Xu Fengnian stood by the window, turned his head, and beckoned to Wang Yunshu, who was utterly bewildered. Once Wang approached, Xu whispered, “Go tell your sworn elder brother that, for your sake, this young master grants him permission to bring his troops into the city. There’s a fine opportunity to gain military merit without much effort, and I’ll let him have the credit.”
Wang Yunshu rubbed his hands together eagerly and said, “Your Highness, could I have a bit of the fun too?”
Xu Fengnian chuckled and asked, “Do you have any official rank among the soldiers?”
Wang admitted candidly with a bashful grin, “Yes, yes. My father was stubborn about appearances and always complained I was undisciplined. He felt ashamed taking me to meet his colleagues during festivals, so he asked my sworn elder brother to get me a minor squad leader’s post.”
Xu Fengnian teased, “A minor squad leader? That’s a post you’d usually earn only after slaying barbarians on the border.”
Wang stiffened, laughing nervously without knowing how to recover from his slip.
Xu Fengnian waved him off, “Go discuss it with your sworn brother quickly. And don’t come back to Taosai Building. Tell Jiao Wuyi to split his forces into two groups. You and he will head to Qingrong Monastery and Liantang respectively. If anyone questions you at the city gate, say it’s an order from Governor Song Yan. If anyone asks again later, say it’s on the orders of this young master.”
Wang took his leave and, along with the retinue waiting in the corridor, hurried out of Taosai Building.
To avoid suspicion, Caoren and Xueyi, who had kept their distance, exchanged puzzled glances, unsure what this performance was all about.
Xu Yanbing approached the window, gazed toward Chaifei Courtyard, and smiled, “Congratulations, Your Highness, on your newfound understanding in zhuo qin (crafting zithers).”
Xu Fengnian nodded and sighed, “People always say false cultivation realms bring grave misunderstandings, but it seems they can also lead to unexpected gains.”
Xu Yanbing shook his head, “Your Highness’s false realm is like a visitor admiring a painting—someone who owns the painting shows you just a corner of it before quickly rolling it back up. Compared to a painter who gets lost in his own work and strays down the wrong path, this kind of false realm is far less harmful. Moreover, what Your Highness has just realized isn’t the Daoist art of pointing toward immortality, but rather the grand vision of the Azure Abyss. This stems from over twenty years of study and three journeys across the land. Reading ten thousand scrolls and walking ten thousand miles—that’s why scholars have passed down the tradition of sending young men out to study and travel once they come of age. Only by accumulating so much can one suddenly break through in a moment of clarity. However, all this is just theory on my part. For Your Highness to have repeatedly entered false realms and fallen from them, yet still grasp the essence of the grand vision—this is something even I could not achieve.”
Xu Fengnian laughed, “Uncle Xu, you’re practically a sage already. Don’t flatter someone like me who’s only got half the skill of a second-tier cultivator.”
Xu Yanbing simply smiled.
In his heart, Xu Fengnian murmured that the realm he had touched was too elusive and mysterious. It seemed neither the Daoist art of pointing nor the grand vision of the Azure Abyss. It was as if with a mere flick of the finger, objects that seemed nearby yet were miles away could fly through the air and appear before him. But this state had been fleeting and unstable. How to grasp its details would depend entirely on future opportunities.
※※※
Since the betrayal of the Black Carp in Huangnan Prefecture, and the secret collusion of Han Shang, a veteran spy of high standing in Northern Liang, the entire prefecture’s intelligence network had rotted from its roots. The more experienced the agents, the more likely they were to be blinded by their own light.
In the world of espionage, there was a habit of pairing agents. There were duels when identities were exposed between enemies, but also mutual support within the same faction. However, only high-ranking civilian spies could enjoy the privilege of being shadowed and protected by martial spies. Many civilian agents never knew how many people had died for them, often only learning of their sacrifices when they were urgently evacuated.
Han Shang was undoubtedly a key link in Northern Liang’s infiltration of Beiliang’s granary. With a civilian spy like Han Shang, whose martial cultivation was far beneath his status, there must also be old turtles like the one Xu Fengnian had mentioned, lurking unseen at the bottom of the swamp. But with A cunning rabbit has three burrows. (three burrows for a cunning hare), no one knew what surprises might lie in wait in any of these dens.
This secret operation was primarily handled by the Falcon Unit, targeting the relatively lightly guarded Qingrong Monastery, while the Swallow Unit was assigned the plum target of Liantang. The orders were clear: better to kill mistakenly than to let anyone escape. Both groups of Northern Liang assassins were formidable forces, requiring immense resources to counter. Thus, these two groups of death squads wore soft armor, carried short blades, and were equipped with bows and crossbows. In contrast, Chaifei Courtyard was the least prioritized of the three targets, and lower-ranking personnel were assigned there—some from the Falcon Unit, some from the Swallow Unit. Naturally, tensions ran high among them.
Hong Shuwen and Ren Shanyu were among them. Ren was only one of two minor leaders, the other being an old man whose name had long been forgotten. People simply called him Old Tree Stump. He had served as a death squad member in Northern Liang for many years but had never once visited Northern Liang’s mansion, let alone seen the great general up close. He carried the old air of a wandering swordsman.
