Prince Duan Arrives

Only shattered walls and ruins had remained in the Land God Temple to begin with. After these men rummaged through every corner, it looked more dilapidated than ever.

After prying away a stone sealing one of the steps, a Prefectural Soldier suddenly cried out in delight.

"The box! I found it!"

At his shout, the other Prefectural Soldiers scattered around the temple all gathered.

Seeing the little booklet lying quietly inside the box, they grinned from ear to ear.

"We found it! We finally found it!"

The Prefectural Soldier who had discovered the box carefully tied it to himself with a strip of cloth, then turned to leave.

"We've finally earned ourselves some merit this time!"

But before he had taken more than a few steps, the whistle of a sharp weapon slicing through the air rang out.

Before he could react, he felt a pain in his neck. Then a bone-piercing chill swept through his entire body.

Without even letting out a cry, the Prefectural Soldier clutched his neck with both hands and toppled backward, stiff as a board.

With a thud, his body slammed into the ground, sending up a cloud of dust.

His eyes still stared fixedly at the patch of sky overhead, his mouth wide open and his face frozen in terror.

"Brother Tong!"

Seeing the Prefectural Soldier collapse without warning, the men behind him cried out.

The body of the fallen Prefectural Soldier was already rapidly growing cold.

The sudden turn of events left the others stunned.

Only after a long pause did they scramble to their feet in panic, brandishing their long sabers wildly in every direction.

"Who's there? Show yourself!"

"A bunch of useless sacks of straw, and you actually think you can stand against anyone?"

A voice steeped in mockery swept into the Prefectural Soldiers' ears on the mountain wind, making their bodies tremble involuntarily.

Though they had prepared themselves before setting out, the sound of that sinister voice still made their calves go weak.

B-bandits...

The same word flashed through all their minds.

A figure appeared before them with effortless grace.

A cloth covered his face, leaving only a pair of eyes gleaming with menace exposed.

"Bring me that box."

The masked man raised his saber and pointed its tip at the box tied to the corpse.

One slightly braver Prefectural Soldier stepped forward, trembling, and reached out with shaking hands to untie the cloth.

He nearly tore the strip apart before finally freeing the box and handing it to the masked man.

The masked man opened the box, took out the booklet, and casually glanced through a few pages. His pupils abruptly contracted.

After tucking the booklet into his robes, he tossed the box aside.

"Your brother is still on his way to the underworld. Why don't I do a good deed and send you along after him?"

With that, he raised his coldly gleaming saber.

The Prefectural Soldiers wanted to flee, but their legs had gone limp as noodles and would not muster any strength.

All they could do was watch helplessly as the saber descended toward their heads.

Clang!

The crisp ring of clashing weapons rang out.

The Prefectural Soldier who had thought his death certain secretly opened his tightly shut eyes a crack.

What he saw made him suck in a breath of cold air, nearly fainting again.

The masked man's saber tip was pointing straight at his nose.

If he moved his head even a fraction farther forward, the blade would split his nose in two.

Yet to the masked man, that tiny distance was an impassable chasm he could not cross.

The masked man panicked.

He had never felt such panic as he did that day.

Even when he had seen Scarface's corpse on Massacre Slope, he had never felt so utterly at a loss.

Now, a slender sword rested almost casually against the spine of his saber, yet it felt as though he were bearing a thousand-pound weight.

Only at that moment did he truly understand the lingering fear in Scarface's eyes.

It had been the fear of death!

Now, that same terror seeped from every limb and bone, locking his heart in its grip.

"It's you?"

His voice hoarse, the masked man stared at the man opposite him, whose face was likewise covered.

A thought surged into his mind: the man before him was the one who had ended Scarface's life with a single stroke of his sword.

He had never imagined that today, he would be the helpless fish beneath that sword!

Bu Er's eyes remained calm. He did not even spare the masked man a glance.

No one saw how he struck.

By the time the Prefectural Soldiers recovered their senses, the masked man who had been blustering before them crashed to the ground at their feet.

Red and white matter continued to ooze from a bloody hole in his forehead.

In the blink of an eye, the man who had been so arrogant became another soul slain beneath someone else's sword.

And the man who had saved their lives had already vanished without a trace.

"Quick, get the register back!"

The Prefectural Soldiers worked together to retrieve the register the masked man had stolen.

Then they placed his corpse and that of the Prefectural Soldier he had killed onto separate horses, letting the animals carry them slowly toward Yan Prefecture City.

Meanwhile, beside the old road outside Yan Prefecture City.

Two fine horses raced toward Yan Prefecture City, their hooves flying over the ground.

The rider in the lead gazed at Yan Prefecture City in the distance, and a faint smile appeared at the corners of his mouth.

But when his gaze happened to sweep across a small pavilion beside the old road ahead, surprise forced him to slow his galloping horse.

By the time the horse came to a complete stop, he was right beside the pavilion.

The man who had been sitting upright inside saw the horse stop and slowly emerged.

"Your humble subject, Yang Chengming, pays his respects to Your Highness Prince Duan!"

Yang Qing lowered his eyes and offered Chu Yifeng the formal salute of a subject to his sovereign.

"Oh, we're out in the wilderness, not at court. There's no need for such formalities between us."

Chu Yifeng leaped down from his horse and walked toward Yang Qing.

Then he bent down and helped Yang Qing up.

"Your Highness, forgive my presumption, but you should not have left your guards behind and traveled alone."

At the thought that Chu Yifeng must have hurried along secluded paths all the way here, a fine sheen of cold sweat broke out across Yang Qing's back.

"Yang Chengming, I've only just arrived in your Yan Prefecture and haven't even had a sip of hot tea, yet you're already daring to lecture me? Who gave you such nerve?"

Chu Yifeng shot Yang Qing a glare, though his eyes were full of amusement.

"Your Highness, although Scarface is dead, Yan Prefecture City is still fraught with danger."

"The bandits lurking in the shadows are searching for another chance to strike at Yan Prefecture. At such a critical juncture, should any harm befall Your Highness, even ten thousand deaths would not absolve me of blame!"

"Enough, enough. The moment you arrive, you start prattling at me about this and that. You really know how to spoil the mood!"

Chu Yifeng took two steps forward until he stood almost nose to nose with Yang Qing.

"I came with such fanfare precisely to help you muddy the waters of Yan Prefecture City even further! Do you know what those old fellows in the Capital City are scheming?"

At that, Chu Yifeng snorted, but ultimately refrained from spelling it out. "In short, they're a pack of damned bastards!"