Guantou Town, more than ten li outside Cloud Peace City.
Wearing a white Veil Hat, Perfected Person Xuanji sat in a tavern in the little town with a small pot of wine before her. As she poured and drank by herself, she occasionally glanced toward the town's Carriage House.
Guantou Town stood on a major overland route. Most travelers passing through were small merchants carrying modest quantities of goods. Since the road into the capital was so congested, most unloaded and handed over their cargo here. Many wealthy merchants in the city also kept their warehouses around Guantou Town, making it a place where dragons and snakes mingled.
The Carriage House Perfected Person Xuanji was watching had once been Blood Bodhi's hideout. It was not particularly large. Six or seven carriages were parked in its courtyard, covered with oilcloth. The outlines of wooden barrels were faintly visible beneath them, and a light scent of fermented sauce hung in the air.
After taking over from Ye Jingtang last night, Perfected Person Xuanji had followed his directions to the riverside docks. Before she had watched for long, a group appeared near the merchant ship, loaded the wooden barrels onto carriages, and brought them to Guantou Town.
Since those who came were all foot soldiers with unremarkable martial skills, with no important figures among them, Perfected Person Xuanji had followed them here to wait by the stump for a rabbit, hoping to follow the vine to the melon.
But after watching all night without seeing any of their leaders arrive to take delivery, Perfected Person Xuanji instead found her attention caught by the sound of bells.
Jingle~ Jingle~
The bells rang clearly at an unhurried pace, quite unlike horse bells.
Perfected Person Xuanji had visited Shazhou and recognized camel bells at once. Turning