If I, a death row inmate, am not to become a demon, am I to become a member of the Imperial Guard?

As the sunlight streamed through the city gates, Zhou Yang stepped out of the government office. Qin Shuang followed closely behind, her steps light yet dignified. The two walked side by side, deliberately amplifying the clattering sounds of their sachets and embroidered shoes. The neighbors whispered among themselves, but no one dared to approach them.

A slightly chilly north wind swirled up dust from the roadside. Zhou Yang nodded towards the south of the city, a smile playing on his lips. Qin Shuang lit a lamp hidden in her sleeve; its faint light reflected in her eyes like cold stars.

They walked through the market and came to a narrow alley outside Baicaotang. Old medicine chests were piled up on both sides, exuding a musty smell of herbs. There was a teahouse at the entrance of the alley, with the words "Qingfeng Ming" written above the door. Zhou Yang pushed open the door and went in, and Qin Shuang immediately sat down in a corner.

The teahouse was dimly lit, and several tables of customers were discussing in hushed tones. A waiter tapped the wooden table lightly with a long ladle. Zhou Yang ordered Tieguanyin tea, its delicate aroma wafting in the breeze. Qin Shuang gestured for the tea to be brought to her.

Golden light shone from the tiled roof of Baicaotang outside the window. Several outsiders dressed in black stood not far away, their gazes sharp as knives. Zhou Yang's eyes flashed, and he said softly, "They're here."

Qin Shuang frowned slightly but remained silent. Her fingertips lightly touched the teacup, causing the tea to swirl slightly. Zhou Yang closed his eyes and circulated his inner energy. After a moment, he sighed softly, as if swallowing bitter wine.

"Life is but a fleeting moment," he noted the number in his mind, "enough to glimpse the secret passage."

He opened his eyes, his fingertips lightly tapping the table, tracing an invisible line. The line passed through the back wall of the Hundred Herbs Hall, leading directly to the abandoned herb garden outside the city. The herb garden had long been desolate, overgrown with weeds, with only an ancient well still dripping water.

He wrote a brief instruction on a piece of paper: "The herb garden is outside the north gate; the entrance is behind the old well." The handwriting was messy, but clear enough. He folded the paper into a small boat and gently placed it into the tea to let it float.

Qin Shuang's eyes caught sight of the paper boat, and she quietly took it out, folded it, and tucked it into her sleeve. Zhou Yang stood up and reached out to touch the brick wall, as if to check if the secret passage was secure.

Two spies dressed in black walked slowly to the front of the teahouse. One asked in a low voice, "What's going on at Baicaotang tonight?" The other nodded, his eyes flashing coldly.

Zhou Yang smiled without saying a word, then turned and left his seat. Qin Shuang immediately stood up, lightly stepping on the broken tiles, and walked towards another path outside the teahouse.

She reached the entrance of the pharmacy and happened to run into a young clerk. He was wiping the counter, his fingers greasy. Qin Shuang smiled and pretended to be lost: "Excuse me, how do I get to the herb garden?"

The young man looked up, raised his eyebrows slightly, and replied, "Enter from the north gate, turn left, pass the abandoned well, and you'll find it." After speaking, his gaze involuntarily shifted to Qin Shuang's sleeve.

Qin Shuang gently picked up the note, folded it, and handed it to the young man. The young man took it and whispered, "Thank you, young lady." The note was then placed in the crack of the medicine cabinet.

The scout had approached the back door of Baicaotang. Zhou Yang observed from the shadows; two guards were locking the door. The scout drew his short sword and lightly knocked on the door: "Open the door!"

Zhou Yang raised an eyebrow, the blood-red patterns on his hand glowing faintly. He lightly rekindled his life force, feeling a cold current flowing through his bloodline. Then, a slight tremor came from the ground.

Tiny cracks appeared in the bricks of the back wall of Baicaotang, and then the entire brick slid off, revealing a narrow passage. The entrance to the passage was covered with moss, and dim light seeped through it.

Seeing this, the scout rushed in. Qin Shuang went around from the pharmacy to the abandoned well in the herb garden, lifted the well cover, and saw that the passageway was open. She bent down and reached in, feeling a blast of cold air hit her face.

Taking advantage of the moment, Zhou Yang rushed towards the door, drew his short sword, and the blade sliced ​​through the night. The two scouts who had just stepped into the passage were forced back by the sword tip. The sword flashed like rain, striking the walls of the passage.

"Hurry up!" Zhou Yang shouted, his voice echoing between the stone walls. Qin Shuang ignored the mud and quickly crawled into the passage. Her sleeves were torn by moss, and bloodstains were buried in the dust.

