao Tu and I came to Luocheng to apprehend Jing Dynasty spies; what have we done wrong?”

The middle-aged man said sternly, “You arrested members of the Liu family, yet you cannot produce solid evidence to convict them. Now, the Liu family’s elderly patriarch is at death’s door; you cannot simply wash your hands of this.”

Yun Yang said unhurriedly, “Jiao Tu and I have long since found the evidence. We haven’t produced it because we’re playing the long game to catch a bigger fish; we don’t want to alert the enemy. Lin Chaoqing, you come to arrest us and obstruct our investigation at the slightest rumor. Are you a spy planted by the Jing Dynasty within the Chief Justice Bureau?”

“Utter nonsense,” Lin Chaoqing retorted dismissively. “My Chief Justice Bureau is responsible for overseeing all officials, and your Secret Service falls under my jurisdiction. I advise you to stop struggling pointlessly and return to the capital with me!”

“Lin Chaoqing,” Yun Yang said solemnly, “if you want to arrest me, at least wait until the Liu patriarch is dead.”

Lin Chaoqing, a man of few words by nature, was no longer willing to waste breath. “Arrest them.”

As his words fell, the dozens of Imperial Guards behind him spurred their horses forward.

Hooves clattered on the bluestone road, emitting a soul-stirring sound.

At this moment, the sky was covered by a dark cloud, and the long street was as black as ink.

The Imperial Guards’ faces were obscured by their hats, their eyes hidden in terrifying shadows. As they were about to reach Yun Yang, every one of them uniformly drew their long sabers from behind their waists!

“Hold on tight!” Yun Yang said in a low voice to Chen Ji.

With that, he leaped off his horse, and a silver needle from his fingertip stung the horse’s rump like lightning. The warhorse neighed in alarm and galloped madly in another direction, carrying Chen Ji!

Chen Ji, not skilled in horsemanship, could only hunch down and cling tightly to the horse’s neck. He looked back to see Yun Yang, in his black clothes, not retreating but advancing, striding swiftly to meet the dozens of Imperial Guards!

The moment he met the first Imperial Guard, who swung his saber, Yun Yang had already lowered his stance, twisted his hips, and smashed a fist into the horse’s head before the blade could even descend!

The warhorse whinnied in agony. The massive beast, as large as a carriage, was shaken by that slender fist and toppled onto the long street like a collapsing mountain.

“Resisting arrest, a crime compounded!” Lin Chaoqing’s figure suddenly surged with power. He kicked off his saddle and, drawing his saber in mid-air, brought it down. His blade was longer and heavier than anyone else’s!

As he pushed off the horse’s back, even the sturdy warhorse couldn’t withstand the force, its knees buckling.

On the other side, seeing this, Yun Yang also leaped up. Their mid-air collision stirred up violent currents of air, and before anyone could see what happened, the two had already met and separated.

Lin Chaoqing landed from the air, standing steadily on his horse’s back. On the bluestone road where they had collided, a saber mark several meters long was left!

Conversely, on the other side, Yun Yang used the force of the collision to leap onto the eaves. Like a phantom, he swiftly caught up to the galloping horse, and with a single leap, landed on its back and escaped.

On the long street, Lin Chaoqing was not in a hurry to pursue. He sat back on his horse, adjusted his bamboo hat, and asked calmly, “Who was riding behind him?”

“Your subordinate has never seen him. He should not be from the Secret Service.”

Lin Chaoqing’s voice was as strong as clashing metal: “Investigate.”

“You said earlier you’d never seen cultivators…?” Chen Ji said with lingering fear.

Yun Yang was about to reply but opened his mouth and spat out a mouthful of blood. He wiped the corner of his mouth with his sleeve. “How can matters of cultivators be revealed to the world? What you cultivate, what realm you reach—none of it can be told to others.”

“Why?”

“Cultivation for longevity is certainly beautiful, but that’s just a storybook tale,” Yun Yang said meaningfully. “On this path, there is only life and death. I think you have potential, and you might really get promoted by some important figure in the future. But remember, if you truly embark on this path, never tell anyone what you cultivate.”

Chen Ji’s heart tightened. Yun Yang’s words contained a deep warning, undoubtedly life experience gained from difficult encounters.

As he was thinking, Yun Yang coughed up another mouthful of blood. “Kid,” he said, “if you can’t find evidence tonight to incriminate the Liu family’s young master, we might both die.”

“So that’s why you said we absolutely must find evidence tonight—you were worried about being held accountable by the ‘Chief Justice Bureau’,” Chen Ji said. “I thought your Secret Service was the most powerful.”

