William Brooks was so terrified that his face turned ashen, not even daring to resist, and cried out anxiously:

“Please wait, young hero! I’m just a security escort chief. If you have a grudge, go find the boss—don’t come after me…”

The fact that he could still speak clearly meant the young man hadn’t used lethal force.

The young man in the black robe gripped William Brooks’s neck with one hand and tilted his head to signal to an old swordsman outside the door:

“His name is Charles Bennett. From now on, he’s the chief escort. You’re number two. Understand?”

William Brooks was baffled, but with his neck being squeezed, he didn’t dare talk back. He just spread his hands and said:

“Young hero, we’re a legitimate business that pays our taxes on time, not some underworld gang. If the boss doesn’t agree, even if you beat me to death, I can’t make the decision…”

“My father is Richard Collins, your boss’s own brother. He asked me to deliver the family business to you. From now on, they are all part of the Zhenyuan Escort Agency. If they are mistreated, you will answer for it.”

William Brooks was stunned. He sized up the young man in black, and asked in shock and suspicion:

“You’re the second master’s son?! Why is your surname Ye?”

Henry Blake didn’t answer. After speaking, he took out a stack of official banknotes worth a hundred taels each, slapped them onto William Brooks’s chest, and turned to leave.

Outside the door, the neighbors were all dumbfounded, whispering to each other:

“What impressive skills…”

“Is that the young master of the Pei family?”

“Sounds like it… The Pei family did have a second son, but that was twenty or thirty years ago…”

…

The twelve escort guards who had followed along all wore complicated expressions. The leader, Mr. Bennett, handed his sword to Henry Blake as he walked out the door and advised:

“Young master, why do this? The old master liked to talk nonsense when drunk, you don’t have to take it seriously. Now that you’ve left with nothing, where will you go?”

“The jianghu.”

Henry Blake took the sword and fastened it at his waist, let his pet bird perch on his shoulder, looked toward the morning sun on the horizon, and took a gentle breath.

His posture seemed carefree, but in those clear eyes, a flash of confusion appeared—‘the world is vast, yet there’s nowhere to call home.’

He had been in this era called ‘Great Wei’ for eighteen years.

When he was two or three, his memories gradually awakened. Henry Blake had lived in a small border town’s escort agency in Great Wei, picked up as an abandoned child by the owner Richard Collins during a journey. Because he cried loudly, he was named ‘Henry Blake’ and adopted as a foster son.

Robert Collins had been injured in fights when he was young, never married, and had no children. He was very ‘caring’ toward his foster son’s upbringing—beating him three times a day, with extra on holidays—forcing Henry Blake, who had dreamed of becoming famous by ‘writing poetry, brewing wine, and making soap,’ into the agency’s top enforcer.

Just last month, Robert Collins, a heavy drinker, died at the table after a drunken binge.

While handling the aftermath, Henry Blake found a letter among Richard Collins’s belongings.

The letter, written in advance in case of misfortune, mentioned only three things:

First: Robert Collins was no ordinary man, but once a renowned martial arts master. He had planned to wait until his son grew up and proved his character before teaching him the ‘peerless saber technique,’ but if he was reading this letter, it meant he didn’t have that fate. As father and son, he would have to find his own way to practice the saber and seek revenge on the one who injured Robert Collins.

With Robert Collins gone, whether he was truly a master no longer mattered. Avenging his father was only right, and Henry Blake had no objection.

Perhaps fearing he’d have nowhere to learn advanced martial arts, Richard Collins also revealed a secret—the second matter: when the previous dynasty fell, Richard Collins’s master sneaked into the palace during the chaos and stole a fragment of the “Minglong Scroll.”

Legend had it that the “Minglong Scroll” was a supreme manual, recording nine mysterious techniques. Mastering even one would make one stand above others; mastering them all would grant immortality and ascension.

But the fighting was too fierce at the time, so it wasn’t taken out of the palace but buried under a ginkgo tree in the ‘harem.’ Richard Collins told him, if he had the chance, he must retrieve it from the palace.

When Henry Blake read this, he was speechless.

From the description, the “Minglong Scroll” was probably the ‘cheat, golden finger’ he’d dreamed of for eighteen years.

He naturally wanted such a unique treasure, but it was buried in the imperial harem. How was he, a grown man, supposed to get in? Was he supposed to castrate himself and sneak in as a eunuch?

To master this skill, must one first become a eunuch?

That was as good as saying nothing. What affected Henry Blake most was the last matter:

Richard Collins had left home young and never returned, feeling he owed his parents. He wanted Henry Blake to sell the escort agency and send the proceeds to the Pei family in the capital, not leaving him a single coin.

If not for the letter, Henry Blake wouldn’t have known his lonely foster father even had a family elsewhere.

After all, they were father and son. Though he hadn’t fulfilled his filial duty, he’d worked hard for years. To be kicked out with nothing and have the family business given to relatives—it really didn’t feel like he was treated as a son.

Anyone else would have ignored the letter—no one else knew, after all.

But Henry Blake was different. His previous life was long gone. In this world, he had only one relative, and though they weren’t related by blood, being taken in and raised was already the greatest kindness. He hadn’t even had the chance to repay it.

In the end, Henry Blake still followed the will, sold the border town’s escort agency for a thousand taels of silver, and, with twelve willing escort guards and their families, traveled a thousand miles to the capital of Great Wei.

A man like Henry Blake could never live under someone else’s roof.

Now, having settled the old men who served his foster father and handed over the family property to the Pei family, Henry Blake had completely said goodbye to his past and become a rootless wanderer of the jianghu.