Chapter 2: Guanzhong on a Bone Shard

Lu Zhibai slipped the Bone Fragment back into his sleeve. The lingering chill on his fingertips dug into his palm like a wedge. He heard Yan Guihong grunt. A blade swept across the doorframe, slicing another short arrow in two. As it hit the floor, the dim, ghostly blue light of the arrowhead flickered in the candlelight.

"Move," Yan Guihong said, his voice low and raspy. "The back window leads to the stables. I'll cover our retreat."

Nie Yunzhou stood with his hands behind his back beside the Buddha statue. His gaze lingered on the Bone Fragment for a moment before a smile, almost merciful in its warmth, tugged at the corners of his lips. "Lu Zhibai, what you're holding right now is a biting snake. The targets the Mo Society marks for death never survive three days."

Liu Qingwu grabbed Lu Zhibai's sleeve. "Don't listen to him. Let's get out of here first."

Shen Yan had already unlatched the wooden back window. A blast of cold air rushed in, tilting the candlelight. He turned back, his voice dropping to a low murmur. "Brother Lu, since the Bone Fragment is in your hands, our alliance for tonight is sealed. The Shen Family has an abandoned warehouse in the west of the city where we can lay low for now."

Lu Zhibai nodded and followed the others out the window. The sound of hoofbeats and footsteps faded behind them in the distance. The chill of the Chang'an night wrapped around them like an unwashed layer of old dust.

The interior of the warehouse was sparsely furnished, featuring only an old desk and a few oil lamps. Lu Zhibai laid the Bone Fragment flat on the desk to examine it closely by lamplight. These were no ordinary burial symbols; the lines traced a distinct path—a map of crisscrossing fine lines marked with several circles, each with a character engraved beside it: Guo, Li, Lan, Xian.

"This is a post road," Lu Zhibai said. "Not an official highway within the Guanzhong region, but an old post road from the Sui and Tang dynasties, running along the Lantian, Lishan, and Guozhen line. Whoever carved this map knows the terrain of Guanzhong inside and out."

Liu Qingwu leaned in, her fingertip tracing along the grooves. "But these circles aren't post stations. Their locations are all off. If you follow this map, the Lantian circle falls on the east bank of the Ba River—and to this day, there's only barren wasteland there, with no ruins of any relay stations."

Yan Guihong leaned against the window, holding his saber. "Barren wasteland? I rode past the Ba Bridge when I was young, and the east bank was just reeds. There wasn't even a decent stone tablet to be found."

"So this map isn't meant to help people find relay stations," Lu Zhibai said. "It's pointing to something else. Every place marked by a circle is a junction where the old post road was rerouted and abandoned. In other words, this is a map of dead ends along the old post road."

Shen Yan's eyebrows twitched slightly. "A map of dead ends? Brother Lu, how do you know these circles line up with abandoned ancient roads? The Ba River was rerouted thirty years ago; ordinary people don't remember where the old ferry crossings used to be."

Lu Zhibai didn't answer. He squatted down and brushed away the loose dirt on the warehouse floor with his fingertips, revealing a layer of grayish-blue hardpan underneath. "Beneath the wasteland on the east bank of the Ba River, the rammed earth layer is split in two. The lower layer is blackish—that's an old embankment over seven hundred years old. The upper layer is yellowish—that's newly built in recent years. After the old post road was washed out by floods, the government rebuilt it on the same spot but shifted the route, leaving the old embankment abandoned. The spots marked by the circles are precisely where those old embankments are."

Shen Yan's gaze narrowed slightly. "Brother Lu knows his soil colors. You sound like someone who has spent time inspecting ancient tombs."

Lu Zhibai stood up, brushing off the remark. "This Bone Fragment isn't a token; it's a key. It doesn't mark a tomb—it marks a road that was deliberately erased."

Liu Qingwu flipped the Bone Fragment over to inspect the back under the lamplight. Faint indentations were visible on the surface. She fetched a candlestick and brought the Bone Fragment close to the flame, careful not to let the intense heat scorch it, using only the gentle warmth to coax it out. After a moment, four characters emerged from the indentations: *Books within the sword.*

"Books within the sword?" Yan Guihong frowned. "What sword? Where is it?"

"The clue is hidden inside a sword," Lu Zhibai said. "Yet we don't even know what kind of sword it is."

Liu Qingwu put down the Bone Fragment. "Big Brother Lu, the technique used to carve the characters on the back of this fragment wasn't chiseling—it was burning. This method of leaving messages requires scorching animal bones over a fierce fire, then immediately using an iron stylus to carve the characters while it's hot. The writing fades as it cools and reappears when exposed to heat. People who know this craft are mostly Qin and Han dynasty shaman officials or postmasters from previous dynasties."

