The Salt Commissioner panicked.
It was not the kind of panic that merely quickened the pulse, but the sort that shattered the mind entirely, leaving him hollow and shaking from the inside out.
More than six hundred fierce men were charging straight toward him, faces hard and eyes burning, while the city garrison troops scattered in all directions like startled rats, abandoning posts, trampling one another, fleeing wherever their legs would carry them. Faced with such a scene, how could he possibly hold out?
His fifty household guards were no better. Fear swallowed them whole. They clustered tightly around him, retreating step by step toward the official residence, hoping, desperately, to rely on its walls for one last stand.
But the residence walls were thin and low, decorative more than defensive, and before the hardened border troops, they might as well have been paper.
The soldiers surged forward without hesitation. Some formed human ladders, bracing themselves shoulder to shoulder. Others sprinted up, planted a foot on clasped hands, pushed off a comrade's shoulder, and vaulted cleanly over the wall in a single fluid motion. The breach was swift and merciless.
The Salt Commissioner retreated again and again.
From the outer courtyard, he fell back into the main hall, losing several more guards in the process. From there, he was driven into the inner courtyard, where another handful of loyal men died buying him seconds of life. Finally, he stumbled into the back garden, breath ragged, heart pounding like a drum about to burst.
In the rockery, he frantically pushed aside a slab of stone, revealing a concealed hatch. Beneath it lay a narrow underground passage. Taking only two trusted confidants, he slipped inside, slammed the hatch shut, and hurried through the tunnel until they reached a small, dim basement.
Inside the basement, someone was already waiting.
Tie Niaofei.
The moment the Salt Commissioner entered, Tie Niaofei lifted his head, and a strange, twisted smile spread across his face.
"Oh?" he said lightly. "So the rebels have broken through the city gates and rushed in? And the Jin merchants abandoned you instead of lending a hand? How does that feel? Satisfied?"
A chill crawled up the Salt Commissioner's spine. He forced himself to speak, though his voice trembled. "It's not strange that you guessed there were rebels outside. But how did you know they broke the gates? And how did you know the Jin merchants fled?"
Tie Niaofei only smiled wider.
The blood-stained Dao Xuan Tianzun embroidered on his chest also smiled.
That smile was so uncanny that the Salt Commissioner's scalp went numb, cold fear seeping straight down his back.
Tie Niaofei's voice grew softer, darker. "You're dead. The people outside will find this tunnel soon enough."
The Salt Commissioner straightened, clinging to defiance like a drowning man to driftwood. "Impossible. They'll assume I escaped through the back gate. They'll search the entire city and the outskirts, but they'll never think I'm still hiding in my own residence. They'll never find this basement."
"No," Tie Niaofei replied calmly. "They know you're still here. They know your distance and direction precisely. Finding this tunnel will be effortless."
The Salt Commissioner's heart slammed violently against his ribs. "How can you be so sure?"
Tie Niaofei laughed again, that same eerie laugh that made the air itself feel unclean.
Suddenly, the Salt Commissioner snapped, rage flaring through his terror. "What are you laughing at, you bastard? Even if I'm going to die, I can kill you first. You think you can still act proud in front of me?"
Tie Niaofei threw his head back and roared with laughter. "You're afraid. You're terrified."
The blood-stained Dao Xuan Tianzun on his chest bared its teeth as well, laughing in perfect unison.
At first, the Salt Commissioner had thought it was only the fabric shifting. But this time, he saw it clearly. The embroidery was not moving with the cloth.
It was laughing.
The same sound came from Tie Niaofei's throat and from the Dao Xuan Tianzun at the same time.
The Salt Commissioner staggered back several steps, legs trembling uncontrollably. His two trusted guards were pale as paper.
"Boss," one of them whispered, voice shaking, "this Tie Niaofei isn't right. And that thing on his chest is even less right."
