The vermilion gates of Liu Shiyu's residence slowly swung open from within.
Cloud Goat was the first to emerge, looking rather more arrogant than before. "The evidence is here. I'll send it to the capital by eight-hundred-li express, and the emperor will decide what to do!"
Liu Mingxian sat on his warhorse, the firelight flickering across his face beneath his mourning cap.
He looked at the stack of evidence in Cloud Goat's hand, the veins throbbing on his forehead. He had not expected Cloud Goat and Bright Rabbit to actually find evidence. If he still sought revenge for the old master now, he had no defensible reason.
Then, suddenly, he sensed something was wrong... He looked past Cloud Goat and saw a masked figure standing there with his head lowered.
Who was that?
Why was he wearing a mask?
Just as Liu Mingxian tried to get a better look, Cloud Goat took a small step and blocked the masked figure from view entirely. He looked at Liu Mingxian with the hint of a smile. "Lord Liu, are you still not withdrawing?"
Liu Mingxian remained silent, showing no intention of withdrawing.
The two sides stood with swords drawn and crossbows cocked, both waiting for him to speak. Whether they fought or withdrew rested on a single thought of his.
Liu Mingxian asked calmly, "Where's Liang Gou'er?"
The young man holding the reins beside his horse said in a panic, "Second Uncle, Liang Mao'er just brought word. He said Liang Gou'er has already drawn his blade against the Eunuch Faction, and he's gone to sleep in Red Clothes Alley."
Liu Mingxian's face darkened. He surveyed the Fish-Dragon Guards of the Bureau of Punishments, who had already drawn their sabers, and said through clenched teeth, "Tell Liang Gou'er to take that broken saber of his and get out of the Liu Family. There's no place for him here anymore!"
Even so, he still had no intention of letting the matter drop. He urged his horse forward again, leading several hundred members of the Liu Family toward them.
At that moment, Lin Chaoqing spoke. "Lord Liu, do not bring disaster upon the entire Liu Family. You would do better to wait until Grand Secretary Liu returns to Luo City and ask him before deciding what to do."
Liu Mingxian stared fixedly at Lin Chaoqing. At last, he cupped his fists toward him from a distance. "I will await my punishment at home. Return to the residence! Make arrangements for the old master's funeral!"
As he left, he could not resist looking back. He saw Lin Chaoqing speaking quietly with the masked figure.
"Investigate that masked man!" Liu Mingxian's voice was savage. "Those two living Yamas, Cloud Goat and Bright Rabbit, are formidable killers, but I've never heard that they had any skill at uncovering crimes and finding evidence. That masked man must have had a hand in it. Find out who he is!"
"Yes, Second Uncle."
For a moment, Liu Mingxian even had an intuition: if not for the masked man, perhaps everything tonight would have been different.
After the Liu Family departed, Lin Chaoqing swung onto his horse. He straightened his straw rain cape and looked down at Chen Ji. "Young man, my promise stands for two months. Perhaps it won't take that long for you to understand what kind of people are in the Secret Intelligence Directorate."
Cloud Goat's face darkened. "Who are you taking potshots at? Does the Bureau of Punishments know how to do anything besides attack its colleagues?"
Without a word, Lin Chaoqing led the Bureau of Punishments east. His dark straw rain cape folded behind him like black wings. He had come travel-worn and dusty, and left the same way.
As they rode away, some of the Fish-Dragon Guards smiled at Chen Ji from beneath their bamboo hats. They respected capable people.
But Chen Ji was destined not to work for the Bureau of Punishments, because what he needed was not an official position, and he had never wanted to serve imperial power.
Right now, he wanted to cultivate more than anything, and cultivation required money. That was something the Bureau of Punishments could not give him.
As the hoofbeats faded, Cloud Goat glanced at Chen Ji. "Once you join the Bureau of Punishments, you become the enemy of every official in the entire court. You can only be an isolated minister for the rest of your life. Since ancient times, how many isolated ministers have met a good end?"
