This was bad.
Truly, this was a grave matter.
After the man finished reading the wanted notice to the end, he glanced at Wu Jiao’s face. Her complexion had darkened visibly.
Since she said nothing, the men had no choice but to keep their mouths shut as well.
She had not yet given them leave, so it was awkward to slip away.
He had been worried about the second brother, who had been sprawled out behind them since earlier, but when he stole a look, it seemed he had only fainted.
“Give that here!”
Suddenly, Wu Jiao snatched the paper from the man’s hand and glared a moment longer at her own portrait, as if she could not believe it.
Then, as though anger had surged up all at once, she tore the paper to shreds.
Indeed, Wu Jiao was furious to the tips of her hair.
‘The charge is murdering the Left Censor-in-Chief? He was the one who told me to kill him!’
While she belonged to the Jinyiwei, Wu Jiao had assassinated countless people.
She killed simply because the master who gave her food and water told her to.
They had used her all that time, only to coldly cast her aside now and pin all those crimes on her.
She had been truly foolish.
To be ordered about by such a rotten old man, only to be discarded in the end.
She was so furious and wronged that her teeth ground together.
If she followed her heart, she would run to Beijing this instant and take Cao Weixian’s head, but it was not as easy as saying so.
The imperial palace was heavily guarded, the Jinyiwei had experts even she could not handle, and above all, Cao Weixian himself was a terrifying man.
She had never personally seen him fight, but he had surely learned martial arts.
Wu Jiao still remembered her first meeting with Cao Weixian.
Before Wu Jiao, who had been thrashing about like a wild horse and using poison arts to keep the constables from approaching, that old eunuch had appeared with leisurely steps.
—A noisy dog, are you. Enough. Stop barking.
—Who are you! You...!
The instant she lunged forward, bound by ropes, trying to bite the old man’s hand, he seized her by the head.
Even the Jinyiwei expert who had bound her had been reluctant to touch her skin directly.
Yet from the old man’s fingertips, she felt an internal energy so profound that even dull-witted Wu Jiao could sense it.
With his own qi, he suppressed Wu Jiao’s internal energy and stopped the poison from spreading any further.
With no more than that single gesture, the wild dog that had been raging so viciously was completely subdued.
It was the first moment the ferocious wild dog felt the emotion called fear.
That man was an enemy too burdensome to handle.
But if there was any hopeful aspect, it was that he was quite old, and his vitality had also waned.
Even if she did not bother facing him, he would die on his own in a few years.
The problem lay elsewhere.
A Jinyiwei expert even she could not withstand.
Assistant Commander Yang Yishen.
Someone had once dared to say this:
From ancient times to the present, there had never been a talent in the jianghu greater than Yang Yishen.
She was young, but her martial arts had already reached the pinnacle, leaving no room for improvement.
Countless experts of the jianghu, after seeing Yang Yishen’s sword dance, said that she was without doubt the greatest under heaven.
Of course, there had also been many jianghu people who boldly issued challenges, saying it was absurd that a mere military officer of the authorities could be called the greatest under heaven.
Every one of them, without exception, knelt beneath Yang Yishen’s sword, and after a few years, no one stepped forward anymore.
In truth, it was no different from having subdued the jianghu.
But ironically, Yang Yishen was not a member of the jianghu, but an official of the government.
Yang Yishen had no interest at all in contending for the title of greatest under heaven.
She was only the loyal sword of the emperor.
To Wu Jiao, Yang Yishen was a person bound to her by a truly wretched ill-fated bond.
It was she who had captured Wu Jiao when she ran wild in Beijing and presented her to Cao Weixian, and when Cao Weixian gave the order to purge her, it was also she who came to hunt Wu Jiao down.
At the final moment, when Wu Jiao had gathered all her internal energy and was unleashing her poison art, Yang Yishen threw her treasured sword.
When that treasured sword pierced through her abdomen, Wu Jiao finally collapsed.
She could still vividly recall the pain of that time.
The fact that wanted notices like this were circulating meant that even now, that terrifying woman was chasing her.
That woman’s obsession was excessive.
Ordinarily, she was gentle and modest, but when chasing a criminal, she was nothing short of a demon.
Tenacious, relentless, and knowing no surrender, not a single criminal had ever escaped her to the very end.
Wu Jiao suddenly felt sorrowful and wronged, and tears welled up a little.
Thinking that she would be chased by that woman again made her feel bleak.
“I... I’m leaving now...”
“Pardon? Ah, yes...”
As if the men beside her were no longer in her mind at all, Wu Jiao began to stagger off somewhere, sniffling like a child.
The men blankly stared at her back, stunned.
Since she was a fugitive, it would have been wise for her to take the lives of these three brothers in order to conceal her trail.
Even the Three Fiends of Hexi themselves understood that point.
Yet Wu Jiao not only did not kill them, she did not even threaten them into silence.
After subduing them with magnificent skill, she simply burst into tears and left.
