A divine healer, a general, a young marquis! Who can rival them!

The barbarian leader's initial attack was temporarily halted, but the heavy stench of blood still lingered on the walls of Qing Shi Kou.

The hand hidden deep within the central army, taking advantage of the chaos and turmoil of the city, silently extended its most insidious claw.

This time, it's going to target Su Heng.

The clerk, who spent his days buried in the archives of the military law department copying military reports, flipped through the old transfer orders he least wanted anyone to look at and checked the military report from three years ago about martyrdom. He sensed danger and decided to take advantage of the chaos to erase this troublesome person, along with those old, shady files.

As night fell, taking advantage of the city's lax security, the military law office's archives suddenly caught fire.

In an instant, flames shot into the sky, thick smoke billowed, and half of the night sky turned red.

"Fire! The office is on fire!"

Yang Hu was changing the bandages of wounded soldiers in the wounded soldiers' camp when he heard this exclamation, and his heart sank.

Military Law Department Archives.

At this moment, Su Heng was investigating the background of the military report about the martyrdom.

"Oh no!" Yang Hu threw down the medicine bowl and ran towards the Military Law Department. "That guy did it!"

Qin Ying, disguised as a medicine boy, had already darted ahead of him like a gust of wind. Her usually calm face was now filled with barely suppressed anxiety.

Su Heng was her partner in investigating the case for three years, and the only person in the entire city besides Yang Hu who knew her background. For those three years, one disguised herself as a military clerk, the other faked her death to hide; these two women, burdened with the blood feud of their entire families, relied on each other to survive in this dangerous place. Now that hand had turned its deadly hand on Su Heng, Qin Ying no longer cared about hiding her abilities; she only wanted to save her.

When they rushed to the military court, the office had already been burned to the ground.

Flames greedily licked at the rows of file shelves, and thick smoke billowed from the doors and windows, choking people and making it impossible to open their eyes. Several soldiers from the military law department stood outside anxiously with basins of water, none daring to rush in.

The fire was suspicious. The military law office was always the most important place in the camp, with every brick and tile protected against fire, and not even a brazier was allowed to be placed around it. Yet, at this critical moment when the siege was in full swing and everyone was busy with their own survival, a fire broke out, and the fire spread so quickly and fiercely, that it was clear someone had poured oil on it and intended to burn it to the ground.

"Miss Su is still inside!" a soldier cried out in alarm. "The door is blocked by something; we can't get in!"

The door was blocked.

Yang Hu and Qin Ying exchanged a glance, both seeing a chilling glint in each other's eyes.

This isn't a fire; it's clearly a hand blocking people inside, intending to burn them alive to silence them.

"Get out of the way!"

Qin Ying let out a sharp shout, her voice carrying a long-lost, fierce aura. No longer caring about holding back, she launched a flying kick, slamming it hard against the locked door.

With a loud crash, the door panel shattered.

A "boy" disguised as a medicine boy kicked down a heavy wooden door that had been jammed shut—a feat no ordinary person could muster. But in this critical moment, no one had time to think.

As soon as the door opened, a wave of heat mixed with thick smoke rushed out, making one's face sting.

"I'll go in to rescue them, you stay at the door to provide backup." Yang Hu made a quick decision, tearing off his shirt, soaking it in a basin of water, and covering his mouth and nose.

The inferno was treacherous, but having practiced medicine for many years, he knew best how long a person could endure in such smoke and flames. A moment later, and Su Heng wouldn't have survived.

He bent over, lowered his body, and avoided the billowing smoke, rushing in first.

In the smoke-filled archive room, Su Heng lay unconscious under the file rack, suffocated by the thick smoke. Even in her unconscious state, her hand was still tightly gripping the bottom of a military report, her knuckles turning white.

This is the base volume.

She risked her life to protect this old file, which could overturn the case and expose the perpetrator, from the fire.

"Miss Su!"

Yang Hu scooped her up in his arms, while Qin Ying snatched the roll from her arms and grabbed several unburnt old files from the side, protecting them close to her chest. The two covered their mouths and noses, bent over, and slowly made their way out of the ever-growing inferno.

Just as they rushed out the door, a loud "boom" resounded behind them. Half of the scroll stand collapsed in flames, sparks flying everywhere. If they had been a step later, all three of them would have perished in the inferno.

Rushing out of the office, Su Heng's face was bluish-purple, her breath weak, and she was suffocating from the smoke, her life hanging by a thread.

Yang Hu laid her flat on the open ground, ignoring the stares of others, and immediately began to help.

"The smoke is affecting her heart; we need to expel the stale air from her chest first." He turned Su Heng's head to the side to let the filth in her mouth and nose drain out, while pressing on her chest to help her exhale the thick smoke trapped in her lungs, bit by bit.

"If you're exposed to smoke for too long, your heart will stop beating and you won't be able to breathe," he said in a deep voice as he pressed on the gas. "We have to help her get back to breathing, expel the smog from her lungs, so she can recover. This moment is crucial; if we're too slow, she'll be gone."

This method of emergency treatment for smoke inhalation looked both urgent and dangerous, and the soldiers watching held their breath, none of them had ever seen such a way of saving a life.

Time passed little by little.

After Yang Hu applied pressure and guided her breathing, Su Heng, who had been unconscious, suddenly coughed violently, spitting out a large mouthful of black phlegm, and slowly caught her breath.

After a series of heart-wrenching coughs, she opened her eyes. The first thing she saw was not herself, but the roll of military reports that Qin Ying had snatched from the fire.

"Did you manage to snatch the bottom roll?" she asked weakly.

"We managed to snatch it." Qin Ying gripped the bottom of the roll tightly, her cold eyes filled with barely suppressed fear and hatred. "You almost lost your life."

Su Heng smiled weakly, but her eyes were resolute.

"As long as the evidence is there, this whole ordeal wasn't in vain." She gasped for breath, enunciating each word clearly, "The injustice done to my father's three thousand soldiers in his battalion is all tied to this document. The names signed on it are the claws of that outstretched hand. If you trace back along those names, you'll eventually find that hand. My life was worth it."

Yang Hu was shocked to see her so determined to protect the irrefutable evidence. His calm eyes held an undeniable respect for her.

Yang Hu stood beside her, gazing at the burnt-out archives, his eyes filled with an unyielding coldness.

To destroy this old file and silence Su Heng, that hand went so far as to set fire to the Military Law Department, burning all the military files in the archives. Its ability to commit arson and murder within the Military Law Department and then claim it was a "fireworks incident" demonstrates a far greater level of power than he had imagined.

But it still miscalculated in the end.

It burned all the files in the archives, but it couldn't burn the one volume that Su Heng had fought so hard to salvage, nor could it burn away the three people's determination to get to the bottom of it.

"The more ruthless it is in silencing witnesses," Yang Hu said in a deep voice, a brighter fire burning in his calm eyes, "the more it shows that what's hidden in this scroll can kill it."

Its ability to commit arson, murder, and cover-ups within the Military Law Department demonstrates that it held a position above the Military Law Department and was a powerful figure capable of commanding it.

This is yet another line to follow.