Tonight in Dragoncrest City was destined to be lively beyond compare.
"Someone's following me."
As soon as Quinn Shepherd walked out of the City Lord’s Manor, he immediately sensed he was being followed. The City Lord’s divine-ability experts didn’t even bother to hide it—clearly, they saw no need to conceal themselves from a minor martial artist like Quinn, and just openly tailed him.
Just then, parade floats rolled through Dragoncrest City. Merchants had built flower-decked floats several zhang tall, shaped into giant beasts and gods, with dancers performing atop them. The dancers were extravagantly dressed, their costumes modeled after stone statues from various villages. Walking down Flower Street, Quinn felt as if he’d stepped into a world where gods and demons danced in chaos.
Flower Street was deafeningly noisy, packed with people jostling shoulder to shoulder. Lanterns hung everywhere, and tall stone columns lined both sides of the road, each topped with a stone basin filled with burning oil, flames roaring bright.
There were stilt-walkers too, their stilts towering over ten zhang high, each stride spanning six or seven zhang. These martial artists carried torches in one hand and oil gourds in the other; after taking a swig of oil, they’d spray fire at their torches, unleashing serpents of flame several zhang long.
It was bustling, prosperous, yet tinged with the wild, barbaric flavor of the Great Ruins.
As Quinn threaded through the crowd, the sky above suddenly brightened. Invisible filaments had woven themselves overhead without anyone noticing, crisscrossing and intersecting. Suddenly, these threads swelled and transformed into gigantic silver dragons that streaked back and forth above Flower Street at astonishing speed.
As the silver dragons darted about, Quinn saw that they were actually composed of countless characters. Each time they moved, they emitted a thunderous demonic chant—obscure, profound, and impossible to decipher.
Bang! Bang!
Several young courtesans sprang forward, blades hidden in their sleeves, and stabbed the divine-ability expert in the chest.
Quinn glanced up—it was the same young women who had tried to coax him upstairs when he first entered the city.
He kept moving forward, passing an alley where a divine-ability expert in a bamboo hat spotted him. With a shake of his body, a towering wave erupted from the alley, serpentine and hungry, jaws wide to bite at Quinn. Silver fish darted within the wave—spiritual weapons, no doubt.
Next door, the blacksmith shop housed a giant of a man, over one and a half zhang tall, forging a massive refined-iron saber. The blade and hilt together were nearly three zhang long. Without a word, the giant gripped the saber, thrust it through the wall with a wet crunch, and pinned the bamboo-hatted expert to the alley wall.
The giant blacksmith yanked the blade free, wiped away the blood, and calmly returned to his forging. The furnace flames roared on.
Quinn, stunned, kept walking forward. Drums thundered along Flower Street, and figures from the City Lord’s manor leapt across rooftops, converging on his position with alarming speed.
One divine-ability expert vaulted down from above, but before he could land, the snake in the charmer’s basket below suddenly stretched its head, jaws gaping wide, and swallowed him whole. Then it shrank back into the cage, as if nothing had happened.
Several more experts dropped down, weaving through the crowd. One passed a wine shop, where the grinning shop hand abruptly grabbed a huge wine jar and clapped it over the expert’s head. The man fell inside, his flesh and bone dissolving instantly, leaving only a jar of bloody liquor.
The shop hand set the jar aside and sealed the lid, as if bottling ordinary wine.
Other divine-ability experts from the City Lord’s manor met similar ends—some were incinerated by fire-breathing drunkards, some had their throats slit by hidden assassins in the crowd, and some were dragged into floats by smiling women, never to be seen again.
As Quinn walked the length of Flower Street, he saw all this unfold, suspicion and unease gnawing at his heart. The City Lord’s assassins had come in force, yet every last one died quietly among the revelers.
Who’s helping me? Is it the Cult of the Heavenly Demon? Could their reach in Dragoncrest be this deep?
He reached the inn and was about to enter when he spotted Grandpa Blind.
Next door, two men in black were dragging Grandpa Blind out of a gambling house and tossing him to the ground. One kicked him hard and spat, "A blind man cheating right under our noses? You think we’re blind too?"
Quinn hurried over, but Grandpa Blind had already picked himself up, dusted off his backside, and called out toward the gambling house, "My bamboo cane!"
The door creaked open and someone tossed the cane out, striking Grandpa Blind squarely on the head.
Grandpa Blind picked up the cane, grinning. "Bad luck tonight, but next time I’ll cheat so well you’ll never catch me—I’ll win it all back! Muer, is that you? By the way, I saw something funny tonight—a big mother bird all dressed up, strutting out for fun with a little male bird trailing behind."
Quinn frowned. "Just two birds, Grandpa Blind. What’s so strange about that? Let’s head back to the inn."
They returned to their room at the inn, where Granny Sue’s startled cry rang out. Quinn rushed in to find her clutching a stuffed money pouch, utterly astonished.
Quinn froze, then hurried to the window and looked outside. In the sky, the silver dragons formed by the Grand Fostering Heavenly Demon Sutra were still battling terrifying experts above Dragoncrest, but Granny Sue was right there in the room, leaving him thoroughly baffled.
