Luo City's winding streets and alleys were like the lines on its palm.
The Liu Family forces pursuing Chen Ji and the others split into five groups. Like a hand closing, they squeezed the air in the city until it grew solid.
Secret agents slipped through the shadows between buildings. Several hundred paces behind them were the Liu Family's men, carrying spears and clubs and holding torches aloft.
Bright Rabbit glanced back at Chen Ji at the rear of the group, then turned to Cloud Goat. "Do you believe that boy? If he can't find evidence, we'll have missed our chance to leave Luo City tonight."
"We can only trust him now," Cloud Goat said gravely. "If we can't find evidence tonight, we won't even make it past the Bureau of Punishments."
Bright Rabbit said offhandedly, "The lord inner minister won't really do anything to us. We're still useful. At worst, we'll kill a few more people for him."
"There are good people and bad people under the lord inner minister, but not a single fool. If we botch this, there'll be no place for us in the Secret Intelligence Directorate... Perhaps the boy really can find evidence?"
"I hope so," Bright Rabbit said solemnly. "If he can't, we'll fight our way back to the capital and beg Bai Long to plead for us. Whatever happens, we can't fall into the Bureau of Punishments' hands."
As she spoke, she looked back at Chen Ji again.
The young apprentice was panting as he followed at the very back, his hair wet with sweat. Even the cloth covering his face was soaked through, but he still wouldn't take it off.
"That boy's in pretty good shape. He can actually keep up with the agents," Bright Rabbit said admiringly.
Pick any secret agent under the Secret Intelligence Directorate and put them in the Long Live Army, and they would be the elite among elites. No matter how bedraggled Chen Ji looked, simply keeping up with them was no easy feat.
At that moment, Chen Ji felt the changes in his body. Whenever his strength gave out, the three furnace flames beside his dantian sent forth an endless stream of warmth, allowing him to keep running.
The furnace flames swept through him like a torrent, bringing about a mysterious transformation in his body.
He was like a rust-covered sword being wiped clean.
As they passed through Changning Street, the shouts of pursuit and cries of battle behind them drew close. Cloud Goat said in a low voice, "The Liu Family knows Luo City better than we do. They're taking shortcuts to surround us. If we keep running like this, they'll catch us."
"What do we do?" Bright Rabbit asked.
"Sacrifice the chariot to save the general."
As they passed a small courtyard, Cloud Goat ordered, "Seven Characters, take everyone and draw the Liu Family west. You'll earn great credit for this!"
The black-clad agent named Seven Characters said quietly, "Yes. Everyone else, follow me!"
Chen Ji stood beside the courtyard wall, silently watching the agents leave. Cloud Goat and Bright Rabbit had already vaulted into the courtyard. Seeing that he still hadn't followed, they peered over the gray roof tiles. "What are you standing there for?!"
"Coming." Chen Ji jumped with all his might, grabbed Cloud Goat's outstretched hand, and clambered awkwardly into the courtyard.
The three stood behind the wall, pressed against its plastered surface, holding their breath as they listened to the sounds outside.
They heard a dense, chaotic flurry of footsteps passing outside the wall, and someone saying, "We mustn't let them escape Luo City. We have to avenge the old master."
With only a wall between them, Chen Ji could even smell the torches burning outside. It was a dry, crackling smell, a mixture of fir bark and pine resin oil.
The vast crowd chased after the agents. Only when silence returned outside the wall did Chen Ji dare breathe again. "Can the agents survive?"
Cloud Goat glanced at him. "In troubled times, life and death are up to fate. That's true for you, for them, and for Bright Rabbit and me. Back when Bright Rabbit and I were just lowly agents, I don't know how many times we were abandoned."
"Enough talk," Bright Rabbit said. "Let's go."
When the three climbed back over the courtyard wall, the street was deserted. They headed east, only to stop at the first crossroads.
Cloud Goat narrowed his eyes at the other side of the bluestone road. Lin Chaoqing and several dozen mounted Fish-Dragon Guards sat waiting there in silence, as if they could always find their prey before anyone else.
The Bureau of Punishments was to the east, the Secret Intelligence Directorate to the west. They watched each other across the distance without speaking, both sides standing in the shadows, waiting for the other to speak first.
