Chapter 314: Without Old Rules, There Are No Boundaries

Wang Cheng'an stared at him.

"Why?"

The white-veiled figure did not answer.

From deep within the mine tunnel came a dull thud.

The seventh shadow slid forward a step, and a crack split open beneath its feet. A wisp of black smoke emerged from the crack, condensing into a young man in a worn short jacket.

The young man's face was wrapped in white cloth, only his left eye exposed.

He raised his hand and pointed at the shadow.

"The First Eraser of Names is not Gu Changgeng."

The white-veiled figure turned around.

"So you've come out of the ledger again."

"Those in the ledger should not stay silent forever."

The young man tore the white cloth from his face.

The face was young, yet between his brows carried a gray decay, like something frozen dead for years.

"My name is Han Qi."

"Not the Han of Han Qiusheng."

"I am the seventh person erased back then."

Lin Zhaoxuan asked, "Which batch?"

"Ma Huaiyi's first batch."

"Forty-three were led, thirty-seven arrived."

"The six of us were left behind at North Mountain Pass."

Han Qi pointed at the seventh shadow.

"He was the first to have his name stripped away."

"After the six of us died, five were written into the Custodian Register. Only he was left without even a surname."

"So you call him the seventh?"

"Not us."

Han Qi looked at the white-veiled figure.

"Him."

The smile on the white-veiled figure's face vanished.

"Han Qi, you were always too talkative when you were alive."

"After I died, someone can finally hear me."

Han Qi walked to the side of the seventh shadow and reached up to trace a line across its blank face.

Instantly, a thin crack appeared on the shadow's face.

From within the crack came a hoarse voice:

"My name is..."

It only spoke three words before a dense rattle of abacus beads erupted from deep within the tunnel.

The white-veiled figure sharply raised his hand.

"It cannot speak its name."

Lu Yuan held his broken sword horizontally before him.

"Why?"

"If its name is spoken, the master ledger will claim it."

"What happens if it's claimed?"

"It will become the master of the first ledger."

"Isn't that what you've always wanted?"

"Not the master."

The white-veiled figure looked at the shadow, fear appearing in his eyes for the first time.

"It would be the first breach."

"Once it reclaims its name, every erased name will follow its path back into the world."

"That's not a bad thing."

"You don't know what will come back."

The white-veiled figure swept his hand, and all the names along both walls of the tunnel trembled. Countless black shadows squeezed out from the stone walls, like insects trapped between book pages, all crawling toward the seventh shadow.

Xu Erxiao swung his sword sideways to block the nearest one.

"What are these things?"

"Discarded thoughts," the white-veiled figure said. "Some are people's names, some are people's sins, some are words left unspoken, and some are false names that should never have remained."

"Then we'll sort them out."

Lu Yuan split a black shadow with a single stroke of his blade.

As the shadow scattered, half a line of record floated out from within:

"Zhao family woman, suspected..."

The second half was torn away.

Lin Zhaoxuan wrapped the paper scrap with ink-line.

"This is an unfinished judgment."

"It can't be used as fact."

Zhou Heng pinned another shadow with a copper coin.

"There's a fragment of a character here too."

"'Expelled from the sect and gate' only has half remaining. The front part might have been 'never'."

Song Qinghe swept her lantern over them.

"All the fragmented names are mixed together."

"True, false, verified, unverified, speculation—all compressed into the same kind of black shadow."

Wang Cheng'an looked at the seventh shadow.

"The first ledger isn't a ledger."

"It's everything that never got a chance to be sorted out."

The white-veiled figure said, "Which is why it cannot be opened."

Lu Yuan said, "Whether it opens isn't up to you."

The white-veiled figure raised his hand to block them.

"Gu Changgeng left this ledger so that later generations would know what he missed."

"But he never imagined that Han Shoumo would turn it into a tomb."

"And you never imagined you'd live to this day borrowing his memories."

The white-veiled figure's expression darkened.

"You think I wanted this?"

"I've guarded this place for twenty-seven years."

"Every name that crawls out of the stone walls, I have to sort them apart."

"Every fragmented name claims it's the real one."

"Every dead person demands I find evidence for them."

"If I didn't guard them, the first ledger would have already burst out and swallowed every person in the Thirty-Six Villages."

"So you turned yourself into Gu Changgeng."

"Because people are willing to listen to him."

"Because he once saved people."

"Because you wanted to borrow his name to make everyone obey."