Chen Ji replied calmly, "Thank you for the warning, Lord Cloud Goat."
Cloud Goat asked, "Do you think any other members of the Liu Family might be involved?"
Chen Ji shook his head. "I don't know."
Cloud Goat asked again, "Might the Jing Dynasty have other means of transmitting intelligence?"
Chen Ji shook his head again. "I don't know."
"Are you hiding another trick up your sleeve, like you did at the Zhou Residence last time?"
Chen Ji said with certainty, "No."
Cloud Goat laughed in exasperation. The boy before him was far less honest than he looked, but there was nothing he could do about it.
He smiled at Chen Ji. "Someone will deliver fifty taels of silver to Taiping Medical Hall tomorrow night. I'm leaving."
"Wait a moment! Could I get an advance of eight copper coins first?" Chen Ji asked.
With an odd look on his face, Cloud Goat counted out eight copper coins from his sleeve. "Are you so driven mad by poverty that you'd even ask for eight coins? Consider it a gift."
Chen Ji smiled sincerely. "Thank you. Then I'll take my leave."
Bright Rabbit suddenly felt that only at this moment was Chen Ji's smile truly sincere.
Cloud Goat said, "Wait. Don't go yet."
Before Chen Ji could react, a dagger slipped from Cloud Goat's sleeve and swept past Chen Ji's ear. A lock of hair fell into Cloud Goat's palm. "Now you can go."
Chen Ji was silent for a moment. In the end, he left without saying anything.
Once Chen Ji was far away, Bright Rabbit could not help asking, "Why not bring him into the Secret Intelligence Directorate and transfer him under our command? Then we could have him do whatever work we wanted. Why pay him fifty taels of silver... How many beautiful clothes could fifty taels buy? I couldn't wear them all in years!"
"No," Cloud Goat said. "That boy's abilities... He's ruthless to others and even more ruthless to himself, and he's clever. He's exactly the sort the Inner Minister likes best. If we really let him into the Secret Intelligence Directorate, who knows when he might end up riding over our heads?"
"But there aren't any places left among the Twelve Zodiac Animals," Bright Rabbit said.
Cloud Goat lowered his voice. "I heard Sick Tiger is about to step down... I must have lost my mind. How could I think he could take Sick Tiger's place?"
Bright Rabbit suddenly said, "We need to make sure he isn't a Jing Dynasty spy. Only then can we use him without worry in the future."
Cloud Goat said calmly, "I've already thought of that. Last night, I sent a carrier pigeon to Dream Rooster in Kaifeng Prefecture. He'll arrive in Luo City soon. With him handling the interrogation, nothing can go wrong."
"What price did you pay to invite Dream Rooster here?"
"A steep one... Let's go. It's late."
In the blink of an eye, before the once-bustling gates, only leaves remained, swaying in the autumn wind.
It was as though this were the fate destined for everyone: after the clamor and the feast, only desolation and emptiness remained.
Chen Ji was walking down a dark alley when a small, black, furry cat appeared on the wall, carrying a book and a ginseng root in her mouth.
The young man walked on the ground while she followed slowly along the wall. Under the moonlight, the shadows of man and cat moved one behind the other, as though sharing a certain understanding, a certain rhythm.
Dark Cloud opened her mouth, and the book and ginseng fell through the air.
Chen Ji raised a hand without a sound and caught them in midair. An icy current flowed out with the motion, turning a little less than half the ginseng into four transparent beads.
He tucked the book and the remaining ginseng into his robes, then tossed the beads one by one onto the top of the wall. Dark Cloud caught each one deftly in her mouth as she walked.
Man and cat moved in one smooth sequence, as though they had rehearsed it. A warm current passed from Dark Cloud into Chen Ji, abruptly lighting the fourth furnace flame beside his dantian!
In an instant, faint flames emerged from the four furnace fires, linking them like chains. Together they formed a complete cage, sealing off his entire dantian.
