Going Deeper

Vast Province

The General Qin Residence.

On a moonlit night.

The scholar paced back and forth, anxiously waiting outside a tightly shut secret chamber.

He had been waiting for Great General Qin for over a month, but the general still hadn't emerged from seclusion.

Every time the Great General secluded himself, it took a very, very long time.

Suddenly, he heard footsteps behind him. A tall, burly soldier in armor approached.

"Top Scholar, First Madam is waiting for you in the front hall. Please come with me."

The scholar followed the soldier to the front hall.

First Madam sat upright in a luxurious chair. Two maids behind her gently fanned her with round fans, while another maid prepared incense nearby. The golden grinder creaked as it ground the incense, releasing a soothing fragrance.

The scholar took a light sniff and felt his agitation ease considerably. He couldn't help praising it: "So pure and refined, like a secluded orchid exhaling fragrance, like wind circling through a pine ravine. It calms the mind without one even realizing!"

First Madam waved her hand.

The maids and servants understood and withdrew.

Soon, only the two of them remained in the hall.

Only then did First Madam get straight to the point. "Top Scholar, infighting is a grave taboo. If it stays behind closed doors and leaves no evidence, it's one thing. But your affair has become public, and there's evidence, too."

The scholar didn't bother explaining. Anyone who needed an explanation already knew the truth, so what was the point?

He simply cried, "Please, Mother-in-law, save your son-in-law!"

First Madam said, "The date of your marriage alliance was set for the day you became Prefect. Now that seems a long way off. What basis do you have for calling me Mother-in-law?"

"I was wrong." The scholar lowered his head and admitted his fault.

First Madam said, "You're the dynasty's Top Scholar. If you're going to admit your fault, don't do it to a mere woman like me."

The scholar gritted his teeth, then suddenly threw himself to the ground and knelt, paying her the highest respect. "I was wrong. I know my mistake."

First Madam looked down at the kneeling Top Scholar. His proud bearing had been bent low, and the sight pleased her. The corners of her mouth lifted in an involuntary smile. After a moment's thought, she asked, "Ning Xuan—what kind of person is he?"

The scholar replied, "He's violent and unrestrained, his every move like that of a tiger or wolf. His gaze is ferocious enough to seize the soul, and his chilling bearing is like that of a man who relishes drinking blood."

First Madam's eyes lit up.

The scholar carefully glanced up, instinctively putting his talent for reading people's expressions to use. His eyes met the light in First Madam's.

His heart jolted.

He had been disparaging Ning Xuan.

He was saying Ning Xuan was a savage—crude and bloodthirsty.

But why had First Madam's eyes lit up?

What was she thinking?

The scholar's thoughts raced, and he added, "That brute is vicious. Daoist Qinglan was a well-regarded Daoist outside, yet he was tortured to death and reduced to a pile of minced flesh! The Daoist Boy, too. Their flesh and blood were all tangled together."

First Madam listened in silence.

As the wife of Great General Qin, she wasn't some ordinary rich woman who stayed home, cracking seeds and sipping tea.

She had been away for several months and had only just returned.

She had gone to gather fragrant wood. Great General Qin needed a great deal of Tranquility Incense and demanded high quality. The world's rarest treasures were often found in treacherous places, so she had to lead people there herself. She had only been back a short while.

As soon as she returned, she heard about the trouble with her family's prospective son-in-law.

The Top Scholar represented the Dragon Qi of an entire prefecture. He would add another brick to the "private Celestial Master corps" of the General Qin Residence, a privilege Great General Qin had earned through countless military merits.

Originally, taking over Wangyue Prefecture—a position whose term had already ended and which had already been decided—should have been a sure thing. Yet somehow, complications had arisen.

That was why she had started looking into it.

And that was how she learned about Ning Xuan.

She heard the scholar's account, then questioned Manager Zhao.

After that, she went to the part of the General's residence dedicated to gathering intelligence from outside. Before long, she learned that Ning Xuan had been appointed General Anyuan, and that a demon calamity was raging in Ping'an Prefecture, under his command.

After looking into the matter, First Madam thought it over briefly, then acted decisively. She summoned a Celestial Master assigned to the General's residence and said, "Take a Demon Slaying Guard unit to Ping'an Prefecture and give General Ning some support."

There were Prefects in the General's residence, and naturally, those Prefects belonged to the General's residence as well.

Of course, this was the "general system" of the old era.

Back then, the generals had reaped plenty of benefits by having the authority to act as they saw fit in exterminating demons. The "General's residence" of today was practically a small imperial court, and before demons appeared, it would have been something like a regional military governor's office.

As for the Demon Slaying Guard, it was a powerful unit made up of Demon-Plague Warriors. Each unit had thirty men, and was quite precious.

The Celestial Master wasn't surprised by First Madam's orders. He didn't even wait for the Great General's command, but immediately accepted. Then he respectfully asked, "How should we assist him?"

First Madam said, "Do I have to teach you that?"

The Celestial Master replied, "Please enlighten me, Madam."

First Madam said, "You can add flowers to brocade, but don't send charcoal in a snowstorm. If you can help, give it everything you've got. If you can't, then let a few people die—but not too many. While you're at it, let me see what kind of bearing this Young General has."

"Yes."

The Celestial Master understood.

