Half a month later.
A private room on the third floor of the West Street Tavern in Cloud Pattern Town.
The room was lavishly furnished, with a jar of aged wine, two plates of braised meat, and a dish of peanuts on the round rosewood table.
Zhao Gang had taken off his Heaven Patrol Office robe and wore only a short gray tunic. His chest was broad, his sleeves rolled up to his forearms. Old scars crisscrossed his wrists, ugly as tangled old roots.
He raised his wine bowl and drained it in one gulp, wine trickling down his stubble.
"Refreshing!"
Zhao Gang set his bowl on the table and grinned. "Old Man Yi, these past two weeks have really opened my eyes. The Heaven Patrol Office is one hell of a big tree to shelter under."
"Back when I worked the Black Market, buying a single Water Essence Pill meant calling in favors through three layers of people, wearing half a pound off my face, and still getting fleeced in the end."
"And now?"
He patted his chest, unable to hide his delight. "Record a merit, exchange it for pills. Clean and straightforward. I reckon another two or three doses of Sinew-Strengthening Powder will put me at the threshold of the qi-blood third level."
"It's easy to enjoy the shade with a powerful faction at your back. I used to think that saying was trite. Now I understand. Old sayings spread because our ancestors learned them after taking a beating."
Yi Yang sat opposite him, an old blue-green gown over his official uniform. His hair was grizzled, and he had barely wet his lips with the wine bowl beside him.
He had now spent half a month at the Archive Hall.
Guarding the Archive Hall by day and practicing at night made for a life so peaceful it could bring on a yawn. But to Yi Yang, that peace was worth more than any hot-blooded adventure in the martial world.
Zhao Gang picked up a piece of braised meat, chewed twice, then looked up curiously. "Old man, there's something I've been holding in for half a month."
Yi Yang paused with his hand over the peanuts, then said casually, "Holding it in is bad for your health. Speak."
Zhao Gang pointed his chopsticks at him. "You've got ability. Why don't you fight for a better position?"
"Patrol Captain number thirty-four, holed up in the Archive Hall watching over papers. I've heard what those youngsters outside say behind your back."
"They say you're old, that you pulled strings, that you're coasting in a retirement post."
"Just hearing it makes my fists itch."
Zhao Gang's nostrils flared, wine fumes rising toward his brow. "With your saber skills, if you really went to the Drill Ground, I can't promise the top ten, but nobody could keep you out of the top twenty."
Yi Yang tossed a peanut into his mouth and chewed slowly.
"I'm old. I'm afraid of dying."
Zhao Gang rolled his eyes. "You might fool Sun Hao with that, but me? Old man, you can't go around treating people like fools."
Yi Yang raised his bowl and took a small sip.
"I'm quite happy in the Archive Hall. Sheltered from wind and rain, with plenty of case files."
"I have a monthly salary, an allotment of medicinal herbs, and a place to live. I can spend my old age in peace, too."
"Fight over this, fight over that-when it's all over, don't you still have to eat and sleep?"
Zhao Gang stared at him for a long while, then suddenly lowered his voice.
"Retiring is one thing, but some waters will creep up around your feet even if you never step into them."
Yi Yang said nothing.
Zhao Gang tapped his fingers on the table, bringing it up as though in passing. "Things have been far too quiet over at the county seat's office lately."
"Yang Shuqing was a constable captain who'd just caught the Commandant's Office's eye and received a Sinew-Breaking Bone-Pulling Pill. With him gone, the County Commandant should have turned Three Trees Village upside down long ago."
"But there hasn't been any official movement these past two weeks."
Zhao Gang narrowed his eyes, much of his drunkenness fading.
"That's not right. The quieter it is, the more it means something's swimming beneath the surface."
Yi Yang held his wine bowl, still wearing the expression of an old man listening to idle gossip.
"Perhaps the County Office has a lot to do."
"Bullshit."
Zhao Gang cursed without hesitation. "I know what those people at the County Office are like better than you do. If a copper coin fell into a cesspit, they'd spend half the day fishing it out with a stick. Let alone a dead constable captain."
He leaned forward, fixing Yi Yang with a sober gaze as though trying to see through him. "My sources found a few unfamiliar faces in town recently. They walk like trained men and have the calluses of officers on their hands, but their clothes don't look official."
"Those men are almost certainly from the office, here in different skins."
After listening, Yi Yang refilled Zhao Gang's bowl and said unconcernedly, "You're well informed, Brother Zhao."
Zhao Gang looked at his bowl but did not drink.
"Old man, let's stop talking in riddles."
"I won't ask about Yang Shuqing."
