While Divine Mechanism General Di Qinghe was telling Tie Sun all about Pan Long, Pan Long had already flown all the way to Xiangping Prefecture.
He landed in a rush and headed straight for the Wind Patrol Office. He had barely reached the entrance when Tang Jingzhe hurried out. Agitation had turned his bald head bright red, and with his astonishing height of over ten feet, he looked fierce and terrifying—not at all like a learned man who had once passed the imperial examinations.
"Old Tang, what's wrong? Why do you look so worked up?" Pan Long asked curiously. "Did something happen?"
Tang Jingzhe visibly relaxed when he saw Pan Long, but his face immediately filled with shock and anger again. "Sir! Something's happened!"
"Oh? What happened?" Pan Long asked with a smile.
"Shang Man killed himself in prison!"
Pan Long was stunned. His plan to bring Zhao Xianda out of the Mountain and Sea Map and show him off vanished in an instant.
"How... how is that possible?"
A short while later, they arrived at Xiangping Prefecture's jail.
At the entrance stood a burly man in the uniform of a jail official, his face so twisted with rage that several constables had to hold him back. Two jailers knelt on the ground nearby, their faces white as paper, their bodies trembling without pause.
When they saw Pan Long and Tang Jingzhe arrive, the jailers turned even paler. One collapsed to the ground, a large wet patch spreading across his trousers.
The jail official finally mastered his anger. He cupped his fists in greeting, then spoke with a mixture of guilt and shame. "I am Murong Xiuping, Xiangping Prefecture Registrar. Greetings, Wind Patrol Envoys."
Too anxious to return the greeting, Pan Long asked at once, "Where is Shang Man? Can