At the south gate of Liuzhou City, a troop of armored soldiers on tall horses rode into the city under the curious gazes of the crowd. Their horses were uniformly black, their armor uniformly silver. They entered in orderly formation, without the slightest disorder, their imposing presence enough for even a layman to see that they were an elite force.
The onlookers watched in envy. Jiangnan placed great value on scholarship, and the saying that a good man did not become a soldier was popular there. Yet the soldiers' imposing bearing truly stirred their envy, and even kindled a desire to enlist in the hearts of some young men.
"My lord, shall we return to the residence first?"
The question came from the deputy general beside the commander. The mighty-looking man leading the troop was none other than Yuchi Peng, the commander of Liuzhou's forces and the current inheritor of the Yuchi Household's hereditary title!
"Good!" Yuchi Peng said with a grin. "Thank you for your hard work, brothers. Once we're in the city, go home and take off your armor first. Tonight, I'll treat you all to a good drinking session!"
"Thank you, my lord!" The soldiers behind him burst into hearty laughter.
"Jiaming, go to the Brocade Fragrance House and find Madam Qin. Tell her I'm booking the whole place tonight. If anyone else has a reservation, cancel every last one!"
"Right away, my lord!" The deputy general called Jiaming chuckled and galloped south.
"All right, brothers, dismissed!" Yuchi Peng waved with a chuckle. The cavalrymen immediately let out a cheer and galloped away.
Galloping through the city was forbidden, but the soldiers paid it no heed. Panic spread in their wake, and countless scholars muttered complaints about the military men's arrogance!
But muttering was all they could do. Anyone who had spent long enough in Liuzhou knew that these cavalrymen did not belong to the Liuzhou garrison; they were the Yuchi Household's personal troops. The commander, Yuchi Peng, was extremely protective of his own. When the previous prefect detained one of his personal soldiers for galloping through the city, Yuchi Peng seized the prefect and gave him a whipping right in front of the prefectural office!
A dignified sixth-rank official had been utterly humiliated. He lodged a complaint and asked to resign, but in the end, the higher-ups merely reprimanded Yuchi Peng and docked him six months' pay.
From then on, no official dared interfere with that band of arrogant, unruly soldiers!
"What's wrong, Gongcheng?"
Yuchi Peng looked at the last deputy general who remained and patted him on the shoulder, amused.
They had been in Liuzhou for nearly five years. Of the deputy generals among his personal troops, Wei Gongcheng was the only one still living with him in the commander's residence. The other brothers had mostly found wives and started families.
He did not much like the other things in Jiangnan. There was none of the strong liquor of the north, nor any bandits or enemies he could fight to his heart's content. The moment he heard there were mountain monsters over on South Mountain, he had eagerly led a party to search for them for half a year. That showed just how bored he was...
But the one good thing about this place was that the women were lovely and fresh-faced. Many of the brothers had been unable to resist their charms and had married...
"I think..." The deputy general called Gongcheng had a stern face; one look was enough to tell he was a serious man. Now, puzzlement showed on that stern face, and he finally said in a low voice, "I think Jiaming's skills have declined a lot since he got married and moved out of the commander's residence. And I keep feeling that his movements are very stiff."
At his superior's flippant laughter, Gongcheng pursed his lips. "I think we should ask a physician to take a look. It doesn't feel like it's just Jiaming. The other brothers too..."
"Really?" Yuchi Peng rubbed his chin and interrupted him. "But didn't you get a physician for Jiaming last time?"
At the mention of that, Gongcheng frowned even more deeply. He did not know whether he was being too sensitive, but he kept feeling that... the physician who had examined Jiaming back then had also had that same inexplicable stiffness...
"My lord!!"
Just as he was about to say more, hurried hoofbeats suddenly came from ahead. The two looked up and froze. Several of the personal soldiers who had just cheered and dispersed had come back.
"How did you get hurt?" Yuchi Peng's gaze turned grave, and he hurried his horse forward.
"General!" The personal soldiers were out of breath. "Someone's causing trouble at Master Huang's house on South Street. That thug is formidable. The brothers can't take him down!"
"Is that so?" Yuchi Peng immediately grew excited.
It had been five years. His body was practically rusting, and someone was finally causing trouble? And from the sound of it, someone with a bit of skill, too!
Gongcheng was just about to ask for details when he saw that Yuchi Peng had already spurred his horse impatiently toward South Street, shouting, "Lads, follow me!"
"Yes!" All the personal soldiers roared excitedly and hurried after him!
Watching his fired-up superior and the soldiers, Gongcheng felt somewhat helpless. But as he brought up the rear, his body suddenly stiffened. He did not know whether his eyes had deceived him, but the way those injured personal soldiers rode their horses... was very much like Jiaming.
