Each with their own agenda

On the carriage heading toward the City of Evernight, Ying Ru Shi flipped through her notes, confirming that she had not missed any intelligence.

After Yellow Dog solved the puzzle of Opening the Golden Cabinet, the Thieves' Den plan had only one final hurdle left: Closing the Hall Doors.

No one could come up with a good solution for that.

Anguo Temple was enormous, with more than one exit. More importantly, it had a second floor and even a third. Even if the four of them immediately took control of the main entrance, the monks inside Anguo Temple would surely know how to escape through a side or rear entrance. Or they could simply jump out from the second floor.

Then should they suppress all the exits first?

Leaving aside the fact that there were only four of them and they were badly short-handed, the bigger problem was that Anguo Temple's main hall was not small either. After closing the hall doors, they would inevitably spend quite some time regrouping at the treasury.

If Yellow Dog's method was feasible, the four of them would have to cooperate fully inside the treasury. They would have no way to split up.

However, there were still four days left. Thus, Black Wolf proposed that they end things for today, return home and think carefully about the assignment of Closing the Hall Doors, then continue the discussion tomorrow at the usual time at the Thieves' Den.

Ying Ru Shi understood that Black Wolf and Red Snake were surely testing Yellow Dog's method right now.

They most likely did not believe that such ordinary tools, combined with a technique of no difficulty whatsoever, could achieve destructive power that even third- or fourth-turn heralds could hardly reach. But before testing it, they had no way to refute him. So they had simply ended the meeting, intending to use the results tomorrow to slap Yellow Dog in the face.

They both wanted to suppress Yellow Dog's arrogance.

Indeed, although Black Wolf had presided over the meeting and Red Snake often participated in the discussions with her, the truly dominant person in this meeting had been the taciturn Yellow Dog.

Everyone else knew nothing about the Thieves' Den, but he knew how to operate the Sand Table;

Of the three major problems, he had solved the most troublesome one, Opening the Golden Cabinet.

No one could refute the solution he proposed. Everyone could only listen when he spoke. If things continued like this, he would easily seize control of this little group of four.

As Black Wolf had tried to vie for leadership from the very beginning, she realized that if this continued, she would become a subordinate. That was why she had decisively ended the meeting.

If Black Wolf wants to prove that Yellow Dog's method is unworkable, I'm afraid she'll be disappointed, Ying Ru Shi thought.

Although it had not yet been tested, Ying Ru Shi was certain that Yellow Dog would never make things up. This came both from her observations of Yellow Dog and from... that White Iron Straight Blade.

The straight blade Yan San had used to kill Uwan Ryu had vanished without a trace, even though its owner had died.

It was clearly a new herald that had never appeared in Herald Lore, yet it had appeared in Yellow Dog's hands.

Ying Ru Shi found it difficult not to connect Yan San and Yellow Dog. She even suspected that the blade in Yellow Dog's hands was the very same one Yan San had used.

Before leaving Ping City, she had deliberately asked Bai Bao, who had entered the secret realm today, to confirm that Yan San had not brought a straight blade with him before entering the secret realm. He had not even used a straight blade while fighting the Demon King.

Someone had suggested that the straight blade looked very much like the Demon King's weapon, but both blades dropped by the Demon King today were among the spoils, and neither had any herald effect.

It was as if Yan San had borrowed the White Iron Straight Blade from someone just before killing his victim, then automatically returned it after the deed was done.

It was as if someone stood behind a curtain, coldly watching all things in the world. Occasionally, he would place a single piece, changing the fates of certain people.

As if...

"Yellow Dog..."

Ying Ru Shi rolled the codename over her tongue, burying these groundless conjectures deep in her heart.

For some reason, she had begun looking forward to the heist four days from now.

"Miss, all the doors on the wooden cabinets have been torn off. Amazing!"

Wu Qiu was extremely excited. The other three maidservants felt much the same. They were all ordinary people. Although they often did physical labor, they were not especially strong. Yet these four battered Wooden Cabinets before them were their masterpiece—so we can actually be this powerful!

However, Yaoshi Yuan's expression was not very pleasant.

"Go buy four Iron Cabinets and try again," she ordered.