"I've spent my life in the martial world. I, Zhao Gang, don't like digging up my friends' graves."
"But if someone really has their eye on you, don't shoulder it alone. This Heaven Patrol Office uniform isn't just for show."
Yi Yang looked at Zhao Gang for a moment, then abruptly changed the subject. "What about that matter I entrusted to you?"
Zhao Gang burst into laughter, reached inside his clothes, and pulled out a small pouch, setting it on the table.
He opened the pouch, revealing a white porcelain bottle inside.
"Mission accomplished."
"I found a good buyer for that Sinew-Breaking Bone-Pulling Pill. He'd been stuck at the peak of flesh-training for years. When he saw the pill, he was like a starving wolf catching sight of meat."
"After expenses, I exchanged it for five Water Essence Pills."
Zhao Gang pushed the bottle toward him. "Five. All right here."
Yi Yang picked up the porcelain bottle and removed the stopper.
A gentle medicinal fragrance wafted out, like damp earth after spring rain. It slipped through his nose into his lungs, nourishing all five viscera.
Five Water Essence Pills were no small sum.
Yi Yang knew that the Sinew-Breaking Bone-Pulling Pill was useful to the right person, but it was hardly guaranteed to fetch five Water Essence Pills.
Zhao Gang had most likely put in some silver himself, perhaps even called in favors.
He did not expose it. Some bonds only grew thinner when spread out in words.
Yi Yang tucked the porcelain bottle inside his clothes.
"Thank you."
Zhao Gang waved it off. "Don't say those words. Makes us sound like strangers."
After three rounds of wine, Zhao Gang became more talkative.
He crushed a peanut shell between his fingers, using too much force and scattering fragments across half the table.
"Old man, there's someone you need to watch out for at the Archive Hall, too."
"Who?"
"Tang Hao."
At that name, the flesh at the corner of Zhao Gang's eye twitched, an old fire flaring through his drunken haze.
"A Patrol Captain, ranked thirteenth. Not the strongest, but underhanded."
"Cloud Pattern Town used to have two black markets. I ran one, and he ran the other."
"That year, we fought over a medicinal herb supply route. It should've followed the rules of the martial world: whoever had the harder fist got the meat."
"But that bastard bought off one of my men."
Zhao Gang raised his wine bowl, gripping its rim hard enough to make it creak. "That night, I took my men to negotiate and got ambushed on the way. Three brothers died there. This saber scar on my chest came from that night."
He patted the old scar on his chest, his voice hoarse.
"I didn't let him get off easy, either."
"Nearly lost my life killing one of his trusted men."
"Neither side won, but the blood feud was sealed."
Yi Yang listened quietly without offering an opinion, but committed the matter to memory.
Zhao Gang leaned back and exhaled a breath heavy with wine.
"Now we've all joined the Heaven Patrol Office. On the surface, we're wearing the same skin, but underneath, we're still the same people."
"Tang Hao won't let me off."
"If he can't touch me, he'll go after the people around me."
Zhao Gang pointed at Yi Yang. "You're one of them."
Yi Yang said, "An old man looking after files is worth that much trouble?"
Zhao Gang snorted.
"Don't underestimate the lengths a rotten bastard will go to stir up trouble. Even maggots in a cesspit can wriggle up new tricks."
"Tang Hao has a trusted man named Fang Yu, a Patrol Guard in the Heaven Patrol Office's Martial Law Hall."
"He's black-hearted and ruthless, and nobody's better at using rules to kill. Be careful if you run into him."
Yi Yang nodded to show he had taken note.
Zhao Gang finished the last of his wine, stood, and stretched.
"All right, I still have to get back and keep watch on those men."
"Don't actually treat that Archive Hall like a coffin to lie in. If you see those County Office men getting close, send me word."
Yi Yang rose as well and spoke before leaving. "Brother Zhao."
Zhao Gang turned back to him. "What?"
Yi Yang said, "When you break through to the third level, I'll treat you to some good wine."
Zhao Gang immediately perked up.
"I'm putting that on your tab. If you try to fob me off with this lousy wine then, I won't stand for it."
They parted outside the tavern.
The night breeze swept through the street, dispersing the smell of wine.
Yi Yang walked home along the back street at an unhurried pace, his Official Saber against his hip and the porcelain bottle against his chest.
Yellow lantern light glowed by the roadside. The wonton stall had yet to close, its soup pot bubbling. The scent of scallions mingled with meat, warming a man's belly just to smell it.
Yi Yang looked at the small words before him.
