Night fell. Dark clouds churned overhead.
A scout team crouched quietly in the thick brush.
The team had twelve members. The captain, surnamed Qian, had held the position for a long time.
Seven in the team were longtime comrades; four had just joined.
She covered her mouth with her hand and mimicked the rhythmic call of a partridge—five short, eight long. Then she pulled a small hourglass from her pack, set it on the ground, and flipped it over.
She pressed her palm downward to signal: "Sit for now. We still have three-quarters of an hour."
Crouching too long exhausted anyone. One veteran flopped onto her backside and grumbled softly, "Why does the Third Princess insist we wait until the eighth segment of the Dog Hour? The earlier we scout, the earlier we sleep."
"She's a princess. And she knows a lot we don't," another veteran replied. "She must have her reasons."
Since it wasn't time to move and someone had started talking, they fell into casual chatter.
"Hey, so… Lady Shen's and the Third Princess's engagement banquet didn't happen. Are they still engaged?"
"Of course they are. If they weren't, would Lady Shen let the Third Princess command us?"
"Hmph. Honestly, I didn't want the Third Princess to lead us. Lady Shen's command is incredible. But the princess? I've never heard of her winning any battle. What if she actually can't fight?"
If this continued, they were going to drift into the dangerous territory of "complaining about the Third Princess."
The captain pressed both palms down, ending the topic. Then she said, "If not for the Third Princess, we wouldn't have met these four new sisters today."
She wrapped an arm around the neck of one of the newcomers, pulling her close. She couldn't laugh loudly in this environment, but the delight in her voice was unmistakable.
"From now on, Big Yu is one of us. Great. Next time we compete with Team Three, we'll crush them completely."
Jiang Yu— Xie Yu—who had just joined the team that afternoon, lifted her young, smooth-featured face and smiled at the group. "I'll definitely crush Team Three."
To keep the soldiers from actually disobeying orders, she added:
"We're going in at the eighth segment of the Dog Hour because the town's garrison changes shifts at the beginning of the Pig Hour. If we enter earlier, we can observe the entire shift change and quickly identify their barracks. And their defenses loosen then, so it's harder for us to be discovered."
"Exactly. Big Yu is right," the captain nodded.
At first, she'd been annoyed at being assigned four newcomers—especially this "Jiang Yu," who immediately declared she should be deputy captain.
She had never even heard of Jiang Yu. Why should she be deputy?
But after an afternoon of wrestling, racing, and archery… Jiang Yu won all of them.
And she was visibly smarter.
The captain accepted it instantly.
She also liked this kind of teammate—competent, charming, funny. Much better than her own chaotic younger sisters.
As Jiang Yu opened a simple map and gave the team one final review of tonight's objective and plan, the captain listened carefully while also thinking that once this battle ended, she would try to match Jiang Yu with her eldest sister.
Her eldest sister was a menace. Jiang Yu would absolutely keep her in line.
Others felt the same. After Jiang Yu finished explaining, several veterans sighed in admiration.
One of them, quick-tongued, muttered, "Look at that. Big Yu commands way better than the Third Princess. Honestly, the princess just has the advantage of being born one. Her actual ability… mmph! mmph! mmph!"
Someone immediately clamped a hand over her mouth and thumped her forehead.
"Be quiet. The Third Princess is already fine. Try serving some of the other princesses instead and see how you feel."
She rolled her eyes. "With Lady Shen's standards, she'd never like those ones."
"One last thing." Jiang Yu pointed at the thick, pitch-black clouds above. "It's going to rain heavily tonight—likely within four quarter-hours. We must be out before then."
"Does everyone understand their tasks now?"
"Understood!" the team answered in perfect unison.
Jiang Yu nodded, turned around, and—using the cover of the bushes—observed the small town they were about to attack.
The town was built along the mountainside, the terrain clearly higher in the north and lower in the south. The higher areas were more heavily guarded, and the buildings there had completely departed from anything resembling ordinary homes.
Seconds passed. The hourglass emptied grain by grain.
She took one last glance back, then extended her arm. Her fingers pressed together, palm down, slicing through the air from shoulder height in a decisive arc.
"Move out."
—
The clouds above grew darker and heavier. Humidity thickened in the air. Inside the tent, several generals sat silent with their heads lowered, waiting.
A thunderclap cracked across the sky. Rain poured fiercely, pounding the ground so loudly it hurt the ears.
Old Jin paced the tent over and over before finally hearing the flap lift and a soldier rush in. "Reporting to General Jin, Scout Team Two has returned!"
The generals immediately straightened with alert energy. Old Jin said, "Then hurry and bring them in."
Before she finished speaking, someone stepped inside—clearly having thrown on a rain cloak in a hurry, clothes soaked halfway through. She removed her cloak and hat, revealing the face Old Jin had been worried about all night.
"You took so long. Are you alright?"
"We returned exactly as planned. How is that 'long'?"
Moments later, the scout captain of Team Two arrived outside the tent.
Staring at the hanging curtain before her, she cleared her throat, stomped the mud off her boots, and announced with proper form, "Captain of Scout Team Two, Qian Hu, reporting."
"Enter." The voice that answered was young and unfamiliar—especially with the rain muffling everything—so Qian Hu couldn't identify which general it belonged to.
She walked inside, bowed with her fists clasped, and said in a low voice, "I will now report tonight's scouting results."