Was she innocent, or was she stupid?
Strictly speaking, both were correct.
The three brothers had dealt with all sorts of criminals until now, but this was truly the first time they had encountered such a situation, so they were dumbfounded.
Was that young girl really a wicked great bandit, as the wanted notice said?
They had their doubts.
Ever since the Wanli Emperor set aside affairs of state, the officials of the government had rotted away.
Perhaps she had been falsely accused.
Though no one had told them to do so, the three brothers decided to keep silent about that girl’s movements.
They owed the girl their lives, so in a sense, it was only natural.
However, apart from the fact that the girl’s martial arts were powerful, the sight of her crying had been truly unsightly and pitiful, so it was only human for them, as adults, to feel compassion.
“Live strong, young lady.”
Though only moments ago they had intended to capture the girl and hand her over to the authorities, at some point the men found themselves muttering such words as they watched Wu Jiao’s departing back.
*
‘Well, this is surprising.’
Meanwhile, Wei Fengxiao had been watching this series of events from a distance.
He had been waiting for the right moment to appear at the most dramatic instant and save the girl, but when he saw the situation change abruptly, he first observed how matters would unfold.
He had thought the girl was surrounded by terrifyingly large men and had fallen into a desperate crisis, but it was the opposite.
Displaying martial arts that seemed almost divine, the girl subdued three huge men in an instant.
Both the weapon she used and her martial arts were fantastical things he had never seen before.
After everyone left, Wei Fengxiao descended from the roof of a building and stood in the alley where they had fought.
‘Did she use thread? To cut through this thick blade with thread so fine...’
The broken blade of the yuedao had been left on the ground as it was.
It could have been melted down to make a new weapon, so why had they not picked it up?
After the fight ended, the girl and the men had stood and conversed briefly, but Wei Fengxiao had not heard them.
He could have concealed his presence, approached, and eavesdropped, but he had not bothered.
From what he had observed, the men seemed to surrender after being surprised by the girl’s skill, and after exchanging a few words, the girl left them behind and departed.
Though the men had attacked first, the girl showed mercy and did not kill them.
The fact that the fight ended in such a short time meant the girl’s skill was that outstanding.
Was this not truly the bearing of an expert?
“This is...”
On the ground, in addition to the blade, there were torn scraps of paper.
Now that he thought of it, they had been conversing over this paper.
Out of curiosity, Wei Fengxiao picked up the torn pieces and fitted them together, then groaned in surprise.
A portrait describing the girl’s appearance and clothing.
Charges with murderous contents.
Words ordering her capture, dead or alive.
“...So the girl was the wanted one.”
Only now did the picture begin to take shape.
The villain was not the men, but the girl.
Those men had not been bandits, but jianghu people after the bounty.
But if so, that made it all the more puzzling.
Why had the girl spared the men?
If they leaked her whereabouts, she would suffer for it.
‘Strange. Truly strange...’
Was this not precisely the joy of wandering the jianghu?
There were all sorts of people in the world, and as they became entangled with one another, they created every kind of story imaginable.
Wei Fengxiao’s heart began to pound like a child’s.
Of course, he was curious about the girl’s identity.
But above all else, the thought that he wanted to exchange martial arts with the girl filled his mind.
Though he was a petty man of small vessel, he too was a proper member of the jianghu.
There was nothing that made the blood boil like a duel with a strong opponent.
He had already noted the direction in which the girl had left.
Judging by how hurried her steps had seemed, the girl was probably trying to leave the city.
The girl had departed long ago, but Wei Fengxiao was relaxed.
In any case, he calculated that if he used qinggong, he would catch up to her in no time.
‘Good. Shall I go?’
With a leisurely smile, Wei Fengxiao kicked off the wall again and flew up onto the roof of a building.
*
Two men were walking side by side along the road.
The man on the left appeared to be in his mid-thirties, had a fine build, and carried himself with neat composure.
What he wore was a golden feiyu robe embroidered with dragons, and what he carried at his waist was a xiuchun saber personally bestowed by His Majesty.
This symbolized that he was a military officer of the Jinyiwei.
Jinyiwei Assistant Commander Gongsun Liang.
He was one of the two assistant commanders who supported the Commander, and the eldest grandson of Gongsun Sheng, head of the Gongsun Clan.
A splendid family background, an official post of the upper third rank.
On top of that, an outstanding appearance.
He was a man with nothing to envy in others, but within the Jinyiwei, his position was not especially great.
That was because within the same organization, there was an unparalleled genius to whom he could not even be compared.
Moreover, that genius was his junior.
He himself had run along a path of success worthy of his clan’s name, yet before that young junior, he always found it difficult to proudly straighten his chest.
And the other man walking beside Gongsun Liang.
This person was also far from ordinary.
He was an old man with white hair and a white beard, and from the posture with which he walked, hands clasped behind his back, there was a relaxed air about him, like that of an immortal.
