The Azure Mountain

Chapter 77: Second Explosion

On the dim streets, the Prince Heir and Baili were hurrying away from Red Clothe Lane, heads down — first north, then turning west.

All composure and poise were gone. Their clothes were ripped in several places, their hair falling loose.

They were running and gasping for breath when a tremendous explosion erupted behind them. In its wake, the entire city of Luo seemed to stir — watchdogs in every household howling.

Baili stopped and turned back toward Red Clothe Lane, worry written on her face: "What happened? What could make a noise like that?"

The Prince Heir thought for a moment: "It sounds like someone used a firearm... When I went with Father to observe the Elite Firearms Division's drill with cannons, the noise was exactly like this."

"Cannons?!" Baili's heart clenched and she turned to race back toward Anxi Street.

The Prince Heir's face drained of color as he grabbed her arm: "Are you insane? We barely got out!"

Baili turned back urgently: "What if they fired a cannon at the person who just rescued us? Even Grand Guild Agents have to dodge that kind of firepower — how could he withstand it?"

The Prince Heir wavered too: "In theory, the Elite Firearms Division's main camp is a hundred li away. They'd never enter Luo City without an extraordinary reason. And even if they did come, they wouldn't dare fire cannons inside the city walls. I doubt it's an actual cannon — probably something else... Should we go back and save him? That hero saved us. We can't be heartless ingrates."

"Is there any way we could save him?" Baili asked.The Prince Heir thought for a moment, then set his jaw: "The two of us running back there alone won't accomplish anything. Come with me to the Thousand-Year Army camp. We'll ask Uncle Wang to deploy troops and surround Red Clothe Lane. As long as we can convince Uncle Wang to mobilize the Thousand-Year Army, the Trouble-Resolving Guard may be elite, but they only number five hundred!"

"Can we really convince Uncle Wang? He won't move without Father's tiger tally," Baili said worriedly.

"I'll kowtow to Uncle Wang. Works every time!"

Baili: "..."

Just then, the sound of hooves echoed in the distance. The Prince Heir quickly pulled Baili into a dark alley, found some discarded bamboo baskets, and covered both of them.

Moments later, the five hundred Trouble-Resolving Guard cavalry rode past the alley entrance — their uniform bamboo hats, straw cloaks, and hip-mounted sabers casting a chilling, solemn profile against the moonlit cobblestones.

Riding alongside Lin Chaoqing, a young officer held his reins and asked: "Sir, will Jin Zhu fall this time?"

"He won't," Lin Chaoqing replied evenly.

"He commandeered our Mengjin Camp's Trouble-Resolving Guard under his own authority, yet came back empty-handed — not a single Jing Dynasty rat caught. Why not seize this chance to arrest him and bring him back to the capital?" the young man pressed. "Even if the matter is taken before the Inner Chancellor, we'd be in the right. These Secret Spy Division Zodiacs act so arrogantly — arresting them would be a public service."

Lin Chaoqing gazed straight ahead, sitting ramrod-straight in his saddle like a spear: "Jiao Tu and Yun Yang had no power base within the Secret Spy Division — dealing with them was straightforward. Jin Zhu is different. He's been fiercely loyal to the Inner Chancellor for years, and Tian Ma has his back. This one minor incident isn't enough to bring him down."

The Trouble-Resolving Guard gradually disappeared into the distance.

After an uncertain stretch of time, the Prince Heir confirmed no one was outside the alley, then removed the broken baskets from himself and Baili: "It seems they didn't catch anyone after all. We don't need to go rescue anyone. That man is incredible — he actually escaped from the Secret Spy Division and the Trouble-Resolving Guard?"

Baili hesitated, then asked: "Brother, do you know the person who saved us? Did he seem at all familiar?"

The Prince Heir scratched his head sheepishly: "I was too busy thinking about how to escape. I really didn't get a good look... Could it be one of the Jianghu people I used to hang around with? Maybe they saw us in danger and risked their life to help?"

At the mention of those Jianghu people, Baili snapped: "The kind of people you associate with! The moment there's danger, they all run! It definitely wasn't them — they're all fake friends!"

"Some of them are decent..."

"Well, I'm never paying their tabs again," Baili said angrily. "They spend money like water when they drink — only the finest food, the best wine. They can go on and on about cuisine, spirits, and women. But when it actually matters, not a single one can be counted on. It's not about the money — it's that I can't stomach their empty talk of heroism and honor."

The Prince Heir scratched his head: "Fine, fine, no more paying their tabs... But you just said the person who saved us looked familiar. Did you figure out who it was?"

