"A masterful plan to kill three birds with one stone." She crushed the sulfur crystals at the edge of the blueprint; the powder scattered into her tea, forming the four characters: "Merit high enough to threaten the master."
A northerly wind suddenly rose outside the window, carrying the border nursery rhyme into the watchtower: "The General breaks the Hu's spirit, the Emperor sits in unease; horses tread the Yin Mountains' snow, success leaves only cold white bones."
Before the watchman struck the fifth-watch gong, a grey wolf wailed beyond the pass. Shen Xitang climbed the northern wall on the frozen scaling ladder, seeing eerie indigo bonfires lit across the snowy plains.
Chapter 27