The ruins were a chaotic mess, with only the broken beams of the house still standing, leaning haphazardly against each other.
Beneath the rubble, bricks and tiles were being pushed upward, as if some unkillable monster was about to burst out from the ground.
Chen Ji, his ears still ringing from the explosion, crouched low as he approached the scene, a short blade drawn from his sleeve.
He had made three bamboo tube firearms in total.
One had been given to Jin Zhu, and the other two had been used to blow up the Si Cao.
Now, with no firearms left, he had no choice but to rely on his blade.
The next moment, with a loud crash, bricks and stones flew in all directions.
From the rubble, Manager Yuan stood up, a heavy wooden beam resting on his shoulders.
His hair was disheveled, and his golden crown had been blown away by the explosion.
His body was riddled with shrapnel, his face a bloody mess, with blood and dust mixing together.
His once grand red satin robe was now tattered, making him look like a ghost from a nightmare.
He rubbed his eyes, trying to clear them of the dust and grit that had been blasted into them.
But as he did so, he realized his right arm was broken and useless.
Firearms!
These were the firearms of the Ning Dynasty!
Manager Yuan, like Jin Zhu, had seen firearms before, but never ones with such devastating power.
The firearms of the Ning Dynasty had only been used on the battlefield for a little over a century.
Initially, they were made of thick bamboo tubes filled with gunpowder and pellets.
The gunpowder back then wasn’t strong enough to even blow apart the bamboo tubes, and after a few shots, the tubes would be discarded.
It was only in recent decades that the Ning Dynasty had switched to iron tubes to hold more powerful gunpowder.
But even then, the gunpowder wasn’t perfect.
It wasn’t refined, and the formula wasn’t quite right.
It was only used on the battlefield to stop the cavalry charges of the Jing Dynasty.
When Manager Yuan saw the bamboo tube, he knew he couldn’t dodge in time, but he didn’t think it could kill him.
At most, it would tear his flesh, but it wouldn’t break his bones.
But Chen Ji’s bamboo tube was far more powerful than he had imagined!
It had even blown apart the house!
Manager Yuan forced his eyes open.
His left eye was filled with blood, the pupil a deep red, while his right eye could barely see.
He quickly scanned the area in front of him, but there was no one there.
“Are the elite agents of the Ning Dynasty’s Secret Spy Bureau so afraid of me that they have to hide?” he shouted.
From start to finish, Manager Yuan hadn’t even seen Chen Ji’s shadow.
He had been blown up by the gunpowder and assumed it was the work of the Secret Spy Bureau.
He never even considered that it might be Chen Ji!
But no one in the courtyard answered him.
Instead, a short blade came slicing through the air toward him.
Manager Yuan tilted his body, easily dodging the blade aimed at his neck.
But Chen Ji didn’t stop.
He stabbed three more times in quick succession—once at the back of the heart, once at the kidney, and once at the left leg—before retreating.
But Chen Ji suddenly realized that, except for the stab to the leg, the other strikes had missed!
No, they hadn’t missed!
It was just that Manager Yuan’s body was as tough as iron.
An ordinary dagger couldn’t pierce his skin.
No wonder he had been able to stand up after the explosion!
But his entire body couldn’t be that tough.
Otherwise, he wouldn’t have needed to dodge the strike to his neck.
At that moment, Manager Yuan, ignoring the blood gushing from his leg, turned around with one eye closed and glared fiercely at Chen Ji.
“It’s you? You secretly kept the firearms given by the Prince of Jing’s mansion and the Liu family?!” he roared.
Chen Ji didn’t answer.
He was silently thinking about how to kill this bear-like Manager Yuan.
He didn’t know what kind of cultivation path the man had taken, but it seemed like he couldn’t be killed.
In an instant, Manager Yuan charged forward like a war chariot.
Chen Ji immediately retreated, running in circles around the courtyard.
But before Chen Ji could take more than a few steps, Manager Yuan kicked a brick toward him.
Bang!
The brick grazed past Chen Ji’s ear, the wind from its passage ruffling his hair before it smashed into a wall in the distance, shattering into pieces.
That kick was terrifying.
If Manager Yuan hadn’t been blind in one eye and missed his aim, Chen Ji would have been killed on the spot!
Furious that he had missed, Manager Yuan kicked more bricks, sending them flying like cannonballs.
Each one was more accurate and more deadly than the last.
Bang!
One brick slammed into Chen Ji’s back, sending him tumbling to the ground.
Chen Ji felt like his heart and lungs had been knocked out of place, but he didn’t dare stop.
He struggled to his feet and kept running.
But before he could get far, Manager Yuan kicked two more bricks, one after the other, hitting Chen Ji in the back and the right leg.
Chen Ji fell again, his short blade flying several meters away.
He tried to get up, but his legs wouldn’t support him.
Manager Yuan strode over to Chen Ji, his broken right arm hanging limply at his side.
He reached out with his left hand to snap Chen Ji’s neck.
But at that moment!
In the silent darkness, Chen Ji, lying on the ground, suddenly flipped over to face Manager Yuan.
