The imperial capital. The Princely Household of Ji.

The Princess sat before her dressing mirror, looking at the graceful, distinguished face reflected back at her, makeup applied to perfection — and yet the smile at the corner of her lips was slowly fading.

She turned a jade bracelet over and over in her fingers.

As her hand tightened into a fist, the bracelet shattered with a crack, though the shards left not a mark on her pale skin.

“You’re saying Qingzhou’s General never came to call on the household?” The Princess turned her gaze back from the mirror, voice perfectly calm, and yet somehow chilling.

She’d waited a full day and night in keen anticipation, having already rehearsed in her mind exactly how she would mock Jiang Yuanhua when he finally appeared.

And yet here it was, the gate of the household, still empty.

The handmaiden knelt on the floor, trembling from head to foot. “Princess… the General who came to the capital this time isn’t the one you know… it’s that black-armored young General who came to the household last time.”

“…”

The Princess raised an eyebrow.

Qingzhou had a new General, then. What about Jiang Yuanhua?

Dead?

If so, the crisis Qingzhou was currently facing was probably far worse than she’d assumed.

“Hmph.”

A cold smile. If Jiang Yuanhua’s obedient little disciple wasn’t coming, instead sending that young General Shen to come in her place — he was refusing to bow his head, then.

With that thought, the Princess gave a light wave of her sleeve. “If he comes to call, tell him I’m not in residence. The world doesn’t give out favors that easily — if the main party won’t show their face themselves, sending a junior to stand in front isn’t going to cut it.”

Did he really think that just because she’d given a young man the nominal title of General, she’d actually treat him as one?

“Princess…”

The handmaiden’s slight frame shook harder than before, and she said quietly, dreading every word, “That General may not be coming to the household at all.”

As those closest to the Princess, they knew better than anyone how to read her moods.

The night before, even before the Qingzhou General had arrived, they’d already dispatched someone under the household’s name to make inquiries at the War Temple.

When those guards returned today, the expressions on their faces had been peculiar in the extreme.

“What do you mean?” The Princess’s fingers, smoothing her hair, went still.

“General Shen was elevated to General and came to the capital not to seek aid…” The handmaiden looked up, and the next instant a foot struck her face, sending her rolling four or five full turns across the floor, one cheekbone caving inward.

She caught her face in terrified hands, forcing herself to swallow the blood welling in her mouth.

“Are you playing riddles with me?” The Princess rose slowly and walked toward her.

The handmaiden fought down a sob, gasping as she forced out the rest of it. “Commander Shen has been promoted again. He’s now Deputy Inspector of the Demon Suppression Division! And there’s been no news of any demon troubles in Qingzhou.”

At those words, the Princess went utterly still.

Deputy Inspector of the Demon Suppression Division?

She suddenly realized she might have read this all wrong.

Could it be the demon crisis in Qingzhou was already resolved? But even so, how had he ended up as Inspector?

Even if he’d personally killed the demon king with his own hands, that alone would never have gotten him that far.

“Commander Shen — Commander Shen has entered the War Temple’s Jia section! He is now a proper disciple of the War Temple!”

The handmaiden didn’t dare hedge any longer, and got it all out in one breath, then pressed her face back to the floor.

“…”

The Princess stood rigid for a long moment, then finally let out a long, slow breath, and sat back down.

If the Inspector title had merely surprised her, what a War Temple disciple represented was something else entirely different.

In name, the War Temple was the equal of Xuanguang Cave and Wutong Mountain alike.

Even in its current weakened state, it still had a Spirit-Transformation cultivator presiding over it.

Her own pride had come from an immortal sect’s contempt for ordinary mortal dynasties, but now that Shen Yi had entered the true War Temple, he was a legitimate immortal sect disciple in his own right.

And beyond that, the War Temple had specifically arranged the Inspector vacancy for him — which spoke volumes about how highly they valued him. Calling him a core disciple wouldn’t be an overstatement.