The white-veiled figure fell silent.

Xu Erxiao said, "You don't want to guard the ledger."

"You want the ledger to obey you."

The white-veiled figure suddenly slammed his palm against the stone wall beside him.

A vast swath of names peeled off the wall, transforming into black rain that rushed straight at Xu Erxiao.

Xu Erxiao swung his sword to block. The black rain landed on the blade, instantly forming a dense layer of characters.

"No household."

"No land."

"No mother."

"No name."

Xu Erxiao gritted his teeth and scraped the sword edge across the ground.

"I've got a name!"

He pulled A Bai's wooden tablet from his chest and pressed it against the blade.

"My name is Xu Erxiao."

"My mother's name is Xu Liushi, her maiden name pending investigation."

"I came from Little Stone Village."

"Where I go from here, I decide myself."

The lamp pattern on the wooden tablet flashed, and all the black characters on the sword blade fell away.

"No household" transformed into "pending resolution."

"No land" transformed into "to be sought."

"No mother" transformed into "has a name."

As for "No name," it disappeared completely.

Xu Erxiao looked up.

"See that?"

"I'm not lacking anything."

"You people just never bothered to check."

Han Qi walked over to stand beside him.

"Say it again."

Xu Erxiao froze.

Han Qi said, "Say it for them to hear."

Xu Erxiao looked at the stone walls all around.

"My name is Xu Erxiao!"

The echo crashed into the depths of the mine tunnel.

"Xu Erxiao."

Among those erased names, some began to respond.

"My name is Zhao Lan."

"My name is Sun Liu."

"My name is Wang Shoutian."

"My name is Ah Zhi."

"My name is..."

The voices gradually grew clearer.

The black shadows no longer lunged at the group. Instead, they began searching the stone walls for their own origins.

Han Qi reached out and pressed his hand on the seventh shadow's shoulder.

"Your turn."

The shadow trembled.

It had no face, no surname, and no object that could prove its identity.

Only an empty abacus.

Wang Cheng'an suddenly walked over and took out a white bead from his cloth bag.

"This one's for you."

The shadow did not accept it.

"That's not your bead."

"No, it isn't."

"Then why give it to me?"

"Because it never had a name of its own."

Wang Cheng'an placed the white bead in the shadow's palm.

"When I found it in the counting house, it was just an empty number."

"Later, I used it to calculate people who had been withheld."

"To calculate the six from Ma Family Gully."

"To calculate the old accounts of Wang Family Village."

"It was never my abacus bead."

"It was only in my hands temporarily."

"You take it."

The shadow closed its hand around the white bead.

A line of characters floated up on the bead's surface:

"The seventh person."

The shadow shook its head.

"Not enough."

"Then you fill it in yourself."

Wang Cheng'an handed it a small strip of blank ledger paper.

The shadow traced its fingertip across the paper.

The first stroke appeared on the paper.

"I..."

The second stroke.

"Once..."

The third stroke.

"Walked..."

It suddenly stopped.

The sound of abacus beads rang out once more from deep within the tunnel. Countless black shadows surged forward, as if trying to wipe away those three characters.

The white-veiled figure shouted sharply, "Don't let it write!"

Lu Yuan blocked the shadows with his blade.

"Why?"

"It's not writing its name."

"It's writing its origin."

Urgency crept into the white-veiled figure's voice.

"Once it writes its complete origin, every erased person will return along that path."

"Then let them return."

"There will be fakes!"

"Then we'll sort them out."

"There will be sins!"

"Then we'll record the sins."

"There will be truths too unbearable to face!"

Lu Yuan looked at him.

"If you don't let the truth out, do you think that makes it not exist?"

The white-veiled figure stepped back.

At that moment, the shadow finally finished writing.

"I once walked North Mountain."

The fourth stroke fell.

"I have no name."

The fifth stroke.

"I do not accept 'seventh'."

The paper suddenly lit up.

On its blank face emerged the blurry features of a young man.

"My name is Han Qi."

The stone wall behind Han Qi split apart with a thunderous crack.

The first ledger tumbled out from the fissure.

It was not a book, but a thick volume sewn from animal hide. The cover bore no characters, only a single palm impression.

All five fingers were intact, but the center of the palm was split open by a blade scar.

It was the exact same palm print as the one on the final page of the master ledger.

Wang Cheng'an reached out to catch it, but the animal-hide volume opened on its own.

The first page read:

"Republic year thirteen, heavy snow at North Mountain."