“Less sarcasm,” Yun Yang said coldly. “The Chief Justice Bureau oversees the imperial guard and ceremonies; of course, these martial artists are formidable. It’s just that everyone works under the Grand Chancellor. We in the Secret Service risk our lives battling the Military Intelligence Department every day, while they spend their days investigating their own people. What kind of skill is that?”

The two had arrived at the entrance of the Zhou Residence. Yun Yang was the first to dismount and push open the vermilion gate with force, a creaking sound echoing in the night that made one’s teeth ache. The Zhou Residence had already been cleaned; tables were upright and chairs set right, as if no more than ten people had ever died there.

Yun Yang stood in the courtyard, turned to Chen Ji, and said solemnly, “Time is short. I’ve placed my bet on you; I hope you don’t disappoint me. Tell me, what did you discover earlier at the Zhou Residence?”

Chen Ji walked directly towards the main house of the Zhou Residence. “Where are all of Zhou Chengyi’s books collected?” he asked.

“Not a single one is missing; they’re all here.”

Chen Ji stood before the bookshelf, quickly taking down books one by one to flip through them.

Seeing his focus, Yun Yang walked out of the main house. In a deserted spot, he pulled out a paper cut-out figure, bit his index finger, and dotted its eyes with his blood.

The paper cut-out figure came to life, a strange smile appearing on its face. It wobbled and jumped onto the courtyard wall, then ran eastward.

He returned to the main house, only to see Chen Ji had finally picked out two books. “The clues should be in these two books,” Chen Ji said.

Yun Yang took the books and flipped through them, only to find that the contents of both were identical. “Both are the eighth chapter, ‘Weizheng, Chapter Two,’ from ‘Annotations on the Four Books’,” he noted. “One of them must have been copied by Zhou Chengyi himself; I recognize his handwriting.”

In this era, books commonly circulated through buying, selling, borrowing, copying, and even plundering or stealing.

Printed books were monopolized by powerful families and were expensive, so borrowing and copying were very common practices.

But that’s where the problem lay: Zhou Chengyi was not short of money.

Chen Ji pointed at the wall, lined with hundreds of books. “Zhou Chengyi, as a county magistrate, appeared outwardly incorruptible,” he said, “but he secretly kept mistresses in an outer residence and had over a dozen servants. Why would he copy books himself? I suspect that Zhou Chengyi’s method of transmitting intelligence was through borrowing and returning books. This newly copied book hadn’t been returned yet, so it should contain the secrets he wanted to transmit.”

Yun Yang looked at Chen Ji with a strange expression. “The last time, these were the first books you examined, and you discovered this clue then,” he said. “Why didn’t you reveal it on the spot to save your life, but instead continued to look for other clues?”

“It’s never wrong to have more information that can save your life,” Chen Ji said. “Besides, with only a quarter of an hour, even though I knew there was a problem with it, I couldn’t guarantee I could decipher the Military Intelligence Department’s code in that time.”

That night, though Chen Ji was afraid, he never panicked. His trump card was like the broken ceramic shard he always held in his hand; he never let it go.

Yun Yang sat wearily on a chair. “So, do you have a grasp of it now?” he asked.

“If I have two more hours, I should be able to,” Chen Ji said confidently.

Before he finished speaking, hoofbeats sounded outside the Zhou Residence. The two looked up to see Jiao Tu dismount with over a dozen secret agents. She handed the reins to one of the agents and quickly walked towards the residence. “Close the gates!” she urged. “On my way back, I saw the Liu family heading here with torches and weapons—there are many of them!”

“What do they want?” Yun Yang asked, surprised.

“The Liu patriarch is dead,” Jiao Tu said heavily.

“The Liu family’s patriarch is dead?!” Yun Yang exclaimed, looking at Jiao Tu in shock. “Chen Ji, didn’t your master go? His medical skills aren’t very good, are they?”

Inside the house, Jiao Tu said gravely, “He died an hour ago. The Liu family is furious right now.”

“Damn it,” Yun Yang said, rubbing his face with both hands. “We’re just too damn unlucky. It was clearly his own poor health; how can they blame us? How did this huge pot of blame land on my head?!”

“Two of my secret agents are missing; perhaps they were killed in the chaos,” Jiao Tu said. “Among this group, the Liu family’s privately trained ‘executors’ are hidden.”

No sooner had she spoken than dense hoofbeats and footsteps sounded outside again. The Liu family was arriving quickly and urgently!

Someone shouted loudly, “They arrested our Liu family’s young scholar without evidence and killed him in the imperial prison, infuriating the patriarch to his death! Today, you must give us an explanation!”

“Yes, you must give us an explanation!”

Amidst the clamor of people and the restless flickering of torches, Yun Yang looked strangely at Chen Ji. “Now, you probably only have a quarter of an hour,” he said.