Li Qingge of Chang'an! Young Master Wang Chong, please stop

How could Wang Chong refuse? He accepted the "gift" with delight, then went to bid the others farewell. He suddenly noticed that almost everyone had grown considerably warmer toward him, though he could not work out why just then. Little did he know that Qian Luoyi had charged into battle with two foreign dancing girls and crushed countless people's swagger, instantly making him, who had once fought Qian Luoyi without losing, a "rare commodity worth hoarding." Everyone wanted to get to know him better. No one knew who started it, but upon hearing that Wang Chong was leaving for Chang'an, they all presented gifts and eagerly arranged to feast together there in the future. For a time, warmth and merriment filled the air. Wang Chong, a stranger who had joined them only temporarily, seemed instead like an old friend of many years to all these talented young members of the Chrysanthemum-Slaying Alliance.

When Wang Chong bade them farewell and left Pengshan County, he had gained not only a carriage and two sturdy horses, but also a good deal of money and goods, all gifts from his dear friends and loved ones.

Yuzao was a girl, and despite her status as a maid, it was still improper for her to show herself in public. She sat smiling inside the carriage, watching over her young master's "household assets."

The smile never left her face. Whenever she thought of Liuxian, who had yielded this opportunity to her, her mood grew brighter still, and she could not help secretly mocking her. What an all-round talent my young master is, accomplished in both letters and arms! Going to Chang'an, he will surely be a dragon entering the vast sea, breaking through the clouds and soaring into the sky. She's from a petty household herself and couldn't recognize how extraordinary he is. She actually scorned him for being poor? If he had already soared to success, how would she ever have had a turn to enter the Wang household and become his personal maid? It was plainly a splendid chance to transform her station, yet she let it slip away for nothing.

She even thinks that with me gone, she can fill the vacancy among the young lady's eight maids. What a fool's dream.

All eight of us were painstakingly selected by the Su family from childhood. They examined our families and backgrounds to ensure they were unblemished, then carefully trained us and taught us martial arts for coordinated attacks before we could attend the young lady. If not for this coincidence, she would never have agreed to let me go. Now that I've left, naturally a household-raised maid who has also learned coordinated attacks and formations will take my place. She's a low-ranking maid who came later, learned only ordinary martial arts, and has little talent. She can never join their ranks.

At this thought, Yuzao lifted the carriage curtain and tilted her head, watching Wang Chong's back for a long while. Suddenly, her heart gave a rabbit-like flutter and her cheeks burned. Even if the young master remained poor all his life, staying by his side would not be without happiness.

Wang Chong had no idea that Yuzao was letting her thoughts run wild. He was chatting intermittently with his page and asked, "What martial arts of the Qingcheng Sect have you learned?"

Wang Dong replied, "One set of Green Character Fist, one set of Shudao Fist, and one set of Dragon-Tiger Sword Technique!"

Wang Chong had spent plenty of time with Chu Qiuzi lately, so he knew of these two fist arts and the Dragon-Tiger Sword Technique. All three were introductory martial arts of the Qingcheng Sect, widely circulated throughout the martial world.

The first was also called the Eighteen Strikes of Qingcheng, a fist art that specifically targeted acupoints throughout the body and emphasized subduing opponents without injuring them. After all, it was an introductory martial art. Generations of Qingcheng Sect elders had worried that people of poor character would learn martial arts and recklessly cause trouble, so they had deliberately reduced this fist art's killing power while still allowing it to establish a solid foundation. If someone truly had talent, Qingcheng had no shortage of more powerful, advanced martial arts.

Within Qingcheng, Shudao Fist had another name: the Initiation Fist. It meant that once one mastered it, one could leap from a lay disciple to an initiated disciple. Wang Dong clearly could not have attained much proficiency in this fist art; otherwise, rather than being sent down the mountain after learning it, he would have been taught more advanced martial arts.

As for the Dragon-Tiger Sword Technique, it was a sword art usable with both long and short weapons, and could also be performed with a spear or staff, much as Wang Chong's Hundred Styles of Wind and Cloud served as both a palm art and a Folding Fan art. Once mastered, this Dragon-Tiger Sword Technique was extremely practical, whether one traveled the martial world escorting goods for others or joined the army and charged into battle. Qingcheng Sect lay disciples all learned some of it to make earning a living easier in the future.