Baili was silent for a moment: "No. I didn't recognize him either."

She had a theory, but in the end she kept it to herself — chose to bury it in her heart and quietly verify it on her own.

Baili pulled out her hairpin, raised both arms, and re-tied her hair before they set off again.

The two of them crept and dodged their way back to Anxi Street. When they spotted the Prince Jing Estate's guards and its signboard in the distance, they finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Baili didn't head for the back garden. Instead, she suddenly said to the Prince Heir: "Brother, let's go back through Taiping Medical Clinic. There's a ladder there."

The Prince Heir braced his hands on his knees, panting with surprise: "When we left tonight, you said you'd never go through Taiping Medical Clinic again. You said you absolutely wouldn't let 'that little scoundrel Chen Ji' earn another toll from you. Now you've changed your mind?"

Baili rolled her eyes: "Is it a crime to not want to climb walls? The ladder's convenient."

The Prince Heir rolled his eyes right back: "Women — so fickle."

They crept up to Taiping Medical Clinic's entrance and tried to pull the door open, only to find it barred from the inside.

Baili thought for a moment, then called out: "Chen Ji. Chen Ji! We're here to pay your toll!"

Silence.

Nothing.

No one answered from inside.

The suspicion in Baili's heart grew firmer. She crouched down and called through the crack in the door: "Chen Ji — ten taels of silver this time!"

Still silence.

Still no answer.

Baili muttered: "He's really not in there."

Just as the words left her lips — creak — the door opened.

Baili blinked and slowly looked up. Old Yao stood calmly in the doorway.

She said awkwardly: "Physician Yao, I hope we didn't disturb you. Where's Chen Ji? Why didn't he come to open the door?"

Old Yao's face was expressionless: "Your Highness the Commandery Princess and the Prince Heir, running around in the middle of the night instead of sleeping, showing up at my Taiping Medical Clinic at this hour — what for? I am ninety-two years old. I can't handle this kind of nonsense."

Baili improvised: "Physician Yao, my brother and I aren't feeling well. Could you let us in and take our pulse?"

Old Yao looked at her, then reached across the threshold and seized her wrist to check her pulse right there.

A moment later, he announced: "Problem's in the brain. Untreatable. Please leave."

"Maybe you misread the pulse? If you let me come inside and sit down, you could check again more carefully—" Baili tried to squeeze past Old Yao through the door, but the old man seemed to anticipate her every move and swiftly pulled the door shut.

CLANG. The wooden door closed tight.

Old Yao's voice drifted out through the crack: "Your Highness and the Commandery Princess would be better off finding another way back to the estate. Cause any more trouble, and when the Prince returns, I will personally report this to him."

Baili was about to knock again, but the Prince Heir grabbed her and hurried her away: "Come on, come on. Chen Ji probably already got in trouble for letting us use the shortcut. Let's not make things worse for him. We'll go through the back garden. If Physician Yao really reports this to Father, your monthly allowance is done for..."

Baili was dragged along, glancing back again and again at the shut door, but ultimately had to abandon her attempt to find the truth.

She thought: 'Maybe Chen Ji just hasn't come back yet, and Physician Yao is covering for him.' That had to be it...

But if the Trouble-Resolving Guard were right and the Secret Spy Division hadn't caught Chen Ji, then where was he right now?

......

......

Under the night sky, Chen Ji was limping through a labyrinth of narrow alleys.

He slowly stopped, bent over, gasping for breath, unwound the bandage from his right leg, and retied it tighter.

The wounds on his chest and leg throbbed agonizingly. But tonight's business wasn't finished, and he had no time to rest.

Chen Ji glanced around at his surroundings, then continued toward the rendezvous point he had arranged with Wu Yun.

Two more alley corners, and there was Wu Yun — perched on a wall ledge, looking down with concern: "Are you all right?"

Chen Ji leaned against the wall, breathing hard: "Jin Zhu must be at the Path-Seeking Realm. Even an explosive that powerful couldn't kill him. Grand Guild Agents are unfathomably deep — this world is even more terrifying than I imagined. If I hadn't had the gunpowder with me, I'd probably be on my way to the Inner Prison right now."

Wu Yun meowed again: "I'm asking about your wounds. Do you want to go back to your master and have him treat you first?"

Chen Ji shook his head: "No. I have to kill Shopkeeper Yuan first. The Secret Spy Division raided Golden Workshop tonight. If he thinks I'm the one who leaked the information, he's probably already figuring out how to kill me right now... Can you track his location?"

