“Who’s there? Get him!”

The agents looked in the direction Golden Pig pointed, spotting a grimy, dark face peeking out from behind the ridge of a tavern roof, stealthily observing Red Robe Alley.

One of the agents suddenly exclaimed in surprise, “Is that a human or a ghost?!”

Golden Pig smiled as he watched Chen Ji on the rooftop. “Stop playing tricks! Surround him!”

The Secret Service had come up empty-handed tonight. Although Golden Pig maintained a smile, his heart seethed with fury. An undercover agent of the Jing Dynasty rebels had appeared right under his nose; if the other Zodiacs learned of it, he’d be a laughingstock.

The next moment, Chen Ji watched as dozens of agents swarmed, completely encircling the tavern where he was, making escape impossible. Some began scaling the outer wall. Chen Ji, in response, pried off roof tiles and hurled them down, striking the ascending agents and leaving them with bleeding heads.

Other agents brought two long ladders, intending to climb to the rooftop. Chen Ji went to the ladders and, with great effort, overturned both the ladders and the agents on them. Every time the agents managed to set up a ladder, he knocked it over.

However, there were simply too many agents. More and more ladders were brought, and more and more people climbed. He couldn’t possibly manage it alone; it was only a matter of time before he was overwhelmed. He was like a lone defender in a besieged city, facing an army attacking from all sides.

At this moment, Lin Chaoqing slowly asked Golden Pig, “Do you need my Troubleshooters to intervene? If Lord Golden Pig’s agents cannot apprehend him, my Troubleshooters can resolve this issue for you.”

“With so many eyes watching,” Golden Pig retorted, “if we can’t even deal with a single Jing Dynasty rebel, word will spread that my Directorate of Ceremonial is incompetent.”

Golden Pig said with a smile, “There’s no need for the Troubleshooters to intervene. My Secret Service can handle this ourselves.” With that, he removed his light armor, handed it to a subordinate, and personally set out to apprehend Chen Ji.

Chen Ji caught sight of this out of the corner of his eye and thought, “This is bad. If Golden Pig himself comes up to capture me, there will be no escape.” He untied the cloth bundle from his back and pulled out two bamboo tubes!

The next moment, Golden Pig was seen charging towards the tavern, each stride covering several zhang. Arriving in front of the building, Golden Pig leapt. His plump figure ascended to the second floor with surprising ease, like a stalk of green onion pulled from dry ground. From the second-floor wooden railing, he pushed off again, soaring directly onto the rooftop! A high-ranking official like Golden Pig had long transcended ordinary mortals; scaling a building several meters high was as easy as walking on flat ground for him.

However, the moment he landed on the rooftop, he saw the dark figure opposite him holding a fuse in one hand and a bamboo tube in the other, its fuse already burning. But after Chen Ji lit it, he did not immediately throw the bamboo tube. He patiently waited until the fuse was almost burnt out before finally hurling it towards Golden Pig, who had just landed on the rooftop.

“Down!” Chen Ji immediately lay flat on the rooftop, covering his ears tightly.

Golden Pig, who had not yet found his footing, saw the bamboo tube flying towards him and instinctively tried to kick it away. But the bamboo tube suddenly exploded before it even reached him! With a thunderous boom, Golden Pig raised his arms to protect his head but was completely thrown backward by the immense shockwave! The sound was like a sudden clap of thunder, and the flash of the explosion momentarily ignited the dim sky, as if a deity had unleashed their wrath, pure and overwhelming.

Outside Red Robe Alley, the thunderous roar of the explosion echoed far and wide. Immediately, hundreds of watchdogs began barking furiously, and the entire city of Luocheng seemed to have been startled awake! Inside Red Robe Alley, patrons and courtesans alike were terrified, their hair standing on end. Countless patrons and singing girls lay on the ground, wailing in terror.

It wasn’t just them; even the Troubleshooters’ horses shrieked in terror. Dozens of warhorses reared high on the bluestone road, almost throwing their riders to the ground. Lin Chaoqing’s own warhorse also tried to rear, but he firmly forced it back down. The commander of the Chief Penal Office had a solemn expression. He calmly looked up at the sky, his sharp gaze, beneath his bamboo hat, darting like lightning.

They watched as Golden Pig, who had just ascended to the rooftop, was sent flying backward like a kite with a broken string, plummeting straight down from several meters above. Golden Pig’s originally exquisite cross-collared robe now had its sleeves completely shredded, his pants were half-torn, and his entire body was in tatters, like a discarded rag bag.

An agent cried out in alarm, “Save him, Lord! Don’t let him hit the ground!” With that, over ten agents rushed towards Golden Pig’s projected landing spot, forcibly catching him before he hit the ground. With several snapping sounds, several agents felt their arm bones instantly break under Golden Pig’s heavy impact, and their waists buckled from the strain! The entire group collapsed with a crash, but at least they prevented Golden Pig from smashing onto the bluestone road.

“Lord!”

“Lord!”

These agents had followed Golden Pig for many years and were like brothers to him. Regardless of how ruthless Golden Pig was towards the Jing Dynasty rebels, he genuinely cared for his subordinates and was adept at winning their loyalty. But now, Golden Pig’s eyes were tightly shut, his face was grim, and he wasn’t breathing. The agents were instantly overcome with grief.