The passageway wound its way through the air, its walls etched with ancient symbols. Zhou Yang touched a symbol, which glowed faintly, guiding him forward. Qin Shuang followed closely behind, her steps light and graceful.

Soon, a circular stone chamber appeared at the end of the passage, with an ancient well in the center. Several broken stone tablets were piled up beside the well, inscribed with "Leader of the Herb Garden". The well water was clear, reflecting the figures of the two people.

Qin Shuang whispered, "This is the entrance." Zhou Yang nodded, his eyes gleaming. He placed his hand on the well opening, sensing the faint spiritual energy.

At that moment, a sudden gust of wind rose outside the city, accompanied by the howls of wolves. Scouts outside hacked and slashed, but were blocked by the stone chamber and unable to enter. Taking advantage of the brief opening, Zhou Yang quickly pushed the stone door shut.

A metallic clanging sound came from behind the door, and the scout grew anxious. Qin Shuang searched for a small box in the stone chamber; the lid had a keyhole. She used her dagger to pry open the keyhole, and there was a soft metallic click.

The box contained several pills, labeled "Soul Refining Pills." Zhou Yang leaned closer to examine them carefully. The pills had smooth surfaces and were the color of blood.

"We have to take them with us," Qin Shuang said in a low voice. Zhou Yang nodded and put the pills into his pocket.

Just then, hurried footsteps sounded outside the passage. The scout, seemingly searching for another secret passage, rushed towards the entrance of the stone chamber. Zhou Yang raised his hand, dark blood gathering in his palm, and sprayed it through the crack in the door.

The blood mist spread instantly, forcing the black-clad scouts to retreat. Qin Shuang used the mechanism to climb onto the stone door and locked it tightly. The echoing metallic clanging behind the door sounded like trembling iron chains.

The two stood in the center of the stone chamber, their breathing slightly rapid. Qin Shuang took the note from her sleeve and unfolded it to examine it. The note read: "Entrance to the herb garden, behind the ancient well." She smiled, her voice calm: "Plan successful."

Zhou Yang patted her shoulder lightly, his expression a mixture of dissatisfaction and relief. He then took out a silver candy from his pocket and handed it to her. Qin Shuang took it, took a small sip, and raised an eyebrow slightly.

"Next step," Zhou Yang said in a low voice, "is to send the intelligence back to the city."

Qin Shuang nodded, a cold glint in her eyes. She folded the note, tucked it into her sleeve, and turned to walk towards another hidden door in the stone chamber.

Behind the hidden door was a winding underground passage. Dim lamps were lit on both sides, their light flickering. She moved quickly, yet remained alert.

Zhou Yang stood at the entrance of the stone chamber, watching Qin Shuang's retreating figure, secretly calculating. If there were any omissions, he was prepared to burn a little more of his lifespan to make up for the shortfall.

As the lights faded, the stone chamber returned to silence. Zhou Yang withdrew his inner energy, feeling the chill within him slowly dissipate. The price of his lifespan was small, but it made him even more vigilant.

He turned and left, stepping onto the dirt path. Each step was steady, like the first move in a game of chess.

The streets south of the city remained bustling, with vendors' cries rising and falling. Zhou Yang and Qin Shuang's figures vanished with the wind, leaving behind a trail of faint dust.

Their plan had begun, and the hunters unwittingly stepped into their own trap. In the darkness, the lights of the distant city walls flickered, as if reminding them: the world is more complex than it appears on the surface.

Zhou Yang looked back at the roof of Baicaotang, silently memorizing every detail of the day. Then he placed his hand on the jade pendant at his waist, feeling its slight warmth.

"The rain will be even heavier tonight," he muttered to himself, his voice low but devoid of emotion.

Qin Shuang's figure had disappeared around the corner, leaving only the whistling wind. Zhou Yang looked up; dark clouds gathered in the sky, and raindrops were about to pour down.

He abandoned all his strategies, stepped into the rain, and flowed silently into the unknown like an undercurrent.

The rain finally started to fall.

It wasn't just a few scattered drops before, but rather large swaths, carried by the wind, splashing and pattering onto the gray-blue tiles of the capital. Pedestrians on the street quickened their pace, and the streets, which had once been filled with voices, were soon drowned out by the sound of rain.

On the second floor of the teahouse, Zhou Yang's gaze pierced through the rain curtain and landed on the signboard of Baicaotang across the street. The three characters were wet with rain, their color turning a deep shade.

He picked up the teacup; the tea inside was already cold. He took a sip, not caring at all.

"It's time," he said softly.

As if to confirm his words, a figure emerged from the street corner. The man was dressed in coarse cloth shorts, his hair wet and plastered to his forehead, carrying an oil paper package that looked like he had just bought some pastries. He walked very normally, like an ordinary person being rushed home by the heavy rain.

But his eyes were unusual.

