Chapter 84: The Opportunity When the Enemy Is in the Light and We Are in the Shadows
Piracy against civilians, human trafficking, selling people into slavery in the northern frontier...
The women imprisoned in the Dungeon of Broken Cliff Mountain, the scattered soldiers rounded up at the border, the strongholds transporting those defeated soldiers...
Su Shenchang!
It all became clear!
The bandits of Broken Cliff Mountain, Master Huang of Dangyang County, the local magnate Zhou family... All these people were serving a single human trafficking network!
And the one who had brought them all together was none other than the Prefect of Jiangling, Su Shenchang!
“Spreading malicious lies!”
The men in blue, who had been too intimidated by the woman in black to approach, now shouted furiously in unison. The four remaining men charged forward together, clearly afraid the woman would utter more treasonous words!
The woman in black, as if injured when she had clashed with the mad tiger moments before, changed her tactics from fierce assault to agile evasion, weaving through the flashing blades like a wraith.
“It’s over!” Wang Erhu muttered under his breath. The woman was formidable, but once caught in a melee with no armor for protection, there was absolutely no way she could get out alive! Even if she managed to kill the four men left, her wounds would be too grave to evade the coming reinforcements...
“Little sister, run!”
From the crowd, another man burst forth. He wore coarse cloth and wielded a street-side table in both hands, charging into the fray. Blood seeped through his clothes—he was wounded and, in that sudden exertion, his injury tore open again.
The four blue-clad men, who’d been a mortal threat to the woman in black, lost their rhythm, thrown into chaos by the man with the table. The fight turned desperate and wild, blades slashing, dying screams echoing in the night.
Within just a few breaths, the four were felled by the woman’s short sword. But the man who had intervened with the table also fell silent, lifeless.
The woman’s pale face twitched. She took a wooden pendant from her fallen comrade and strode toward the blue-clad man she had earlier maimed, severing his arm.
“This wretched woman has no strength left—help me capture her—ah!”
With a flick of her blade, she slit the last blue-clad man’s throat as he tried to crawl away, her eyes burning with murderous intent as she looked toward the officials ducking into the crowd. In the end, she chose not to pursue.
She herself was wounded, a blade in her back and another in her right arm. If her comrade hadn’t arrived in time, she would have taken more than two blows.
She, like her fallen companion, must have been hurt before. Gazing at the firework signal soaring from the other end of the street, she dashed into a side alley and vanished amid startled cries.
***
“Whew!”
Zhao Hengyi let out a long breath. The deadly struggle he’d just witnessed nearby felt like an action scene enhanced with special effects.
“Boss, we should leave at once—the soldiers will seal off the streets any minute now,” Wang Erhu said, his eyes shining with excitement.
He’d heard tales of martial experts but had always dismissed them as stories—he never expected to see one with his own eyes!
“We’ll follow that woman.”
“But why? She’s a notorious outlaw! The soldiers are scouring the city for her!”
“She knows too many secrets—we must get to the bottom of this.”
“Boss, our lives are at stake!”
“The lives of the elders of Yushu Bay matter even more!”
Wang Erhu couldn’t figure out how chasing the woman in black was connected to the fate of the Yushu Bay villagers, but he couldn’t win against his master’s will. He could only follow Zhao Hengyi down another street.
Once the battle ended, chaos remained—blood and bodies shocking all who saw them. Some brave souls lingered to gawk, but most fled in haste.
Blending into the crowd, Zhao Hengyi and Wang Erhu moved unnoticed. On the next main street, festivities continued as if nothing had happened; the lantern-lit throngs paid no mind to the violence that had just occurred.
Noise filled the air, the scent of street food mingling with other strange odors. Without hesitation, Zhao Hengyi pressed on.
“Boss, she must have escaped—we’ll never find her.”
Wang Erhu was anxious. The rest of the escort team was off duty tonight—the boss had given them silver early, telling everyone to enjoy themselves during the city’s festival for Consort Chen’s birthday. Now, scattered across the vast city, finding someone was like searching for a needle in a haystack!
“Enough talk! She escaped in this direction, I’m sure of it.”
Zhao Hengyi’s mood had calmed, and with that calm came a sharper mind.
If what that woman said was true, then the mastermind whose plans he’d ruined twice might soon be exposed.
The enemy was in the open, he in the shadows—a decisive advantage at a table where thousands of Yushu Bay lives were at stake. Zhao Hengyi would not let it slip by.
***
Bits of seemingly useless information slowly came together. After the Lotus Poetry Gathering, Prefect Su Shenchang had shown disdain—even displeasure—toward both the Nine Flower Jade Dew and Zhao Hengyi.
Others assumed the Prefect simply disliked the spread of luxury goods. Zhao Hengyi himself had thought the official’s concern for the displaced was mere posturing. Now, it was clear both he and the Nine Flower Jade Dew had been implicated because of his elder brother, Song Ying’an!
For everyone believed it was Song Ying’an’s men who destroyed the bandits of Broken Cliff Mountain!
Song San had yet to hear of this—he needed to be informed at once.
Just one street over, the crowds were undisturbed—evidently, the officials weren’t pursuing the outlaws aggressively, nor dispersing the people. After all, the city was celebrating Consort Chen’s birthday.
However, more and more men in blue martial attire began to appear among the revelers.
As long as he tracked the direction these men searched, Zhao Hengyi was thirty percent confident he could find the woman in black.
“The infamous criminal on Changrong Street must be the outlaw who tried to assassinate the Prefect!”
“Truly bold—daring to strike in the city!”
“I hear the Ningwu Army has sealed the gates. Turmoil for days to come!”
“Quiet, even wine can’t stop your tongue!”
Street vendors were already discussing the notorious outlaw; some spun wild tales, turning her into a monster with a leopard’s head and round eyes, while deriding the Ningwu Army stationed in the city as useless drunkards.
The blue-clad men occasionally glanced over, but paid them little mind. The Ningwu Army’s reputation was poor, and they’d heard such talk many times before.
“Boss, we really can’t find her. Let’s just return to the inn.”
Wang Erhu kept whispering. He too noticed the growing number of blue-clad men.
“I found her!”
A smile played at Zhao Hengyi’s lips as he headed into a lavish restaurant.
The woman in black had changed her clothes and now wore a veil, but her posture—straight despite her injuries—and her height, slightly above that of ordinary women, gave her away.
He saw her enter the restaurant ahead.
***