"Guide Ma Huichuan, leading forty-three people."

"Thirty-seven arrived."

Beneath this, six names were written out in orderly fashion.

Five of them had been painted over with black ink.

The seventh had no name, only a blank palm impression.

Han Qi saw the page, and his body visibly shook.

"This is me."

"And it's all of us."

"Six of us, why is only one left?"

The white-veiled figure said in a low voice, "Because the other five names were later added into the Ma Family Gully master register."

"Your name was erased by me."

Han Qi turned to look at him.

"Why?"

The white-veiled figure did not avoid his gaze.

"Before you died, you kept saying, don't write us as six."

"You said we were from the same batch, but not the same person."

"I was afraid that leaving your words behind would make it impossible for the master altar to classify you."

"So I erased you first."

Han Qi let out a cold laugh.

"You erased me because I refused to be categorized."

"It wasn't to save me."

"It was to keep the ledger neat."

The white-veiled figure closed his eyes.

"Yes."

"Then why did you later turn me into the seventh shadow?"

"The master altar needed a breach."

"So you used me as the breach."

"Yes."

"You wouldn't let me have a name, and you wouldn't let me disappear completely either."

"Yes."

Han Qi's face gradually sharpened into clarity.

He looked at Lu Yuan.

"I don't want to guard their gates."

"And I don't want to go back into their ledger either."

Lu Yuan asked, "Then where do you want to go?"

Han Qi was silent for a long time.

"I want to find those five people."

Wang Cheng'an flipped through the first ledger.

Beneath the five blacked-out names, extremely faint traces of residue still remained.

"They didn't disappear."

"They were written to the back."

"One is in Ma Family Gully."

"One is in White Wolf Gully."

"One entered the Liu Family Gully marriage household."

"One was recorded as an attached name of Wang Family Village."

"The last one..."

He turned to the final page.

"The last one was written as a follower of Gu Changgeng."

Lu Yuan looked up.

On the paper, written clearly, were the words:

"Nameless child, taken in by the herb shop, temporarily following Gu Changgeng."

That was not his true name.

Yet it was the only origin he had ever been able to find.

Lu Yuan stared at those characters, his fingers slowly tightening.

The white-veiled figure said in a low voice, "Now you see."

"Among the thirty-two people Gu Changgeng saved, you were one of them."

"He didn't find you by the roadside."

"He brought you out of North Mountain Pass."

"Back then he led forty-three people."

"Six were held back."

"One of them was Han Qi. The other five he managed to send away by some means."

"You were one of them."

Lu Yuan looked up.

"I don't remember."

"Because your name was burned."

"Who burned it?"

The white-veiled figure said, "Gu Changgeng."

"Why?"

"He said you were too young. If your name remained in the register, every faction would come hunting for you."

"He wrote you down as a nameless child and brought you out beyond the Great Wall."

"Later he took you in, taught you to recognize herbs, taught you to walk this path."

"He wasn't your master."

"He was the one who saved your life."

Lu Yuan stared at the words "nameless child" on the animal-hide volume.

Fragmented memories suddenly surfaced from the depths of his mind.

Heavy snow.

A hand cracked by frost.

Someone stuffing him into the bottom of a medicine chest.

The smell of herbs, the crack of a horsewhip, the sound of wheels pressing over ice.

And a man's low voice saying:

"Don't be afraid. Leave your name for now."

He had always thought it was a dream from childhood.

It wasn't.

The white-veiled figure said, "Do you want to know your true name?"

Every sound in the mine tunnel went quiet.

The final page of the first ledger slowly turned open.

On it was a single charred character.

It looked like "Lu," and it also looked like "Li." The horizontal stroke in the middle had been devoured by fire.

The white-veiled figure reached out and pressed down on that page.

"Gu Changgeng burned your name."

"But before he burned it, he told me."

"I can say it."

Xu Erxiao stepped forward.

"What did he say?"

The white-veiled figure looked at Lu Yuan.

"He said, your true name is—"

Lu Yuan raised his blade, the edge pressing against the white-veiled figure's throat.

"No need."

The white-veiled figure froze.

"You don't want to know?"

"I do."

"Then why won't you listen?"

"Because you don't know."

"I heard it with my own ears."

"But you're a borrowed Gu Changgeng."

"What you remember might also be what Gu Changgeng wanted you to remember."

The white-veiled figure fell silent.

Lu Yuan pulled the animal-hide volume out from under his hand.