After questioning him for a while, Wang Chong suddenly pondered, My page and maid can't be too poor at martial arts either. Should I give them some guidance?

But there's no hurry for now. Once we have somewhere to settle, I'll take my time seeing what Wang Dong and Yuzao's temperaments are like, and whether they can put their minds to studying martial arts.

He was just about to ask Yuzao whether she was tired when he heard the clop of hooves. A tall horse with a pure white coat, without a single patch of another color, caught up from behind. A woman in blue sat on its back, like a proud phoenix, her dazzling figure a fleeting swan's silhouette, as though she had come riding the wind and clouds.

Seeing that the woman was in a great hurry, Wang Chong was about to move to the roadside to let her pass when she shouted, "Li Qingge of Chang'an! Young Master Wang Chong, please stop."

Wang Chong was startled. He had heard countless times of Heaven-Fighting Hand Li Qingge, one of the Three Divine Constables. Even Qin Han, a Left Martial Guard Zhechong Commandant holding Principal Fifth Rank, was somewhat cautious when mentioning this person. Why had she caught up with him?

He thought, So Li Qingge is a woman too.

Wang Chong was currently striving to make his identity normal and legitimate. Naturally, he would not openly oppose court officials, especially one with real authority like Li Qingge. Immediately, he drew a breath and replied, "What business do you have with me, Divine Constable Li?"

Li Qingge pressed a hand against her horse's back, and her whole body floated upward like a blue cloud. She circled halfway around in midair, landed before Wang Chong's horse, and declared, "It's the White Chrysanthemum case."

With something on his conscience, Wang Chong's heart thumped wildly. Has it finally come to light?

Forcing himself to remain calm, he asked, "Please speak, Divine Constable Li."

Heaven-Fighting Hand Li Qingge was no longer young. Though she still looked beautiful, with a slender Chu waist and luxuriant Wei tresses, a tall, graceful figure, skin of ice and bones of jade, and a lovely face like a lotus, she was already well advanced in years.

Chu Qiuzi had reached the age of longing desperately to marry, yet was only twenty-six or twenty-seven. Li Qingge, however, was over thirty. She ranked among the martial world's ten greatest female experts alongside Wu Hook Frost Snow Lu Moniang and Chess Sword Linglong Su Luoyan, but those two were still young beauties, while she was already very much a fading flower.

With a strictly businesslike expression, Li Qingge said, "Although all the evidence points to Sun Yanqi being White Chrysanthemum, there are still doubts. I've been ordered to investigate this case, and I cannot allow the slightest mistake, nor can I let this lecherous criminal escape the law. That is why I've come to question you. I hope you will answer truthfully, Young Master Wang."

Wang Chong let out a small half-breath of relief, but he also knew that this female divine constable might still be laying traps for him. Feigning honesty, he said, "I will tell you everything I know and hold nothing back."

Without the slightest expression on her face, Li Qingge said mildly, "Was Sun Yanqi killed by you, Young Master Wang?"

Wang Chong smiled. "Of course not! Though, like my brothers in the Chrysanthemum-Slaying Alliance, I wished nothing more than to slay this lecherous criminal with my own hands, he truly wasn't killed by me."

Li Qingge suddenly asked another question. "Are you proficient in swordsmanship, Young Master Wang?"

Wang Chong pondered briefly and did not lie. "I wouldn't call myself proficient, but I come from Wudang, so naturally I've learned some swordsmanship."

Her eyes cold as frost, Li Qingge stared at Wang Chong and said, "Might I ask you to demonstrate a few moves for me, Young Master Wang Chong?"

Yuzao poked her head out of the carriage and held aloft the sword Su Luoyan had given him. "Young master, do you need your maid?"

...Li Qingge: There are many doubts in the White Chrysanthemum case. It cannot be closed hastily...

...Qin Han: Say what you like, I was the one who killed him...

...Yuzao: It's that female divine constable who can't find a husband...