Shen Xitang’s hidden wrist-darts sliced open Wang Kun’s tunic. The lotus-shaped brand on his collarbone was identical to the one found on the assassin at Shuntian Prefecture. "The overlapping layers of old and new scars mean this has been here for at least a decade," she said. "He is an old sleeper agent planted in the palace by the White Lotus Sect."
The bells of the first watch pierced the smoke. An official from the Ministry of War’s Bureau of Provisions stumbled in, gasping, "An emergency dispatch from Jizhou! The Uriankhai Guard colluded with Korean rebels and breached Juyong Pass last night!"
The dispatch scroll glowed a sickly purple in the firelight—a telltale sign of contamination by Liaodong aconite poison. Shen Xitang’s silver hairpin turned black the moment it touched the document. "This was tampered with after it left the Office of Transmission. I fear the true report..."
Chapter 137