“Cough, cough, cough,” Golden Pig rasped. “Why are you crying and wailing? I’m not dead yet!” Golden Pig slowly opened his eyes, sat up, and exclaimed in bewildered surprise, “How is this damned gunpowder so powerful? The stuff from our Directorate of Works isn’t nearly this potent!”

Earlier, when Golden Pig saw the bamboo tube and fuse, he had mentally prepared himself. He guessed the bamboo tube contained gunpowder and that he would certainly be injured if it exploded. But he never expected that the power of this firecracker would be far greater than he had anticipated! This thing was simply not the same kind of gunpowder he had encountered before!

Golden Pig looked down at his ragged clothes, feeling a burning pain all over his body. His bones felt like they were falling apart, and his internal organs seemed displaced. If it weren’t for his high cultivation level, he probably would have been blown to death on the spot.

“Strange,” he mused. “Could someone in the Directorate of Works have developed something new, kept it secret, and then quietly sold it to the Jing Dynasty rebels? This is bad. If the Jing Dynasty acquires this, the Ning Dynasty will be in peril!”

Golden Pig struggled to his feet. “Quick, quick, quick, catch that person! If I let him escape right under my nose, how can I ever face Lord In-law Minister again?!” But when he looked up again, Chen Ji was nowhere on the rooftop; he had long since jumped to other buildings and fled.

Lin Chaoqing, still on his horse, glanced at him. “Lord Golden Pig, surviving a great disaster surely means future blessings. However, next time, if you’re not absolutely confident, don’t bother coming to Mengjin Barracks to summon my Troubleshooters. Return to camp!”

Red Robe Alley fell silent. Golden Pig dispatched half of his agents to try and track the black-clad, black-faced person, though he knew in his heart that finding him would likely be very difficult.

He led his confidantes to the tavern’s backyard, quietly observing his six subordinates who lay dead in the courtyard.

“These are all knife wounds,” Golden Pig said. “Xifeng, you’re the best with knives. Examine them.”

The agent named Xifeng knelt down, silently apologized in his heart, and then completely stripped the clothes off his dead colleagues. The agent brought clean water to wash the wounds on the bodies and observed closely. “The assailant used a short knife,” he reported. “The edge is a bit strange; it doesn’t seem sharp. It doesn’t even look like a knife specifically designed for killing.”

“What kind of knife was it?”

“Lord, there are too many types of knives,” Xifeng replied. “It seems the assassin simply picked up whatever knife was at hand. This assassin’s knife technique is extremely fierce and cunning. The wounds are all in fatal vital spots, incredibly precise. The assailant is a seasoned veteran with a knife. Such clean and precise work would be impossible without years of arduous practice. Furthermore, this person is very cautious. He clearly knows that a single stab usually isn’t immediately fatal, so for each person he killed, he added several more stabs to other vital points.”

The agent gasped, “What a vicious mind.”

Golden Pig frowned and looked around. He suddenly noticed the scattered long knives of his agents on the ground. “Huh, why are all these knives broken?” he exclaimed.

The examining agent stood up to look and was startled to find that out of the six long knives in the courtyard, five were broken! He picked up one of the broken blade fragments, found its matching hilt, and held the two pieces together with both hands. Only then did everyone see a clear notch at the break point of the long knife.

The agent said incredulously, “Lord, these knives were cut clean through in a single strike! Our Secret Service’s long knives are all made of hundred-forged steel, yet the assailant, using only a casual short knife, could cut through them in one blow…”

Golden Pig looked at the agent. “Have you ever seen this kind of knife technique?”

The agent shook his head. “Never. Could it be Liang Gou’er?”

Golden Pig sneered, “It’s not Liang Gou’er. If he were here, he wouldn’t waste effort breaking their knives; he’d simply kill them. Besides, Liang Gou’er’s spirit has been broken; he wouldn’t dare oppose my Secret Service. So who could it be? Such a formidable knife-wielder couldn’t just have sprung out of a rock, could he?”

He stood in the quiet courtyard, scanning the bloodstains and bodies on the ground. For someone to kill six agents single-handedly, they must undoubtedly be a high-ranking official or master. Golden Pig had encountered many high-ranking officials, but very few possessed such exquisite knife skills.

“Wait,” he thought. “Isn’t there a Registrar in the Jing Dynasty’s Military Intelligence Bureau who is skilled with short knives? Previously, Baohou had led a team to capture him in Jinling, but after the assailant killed over ten people in a fight, he jumped into the Qinhuai River to escape. And at that time, that Registrar had used a short knife!”

Golden Pig’s entire body throbbed with a burning pain, and countless tiny metal fragments were embedded in his skin. Every step he took was now agony; his bones felt like they were falling apart. Logically, he should have sought medical treatment immediately, but the thought of such powerful gunpowder falling into the hands of the Jing Dynasty rebels—and potentially being used against the Ning Dynasty’s border army in the future—made him completely disregard his own injuries.

Golden Pig snarled, “Xifeng, take my waist token and go to the Luocheng Military Affairs Office. Order them to seal all city gates of Luocheng. Dongfeng, go intercept the Troubleshooters. Tell them to head to the Canal Transport Docks immediately and allow no ships to leave within three days!” He added grimly, “Find him for me! Even if you have to dig three feet deep and turn Luocheng upside down, you must find this person!”