With Ji Bei's strength, leaving whenever she pleased was no boast but plain fact. She was the Martial Warden of the county, and given her mobility and the discipline of the Black Cavalry, how many men were going to leave heaps of loot unlooted in order to fight her to the death? But to take an injured Ji Zhao along with her...
A woman's stamina was a weak point in the end, and carrying a man of a hundred-odd jin would leave her lightness arts crippled. Her greatest advantage, her mobility, would be gone, and after that nothing at all could be counted on... Besides, Ji Bei as Martial Warden had done more than anyone in the defense of the city, and no small amount of hatred had gathered on her for it.
【Ji Zhao: "Eldest Sister need not mind me. Preserving your own life is what matters. Second Sister took her own life, and I suppose this was part of what she was weighing."】
【Ji Bei: "I am the Martial Warden of this county, and I bear the name of Wei Huo, the Duke of Wu'an. How could I abandon this ground and flee without doing a thing!"】
【Ji Zhao: "What does Eldest Sister mean to do...?"】
【Ji Bei: "I am going to cut down that Han! I practice the Hell-Turning Heart-Burning Scripture. If I do not cut him down today, my heart will never rest, and sooner or later it will burn me to death!"】
【Ji Zhao: "Why...? Because he opened the gates?!"】
【Ji Bei: "That's right... Zhao'er, more words are useless. Find somewhere to hide, and hide well! Once you have survived, go to the Luo River Pavilion on Mount Daizong in Lizhou and beg to be taken as a disciple. Tell them you are Ji Bei's younger brother. Do you understand!"】
【Ji Zhao: "I understand... take care."】
Ji Bei said nothing more. She rushed out the door, sprang up onto the rooftops, and with a few bounds was gone in an instant.
Ji Zhao regained control of the character. He steered him over to the two Black Cavalry bandits and used "Pick Up" on them, wanting the black cloth from their shoulders — but no matter how he worked at it, the most he could take was their weapons.
"Can't the degree of freedom go any higher than this?" Ji Zhao asked.
The white-haired man answered, "It can. But you cannot afford to wait here any longer."
Ji Zhao felt a pang of regret, and could only take the sabre and run out of the room. He hesitated a moment, then struck out decisively in the direction the Black Cavalry had come from.
"Why that way?" the white-haired man asked. "It is the one direction in which you can be certain of a gate, true, but going that way is a sure way to get yourself killed."
— The game had no map at all, so Ji Zhao did not even know which way led out of the city.
"Death is a foregone conclusion," Ji Zhao answered calmly. "Anchun has already fallen. Even if I make it through tonight, someone is certain to identify me as 'Ji Bei's brother.' Whether or not her assassination succeeds tonight, I'll be dragged out and killed sooner or later. So I have to take the dangerous line — either slip out of here while it's chaotic, or make my death worth something."
"I see. You want to gather intelligence... Then let me give you a piece of good news." The white-haired man lowered his voice. "This is only my guess, but of the one who kills you and the one who deals the most damage before you die, at least one will be branded by you with the 'Nemesis' mark. Which of the two, I could not say. But that mark will not vanish even when the next game begins."
"...You're serious?"
"I have no reason to lie to you about a thing like this. I'll make the particulars clear to you later." The white-haired man lifted his head slightly. "For now, concentrate."
Ji Zhao could only press his curiosity down and send the character running toward the gate instead. His control was precise and his reactions quick, and with a third-person god's-eye view on his side he slipped past a great many Black Cavalry along the way, advancing slowly. But there are things in this world that no amount of good play can dodge: as he crossed an intersection, two bands of bandits gave chase from ahead and behind, and Ji Zhao could only flee in disarray. Ducking here and hiding there, he ended up outside the county prison of all places, and with the bandits still closing in, he steeled himself and slipped down into the prison's unguarded dungeon.
The moment he was inside, he heard the following:
"Master Han! Let us out! We want to go over to the Duke of Sacred Might, the same as you!"
"That's right, Master Han. Let us out so we can show the Duke of Sacred Might our loyalty! There are so many of us — if we all go over together, we'd be allotted a fair bit of land!"
"Master Han! Hurry! If we're late, how are we to show our loyalty to the Duke of Sacred Might?!"
Ji Zhao looked closely and saw, inside the dungeon, a mass of prisoners gripping the bars in excitement, their burning eyes fixed on the center of the room.
A man sat there in the middle, dressed in prison clothes torn to rags and stained with a good deal of blood. Beside him a cell door stood open, and inside lay a man in the prime of life, killed by a single fist driven through his heart.
As though he had heard Ji Zhao come in, the man raised his head slightly.
【Han Shou: "Oh...? What are you doing here."】
【Ji Zhao: "Han Shou, your elder brother—"】
【Han Shou cut him off: "I know. It took only a guess. And as it happens, I am waiting for him right now."】
【Ji Zhao: "Waiting for him...? What do you mean?"】
【Han Shou: "I'm in no mood to explain it to you. Get out of this... heh. Bad luck. You can't leave now."】
Ji Zhao could only steer the character deeper into the dungeon and crouch in some spot that was not too conspicuous — small, pitiful, and helpless indeed.
Within a few breaths, two men came hurrying in: one was Han Yi, with the calm of a man who had it all planned; the other was the Whip-and-Mace Fiend Liu Wei, whose face was none too pleasant. But when the two entered the dungeon and saw the scene clearly, the expressions on their faces promptly traded places.
【Han Shou: "Elder Brother. Disappointed to see I'm not dead?"】
【Han Yi's gaze swept over Han Shou and settled on the man in his prime lying dead with a fist driven through his heart. Inwardly he seethed, but nothing showed on his face.】
【Liu Wei: "You are Han Shou?"】
【Han Shou: "That's right. I am the very Han Shou your strategist, the Daoist Dong, named and asked for!"】
【At this Liu Wei was inwardly startled. The world knew only of Tang Cheng, the Duke of Sacred Might; those who knew of the Daoist Dong numbered no more than two hands under heaven. How did this Han Shou know of it?!】
【Liu Wei: "If you know of that, then this is simple. Come with me."】
【Han Shou: "Commander Liu does like his jokes. If I meant to leave, I would have left long ago. Why would I wait here for you?"】
【Because of the figure he cut, Liu Wei was often taken for a brainless brute of a general, but long before he ever met Tang Cheng, the Duke of Sacred Might, he had been a master with a name in the jianghu. Had he truly lacked a brain he would never have lived this long. He answered in a low voice: "What is it you want?"】
【Han Shou: "Whatever my elder brother meant for me, I want for him."】
【Liu Wei: "Impossible!"】
【Han Shou: "Commander Liu answers too quickly... Allow me to talk it through with you properly first."】
【Before Han Shou had finished speaking, Han Yi suddenly charged forward, meaning to cut him down while he was in poor condition — but Liu Wei's cultivation was of another order entirely. He put out a hand and, though he moved later, arrived first, blocking Han Yi. "Speak."】