Originally, if he took just one guard, he could travel underground. Now that he was bringing thirty, they would have to ride horses along the main road to Ping'an Prefecture.

Even if they rode hard, day and night without stopping, it would still take two or three days to reach Ping'an Prefecture.

After he left, First Madam rested her chin in her hand and began considering which of her daughters had the most refined tea ceremony, which was lovesick, which was carefree, and which could ride out of the city alone to fight General Ning.

Being the wife of the Great General was not easy.

Although she was First Madam, she hadn't been the first wife.

There had been two First Madams before her.

But both of them were dead.

One had died of old age.

The other had died under mysterious circumstances.

There were too many mysteries surrounding the Great General: the mystery of his cultivation, the mystery of his agelessness.

Perhaps she didn't dare investigate her husband, the Great General, but she could at least look into the man who might become her son-in-law, couldn't she?

Midnight

Waystation

The words "Blackwater Village" were written on the boundary marker.

But the "Black" in "Blackwater Village" was already obscured by the thick night fog, rendering it indistinct.

The sound of a drum echoed from the drum tower.

Everyone coming and going from the waystation had to beat the drum.

Ning Xuan stopped.

Blackwater Village was the meeting place agreed upon in Ping'an Prefecture's plea for aid. Someone was supposed to brief them on the situation here, then lead them onward.

Soon, the postmaster hurried out, followed by a burly, fearsome-looking man.

"Are you General Ning?" The postmaster hurriedly saluted, a trace of nervousness on his face.

Ning Xuan nodded and asked, "What happened here?"

The postmaster looked despairing. "They're dead. They're all dead. If you'd arrived two days later, the Daoist Boy and I would be dead, too."

Ning Xuan glanced at the two roads branching off behind the waystation and asked, "The plea for aid said that Ping'an Prefecture was searching for the source of the demon calamity, and that someone would meet us when we reached Blackwater Village. Are you the one meeting us, postmaster? Or—"

He looked at the burly, fearsome-looking man beside him. "The Daoist Boy?"

The postmaster sighed. "It's a long story, a long story. Let's go inside the waystation first. Then I can explain everything."

Ning Xuan said, "Just tell me."

The postmaster cried out in terror, "General! The demon calamity is worse than we thought! We haven't found its source at all, and Prefect Tang is already dead in battle. The Celestial Master is dead, too. They're all dead! We—we should leave here at once, report this to the imperial court, and decide what to do afterward."

As the last word fell, a flash of blade-light came down.

The blade-light swept across the postmaster. He didn't even react. His body split with a strange, tearing-cloth sound, and the opening was hollow inside. He was nothing but a sheet of skin.

Ning Xuan stepped forward and spun his blade, slashing at the Daoist Boy beside the postmaster.

This slash was even faster.

And yet the Daoist Boy reacted. He grabbed the ax handle behind him, yanked it free, and raised it to block the blade.

Clang!

Blade and ax pressed together and clashed, ringing softly.

The Daoist Boy had reacted at the last instant and barely managed to block the strike.

Ning Xuan held his blade in one hand and looked down at his opponent. The Daoist Boy's knees bent, and he sank to one knee. Gripping the ax with both hands, he strained to bear the blow with his shoulder and the force of his kneeling body.

Ning Xuan added a little more strength.

Bang!

The Daoist Boy's palms split open, and the ax sank lower.

Whoosh!

The blade cut all the way through, cleaving the ax handle and the Daoist Boy in two.

Flop!

Flop!

The two ruined human skins made strange noises as they slumped limply to the ground.

At the sound, the waystation in the distance seemed like a hornet's nest that had just been stabbed. Black smoke surged and howled, streak after streak of it darting out like the tentacles of deep-sea monsters, shooting from the waystation and reaching for Ning Xuan.

Ning Xuan was about to charge forward, but Immortal Aunt Yaozhen stepped in front of him first. Her delicate hands formed a seal, and a transparent, invisible golden mountain suddenly appeared beside them, surrounding them both.

The black smoke that struck the mountain slowed to a crawl, moving like snails. It was as if they had been displayed behind glass for people to observe.

Here, they seemed somewhat different from what they were outside.

Outside, they were just clouds of black smoke.

But here, they revealed faces—one after another, each filled with anguish and malice.

Ning Xuan said, "These ghostly things look like whoever's human skin they've taken. They also lie and deceive people according to the circumstances. And they can even inherit some of their victims' strength. That Daoist Boy was clearly stronger than the postmaster."

After a moment's thought, he added, "It seems we're already quite close to the center of the demon calamity.

These ghostly things are relatively concentrated here. They can't move far away, because the farther they go, the more they dissipate.

Unless they get their hands on human skin here, or find a human-skin body to gnaw away at little by little. That's why, terrifying as they are, they aren't enough to truly wipe out a whole prefecture."

Immortal Aunt Yaozhen was taken aback. "Could it be that you guessed this from the start, and that's why you had the soldiers garrison the outskirts instead of bringing them deeper in with us?"

Ning Xuan was taken aback, too.

What had he been thinking?

He'd been thinking he'd have to pay out a lot of compensation. Pointless sacrifices, hefty payouts—there was no point.

But just because he thought that way didn't mean Ping'an Prefecture did.

If that was the case, perhaps he'd encounter an entire army of human skins here.

These ghostly things were just drizzle, but a human-skin army was another matter.