Palace lanterns were lit one by one as Ye Fan followed Qín Wǎnshuāng into the secret door behind the Imperial Study. The sound of the bronze lock turning was exceptionally clear in the quiet night. She took a flint from her sleeve, and its light cast swaying shadows of the Rivers and Mountains Map hanging on the wall.
"General Lǐ just sent a battle report. The wolf guards' rear army has stockpiled three carts of gunpowder." Qín Wǎnshuāng heavily spread a stack of sheepskin scrolls across the desk, the golden tassel in her hair trembling slightly with her movement. "Yet I still feel..." Her fingertips brushed across the yellowed silk at the very bottom and suddenly stopped. "This was missed when the imperial secret archives were compiled ten years ago."
On the unfurled silk, faded vermilion markings spread like a spiderweb—it was precisely the mountain range thirty miles southwest of Qinglan City, where one annular valley had been circled with three red rings, accompanied by four handwritten characters: "Blood Fiend Old Ruins."
Chapter 178