In terms of standing, he actually outranked her — a Princess who merely had some connection to Xuanguang Cave.

After a long stretch of silent thought, she forced a smile to her face. “Have someone select one of my personal collection pieces to send over to the War Temple — something that nurtures the soul. A gift to congratulate Commander Shen on his promotion.”

Several guards outside the door gave their acknowledgment.

They hadn’t gone far before she spoke again. “Actually, forget that. Prepare the carriage. I’ll go congratulate him in person.”

If she remembered rightly, there was no particular grievance between herself and young General Shen.

A prodigy this young was worth befriending early. She absolutely could not allow any misunderstanding to take root between herself and Shen Yi on account of that master-and-disciple pair with the Jiang surname, leaving unnecessary ill will in its wake.

Her guards all paused for a beat, then silently complained to themselves.

Just a moment ago she’d been talking about turning him away at the gate, and now the household was going out of its way to offer congratulations instead.

But not a trace of anything less than complete deference showed on their faces. “We’ll go prepare the carriage at once.”

About an hour later.

The household’s opulent carriage rolled slowly out onto the long street, coming to a stop before the War Temple.

Inside the carriage, the Princess opened the box beside her, looking down at a deer’s antler fashioned from blue-green jade, running her fingers over it for a moment to make sure the gift carried appropriate weight, then nodded her approval.

Two handmaidens stepped down from the carriage and made their way toward the Demon Suppression Division’s central offices.

Liu Kun had just finished a full day’s work, and was rubbing at his aching wrist, when a soft, pleasant voice reached him from the counter.

“The Princess of Ji has come to call. We’d be grateful if you could announce her.”

Liu Kun looked up in surprise. “To see whom?”

A Princess, and the notoriously formidable Princess of Ji at that — what was she doing at the Demon Suppression Division’s central offices?

“Who else would she be here to see — you?”

The younger of the two handmaidens swept her gaze around and, not spotting the face she was looking for, immediately frowned.

The older one patted her arm and spoke pleasantly instead. “The Princess has come in person to congratulate the newly appointed Commander Shen. She and the Commander are old acquaintances.”

Another old acquaintance?

Liu Kun found himself inexplicably reminded of Jiang He from that morning. The Princess of Ji’s standing was far too elevated for empty boasting — but still. If she truly were close friends with the man, what was she doing coming to a Demon Suppression Division constable to ask about him?

Plus, given the Princess’s reputation — tch, did she think he was an idiot?

He shook his head and replied politely. “My apologies. Commander Shen is not in. Please, take your leave.”

The younger handmaiden blinked in surprise, then her face changed, and her voice went cold. “And where has Commander Shen gone?”

At that tone of interrogation, Liu Kun arched an eyebrow, rose slowly from his seat, and looked down at the two handmaidens from behind the counter.

He closed his ledger at a leisurely pace, a sardonic smirk playing at the corner of his mouth. “Heh.”

Two servants of a Princely Household, coming to ask after an Inspector’s whereabouts — even if the Princess herself asked, the only answer she’d get was an eye-roll.

The Inspector of the Demon Suppression Division was tasked with overseeing, among other things, demons, clans, and sects.

And the Princess of Ji, with her ties to Xuanguang Cave, was one of the more conspicuous entries on that particular list.

This situation had devolved to roughly the level of a bandit demanding to know where the constable was headed.

“…”

Both handmaidens felt that sardonic gaze sweep over them.

It suddenly dawned on them that this was the Demon Suppression Division, completely independent of the court — and it had absolutely no interest in deferring to a Princely Household.

“Liu Mou’s station is too humble to go around casually revealing the Commander’s whereabouts.”

Liu Kun gathered his things and walked toward the office’s exit, tossing back a parting word. “If there’s need, when Commander Shen returns I’ll inform him. If the matter is urgent, you’re welcome to wait outside. As for how many days that might take, I honestly couldn’t say.”

“You—!”

The younger handmaiden glared after him with wide eyes, about to shout something, only to be grabbed by the arm by the older one.

