Neighboring a large village, a walled off plot of land atop a low hill housed an office of the Jianghu Investigative Bureau. Three small buildings and ten investigators were all that made up the branch. Despite despite work titles, because the local land was so sparsely populated and their trade in such little demand, the bulk of their day to day duties consisted of maintaining the compound and the documents archived within.

Inside one of the three houses, a middle-aged investigator sat behind a wooden desk, a hairy hand gripping a brush. He scratched his unkempt beard as his eyes drilled into the paper below, analyzing a few lines of crude and unfinished poetry. The investigator's scruffy demeanor expressed a lack of care cultivated by many years of mind-numbing routine and the absence of future prospects. The man looked bored out of his mind, mumbling aloud the words as he struggled to come up with a continuation. Eventually, instead of a new line, he settled on scribbling the name Su Jiang on the corner of the page.

Suddenly, a desperate cry shook him out of his boredom.

"Report!"

The man's dark brown eyes glanced towards the door. He heard someone urgently stomping through the halls. A young man wearing the traditional white and blue attire of an investigator barged into his office. His unblemished features were contorted into a terrified grimace.

"Senior Investigator Su! The Desolator of Life is here!"

Su Jiang's thick eyebrows flew up. It had taken him a moment to parse his subordinate's words. He leaped up to his feet, his paling face wracked with fear and confusion.

The young man continued, "He says he wants to surrender!"

Su Jiang grabbed his sword and rushed out. The young man hastened to follow him.

As the young man had said, they witnessed a man in dark robes kneeling in the courtyard, surrounded by sword-wielding investigators. Their encirclement was as wide as the premises would allow; not a single step could be taken further back without bumping into a wall.

Su Jiang's keen eyes observed the man's pallid features from afar. Though he could find no weapon on his person, it was not his sword that they were afraid of the most.

"Identify yourself!" Su Jiang demanded.

"I am Cui Shen." The man spoke. "I murdered Senior Investigator Long Delun. I've come to give myself up."

Su Jiang drew his sword. The young man by his side shuddered. But for a long time, no one dared to approach.

Finally, Su Jiang spoke. "Yang Lei, fetch me the iron shackles from our storage room."

The young investigator promptly ran off to carry out the order. When he returned to the older man's side, Su Jiang nodded towards the Desolator of Life.

"Go put those on him." He said.

Yang Lei paled. Cold sweat ran down his brow.

"I'll be right behind you." Su Jiang reassured. "If he tries anything, I'll cut him down. But my hands have to be free to do that, understand?"

Yang Lei swallowed heavily. After a few moments of hesitation, he began to advance with uncertain steps. True to his word, Su Jiang followed him closely.

Suddenly, Cui Shen flicked his hands, flinging back his sleeves and baring his white forearms. The wiry muscle upon them was like steel, tempered by many years of swordsmanship. Yang Lei flinched back at the sight, stumbling into his superior. But Cui Shen had merely presented them with his hands, waiting for the manacles to be affixed to his wrists. After rebuilding his courage, the young investigator pressed forward and began to lock the shackles around the criminal's arms.

Su Jiang had his sword pointed at the man's neck throughout the entire process. With the restraints attached, the Senior Investigator ordered his subordinates to hammer a wooden post into the ground nearby, and affix the shackles to it with another chain.

Cui Shen remained silent and unmoving as they went about their work. Once finished, they all backed away, holding counsel in a corner of the courtyard while observing him from afar.

One of the older investigators, a man about Su Jiang's age, asked, "Senior Investigator, why are we not acting according to standard protocol? This is not the proper way to confine a prisoner."

"I am not confining this man indoors." Su Jiang sternly rebuked. "We never figured out the trick behind how he uses his poisonous smoke. If he decides to spring it on us in the confines of a building, how would we escape, and how would we control the situation? But out here, the wind will blow it away quickly."

The other investigator seemed in equal measure placated and unnerved by his explanation.

"Yang Lei," Su Jiang spoke, "I need you to ride out to our branch in Linzhen. Explain the situation and have them summon Investigator Hou Jin as soon as possible."

"...I don't understand, senior." Yang Lei said. "Why don't we execute him right now?"

"First, we need to verify that this man is who he claims to be."

"But investigator Hou Jin provided us with a description, and he definitely fits the bill."

"That's not good enough in this case." Su Jiang shook his head. "The circumstances are just too unusual. Think about it. Such a seasoned, brutal killer suddenly finds his conscience? I'd sooner believe that pigs can fly! This has to be some sort of trick. For example, the real Desolator of Life could have found a lookalike and forced him to give himself up to us by, say, threatening his family. If we fall for his ploy, we'd not only be making complete fools of ourselves, but also killing an innocent man."