Wu Yun answered: "After he finished his deliveries to the other clinics at midday, he went straight back to his residence on Tongji Street in the afternoon and hasn't come out since."

That morning, when Shopkeeper Yuan had driven the ox cart away from Taiping Medical Clinic, two tabby cats had secretly tailed him.

Earlier, when Chen Ji and Wu Yun had split up, he had sent her to find those two tabbies.

Chen Ji frowned: "So Shopkeeper Yuan already knew about Jin Zhu's raid plan by midday... Who told him? It was those clinics! Wu Yun, which clinics did he visit?"

Wu Yun shook her head: "The tabbies' brains can't retain that much information. They can only recall bits and pieces."

Chen Ji considered: "Fine. Once Shopkeeper Yuan is dead, it won't matter who passed information to him."

He braced himself against the wall and stood, ready to press on.

But tonight he had first killed six agents, then badly wounded Jin Zhu before vaulting across rooftop after rooftop to flee — he was running on fumes. After only two steps, his legs went soft and he could barely walk.

Wu Yun said worriedly: "Back to the clinic?"

Chen Ji shook his head: "Take me to his residence. Shopkeeper Yuan dies tonight."

......

......

Tongji Street had always been where merchants congregated. Unlike the refined facades of literary families, here the stone lions flanking each gate tried to outdo the neighbors, the carriages parked outside grew ever more ornate, and the plaques and lintels were mounted higher and higher — as if no household could bear to be outshone by the one next door.

Under Ning Dynasty law, merchants and opera performers were forbidden from riding in horse-drawn carriages — only scholars with at least a xiucai degree were permitted. But in recent years, private workshops and merchants had multiplied. Backed by their patrons, they converted cargo carts into carriages, and whenever they were stopped, a few silver pieces made the problem disappear. The law had long since become a dead letter.

At this hour, one particular estate on Tongji Street was as silent as a graveyard — not a single servant or attendant in sight.

Shopkeeper Yuan sat in the main hall with every door and window shut tight. Though it was the dead of night, he was fully dressed and groomed, as if patiently waiting for the long night to burn itself out.

Hiss-crackle.

He suddenly heard a strange sound coming from outside the door — a sputtering hiss, startlingly out of place in the midnight silence.

Shopkeeper Yuan stood, his expression turning grave. He approached the door and pressed his ear to the crack, trying to identify the sound...

Creak.

He watched as someone slid open his window from outside, tossed a bamboo tube through the gap, and then — with meticulous care — closed the window again.

'No!'

Shopkeeper Yuan stared at the paper fuse burning down to its very end and lunged to smash through the door. But someone had braced a wooden beam against it from outside — it wouldn't budge!

"You're dead! Open this door!"

Shopkeeper Yuan struck in fury, slamming both palms against the double doors. The panels couldn't withstand the tremendous force and exploded into fragments!

For a cultivator of his level, a mere door was no obstacle.

But when the door shattered, he didn't see anyone outside. What he did see — sitting neatly on the ground not far ahead — was a second bamboo tube. Its paper fuse had already burned to nothing.

'It's over!'

Shopkeeper Yuan had no idea whether to advance or retreat!

A deafening blast.

Both bamboo tubes — inside and outside — detonated simultaneously. Saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal ignited in a furious conflagration. The sugar, superheated alongside the gunpowder, released a massive volume of gas.

In an instant, the shockwave tore through the room, carrying a storm of iron shards from inside the tubes that shredded Shopkeeper Yuan's clothes to ribbons.

Another thunderous explosion. The brick walls gave way, no longer able to bear the roof's weight. A cascade of gray tiles came crashing down like a landslide, raising an enormous cloud of dust — burying Shopkeeper Yuan alive beneath the rubble!

Chen Ji emerged from a corner of the courtyard, ears ringing, a colossal metallic screech assaulting his senses.

He couldn't hear anything from the outside world. He stared at the heap of rubble, tense and alert.

Was Shopkeeper Yuan dead?

Earlier, the bamboo tube had detonated in midair, and the blast hadn't reached its full potential.

This time, the tubes had gone off inside a building. Even though Shopkeeper Yuan had broken through the door, the confined space had amplified the force exponentially.

Chen Ji kept praying to himself: 'He's dead. Shopkeeper Yuan is definitely dead!'

But... there was no ice flow!

Chen Ji staggered toward the wreckage, intent on digging through the rubble and finishing the job with a blade.

He had barely lurched a few steps when — crack.

Something under the rubble... heaved upward!

Chen Ji's face went grim as he retreated... Shopkeeper Yuan could still move?!