Read Chapter 32: — WITHOUT EQUAL

At dusk, Tang Zheng stood on the training ground of the North Suppression Office with his daughter facing him across the packed earth.

She was thirteen and far too confident.

“Ready?” Tang asked.

“Come on.”

She attacked too quickly.

Tang stepped aside, caught her wrist and tapped the flat of his wooden blade against her ribs.

She stumbled back, furious.

“You cheated.”

“I won.”

“Again.”

Tang lowered the sword.

“On a real mission, you do not always get again.”

The words reached him a moment after he spoke them.

Across twenty years, he heard the voice of a father he barely remembered speaking to a student who would one day raise his son.

His daughter frowned.

“Why are you smiling?”

“No reason.”

He lifted the practice blade.

“Again.”

She came at him more carefully this time.

Beyond the wall, Beijing settled into evening. Bells sounded from a distant gate. Traders shouted final prices. Horses moved through the streets. Somewhere an official lied, somewhere a thief planned, somewhere a frightened young operative prepared for a first mission and believed skill would be enough.

Tang knew better.

Skill mattered.

So did luck.

So did the people who pulled you from water, told you the truth when you hated it, and carried your unfinished promises after you were gone.

The old sword engraved Peerless in Service remained in the weapon hall.

Tang no longer needed to carry it.

He had finally understood the words.

To be without equal did not mean standing above everyone else.

It meant refusing to become smaller simply because others had chosen corruption, fear or convenience.

His daughter attacked.

Tang met her blade.

Steel was not involved, yet the crack of wood against wood rang clear across the yard.

This time, neither rushed.

THE END