Chapter 16

Chapter 16: One Corpse Missing

Since Qi Shan had told her to hit as she pleased, Shen Tang didn’t hold back.

She surged forward like a storm. The Merciful Mother Sword became a wall of steel in her hands, sword light flashing. Even with the long spear’s advantage, the man in black was driven into a scramble, forced to retreat again and again under her suffocating tempo.

Thud—her sword punched into the wall behind him.

In the instant she yanked it free, the man in black roared, abandoned his spear, gathered gray gleam around his fist, and hammered a punch at her chest. The air popped faintly around the strike.

Shen Tang didn’t hesitate. She raised her arm and met it head-on.

And the target vanished.

Her force didn’t stop. Her fist blasted through the wall, leaving a jagged hole.

Shen Tang froze, staring at empty air. “…Huh?”

Where the hell did he go?

Qi Shan’s smile was faint, almost amused. “Young Master Shen. Don’t lose focus in the middle of a fight.”

“That was you,” she snapped. “You moved him.”

Qi Shan hadn’t even answered before the man in black spoke, voice heavy as wet stone. “Army-formation word-spirit. ‘Graft and swap’?”

Qi Shan didn’t deny it.

The man’s eyes went colder. “Then you really can’t be allowed to live.”

Clang!

Another deafening crash rang out.

Qi Shan didn’t dodge. He didn’t even flinch. The spear tip hovered two chi from his face, close enough to kill him—

And yet, it might as well have been across a canyon.

It could not advance.

Shen Tang swallowed a stream of curses in pure C code, then ground out loud, “Qi Yuan Liang! Enough! Are you going to stand there like an idiot and not dodge at all?”

Qi Shan looked perfectly at ease.

Whether she liked it or not, Young Master Shen had to keep him safe. With that guarantee, he could stand there acting calm and composed, occasionally tossing in help as if he were doing her a favor.

Mostly, he was still spectating from the edge.

When they clashed again, Shen Tang immediately felt the difference.

The man in black’s strength and speed shifted, and more than that—his presence dropped hard. Even so, each impact still numbed her grip and made her chest tighten, like his body had been reforged in a blink.

Qi Shan chose that moment to explain, voice maddeningly casual.

“Don’t be surprised. This is a warrior’s most common trump card.”

He tapped the air lightly, like he was giving a lesson. “For a short time, he forces out all the potential of Dan Palace stage martial gall and gains a massive boost. A fourth-rank Bu Geng can match a fifth-rank Dafu.”

Qi Shan’s eyes didn’t leave the fight. “Once the time passes, he’ll collapse. Weak. Powerless. Ready to be carved up. Just hold on.”

Shen Tang nearly spat. “That’s a fucking death move! Why didn’t you warn me earlier?”

He came in with killing intent. If she’d misjudged and taken one hit wrong, she’d be dead.

Qi Shan watched her with a smile that didn’t belong on a battlefield. “I saw Young Master Shen grow stronger against stronger foes and handle it with ease. I was afraid speaking would break your focus.”

The truth was, he hadn’t taken the man seriously. A mere fourth-rank Bu Geng wasn’t worth his worry.

Young Master Shen was.

She had literary heart, yet she fought brutes head-on like she belonged among them—and she didn’t lose.

She could fight a fourth-rank Bu Geng. She could endure someone forcing his martial gall up to the level of a fifth-rank Dafu.

It made no sense.

And then there was the state seal, the strange literary heart, the raw combat strength, and her connection to Madam Gong.

All of it scratched at him, unbearable, demanding answers.

After a hundred exchanges, the man in black’s aura finally cracked. Shen Tang drove her sword straight through, pinning him to the wall. His body jerked once and went limp.

“Got him alive,” she said, breath rough.

Qi Shan’s voice cut in, flat. “No. He’s dead.”

Shen Tang paused mid-withdrawal. “Dead? How could he be—”

The man’s head drooped. Black, foul blood spilled from his mouth.

There was no breath. No struggle. Nothing.

Qi Shan’s gaze was cool. “He wasn’t a bandit. He was a deathsworn. If the mission fails, he dies.”

He added, almost clinically, “Suicide is quick. Staying alive is not.”

His earlier judgment had been wrong.

The deathsworn wasn’t with the second-rank Shangzao from before.

More likely, the Shangzao had been the real bandit—trying to kill and rob until this man arrived first. Then both of them had the bad luck to run into Shen Tang and Qi Shan.

“A deathsworn…” Shen Tang’s voice lowered. “Who was he here to assassinate? A Yan?”

Qi Shan sounded bored. “Maybe.”

“What’s the point of killing a child born with a brain illness?”

“You haven’t seen much, Young Master Shen. How can you be sure the illness is real?”

Qi Shan’s tone sharpened. “Maybe the child is clever. Maybe he learned young to hide his edge, to survive. There are plenty of stories like that.”

Shen Tang hesitated. “But he’s only six.”

“If the world forces it,” Qi Shan said, “forget six. Even one- or two-year-olds learn to scheme to protect themselves.”

Shen Tang’s stomach sank. A six-year-old with that kind of mind, and she—an anxious shut-in shoved into chaos—was supposed to keep up?

“If that’s true,” she said slowly, “then A Yan’s background isn’t simple.”

Sending a fourth-rank Bu Geng deathsworn after a child—someone out there had real reasons to be afraid.

Reason told Qi Shan the matter could end here. Whether A Yan lived or died had nothing to do with him. The smart move was to slip away before the stink of blood stuck to his clothes.

Unfortunately, Young Master Shen had no such instinct. She insisted on gathering the dead.

One by one, they dragged bodies into the main hall.

Shen Tang checked their temperature and judged they’d died not long after A Yan disappeared—around the time the village head called people to search.

“Eleven lives,” she muttered. “Just like that…”

Qi Shan’s face didn’t change. “Human life is cheap in this world. It’s cheap now, and it will be cheap later.”

Shen Tang shook her head. “That’s not right. If things are stable, if the law is in order, anyone who kills without cause pays with their life.”

Qi Shan laughed softly, like she’d told a child’s joke.

“In the four corners of the world,” he said, “there has never been stability.”

Shen Tang choked on the bitterness of it and snapped, “Sir Qi has real ability. You’ve never thought of serving someone and ending this chaos? Instead of just watching and talking cold?”

Qi Shan only smiled and said nothing.

Shen Tang turned to fetch firewood to deal with the bodies—and stopped.

Her gaze slid back to their hands.

She looked once. Then again.

Something was wrong.

Qi Shan asked, “What is it?”

“We’re missing a body,” Shen Tang said.

“You mean A Yan?” Qi Shan said. “He might still be alive—”

“Not A Yan,” Shen Tang cut in. “Someone else.”

There was one more person missing.