The Weight of a Debt

Li Huowang stared at the trembling face-changing performer in front of him, his hand already reaching out to peel back the man’s skin to see how many faces he really had.

Sensing trouble, the innkeeper who had been calculating fortunes at the counter hurried over to smooth things over. “Honored guest! Honored guest! My apologies, truly my apologies, my staff has offended you. How about this—your meal is on the house, and I’ll throw in an extra soup for everyone, what do you say?”

Li Huowang stood frozen for a few seconds before slowly pulling back and sitting down again.

“What’s wrong with you? Why are you so tense?” Bai Lingmiao asked, puzzled by his unusual behavior.

Li Huowang let out a light sigh. That face-changing performer had reminded him of the Zuowandao and their way of flipping through faces. He had overreacted.

Picking up his bowl and continuing to eat, he explained to her, “It’s nothing. This place is Shangjing—it’s under the Supervisory Heavenly Office’s jurisdiction. The Zuowandao shouldn’t be able to infiltrate this far.”

After they finished their meal in a hurry, Li Huowang found another inn without any opera troupe and settled in. Then, alone, he headed for the address written on the letter.

He wasn’t familiar with Shangjing. It wasn’t until deep in the night, after the curfew had been enforced, that he finally found the place.

With a creak, the wooden door opened. The Chief Recorder poked his head out, lantern in hand, looked left and right to make sure no one else was there, and quickly pulled Li Huowang inside.

Li Huowang looked around the courtyard and saw that it wasn’t large. Besides a well, a big jujube tree took up most of the space. He was genuinely surprised that an official as high-ranking as the Chief Recorder lived in such a small place—it didn’t even seem to have any servants.

But despite its size, it looked exquisitely kept. Just right for a family of three.

“Erjiu, oh Erjiu, we’ve been waiting for you day and night, and finally you’re here,” the smiling, pale-faced old eunuch said, grabbing Li Huowang’s hand and not letting go.

Li Huowang had to pull his hand back with some force and clasped his fist in greeting to the Chief Recorder. “My gratitude to the Chief Recorder for your assistance. I will not forget this debt.”

“Hehehe, not at all, not at all,” the Chief Recorder said, sizing up Li Huowang with a smile, his mind clearly working behind those eyes.

Now that he was face to face with the man, Li Huowang didn’t stand on ceremony. After all, the Recorder already owed him a favor. “Chief Recorder, what you wrote in your letter—that you can contact the Military sect and have a way to dispel the killing intent clinging to me—is that true?”

Matters had their轻重缓急, and Li Huowang still felt that Bai Lingmiao’s situation was more urgent than his own.

“Yes! Yes, yes, yes! I knew you were going to ask about that, so I prepared everything specially. Shall we go now?”

Li Huowang didn’t understand why the Recorder seemed even more eager than he was, but he wasn’t about to complain about speed. He immediately followed the Chief Recorder through a corridor to the back gate, where two sedan chairs were already waiting.

“Your seat awaits, honored sir~” The four bearers knelt down with practiced ease, perfectly synchronized.

It was Li Huowang’s first time in a sedan chair. To be honest, it was very uncomfortable—rocking and swaying, giving him a seasick feeling.

The Chief Recorder lifted his curtain and called out warmly to Li Huowang’s chair beside him, “Brother Erjiu, you just arrived in Shangjing. Where are you staying? Did you like that little yard? If you do, how about I just leave it to you?”

“Thank you for your kindness, Chief Recorder, but I haven’t earned such a favor. I can’t accept such a great gift.”

Something was off. Li Huowang felt that ever since the Heart-Turbid incident, this eunuch had been overly enthusiastic. Who just gives away a house after a few words?

Hearing Li Huowang’s refusal, the Chief Recorder put on a look of displeasure. “Ai~ Brother Erjiu, you’re being distant. How have you not earned it? You helped me with such a big favor before. A shabby house like this is nothing. It was originally meant for my retirement, but the location isn’t great—don’t look down on it, that’s all I ask.”

“Then it’s settled. The keys and the deed are under your seat cushion. And inside the house, I’ve left a few little trinkets, nothing valuable.”

Li Huowang reached under his seat and his fingers immediately touched three brass keys and a few sheets of paper.

Sitting in the swaying sedan chair, Li Huowang held these items in his hands, pondering the Recorder’s intentions.

He thought for a long time before it finally clicked: the Recorder was trying to use the house to pay off the favor he owed. And those “little trinkets” he left in the house were probably not ordinary either.

“Giving me his retirement home… what does that mean? Is he planning to leave the Supervisory Heavenly Office?”

As Li Huowang was turning this over in his mind, the sedan curtain was pulled aside and the bearer’s humble voice rang out. “Your seat awaits, honored sir~”

Li Huowang stuffed the keys and deed into his robe and bent down to get out. The moment he looked up, a massive lion’s head, baring its fangs, leaped in front of his face.

He stepped back a few paces and saw the building before him. Another prison. It seemed the Chief Recorder was thoroughly tied to these prisons.

With a grinding creak, the prison gate opened a crack, and the Chief Recorder led Li Huowang inside.

The whole prison was double-gated and double-walled, appearing exceptionally sturdy. Through the first gate, they came to a second one, which was even smaller. They had to bend over and crouch to get through.

Further in was a third gate. The frame of this third gate was carved with a tiger, but after the Chief Recorder quietly explained, Li Huowang learned it wasn’t a tiger at all, but a legendary beast—the bi'an.

The moment the third gate opened, dozens of gazes, as solid as physical weight, locked onto him. As his eyes adjusted to the dim prison light, Li Huowang saw who was watching him.

How to describe it? If he had to put it in one word, it was like a room full of Peng Longtengs.

These gaolers, their faces branded with characters, were either standing or lying down, drinking or playing finger-guessing games. Every single one of them was a Military practitioner. Their presence made the air so thick with killing intent that it was hard to breathe after just a few exchanges.

Li Huowang couldn’t imagine what kind of being was being held in this prison that required such a force to keep it in check.

“Aiya, isn’t this Eunuch Chen? What wind blows you here?” A senior gaoler, drinking wine, looked at the Chief Recorder with evident surprise. His thick white beard connected from his left earlobe to his right.

“Hehehe~ Captain Cao, it’s been a while. I’ve missed you. How’s the family?” the Chief Recorder said, sidling over with a smile.

“Not bad, just the usual. My son and daughter-in-law fight every other day. Give me a moment, I need to light some incense for the Prison God first.”

It was only when Captain Cao moved that Li Huowang noticed, embedded in the left wall at mid-height, a shrine carved from sandstone.

Inside the shrine were three small brick-carved statues. The one in the middle was an old man, his expression relatively kind and his posture dignified. But the two little demons on either side were the complete opposite—ferocious, hideous, full of menace.

The old man in the middle was the so-called Prison God.