Jiankang Palace

Zhu Yuanzhang frowned.

He vaguely remembered that, at the start of the second act at Yinglong Temple,

Mingshan had made it very clear that he wanted Minghe to go to Tiantai Temple in Hao Prefecture and meet someone named Shi Yibiao.

That man was apparently one of the creators of Mountain-Shrinking Fist.

Thinking of how Mingshan had conveniently told him to practice Mountain-Shrinking Fist to protect his life,

"There are even more reasons to be suspicious."

"What are the monks of Yinglong Temple plotting?"

Zhu Yuanzhang sighed.

Outside the window, the escort guards from the Hao Prefecture Escort Agency, who had been shouting to clear the way, abruptly fell silent.

The voices of the escort agency's martial artists became tangled together, growing especially noisy.

"What happened?"

Zhu Yuanzhang snuffed out the candle, rose from beside the bed, pushed open the window, and looked down at the street below.

He saw the chief escort of Hao Prefecture hurrying out through the gate with his men. They stood respectfully on the north side of the street. His usually stern eyes were now filled with anxiety, and he kept gazing toward the far end of the street.

The clatter of hooves striking the flagstones came from the distance. A group of more than twenty riders approached, all dressed in white robes with sabers slung across their backs.

Five or six of them were doubled up on horses. Their faces were deathly pale, their breaths faint and shallow; they looked as if they had little time left.

"Everyone!"

Though middle-aged, the chief escort had long, straight brows and eyes that gleamed brightly. He clasped his hands to those around him.

"Brothers from my escort agency were ambushed while escorting a shipment and poisoned by the enemy's fire toxin. If anyone knows how to treat them, my agency will offer a thousand taels of silver in gratitude!"

"Thank you, Chief Escort Lu!"

The young man at the head of the riders thanked him.

"Enough talk! Young Master Zhou, please bring your brothers inside!"

With that, the chief escort gestured, and the many martial artists who had been preparing to head out set aside their work and opened a path for the riders.

Inside his guest room, Zhu Yuanzhang watched the mounted escorts in silence.

"Trouble's here."

"That 'Young Master Zhou' must be none other than Zhou Ziwang, the famous leader of the Yuan Prefecture Incense Soldiers."

"His cultivation is far inferior to Mingguang's, but he's clearly already cultivated a second flame with the Dingguang Demon-Subduing True Technique and is close to forming a third."

Relying on his extraordinary understanding of the Dingguang Demon-Subduing True Technique, Zhu Yuanzhang felt a chill in his heart.

After his experience with the White-Robed Monk at Imperial Awakening Temple, Zhu Yuanzhang no longer dared to underestimate anyone who practiced the Dingguang Demon-Subduing True Fire.

Though the White-Robed Monk's ritual had ultimately failed, the fate of the Mahavira Hall and its monks had left a deep impression on Zhu Yuanzhang.

He asked himself: even with Mountain-Shrinking Fist, which let him almost completely ignore the toll a single true flame took on his lifespan and vitality,

Could he really achieve an effect like the White-Robed Monk's? It seemed almost impossible.

"Dingguang Divine Mantra."

"Even cheats aren't that powerful."

Watching Zhou Ziwang enter the Hao Prefecture Escort Agency, surrounded by a crowd,

The inspiration for the famous "Zhou Zhiruo's" father in The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber.

Zhu Yuanzhang studied him, memorized his physical features, then shut the window, cutting off the view between them.

For a moment, Zhou Ziwang, riding among the Incense Army's followers as they entered Haozhou, seemed to sense something. He turned and glanced toward the inn behind him.

The man beside him, addressed as Chief Escort Lu, leaned over and asked quietly, "What is it, Your Highness?"

"Nothing." Zhou Ziwang looked away and shook his head. "I'm probably exhausted from the journey. Must have imagined it."

Once the escort agency's gates were shut, Zhou Ziwang dismounted. The escort guards and followers around him immediately knelt, their eyes fervent as they called out, "Prince of Zhou!"