At that moment, a servant came to report that the Duke had finally finished handling his official business and had time to see her. Yaoshi Yuan immediately hurried to Changqiu Study, shut the door, and said, "Father, you can set an ambush on Vermillion Bird Avenue now. Once we descend, you can capture those three thieves!"

Phew.

Yaoshi Mo Ke set down his long hookah and exhaled pale smoke. He remained silent for a long while. Only when Yaoshi Yuan grew somewhat impatient did he slowly say, "Compared with Bingzi Jiaolin, the Thieves' Den is more important, and so are you. Rather than making a grand display over Bingzi Jiaolin, it would be better to let you steal it. Once you take control of the Thieves' Den, you can return it. It won't be too late."

Yaoshi Yuan froze.

"Of course, I won't indulge you in stealing Bingzi Jiaolin. If you cause trouble, I can only guarantee your safety. If you want to steal Bingzi Jiaolin, you'll have to rely on yourselves."

"Father," Yaoshi Yuan said word by word, "I don't understand."

Yaoshi Mo Ke stood up and paced back and forth across the room.

After hesitating for a long time, he sat back down, took a deep drag from the hookah, and sighed. "Yuan, I won't hide it from you. I have many enemies at court. Whenever they get the chance, they try to deceive His Majesty and frame me... Bingzi Jiaolin is the Grand Ancestor's Sword. Once it returns to everyone's sight, those arrogant men may well join forces to oppose me."

Arrogant?

They were clearly loyal.

"The reason you have so many enemies is because you favor your own people and eliminate anyone who disagrees with you," Yaoshi Yuan said. "You think Bingzi Jiaolin will remind many loyal ministers of the Grand Ancestor's kindness and the imperial family's grace, so you'd rather we steal it to damage the imperial family's prestige!"

"Impudent!" Yaoshi Mo Ke slammed his palm down and shattered the hookah. He stood and glared furiously at Yaoshi Yuan. "Is that how you speak to your father!? Who do you think you are, the emperor?"

"To monopolize power, you can treat anything as a bargaining chip."

Yaoshi Yuan raised a hand and brushed away the smoke before her. She shook her head and said, "Father, you'll regret this."

"The twenty-four prefectures of Chang'an rest on my shoulders. It is not your place to decide matters of state," Yaoshi Mo Ke said coldly. "Yuan, I am the Grand Chancellor of Great Zhou!"

Jiangnan City, the Shang residence.

"You're back?" Shang Qia hurried over to find his younger sister. "Are you all right?"

Then he saw Shang Xin Lei sitting there, taking one bite after another of osmanthus cake. She looked not only fine, but also like she had a very healthy appetite.

"What did you discuss at the Thieves' Den? How are you planning to steal Bingzi Jiaolin?"

"Hmm..." Shang Xin Lei tried hard to recall. "That Sand Table in the Thieves' Den can zoom in and out. It was fun."

"What else?"

"Also... Black Wolf is a little full of herself. She keeps trying to order us around, but she makes it so obvious that she just seems clumsy. White Fox is much smoother by comparison. But for some reason, she was super, super, super concerned about Yellow Dog today. Yet Yellow Dog didn't seem to know her either. Could she have figured out Yellow Dog's identity in the real world?"

"The most interesting one was Yellow Dog. He thought he was hiding it well, but he kept drooling while looking at me!"

"What!" Shang Qia shot to his feet. "He was drooling while looking at you?!"

"Yeah. Especially when I was eating osmanthus cake and licking the glutinous rice flour off my fingers. I even saw him swallow!" Shang Xin Lei giggled. "Even with his mask on, I could read his expression—he was definitely hoping I'd share some cake with him. Hmph, if he doesn't ask me, I won't give him any!"

"So he was drooling over the cake..." Shang Qia slowly sat back down. "What about your heist plan?"

"Huh? They'll handle the heist plan. I just have to go with them." Shang Xin Lei propped up her chin. "Overall, they're all very interesting people. I've already started looking forward to the day we all go to Chang'an together."

Shang Qia felt that something was off.

The Thieves' Den was clearly supposed to be a dangerous secret realm where a group of Thief Kings schemed against one another to seize treasures. How had it become, in his sister's mouth, a private gathering of friends discussing their travel plans?

Were they trying to obtain the secret realm or the treasure? What exactly had you gone there to do, little sister?