Chapter 1377: Opponent

He paused, then added, "A few days ago, Qian Yu even heard Xue Zongwu's retainers openly curse General Chongwu, calling him ungrateful, right in front of Xue Zongwu himself. Xue Zongwu just drank and listened without saying a word. Qian Yu actually knows quite a bit about similar incidents."

"Disliked by his superiors and despised by his inferiors. It seems Xue Zongwu doesn't favor General Chongwu. But what good is this information?"

"Let's head back to Jucheng first." This time, He Lingchuan had elicited many trivial everyday details from Qian Yu. Sometimes the devil is in the details; it never hurts to have more intelligence, as it might prove useful at any time. "Two days after Xue Zongwu sets off, we will also depart for Yao State."

And so, his plan began.

When the message from Shuangxi arrived, Xue Zongwu was drenched in sweat on the training grounds.

Hearing that Qian Yu had been ambushed and killed, the muscles in his chest twitched twice.

Only when he heard that Shuangxi's accounting office had caught fire and the ledgers were reduced to ashes did he drop the training weights he was holding.

With a thud, the ground shook, and the two people opposite him also flinched.

These training weights had iron embedded within them, making them much heavier than ordinary stones; a pair the size of a suitcase weighed over eight hundred catties.

Xue Zongwu was supposed to hold them level for over a quarter of an hour.

"Explain the entire sequence of events, clearly!"

His personal guards brought over Assistant Magistrate Li from Shuangxi, who immediately dropped to his knees, utterly terrified, not daring to look up.

As soon as General Xue flared up, Assistant Magistrate Li felt the imposing aura of a tiger wash over him. His legs trembled, and he struggled to breathe even in the spacious training grounds.

He stammered through the account of the incident, his heart trembling with fright every time Xue Zongwu asked a question. What should have taken a quarter of an hour to explain ended up taking more than twice as long.

Xue Zongwu's expression grew darker with every word he heard: "Are you telling me someone climbed over the wall, stole some ledgers, then set fire to the place, and now Shuangxi can't calculate its losses?"

Sweat beaded on Assistant Magistrate Li's forehead: "M-Mr. Qian's ledgers from the past few days hadn't yet been filed in the office, and he... he died so suddenly. The county isn't clear on which entries have been settled and which haven't, so..."

So, it was precisely during the period when the accounts were most disorganized that the opponent took advantage. "B-but half of Shuangxi's income and expenditure records for the past few years are gone."

"Were they burned or stolen?"

"Th-that... that..." Xue Zongwu's tiger-like eyes glared, and Assistant Magistrate Li's lips trembled, his words slurring, "N-n-no... no clear answer!"

In any case, half were gone.

"What about the ledger that the perpetrator dropped when climbing over the wall?"

Assistant Magistrate Li quickly presented it with both hands.

Xue Zongwu took it and flipped through, finding that it contained only summary entries.

He wasn't skilled in accounting and couldn't make sense of it no matter how he flipped through it, so he tossed it aside and continued questioning until Assistant Magistrate Li had nothing left to say, at which point he ordered him to leave.

Xue Zongwu had, of course, received reports of a formidable force appearing in the central-western region of the Shanjin Plains. Dressed in black armor and masks, they only appeared at night, specializing in slaughtering villains. The common people revered them, even bestowing the title "Great Emperor of Nine Hells" upon their leader.

Xue Zongwu had only listened to these tales as a joke. What kind of general doesn't want to make a name for himself across the land? Why hide one's face?

As for the Black Armored Army defeating Zhao Guangzhi, the cannibalistic Demon King of Luodian — ha! — Xue Zongwu had never paid any mind to that rustic boor either.

But Xue Zongwu hadn't anticipated that he would suddenly find himself entangled with this "Great Emperor of Nine Hells."

His strategist, Tong Huan, had long since arrived to listen in. Xue Zongwu turned to him and asked, "What's your take on this?"

"The so-called 'Great Emperor of Nine Hells' appears with considerable fanfare, which is why common folk view him as a deity. According to Assistant Magistrate Li, the perpetrators in Shuangxi didn't even have battle armor, just night suits and crudely made masks. That suggests they're likely imitating a tiger by drawing a cat, attempting to borrow the 'Nine Hells' name."

"Furthermore, the individuals the Nine Hells has slain in the past were not powerful figures; how could they compare to the General?" Tong Huan spoke with a touch of arrogance. "He wouldn't even dare to step into Yao State territory. While this person plays at being a divine being, he must be well aware of who can be killed and who cannot be touched. I believe the true Nine Hells would not dare to provoke the General."

Xue Zongwu nodded slowly. "I also don't believe this is the real deal. The question is, why did he steal the ledgers, and who put him up to it?"

Tong Huan murmured, "This person's methods are clumsy; it's likely to conceal their true objective."

Xue Zongwu's gaze was unfocused as he pressed his knuckles. "Is what you're thinking the same as what I am?"

He had a preposterous idea.

"Well..." Tong Huan changed the subject. "May I examine that ledger?"

Xue Zongwu tossed the ledger to him. "More than half of the documents in the archive are intact, yet the income records for Shuangxi Tributary Land from the past few years were precisely half-burned. Heh heh, how could the perpetrator's actions be so precise, yet 'accidentally' drop a ledger?"

So, this ledger was dropped on purpose for him to find, wasn't it?

What message did the other party want to convey? That they had leverage over him?

"Is this person trying to extort me, to go against me?" Xue Zongwu scoffed. "What does burning half the ledgers even mean? At worst, I'll just burn the other half too."

Everyone knew that if the accounts simply couldn't be made to balance, there was one last desperate measure:

Burning everything to ashes.

Commonly known as 'destroying all evidence.'

If he were to burn all the remaining ledgers for the black-clad individual, what leverage would the other party have left against him?

Tong Huan continued to examine the ledger in silence.

But his expression grew increasingly grim.

Xue Zongwu waited for a while, finally unable to resist asking, "What is it? Is there something unusual?"

During campaigns, Tong Huan managed a portion of his finances and provisions, so he was highly skilled with the abacus.

"This is a summary ledger; it doesn't contain detailed entries, but it does list the totals for each category."

Xue Zongwu only understood the middle part of that sentence: "So what? How is this a threat to me?"

"By reviewing this kind of summary ledger, one can ascertain the amounts of various income and expenditures, incoming and outgoing funds, and general expenses within the territory," Tong Huan explained. "In previous years, when the Royal Court audited military accounts, this type of summary ledger was the first thing they examined. Logically speaking—"

"The accounts Qian Yu prepared should be perfectly fine on the surface." Qian Yu always kept the official records meticulously, which is why Xue Zongwu had employed him for so many years. "You have many enemies. But it wouldn't be very useful for any of them to steal these ledgers. Unless—"

Xue Zongwu had enemies everywhere. Even if there were indeed irregularities in these ledgers, whether they could be used against Xue Zongwu depended on whose hands they fell into. Not to mention commoners, even princes and nobles holding these ledgers couldn't harm the ascendant Xue Zongwu. Anyone who dared to reveal them would be signing their own death warrant! Unless, of course, that person had absolutely no fear of Xue Zongwu's power.

Xue Zongwu stroked his chin. "Think about it from another angle: if 'that person' truly obtained this summary ledger, what could they do to me?"

"You sent Qian Yu to Shuangxi precisely because the Royal Court is scheduled to audit the accounts in ten days."