In the night, Chen Ji returned to the edge of the roof, standing calmly on the high, unsupported eaves, looking down at the ground below.

Was there a problem with the Young Lord? If so, he had been at the Donglin Academy for the past three years, unable to do anything. If not, it was too coincidental that he returned at this precise moment and appeared in the Jinfang district. Chen Ji frowned, trying to piece together clues, but found too many missing.

In the courtyard, the Young Lord watched the martial arts heroes abandon him and flee, then cursed as he turned around: “Aren’t you martial arts heroes? Don’t you always claim to value righteousness? This is so disloyal!”

Six sword-wielding secret agents had already stormed into the courtyard, trapping the Young Lord and Bai Li against the wall. One of them said coldly, “Resisting arrest will incur double punishment.”

Bai Li began to speak: “We are…”

Before she could finish, the Young Lord subtly tugged her, then interjected: “We are just ordinary citizens here to enjoy Hongyi Alley. We haven’t violated any Great Ning laws, so why are you pursuing us?”

The secret agent scrutinized them, seemingly using the moonlight to examine the two. After a moment, he hesitated: “Young Lord, Princess! I recognize you! Our Secret Service has conclusive evidence that Jing Dynasty traitors are active in Jinfang tonight. Your presence here is too coincidental. Come with us to the Inner Prison.”

The Young Lord’s heart sank. The Directorate of Ceremonial had always sought to find fault with the Jingwang Estate. Over the years, many former subordinates of Jingwang had been imprisoned in the Inner Prison and never emerged. Once in the Inner Prison, the Young Lord’s status was useless. Seven years ago, Prince Huai was arrested by the Secret Service for privately possessing armor and crossbows, and he died in the Inner Prison that very night. Six years ago, during the severe drought in Guanzhong, Prince Jin, while drinking, declared it a heavenly punishment for Emperor Ning’s neglect of state affairs. He was arrested by the Secret Service on charges of ‘falsely claiming prophecies’ and died in the Inner Prison that same month, along with officials from the Imperial Astronomical Bureau.

The Young Lord knew that Ning Dynasty vassal kings were as expendable as weeds before the eunuch faction. If he entered the Inner Prison today, he would likely never come out. Thinking of this, the Young Lord quickly formed a hand-ladder with his hands: “Bai Li, you go first!”

The secret agent’s face hardened: “No one is leaving. If the Young Lord has nothing to hide, why are you afraid to come with us?”

The Young Lord cursed, grabbing a bamboo broom from the courtyard and blocking Bai Li: “If I go to the Inner Prison with you, even if I’m innocent, I’ll become guilty! I’ll fight you! If you dare, kill me here!”

Chen Ji watched this scene in silence. Should he save them?

If he didn’t save them, no matter how the Young Lord and Bai Li struggled, they would surely be taken to the Inner Prison. Jin Zhu was already looking for evidence of the Jingwang Estate colluding with the Jing Dynasty. Catching the Young Lord and Bai Li here would be a perfect opportunity, allowing them to easily find an excuse for torture to extract a confession. If he did save them, the six secret agents were very troublesome, and more reinforcements could arrive at any moment. Crucially, Chen Ji was here tonight to kill Manager Yuan, not to save people!

Yet, in this same Hongyi Alley, on this same night, how pleasant it would be to finish his drink and then go to the Drum Tower to watch the sunrise.

Chen Ji’s hand was wrapped in cloth strips. Blood slowly dripped from the tip of the short blade he gripped tightly in his right hand, gathering into a crimson drop that fell onto the gray tiles. As the drop of blood landed on the tile, Chen Ji vanished from his spot.

“Come on!” The Young Lord swept the bamboo broom in his hands, trying to fend off the secret agents. But how could he stop these elite Secret Service agents? The six secret agents formed a fan-shaped encirclement. One agent advanced, swinging his saber. With a single light stroke, he cut the bamboo broom in two.

