Chapter 139

On the blue-brick floor of the Xuanfu Town Assistant Regional Commander’s yamen, dark red blood had soaked into the ground, as if recounting the gruesome massacre that had just occurred there. Shen Xitang’s leather boots crunched over the shattered waist medallions, the crisp sound jarringly piercing in the deathly stillness. Zhang Chengyin’s corpse lay sprawled across the "Map of the Nine Border Beacon Towers." His throat, eroded by gold-silkworm poison, had congealed into a shocking patch of purple bruising. Tucked into a crack in his chest armor was half a scorched promissory note; the surviving character "Fan" from the merchant firm’s name matched the evidence from the Hangzhou shipwreck case perfectly. "The autopsy report records Jurchen skin dander in Assistant Commander Zhang’s fingernails," Xiao Heng said. His blade tip lifted a fragment of dark brown debris for closer inspection under the sunlight. "Scouts from the Jianzhou Guard habitually use gyrfalcon skin for their wrist guards." His voice was low and steady, carrying a chill that made one’s skin crawl.