Manager Yuan stared into Chen Ji’s eyes and suddenly realized that there was no despair in them—only calm.
No, no!
This wasn’t the look of a dying man!
In that breath, the sword seed that Chen Ji had been nurturing for days surged through his meridians like a dragon, reaching his fingertips.
Nurturing a sword with the stars, breaking all things and all laws!
At such close range, Manager Yuan had no way to dodge.
An invisible sword qi shot past Manager Yuan’s neck, severing an artery.
A fountain of blood sprayed out!
The sword seed that Old Man Yao had once mocked as being no more powerful than a fart had only been nurtured by Chen Ji for an hour.
But over the past few days, while learning the blade from Feng Huai, Chen Ji had also been nurturing this sword seed, patiently waiting for it to become his final trump card.
Chen Ji pried Manager Yuan’s thick fingers off his neck and fell to the ground, coughing violently.
Manager Yuan, in disbelief, clutched his neck and staggered back.
Blood gushed from between his fingers, rapidly draining his strength.
“When did you become a cultivator? This is the Sword Seed Path! How do you know the sword-nurturing techniques of the Martial Temple? Did your mother teach you? But how could she know the sword-nurturing techniques…?”
“The Sword Seed Path…”
“It’s actually the Sword Seed Path!”
Manager Yuan collapsed with a loud thud.
Chen Ji sat on the ground, exhausted.
He lifted his hand, and a few snowflakes drifted down from the sky, melting as soon as they touched his palm.
He was momentarily dazed.
Had he really killed Manager Yuan?
This night, he had first saved the Prince’s son and Bai Li, then dragged his wounded body here to assassinate Manager Yuan.
Though the night wasn’t over, it felt like an entire season had passed, from autumn to winter.
Before he could gather his thoughts, the sound of hoofbeats echoed from the distant streets—the Secret Spy Bureau had arrived!
Chen Ji struggled to his feet, wanting to flee the scene, but as soon as he stood, he fell again.
The last brick Manager Yuan had kicked had hit his leg, reopening the wound.
At this critical moment, footsteps approached from nearby, and a familiar voice spoke.
“So you’re here. I’ve been looking for you all night!”
Chen Ji was stunned.
The voice was unmistakable.
…
…
At the end of Tongji Street, dozens of warhorses galloped forward, with Jin Zhu riding at the front, his expression calm.
He had just been in Hongyi Alley a few miles away, preparing to lead his men in retreat, when he heard the familiar sound of an explosion.
Jin Zhu never expected that the Jing Dynasty spy who had the firearms hadn’t fled but had instead gone to another part of Luo City to cause more trouble.
But the sound of the explosion was strange.
It seemed to have come from a merchant district.
Jin Zhu thought for a long time but couldn’t figure out what the Jing Dynasty spy could be doing there.
But the explosion couldn’t go unpunished.
Jin Zhu led the charge into Tongji Street.
From a distance, he could see the rising dust.
“Men, seal off the entire area around Tongji Street. Starting tonight, no one leaves. Search every inch of this place. Don’t let even a single earthworm escape!” he ordered.
But as soon as he finished speaking, a crow suddenly descended from the darkness.
The crow moved like a black wind, so fast that no one could clearly see its form.
The crow didn’t engage in combat.
Instead, it repeatedly pecked at the horses’ eyes, startling them and causing them to rear up, throwing their riders to the ground.
Jin Zhu leaped from his horse, stepping on the saddle and lunging toward the crow in midair.
The horse, unable to withstand the force, knelt on the ground, while Jin Zhu’s bulky figure passed by the crow—but he missed!
Jin Zhu was shocked.
The crow was faster than him!
“What is this thing? How can a crow be so powerful… A cultivator?!” he exclaimed.
“Use crossbows! Shoot it down!” he ordered.
The spies quickly drew their crossbows and fired into the night sky, but the crow dodged the bolts with ease, cawing mockingly as it flew.
Jin Zhu was certain this was some kind of cultivation path, but he couldn’t recall any such path in his knowledge.
It was as if this path had never appeared in history before.
How could that be?
The Office of Ceremonial Affairs was responsible for managing the imperial court’s intelligence.
Any cultivation path that had ever appeared in the world would have been recorded, even if it was just a folk legend.
What kind of cultivation path could be so deeply hidden that not a single word about it existed in the Office of Ceremonial Affairs’ archives?
“Abandon the horses!” Jin Zhu barked, leading the charge toward the dust-filled ruins of Manager Yuan’s mansion.
The crow grew frantic, diving down to peck at the spies, but more and more spies arrived, their crossbow bolts forming a net in the air.
If the crow flew even slightly lower, it would be pierced by multiple bolts!
Forced to retreat, the crow flew high into the night sky.
In just a few breaths, Jin Zhu arrived at the gate of the mansion where the explosion had occurred.
He leaped over the high threshold and into the courtyard, but all that remained was a collapsed building and a corpse stripped of its robes.
He looked up, but the crow was nowhere to be seen.
“Chase them! The killer can’t have gone far!” he ordered.
…
…
Several hundred meters away, Chen Ji was being carried on someone’s shoulder, with another person following behind.