The two of them hurried back to the carriage and relayed the news in soft voices from outside the curtain.

“Not in?”

The Princess lifted the carriage curtain, her eyes placid.

She looked up at the War Temple’s towering form, silent for a long moment, and a smile of quiet significance played at her lips. “Keeping me waiting, is he?”

She let the curtain fall.

A shadow fell across the Princess’s face.

A disciple who’d only just joined the War Temple — not studying techniques, not sitting at the office — what, had he gone off to the countryside on a pleasure trip? Feeding that line to a ghost, perhaps! He’d obviously been tipped off in advance not to receive her.

Fine.

Just a War Temple disciple. What was so impressive about that?

He really thought he was some great personage now.

She fought to steady her quickening breath — and a moment later, completely lost her composure, sweeping her hand out and smashing the jade deer’s antler to pieces. “The insolence!”

Somewhere along a post road of Great Qian.

The black-scaled demon-horses galloped in spectacular form, streaking past like a rush of light, like fiend dragons taking flight.

Zhang Xuan suddenly slapped his forehead. “Oh no!”

Shen Yi tugged his reins and looked back. “What is it?”

“Commander Shen — I forgot to collect the rewards on behalf of my colleagues…”

Zhang Xuan, clad in his grim black armor, managed to look nothing like the imposing figure the armor was meant to convey — more like an old farmer whose back had been bent by years of hard living.

“It’s fine. We’ll collect it on the way back.” Shen Yi turned his eyes forward again and kept riding.

“On the way back?” Zhang Xuan found that no matter what the Inspector said, it always left him faintly lost. The same was true of how the man went about his work — just like this very moment, finding himself inexplicably riding out of the capital on the spur of the moment.

The man was from Qingzhou, wasn’t he? Was this really how things were done at the Demon Suppression Division there?

“Commander Shen, may I give you one more briefing on Song Prefecture’s situation?”

Zhang Xuan hesitated, then decided to ask — though he’d already gone over it three or five times, he couldn’t quite rest easy.

Because after hearing it, the Commander’s face hadn’t shifted even a fraction, and his only response had been a simple nod, leaving Zhang Xuan half-convinced the man hadn’t really taken any of it in.

Those were two demon kings!

“Say what you like.”

Shen Yi had no objection to this. He might as well listen — it beat Jiang Yuanhua’s habit of finding new angles from which to extol the virtues of his own disciple, endlessly cramming it into Shen Yi’s ears like some kind of brainwashing.

How that man had managed to find so many approaches to praise Jiang Qiulan from, Shen Yi honestly couldn’t fathom.

“…”

Zhang Xuan sighed. “Never mind.”

There really wasn’t much more to say, when it came down to it.

Song Prefecture was the smallest of the Nine Provinces, with only eight prefectures under its administration.

Such a small place, and yet it had managed to attract the attention of two separate demon kings.

The entire Song Prefecture Demon Suppression Division and its demon-hunters, across the last two hundred years, had really only ever done one thing.

Fought desperately to stir up conflict between those two demon kings.

From framing each other’s consorts and subordinates, to deliberately letting slip word of some precious treasure to set the two kings at each other’s throats, to spreading rumors all over about which of them was the stronger — they’d left no trick unused, and had finally, at great cost, driven the two into a blood feud.

Even so, the price Song Prefecture had paid was devastating.

Four of its eight prefectures had been lost.

Those four were now under one demon king’s control, which held the other demon king at bay outside Song Prefecture proper.

A three-way standoff, each checking the other.

Song Prefecture’s General had lost half the province’s cities, which left the accumulated faith insufficient, and even maintaining a Martial Immortal’s cultivation was starting to become a struggle.

But what had truly tipped the balance…

…was that the one-horned demon king outside the province was running out of lifespan, most of its demon lords dead and gone, the survivors scattered — no longer capable of matching the other demon king in any meaningful way.

