The Order to Slay the Serpent
Autumn winds had swept in over West Lake, leaving the surface cold and alive with broken, shimmering light.
Where tourists and wandering locals had always crowded every shore, the lakeside now stood utterly deserted. The plague had the whole city on edge — people stayed indoors whenever they could, afraid of catching that terrible sickness. Beyond that, every entrance to West Lake had been sealed. No unauthorized person was permitted anywhere near the great lake or its surrounding banks.
West Lake was immense — vast as an inland sea.
Along Su Causeway, which cut straight across the water, willows tossed in the fitful wind. In the dark of night, their long trailing branches were like rows of graceful women shaking out freshly washed hair.
At the edge of the long causeway, Councillor Zhu Meng and Guard Captain Wu Pinjing stood together, faces turned toward the Hangzhou skyline.
Across the better part of the lake, towers rose in dense ranks on the far shore. The reflections of those buildings — each a different style — lay ranked across the still water below. City met lake; lake mirrored city. It was both magnificent and beautiful.
Enormous black clouds drifted through the night sky, their edges silvered where moonlight crept around them. Now and then, a spotlight from the crown of some distant skyscraper would sweep upward and catch a cloud full in its beam — making it blaze against the darkness, conspicuous and brilliant, hanging over this wealthy, resplendent city and doubled in the lake below.
Then, without warning, a blue-black mist materialized near those luminous clouds. At first it was gauzy — a thin veil that softened the night sky into something hazy and indistinct. But it thickened quickly, more aggressive with every passing moment, until it had swallowed the silver moonlight whole, and then the scattered glow of the city's thousand lights along with it.
Darkness. A rushing, rolling darkness sweeping across the sky.
The blue-black mist rolled over the city of Hangzhou and drifted slowly toward the silent, empty expanse of West Lake.
On Su Causeway, Councillor Zhu Meng, Wu Pinjing, Councillor Luo Mian, Ah Li Jin, Tang Zhong, Tang Yue, Mo Fan, Litian, Leng Qing, and the others all tilted their heads back, eyes fixed on the blue-black mist now blanketing the sky above the lake.
"This is how it appears in the heart of the city and vanishes from it," Leng Qing said slowly, "without anyone ever noticing."
Leng Qing was a woman of striking, almost otherworldly beauty — cool and bewitching in equal measure. She was also the older sister of the young girl Mo Fan already knew. Today was the first time he had met this senior disciple of the Azure Sky Hunting Firm, and what he had not expected was for her to hold the rank of Deputy Chief Adjudicator — her abilities formidable, her standing extraordinary.
"It's coming." A faint smile touched Tang Yue's face.
Sure enough — the moment she played the instrument carved from the serpent's own scales, no matter where it was, it came.
It had returned. Even with Molting Season not yet finished, it had come back here all the same.
The blue-black mist had reached the very center of West Lake. Against the pitch-black vault of the sky, a vast, sinuous silhouette tore through the air — a heart-stopping streak of black lightning — and plummeted straight into the lake.
**CRASH——!!**
The enormous body struck the water. In an instant, towering white walls of water erupted from the surface.
Spray hurled skyward came back down as a drenching deluge. The waves rolled outward from the center of the lake — which looked more like an ocean at this scale — churning and crashing all the way to Su Causeway, nearly swamping the entire length of the stone path.
Everyone on the causeway stared in speechless shock. More than a few were seeing the Totem Xuan Serpent's true form for the first time.
It took a long time for the lake to settle. When it finally did, the Totem Xuan Serpent rose from the surface — neck and head above the water — and began gliding slowly toward Su Causeway. Even with only that fraction of its body visible, it brought to mind the unhurried approach of a massive black ocean liner bearing down from across open water.
"Hey, big one," Tang Yue called out toward the lake. "Did you finish your molt?"
The Totem Xuan Serpent glided up to the causeway, its neck and head rising to a height above the stonework that was impossible to measure with the naked eye. Eyes the size of great lanterns gazed down from above, sweeping over every person who stood below.
Its attention rested on Tang Yue alone — yet it felt as though every single person on the causeway had been caught within its gaze.
"It hasn't finished molting," Councillor Luo Mian said, reading the signs with a single glance.
When the Totem Xuan Serpent completed its molt, the markings on its body would be vivid and sharply defined — nothing like the faint, muted patterns it wore now.
And its aura was nothing like the imperious force it normally radiated. Luo Mian could actually detect a note of vulnerability beneath it.
At that moment, Councillor Zhu Meng glanced over at Councillor Luo Mian.
Luo Mian gave a small nod — and for just an instant, something cold and vicious flickered in his eyes.
Slowly, Zhu Meng — his face half-hidden behind a thick beard — raised his right hand. His open palm closed into a fist.
The signal to move. The order to act.
The moment that fist went up, figures erupted from every point along Su Causeway. They had been trained for exactly this: positioned at intervals along the causeway long before anyone had arrived, waiting. Within seconds of the signal, they had packed the full length of the causeway, shoulder to shoulder.
At the head of those emerging were figures dressed in the unmistakable robes of Palace Guards — Councillor Zhu Meng's personal mage legion.
The rest wore Tribunal Agent garb; the color of their uniforms made clear they were Councillor Luo Mian's subordinates.
Tribunal Agents were deployed across the country for their ordinary assignments. To see them assembled like this — flooding Su Causeway as a unified force — was something entirely without precedent.
"Take it down," Councillor Zhu Meng commanded, his voice ringing across the causeway.
"Activate the Lightning Ring Punishment Formation — do not let it escape!" Councillor Luo Mian's voice rose at the same moment.
The change had come without a single warning. Tang Yue, Mo Fan, Litian, Tang Zhong, Leng Qing, and the others were caught completely off guard.
Tang Yue stared at the ambushers flooding from the causeway — High-Level Mages who had lain hidden there since long before any of them had arrived — and her eyes filled with something she could barely process.
"What are you doing?!" she cried.
Neither councillor had breathed a word about any of this. And with this many High-Level Mages assembled in secret, no one could believe they had gathered here without purpose.
"Tang Yue," Councillor Luo Mian said, fingers stroking his goatee as a thin smile spread across his face. "You've done very well. From here, the task of slaying the serpent falls to us."
"This threat must be cut down while we still have the chance," Councillor Zhu Meng declared, his face set with cold, merciless resolve. "Destroy it, and the plague will be extinguished along with it."
Today was the day this calamity-bringing Totem Serpent would die.
The revelation hit Tang Yue like a bolt from the blue. She would never have imagined that the two councillors had conspired together — deceiving her from the very beginning.
Councillor Luo Mian had always stood in opposition to Zhu Meng. He had always been the one defending the Totem Serpent.