Chapter 95: Initial Investigation

A few days later, a company set out from the Princess’s Mansion, heading toward a valley known as Luoxi Ravine, located a hundred miles outside of Chang’an.

According to the intelligence provided by Shao Qinglin, this was one of the Manichaean sect's strongholds outside the city. It was also where the youth himself had undergone training to become a qualified assassin.

Based on the boy’s reports, the sect was led by three masters. The Great Master was of mixed Uyghur and Tibetan descent, sporting a curled beard around his chin that, according to his description, resembled the beard of Sha Wujing from *Journey to the West*.

The boy did not know the Great Master’s name, only that this master—whom he could hardly call a mentor—had a peculiar habit: he ate raw meat. He always kept two large curved blades hidden beneath his black cloak. He never seemed to lose his temper, yet he possessed a cold, murderous intent that was far more terrifying than any outburst of anger.

The boy had one memory of the Great Master that was the most vivid and haunting: the time the master killed a girl for sharing her food with the one who had placed last in their sparring