An Jiu and Blood Fiend traveled together to Zhending Prefecture. Along the way, Blood Fiend introduced the assassin hiding there.
Ranked ninth on the Crane Control List, codenamed Yu Ji, female, an eighth-rank martial arts master.
“Actually, she and I had a thing for a while.”
At the city gate of Zhending Prefecture, Blood Fiend said with a hint of pride.
An Jiu looked at the long queue ahead, then turned to him with a puzzled expression. “Why would she degrade herself like that?”
“Because… huh?” Blood Fiend realized her implication and darkened his face. “Am I really that bad? Clearly, I was the one degrading myself!”
“Oh, so you knew?” An Jiu pondered for a moment. “Maybe people in this line of work all have some issues.”
Blood Fiend didn’t refute her. Instead, as if recalling something, his expression became conflicted—a mix of anticipation and resistance, excitement and fear.
An Jiu often spent months surveilling her targets before assassinations, and many of them had strange habits. She whispered, “Does Yu Ji… like sadomasochism?”
Blood Fiend stared at her in shock.
An Jiu knew she had guessed correctly. “Seems like you enjoyed it.”
“Ahem.” Blood Fiend suddenly became bashful. “Life’s usually dull, so we just found some fun things to do.”
An Jiu nodded in understanding. “No wonder you were always in such a hurry.”
“Actually, I’m not even sure if she’s here,” Blood Fiend said gloomily.
“Young man, take this.” A woman behind them took a lotus leaf from her bamboo basket and handed it to An Jiu. “You look pale. Don’t let the sun get to you.”
An Jiu was dressed in men’s clothing, her hair tied in a bun, and wore a human skin mask. While everyone else’s faces were flushed from the sun, hers remained deathly pale, making her look particularly sickly in this setting.
An Jiu quietly slipped the hidden weapon between her fingers back into her sleeve and took the lotus leaf, mumbling, “Th-thank you.”
She discreetly turned the leaf over in her hand. Finding nothing unusual, she slowly placed it over her head.
Blood Fiend sighed inwardly. Good looks always win favors.
Up ahead, something happened, and the snail-paced queue suddenly stopped moving.
Blood Fiend craned his neck to see, while An Jiu simply squatted down, the lotus leaf covering half her face. She let her gaze wander aimlessly.
These past few days, certain thoughts had been swirling in her mind, refusing to fade.
Explosive crossbows, power-enhancing drugs, blood mutations… each felt eerily familiar.
Given the current developments, these things seemed to defy convention. But if they shouldn’t exist, what about Mo Sigui and Lou Xiaowu? Weren’t their actions just as unconventional?
Fine, even if these things had a reason to appear, what about all those coincidences?
“What’s going on…” An Jiu murmured.
The queue began moving again, and An Jiu stood up and walked forward, still lost in thought.
Presenting their tokens at the city gate was An Jiu’s favorite part. She immediately cast aside all her worries and solemnly produced her token.
As expected, the two entered the city without issue.
“Heh heh heh.” An Jiu couldn’t suppress her laughter.
Blood Fiend kept pacing in place. “Why am I so excited?”
“Isn’t it exhilarating?” An Jiu finally found someone who understood the feeling.
“Like when I stole my elder sister’s hairpin as a kid to give to a girl from the next village,” Blood Fiend said excitedly.An Jiu's smile vanished instantly, her eyes narrowing. "You look like prime material for being bullied, the kind who gets bullied for eternity."
Life was as lonely as snow, alas!
Sighing, An Jiu began wandering through the city.
Blood Fiend followed close behind. "Yu Ji is skilled at hiding. I've left marks along the streets—she'll come find us when she sees them."
"What if she doesn't come?" An Jiu snorted. "Should I pin my hopes on your utterly below-average charm?"
Blood Fiend grumbled, "Why must colleagues make things hard for each other? Life's tough enough as it is."
An Jiu darted swiftly through the city, her mental strength spreading like a vast net, rapidly filtering through the surrounding crowds.
Blood Fiend, recalling how she had silently kept tabs on him, thought she might have a way to locate Yu Ji in the sea of people and quietly trailed behind.
In less than two hours, they had combed through the entire city, and An Jiu finally stopped outside the government office.
There were only three martial arts masters in the city—two fifth-tier and one seventh-tier—all inside the government office.
An Jiu found it odd. Wasn't Yu Ji supposed to be an eighth-tier martial arts master? Why wasn't she here?
"Let's eat first. We'll check inside tonight," she said.
