That night, the moon hung high and painfully bright, scattered stars pricking the winter sky like shards of broken porcelain.
It was already the ninth year of the Chongzhen Emperor's reign, deep into winter, and the cold had teeth.
The riverbanks were merciless. Wind swept down the water's surface unhindered, slicing through cloth and bone alike. The refugees huddled together in tight clusters, shoulders touching, children wedged between adults for warmth. Even so, their bodies trembled uncontrollably.
Cold was honest. It did not shout like bandits. It simply waited.
The Gao Family Village logistics team moved with quiet efficiency. Boats were unloaded. Bundles were carried. Soon, bale after bale of cotton-padded jackets appeared on the shore.
The elderly received them first. Then the sick. Then women. Then children.
The soldiers did not toss them carelessly. They helped people put them on. Children too small for properly sized jackets were wrapped in adult ones, sleeves dangling absurdly past their fingers, hems dragging in the dirt. Once bundled up, they looked round and stiff, like little dumplings standing upright.
Some even managed shy smiles.
The refugees from Hubei were overwhelmed.
"These are cotton-padded jackets!"
"Good quality too!"
"Each one costs five taels of silver!"
"So many… this must be thousands of taels…"
They looked at the jackets as if they were gold armor.
Zhu Cunji happened to pass through the crowd at that moment and was immediately surrounded.
"Great benefactor!"
"Living Bodhisattva!"
"Blessed lord!"
The old prince's face flushed a deep red beneath his beard. He coughed twice, attempting composure, but the swelling pride in his chest was obvious. His back straightened. His steps gained weight.
He did not dislike being called a benefactor.
Zhu Yujian stood apart.
His gaze swept slowly across the refugees, and what settled inside him was not pride but heaviness. Each trembling figure felt like a question pressed against his ribs.
The Prince of Chu.
His relative.
A member of the imperial clan.
Blood ties, whether one acknowledged them or not.
To see the people rejected at the gates while they froze outside… shame was too mild a word.
He walked in a slow circle around the gathered refugees, then another, thoughts tangled and sour.
"Dao Xuan Tianzun said he would deal with the Prince of Chu after dark," he murmured at last. "It is dark now. How will he do it?"
No sooner had the words left his mouth than the figure who had been seated in unmoving meditation for hours slowly stretched.
Li Daoxuan rose to his feet.
The motion was unhurried, almost casual, yet the air seemed to shift around him.
Zhu Yujian still did not fully understand the Dao Xuan Tianzun capabilities. He knew of power. He had seen power. But understanding and witnessing were different things.
Tonight, curiosity overpowered caution.
He followed.
Not too close. Not too far.
Li Daoxuan walked toward Wuchang City.
The walls loomed ahead, tall and solid, their battlements blazing with torchlight. Braziers burned. Oil lamps flickered. The ramparts were bright as day, for bandits might appear at any moment.
Soldiers lined the walls, alert and tense.
Zhu Yujian stopped well before bow range and dropped to the ground, pressing himself low.
Li Daoxuan did not stop.
He walked forward as though taking an evening stroll.
A soldier on the wall spotted him.
"Who goes there? State your business!"
No answer.
Li Daoxuan kept walking.
"Halt! Or we will loose arrows!"
Still he walked.
In wartime, a lone figure advancing toward a city at night without responding was no innocent traveler.
Bows were drawn.
Arrows loosed.
Thud.
The first arrow struck Li Daoxuan square in the chest. The shaft quivered faintly.
Zhu Yujian sucked in a sharp breath.
But Li Daoxuan did not falter.
Another arrow flew.
Thwack.
It struck him as well.
Still he advanced.
The soldiers hesitated, confusion rippling along the wall.
"He's wearing heavy armor!"
"The arrows aren't piercing!"
"Hold!"
More soldiers rushed to the battlements. Bows remained raised, but no further arrows were released. They stared down at the unmoving figure below with grim expressions.
Li Daoxuan reached the far side of the moat.
He lifted his head and studied the wall.
Quite tall.
Without haste, he reached to his chest and unlatched a small concealed hatch.
From within, he removed something palm-sized.
It resembled him only in the face. The body was entirely metallic, skeletal, jointed, unsettling. Under dim torchlight it appeared merely as a dark shape in his hand. Had the soldiers seen clearly that he had opened his own chest, several might have fainted outright.
He held the reconnaissance unit in his right hand, drew his arm back, and hurled it with force.
The tiny metallic figure cut through the night air with a sharp whistling sound, arcing cleanly over the battlements and disappearing into the city.
The soldiers stared.
"What did he throw?"
"Something small."
"Sounded like iron."
Men scrambled down from the wall to search.
Across the moat, Li Daoxuan simply turned and walked away.
Within moments, his silhouette dissolved into darkness.
On the city side, the reconnaissance Li Dao Xuan unit struck the ground.
At that instant, Li Daoxuan activated Co-sensing.
The small metallic figure sprang upright with a nimble flip, let out a faint, wicked little chuckle, then darted into a nearby alley and concealed itself behind a large stone.
Soldiers searched briefly but found nothing.
When they returned to the wall, the mysterious intruder was gone.
"What was he here for?"
No one had an answer.
Back at the riverside camp, Li Daoxuan resumed his seated position. His perspective shifted seamlessly to that of the tiny avatar.
The reconnaissance unit crawled out from hiding and stretched its thin metal limbs.
"Now then," it thought, scanning the streets, "where would the Prince of Chu's residence be?"
It did not ponder long.
In ancient cities, princely estates traditionally faced south. Therefore, one headed north.
Simple.
The small metallic figure moved through streets and alleys with surprising agility. Before long, an enormous compound came into view.
The Prince of Chu's mansion.
Guards stood at the main gate.
Irrelevant.
The reconnaissance unit slipped into a drainage ditch, wriggled forward through cold, foul water, then emerged into a garden pond inside the estate.
It crawled out onto stone.
A brief pause.
"Oh dear. Slightly wet. Hopefully I won't rust."
A minor concern.
It began wandering deeper into the residence. To find the Prince's chambers, one needed only to locate the most extravagant structure in the rear courtyard. Grandeur betrayed its owner.
Inside, Zhu Huakui lay awake.
At sixty-five, indulgence had weakened him. Sleep came lightly and left quickly. Though it was deep night, his eyes remained open.
He feared the sound of sudden battle cries.
He feared the words: "The bandits have entered the city."
He feared ruin.
"Is someone there?" he called toward the door.
The guard captain answered immediately. "Your Highness, this subordinate is present."
Zhu Huakui exhaled.
"Good. Guard carefully. Do not allow spies to infiltrate and harm this Prince."
The guard captain replied with confidence, "Rest assured, Your Highness. It is absolutely impossible for any spy to—"
His words froze in his throat.
Something was walking toward him.
Small.
Metallic.
Barely larger than a palm.
Its head bore a miniature human face.
Its body was a visible iron framework, joints flexing openly with each step.
The guard captain's voice began to tremble.
"Wh-what… what are you?"
The tiny metal figure smiled.
A slow, sinister curve of its miniature lips.
"I'm here," it said softly, "to deal with the Prince."