His gaze wasn't on the ground or the road ahead, but rather he used the corner of his eye to scan the shops on both sides of the street. Finally, his gaze lingered for a moment on the window of the teahouse on the second floor, then quickly shifted away, landing on the door of Baicaotang.

Zhou Yang tapped his fingers lightly on the table.

That's him. The fish from the Earthly Fiend Sect.

A little while later, Qin Shuang appeared across the street. She held an oil-paper umbrella, its surface painted with several clumps of elegant ink bamboo. She walked steadily, raindrops pattering against the umbrella with dull thuds. Her appearance was like a quiet drop of ink falling into the chaotic, rainy street scene.

The man carrying the oil paper package's eyes lit up instantly.

He straightened up and stared intently at Qin Shuang's back. He saw that Qin Shuang did not stop at the entrance of Baicaotang, but only glanced inside before continuing to walk forward and turning into a relatively quiet alley.

The man paused for a moment, seemingly hesitant. He tucked the oil paper package into his pocket, looked around, and finally gritted his teeth, quickly following him inside.

The alley was narrow, with high walls on both sides. Rainwater flowed down the base of the walls, forming a thin stream of mud. Qin Shuang had already closed her umbrella and stood in the middle of the alley, her back to the entrance, as if waiting for someone.

"You've arrived." Qin Shuang didn't turn around.

The man was secretly pleased, feeling that things were going even more smoothly than he had imagined. He rubbed his hands together, quickly stepped forward, and forced a fawning smile: "Is...is it Commander Qin? They said..."

He didn't finish his sentence.

The moment Qin Shuang turned around, her figure flashed like a wisp of smoke, instantly closing in. The man only felt a blur before his eyes, followed by a sharp pain in his wrist. He instinctively tried to scream, but a cold hand had already gripped his throat, silencing all sound. The force surged from his throat, causing his brain to go oxygen-deprived and his vision to go black.

Qin Shuang's movements didn't pause at all. With her other hand, she gently chopped him on the back of the neck, and the man collapsed limply to the ground.

She lifted the man's leg as easily as dragging a sack of rice, pulling him effortlessly into a hidden door deep in the alley. The sound of rain masked everything, and the alley quickly returned to its quiet state, as if nothing had happened.

Meanwhile, inside Baicaotang.

A middle-aged man dressed in a doctor's uniform was weighing medicine behind the counter. He looked focused, his brow slightly furrowed, as if he were carefully calculating the amount of each ingredient. The pharmacy clerks were busy outside attending to customers seeking shelter from the rain, and no one noticed him.

A waiter came out from the back room, handed him a folded note, and whispered, "Dr. Liu, someone from the teahouse sent this."

Doctor Liu nodded and took the slip of paper. He didn't open it immediately, but instead quietly placed it in the pile of herbs beside him and continued weighing the angelica root in his hand. Only after the shop assistant turned and left did he quickly pick up the slip of paper and unfold it.

There were only two words on the note.

The fish swims away.

Doctor Liu's pupils contracted sharply. His previously calm face instantly turned deathly pale, devoid of color. His hands began to tremble uncontrollably, and the angelica root in the scales spilled back into the medicine container with a "whoosh."

He steadied himself, took a deep breath, and called out, "Little Liu, I'm going downstairs to get some medicinal herbs. You watch the shop."

"Okay, Dr. Liu!"

Doctor Liu strode into the back room. He didn't go to the storeroom where the medicinal herbs were kept, but went directly to an inconspicuous medicine cabinet in the corner. He moved the cabinet, revealing a loose floorboard underneath. He lifted the floorboard, and a dark hole appeared before his eyes.

A cold, damp air rushed in from the cave entrance, carrying the smell of dirt and mold.

Without hesitation, he crawled inside and then closed the floorboards from underneath.

The tunnel was pitch black.

Doctor Liu knelt on the ground, groping his way forward. He knew this place well; it was a secret passage deliberately left when the pharmacy was built, just in case. He never imagined this day would actually come.

After climbing for about ten zhang (approximately 33 meters), the space in front of him opened up a bit, and it seemed to be a small storage room. He breathed a sigh of relief and prepared to get up and brush the dirt off his body.

Just then, a voice rang in his ear.

"Don't move."

The voice was soft, flat, and devoid of any emotion, yet it pierced Dr. Liu's heart like an ice pick. His blood seemed to freeze in that instant.

He couldn't understand how anyone could be here. No one else knew about this secret passage except himself.

A hand landed on his shoulder, not heavy, yet like a mountain, immobilizing him. Then, a cold touch pressed against his neck.

It's a knife.

"You killed Zhao Kun." This is not a question, but a statement.

Zhou Yang's voice came from the darkness, carrying an undeniable certainty.

