The Capital’s Grim Ledger

“Damn, first the Dharma Sect rebellion, now the Zuowandao purge. It’s all happening at once. Every agent is out in the field.” Nangong looked impatient as he spoke.

Li Huowang’s heart stirred at these words. “How’s the purge of the Zuowandao going?” he asked.

“See for yourself. I’m busy here.”

The thick book was opened. As his eyes swept over the WANTED posters for the Zuowandao, each one marked with large, stamped characters reading EXECUTED or SLAIN, Li Huowang felt a wave of oppressive satisfaction wash away. In the business of dealing with the Zuowandao, the Supervisory Heavenly Office had done good work.

Combining these records with the battle outside the capital, Li Huowang judged that the Tiao, Bing, and Wan factions had been largely cleaned up. Even the Three Yuans and the Four Joys had taken heavy losses. All four North Winds were dead. Three East Winds were dead. Two Red Centers were dead. One White Board was dead. One Fa Cai was dead.

And Dice, their leader, had already lost one of his. Which meant this lone Dice was becoming a commander without an army.

“Our Supervisory Heavenly Office has put a lot of force behind this Zuowandao hunt,” Li Huowang said, flipping the pages as he spoke to Nangong, who was behind the wooden cabinet.

“That’s not even half of it,” Nangong replied. “I heard that to deal with the Zuowandao, the Office not only joined forces with the Offices of other nations but also brought in a bunch of ‘righteous and orthodox’ sects. Persuading them emptied the inner treasury.”

“Righteous and orthodox sects…” Memories Li Huowang would rather forget stirred in his mind.

“But now, the Zuowandao are hard to find. Facing this kind of heat, they’ve all gone to ground. Not a single head dares to pop up. We haven’t caught anyone in the last month.”

Li Huowang nodded silently as he listened. He was in a bad spot, threatened by Dice, but Dice’s position wasn’t much better. Looking at it that way, his own odds weren’t too bad.

The difficult part was that Bai Lingmiao was in his clutches. Even if he won, it meant nothing if he couldn’t guarantee her safety.

Li Huowang closed the book and looked back at Nangong. “Why don’t I see a wanted poster for the Zuowandao’s Dice?”

“Oh? You know a lot, don’t you. You even know about Dice. The Dice is the Sitian Jian’s responsibility. He’s the head of the Zuowandao. Ordinary people can’t handle him.”

The Sitian Jian. Li Huowang recalled the three pairs of hands with grotesquely long fingernails beneath that cloak.

He wasn’t at all surprised the Sitian Jian could handle Dice. But even he, a Red Center of the Zuowandao himself, didn’t know where Dice was right now. Could the Sitian Jian really find him?

He paused. Wait. What if those Great Qi Zuowandao haven’t left yet? What if they’ve joined forces to ambush the Sitian Jian? The thought sent a chill down his spine.

“Rest assured, Brother Li. They are not Heart-Pans. And they are from Great Qi. They cannot stay in Great Liang for long.” Hearing Zhuge Yuan’s answer, Li Huowang finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Right. The Sitian Jian had seen the Zuowandao from Great Qi with his own eyes. Something like that would have occurred to him.

“By the way, Brother Nangong, the capital is in turmoil. Has the Supervisory Heavenly Office heard any inside news?”

Nangong, who had been looking distracted, suddenly grew serious. An unfamiliar edge crept into his voice.

“Erjiu, you know the rules of the Office. We absolutely do not participate in the imperial power struggles. If you’re looking for inside news, don’t ask the Office. There isn’t any. Not a word of it is recorded in the Four Treasuries either.”

“I’m telling you this as a friend. Even though you’re a gengqi badge, you’re not an official. Right now, you’re barely a loose affiliate. If you insist on getting involved, the Office won’t tie you up and drag you back.”

“But if something happens to you—if you’re killed, if you’re skinned alive—the Office won’t even collect your corpse. Think it over very carefully.”

“An Emperor of Great Liang is being replaced. Surely the Office cares about something this significant?”

“Cares? The Office has to negotiate with the Emperor about some things, yes. But the crown hasn’t settled yet, so let them fight. Whoever wins becomes Emperor.”

“You might not know this, but history books are full of this kind of thing. There are cases even more absurd than this. The Office has long stopped being surprised by it.”

“Don’t worry. The civil and military officials aren’t blind. At worst, some people will die. It won’t shake the nation. If things really get out of hand, someone will step in.”

The Supervisory Heavenly Office’s response was far colder than Li Huowang had expected. They cared only about when the strongest, most poisonous gu worm would emerge. How many gu worms died in the process wasn’t even worth a glance.

“Thank you for the warning, Brother Nangong.” With nothing else to learn, Li Huowang didn’t linger in the underground hall. He left the Office and returned to his own quarters.

Back in the small courtyard the Chief Recorder had given him, Li Huowang sat on a bench under a low tree, silently tallying everything he had learned in the capital.

He reaffirmed his goals: save Bai Lingmiao, and ideally, work with the Office to kill Dice.

Once was enough. Pull the roots. Only a dead man poses no threat.

But achieving these two goals right now was incredibly difficult.

He didn’t know where Dice was. He didn’t know where Bai Lingmiao was being held. He didn’t know where to apply force. He couldn’t even find a direction.

As he thought, his gaze hardened and his fist clenched. “I am still too weak. I must not stop cultivating the truth!”

This is about bringing Zhuge Yuan back. This is about protecting the people I can protect in this chaotic world.

This is how it is now. There might be Zuowandao spies in the capital. I’ll follow Dice’s plan for now, gather resources in secret, and wait for an opening.

In this capital, I’m not the only one with a grudge against him. Shenshan Gui had his eye stolen by Doumu. The Great Liang royal family and the Office must hate him to the bone.

So how do I fan those flames, let them fight, and achieve my own goals?

“Boss Red Center! You have to watch out for something else. Dice knows who you are. What if he goes for broke and tells the whole world about your Heart-Element and Zuowandao identity? That would be really exciting!”

“I am NOT a Zuowandao!” Li Huowang’s voice shot up an octave.

“Hahaha! Stop joking around, Boss Red Center!”

Li Huowang sprang to his feet. He glared at the hallucinated Zuowandao, then drove his fist into its face.

The hallucinated figure sat on the ground for a long moment, dazed, before understanding what had happened. “Hahaha! I’m alive! I’m alive!”

The next second, Li Sui’s tentacle shot out from the side and coiled around him, only to pass straight through.

“Hahaha! Now you’re dead! The Daoist tricked you!” Seeing the disappointment on the figure’s face, the monk beside them burst into delighted laughter.