Chapter 32

Chapter 32

I no longer remember which day it was. One day, quite suddenly, my meal failed to arrive on time.

I waited and waited. Just as I began to suspect Chen Dong had changed his plans and meant to starve me, the hidden hatch opened. The hole was barely large enough for a cat, yet through it came a… hand?

First a hand, then a head, then a body. Was it a rat? No – a man who resembled one wriggled inside, every limb folded at an impossible angle. Then he straightened with a series of creaks and cracks that chilled the blood.

“Ai, ai, nearly squeezed me to death.” He wore prison clothes and a little skullcap. His furtive eyes traveled over me, and he spoke in a singsong voice. “We wondered what grand personage the northern dogs had hidden in this prison. Just a little lady, as it turns out. Come, tell us your name and which great lord you offended.”

It had been so long since anyone spoke to me that I almost believed this ratlike man was another hallucination. Still, I asked, “And you? What crime did you commit?”

“Oh, this girl is amusing. We ask about you, and you question Us in return. Very well, We will tell you. Your grandfather is king of thieves. Northern dogs hunt, but cannot find; a hundred roads searched, a hundred efforts wasted.”

I thought for a moment. “You are Lord Rat?”

His tiny beanlike eyes widened. “The girl knows a thing or two. What, does Our nickname reach even the palace?”

Great Qin was chaotic and bandits were everywhere. Countless men called themselves king of thieves, but few deserved my attention. Lord Rat was one. Ordinary thieves stole property without harming lives. A family targeted by Lord Rat, however, faced annihilation. The crime that made his name began when he sent a calling card to a wealthy merchant ten days in advance: on a certain date, Lord Rat would come for both his fortune and his head. The merchant immediately alerted the authorities. As a northerner, he received a heavy guard from the government. Yet when the appointed day arrived, merchant and soldiers alike lay in rivers of blood.

Lord Rat later became one of Great Qin’s most wanted criminals. He vanished for several years. Why had he now appeared here?

“Every year, I studied the methods used by wanted criminals. My conclusion regarding Lord Rat was that he must possess the legendary bone-shrinking art to come and go so freely. You are here and call yourself king of thieves. The answer is obvious.”

“Clever. We like dealing with clever people!” He sat opposite me and smiled mysteriously. “Then guess why We have come visiting.”

Great Qin’s prisons had locks every three paces and guards every five. Between the death-row cells and mine, beyond the heavy guard, stood five complete layers of mechanisms. Even a king of thieves could not reach me without substantial wealth and influence smoothing his way.

Whoever could send someone here to meet me was no ordinary person – perhaps not even human.

“You call them northern dogs with every breath, so you do not serve the Great Qin court. Of the powers now moving openly in the world, there are only a few. The remnant court in the west likely lacks the courage to rescue me. And if they had hired you, you would at least address me as Princess.”

Lord Rat frowned, evidently unaware. “Princess? Are you a princess of the old dynasty? What was the name…?”

“Then either the Linbei Bandit King hired you, or you belong to the Primordial Origin Faith…”

Entering the most heavily guarded prison in Great Qin required more than an extraordinary skill. Only three powers could now threaten Great Qin’s rule: the remnant court, the Linbei bandits, and the Primordial Origin Faith.

Lord Rat stared at me with a broad grin. “Then guess whose man We are.”

“You are a fugitive who gambles his life. Naturally, you resemble the men of Linbei…”

“Correct. We serve beneath the Linbei Bandit King – ”

I smiled faintly. “But you do not. You follow the Primordial Origin Faith. Its Seventy-Two Orders answer to the Heavenly Venerable, Imperial Venerable, and Mortal Venerable. If I am not mistaken, you are the Mortal Venerable himself. Am I right?”

The masklike smile vanished from Lord Rat’s face. Murder entered his tiny eyes. “In all Our years wandering the martial world, We have never met anyone so formidable.”

“Do not look at me that way. I have my methods.”

Lord Rat lowered his head, hiding his eyes in shadow. At that moment, the prison trembled faintly.

Cannon fire.

I looked sharply at him. He removed his cap and bowed. When he raised his head, his sinister smile had returned. “The Linbei Bandit King is attacking Nancheng. By command of the Heavenly Venerable, We have come to take you out. The road will be dangerous. Will the princess come with Us?”

I looked away and coughed twice. “I dare not.”

Lord Rat narrowed his eyes. “Is the princess afraid?”

