The Army Enters the City!

Lin Wenhai's first reaction was disdain.

Granted, the man's identity gave him some pause, but one thing was certain: the man had no Inner Force. Like Lin himself, he was a martial artist who trained only his body.

And he dared make a move?

The martial sects of the jianghu were growing bolder by the day. Or had the rebellions of recent years made people forget the court's might?

Lin Wenhai reached for his saber, ready to teach this wandering swordsman a lesson. He had even begun picturing his moves—how to strike the mountain and startle the tiger, what to say afterward—when his thoughts stopped.

Thud!

A round head fell to the ground with the rain. Blood shot skyward, staining the curtain of rain red and spreading a sharp, metallic stench.

The people nearby recoiled in horror.

On the other side of the prison wagon, Liu Fuguan, the constable helping escort it, froze. Only when a few drops of blood struck his face did he come to his senses.

One slash!?

He had not even seen the man draw. In the blink of an eye, Lin Wenhai, who was every bit his equal, had become a headless corpse.

An Inner Force Martial Master?

No, impossible. If he had Inner Force, he wouldn't have needed to draw his blade. That was sheer physical strength.

"Mad. He's mad..."

In a flash, Liu Fuguan sorted through it. This lunatic must be here to break the prisoner out. He wants to save someone. I can't stand in his way...

He leaped down from the prison wagon and stepped aside. He came from a wealthy family in the city, law-abiding for generations; his life was precious. Why die for a condemned prisoner at the hands of some hotheaded fool? Better to survive, then report the man to the county office and have him wanted.

But just then—

Beneath the mass of dark clouds, a signal arrow tore upward against the rain, trailing fire. It burst overhead in a spray of brilliant colors.

What was happening?

Moments later, inside and outside Longxing County, Blackheads and respectable citizens alike felt the ground tremble, the vibration drawing nearer.

As if guided by some unseen instinct, everyone looked around. An indescribable pressure hung in the air.

Soon, they saw its source.

At the far edge of the horizon, beneath the hazy rain, a thin line appeared. As time passed, it widened into a band.

Then the band resolved into countless figures.

They surged forward like a flood bursting through a dam, covering more than half the plain. Their steps fell in perfect unison, their black armor the same color as the storm-dark world.

Rumble!

The tremors grew stronger. Lightning flashed through the clouds at just the right moment, and thunder rolled as though beating drums to urge the march onward.

"Run!"

At last, someone reacted. Like a monkey with its backside on fire, he broke from the crowd and fled in a panic.

His flight sent a thousand waves rippling outward.

Everyone ran. The Blackheads who had gathered to watch the commotion scattered like startled birds and beasts, and the scene dissolved into chaos.

The approaching army did not waver. It continued forming its battle lines in perfect order, every soldier moving as one. Beneath the torrential rain, it seemed to become a savage beast opening its bloody maw at Longxing County, ready to swallow it whole.

"My lord, give the order."

Another figure stepped out from the crowd: Wu Xintai, armored and armed, his expression stern as a statue.

Liu Fuguan recognized him at once.

As commander of the Black Armor Battalion, Wu Xintai was hardly unknown at the Longxing County office. His name was practically on everyone's lips.

"The Black Armor Battalion dares kill a county constable!?" Perhaps the sight of his colleague's death had frightened him; Liu Fuguan's voice leaped several pitches into a shriek. "The military is interfering in county affairs, and blood has been shed! Are you trying to rebel?"

The words gave Liu Fuguan courage.

The county office had the law on its side.

Whatever else happened, Lin Wenhai, a county constable, was dead, and the killer was connected to the Black Armor Battalion. That evidence could not be erased.

Under the circumstances, the Black Armor Battalion was plainly suspect, perhaps even out of control. Demanding an explanation was only right and proper. Besides, he knew the magistrate had been troubled by the battalion for a long time, wondering how to deal with it.

Now Liu had caught them by the tail. It would be a great service to the magistrate.

As for offending the Black Armor Battalion, or even the army—what a joke. They belonged to different chains of command. What could the battalion do to him?

Liu Fuguan's mind raced.

Watching Wu Xintai, he ran through the excuses the man might offer and how he would refute them, lecturing him from the moral high ground.

What he did not expect was—

"...Rebellion?"

Wu Xintai did not defend himself. He laughed, glanced at Liu Fuguan, then turned to Wang Ping beside him.

Boom!

The next instant, Wu Xintai swept out a hand. A vast surge of Inner Force slammed into Liu Fuguan's chest and sent him flying sideways.

Before, I had no military orders, and you called me a rebel. I let that pass. Now I'm acting under orders. What do you call me this time?

Rebellion? This is putting down a rebellion!

Longxing County, the county office.

Xu Bingzheng sat in the main hall, though not in the seat of honor. Instead, he respectfully offered tea to a middle-aged scholar in a scholar's robe.

The scholar accepted the cup. One sip made him frown deeply. He turned, took a bowl, spat the tea into it, and shook his head. "The leaves are excellent, and the tea set is passable, but the person who brewed it lacks skill. The heat was nowhere near precise enough."

"Such fine leaves, wasted."

By the end, the disgust on his face was undisguised. "A whole pot of good tea ruined. Junior Brother, you cannot keep this tea master."