Could the Cult Mistress I met at the City Lord’s manor not have been Granny Sue after all?
Quinn’s mind grew stranger still. He smiled, "Granny Sue, did you just get back? I brought some food for you and Grandpa Blind." He unwrapped the oil-paper bundle and laid it out on the table.
Granny Sue’s cloudy old eyes glistened with emotion as she trembled into a seat, smiling. "Muer, you’re a good boy. But what’s with this bag of Dragoncrest coins?"
Quinn studied her eyes, puzzled. Granny Sue’s gaze was uncannily similar to the Cult Mistress’s, and the scent of rouge on her was exactly the same.
But then why were the silver dragons from the Grand Fostering Heavenly Demon Sutra still fighting outside?
He steadied himself and recounted everything that had happened in the alley.
Granny Sue’s expression turned odd. She cackled, "You turned one Dragoncrest coin into over three thousand? If I’d known you had that much money, I’d have gone out carousing ages ago—no need to beg or scam for meals!"
Quinn told her everything that happened at the City Lord’s manor, including meeting the beautiful Cult Mistress and killing Felix Fu’s son. "Granny Sue, I killed the City Lord’s son. We can’t stay here any longer—we have to leave!"
Granny Sue pulled the jade hairpin from her hair and beckoned. A thin thread flew in from outside the window, winding itself around the hairpin in a breath, forming a ball of thread. She tossed it into her basket and laughed, "I turned Felix Fu’s wife into a cow, and now you’ve killed his son. The City Lord is truly unlucky. But worse is yet to come—he’s done too many evil deeds and deserves it. These Dragoncrest coins are yours; keep them, you may need them someday."
Outside, thunderous shouts shook the night. Black Venerable’s voice rang out, furious: "The Cult Mistress has escaped!"
"Search every corner! She must be found!"
"It’s pitch black outside—there’s no way that witch can escape the city!"
...
Grandpa Blind listened intently to the commotion outside, then said, "That Everpeace officer named Qin is still here, carrying the Yong River Geographical Map—clearly waiting for the Imperial Preceptor. The Preceptor means to attack the Great Ruins. Dragoncrest City will be the first base, big enough for hundreds of thousands of troops. Felix Fu’s already made his deal, and the officer is staying at the City Lord’s manor."
Granny Sue smiled slyly. "So Felix Fu is as good as dead."
Grandpa Blind nodded. "He has to die. You killed his son, Muer—once you leave the city, he’ll chase after you, and that’ll be the end of him. The Great Ruins isn’t somewhere the Imperial Preceptor can just walk in—he’d best go back the way he came."
Quinn glanced from Grandpa Blind to Granny Sue, completely baffled by their plotting.
Still, it was odd—Granny Sue never brought Grandpa Blind into the city before, but this time she had. Quinn hadn’t thought much of it earlier, but now it seemed suspicious.
Grandpa Blind had supposedly spent all night at the casino—so how did he know what happened at the City Lord’s manor?
Or was Grandpa Blind at the City Lord’s manor too?
"Muer, get some sleep. Who knows—maybe tomorrow Granny Sue will be the new City Lord of Dragoncrest!"
Quinn lay down in the outer room, Granny Sue took the inner chamber. He was just drifting off when he heard her tossing and turning, whispering excitedly, "I’m too thrilled to sleep! Tomorrow, I might not just haul home Dragoncrest’s dragon pillar—I might even make the whole city bear my surname! No, I really can’t sleep, hehehehe..."
...
Grandpa Blind listened intently to the commotion outside, then said, "That Everpeace officer named Qin is still here, carrying the Yong River Geographical Map—clearly waiting for the Imperial Preceptor. The Preceptor means to attack the Great Ruins. Dragoncrest City will be the first base, big enough for hundreds of thousands of troops. Felix Fu’s already made his deal, and the officer is staying at the City Lord’s manor."
Granny Sue smiled slyly. "So Felix Fu is as good as dead."
Grandpa Blind nodded. "He has to die. You killed his son, Muer—once you leave the city, he’ll chase after you, and that’ll be the end of him. The Great Ruins isn’t somewhere the Imperial Preceptor can just walk in—he’d best go back the way he came."
Quinn glanced from Grandpa Blind to Granny Sue, completely baffled by their plotting.
Still, it was odd—Granny Sue never brought Grandpa Blind into the city before, but this time she had. Quinn hadn’t thought much of it earlier, but now it seemed suspicious.
Grandpa Blind had supposedly spent all night at the casino—so how did he know what happened at the City Lord’s manor?
Or was Grandpa Blind at the City Lord’s manor too?
"Muer, get some sleep. Who knows—maybe tomorrow Granny Sue will be the new City Lord of Dragoncrest!"
Quinn lay down in the outer room, Granny Sue took the inner chamber. He was just drifting off when he heard her tossing and turning, whispering excitedly, "I’m too thrilled to sleep! Tomorrow, I might not just haul home Dragoncrest’s dragon pillar—I might even make the whole city bear my surname! No, I really can’t sleep, hehehehe..."