The Fish-Dragon Guards wore straw rain capes and bamboo hats, each with a hand on the hilt of the saber at the small of his back. The pressure they exuded bore down like a mountain range.
Amid the silence, Lin Chaoqing urged his horse forward, slowly approaching Cloud Goat.
His expression was hidden beneath his bamboo hat, impossible to read. "We both serve in the Directorate of Ceremonial. As colleagues, we don't want the Secret Intelligence Directorate brought down by the civil officials either. Letting you leave earlier was already giving you a chance. An hour has passed. Can you produce evidence now?"
Cloud Goat's face was grave, but he remained silent. Bluster would no longer get them through this.
"So you still have none." Lin Chaoqing urged his warhorse forward. "Arrest them..."
Before he could finish, a commotion in the distance interrupted him. "Liang Mao'er, where are you carrying me? Miss Yan'er is still waiting for me behind the red curtains!"
"Brother, the Liu Family seems angry. We have to hurry and kill some people from the Eunuch Faction, or they'll cut off your drinking money and the medicinal herbs you need for cultivation!"
"What?! Cut off my drinking money?"
"Brother, the medicine is more important!"
The Bureau of Punishments and the Secret Intelligence Directorate looked left at the same time. A plump young man was running toward them with a drunken middle-aged man on his back.
The middle-aged man's robe hung open and loose, his head lolling against the young man's shoulder. His hair was disheveled and he looked utterly unkempt. Only the saber at his waist, apparently polished often, was exceptionally fine.
The moment Lin Chaoqing saw him, he reined in his horse. All the Fish-Dragon Guards of the Bureau of Punishments stopped at once.
"It's Liang Gou'er," Bright Rabbit said quietly.
Everyone watched the fat man and the thin man in silence. Amid the eerie quiet, Liang Mao'er approached with Liang Gou'er on his back, cursing under his breath.
As he passed the crossroads, the plump Liang Mao'er finally spotted the Bureau of Punishments and the Secret Intelligence Directorate in the shadows by the road. He was so frightened he hardly dared breathe, and the fat on his body jiggled.
"Brother, brother, wake up! I think I've spotted them!" Liang Mao'er said.
Liang Gou'er drunkenly opened his eyes. "Found the Eunuch Faction?"
A layer of sweat broke out on Liang Mao'er's forehead. He wanted nothing more than to drop Liang Gou'er and run. Lowering his voice, he said, "Brother, they can hear you..."
Liang Gou'er looked toward Lin Chaoqing. When he saw their matching bamboo hats and straw rain capes, he said delightedly, "All those rain capes and bamboo hats-they're the Eunuch Faction, all right! But we won't offend either side. When we get back, remember to tell the Liu Family I drew my saber..."
In an instant, still lying on Liang Mao'er's back, Liang Gou'er casually hooked his index and middle fingers around the saber hilt and gave it a gentle flick.
With a clang, the long saber left its sheath.
A vast flash of saber light slashed toward Lin Chaoqing. Before anyone could react, the saber was back in its sheath.
With a crack, the bamboo hat on Lin Chaoqing's head split in two and fell to the ground, revealing his angular, resolute face. That slash through the air had been exquisite: the saber Qi stopped after shattering the hat, leaving Lin Chaoqing's face entirely unharmed.
The long street fell silent. Everyone was so stunned by the sight that their thoughts ground to a halt.
Liang Mao'er looked at the Bureau of Punishments on the right, then at the Secret Intelligence Directorate on the left. "Brother, you struck the wrong person..."
"Huh?" Liang Gou'er squinted at the Secret Intelligence Directorate, then looked back at Lin Chaoqing.
Lin Chaoqing sat unmoving on his horse and said coldly, "Liang Gou'er, open your dog eyes wide and see who I am."
"Ah!"
The next second, Liang Gou'er jumped off Liang Mao'er's back and scrambled on hands and knees to Lin Chaoqing's horse. He put on a fawning smile. "Why, if it isn't Commander Lin! Sorry, sorry. It's all the Liu Family's fault. I told them I wanted to drink in Red Clothes Alley, but they insisted I come slash at you!"