There was an indescribable strangeness to all of them, an inexplicable stiffness...
At the thought, an inexplicable unease rose in Gongcheng's heart. Just as he was about to ride forward and catch up, a voice suddenly rang out behind him.
"Are you General Wei Gongcheng?"
"Hm?" Gongcheng froze. At some point, a scholar wearing a conical hat had appeared in front of him, blocking his way.
"Who might you be, young sir?" Unlike the other overbearing soldiers, Wei Gongcheng held scholars in great respect. Seeing the man dressed as a scholar, he hurriedly cupped his hands in greeting.
"I am Chen Qing. I have urgent business with you, General, on the orders of Lord Wang, vice minister of the Court of Judicial Review!"
Gongcheng was shocked. "Lord Wang?" he said gravely.
"Yes. Lord Wang's life is in imminent danger. Please save him, General!"
Wei Gongcheng: "!!!"
A quarter of an hour earlier...
"Still no news?" Master Huang, busy in the courtyard, asked without looking up when he saw Ghost Child enter.
Mister Miao had personally gone to Yuchi Peng, while Ghost Child stayed at Master Huang's place. They had made use of every network of informants available to them throughout Liuzhou City.
Strangely, however, an entire day had passed without any sign of Chen Qing.
"No. Mister Miao thinks Wang Ye's Flying Star may have transported Chen Qing to the Yin Road..." Ghost Child grinned. "A place like that would take a layer of skin off even me. There won't be a scrap of that scholar's bones left."
The words briefly distracted Master Huang, who had been wholly absorbed in making Wang Ye.
As he recalled, that student of his had possessed a composure uncommon among his peers. Though he came from a poor scholarly family, he had never been either servile or overbearing. More importantly, there had been no awe of power in his eyes.
He had actually been quite fond of the student. If the King of Qin's ideal had been realized back then, someone like Chen Qing should have been able to live well, shouldn't he?
Shaking his head, Master Huang gave it no more thought and returned his full attention to carving. He had never been particularly worried that Chen Qing could stir up trouble. A scholar with neither strength nor influence could not possibly make waves in a situation like this. Old Miao was clearly worrying too much.
"But it's a little strange..." Ghost Child sat bored beside the pavilion, muttering to himself. "Those puppets at the north gate don't seem to have come to report for an hour."
That bored remark made Master Huang, who had paid little attention to outside affairs, suddenly freeze in the middle of his work!
He immediately looked up at Ghost Child. "How long did you say?"
All of Liuzhou was under his surveillance, thanks to his Puppet Painted Skin Technique. After the King of Qin died, the remnants of their old faction had retreated to Jiangnan. Taking advantage of the new dynasty's still-weak control, he and Mister Miao had replaced quite a few people in Liuzhou.
After decades of work, the few of them had made Liuzhou City as secure as an iron barrel. Not the slightest disturbance could escape him.
The residents who lived alongside them did not even know that their neighbors, friends, classmates, parents, or even the wives who shared their beds might already have been replaced by puppets monitoring all of Liuzhou City.
He had painstakingly carved all these puppets himself, and they were almost indistinguishable from real people. But they all shared one trait: they would never delay carrying out his orders. He had ordered the puppets in the north of the city to report every quarter of an hour, and they would never take longer than that, much less an hour.
"Something's happened!" Master Huang immediately stopped working and began carefully putting away Wang Ye's parts. "Call the Shadow Guards and notify Mister Miao. Tell them to meet at the old place immediately!"
Ghost Child was taken aback. Was Master Huang being a little too sensitive? But when Master Huang glared at him, some command within his body forced him to suppress his doubts. He immediately activated a talisman to notify the Shadow Guards.
But something strange happened. The yellow talisman he had taken out burned, and several breaths passed without any of the response that should have come!
At that moment, Ghost Child snapped his head up and looked around, on guard.
The Shadow Guards had been left by Mister Miao to protect Master Huang and had never gone more than thirty meters away. After the talisman paper was burned, if they did not respond within three breaths, there was only one possibility.
They were dead!!
"Which expert has come here? Why not show yourself?"
Master Huang also looked warily around him, a drop of cold sweat running down his forehead.
The Shadow Guards were Mister Miao's high-level shikigami. With all four attacking together, even Ghost Child could not easily escape them. Yet they had been killed right under their noses. Who had come?
Could the imperial court have realized something had happened to Wang Ye, prompting that fellow Liu Yu to come in person?
But the person who entered next was someone Master Huang would never have expected, even in his dreams!
"You... How could it be you?"
Ghost Child, standing protectively before Master Huang, also froze and stared blankly at the newcomer. A strange feeling, both familiar and unfamiliar, made him feel intensely unsettled.
There was an instinctive fear, but also an instinctive sense of kinship...
"Long time no see... Painted Skin Mister!"