Night Meeting with Zi Shou

The horses and mounts of the Primordial Wilderness were quite sturdy as well. When Li Mansion in Chentang Pass held its hundred-day feast, Wen Zhong and Zi Shou had already secretly returned to Chaoge City.

Li Changshou could only hurriedly deliver a speech on behalf of all the Li family's servants and attendants, warmly welcoming the birth of young master Jin Zha. After arranging for Chentang Pass's premier musical troupe of wind, strings, plucked instruments, and song, he feigned being unable to hold his liquor and withdrew early.

That night.

More than half of Chaoge City had fallen asleep. Only certain service-oriented streets and alleys remained bustling.

Within the Grand Historian's Manor, patrolling guards passed through the front and rear courtyards at their appointed times. The occasional laughter was no more than quiet muttering over how this Grand Historian did not indulge in women and had no family at all.

Li Changshou's Paper Daoist sat in his study, dressed in a dark crimson robe. His gray-white hair was combed without a strand out of place, giving him the air of a rigorously scholarly man.

By the window stood a banquet of wine and food he had ordered laid out in advance. Though the dishes were simple, the portions were generous.

After all, today's guest was renowned throughout Chaoge City for his appetite.

At the third watch of midnight.

Two black figures draped in cloaks climbed over the rear courtyard wall. Their cloaks carried exceedingly faint Dharma power, allowing them to conceal their forms from mortals.

Li Changshou revealed a slight smile.

Wen Zhong had found the knack of it. Though he was doing his utmost to conceal the fact that he was an "extraordinary man of strange arts," he had also learned to act as circumstances demanded.

He still needed