Dr. Liu's body trembled violently. In the darkness, he couldn't see Zhou Yang's face, but he could feel those eyes, like a hungry wolf in the night, staring at him. He knew he couldn't escape.

"It was...it was me." His voice was dry, like sandpaper being rubbed. "I killed him."

"Why?" Zhou Yang's tone remained calm, but the blade pressed down a little further. A bead of blood seeped out down Doctor Liu's neck.

"To... lure her out." Doctor Liu was panting heavily, seemingly having made up his mind. "To lure Qin Shuang out!"

Zhou Yang raised an eyebrow, somewhat surprised.

He assumed the killer was from the Earthly Fiends Sect or the Azure Dragon Society, motivated by revenge or a desire to steal something. He never expected the answer to be this.

"Who are you?" Zhou Yang pressed.

"My name is Liu Qian... I used to be a guard for the Qin family." Liu Qian's voice was filled with painful struggle. "When the Qin family was in trouble, I survived by chance and hid in the capital, where I opened this Baicaotang."

"Is Zhao Kun also a member of the Qin family?"

"Yes. He and I are both surviving guards." Liu Qian's voice trembled with tears. "I didn't want to... Lord Zhou Yang, I really didn't want to kill him! But if I didn't do it, we would both die!"

Zhou Yang's mind raced.

The Qin family's imperial guards, the survivors. This clue goes much deeper than that of the Earthly Fiends Sect. They are not external enemies, but rather come from Qin Shuang's past.

"Explain yourself clearly." Zhou Yang didn't move his blade away. "Who gave you permission to kill Zhao Kun? Who gave you permission to use the Qin family's jade pendant as bait?"

Liu Qian stiffened again at the mention of the jade pendant.

"That jade pendant... I left it there on purpose," he said through gritted teeth. "It belonged to Zhao Kun. He always kept it close to his body. After I killed him, I put it in the corpse's hand."

Why?

"For fishing!" Liu Qian almost roared, "We've been hiding for too many years, like rats in a sewer! But someone keeps looking for us! If this continues, none of us will survive! I have to take a gamble! I gamble that if Commander Qin sees the jade pendant, she'll definitely investigate to the end! I gamble that she'll come looking for me, the 'insider'! Only she, that 'monster,' won't dare to act recklessly in front of her!"

"Monster?" Zhou Yang seized on this word.

"I don't know what that thing is!" Liu Qian's voice was filled with fear. "All I know is that over the years, the old Qin family members who had gone into hiding have disappeared one by one without a trace. They've been swallowed by darkness. We're terrified. I knew Zhao Kun was connected to Baicaotang, which is why I approached him. I used his life to set a trap. I wanted to lure him out; I wanted to see who he really was!"

Zhou Yang fell silent.

He thought of that rainy night, Qin Shuang standing beside Zhao Kun's corpse, her eyes filled with icy coldness. It turned out that what she saw wasn't just a body, but also a jade pendant representing her past and her family.

He always believed that he and Qin Shuang were hunters, chasing the murderer who killed Zhao Kun.

Only now do we realize that they were fish caught by someone else from the very beginning.

The person who set this up was not an enemy, but one of Qin Shuang's people.

A man who risked the lives of his colleagues to fight for a chance of survival for all the survivors.

The waters behind this were deeper and more murky than he had imagined.

Zhou Yang sheathed his knife.

Liu Qian collapsed to the ground, panting heavily. The relief of surviving the ordeal and the exhaustion from revealing the secret were intertwined, almost causing him to faint.

The tunnel fell silent once more. Only the faint sound of rain in the distance and the heavy, uneven breathing of two people could be heard.

Zhou Yang stood up, his back to Liu Qian.

"Why didn't you just tell Qin Shuang about the jade pendant?"

"I dare not!" Liu Qian's voice was filled with despair. "I don't know who her people are, and who...that monster's people are! I've suspected everyone! This is the only foolish way I can use! To lure her into the open, so that 'monster' won't dare to make a move in front of everyone in the capital!"

Zhou Yang thought of the Earthly Fiends Sect. They were merely a smokescreen thrown out by Liu Qian to attract attention and make this "scheme" appear more like an ordinary江湖 (jianghu, martial arts world) feud. Everyone was misled, including him and Qin Shuang.

The real target, from the very beginning, was a "monster" lurking in the shadows, whose very name exuded mystery.

He didn't ask any further questions.

Zhou Yang took out a tinderbox from his pocket and blew on it.

The tiny flames flickered in the cramped space, illuminating his expressionless face, as well as Liu Qian's face, which was streaked with tears and filled with fear.

"Take me away from here," Zhou Yang said. "Go find Qin Shuang. Now, you have to tell her your story again in person."