Inside the Dashun Pavilion.

The lean figure in blood-stained white cloth was hurled into the far wall in an instant.

The gathered young heirs scrambled to their feet. When they turned back to look at Yuangang on the floor, they found him with eyes bulging, blood from nose and mouth, chest caved in beyond any natural shape. Half a breath keeping him alive.

One palm strike. No technique. Pure physical force, nearly killing a Jade Liquid Realm body-refinement practitioner.

And from the look of it, he hadn’t used his full strength.

By the time anyone had collected themselves, all eyes went to Zhao Kangyun.

“…”

He’d been on his feet already, fan not yet fully open, and had suddenly become the focus of the room.

He felt no satisfaction from it whatsoever. His throat was dry.

He waited a beat, then said carefully:

“Brother — the laws of our empire haven’t become so strict as to forbid anyone from laughing at anything. The Jingang School is a respected name in the jianghu. What you’ve done here — wouldn’t you say it’s somewhat excessive?”

Precisely said. Nothing to catch.

“Gh—” Yuangang’s face was covered in blood, ears ringing, head clouded. He found Shen Yi with the instinctive venom of injury.

When he saw the room’s attention had returned to the young man, Zhao Kangyun quietly exhaled.

He had exceptional talent and a few years of seniority on most here — and he was late-stage Jade Liquid. Against Yuangang, the outcome would have been uncertain. Against this young man, there was no outcome worth naming.

He was angry only at himself for coming out to walk without a messenger or an elder nearby.

Zhang Tuhu stared at Shen Yi, the pig snout mask slightly moving.

Something was happening inside him that had no simple name. He couldn’t meet those eyes directly. What a scene to be found in — and there Shen Yi was, standing in front of him the same as always.

“…”

Shen Yi turned slightly. His steady gaze moved across the room and settled on Zhao Kangyun.

He looked at him quietly. “Then laugh.”

No audible emotion in the words.

The room that had been full of laughter was now thoroughly silent. Zhao Kangyun made a visible effort at his own expression. He gave it up and sat back down.

“The Jingang School will know how to seek satisfaction from you.”

The great hall of the Dashun Pavilion had gone still. Even Tian Zhiwen was struggling to believe what he was seeing.

This is Qingzhou city. That’s the Zhao family’s eldest. He just… backed down?

But a young genius who had just made enemies of half of Qingzhou’s major powers in one breath — who was this person?

The room was obedient right now, but only out of fear of what he might do next. The hostility behind every set of eyes hadn’t diminished. The moment anyone stepped out of the Dashun Pavilion, this stopped being a matter between young people.

Before Tian Zhiwen could finish working that out, a sound came from the level above.

Li Muqing dropped from the second floor. Li Xinhan gritted his teeth, cursed himself internally, and followed through the pain.

One on each side.

Li Xinhan planted a foot on Yuangang’s stomach, reached for a saber — and remembered all three of them had come without weapons. He grabbed a bench from beside him and pressed it against Yuangang’s throat.

“Stop staring. Stay down.”

Another collective start from the room.

The Li family was part of this?

“Li Xinhan — your father and the Jingang School’s abbot have always been close friends.” Zhao Kangyun had just been made to look foolish and offered the only thing he could.

“The Li family’s goodwill is the Li family’s goodwill.” Li Xinhan swept a cold look across the room. “I’m acting in my capacity as a three-band Commander of the Demon Suppression Division.”

He raised his voice.

“Division business. Everyone down.”

Li Muqing’s purple skirt settled. She met the surrounding eyes with an equally flat expression.

Once the Division’s authority was invoked, it stopped being a private grievance. That had to be nailed down now — let this crowd think they could push back, and there was no telling what would follow.

Under the siblings’ combined stare, the gathered heirs paused, then sank to the floor with varying degrees of visible protest.

Zhao Kangyun gripped his fan and stayed seated.

Li Xinhan hurled the bench at him. “Are you deaf? Get down!”