"If my true name really matters, I'll find it out myself."

"And if I can't find it, I can leave it as unknown."

"I won't let someone else's words decide my life for me."

Wang Cheng'an looked at that line of charred residual characters.

"This is the real reason my father refused to acknowledge you."

Lu Yuan turned.

"What did you say?"

"My father saw you before."

Wang Cheng'an opened his ancestral ledger.

In the marginal notes on the final page left by Wang Shouyi, written clearly, were the words:

"The herb shop child, true name never investigated. Brother Gu refused to acknowledge on his behalf."

Below it was another line:

"If someone comes with an abacus to ask, do not fill in a name for them."

Wang Cheng'an looked up.

"My father knew about this."

"So he took the abacus away, but he didn't take your name away."

"He wasn't refusing to acknowledge you."

"He was afraid of acknowledging you wrongly."

Lu Yuan was silent for a long time.

At last, he understood why his master never asked his true name, and why Wang Shouyi, who might have known, never mentioned it in front of Wang Cheng'an.

They hadn't forgotten.

They had deliberately left him a place that no one else had filled.

The white-veiled figure suddenly laughed.

"You think you're so clever."

"But without a true name, you can never return to your real origin."

Lu Yuan said, "The origins I have now are already more than enough."

"The herb shop, within the Great Wall, North Mountain, Ma Family Gully, White Wolf Gully."

"At every single place, someone has seen me."

"No one has seen you being born."

"Birth isn't the only origin."

Lu Yuan pointed at the first ledger.

"You people always want to find the earliest name, as if that's the only real one."

"But a person who has lived to today—every stretch of road he has walked is real."

"Even if you can prove where I was born, that doesn't mean you get to decide who I am."

Han Qi stood nearby, and upon hearing this, the scars on his face slowly faded.

He pulled the blank palm-impression page out from the first ledger.

"I won't go back to being 'the seventh person' either."

"Han Qi is a name I chose for myself later."

"Record it in the first ledger."

Wang Cheng'an took the paper and carefully wrote:

"Han Qi, self-chosen name."

"Once walked North Mountain."

"Same batch as five others, name was once erased."

"Refused to be merged into the seventh total name."

After he finished writing, the paper was not absorbed by the animal-hide volume.

It remained in Wang Cheng'an's hand, its edges radiating a faint white glow.

The other pages of the first ledger began turning on their own.

One by one, those blacked-out names revealed themselves.

"Zhao Liu."

"Sun Erniang."

"Liu Sanniang."

"Wang Shoutian."

"Nameless child."

"Gu Changgeng."

Behind every name, a new empty column appeared.

"Personal confirmation."

"Witnessed by companions."

"Destination self-determined."

Wang Cheng'an looked up.

"The first ledger is changing."

"It's not changing itself."

Lu Yuan looked at the volumes in everyone's hands.

"It's what we wrote into it that's changing it."

The white-veiled figure's face darkened sharply.

"You can't let it complete."

"Once the first ledger acknowledges 'personal confirmation,' all the old rules will become void."

"Isn't that exactly what we want?"

"No."

"Without old rules, there are no boundaries."

"People will change their names at will, sins will be rewritten at will, the dead will be reshaped at will."

Lu Yuan said, "So we keep the boundaries."

"A person can confirm themselves, but they can't erase physical evidence."

"New names can be established, but old events cannot disappear."

"Destinations can be self-determined, but occupied fields, harmed people, and unpaid debts must all be investigated."

"This is what it means to revise the ledger, not destroy it."

Wang Cheng'an immediately wrote down three rules beside him.

"Names may be self-acknowledged."

"Matters must retain evidence."

"Debts are not canceled by changing names."

The first ledger let out a heavy, rumbling sound.

The white-veiled figure reached out to snatch it.

Zhou Heng stood in his way.

"You guarded this place for twenty-seven years, yet you never thought of these three rules?"

"I thought of them."

"But no one could ever enforce them."

"Then starting today, they will be."

Lin Zhaoxuan bound the white-veiled figure's wrist with his ink-line.

"If you don't want to see it, then stop impersonating Gu Changgeng."

The white-veiled figure wrenched himself free with force.

The white glove tore apart, revealing a hand covered in dense black character marks.

Those character marks crawled toward Lin Zhaoxuan like insects.

"You'll regret this."

"Once the Thirty-Six Villages descend into chaos, you'll come begging me to re-establish the gate."