The four furnace fires seemed bound together by some innate connection. The instant they joined, another vast warm current swept through Chen Ji's flesh and bones, washing away the fatigue of the entire night.
Chen Ji looked up and silently pointed Dark Cloud in a direction.
At a T-junction, man and cat suddenly parted ways, one going straight and the other turning left.
The next moment, Chen Ji broke into a sprint!
Quick footsteps immediately sounded from the mist several dozen paces behind him, where a blurred figure was rapidly closing in.
Chen Ji took a roundabout route through the darkness, trying to shake his pursuer in the maze of streets.
But the pursuer always found the right path at every fork. Chen Ji could seemingly already hear him panting behind him.
No, I can't outrun him.
The footsteps drew closer and closer. Chen Ji judged that his pursuer was faster than him, at least on par with a secret agent.
He had known someone would follow him and might even try to kill him. So, without hesitation, he had used the ginseng he had originally intended to save to cover the medical hall's losses to convert the icy current.
He had to stay alive first, or nothing else would mean anything.
Since coming to this world, Chen Ji seemed to have started out in hell mode. Even if he hid in the medical hall and never went out, dangers would come knocking one after another.
But if life was destined to be this way, he chose not to run from it.
The footsteps behind him were already very close, but Chen Ji's eyes held only calm.
As the footsteps drew closer, until only three body lengths separated the two, he suddenly turned and charged toward his pursuer.
The narrow alley was usually only wide enough for two people to walk abreast. Tall residential walls rose on either side, and the stone path underfoot was uneven.
The man had not expected his prey to dare turn and fight. He instinctively reached for the saber at his waist, but before he could draw it, Chen Ji pinned his wrist.
The killer was much stronger than Chen Ji, but the momentum of their collision lent greater force to the hand Chen Ji used to pin him.
With a clang, the saber was forcibly pushed back before it could clear its sheath!
In the hazy moonlight, the middle-aged killer's pupils suddenly contracted. He could not help looking at Chen Ji, only to find Chen Ji staring fixedly back at him.
Those were not the eyes prey should have.
The middle-aged killer withdrew, lifting a leg in the same motion and kicking Chen Ji in the chest, sending the young man tumbling backward.
He drew his saber again, but this time, when it was only halfway out, Chen Ji came out of his tumble and, without pausing for an instant, charged at him in a crouch.
With a clang, the saber was forced back into its sheath again.
Twice in succession, the killer had failed even to draw his saber!
The killer sneered inwardly. Abandoning his saber altogether, he struck Chen Ji's chest with a flurry of punches.
In his eyes, the young man before him had left his center wide open and was full of openings. He clearly had no fighting experience whatsoever.
The killer looked at Chen Ji again, only to find no fear or pain in his eyes. Instead, there was exhilaration, and what seemed to be fire in their depths.
Chen Ji was now certain that cultivators in this world had to be few in number. They hid behind the world and did not show themselves readily.
Otherwise, whoever wanted him dead tonight should not have sent only this "ordinary man" before him.
Compared with Lin Chaoqing and Cloud Goat, this middle-aged killer could indeed only be considered an ordinary man!
In an instant, Chen Ji endured punch after punch, then lunged forward again, crashing into the killer and clamping both his arms tightly under his own.
Now!
A black shadow swooped down from atop the wall. The killer turned in alarm, thinking someone had been lying in wait behind him, but saw only a little black cat.
Before he could breathe a sigh of relief, the black cat had already flashed past him.
As they crossed, Dark Cloud's sharp claws sliced across the killer's neck.
Ssst.
A splash of blood spattered the wall.
Chen Ji released the killer and sat down on the ground, gasping for breath. He watched coldly as the killer clutched his neck in disbelief, staggered back, and slowly collapsed against the wall.
The middle-aged killer saw the black cat leap lightly into the young man's arms. Unreconciled, he asked, "Traveling official?"
Chen Ji frowned. Traveling official? Was that this world's general term for cultivators?