I never thought I would love someone like her. I never thought I would love anyone at all, until A-Zhi appeared.
Among the practitioners of the Temple, there was a cynical nickname for the final assessment of one's training: "The Debut," or even the more derogatory "Taking the Stage." Upon reflection, the names were not without merit. Though we appeared prestigious on the surface, striking fear into the hearts of all, we were in truth nothing more than a band of desperate outlaws living hand-to-mouth. For the sake of a corrupt official or a scrap of ultimately inconsequential intelligence, we had to be ready at any moment to offer up our worthless lives. How was that any different from a courtesan allowing herself to be toyed with and trampled by others?
My "Debut" trial was to serve under a secret agent and follow his orders. He would give me a series of tasks over a period of three months; completing them meant passing. His surname was Lu, a wealthy merchant living off his ancestral estate. He was not merely posing as such; he truly belonged to a century-old prominent clan. Squire Lu’s manor was located in the western suburbs of the capital, an area favored by high officials for leisure and residence, second only to the gardens in the southwest of the city. He had inherited it from his father and used his own wealth to renovate it until it reached a state of near perfection.
The world believes that those of the Yingzhao Temple are all a pack of ferocious hounds or blood-drenched asuras. In reality, the organization is divided into countless branches. The vast majority of investigators and secret agents are as unremarkable as Squire Lu—each fulfilling their duties with weak limbs and no extraordinary martial arts. Squire Lu’s role was to monitor and control the commercial intelligence of various industries and report back to the Temple for His Majesty’s reference. The tasks he assigned me were naturally of this sort, involving subjects I had never studied before.
Squire Lu was refined and approachable, a lover of poetry and books who also enjoyed painting landscapes and birds. I tailored my own paintings to his tastes, and as expected, I earned his favor and kind treatment. He taught me the ways of commerce from the ground up. Half of my three-month assessment was spent in his home, focused intently on clicking the abacus and leafing through invoices and ledgers.
Because I was still young, there was no need for strict segregation between the sexes. His wife was kind and benevolent, often inviting me to the inner courtyard to dine with them. Through these interactions, I became acquainted with Squire Lu’s only daughter, Qiu Niang.
Qiu Niang happened to be the same age as me, fourteen, but because I was using the identity of an older brother, I was ostensibly a year older than her, and she had to call me "Brother." The first time I heard her childhood name, it brought to mind a line of verse: *“I remember Qiu Niang, her home west of Gao Bridge, where sparse willows hide the crows.”* When she smilingly brought me tea with her own hands, I adapted the song, casually offering a compliment: *“Green sleeves first fluttering the gold-threaded robes, jade fingers richly steeping the new tea.”* This delighted Madam Lu, who laughed and sighed in praise. Qiu Niang, however, was not very literate and rarely read poetry; she stared at me with wide, puzzled eyes, so I wrote the lines down and gave them to her. Madam Lu recognized that I had been taught by Fu Yannian and suggested that I teach Qiu Niang calligraphy. I was not entirely without ulterior motives; everything was a calculation for my future. Naturally, I had to do my best to please everyone in the Lu household, so this request played right into my hands.
And so, in the study, I would study books on political economy like the *Essentials of Commerce*, while Qiu Niang clumsily wielded her brush. Even if she wrote ten pages of large characters a day, I was never harsh with her. I only required that her posture be correct and her strokes be even. After all, I was only staying for a brief three months; there was no need to be overly meticulous.
Before Squire Lu’s lessons could even conclude, I realized the truth of my Debut trial—it did not lie in the tasks he was about to give me, but in the man himself. He was my mission.
It turned out that Squire Lu had managed the silk trade for many years and was an expert in the field. The supply chain for his ancestral silk shop, "Exquisite Clouds," included not only the fourteen provinces of the empire but also a large quantity of high-end goods imported from the Leitian Kingdom. Naturally, this involved smuggling. He was secretly colluding with King Midie, the second most powerful demon king of Leitian, passing him the commercial intelligence of the Great Jing Empire.
After two months, he finally issued my first task and sent me out of the manor. I was away for two days. Once the task was finished, I used the secret method agreed upon before my departure to report Squire Lu’s actions along with a copy of his ledgers. As expected, my superiors instructed me to eliminate his entire household.
I held that slip of paper and shook my head with a smirk. They certainly thought highly of me. With my cultivation only at the early Cloud-Swallowing stage, how could I possibly shake the dozen or so guards in the manor who were at the middle or late Cloud-Swallowing stage? My only reliance was on a cross-rank array. However, covering an entire manor required such an immense expenditure that it would cost me more than ten drops of my heart’s blood. If I couldn't kill everyone in a single strike, and even one or two escaped, I would be left with no strength to fight, left at the mercy of others. My superiors had likely calculated that as a disciple of the Wujing Sect, I possessed the art of formations, and thus deliberately increased the difficulty of the mission.
Qiu Niang was dancing with joy, clutching the gifts I had brought back for her. There was a set of expensive Moluo dolls bought from North Street in Xianglan, some sweet treats, and a cloth tiger for the Dragon Boat Festival. It was now late April, not far from the festival.
I still had to take the Soft-Bone Body-Forging Pills every month, and for the first two years, I had to take them three times a month. This was truly the ultimate form of torture. The first time I took the medicine, I exhausted all my strength and only lasted half the time it takes to drink a cup of tea before losing consciousness entirely. It was thanks to Senior Zhai watching over me—having anticipated this—and using the true qi of a Star-Plucking Realm master to protect my heart meridians, otherwise I would have died long ago.