Bouncing along, Chen Ji looked at the person behind him and asked with difficulty, “Brother Biao? Didn’t you leave already?”
Wu Hongbiao grinned. “I was planning to leave, but the Si Cao thought you might be trying to do something on your own, so he had me stay behind. We heard the commotion in Hongyi Alley and sneaked over, but we didn’t dare get too close. When you escaped over the rooftops, we followed from a distance. At the time, we didn’t recognize you and thought you were some kind of outlaw.”
At that moment, the Si Cao carrying Chen Ji spoke coldly. “Stop chatting. Be careful not to let your breathing get too loud, or we’ll be caught.”
With that, he carried Chen Ji, turning left and right through the alleys for half an hour before finally reaching a dark lane where an oxcart was tied up.
The Si Cao threw Chen Ji onto the cart and sat at the front, whipping the ox to head south.
Chen Ji sat up. “Where are we going?”
The Si Cao replied calmly, “We’re heading south to Yangzhou to lay low. Once the Secret Spy Bureau lifts the blockade, we’ll head north back to the Jing Dynasty. There’s no place for us in the Ning Dynasty anymore. We need to go back and find your uncle.”
Chen Ji was stunned.
He looked back at the retreating buildings and stone-paved roads.
Was he really leaving the Ning Dynasty?
He asked softly, “Is there no other way?”
“No other way. You injured Jin Zhu tonight and killed Liang He Yong. From now on, both the Military Intelligence Bureau and the Secret Spy Bureau will be after you.”
“Liang He Yong?”
“That’s the Manager Yuan you just killed,” the Si Cao said coldly. “He used to be one of your uncle’s men, but he betrayed your uncle to pledge his loyalty to Lu Guanwu. A traitor like him deserves to die. Even if you hadn’t killed him, I would have found a way to do it before we left.”
Chen Ji leaned against the cart, silent for a long time. “Why are you so loyal to my uncle?”
The Si Cao tightened the reins. “That’s none of your business.”
Chen Ji recalled his fight with Manager Yuan and asked, “What kind of cultivation path was he on? Why was his body so tough that even a blade couldn’t pierce it?”
“Before he came to the Ning Dynasty, your uncle had him infiltrate the Jing Dynasty’s Shengjing City and join the Kujue Temple. He practiced the Golden Bell Path. There’s no shortcut to this path.
You have to ring the temple bell every day for ten years without missing a single day, and your body will naturally become as tough as iron. But he only rang the bell for ten years, so there were still many weak points in his body.
There was an old monk at Kujue Temple who rang the bell for sixty years, and his body was completely impervious to damage.”
Chen Ji leaned back against the cart, exhausted. “I see. So ringing a bell can be a form of cultivation.”
He remembered that the little monk by the Prince’s son’s side also seemed to cultivate by reciting the Earth Store King’s Vows Sutra over and over again.
If that was the case, then Buddhism and Taoism must have many cultivation paths.
No wonder the Buddhist banks dared to take over the money-changing business…
During his time in the Ning Dynasty, Chen Ji hadn’t seen a single money-changing shop on the streets.
It seemed the Buddhist banks had a monopoly.
Chen Ji asked another question. “How many Si Cao are there in our Military Intelligence Bureau?”
The Si Cao driving the cart was silent for a moment, then, as if deciding they were on the same side, answered, “There used to be three. Now there are ten, named after the ten heavenly stems: Jia, Yi, Bing, Ding, Wu, Ji, Geng, Xin, Ren, and Gui.”
“Which one are you?”
“I’m ‘Gui.’ Manager Yuan was ‘Xin.’”
The Ning Dynasty’s twelve zodiac signs corresponded to the Jing Dynasty’s ten heavenly stems.
Chen Ji asked, “Why is there no place for us in the Ning Dynasty anymore?”
Si Cao Gui replied calmly, “Originally, the entire Military Intelligence Bureau was filled with people your uncle had promoted. But now that Lu Guanwu has been promoted to Military Strategist and is in charge of all military intelligence in the Jing Dynasty, he’s brought in his own people and is slowly purging your uncle’s old subordinates. The previous bureau chief was also one of your uncle’s men, but I haven’t been able to contact him for half a month. He’s probably already been killed. Once a new bureau chief takes over, there will definitely be another purge.”
Chen Ji suddenly asked, “Wait, if all of my uncle’s old subordinates have been eliminated, then in the Military Intelligence Bureau, aside from you, Manager Yuan, and Brother Biao, who else knows that I’m a Jing Dynasty spy?”
Si Cao Gui thought for a moment and replied, “The bureau chief also knew.”
Chen Ji took a deep breath. “But the bureau chief has also been killed by Lu Guanwu. So does that mean that, aside from you and Brother Biao, no one else in the Military Intelligence Bureau knows my identity?”
Si Cao Gui thought it over carefully. “Yes.”
Chen Ji grabbed the reins from Si Cao Gui’s hands and stopped the oxcart.
With determination, he said, “You go to Yangzhou. I’m going back to Taiping Medical Hall.”
(End of Chapter)