Blood Fiend followed her into a restaurant and chose a private room with a view of the government office's front gate. "You think Yu Ji is inside the government office?"
"If she's in Zhending, she's most likely there," An Jiu replied.
"But what would a woman like her be doing in a government office..."
Before the food arrived, An Jiu tapped her chopsticks against the teapot. "Probably became the magistrate's concubine."
"Nonsense!" Blood Fiend reacted like a cat whose tail had been stepped on.
An Jiu knew exactly how to provoke someone like him. Blood Fiend enjoyed being bullied by Yu Ji, so in his heart, he likely saw her as a queen. How could a queen stoop to being a concubine? Watching him bristle with indignation, An Jiu felt particularly satisfied.
When the food arrived, she ate five bowls with great appetite.
Night fell.
The two quietly infiltrated the government office, with An Jiu heading straight for where the seventh-tier martial arts master was.
"The magistrate," Blood Fiend whispered. "I never expected the magistrate to be a master."
An Jiu didn't respond, pressing against the wall before flipping onto the roof.
She lifted a tile, and warm yellow light spilled out from inside.
"You've worked hard today, my lord," a woman's voice said.
Hearing this, Blood Fiend stiffened, his face filled with disbelief as he peered into the room.
A richly dressed woman smiled as she took a towel from a maid and gently wiped the face of a scholarly-looking middle-aged man. The man clasped her hand in return. "You're with child, my dear. Leave such tasks to the servants."
"It's nothing," the woman said softly.
An Jiu estimated the woman to be around twenty-five or twenty-six, with fair skin and delicate features—a beauty. But her smile was so tender it could melt hearts, and the way she gazed at the magistrate brimmed with affection. This was clearly a far cry from Blood Fiend's description of Yu Ji. Moreover, the magistrate didn't seem like someone with unconventional tastes.
Blood Fiend's expression darkened. With a flick of his finger, a wisp of smoke drifted into the room.
The scent of jasmine filled the air.
The magistrate's wife's expression shifted slightly as she withdrew a handkerchief and pressed it lightly to her nose.
All the maids in the room collapsed, and the magistrate's wife reached out to steady the magistrate as he swayed backward.
Blood Fiend watched as she helped the magistrate onto a couch before turning and pushing open the window. He then flipped down into the room.
Standing two zhang apart, Blood Fiend felt a wave of murderous intent surge toward him.
"Yu Ji," he said.
"What are you doing here?" Yu Ji's voice was icy.There wasn't a trace of gentleness in that expression—cold as an eternal, unmelting iceberg, with even more piercing murderous intent than before.
This was the Yu Ji that Blood Fiend was accustomed to. He felt a slight joy, "I knew you were pretending. I have something to discuss with you."
"Whatever it is, don't come looking for me. I am the Prefect's wife, my name is Zheng Yu Hua. There is no Yu Ji." The corner of Yu Ji's lips lifted, "None of it was pretense with him. He gave me a simple, peaceful life. Whoever destroys this will be my mortal enemy."
So, that murderous intent wasn't sharpened to protect someone after all.
"Let's go," An Jiu suddenly said.
Yu Ji was shocked—she hadn't noticed there was someone else hidden here at all.
Seeing Blood Fiend unmoving, An Jiu added, "Since she's already an ordinary person now, we no longer need her."
Blood Fiend's throat made a guttural sound. He stood there for a long while before finally speaking, "I wish you... a lifetime of peace, with children and grandchildren filling your home."
Yu Ji's expression softened slightly.
She couldn't discern Blood Fiend's expression in the shadows, nor did she want to say more, so she simply replied, "Thank you."
Blood Fiend dashed out. An Jiu leapt down from the roof, glanced back at Yu Ji, then left the Prefect's residence.
An Jiu found Blood Fiend in a dead-end alley.
"Are you alright?"
Blood Fiend didn't respond.
An Jiu idly scuffed at the crumbling pebbles on the wall with her toe, waiting for him to calm down.
"Take that lotus leaf off your head! What are you doing wearing a lotus leaf in the middle of the night!" Blood Fiend snapped irritably.
"Fine, I'll humor your current mood where everything annoys you," An Jiu said, removing the lotus leaf and tucking it into her robe.
Blood Fiend grabbed his hair, "She wasn't like this before!"
"I know," An Jiu shrugged. "I wasn't like this before either."
Blood Fiend froze, "Like what?"
"Not this normal!" An Jiu said. "Until I met Chu Dingjiang. Your Yu Ji probably had a similar experience. Though I should clarify—I don't have any sadomasochistic tendencies." (To be continued...)
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