The night after I returned to the manor was time for another dose. After more than a year of this torment, I had grown accustomed to it. As I soaked in the medicinal tub, the pain immediately bored into my bones and pierced my heart, yet I felt a sort of numb pleasure, telling myself that I could become stronger. At first, I could still manage to read a few pages of a book, but in the end, I had to circulate my sect’s calming heart-mantra to combat the pain, silently reciting Taoist scriptures to remain conscious.
The next day in the study, the Body-Forging Pill suddenly took effect—this was a common occurrence. Feeling my bones lengthening and expanding inside my body, I could even hear my joints popping; it was quite eerie. I was demonstrating to Qiu Niang how to copy the *Mysterious Pagoda Stele* when a sudden sharp pain shot through my arm, causing my brush to slip and leave a crooked blot of ink.
Catching sight of my expression, Qiu Niang supported my hand in a panic of worry. I forced myself to set the brush by the inkstone. The pain made it difficult to speak, yet I still managed a smile and said, "It’s likely... a stomach ailment acting up."
"A stomach ailment?" Qiu Niang asked innocently. I had long ago fabricated a backstory, claiming I was an orphan taken in by an anonymous wandering master, and that I had joined Squire Lu’s service upon completing my apprenticeship. I explained to her that I had begged on the streets since I was a child, never knowing when my next meal would come, which had resulted in a stomach condition.
"Ah, it's because you ate too little for lunch!" she realized suddenly. "You already eat so delicately, and today you didn't even eat half of what you usually do!"
She hurriedly called out her wet nurse's name and ran toward the kitchen to find food for me. I had intended to use this to send her away so I could endure this moment or two in private. Although I had abstained from worldly food since entering the Wujing Sect, I had to maintain my disguise at the Lu residence, eating normally every day. My inability to eat today was due to the medicine from the night before, and also because I needed to minimize the intake of impurities for the medicine to be more effective.
The plain porridge she brought was warm and white, emitting a sweet fragrance. Following her young girl's palate, she had added a good deal of honey to it. I was usually very wary and guarded about anything I consumed; when dining with the Lu mother and daughter, I would always wait for them to taste the food before picking up my chopsticks. But looking at Qiu Niang’s earnest expectation and deep worry, my eyes drifted to the desk nearby. The ink I had dropped was staining the word "Emotion" in the phrase: *"If one wishes to fell the trees of worldly passion in the field of emotion, and rain sweet dew upon the seeds of the Law..."* Above that sat the cloth tiger I had bought for her. She had loved it dearly since receiving it, holding it on her lap while eating, hugging it in her sleep, and even placing the toy neatly in the study to accompany and supervise her hard work.
I remained silent for a moment, then opened my mouth to swallow a spoonful of the porridge she offered. There was too much honey; the sweetness was cloying and made my throat ache. She likely wouldn't see the dragon boats this year. In her final days, I would try to follow her wishes as much as possible.
My superiors intended for me to act before the Dragon Boat Festival to avoid the crowds and potential complications of the holiday itself. However, from that day on, Qiu Niang paid even closer attention to my meals. Whereas Madam Lu used to occasionally invite me to the inner courtyard, now all three of my meals were under Qiu Niang’s supervision. If I didn't finish every grain of rice, she would mimic the voice of the cloth tiger to scold me. Perhaps I was intentionally delaying; thus, time passed until we reached the beginning of May.
Squire Lu was a warm-hearted man. On the day of the Dragon Boat Festival, he gave his household staff the day off, leaving the security sparse. He himself had social and business engagements he couldn't escape, so he had me accompany his wife and daughter to the Dan River in the suburbs to watch the dragon boat races, with only one maid and one manservant following us.
Of the three rivers in Pingjing, the Dan River flowed from north to south, cutting across the city. Its upper reaches consisted of the western mountains, the branch temple of the Wujing Sect, and vast royal gardens. After passing through the city, the lower reaches led to the Liangyue Gardens built during the reign of Emperor Dezong. Normally, boating was prohibited there, but it was opened to the public on the day of the Dragon Boat Festival. Skilled rowers could row all the way from the upper reaches to the lower reaches ten miles away, allowing spectators both inside and outside the city to see them. Ten days prior, one could hear the drummers at the bows of the dragon boats practicing in the swift, clear currents of the Dan River, their beats shaking the sky. In the days leading up to the festival, they didn't stop day or night.
Madam Lu found it too noisy and even considered moving back to their main residence in the city for a while, but Qiu Niang was very excited. She often danced to the beat of the drums or mimicked the rowing posture of the oarsmen, laughing as she shouted the cadences. On the day itself, seeing the real dragon boats made the young girl ecstatic. She darted in and out of the crowd, chasing after the boats. I followed her dutifully, helping her block the ill-intentioned touches of the loitering rogues nearby.
As the sun set, five magnificently decorated and imposing dragon boat teams sped into the city. By now, they were likely nearing the foot of Liangyue Gardens to be reviewed by the Emperor. Only then, under Madam Lu’s urging, did Qiu Niang pout and turn back reluctantly. Perhaps because we had walked side-by-side for so long, she unconsciously took my arm. Madam Lu smiled, seemingly without any intent to scold, but I still considered finding an inconspicuous moment to silently pull my arm away.
A sudden searing pain shot through my chest. I raised a hand to cover it, knowing that the Great Execution Array—fueled by twelve drops of my heart’s blood and covering the entire manor—had been activated.
***