“Yes,” I said. “I have seen no sincerity from the Primordial Origin Faith.”

He nearly laughed aloud. “Now listen, girl – ”

“Of course you find it amusing. In your eyes, I am a prisoner with no standing to bargain. Yet I clearly retain value, or you would not have come to rescue me.” My voice was hoarse as I met his gaze. “A person of value deserves respect.”
Lord Rat scratched irritably behind one ear. “What proof of sincerity do you want?”

“First, I want to know how you intend to rescue me. Second, I want to know what your Heavenly Venerable expects me to do afterward.”

He smiled coldly. “You do not want to know. The method damages one’s virtue. Poison, for instance.”

“There are eight hundred guards here. How many do you plan to poison?”

“Not one. We poisoned only the food for tonight’s condemned prisoners. Soon they will become very hungry…”

“Hungry?”

His smile turned sinister. “Have you ever seen men starving beyond reason? For a mouthful of food, they no longer fear blades. We will open their cells. Seventy-five ravenous beasts will throw the prison into chaos. They will attack the guards inside, the guards outside will panic, and once we reach the open, people will be waiting for us.”

I could only marvel at the scheme.

“As for what the Heavenly Venerable wants from you, to speak from the heart, We truly do not know…”

“I believe you,” I interrupted, coughing again. “You do not even know who I am. How could you know what your Heavenly Venerable wants me to do?”

“Did you not say you were a princess?”

I shook my head. “Leave. I will not go with you.”

“Why? Do not tell Us you pity these people. Great lady, do not be foolish. They are northern dogs. Do the lives of northern dogs count as lives?”

Of course they did.

This vicious fugitive could not know I had killed a hundred times more northerners than he had. I designed the selection system for these prison guards. They all came from the underclass and wept with gratitude when given public office. I had even helped construct this five-tier prison tower. My purpose then had been to deter the most savage and cunning criminals so that the people beneath heaven could live and work in peace.

Yes, all the people beneath heaven. Southerners and northerners alike were my subjects. I had never sought to place the south above the north. I wanted north and south united, weapons laid down, and war ended.

That conviction had carried me this far. If I abandoned it, I would possess nothing.

Lord Rat left me a blanket and some food before departing. At the hatch, he said viciously, “Linbei is attacking Nancheng. The demons alone know what will happen next. Refuse to leave, and you are courting death.”

I remained silent.

The Primordial Origin Faith could not be a peaceful religion aligned with heaven’s principles if its leader could conceive such a perverse plan. Its central teachings might be a hundred times more brutal than anything I knew. Whether falling into the Heavenly Venerable’s hands was better than dying here remained uncertain.

But Lord Rat’s warning unfortunately proved correct.

Wrapped in the blanket he left, I rested with my eyes closed for a long time. Then an enormous cannon blast jolted me awake, and the world spun.

Linbei’s cannon! They were firing on the prison. Had Nancheng already fallen?

Boom –

Another blast. Stone fragments and dust rained down. Prisoners began screaming and beating desperately against their bars. In the distance, guards fled. No one spared the prisoners a thought.

I clung to my own bars. My cell lay in an isolated corner. No one would come for me.

Then a young guard suddenly rushed over, opening cell after cell. His voice broke as he shouted, “Run! They have broken in! They will set the place on fire!”

Prisoners poured out and fled wildly. The guard soon reached me, tore open my chains, and had time for only one word: “Go!”

He was a northerner and scarcely more than a boy. Though terror had nearly robbed him of his senses, he still struggled through the upheaval to save people. I would wager he did not know who I was, or who these condemned prisoners were. He simply believed lives should be saved.

I drew a deep breath. “You go. I will open the cells!”

“You do not know the mechanisms!” he shouted frantically.

“I do. Go!”

You are young. A good future still awaits you. I am already nearing decay.

I took his keys and raced upward, opening cells floor by floor. Prisoners repeatedly crashed into me as they fled. At last, I reached the highest level.

No one was there. But there was a window, and an unobstructed full moon hung within its frame. I did not know how long it had been since I saw the moon. I stared, entranced, nearly forgetting the cannon fire outside.

An arrow suddenly grazed my body and buried itself deep in the window frame.

I looked up. It was Chen Dong. Clad in armor and reeking of smoke, his eyes bloodshot, he screamed at me in near hysteria. “You again!”

I instinctively stepped back.

At the same moment, the cannon fire briefly ceased. Through the surrounding clamor, I suddenly heard someone calling my name.