"A postmaster?" A thought struck Lu Zhibai's mind.

Liu Qingwu continued, "When I was young at the academy, I saw a tattered scroll that recorded the postal system of the former dynasty. Postmasters managed regional postal affairs and were also in charge of escorting classified dispatches. Whenever matters of the frontier were involved, confidential messages were never written on paper; they were all carved onto bone as proof, with fire used to leave traces to prevent theft along the way."

Lu Zhibai was silent for a moment. "My Lu Clan ancestors were once frontier scribes who specialized in postal affairs."

Shen Yan raised his eyes. "Brother Lu's ancestors were scribes? Could this Bone Fragment be an heirloom of the Lu Clan?"

"No," Lu Zhibai shook his head. "The person who carved this map wasn't a member of the Lu Clan. This map uses the Guanzhong post road format, and the characters carved next to the circles are in regular script, whereas Lu Clan scribes habitually used running-cursive script. The carver was an outsider familiar with the postal system—someone who looked like they were specifically investigating the Lu Clan."

Nie Yunzhou's words suddenly echoed in everyone's ears: *The targets the Mo Society marks for death never survive three days.*

Lu Zhibai held the Bone Fragment up to the light again. "This piece of bone probably wasn't meant for the Lu Clan. Someone snatched it from the Lu Clan's hands and hid it inside the belly of the Buddha statue."

Yan Guihong twirled his saber. "So right now, are we being used as bait?"

"Not necessarily," Lu Zhibai said. "The person who hid the Bone Fragment wanted to use the hands of the Lu Clan's descendants to bring it back to light. But they were also afraid it would fall into the hands of the Mo Society, which is why it was sealed inside the Buddha statue, impossible to retrieve without the bloodline of the Lu Clan."

Liu Qingwu said softly, "Then who hid the Bone Fragment? Why would they do such a thing?"

No one could answer.

Shen Yan suddenly spoke. "Brother Lu, you said the circles mark abandoned ancient roads. If we travel according to this map, the first circle is at the old embankment on the east bank of the Ba River. Is there truly nothing there besides reeds?"

Lu Zhibai thought for a moment. "I've never been there in person. But if the map is accurate, there should be the foundations of an old relay station beneath the old embankment, or perhaps an old stone tablet buried there."

"Then let's go," Yan Guihong said. "Take the Bone Fragment and leave before dawn. Reach the east bank of the Ba Bridge before nightfall and dig up the old embankment to find out the truth."

Liu Qingwu shook her eyes. "We mustn't be careless. Since the Mo Society regards Big Brother Lu as someone who must be eliminated, they'll definitely have scouts out tonight. The east bank of the Ba River is open wilderness; to go there is to walk straight to our deaths."

Shen Yan stroked his cuff. "Wild geese must avoid eyes and ears. I actually have a plan—tomorrow at the卯时 (mǎo shí - 5:00 AM to 7:00 AM), the Shen Family's caravan will set out from the city to transport goods as usual, taking the Ba Bridge highway. Brother Lu can blend in with the caravan, disguised as an accountant, and travel east with them. When we reach the Ba Bridge, find an opportunity to slip away from the team and head deep into the reeds on the east bank."

Yan Guihong nodded. "A caravan has plenty of wagons and horses, perfect for concealment. I'll disguise myself as a guard and travel along."

Lu Zhibai looked at Shen Yan. "Why is Brother Shen helping me to this extent?"

Shen Yan said calmly, "The Shen Family has an old grudge with the Mo Society. The Mo Society wants to throw the Guanzhong trade routes into chaos, and my Shen Family is the first to bear the brunt. The deeper Brother Lu investigates, the harder it is for the Mo Society to cover up the truth. For the Shen Family, this is a profitable venture."

Lu Zhibai didn't press further. He simply tucked the Bone Fragment back into his sleeve, his fingertips brushing against that chill once more. Within that coldness, it felt as though there was a road stretching from the Sui and Tang dynasties all the way to the present, leading straight to a lie that everyone had tacitly accepted as the truth.

The next morning at卯时 (mǎo shí - 5:00 AM to 7:00 AM), the Shen Family caravan set out from the city. Lu Zhibai, disguised as an accountant, rode a pack pony and blended into the convoy. Yan Guihong, dressed as a bodyguard, walked along the flank with his saber slung at his waist.

As the Ba Bridge came into view, Lu Zhibai reined in his horse to a slow pace. Taking advantage of a turn in the convoy, he quietly turned his mount's head and slipped into the reeds on the east bank. Yan Guihong followed closely behind.

