Lu Chen watched as she applied medicine to her tail beneath the moonlight. Footsteps sounded beyond the courtyard wall.
Heavy and orderly—the Imperial Guards. The three hundred Imperial Guards Mo Qianqiu had arranged were hurrying over from the southern training grounds.
The footsteps stopped at the mouth of the alley.
An Imperial Guard commander stood at the alley entrance and glanced inside. He saw Lu Chen sitting on the steps, Yun Qingyue crouched before him treating his wounds, and Tuoba Shan wiping down his blade.
The courtyard was a scene of utter devastation. The ground had collapsed into a pit eight zhang deep.
He swept out a hand. "Seal off the alley. No one is to enter."
The Imperial Guards surrounded the alley.
Lu Chen took the ring from the Mysterious Yellow Creation Gourd.
The black metal gleamed coldly beneath the moonlight.
He turned the ring over. Beside the name on the inner band was a tiny engraving.
It was not the mark of the Shadow Council. It was the shape of an alchemy furnace—the mark of Medicine King Valley. Third Councilor Shen Yuan—the Shadow Council's third-highest seat—had once belonged to Medicine King Valley.
"He knew Mu Wanqing. He knew Mu Tianqing." Lu Chen showed the ring to Yun Qingyue. "What did Mu Tianqing owe him?"
Yun Qingyue's fingers stopped at the tip of her tail. She stared at the alchemy-furnace emblem inside the ring and remained silent for a long time.
"Go back and ask Master. Only Mu Tianqing himself can explain the debt he owed."
She put away the jar of ointment and rose to her feet. The moon had shifted from silvery white to pale yellow—it was sinking, and dawn was close.
Lu Chen rose from the steps.
The bandages around his body tightened slightly with the