The Young Lord looked at the now-stubby broom with bitterness in his heart. He said in a deep voice, “I can go with you, but you must let my sister go. What could a girl like her possibly know?”

The secret agent shook his head: “No one is leaving. If your identities weren’t so important, we wouldn’t bother trying to persuade you nicely. Come with us quietly to the Inner Prison, and neither of you will get hurt. Once we verify your innocence, we will naturally release you.”

The Young Lord retorted, “How many people enter the Inner Prison and come out again? Do you even believe that yourselves? Aren’t you afraid of retaliation from my Jingwang Estate?”

“Young Lord,” one agent said, “we’ve even arrested imperial princes over the years; you won’t scare us. Go, seize them!” Several secret agents rushed forward.

The Young Lord tried to resist, but a secret agent quickly moved in and punched him in the stomach. He bent over in pain, vomiting out wine and bile. These ruthless agents of the Secret Service truly held no regard for the Young Lord’s status. They clearly understood how much their superiors wanted to bring down the Jingwang Estate; their stance dictated their actions.

Amidst the struggle, someone twisted Bai Li’s arm and pinned it behind her back. Bai Li’s forehead beaded with cold sweat from the pain, but she didn’t utter a sound, only staring stubbornly at the agents. Suddenly, amidst the chaos, as her gaze swept around, she froze.

One secret agent sensed something was wrong and agilely turned. In an instant, he raised his saber to strike behind him, but his sword-wielding hand had barely cleared his head when a figure silently closed in. The figure’s left hand clamped his arm, preventing him from bringing his saber down. In a breath, the attacking figure leveraged his arm and stabbed twice: once into his kidney at the waist, and once into his lung beneath the ribs. The short blade in the figure’s hand was like a viper striking, utterly venomous.

His fellow secret agents nearby were aghast at the sight and immediately swung their sabers to assist. But the figure merely waved a hand dismissively, and the short blade clashed with the attacking long saber in the dark, creating sparks. With a clang, the long saber snapped!

The secret agents’ expressions changed. They had seen countless martial artists wielding sabers, but they had never encountered a swordsman who could break a saber so effortlessly. There was no saber qi, no mysterious official techniques; the figure simply gave a light flick with a short blade, and their steel saber snapped like an icicle!

Bai Li, still held captive by an agent, stared blankly at the figure. The figure’s face was smeared with black charcoal, and their eyes were unusually unfamiliar, yet their build seemed utterly familiar. Then, she suddenly noticed that the person attacking from the darkness seemed to be struggling with their right leg as they moved and maneuvered. This person seemed to know their right leg was a weakness and tried their best to conceal it, but with a severe leg injury, it was still noticeable no matter how they tried to hide it. Bai Li thought of someone else who also had a leg injury… However, she simply could not reconcile the image of the unassuming neighborhood apprentice who swept floors with that of the fierce killer before her. It was as if the two figures, one light and one dark, were inherently contradictory. Bai Li’s expression became complicated.

Just then, she saw the secret agents draw crossbows from behind their waists and aim them at the figure, causing her to gasp: “Watch out, a crossbow!”

The battlefield suddenly fell silent. Chen Ji held the secret agent’s arm, shielding himself with the body. He peered out from behind the agent’s drooping head, quietly observing the short crossbows in the agents’ hands. The secret agent, whose lung had been punctured, was weakly coughing up blood-flecked foam. The coughing agent, and the calm assassin hidden behind him, evading the crossbow bolts—one still, one moving—presented an image of extraordinary cruelty and mystery. Watching this scene, Bai Li felt her internal answer waver again… The person in her memory always smiled as if they would never utter a harsh word, and even when questioned, would only lower their head in silence, offering no rebuttal.

At this moment, the secret agents tried to find an opportunity to fire their crossbows, but found no clear angle for a shot. During the standoff, the coughing secret agent finally closed his eyes. The hand holding his saber slowly dropped, and the long saber slipped from his grasp. Chen Ji took the opportunity to discard his short blade and caught the falling long saber. As he was catching the saber, *whoosh*, a crossbow bolt shot towards the half of Chen Ji’s face that was exposed. Everyone’s eyes blurred, only to see Chen Ji dodge the bolt with a slight tilt of his head. By the time the bolt struck the wall behind him, Chen Ji’s head had already tilted back into place, still hidden behind the dead agent, calmly staring at everyone.

