Baosha Temple's Crisis

The night was bitterly cold.

Inside a gambling den.

A burly man with a face full of hard flesh was pushing his pai gow tiles forward, his eyes bloodshot. He was about to shove the silver pieces before him onto the table.

Smack.

A large hand pinned his wrist.

Furious, the man turned to curse, only to find a colleague from the Demon Suppression Office.

The man was dressed in black, his saber fastened at his waist and his expression grave.

"Stop playing. Something's happened."

"What could've happened? I've got the supreme tile this round—"

The man lowered his voice and said only one thing: "That new commander is going to kill people."

The burly man's hand shook.

His supreme tile fell to the floor.

Without another word, he scooped up the silver on the table, stuffed it into his robes, and ran.

Similar scenes played out across Longyou.

Men who had not even fastened their belts shoved the courtesans aside and rushed out.

Men dead drunk were jolted awake by buckets of well water poured over their heads. They grabbed their sabers and mounted up, cursing all the while.

Along the official roads, hoofbeats rolled like muffled thunder, making the earth tremble.

From a high vantage point, one could look down.

Several fiery dragons could be seen winding across the vast land.

Torches whipped in the wind, lighting one grim face after another.

The white breath of the Scarlet-eyed Steeds hung in the cold night air.

Apart from the men needed to guard the cities.

Everyone else, wherever they were and whatever they had been doing.

Headed in the same direction.

Qinzhou.

The next morning.

As soon as the people of Qinzhou City got up, they sensed something was wrong.

They hurried back into their homes.

The once-bustling