[Wood-Nurturing Longevity Art, third level: (8450/12000)] [Nine Peaks Saber, minor mastery: (4860/6000)] [Five Viscera Inner Refinement Method, beginner: (3200/5000)]
Half a month of diligent practice had brought his progress close to the thresholds.
With five Water Essence Pills in hand, reaching the fourth level of the Wood-Nurturing Longevity Art should be a matter of the next two days.
The qi-blood fourth level. The Bone Tempering Realm.
Bones like iron, sinews and flesh working as one.
Once he reached that stage, even ordinary blades striking his body might not easily break through his skeletal frame.
When Yi Yang entered his little courtyard, Jiang Yuexin and Yang Hui were already asleep.
Warm water had been left in the kitchen, and a covered bowl of porridge sat on the table.
Yi Yang glanced at it, his aged face softening.
Someone saving him a meal meant more than any official uniform or Command Token.
He put away the Water Essence Pills, closed the door, and slid the bolt home.
That same night.
In a rented house in southern Cloud Pattern Town, an oil lamp burned brightly.
The room smelled strongly of wine. Roast chicken, meat in sauce, and two jars of yellow wine stood on the table.
Lu Neng, a constable captain under the County Commandant, occupied the seat of honor.
He was in his thirties, lean and wiry, with high cheekbones, long fingers, and closely trimmed nails. A Goose-Feather Saber rested beside his waist, its hilt polished bright from use.
Two subordinates sat on either side of him.
One was named Zhou Ping, his face heavy with brutish flesh.
The other was Du Sheng, narrow-faced and thin-eyed. Even while drinking, he kept glancing out the window.
Lu Neng picked up a chicken leg and took a large bite, juices clinging to his lips.
"Half a month of investigating. At least it wasn't wasted."
Zhou Ping lowered his voice.
"Boss, is there really something wrong with that old man?"
Lu Neng tossed the bone onto a plate and wiped his hands with a cloth.
"Something very wrong."
"We found the carcass of that giant snake on Greenwood Mountain. Someone had slit its belly open. The snake gallbladder was gone, and everything valuable had been taken."
"More interestingly, we found Wang Yue's mangled remains in the mud near the carcass."
Du Sheng frowned.
"Wang Yue died beside the snake, and Yang Shuqing disappeared too. Can we still blame this on the cult?"
Lu Neng sneered.
"The Nine Evil Sect has carried the blame long enough. It's time we questioned someone else."
He picked up his wine bowl but did not drink.
"Yang Shuqing is confirmed dead. We found his body in a mountain gully, too. There were official boot-tread marks, along with fragments of belongings left by his two trusted men."
"And the thing he carried, the one the County Commandant wanted, is gone."
Zhou Ping grinned and asked curiously, "What thing?"
Lu Neng glared at him.
Zhou Ping hastily shut his mouth.
The flame flickered, making Lu Neng's face look cruel in the shifting light and shadow.
"Don't let things you shouldn't say spill out of your mouth."
"Put all the clues together, and there's one man we can't get around."
"Yi Yang."
"A sixty-year-old woodcutter survived being swept down a slope by a giant snake. Wang Yue died, and Yang Shuqing, who had a grudge against him, died too. Yet he turned around and joined the Heaven Patrol Office."
Lu Neng drank his wine, running his tongue across the gaps between his teeth.
"How could there be such a coincidence? When coincidences pile up, someone's arranging the pieces behind the scenes."
Du Sheng said hesitantly, "But he's a Patrol Captain in the Heaven Patrol Office now."
Lu Neng scoffed.
"A Patrol Captain at the Archive Hall. Just an old bag of bones watching over scraps of paper."
"The Heaven Patrol Office is expanding right now. They're stuffing it with every kind of ox demon and snake spirit. Wearing the hide doesn't mean his bones are hard."
Zhou Ping raised his bowl and said flatteringly, "Boss, you're at the qi-blood third level. Killing a sixty-year-old man would take no more than lifting a hand."
"If that old bastard really is hiding something, bring it back and offer it to the County Commandant. You might just get promoted this time, boss."
Lu Neng relished the flattery. He patted the hilt of his saber and said, "Exactly. Now we just need an opening to strike."
Du Sheng asked, "When do we move?"
Lu Neng looked out the window.
The night pressed down on the eaves, with an occasional light flickering in the distance toward the Inspection Storehouse.
"When he's alone."
"No matter how high the Heaven Patrol Office's walls are, they can't protect an old man who has to go home sooner or later."
He turned his wine bowl upside down on the table.
"Starting tomorrow night, keep your eyes glued to Yi Yang."
Before you continue