Just as the secret agents were about to reload their crossbows, Chen Ji charged forward, pushing the agent’s corpse. Crossbow bolts flew, either embedding themselves in the body or missing entirely. Close quarters! Chen Ji dropped the corpse and flashed out from behind it, fighting four agents at once. From time to time, a secret agent’s long saber would snap.

The secret agents had never felt so helpless. The assassin before them seemed to have no weakness; every move perfectly protected their entire body, defending them like an impenetrable fortress. Even with four attacking simultaneously, they couldn’t find an opportunity for a fatal blow. Let alone a fatal blow, their blades could at most only tear Chen Ji’s clothes; they couldn’t even leave a single scratch. The secret agents didn’t know what kind of saber technique this was. There were only a few renowned saber techniques in the martial world, but this impenetrable style was unheard of. Little did they know, when Chen Ji fought Feng Huai, even a slight opening would be seized by his opponent, and one opening meant another death. This insane, extreme training meant that what Chen Ji learned first was not offense, but defense. Only by not dying could he attack.

The secret agent holding Bai Li clamped his saber against her neck: “Drop your saber, or I’ll kill her now!” But Chen Ji acted as if deaf, continuing his battle with the agents, his long saber never faltering. The agent froze. Sending the Princess to the Inner Prison was one thing; killing her outright here was another. He gritted his teeth, suddenly released the Princess, and went to assist his colleagues with his saber.

Bai Li was no longer restrained, but she didn’t run. She just stood there, stunned, anxiously calling out: “Watch your back!” The assisting agent swung his saber in a diagonal slash, aiming for Chen Ji’s back. Hearing the warning, Chen Ji suddenly spun around, his saber following his movement! The two long sabers clashed head-on. Chen Ji twisted his wrist, and the blade in his hand slid upwards against the secret agent’s incoming blade, creating a shower of sparks. The secret agent’s eyes were momentarily blinded by the sparks. Before he could react, Chen Ji’s long saber, with an upward backhand sweep, sliced from his arm to his neck! Blood spurted!

Chen Ji looked at Bai Li and the Young Lord, saying in a deep voice: “Quick, go! Don’t hold me back here!” The Young Lord was about to say they should leave together, but Bai Li, pursing her lips, pulled him to climb the wall: “Go quickly! We can’t help him here; we’ll only distract him! He can only leave after we do!”

“Oh, right!” The Young Lord quickly turned and fled. One secret agent tried to pursue but was cut down by Chen Ji’s saber. He bent, holding his saber horizontally, blocking all the secret agents beneath the courtyard wall. Blood continuously dripped from the blade, and its polished surface reflected the blood-red moonlight from above.

After the Young Lord climbed over the wall, Bai Li, dusty and dishevelled, sat astride the wall and looked back. Thinking of the martial artists who had fled, and then seeing the figure fighting desperately before her, she said with a complex expression, “Be careful yourself!” With that, she turned, jumped off the courtyard wall, and ran.

The courtyard fell silent. Only three secret agents remained, forming a fan shape, cornering Chen Ji firmly against the courtyard wall. They slowly shifted their footwork, trying to find a weakness in Chen Ji, but found none. Just as they thought they could hold out until reinforcements arrived, Chen Ji actively charged into the fight. Previously, when Chen Ji fought Feng Huai, each death left him feeling frustrated. But now he understood that the saber technique, honed at the cost of countless deaths, was his reward.

The four figures intertwined. The saber light in Chen Ji’s hand moved like arcs of moonlight, severing the sabers of the three agents and cutting their throats.

