The Tuoluo soldiers laid down the weapons in their hands.

The King of the Left Court’s fists were clenched tight, unwillingness written all over his face.

“What? You don’t accept it?”

Ning Chen looked at him with cold eyes.

The King of the Left Court said angrily, “I never thought that one day I would be taken alive by a boy like you.”

“If you weren’t leaning on those strange things in your hands, you would be no match at all for the soldiers of my Tuoluo.”

“If you really have the ability, do you dare fight it out with us in earnest, blade against blade?”

Ning Chen looked at him strangely, the way a man looks at a fool.

Then he turned his head and asked, “Has anybody here ever seen the King of the Left Court? This fellow wouldn’t happen to be an impostor?”

The Great Xuan soldiers all shook their heads. Nobody had ever seen the King of the Left Court.

Ning Chen looked at the King of the Left Court. “Are you really the King of the Left Court?”

The King of the Left Court said proudly, “Would anybody dare pass himself off as this king?”

Ning Chen shook his head. “I really never thought a man with this little brain could be made a king. You bought that Left Court title with money, didn’t you?”

The King of the Left Court’s face filled with rage. “What do you mean by that?”

“I just think there’s something wrong with your head… Fight it out with you in earnest, blade against blade? How about we see who can piss farther and settle it that way?”

“I took you without spending a single soldier. Why the hell would I fight it out with you blade against blade… Your Tuoluo soldiers’ lives are cheap. My Great Xuan soldiers’ lives are worth a great deal.”

“Dumbass… This is a damned battlefield, not playing house. The only thing that counts is who won and who lost. The winner is a king and the loser is a bandit — do you understand that? Who cares what means a man uses?”

By now Ning Chen seriously doubted this character was the King of the Left Court.

He couldn’t be bothered with any more talk. He swept his hand out. “Take them all!”

The three thousand Tuoluo soldiers, once disarmed, were herded together and made to kneel with their hands over their heads, watched by several dozen Great Xuan soldiers holding muskets.

The King of the Left Court would not kneel. His back stayed straight as a rod.

Ning Chen glanced at him. “Kneel!”

“I am of the royal house of Tuoluo. I kneel to heaven and to my sovereign only. You—”

The King of the Left Court had not finished. Ning Chen swung the long blade up, sheath and all, and brought it down hard on the man’s head.

The King of the Left Court gave one scream and pitched headfirst onto the ground.

One of the Tuoluo soldiers saw it, got up in a fury and jabbered a great stream of something at Ning Chen.

Ning Chen grinned wide, took a musket out of a soldier’s hands, raised it and fired.

Bang!!!

Straight between the eyes. Dead with the one shot.

Several other Tuoluo soldiers had been on the point of jumping up. At the sight of it they went white in the face and got their heads down fast, arms wrapped around them.

“Hell… A prisoner needs to know he’s a prisoner. Never mind what kind of king he is. Right now he has one standing only, and that’s prisoner.”

“Get it straight. We’re your enemies, not your father and mother. We won’t be indulging you.”

Ning Chen tossed the musket back to the soldier. “Watch them for me. Anybody else dares jump up, kill him on the spot.”

“Yes!”

The soldier’s face was full of worship. Going to war with General Ning was too good for words.

Ning Chen called over Pan Yucheng and the others.

“Search the place. Anything worth money, pack it up and take it!”

Just then two soldiers came out of the King of the Left Court’s royal tent with two women under guard.

“General Ning. We found two women.”

Feng Qizheng’s eyes lit up. “These two are put together pretty nicely. Ning Chen, how about—”

“Put that idea away… You want a woman, when we get back you can go to the courtesans’ quarter, you can go to the pleasure houses, whatever you like.”

“Any man who dares rape a woman under my eyes — whoever he is — I’ll cut him down with my own blade.”

Ning Chen said it coldly.

Feng Qizheng pulled his neck in. “I, I was only joking.”

