Back at the inn, Ji Kang slipped into Lu Wu and Jin Xun’s room, where the four Azure Grove Sect disciples had planned to meet up at the end of the night. Jin Xun, who had left first, and Yu Shuren, who had left second, were already waiting in the room.

“Everything go according to plan on your guys’ end?” Ji Kang asked.

“Yes. I was chased across the roofs of the city, but once I threw the bag into an alley and ran away, the majority of them peeled off to fight over the bag. After that, there weren’t too many left following me, so when I turned to confront them they lost their nerve and none wanted to fight it out with me.” Said Jin Xun

“My story wasn’t nearly as exciting as Senior Brother Jin Xun’s. I snuck out the back door and I never got a good look at any of the people following me. I circled through a couple neighborhoods and then tossed my bag through an open window into an empty shop before walking away.” Said Yu Shuren

“Lu Wu hasn’t returned yet?” Ji Kang asked, looking around the room.

“No, but that isn’t necessarily a bad sign. He could have stayed behind to make sure Li Chun didn’t need any help fighting for the package with anyone who followed him.” Said Jin Xun. “We considered this when we were making the plan, the one of us with the real package was always likely to be the last one home if none of the rest of us got delayed.”

They had no sooner finished talking about him, than Lu Wu dropped from the roof onto the windowsill of the still open window that Jin Xun had left from.

Lu Wu stepped down into the room and joined the three of them.

“Young master Lu, I trust everything went well with the drop off?” Ji Kang asked respectfully.

“Hahaha! It went almost too perfectly to believe! No one even bothered to follow me and I had the chance to talk with Li Chun shortly before they took away the gold. Now I have an inroad with our sect’s spy in Anwon, you never know when a valuable relationship like that will come in handy.” Lu Wu wore an expression of self satisfaction at the unmitigated success of his plan. “We’ve finally finished our sect missions, now all we have to do is get back to the sect and get ready for the inner sect tournament. We still have nine and a half months before the tournament. Taking a ship around the coast and up the Hua river should take about two and a half weeks, so we can call it a flat nine months once we reach the sect. All in all, we didn’t actually lose too much cultivation time to this mission.”

Ji Kang decided not to begrudge Lu Wu his smugness. After all the plan that Lu Wu had formulated had worked like a charm, mentally ridiculing Lu Wu’s obvious desperation to prop up his fragile ego with any and every accomplishment would just be petty of Ji Kang at this point.

“Actually, I won’t be accompanying you three back to the sect. I still have some duties to see to outside of the sect, but I wish you all the best of fortune. The next time we’ll see each other will likely be during the tournament.” Jin Xun informed them.

The conversation took a while to wind down from that, but eventually they said everything there was to say about their own roles in the exciting scheme to trick so many spies, and they all retired for the night to try and get some rest. Tomorrow would be the last day things could go too badly wrong for the four of them, they would need energy to face it.

The next morning, Lu Wu, Ji Kang, and Yu Shuren bade farewell to Jin Xun and checked out of the inn. They went down to the docks to find a ship that was heading the way they wanted to go so they could book passage.

Luckily for them, Anwon was a major ship traffic hub, so they were able to find an appropriate ship that was setting sail before noon.

“Aye, we’ll be heading up the Hua. If you want passage you’ll need to pay twenty taels up front and be on board when we cast off. If you aren’t here we’ll leave without you. I’m not missing the tide for you three.” The captain warned them.

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The riverboat’s captain was a grizzled sailor who wore an eyepatch and had a mane of salt and pepper hair in a scraggly halo around his head. Ji Kang seriously doubted that he had bathed in anything other than salt water for weeks, if not longer, based on the man’s fishy smell.

“Of course, we will be sure to be on board.” Lu Wu handed over the requested payment.

They had been given funds for travel expenses by the sect and Ji Kang noted that these twenty taels comprised the bulk of what remained at this point. Without them their coin purse was significantly deflated. It was a good thing that this should be the last major expense of their journey, they couldn’t have afforded another passage fee like this one.

“We have some time before the ship departs, we could visit a restaurant my sister told me about while we wait. That would be a fine use of the last of our discretionary funds, if we return to the sect with a surplus they’ll just take it away from us.” Lu Wu turned to lead them back into the city.

Ji Kang was about to follow Lu Wu away from the docks when he suddenly sensed that someone somewhere was watching them with malicious intent. He pulled up short and stood still on the pier scanning their surroundings for the source of the gaze.

He couldn’t narrow down where the gaze was come from, but he was certain that whoever it was meant them harm. Who could it be? One of the spies from last night looking to take revenge for being duped? Someone who wanted to interrogate them to discover what the Azure Grove Sect was up to by sending them here?

Ji Kang couldn’t be sure, but he knew that if they wandered back into the city they would be in extreme danger. Many of those spies had felt like they had impressive cultivations.

“Young master Lu, do you feel that? My instincts are telling me we’re being watched by someone with killing intent.” Ji Kang didn’t bother trying to disguise that he had felt the gaze.

“You feel it too? I thought I was just strung too tightly from last night.” Yu Shuren seconded Ji Kang’s instincts.

“Hmm? You both feel it? It’s unlikely you would both be wrong. Then let’s stay on the boat instead. We can’t afford to get into a fight inside of Anwon. Best case scenario we’ll be arrested and held for an indeterminate amount of time, worst case whoever is stalking us will kill us before the city guards arrive.” Lu Wu said worriedly.

“I think that’s for the best young master. Whoever it is isn’t likely to attack us on board the ship, the dock is crawling with city guards performing customs inspections. They would need to be absolutely sure they could kill us immediately and without raising a commotion or they would be surrounded and thrown into the emperor’s jails.” Ji Kang said.

“Yes. The boat is the safest place for us right now. You two, I forbid you from leaving the boat before we set sail. It would be such a waste if one of you were to be killed by some spiteful spy.” Lu Wu ordered.

“Of course young master Lu.” Ji Kang cupped his fists and bowed in acknowledgment of the order.

“Yes, young master.” Yu Shuren took Ji Kang’s lead and also replied formally.

They boarded the riverboat and retired to Lu Wu’s cabin. They decided that none of the three of them would be alone for any length of time until they were miles away from Anwon once again.

The morning passed tensely, but the end was uneventful. Every moment Ji Kang was half expecting some cultivator dressed in black to appear from the shadows and slit their throats, so he didn’t dare to enter meditation, but his worries turned out to be unfounded.

Their read of the situation had been correct, Tang Peng watched the crew of their boat make ready to set sail without ever moving to approach any closer that the shadow of a nearby warehouse.

He was infuriated that these young disciples had toyed around with a veteran intelligence agent like himself and he decided to justify taking revenge by saying his purpose was to interrogate them and find out what their mission had been, but he didn’t dare to attack them on board the boat while it was in such close proximity to so many city guards.

Tang Peng felt powerless and frustrated as he was forced to watch their ship set off. He could have easily boarded and stowed away, but he had to remain in Anwon per the standing orders of his boss, Qiu Jing.

If he left his post without permission she would have him hunted down and killed.

As they sailed off into the proverbial sunset, he gritted his teeth and clenched his fists. He swore that he, the illustrious Tang Peng, would one day have his revenge. He committed their faces to memory and he would find out their identities by asking around at the inn they stayed at.

One day their paths would cross again and they wouldn’t live to regret crossing him.