Zhou Ziwang seemed accustomed to everything around him. He took a scroll from inside his robe and handed it to a White Lotus Sect escort, saying,

"This is the portrait Master Peng drew of the man who killed my junior, Brother Xiang. I ask the brothers of the escort agency to search Haozhou for him."

"No problem."

The middle-aged man addressed as Chief Escort Lu, with straight brows and bright eyes, unrolled the scroll and studied the portrait of the handsome young monk.

After committing the man's face to memory, he handed the scroll to a disciple of the escort agency and told him to keep it safe.

Then he thumped his chest and said confidently,

"Your Highness, you needn't worry. My escort agency may be nothing special in all of Henan-Jiangbei Province, but finding someone in Haozhou is easy."

"However, there is one thing I don't understand. The man in the portrait is handsome, but there's no name or place of origin written down."

At that, Zhou Ziwang smiled faintly.

"Master Peng didn't overlook it. The man is a local of Haozhou. His name is Chongba, but his family name is unknown. In the third year of Zhizheng, drought destroyed his family, and he was one of the refugees forced to flee to Imperial Awakening Temple for shelter."

Suddenly, flecks of golden light ignited in Zhou Ziwang's eyes.

Countless densely packed phantoms of people, each with a different expression, appeared within them.

"Before fleeing, he sold his family's belongings to bury his father. That was beside the land belonging to the Liu family in Taiping Township."

"This man possesses great fortune and won't be easy to capture. Chief Escort Lu, you can first go to Taiping Township and retrieve Shizhen's remains. Once Master Peng arrives, he can set up an altar and perform a ritual. Using the Severing Kinship technique to pinpoint the man's location, we can then find a way to capture him."

Everyone agreed.

They praised the Prince of Zhou's wisdom and declared that he would soon unite the land beneath heaven, and so on.

However, anyone who knew Chief Escort Lu could tell from his unconvinced expression that he had no intention of waiting for Peng Yingyu to reach Haozhou before capturing the man.

After all, the Prince of Zhou had given the order! Success would earn him an immense reward!

And they already had all the clues! Why let that demon monk, Peng Yingyu, take the credit?

"Oh no... I didn't expect the Incense Army to arrive so quickly."

Zhu Yuanzhang sighed.

The balance of power between the two sides had already shifted.

Now, his only advantage was that he knew about them while they knew nothing about him.

But they had arrived so quickly and accurately. Clearly, they had some way to locate him.

It looked like a fight here was inevitable.

For now, the only way to increase his strength was to use the two fragments of Secret History in his possession.

"First, I'll break through 'Green Silk White Horse Comes to Shouyang' and obtain the Dingguang Demon-Subduing Divine Incantation!"

"Then I'll investigate Yinglong Temple and try to break that seemingly inescapable deadlock!"

With that thought, Zhu Yuanzhang no longer hesitated.

He sat cross-legged and shouted into the empty air,

"Bring on the cheat!"

The world spun around him.

When Zhu Yuanzhang opened his eyes, five large characters came into view.

[Jinling] [Jiankang Palace]

"Your Majesty, why not appoint General Xinwu as commander, entrust him with a large force, and station him in Danyang?"

Zhu Yuanzhang turned toward the voice. It belonged to an old monk standing at the very front of the assembled officials.

His monk's robe was studded with jewels, gold, and silver, and he looked somewhat bulky beneath their weight.

The icon above his head clearly read: [Abbot Fahui of Tongtai Temple].

"Where is Patriarch Bodhidharma?"

Zhu Yuanzhang looked around.

But he could not find the living Buddha from the documentary among the monks and officials.

"It seems he'd anticipated this situation long ago."

Thinking of Patriarch Bodhidharma's behavior in the cutscene, Zhu Yuanzhang pondered.

"His counsel was rejected, so he found an excuse to leave early."

Hearing someone suggest appointing a member of the Southern Liang imperial family as a general, Emperor Wu of Liang, seated on the throne behind the bamboo curtain atop the jade steps, wore a bright yellow monk's robe. His indistinct face showed a thoughtful expression.

He seemed somewhat tempted.