Lin Chaoqing lashed Liang Gou'er's shoulder with his riding whip. "I won't make things difficult for you today. Get lost."
"All right, all right, I'll get lost right away!" With that, Liang Gou'er actually rolled away to the side.
Lin Chaoqing looked up at the opposite side.
By then, Cloud Goat, Bright Rabbit, and Chen Ji had long since vanished from the street.
"After them. They can't have gone far."
Several dozen Fish-Dragon Guards spurred their horses in pursuit. Only then did Liang Gou'er stagger to his feet. Liang Mao'er came over, distressed, and patted the dust off him. "Brother, why put up with their damn abuse?"
Liang Gou'er cheerfully gathered his disheveled hair back up around the hairpin atop his head. "Mao'er, wasn't I quick-witted just now? I deftly resolved a crisis!"
Liang Mao'er muttered resentfully, "There was nothing deft about it!"
"Come on, the job's done. Let's go back to drinking!"
"I won't drink! How much have you already had? You shouldn't drink anymore either!"
Liang Gou'er said, "I haven't had enough... Blech!"
"The Bureau of Punishments has a nose that's far too sharp. How do they find us wherever we go?" Bright Rabbit complained.
Cloud Goat carried Chen Ji over one shoulder as he raced along. "People call us the inner minister's hawks and hounds. We're the hawks, they're the hounds. The Bureau of Punishments is famous for its keen nose. Even if you hid at the ends of the earth, they'd sniff you out."
As he ran, he coughed up another mouthful of blood.
"You're hurt?" Bright Rabbit exclaimed. "I'll carry him."
"I had an exchange with Lin Chaoqing earlier. It's nothing, just a minor injury," Cloud Goat said. "This boy's a man. Why should you carry him... We're here!"
When they arrived at a residence with official seals pasted across its doors, Cloud Goat finally put Chen Ji down. "This is the place. Be quick. The Bureau of Punishments will be here any moment!"
Chen Ji stepped forward, tore off the seals, and shoved the vermilion doors open with all his might. He hurried past the ornamental rockery and the fish in the pond inside the entrance. "Where's the study?"
"At the very back!"
From afar, they could already hear hoofbeats thundering like drums!
Chen Ji entered the study and took books from the shelves, giving each a cursory glance by moonlight before tossing it to the floor, exactly as he had done at the Zhou residence!
Cloud Goat took a fire starter from inside his robes, lit a candle in the room, and held it in front of the shelves. He suddenly felt like Chen Ji's book boy and was a little tempted to get angry, but with disaster upon them, he could only swallow it.
Cloud Goat asked in puzzlement, "What exactly are you looking for? Why does it feel like you're a headless fly, relying on luck?"
"Sometimes," Chen Ji said, "luck is part of one's strength too."
As they spoke, the hoofbeats stopped outside. They heard straw rain capes rubbing against saddles. The Bureau of Punishments was about to storm in!
Bright Rabbit's face darkened. Her nimble, petite figure blocked the doorway, her hand on a short saber at her waist.
Facing the Fish-Dragon Guards charging in, she said, "The Secret Intelligence Directorate is at a critical point in apprehending a spy. If any of you take another step, you'll die."
Lin Chaoqing disregarded her threat and kept pressing forward. "Fight your way in. Kill anyone who resists."
A clash between the two sides was on the verge of erupting. Bright Rabbit suddenly drew her short saber and cut the spot between her brows, where a mass of black mist seemed ready to emerge.
In the residence, thick with a murderous chill, Lin Chaoqing walked forward step by step, a long saber at his waist. He drew it inch by inch, its icy gleam seeping out from beneath his rain cape, chilling to the bone.
The burly, powerfully built middle-aged man was like a fierce tiger. His eyes remained fixed on the crimson wound between Bright Rabbit's brows, from which an unknown power seemed to surge.
Lin Chaoqing sneered. "I hold the rank of a fourth-grade official of Great Ning. Don't embarrass yourself by bringing out such a petty trick."
Bright Rabbit said calmly, "Whether it's a petty trick, you'll know once you try it."
Just then, Chen Ji's voice suddenly rang out from inside the room. "Found it!"
The youth stepped out of the room, a book in his hand.