"You are quite right, Senior Brother Li."

Xu Bingzheng nodded quickly, then sighed. "True masters are hard to find in such harsh, remote country. Poor technique is only to be expected. I've embarrassed myself before you."

Only then did the scholar nod. "You may have studied at the Imperial Academy, Junior Brother, but you're still a scholar from Changle Commandery. This is the Shu Region, far from the Central Plains. Without the refinement of great aristocratic families, your foundations remain thin. Take tea, for instance. It is vital both for nourishing the body and receiving guests."

"Once we've finished this business,"

"when we return to the Imperial Academy to report to our teacher, I'll send you a few masters of tea preparation to lend you some prestige. Then you won't lose face like you did today."

"Thank you, Senior Brother."

Gratitude filled Xu Bingzheng's face. "I never expected our teacher not only to spare me blame, but to send you here. I will never forget it."

Xu Bingzheng looked at the scholar again. His eyes narrowed, and in some intangible way, he seemed to glimpse a white-bristled brush sweeping ink across paper, painting mountains and rivers.

Li Yiran, the Landscape Brush, ranked one hundred and fourth on the Weapon Ranking.

They were both on the Weapon Ranking, but three hundred and forty-second and one hundred and fourth were worlds apart. The gap in strength was heaven and earth.

The world had long agreed on this.

Leading figures from various sects, even Martial Grandmasters, had offered their judgments and divided the Weapon Ranking's three hundred and sixty experts into three further rankings.

The top one hundred and eight made up the Human Ranking, the top thirty-six the Earth Ranking, and the top five the Heaven Ranking.

Crossing from one ranking to the next marked an explosive leap in a martial artist's strength. The five at the top of the Heaven Ranking were known as the Five Supremes Under Heaven.

Merely standing out among the world's martial artists and earning a place on the Weapon Ranking made one a dragon or phoenix among men. To rise further above hundreds of such talents and reach the three rankings made one truly favored by heaven. Even the lowest-ranked among them was far beyond ordinary people.

The difference lay not only in strength, but in status.

Senior Brother Li's father, for instance, was the current Vice Minister of Rites, a third-rank official. In their ancestral home of Changzhou, the Li Family was even celebrated as "Half of Changzhou."

Xu Bingzheng could not compare.

And even setting all that aside, a martial artist on the Human Ranking had enough strength to rival one of the court's regular military battalions—a true army of one.

At the thought, Xu Bingzheng grew still more deferential.

"The Black Armor Battalion is watching us like a tiger from outside the city, while I'm gravely wounded. I haven't slept a wink for fear of ruining our teacher's grand plan."

"That is precisely why our teacher sent me."

Li Yiran waved a hand calmly. "More importantly, the county fell into chaos before I arrived. None of the grain collected for the autumn tax went missing, did it?"

"Absolutely not!"

Xu Bingzheng said solemnly, "I've personally guarded the granary these past few days. Every measure of tax grain is safe and accounted for. Those unruly commoners haven't taken any."

"Good."

Li Yiran nodded in satisfaction. "Tax grain is a matter of state. Our teacher will be pleased that you understand that. Don't concern yourself with anything else."

"So a few Blackheads died. More will grow back."

He spoke lightly, as if the unrest, the rebels, and the starving dead strewn beyond the city were no more than a few small lines in a book.

Just then, a constable rushed into the hall in a panic.

"My lord! Something terrible has happened!"

"What is it? Has something gone wrong?"

Xu Bingzheng frowned, then understood. "Trouble at the prisoner procession? Has the Black Armor Battalion outside the city moved?"

He sounded as though he had expected it all along.

Indeed, he had arranged the procession partly to lure the snake from its hole and test the Black Armor Battalion's response.

And now it seemed the battalion had taken the bait.

The constable hurried to report, "The entire Black Armor Battalion has marched out! They may already be entering the city!"

Rather than panic, Xu Bingzheng and Li Yiran exchanged a surprised look, then both smiled triumphantly.

"Entering the city? They're courting death!"

"If the Black Armor Battalion moved first, they have no one to blame but themselves."

Li Yiran rose, took a seal from his sleeve, and summoned a Golden-Eyed Eagle. He fastened the seal to it and released it from the county office.

"Don't worry, Junior Brother. The White-Stepping Battalion is very close. My Golden-Eyed Eagle will carry the message, and if they march at full speed, they'll arrive within an hour. They'll catch the Black Armor Battalion in the act, charge them with mobilizing without orders, and rid us of the trouble outside the city."

"Senior Brother, you truly leave nothing to chance."

Xu Bingzheng offered the compliment, then glanced calmly at the constable. "Enough. Compose yourself. We aren't the ones who should be afraid. They are."

An army entering the city? What a joke!

Under the Great Shun Code, military battalions could not move without orders. The only military tokens capable of mobilizing the Black Armor Battalion were held by the Changle Commandery Office and the capital.

He knew exactly where the one at the Changle Commandery Office was.

The one in the capital was thousands of miles away and even further out of the question.

There was no doubt about it: the Black Armor Battalion had mobilized without authorization.

Xu Bingzheng grew calmer still. With a faint smile, he said, "Come. Let us go outside and see whether the Black Armor Battalion truly thinks itself above the law!"