Wu Chong's smile widened. "Oh, no. Corpses are useless. Obedience, that is a currency that never loses value."

He gestured, and four heavily armored guards stepped forward. "Bind him."

Yuan Cai tried to rise, but exhaustion betrayed him. The soldiers forced him to his knees.

"Tell me," Wu Chong said, crouching so their eyes met. "Why destroy what little peace this city had? You were respected once—a decorated officer, a man of discipline. What drove you to rebel against reason itself?"

"Reason?" Yuan's laugh was bitter. "You mistake order for servitude. You mistook this city for your counting board."

"Perhaps." Wu Chong's voice remained smooth. "But I understand men better than you do. They don't crave honor, Yuan Cai. They crave stability. Food. Safety. You offered them pride and punishment; I offered them bread and coin. Tell me—who do you think they'll follow?"

Yuan Cai said nothing. His jaw tightened as Wu Chong's words cut deeper than the pain.

"Still defiant," the merchant mused. "A pity. You could have been useful."

He rose, snapping his fingers. The guards dragged Yuan to his feet.

"Take him to the old watch hall," Wu Chong ordered. "Chain him there until the magistrate arrives. The city deserves to see what becomes of misplaced loyalty."

They hauled him through the streets at dawn, the rain having ceased but the clouds still heavy and low. Citizens peered from behind shuttered windows, their faces pale in the gray light. None spoke.

At the plaza's center, the broken statue of the city's founder loomed—a relic of better years. The guards threw Yuan Cai at its base and chained him there, his hands bound before him.

Wu Chong stood on the steps above, his voice carrying like silk drawn over steel.

"People of Crescent Moon," he proclaimed, "behold the man who sought to tear your peace apart! The man who burned your warehouses and defied imperial trade!"

A few murmurs rippled through the crowd—fearful, uncertain.

Yuan Cai raised his head, blood streaking his cheek. "Peace built on chains is not peace—it's silence."

Wu Chong's expression cooled. "And yet silence endures. Guards—"

Before he could finish, a roar thundered from the western quarter. The sound of shattering wood and clanging bells filled the air.

"What—?" Wu Chong turned sharply as a messenger sprinted into the square, pale and breathless.

"My lord! The southern barracks—they've risen! The garrison banners are flying the city's crest again!"

For the first time, Yuan Cai smiled. It was a faint, weary thing that cracked the blood at the corner of his lips.

"Seems the city still remembers its own spine."

Wu Chong's calm shattered. "End him."

The guards raised their spears—but a horn's cry split the sky before they could strike. From the western gate came the thunder of hooves and the glint of steel. The remanants of the old City Garrison, led by Jie Mu, the former city lord himself, charged into the square like a storm unleashed.

Chaos erupted.

Wu Chong's men turned to face the onslaught, and Yuan Cai, half-blind with exhaustion, felt the weight of the chains fall away. Someone—he never saw who—had cut them.

He staggered to his feet amid the chaos, the statue's shadow falling over him. For a heartbeat, the memory of his post, of the city he'd once sworn to protect, flickered in his mind.

Then he vanished into the smoke.

By nightfall, the rebellion was quelled. Wu Chong survived, though half his manor burned. Former City Lord Jie Mu and his faction reclaimed control over parts of the city walls, but Yuan Cai was gone. He had vanished into the wilderness beyond the Qianlong.

Some said he died of his wounds along the riverbank. Others claimed he crossed into the frontier, gathering outlaws and deserters under a new banner.

But among the guards who once served under him, a rumor persisted.

That when the wind blew cold over Crescent Moon's walls, they could still hear his voice echoing from the ramparts low, proud, unbroken:

"A city that forgets its honor invites its own ruin."

And though Wu Chong's administration ruled with iron and coin, there were nights when even he would wake from sleep, certain he could feel unseen eyes watching from the darkness beyond the gate.

The eyes of the man he could not seem to find and kill.

Meanwhile, Li Wuji and his collaborators had been stationed in the wilderness not far from Crescent Moon City hunting the white wolves that inhabited the caves. This expedition was mainly fueled by his desire to acquire more beast cores and further his own cultivation.

His envoys would return with news that would puzzle him slightly

"Yuan Yi, are you certain that Mu Zhang has mobilized his men towards Crescent Moon City." The blood path cultivator stood proudly under the sun, free as a bird conversing with an agent he had found a great deal of use in.

"Am certain, the former city lord wishes to reclaim his city. The Wu clan will not allow themselves to lose ground." Yuan Yi reported on one knee, paying respects to her commander Li Wuji.

Li Wuji's gaze lingered on the horizon where the silver edge of Crescent Moon City shimmered faintly through the midday haze. The wilderness around him pulsed with stillness, a deceptive calm veiling the scars of recent battle.

"Crescent Moon City…" he murmured, half to himself. "That place festers with ghosts who mistake vengeance for virtue."

The wind stirred his long hair as he turned his attention back to Yuan Yi, still kneeling before him in the clearing. "You say Mu Zhang has rallied his banners again?"

"Yes, Commander," she replied, voice steady but low. "The remnants of his household guard have allied with deserters from the garrison. They struck the southern barracks last night. The Wu clan is reeling, though they have not fallen."

A smile ghosted across Li Wuji's lips. "Predictable. When wolves fight over a carcass, they both bleed." He paused, idly toying with the crimson pendant that hung at his chest. It was the Blood Lotus Relic, its faint pulse casting fleeting glimmers of red across his fingers.

Yuan Yi kept her eyes down, though the faint tremor in her voice betrayed her unease.

"There is… another rumor, my lord."

"Speak."

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