The young man's face lit up with understanding as he listened to Su Jiang's theory. But doubt crept back into his features shortly after. "But what are the odds that Investigator Hou Jin has actually seen the Desolator of Life in person and can definitively identify the man?"

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"True, he would not have survived such a meeting. But he is well versed in the details of this case, so I imagine that he could easily prove the man's identity through a few questions."

"I see... But still... What if this really is the Desolator of Life? What if his plot is more nefarious than it appears, and isn't just about clearing his name?"

The senior investigator's brow remained furrowed as he stared at their kneeling captive. "What else could he be hoping to achieve by coming to this backwater branch of ours?"

After thinking about it for a while, Su Jiang almost unwillingly conceded. "Well, it's not outside the realm of possibility. But in that case, whatever his ploy may be, if we act too brashly, we might force his hand, and we might not escape his retaliation unscathed. After all, this is the man who killed Long Delun! I'd rather not act without backup from the rest of the Bureau."

"But we have him chained up, surely there's nothing he can do now." The young man offered another meek protest.

Another investigator said, "I heard he killed a man sitting down. I wouldn't take him lightly even in that state."

Those words finally made Yang Lei go quiet.

At Su Jiang's orders, the investigators scrambled to bring over his desk and writing implements. He wrote up a brief letter and stamped it with his seal. Yang Lei mounted a horse and galloped away with the message tucked into his robe. The other investigators remained to watch over the criminal, their fingers flexing restlessly on the hilts of their sheathed swords as they continued their silent vigil.

Yang Lei pushed his steed to her limits, his dark hair whipping about in the wind. At his frantic pace it hadn't taken long before the office was left far behind and out of sight.

In the distance, the young investigator spotted another rider hurrying along the horizon. Yang Lei was of half a mind to ignore the straw hatted stranger, but the horseman circled on his steed until he embarked upon the same road. The two of them neared and neared each other on the narrow path, and soon they drew so close and at such precarious speeds that Yang Lei could not ignore the matter any longer.

"Clear the road!" Yang Lei bellowed. "Official business!"

But when it became evident that the cloaked stranger would not slow, Yang Lei had to abruptly stop his own horse to avoid a collision. To Yang Lei's terror, as the other man passed him at full gallop, the rider reached out and grabbed him by his uniform. The young investigator was sent flying off his saddle, hitting the dirt hard.

Stars in his eyes, Yang Lei struggled to regain his wits. He was given plenty of time as the other rider strained to halt his steed. The investigator promptly realized that he was still in danger and, after he picked himself off the ground, reached for his weapon.

But the stranger was upon him. Yang Lei's arm had been grabbed and held in place, and though the handle of his sword was already in his hand, he could not pull it out. The two men began to wrestle against each other, and for a time neither was able to gain an advantage. Suddenly, the stranger grabbed Yang Lei by the waist, lifted him off the ground, and charged forward with a shout.

Yang Lei's back collided with a tree. And though the air had fled his lungs, by some miracle the young man remained upright. He punched his assailant in the side, and it forced the stranger to finally relent and take half a step back. Yang Lei had very briefly regained control of his limbs, and once again made to draw his weapon. The blade made it halfway out of the sheath before the attacker slammed down onto his wrist and forced it back inside.

Another prolonged struggle concluded with Yang Lei elbowing the man in the face, which bought him just enough space to try for his weapon one more time. The stranger grabbed him again, but it was too late to stop him. Instead, the momentum born of Yang Lei's hapless desperation had been utilized against him, as the hilt was forced up into the young man's jaw.

The impromptu blow staggered him briefly. When Yang Lei awoke from the momentary lapse, he found his assailant in a wide-legged stance, his fist drawn back. The punch struck him like a crashing wave. Yang Lei received the strike squarely into his midsection, his eyes nearly bulging out of his skull from the ferocity of the attack. Once again he was forced back into the tree behind him; the weapon he had worked so hard to retrieve fell from his hand.

The young man was out before he had even hit the ground.

The assailant breathed out in relief. He squatted down and checked Yang Lei's pulse. Another relieved sigh escaped the man's lips when it turned out that the investigator was still alive. He rifled through his belongings until he found Su Jiang's letter.

After reading it, Bai Guo exclaimed, "Looks like I'm not too late!"

Realizing that his brother was still alive, some of the tension began to drain out of his body. His head cleared up enough for him to think his situation over.

"This was signed by a Senior Investigator." Bai Guo pondered. "As senior Long loved to constantly remind me, you can't become one of those without a certain level of martial talent. A direct assault will just get me killed. But what am I supposed to do...?"

No matter how long he spent mulling over the matter, not a single worthwhile thought presented itself. His patience soon ran out.

"Maybe a closer look at the place will give me some ideas..." Bai Guo decided. He threw a glance at the unconscious investigator. Bai Guo tied the young man to the tree and began to trace back his steps.