Panting, Chen Ji bent down, picked up the short blade he had just dropped, and concealed it in his sleeve. He didn’t flee. Instead, he climbed back up the ladder to the rooftop. Chen Ji limped to the ridge of the roof, lying prone on it, quietly observing the situation in Hongyi Alley.

In Hongyi Alley, countless dishevelled patrons and courtesans were being herded out of the brothels by the secret agents. Chen Ji’s gaze scanned the crowd, searching for Manager Yuan. The most important task tonight was the goods transfer; it was impossible for him not to oversee it personally. But as he watched building after building being emptied, everyone herded onto the bluestone path of Hongyi Alley, he still couldn’t find Manager Yuan.

No. The scene before him was completely different from what Chen Ji had expected. Hongyi Alley wasn’t in chaos. No one attempted to breach the Secret Service’s blockade, and no one fought against them. Even the Jiehuan Guard, specially transferred by Jin Zhu from the Mengjin barracks, wasn’t used!

Lin Chaoqing, wearing a bamboo hat, sat calmly on his horse: “Lord Jin Zhu, it seems you are no different from Jiao Tu and Yun Yang. You’re just luckier; you didn’t have to open the coffin of a current Grand Secretary’s father. I, who command the Jiehuan Guard, part of the Punishment Department, and the Yulong Guard, who are personal imperial guards, have to bear infamy with you every day.”

“Don’t be so impatient,” Jin Zhu said. He hopped off his horse with a smile, grabbed a middle-aged man who had just tried to escape, and asked kindly, “What’s your name?”

“Your humble servant, Wu Dongliang.”

“What’s your occupation?”

“I’m a tax collector from Xin’an County.”

Jin Zhu raised an eyebrow: “Just a tax collector. Why were you running just now…?” As he spoke, Jin Zhu realized why the man had run. Ning Dynasty law prohibited officials from frequenting brothels. Going to places like ‘Qingyin Xiaoban’ was acceptable, but if caught in a place like Hongyi Alley, they would be immediately dismissed and investigated. This law had been established by Emperor Ning Taizu years ago. By now, everyone turned a blind eye, but occasionally, an unlucky official would be reported and lose their position.

Jin Zhu cursed under his breath, instructing his secret agents to immediately verify the man’s identity. Then he approached another middle-aged man: “And what do you do?”

“Reporting to Your Lordship, I am a Huizhou merchant. I came to Luocheng to purchase furs for sale in the south. This is my travel permit.”

Jin Zhu took the travel permit. A single glance told him the man had only arrived in Luocheng tonight. He said with a false smile: “Investigate. Check everyone’s identity thoroughly and see if there are any suspicious individuals.” By now, Jin Zhu’s heart had slowly sunk to rock bottom. He hadn’t expected to suffer such an unexpected setback… What exactly went wrong?

The secret agents began to screen everyone. They were either Huizhou merchants from the south, Shanxi merchants from the north, street vendors, or leaders of small gangs in Luocheng. Each person could clearly state their background, and their household registrations and travel permits showed no signs of forgery. Chen Ji watched silently. Aside from the two black-clad figures he had just killed on the rooftop, no one present resembled Manager Yuan’s spies! Were these people disguised too well? No, that wasn’t it. Chen Ji searched within Hongyi Alley and discovered that even the madam of the brothel and Miss Yan’er were not among them! Someone must have tipped them off, leaking Jin Zhu’s operation beforehand! That’s why the madam and Yan’er fled early!

Chen Ji suddenly remembered something. When the coachman Si Cao interrogated him at Bailu Pavilion, he mentioned that the other party clearly knew what evidence Yun Yang and Jiao Tu had seized from Liu Shiyu’s house. There was a mole hidden by Jin Zhu’s side! This mole could not only view the Secret Service’s evidence but also had access to information about tonight’s operation. Chen Ji believed that given Jin Zhu’s cautious nature, he would have been extra careful to ensure everything was foolproof, yet the information still leaked.

Just then, Jin Zhu abruptly turned his head towards the rooftop: “Who’s there? Catch him!”