Xuanqing Guard

From the time Shen Hao was ambushed to the moment he broke free from the Illusion Realm, barely the time it takes to drink a cup of tea had passed.

The three cultivators sent down from the Commander’s Office to both watch over and protect Shen Hao were scared out of their wits. The assault came so suddenly that they, too, hadn’t sensed the slightest killing intent or hint beforehand; by the time they realized something was wrong, it was already too late.

The two guards driving the carriage, as well as Shen Hao inside the vehicle, were all dragged into the Illusion Realm together. The three "bodyguards" only managed to pull Shen Hao’s fleshly body out of the carriage and protect him from further harm, but as for facing the Illusion Realm, they dared not act rashly in rescue.

Especially since they discovered that, after being trapped in the Illusion Realm, those two guards’ souls shattered and perished on the spot in less than five breaths. This alone was enough to make the trio break out in a cold sweat at the realm’s deadly danger.

Normally, an Illusion Realm is used simply to trap people, but there are exceptions—such as the Illusionary Kill.

It drags people into the "fear," "might," or "despair" within their own memories, using your memories against you. The moment you "die" at the hands of these memories, your soul will fall into stillness, dragging your Sea of Consciousness or mind down with it, leading to true death in reality.

This technique is extremely bizarre. For someone to use Illusionary Kill right under their three noses and still escape capture—it could only be a master of such arts.

Track them down? What a joke. Even those three "bodyguards" hadn’t realized how Shen Hao was drawn into the Illusion Realm—how could they hope to track the murderer? And if they missed the real culprit and instead fell for a diversion, they’d become a laughingstock.

What left the three most relieved was that Shen Hao, a Hundred Households Officer favored by the Lord Commander, really had some skill: after being struck by Illusionary Kill, his soul suffered only a minor shock, then quickly stabilized without any sign of being slaughtered within the illusion. This meant that Hundred Households of Shen possessed tremendous soul strength, able to turn peril into safety even when confronted with killing intent shaped from his own memories. Before the three "bodyguards" even had a chance to work together and reinforce Shen Hao’s soul, he broke free from the Illusionary Kill on his own.

Shen Hao carried the bodies of the two guards into the carriage and laid them properly to rest, closing their eyes for them.

Faced with Shen Hao’s questioning, the three "bodyguards" shook their heads. One replied, "You were struck by Illusionary Kill. The threshold for learning this technique isn’t high—one only needs a soul slightly above ordinary to practice it. There’s no distinctive sect feature, either. Major sects all have masters in this art, and the loose cultivators have their share too. It’s impossible to identify the culprit by technique alone."

Shen Hao truly wanted to ask why the three hadn’t sought help, or why they’d been so unreliable at such a critical moment, but in the end, he held his tongue. They weren’t his subordinates. Watching over him was by Pang Ban the Commander’s order; he had no right to turn around and scold them.

Hardly had they exchanged a few words when a mass of Xuanqing Guard personnel—at least two Little Banner Battalions’ worth—swarmed in from across the street.

Leading them was Tang Qingyuan. Today, Thousand Households Kuang Shengyuan had gone to the Imperial City on business and wasn’t at the Thousand Households Station. On hearing of the urgent report, Tang Qingyuan immediately brought men to the rescue, and only when he saw Shen Hao alive did the frosty look on his face swiftly melt away.

He clapped Shen Hao’s shoulder hard and laughed: "I knew you were tough, you rascal—wouldn’t get yourself killed. Any leads? Do you know who did it?"

Shen Hao smiled and shook his head, admitting, "The culprit ran off, we couldn’t catch them. They used Illusionary Kill—even investigating will be tough."

"Tough or not—it must be investigated. In broad daylight, daring to assassinate a Hundred Households Officer of the Xuanqing Guard on the city streets—those bastardly dogs are truly brazen. Once we catch them, they’ll be begging for life or death!" Confirming that Shen Hao’s mood was unaffected, Tang Qingyuan inquired about other details and then went off to make arrangements. With such a major incident occurring in Fengri City, the entire Xuanqing Guard wouldn’t rest until the matter was settled.

As for Shen Hao himself, he didn’t think much of it. After so many brushes with life and death over the years, this time, the Illusionary Kill had allowed him to duke it out with movie characters—entertaining enough, even if dangerous. It was far from the edge of death, after all.

By the time Wang Jian, pale-faced, hurried over, the three "bodyguards" had already vanished again. Most likely, they didn’t want others to spot them and were sticking even closer now. Odds were, the news had also already been sent up the chain.

"Sir, are you all right?"

"What could happen? Just a bit of depletion, that’s all." Shen Hao continued heading home; the aftermath at the scene would naturally be handled by the Black Banner Battalion’s men.

Seeing Wang Jian following by his side, Shen Hao didn’t shoo him off. Instead, he went on, "Any progress on your end?"

"Some. I just heard a report from my men over there. The moment I heard something happened to you, I rushed over."

"Let’s hear it."

"We found that the two families’ businesses have close dealings. Digging deeper, it turns out the Zhou Family actually has a medicine shop in Hai Xia. The shop’s official name has nothing to do with the Zhou Family—but the profits mostly go to them. We pieced this together from their account books. Their bookkeeping is extremely convoluted, clearly meant to hide money flows."

"Hidden money flows? That’s a problem—dig it out, and do it quickly!"

Since they were still on the street, with eyes and ears everywhere, their conversation remained vague and brief. Soon, they reached Shen Hao’s residence. No sooner had he entered than a crowd of servants and household staff poked their heads out—though silent, their concern was all too obvious. Xia Nu, in particular, and the two little ones—with tearful eyes they were even more a sight to behold.

"All right, that’s enough. I’m not dead—what are you crying for? Come on, fetch two bowls of sour soup noodles." Saying this, he turned his head to call Wang Jian to stay for a meal.

After a bowl of noodles, Wang Jian took his leave, saying he had to go keep an eye on the analysis results from the Third Division. As long as Shen Hao was all right, he could put his mind at ease.

"Be careful on your way back too. Have Zhang Liao assign you two more guards."

"Rest assured, sir—your subordinate will act with caution."

Once Wang Jian had left, Shen Hao went off to the bathhouse—the water was already prepared. He needed a good wash to relieve his fatigue and unwind from the lingering tension of the earlier Illusionary Kill.

Xia Nu’s eyes were still red; pursing her lips, she looked nothing like her usual carefree self, full of smiles and innocent joy.

"Who are you making that sour face for? Enough of that—come give my shoulder a rub." Shen Hao leaned beside the pool, patting Xia Nu, clearly not fond of her pitiful expression.

"Master, I was just really scared... Don’t you have so many men under you? You should bring them all! If you take everyone along, no one would dare hurt you!" In Xia Nu’s eyes, Shen Hao had only been in danger because he was being silly—he had plenty of subordinates yet brought only two, what was the point of that?

Shen Hao understood this silly slave’s logic well; explaining would be a pure waste of time. So he leaned his head back onto Xia Nu’s chest and didn’t respond—instead, he raised his hand, rubbed thumb and forefinger together, and an unshaped, intangible object that seemed to swallow and emit light appeared at Shen Hao’s fingertips. To see it clearly, one had to use perception; the eyes alone were not enough.

This was the Black Cut—or more precisely, what the Black Cut was now.