Deep within the reeds, the wind rustled through the stalks. Lu Zhibai dismounted and, following the pattern on the Bone Fragment map, navigated to the location of the old embankment. He parted the withered reeds, revealing a stretch of grayish-blue hardpan with distinct rammed-earth layers—an exact match for the old embankment beneath the warehouse floor.

He squatted down and probed the soil with his fingers, brushing away the loose mud along the edge of the rammed earth layer. After digging about half a foot down, his fingertips brushed against something hard. It wasn't a brick, but the top of a stone tablet—weathered and covered in moss.

Yan Guihong stepped forward to help him clear away the mud. Half of the stone tablet was exposed, its surface covered in mottled, weathered carvings. Lu Zhibai brushed away the moss and made out the inscription. The characters were in the regular script of a former dynasty, mostly blurred and eroded, save for a few clear words: "...imperial decree... post road... altered... Ba... abandoned...".

"This is an abandoned tablet from the old post road," Lu Zhibai said. "After the government rerouted the road, they erected this tablet to record its abandonment. The tablet is inscribed with the year and month of the rerouting, as well as the name of the official who originally proposed the change."

He continued to wipe the stone, and two lines of small characters emerged near the base: "...Lu Clan commanded... postal affairs... bone as proof...".

Yan Guihong muttered in a low voice, "The names of the Lu Clan ancestors?"

Lu Zhibai nodded. "Indeed. The inscription records that back then, the Lu Clan ancestors were ordered to manage postal affairs and participated in the survey for the road relocation. Yet shortly after the road was rerouted, the Lu Clan was convicted and their household ransacked, and their names were completely erased from the history books."

He straightened up, gazing at the eastward-flowing waters of the Ba River as the knot of doubts in his heart gradually became clear. "The first site marked by this Bone Fragment is the place where the Lu Clan was convicted. The person who carved this map hid the clues of the Lu Clan's conviction right here on this tattered post road map."

Yan Guihong said, "If we follow this map, the remaining circles must be old sites related to the Lu Clan?"

"That should be it," Lu Zhibai said. "But why was the map hidden in the belly of the Buddha statue? And why did the person who hid it insist that a descendant of the Lu Clan retrieve it with their own hands?"

Liu Qingwu had once said that the writing on the back of the Bone Fragment was a method used for postmasters' confidential letters. Lu Zhibai suddenly remembered that last night, when the four characters *Books within the sword* emerged on the back of the fragment, Liu Qingwu had mentioned that this method was a secret transmission among postmasters of the former dynasty, unknown to outsiders.

He took out the Bone Fragment and examined it closely against the sunlight. Beneath the four characters *Books within the sword* on the back, there seemed to be another layer of even fainter indentations. He drew his dagger and gently scraped the surface of the bone with the tip of the blade. The indentations gradually revealed themselves beneath the blade, forming a line of even smaller characters:

*"...The judge of the case was not the Ministry of Punishments, but the Mo Society... The master criminal was not the Lu Clan, but the person who judged the case..."*

Lu Zhibai's fingertips paused.

Yan Guihong saw his strange expression and leaned over. "What does it say?"

Lu Zhibai slowly flipped the Bone Fragment over, his voice low and raspy. "The person who carved this map didn't leave these words to overturn the verdict for the Lu Clan—they left them to expose the case. The ones convicted back then weren't the Lu Clan; it was the people who judged the case on the Lu Clan's behalf—the Mo Society."

Yan Guihong's pupils constricted slightly. "The Mo Society... judged themselves?"

"The Mo Society didn't judge the Lu Clan; they used the Lu Clan's name to silence them," Lu Zhibai said. "The mastermind behind the treason case was never the Lu Clan—it was the Mo Society officials in charge of the trial back then. The Lu Clan were merely scapegoats."

The wind blew in from the surface of the Ba River, rustling the reeds. Lu Zhibai gripped the Bone Fragment tightly; that line of text felt like a nail driven straight into his heart.

The Mo Society wanted to kill him not because he was investigating the old case of the Lu Clan, but because what he intended to investigate was the Mo Society itself.

Yan Guihong rested a hand on his saber. "Then what's our next step?"

Lu Zhibai looked toward the direction of the second circle, and after a long silence, he said, "To Lishan. Let's find the second site. And see what the Mo Society was really trying to cover up all those years ago."

Deep within the reeds, the sound of the wind grew fiercer. On the distant highway, the dust kicked up by the Shen Family caravan had already vanished into the horizon. Lu Zhibai put away the Bone Fragment and vaulted into the saddle. That hidden revelation shone like a cold beam of light, illuminating the long and perilous old post road stretching out before him.