He Lingchuan yawned. “Otherwise, we should already be in the desert by now.”

There had already been several factions lurking in Heishui City, with undercurrents surging beneath the surface. Then those from Andong suddenly barged in and complicated everything even further. That truly had not been part of his plans.

“So what now?” The mirror could not hear much urgency in his voice.

“What else can we do? We roll with it.” He Lingchuan turned over. “The water’s muddy already. Might as well stir it up even more.”

* * *

In the blink of an eye, two days passed.

During this time, the two sides fought nothing but siege and defense battles. Heishui City kept its gates firmly shut and refused to send troops out, no matter how the enemy cursed and provoked them.

Because He Chunhua’s arrival had been so sudden, the assassins who had killed Commandery Administrator Hu had also failed to escape the city. The Andong forces outside...