The Swallow Unit’s leader was a middle-aged man named Song, who gave off a carefree vibe. Besides the two groups of over a dozen men stationed outside for surveillance and mop-up, six entered Chaifei Courtyard. Song disguised himself as a wealthy traveler from afar, wearing a thick gold chain around his neck that weighed several jin. Hong Shuwen was his drinking buddy, while Ren Shanyu posed as Song’s personal concubine. The other three were elite Swallow Unit members dressed as attendants, unarmed but hiding daggers and short hooks under their clothes. Before entering Chaifei Courtyard, they had exchanged brief notes on each other’s specialties and weapon preferences. There was no room for secrecy. Being a death squad member was no game; no one could afford to act alone. In a roughly balanced confrontation, whether or not they could coordinate effectively could mean the difference between life and death.
The main target at Chaifei Courtyard was a newly crowned flower beauty. She wasn’t necessarily more beautiful than the previous ones, but men are fickle and love novelty. Her business boomed. That night, a wealthy man from Fengyang Prefecture had paid seven hundred taels of silver to take her out for the night. However, he underestimated the value of Chaifei’s flower beauty. As soon as he made his request, someone immediately countered with six hundred taels, insisting she stay within the brothel. The elderly man had to take back a hundred taels and gave up on taking her out, leaving a newly purchased pretty maid in his private residence outside in the cold.
According to the intelligence gathered by Wang Tongque, the madam in charge of connecting clients with nobles at Chaifei Courtyard was a spy originally from Northern Liang but who had defected to Northern Wei. Moreover, the courtesan house’s martial arts instructor and several of his disciples were genuine Northern Wei death squads. In total, Chaifei Courtyard had eight or nine people, with only about half being truly dangerous. Thus, with over a dozen elite Swallow and Falcon Unit members working together, the odds seemed overwhelmingly in their favor. And indeed, at first, everything went smoothly.
Song Gu, the Swallow Unit’s leader, and Ren Shanyu went to a room that had been booked in advance. Just above them was the room where the flower beauty entertained her guest. Song had called for a moderately popular courtesan. Brothels had no objection to clients bringing their own women, but getting a top courtesan to engage in a ménage à trois with a stranger was no easy feat. Even if the courtesan herself agreed, the brothel would usually hesitate, fearing that such an incident would lower her value. A hefty price was required to make it happen.
Hong Shuwen, Song’s accomplice, was given a bag of silver and began pestering the madam to make an exception. Hong wasn’t bad-looking and was the son of a noble family from Northern Liang. His reputation for killing had given him a certain air of ferocity. The woman, around twenty-seven or twenty-eight, seemed to take a liking to him despite his insufficient payment. She agreed, though she had countless minor duties to attend to and urged Hong to act quickly. Hong grinned and replied, “Don’t worry, I’m famous for being a ‘swift horse.'”
The night was short for love, and no one ever wished for a longer life.
The three Swallow Unit members who knew Chaifei Courtyard’s layout like the back of their hands quickly found the guards drinking in the courtyard and attacked without hesitation.
On a silk-covered bed, a woman sensing danger tried to break Hong’s spine with a palm strike, but Hong struck first, slamming his fist into her dantian, then gripping her slender neck with clawed fingers, watching her die with a smile. He chuckled, “I’ll have to get my money back. We were together out of mutual affection, not for a night of paid pleasure.”
At almost the same moment, Song Gu was watching the courtesan undress inside the room. As she turned to smile at him, he covered her mouth with one hand and struck her heart with a single punch, killing her instantly. Ren Shanyu, impatient, leapt onto the table, kicked off the surface, and stuck to the ceiling like a gecko. Confirming the commotion upstairs, she tore through the wooden boards and burst through, locating the spy courtesan. She saw a seductive scene: the woman half-undressed, hands on the table, revealing a stretch of smooth, white flesh. An old man in fine clothes raised his hand, ready to slap her plump buttocks. Seeing Ren appear out of nowhere, the old man, still lustful, turned his gaze to Ren’s bosom with a lecherous grin. The courtesan, however, had murder in her eyes. Instead of dressing, she slammed her palm on the table, twisted her fingers slightly, and spun like a colorful butterfly toward Ren. The female Falcon Unit member, who had come without her signature twin axes to avoid suspicion, was about to counter when an arm shot up from the floor, grabbed the courtesan’s ankle, and yanked her down through the floorboards, vanishing from sight. Ren Shanyu glared angrily at Song, who had deviated from the plan. Originally, she was supposed to kill the courtesan while Song dealt with the madam, and Hong supported the three Swallow Unit members. But Song had sent Hong off to do menial work and stayed in the room himself. Worse, the other courtesan didn’t need to die—just be knocked out.
As Ren hesitated for a moment, the neighboring prefecture’s wealthy man, who had regained his senses, quietly extended his hand under the table, palm up, and with a slight twist, sent the table flying toward Ren.
The ambush struck suddenly. Ren kicked the heavy wooden table to pieces, only to see an old, sinister face rushing toward her. A palm struck her forehead, and her small body crashed through the wall, thrown outside the building. As she began to lose consciousness mid-fall toward the street below, Ren felt regret—if only she had her axes, perhaps she wouldn’t have been so easily defeated.
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