Bang.

Zhao Kangyun smashed the bench away and sat with his jaw locked. He crouched slowly.

“You’re pulling the Division’s name without authorization. There isn’t a single General in Qingzhou right now. Who issued this order? When you go back, how exactly do you plan to explain this?”

“Ah—”

Li Xinhan had been enjoying himself thoroughly up until that word. His eyes went to the young man in the crowd.

Had this gone too far.

Something in his expression answered before words could. Zhao Kangyun’s cold smile returned, and the other heirs around the room found a fragment of their earlier confidence.

Li Muqing rubbed her temple. This idiot brother. The situation had been manageable. Now he’d made it into something, and it would’ve been better to have stayed upstairs and let Shen Yi handle it quietly.

“…”

Shen Yi reached to his hip, took out a flat iron badge, and tossed it to Li Xinhan.

He started for the door. One unhurried sentence behind him.

“Surround the Jingang School. Don’t let anyone leave.”

The words hit the room.

The entire hall went so quiet a dropped needle would have been audible.

Zhao Kangyun’s head came up. Li Muqing’s frame shook slightly.

Li Xinhan blinked. He looked at the badge in his hand. After a moment of genuine blankness, something started moving through him — his hands, which never trembled, began to tremble. His voice came out barely above a breath.

“Oh. Hell.“

He was Li family, yes. But he was young, tightly governed by house rules, had never experienced anything like this in his life.

“Come with me.”

Shen Yi glanced at Zhang Tuhu and stepped out of the Dashun Pavilion.

A short-tempered, blunt middle-aged man would never have accepted humiliation willingly. Someone had a hold on him.

What kind of hold would a man who hauled cargo for ten days to scrape together a child’s tuition have? Not much — only family.

To protect that hold, the action needed to be decisive. No room for error.

The details could wait until they were back somewhere private. Staying here any longer only made things harder for Zhang Tuhu.

The big man stared at the floor, mind blank, and followed without deciding to.

Qingzhou city. A deep night sky.

Orders traveled outward.

The garrison forces held their posts. The thousand-odd Inner Division Commanders on leave began to move. Voices passed the message down.

“Who ordered this?”

“Direct order of Commander Shen, personal attendant Deputy Commander under General Chen Qiankun’s command.”

“Surround the Jingang School.”

The Commanders back from Qingfeng Mountain kept their expressions flat. Chain after chain emerged from their sleeves, the sound of it settling over the entire street.

Gold eagle and vicious wolf emblems moved through the dark.

“Contain the Jingang School!”

Inside the Division’s compound, Outer Division Commanders stopped what they were doing. Dozens of Deputy Commanders drew on their cloaks and stepped forward. Nearly three thousand Outer Division Commanders still in Qingzhou began to pour from the compound’s gates, moving toward the western district.

Across the great city, a darkness deeper than the night itself settled over the streets.

Torches formed a continuous line, spreading like fire in dry grass.

Great families and sects pulled their doors closed. Every pedestrian in the streets retreated indoors and watched through the gaps.

Neat rows of black passed in front of them. Cold qi swept the length of every road.

“Are you certain that’s what Commander Shen meant?”

Li Muqing’s teeth were together. She could have cheerfully strangled her brother.

“I didn’t do this.” Li Xinhan looked genuinely uncertain amid the flowing crowd. “I didn’t want it this large — I just found Deputy Commander Hong Lei, who had been leading his horse, and the golden-eagle Commanders who’d cleared the path. I said Commander Shen had run into trouble and needed the Jingang School people kept in place—”

Western outskirts of Qingzhou city.

A tall pagoda structure ringed by grey-white walls.

Dozens of jianghu fighters came rushing down the long steps toward the gate in urgent steps — and arrived to find themselves staring, motionless, at the wall of black that had poured toward this place.

In the torchlight, gold eagles and fierce wolves.

An expression that said: no one leaves.

(End of Chapter)