“Pass my order. Any man who dares take the chance to violate a woman, I’ll kill him where he stands!”

“All of you get moving. We can’t stay here long.”

Everyone set to work at once.

Ning Chen walked into the King of the Left Court’s royal tent, saw the leg of mutton on the table and picked it up to bite into… then thought a moment and put it down again.

There were marks on the mutton where somebody had been at it, but even so he didn’t dare be careless… What if the King of the Left Court had known he had no way to fight back, and had put poison on it?

He had no wish to see this fine position of his fall to pieces because he couldn’t control his mouth.

Several soldiers came in and began stripping out anything worth money.

Ning Chen sat off to one side and watched quietly.

Not raping women was the line he would not cross.

The Tuoluo were forever raiding the common people along the Great Xuan border, so stripping the North Royal Court did not strike him as going too far at all.

Just then a soldier lifted the felt bedding inside, and underneath there were only a few letters.

The soldier shook his head and walked away.

Ning Chen noticed it, though. “Bring me those letters.”

“Yes!”

The soldier picked the letters up off the ground and put them into Ning Chen’s hands.

Ning Chen turned them over idly. They were all in Tuoluo writing, which he could not read.

Then all at once he found that one of the letters was in Great Xuan writing, and what it said was: To be opened by the King of the Left Court in person.

Ning Chen opened the letter, and his eyes tightened.

What the letter said was: Kill Ning Chen, and fifty thousand taels of gold will be sent to you afterward.

That was the whole of it. There was no signature underneath.

Ning Chen’s eyes narrowed slightly.

So this meant the King of the Left Court knew who he was.

Who had written this letter to the King of the Left Court?

“Somebody. Bring the King of the Left Court in here!”

“Yes!”

Very soon several soldiers brought the King of the Left Court in under guard.

When the King of the Left Court saw the letter in Ning Chen’s hand, his face changed a little.

Ning Chen held the letter up. “Who wrote this letter to you?”

The King of the Left Court shook his head. “I don’t know!”

Ning Chen’s eyes turned dangerous.

“King of the Left Court. You may not understand me very well… Playing games in front of me at a moment like this will do you no good at all.”

“I really don’t know!”

Ning Chen smiled coldly and nodded slightly.

“Good. I believe you!”

Then his eyes went cold as ice, and he said sharply, “Pass my order. Kill every one of the people outside. Old, weak, women, children — not one of them gets away. I want the whole North Royal Court leveled to the ground.”

The King of the Left Court’s face changed completely.

“You dare? If you kill our people to the last man, there will be no room left between the Great Xuan and my Tuoluo to smooth anything over… One day my Tuoluo will bring an army down on your borders and wipe out your Great Xuan dynasty.”

“Hahaha…”

Ning Chen suddenly burst out laughing.

“A pellet of a country, and it dares talk big about wiping out my Great Xuan… King of the Left Court, if I can take your North Royal Court now, I can flatten your Tuoluo inside two years. Do you believe me or not?”

The King of the Left Court stared hard at Ning Chen and said nothing.

Ning Chen smiled coldly and said, “I’ll ask you one last time. Who wrote this letter?”

“King of the Left Court, I respect you as a man of the Tuoluo royal house, and I’ve left you your face… Don’t throw away the face I’m handing you.”

The King of the Left Court still said nothing.

Ning Chen’s face grew uglier and uglier. He said sharply, “Somebody. Kill every one of the people outside for me.”

“Wait!”

The King of the Left Court spoke at last. He let out a long sigh and said, “At first I didn’t understand what kind of man is worth fifty thousand taels of gold… Now I finally understand.”

“Ning Chen. If the soldiers of the Great Xuan were all like you, that would be a terrible thing.”

Ning Chen said coldly, “Enough talk. Who wrote this letter to you?”

The King of the Left Court hesitated a moment, then said, “Your Army Supervisor at Beilin Pass. Kong Yongchun!”

(End of Chapter 164)