“That demon king wants to claim accumulated faith and set up a divine shrine to become a god… if it takes Song Prefecture, nothing short of a Spirit-Transformation cultivator could stop it.”

Zhang Xuan let out a heavy sigh.

Every man who’d ever risen to become a Demon Suppression General had started out full of fire and ambition in his youth, burning to accomplish something worthy of the name.

Who could have imagined they’d end up using a demon’s strength to resist another demon?

Or that they’d find themselves in the worst possible position when one of those demons died.

Becoming a god?

Shen Yi’s brow furrowed slightly.

He’d run into this kind of thing before — the river demon back in Shuiyun Township had harbored exactly such an ambition, crowning itself River God.

But even at its most grandiose, it had only managed to lean on geographical advantage to hold one modest township under its thumb, and even the county seat had refused to give it any credit.

This demon king, by contrast, had seized four entire prefectures outright.

That was very nearly enough accumulated faith to sustain a Martial Immortal.

“Will the people actually believe in it?”

Back then, the river demon had had the Yangchun River, and the villagers depended on the river to make their living.

A demon king occupying four prefectures — what exactly could it offer the people there?

“Believe or die. They have no choice but to believe.”

Zhang Xuan closed his eyes. The supposed combination of carrot and stick — but in practice, once the stick was wielded to its absolute limit, the carrot hardly mattered anymore.

In a living hell like that, being allowed to keep your life was already the greatest kindness.

“Commander Shen, more than half the Demon Suppression Generals in Song Prefecture have been killed or wounded. We can barely hold on to even the last four prefectures.”

Less a request for aid, and more a cry of grief.

Zhang Xuan wasn’t really complaining for his own sake — he still had the ability to come to the capital, still had the luxury of making conversation like this. Compared to the people living in those four prefectures, whatever weight he carried in his heart felt utterly trivial.

He very much wanted Commander Shen to understand the gravity of all this.

The man had only just joined the War Temple — he hadn’t yet, like so many other War Temple disciples, lived through long enough stretches of time to stop thinking of himself as anything quite human, looking down at the Nine Provinces from some elevated, detached vantage point.

Lives lost, in their eyes, were just numbers counted up after a loss. Something that could be made up for.

If the War Temple were willing to lower its pride and go to the immortal sects for help, perhaps a great many of these disasters could be prevented.

Their strength was no longer enough — why cling to the empty dream of a resurgence, holding together the threadbare pretense of a three-way alliance?

Even just asking Xuanguang Cave to send back one Mixed Origin Grandmaster would be something!

“…”

Shen Yi said nothing further. He simply tightened his grip on the reins, and the demon-horse beneath him surged faster — not turning back toward the capital, but pressing on still, toward Song Prefecture.

“Haah.”

Zhang Xuan gave up and bent his head into the wind, following along.

All he could hope was that, after seeing Song Prefecture’s devastation with his own eyes, the man might use his standing as a War Temple disciple to put in a good word for them.

As the road grew rougher underfoot.

A city materialized in the distance, worn and desolate, tattered banners planted at its gates, heads stacked in rows all along the top of the walls.

“Commander Shen, we need to go around to the right.”

Zhang Xuan lifted his eyes, something like shame in them, unable to bring himself to say the second half of that sentence.

Men of the Demon Suppression Division, returning to Song Prefecture.

And still having to detour around demon-held territory first.

What a thing that was, to say out loud.

“…”

Shen Yi tugged his reins to a stop, looking calmly at the distant city walls.

He closed his eyes.

In the next instant, a divine spirit wreathed in auspicious clouds appeared silently in midair, as though an immortal had descended to earth.

The divine spirit’s face was indifferent, both eyes carrying nothing but the intent to kill.

Lady Qinghua didn’t know what lay ahead, and had no particular interest in finding out.

She only knew that when her Master summoned her forth, it meant it was time to start killing.

Whatever demon king might be waiting in there — so what?

Tch. It wasn’t as though she’d never killed one before.

(End of Chapter)