Lu Yuan closed the first ledger.

"We'll deal with that when it comes."

"First, leave behind your own name."

The white-veiled figure froze.

"Me?"

"Don't you claim to represent Gu Changgeng?"

"Then write down your own name, and write down whose name you borrowed."

"If you refuse, we'll simply record: 'White-veiled figure, name pending investigation, once guarded the first ledger.'"

"Is that even a name?"

"It's a fact."

The white-veiled figure stared at him.

After a long, long moment, he slowly pulled off the other glove.

The black marks on his palm converged into three characters:

"Gu Wuhui."

Wang Cheng'an read them aloud in a low voice.

"Gu Wuhui."

"Not Gu Changgeng."

"Not Han Shoumo."

The white-veiled figure said, "My original name was gone long ago."

"This is a name I chose for myself."

"Gu Wuhui?"

"Guarding the memory of those who never returned."

"Who are you thinking of?"

"Everyone who never made it back."

Lu Yuan nodded.

"Then record it."

Gu Wuhui looked at the first ledger.

"Where will you write me in?"

"Keeper of the ledger."

"Not the Gate Master?"

"If you no longer make decisions for others, then no."

Gu Wuhui let out a bitter laugh.

"Twenty-seven years I guarded this ledger, and in the end, all I get is 'keeper of the ledger.'"

"Better than nameless."

"A name carries responsibility."

Gu Wuhui's expression froze.

Wang Cheng'an had already written:

"Gu Wuhui, self-chosen name."

"Once borrowed Gu Changgeng's shadow to guard the first ledger."

"Matters of name-erasing and name-protecting each have their evidence, pending separate volumes."

"May not answer on behalf of Gu Changgeng."

As these words settled, the two shadows behind Gu Wuhui finally separated.

One was Gu Changgeng's old shadow, wearing the herb shop's long robe, a medicine chest in hand.

The other was Gu Wuhui's shadow, wearing the shattered white gloves, an animal-hide ledger slung over his shoulder.

Gu Changgeng's old shadow did not look at Lu Yuan, only nodded to him once.

Then it dissolved into a wisp of pale smoke and returned to the cover of the first ledger.

Gu Wuhui stood in place, for the first time not wearing someone else's face.

"Now, you can go."

"Go where?"

"Split the first ledger into six portions."

"Why six portions?"

"Because each of you six saw a different part of it."

"No single person can copy the whole thing."

Lu Yuan said, "What about the seventh person?"

Han Qi looked up.

"I don't need to copy it."

"Why?"

"I'm staying here."

"To guard the place of the first erasure?"

"No."

Han Qi gazed toward the entrance of the mine tunnel.

"I'm going to find those five people."

"Their names have already returned."

"But they may not remember who they are anymore."

Lu Yuan handed him the paper with the five names written on it.

"Take this with you."

Han Qi accepted it.

The five names stood side by side on the paper, no master name, no total count.

He pressed the paper against his chest.

"What if I can't find them?"

"Then record them as pending search."

"What if they've already become different names?"

"Then record them side by side."

Han Qi nodded.

"This time, no erasing."

From outside the mine tunnel came the sound of wind.

The water sounds of the thirty-six wells gradually calmed.

The red papers no longer flew about wildly; each drifted down to rest beside its respective village name.

From the direction of White Wolf Gully came the laughter of children.

Above the righteous well in Ma Family Gully, Missing-Rim Liu was hammering a duplicate register tablet into place beside the well.

The red paper of Little Stone Village, meanwhile, slowly wrote out new content in the snow:

"Xu Liushi, from Liu Family Gully, maiden name pending investigation."

When Xu Erxiao saw it, tears suddenly fell from his eyes.

Not "nameless."

But "pending investigation."

Those two words left his mother a path that could still be searched in the future.

He wiped his face hard.

"When I get back, I'm going to Liu Family Gully to investigate too."

Song Qinghe looked at him.

"What if you can't find it?"

"Then I'll keep it as pending investigation."

"My mother didn't become a person without a name because no one could find it."

"She always had one."

The group walked outward along the mine tunnel.

Gu Wuhui did not follow.

He stood beside the first ledger, placed the broken white glove on the stone platform, and began copying it anew.

With every page he copied, he first wrote one line:

"This is a copy, not a total name."

When Lu Yuan reached the mouth of the tunnel, he turned back and saw that a new gap had appeared on the cover of the first ledger.

The gap was shaped like a door without a door panel.