"Speak," Old Jin commanded.
Qian Hu hesitated for a moment. She didn't lift her head; instead, she lowered it further. "During tonight's scouting, my deputy Jiang Yu saved us multiple times. Without her, we would have been exposed and killed before completing the mission. I earnestly request that the generals remember her contributions after the battle."
"You said Jiang Yu?" Old Jin sounded doubtful.
"Yes," Qian Hu answered without raising her head. "She's an excellent young woman—intelligent, skilled. If she could become an officer one day, she would bring even greater strength to our Mighty Army."
"You've only worked with her for one day. Why are you saying all this already?"
Qian Hu lowered her head even more. "My teammates are sisters who've fought life and death with me. She saved them today—and she saved me."
She was anxious; she knew she was bordering on breaking protocol. But she truly believed Jiang Yu was more than a mere deputy captain.
Her heartbeat sped up—until General Jin said with an odd tone, "Lift your head first."
Qian Hu obeyed—and froze when she saw who was sitting behind the table.
"Jiang… Jiang Yu?"
Xie Yu nodded. "That's me."
"Y–Your Highness, the Third Princess!" Qian Hu stammered.
"That's me too," Xie Yu said calmly.
"Joining your scouting mission was not because I distrust you. I simply prefer to see things myself before making decisions. But these generals haven't read our updated intel yet. Report as usual."
She spoke steadily, without rush or panic.
Under the bright lamp inside the tent, she held a quiet authority that made people settle down just by being near her. Qian Hu unconsciously calmed, forgetting the shock of the princess's disguise, and began her report.
Most of Old Li's intelligence had been accurate.
Tonight's scouting added details on patrol patterns and troop distribution.
When Qian Hu left, the generals and Xie Yu all agreed the attack could begin that very night.
Thunder roared again and again. Rain hammered the ground until it turned into thick mud, the noise drowning out all footsteps.
Under the storm, the army assembled. One order rang out, and they charged toward the silent town hidden behind the curtain of rain.
Xie Yu and Old Jin moved the command post closer to the front. They calmly adjusted orders according to reports from the field.
Command after command left her hands. She remained steady—no sign that this was her first time leading an army, her first battle.
Old Jin finally asked how she could be so calm, and she replied:
"The enemy is out in the open. We are in the shadows. I have ample supplies and superior intelligence. If I panic in a battle like this, wouldn't I be useless?"
She was right.
Before midnight, the town was taken.
Xie Yu entered openly, inspecting the garrison barracks. While she was still looking around, the sound of galloping hooves approached from afar.
A young soldier leapt off her horse, drenched and frantic, shouting almost shrilly, "Your Highness, there's a discovery in one of the town's buildings. Captain Qian requests you come at once!"
Xie Yu exchanged a glance with Old Jin and hurried toward the town center.
The moment she stepped into the first of the thirty mysterious buildings, a strange atmosphere washed over her.
The walls were white—but streaked with bizarre patterns painted in white mixed with gold powder.
Though it was a rain-soaked night, the entire building glowed unnaturally bright.
Xie Yu stepped back and signaled for the soldiers to extinguish the lights.
When the flames went out, the crowd finally saw the glowing symbols covering every inch of the walls. Most couldn't understand them, but instinctively felt suffocated, agitated.
Huge and endless, the symbols formed something like an unbreakable web meant to trap everyone inside.
Xie Yu frowned and moved on without lingering.
She pushed open a large, heavy door.
The instant it opened, a thick scent of blood hit her nose—so strong it seemed to wrap around her, swallowing her whole.
Inside was a vast hall—seven rows, seven columns, countless bamboo beds. The legs of each bed were chained to the floor, and each woman lying on them was chained down as well, unable to move, curled like bound insects.
Beside every bed sat a delicate jade vial, its rim carved with a small groove meant to hold a fingertip.
Forty-nine women lay on the forty-nine beds. Each was young. Each had a slit cut across her fingertip. Their hands were chained to the jade vials, and their blood dripped slowly into them.
But the human body clots quickly. Such tiny wounds couldn't bleed all day.
Unless someone kept cutting them open.
Beside all forty-nine beds stood forty-nine other women, each chained, each holding a sharp knife—ready at any time to reopen the wounds of those younger women, cutting the same spot again and again.
And this… was only the first floor of a seven-story building.
And this building was only the first of thirty.
"We interrogated the manager. This place is for blood-draining. Fresh blood collected daily is sent to the temple in the town center. The priestesses there process it into expensive medicines—and allegedly refine it into miracle pills that grant long life."
Old Jin spoke as she approached from behind Xie Yu.
She had questioned the prisoners outside and already knew the place was for draining blood. Even with the mental preparation, she froze at the sight.
This was beyond what she imagined… even more…
More what?
Not gore. Compared to the battlefield, this amount of blood was nothing. But the atmosphere was more disturbing—more twisted, more evil.
Like icy fingertips of bone crawling slowly up one's back.
Old Jin gagged and ran outside to vomit.
Xie Yu, however, did not flinch outwardly. Her organs felt twisted, her stomach overturning, but she forced out the words through clenched teeth:
"Search everything. Every room, every brick. Leave nothing unchecked."
She pulled a long blade from a nearby soldier, turned, and entered the hall.
The blade's tip pressed against the throat of the captured manager.
—
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