The blue Daoist robe he wore belonged to the Qingcheng Sect.
He was the junior martial brother of Bai Hen, the sect leader of Qingcheng, and the law-enforcement elder of Qingcheng, Yan Yunzhu.
When one spoke of Perfected Iron Heart Yan Yunzhu, he was a figure whose name was fairly well known in the jianghu.
Though his temperament was fierce and not very Daoist-like, causing him to yield the position of sect leader to his senior martial brother, the people of the jianghu judged that his martial skill was in no way inferior to the Qingcheng sect leader’s.
Though he was now at an age close to retirement, his sword was still incomparably sharp, so he was an expert of the orthodox faction in both name and reality.
Gongsun Liang glanced at Yan Yunzhu, who was following one step behind him.
For an elder of a great sect like Qingcheng to come calling.
Such a thing had truly not happened in a long time.
‘I wonder if this will be all right.’
Yan Yunzhu was a challenger.
His opponent was Gongsun Liang’s junior, known as an unparalleled genius.
That was right. Yan Yunzhu had come all the way from distant Qingcheng to Beijing in order to meet Yang Yishen, the one currently said to be closest to the title of greatest under heaven in the jianghu.
Of course, he himself said that he had stopped by Beijing on other business, and since he was here, he thought he might test his skills once against the much-rumored Yang Yishen, but that was clearly said for the sake of saving face.
If a great senior of the jianghu like him said he had come a long way to challenge a green youngster, would the appearance of it not be somewhat ridiculous?
In any case, he was a challenger who had appeared after a long while.
Originally, the authorities were not supposed to become involved in such private matters, but since there was a directive from above to maintain broadly good relations with the jianghu people, friendly sparring matches were often held so long as they did not interfere with official duties.
Above all, it was also a good opportunity to elevate the dignity of the imperial court.
Of course, that was only if they won the duel.
Gongsun Liang felt a faint unease.
His junior probably would not lose, but this time, he had no certainty of victory.
First of all, her opponent was quite strong.
Among all the challengers who had come so far, he was a master who could be counted on one hand.
And by contrast, Yang Yishen’s current condition was far from good.
To put it plainly, in Gongsun Liang’s eyes, the Yang Yishen of now was nothing short of xingshi zourou—a walking corpse.
Had it been since that incident three years ago?
Since the spirit of his junior, once like a tree with deep roots, had begun to crumble so rapidly.
Three years ago, a hunting dog by the name of Wu Jiao had been purged.
A hunting dog referred to an assassin who handled the secretive—or to put it more bluntly, filthy—work within the Jinyiwei.
They belonged to the Jinyiwei, but in truth, they were not officials.
They were merely expendable pieces, useful to play and discard.
That child named Wu Jiao had also been used to the fullest, then thrown away.
It was a common end for a hunting dog, and yet for some reason, his junior Yang Yishen had grieved over it for a long time.
He had never once seen her sunk in such sorrow before.
Yang Yishen was a peculiar person whose thoughts were impossible to read, and she was not the sort to reveal her inner feelings to others.
Within the Jinyiwei, there was not a single person who had ever had a private conversation with her.
All the more reason it was a mystery.
Why had she grieved so deeply over the death of a mere hunting dog—though he was not dead yet and was still on the run?
“We have arrived, True Person Tiexin. This is my junior’s residence.”
“Thank you for guiding me, Lord Gongsun.”
No matter the directives from above, they could not cause a commotion inside the city over such a private matter, so sparring matches with people of the jianghu were always held outside the city.
As it happened, Yang Yishen’s house had a spacious training ground for martial arts practice, and that place always became the stage for the bouts.
A duel between True Person Tiexin of the Qingcheng Sect and the genius Yang Yishen.
It was quite an intriguing spectacle, but as this matter was being conducted in secret, there was not a single spectator.
Gongsun Liang, attending to confirm the outcome, was the only onlooker.
When the two entered the training ground, Yang Yishen was already standing there.
Had she been warming up before the duel?
She had drawn her sword and was holding it, and before her lay a gigantic boulder as tall as a person, though there was no telling where she had brought it from.
“Brother Yang.”
“Lord Gongsun, True Person Yun. Welcome.”
She turned and bowed politely at the waist.
Empty eyes that had lost their focus.
A listless voice.
As expected, Yang Yishen did not look to be in good condition today either.
‘Sigh, at this rate, I wonder if she might actually lose.’
It was called a friendly sparring match, but it was, in its own way, an important contest with the pride of the authorities and the jianghu at stake.
In particular, the people of the jianghu were displeased by the fact that a talent who might aim to become the greatest under heaven existed within the authorities, and they were waiting eagerly for Yang Yishen to fall. If she were to lose this match today, a great blemish would be left upon the Jinyiwei’s sky-high reputation.
Several lofty personages would be greatly displeased as well.
Thinking of the aftermath that would follow if that happened, a heavy sigh escaped Gongsun Liang of its own accord.