The mark left by Self-Guarding had appeared here as well.

Gu Wuhui looked at the gap and murmured, "If the door never closes, the ledger will always have room to change."

Lu Yuan nodded.

"Don't seal the gap."

They left the mine tunnel.

The sky was already turning pale with dawn.

Shen Yanshan still stood at the foot of Old Dragon's Back, the red papers of the thirty-six wells drifting behind him.

His white gloves had already been removed, leaving only old palm impressions on his hands.

Lu Yuan explained the arrangement for splitting the first ledger to him.

"Origin, destination, personal testimony, physical evidence, fragmented names, and the deceased—six volumes, separated."

"Every village keeps a copy."

"Personal confirmation does not conflict with old matters."

"Changing names does not cancel debts."

"The nameless do not revert to public ownership."

After listening, Shen Yanshan asked, "No master register?"

"Only an index."

"Who controls the index?"

"Rotating."

"How often does it rotate?"

"Each place decides for itself, but no single person may hold it consecutively."

Shen Yanshan looked at Wang Cheng'an.

"You won't take the chief account?"

Wang Cheng'an said, "I won't."

"Then what will you take?"

"Auditing."

"What's the difference?"

"The chief account makes decisions for everyone."

"Auditing only points out where things don't add up."

Shen Yanshan was silent for a long time.

"This is far more troublesome than being chief account."

"Yes, it is."

"Also slower."

"Yes."

"There will be disputes for years."

"Yes."

"Aren't you afraid?"

Lu Yuan looked at the sky that was just beginning to brighten.

"Afraid."

"But living people are troublesome by nature."

"If we're afraid of trouble, someone will come along and write all of us into a single name."

Shen Yanshan looked down at his own palm.

"Then what should I do?"

"Go back to the Thirty-Six Villages."

"Return the old registers one by one."

"Tell them the duplicate registers are not commands."

"What if some refuse to accept it?"

"Record the refusals."

"What if someone wants to re-establish an altar?"

"First ask them whether they're willing to write out their own name."

Shen Yanshan nodded.

"I'll go."

"There's one more thing."

"What?"

"Do you know where the thirty-two people Gu Changgeng brought out of North Mountain went?"

Shen Yanshan looked at Lu Yuan.

"The first ledger only records thirty-one."

"Who's the missing one?"

"You."

Lu Yuan had already guessed, yet he still felt a heaviness in his chest.

"What about the other thirty-one?"

"Nineteen stayed beyond the Great Wall, their descendants scattered through the Thirty-Six Villages."

"Seven returned within the Great Wall."

"Three died on the road."

"Gu Changgeng once wanted to gather them all back together."

"Why didn't he?"

"Because one of them refused to return."

"Who?"

"A child surnamed Lu."

Lu Yuan froze.

"Someone else surnamed Lu?"

"No."

Shen Yanshan said, "He said that child should never be categorized into Gu Changgeng's thirty-two people again."

"He already had his own path."

"So Gu Changgeng only wrote 'nameless child' in the ledger."

"Later, he added another line beside it."

"What did it say?"

Shen Yanshan looked at Lu Yuan.

"If the person himself asks, do not answer on his behalf."

Wind blew down from Old Dragon's Back.

Lu Yuan closed his eyes.

His master truly had left everything behind.

He just never finished the answers for him.

Xu Erxiao patted him on the shoulder.

"Brother Lu, my mother's maiden name needs investigating, and your true name needs investigating too."

"I'll help you look."

Wang Cheng'an said, "I'll help as well."

Lin Zhaoxuan, Zhou Heng, and Song Qinghe said nothing, but they all stood at his side.

Lu Yuan looked at the shadows of the six people.

This time, the shadows did not merge into a single gate.

Six shadows each fell separately on the snow, connected to one another, yet each retaining its own clear boundary.

The seventh shadow stood at the mouth of the mine tunnel—Han Qi had already left.

Gu Wuhui's shadow remained in the counting house.

Shen Yanshan's shadow stretched in the direction of the Thirty-Six Villages.

Every person walked their own road.

But the shared road remained.

Just as the group was about to descend the mountain, Wang Cheng'an suddenly pulled a thin thread out of the empty abacus frame.

At the end of the thread was a strip of extremely thin black paper.

On the black paper was only one line of new writing:

"The ledgers of the Thirty-Six Villages beyond the Great Wall have been revised."

"The old registers of the Nine Gates within the Great Wall still..."