"Correct," the Dao Xuan Tianzun said, its voice deep and chilling, as though it rose from the depths of Yama's Underworld itself. "Would you like to see what lies beneath the Yellow Springs?"
The Salt Commissioner gasped. "Who… who's speaking?"
The two guards nearly collapsed. "It's… it's the embroidery…"
"Impossible," the Salt Commissioner stammered. "Absolutely impossible."
The Dao Xuan Tianzun chuckled softly. "Hehehe… hehehehe… come closer. It has been a long time since I tasted fresh human flesh. Come. Let me try a bite or two."
The two guards screamed and turned, bolting madly out of the basement.
The Salt Commissioner was driven half-mad by terror. He no longer dared remain there for even a breath and ran after them, stumbling wildly through the tunnel.
Outside there were rebels, yes, but even the fiercest rebel was preferable to a flesh-eating monster.
A blade would be quick. A monster would savor him piece by piece. Faced with that choice, death by steel was mercy.
The three of them burst toward the tunnel exit. The moment they shoved the hatch open and stuck their heads out, they froze.
A crowd stood there, surrounding the opening in a tight circle, staring down at them with wide, expectant eyes.
Just as Tie Niaofei had said, they had already found the entrance and were waiting, as if they had known all along that he would emerge here.
The Salt Commissioner opened his mouth. "I…"
He never finished the sentence.
Blades flashed in a chaotic blur. His two guards were cut down instantly, blood splashing across the stone. Only the Salt Commissioner was left standing, shaking.
Chen Baihu reached out, seized him by the collar, and lifted him up like a plucked bird.
"Spare my life!" the Salt Commissioner screamed. "Let's talk. Let's talk this through!"
Seeing that they had not killed him immediately, a sliver of hope flickered in his chest. Perhaps words could still save him.
Chen Baihu only laughed. "Come. Let me show you something."
He reached into his robes and produced a handkerchief, holding it up before the Salt Commissioner's eyes.
Embroidered upon it was a divine image identical to the one on Tie Niaofei's chest.
And worse still, that image was laughing too.
It bared its teeth at him, voice dripping with malice. "Come. Let me take a bite and see how you taste."
The Salt Commissioner let out a scream so shrill it cut through the din of battle outside.
Still holding him, Chen Baihu descended back into the tunnel and into the basement. There, he unlocked Tie Niaofei's shackles and placed a dagger into his hand.
Tie Niaofei stood before the Salt Commissioner, smiling faintly. "Now you understand who you shouldn't provoke, don't you?"
The Salt Commissioner collapsed, sobbing incoherently. "Good sir…"
Tie Niaofei interrupted him coldly. "Name your price. Name it properly, and I'll give you a clean death. Name it poorly, and I'll torture you for three days and three nights, cut you into a thousand pieces, and leave you begging for death without ever finding it."
The blood-stained Dao Xuan Tianzun grinned. "I will eat him for three days and three nights, gnawing away every scrap of flesh."
"Aaaah!" the Salt Commissioner screamed. "My money. It's all in the back garden, left wing room. Five steps east, four steps south from the window. Dig down. Everything is there. Everything. Please, don't eat me. Just kill me quickly."
Tie Niaofei nodded slowly. "That price will do."
His saber flashed.
With a wet, heavy sound, the blade cut cleanly through the Salt Commissioner's neck. Blood sprayed outward in a crimson arc.
When it was done, Tie Niaofei's strength finally gave out. After days of torture and starvation, his body could endure no more, and he collapsed backward.
Chen Baihu caught him in time and helped him outside.
The Dao Xuan Tianzun muttered in displeasure, "He died too easily."
Chen Baihu bowed. "This subordinate failed to capture the Jin merchants. I ask Dao Xuan Tianzun for punishment."
"It is not your fault," the Dao Xuan Tianzun replied. "We will deal with the Jin merchants later. For now, appease the people and prepare, as planned, to face Xing Honglang."
Chen Baihu answered firmly, "This subordinate obeys."