Dai Zong was the fastest man in the empire — and the most loyal.

He had served as the superintending official of Jiangzhou prison, using his incredible speed to deliver messages across vast distances. But when his friend Song Jiang was captured and sentenced to death, Dai Zong did not hesitate.

He ran.

Day and night, covering four hundred li at a stretch, he carried the news to Liangshan. The outlaws mobilized immediately, marching an army to Jiangzhou to rescue their leader.

Dai Zong ran ahead of them, ran beside them, ran back with reports, ran forward with instructions. His feet seemed to barely touch the ground.

"The Fleet-footed Courier," they called him afterward. "The wind is his horse and the road his home."

He would be the sixth of the 108 Stars to join the assembly at Liangshan.