Ning Chen looked at Kang Luo and asked it with a smile. “The Fourth Prince said just now that the custom of Nanyue is to kneel to heaven and earth, to parents, and to a sovereign?”

Kang Luo inclined his head slightly. “Just so!”

“Then you don’t kneel to your grandfathers and grandmothers? Not to any of your other elders?”

“That—?”

Ning Chen smiled. “Never mind the this-and-that. You are simply unfilial. There is no worse crime.”

Kang Luo said, “Ning the Silver Coat is twisting words. Of course we kneel when we meet an elder.”

Ning Chen made a sound!

“Fourth Prince, you said it yourself a moment ago. You kneel to a sovereign… The Great Xuan is sovereign and Nanyue is subject. So why do you not kneel before the Emperor of the Great Xuan?”

Kang Luo was stopped where he stood!

The Nanyue State Preceptor said, with arrogance all over his face, “We kneel only to our own sovereign.”

Ning Chen’s eyes came to rest on him. He said flatly, “I’d advise you to kneel.”

“This old fellow is the State Preceptor, and stands about level with your Great Xuan’s chancellor. If I do not kneel, what does Ning the Silver Coat intend to do about it?”

Ning Chen’s eyes had nothing in them at all. “It seems the State Preceptor doesn’t understand human speech. If you can’t follow an argument, Ning here knows a little about fists and feet as well.”

“What is this? You would dare lay hands on this State Preceptor in the middle of the great hall?”

Ning Chen smiled coldly!

He looked at Nie Liang. “Commander Nie. Lend me your sword.”

Nie Liang looked at the Xuan Emperor without thinking.

The Xuan Emperor gave a small nod.

Nie Liang drew his sword and tossed it to Ning Chen.

Ning Chen caught it, drew his own as well, and started toward the Nanyue State Preceptor.

The faces of the whole court changed at once.

The Xuan Emperor’s changed a little too.

The crown prince cried out, “Ning Chen, don’t do anything wild!”

Kang Luo watched Ning Chen closely, on his guard.

The Nanyue State Preceptor put his head up. “What is this? Does Ning the Silver Coat mean to kill me here in the great hall? If anything happens to me, a million men of Nanyue will march straight for the Great Xuan’s border.”

Ning Chen jeered at him. “Save your breath… A pellet of a country. Where would you get a million men?”

As he said it, Ning Chen held one of the swords out.

“Here. Take it!”

The Nanyue State Preceptor’s hand closed on the hilt before he thought about it.

Ning Chen set the edge of it against his own throat.

That gave the whole court a bad fright.

Had Ning Chen gone mad? Nobody puts a sword into another man’s hand.

The Xuan Emperor’s face changed completely. “Ning Chen, don’t do anything wild. Don’t hurt yourself.”

Ning Chen raised his hand, and set the other sword against the Nanyue State Preceptor’s throat.

The Nanyue State Preceptor went rigid and did not dare move at all.

Ning Chen said it in a ringing voice. “When the sovereign is shamed, his subject dies… If the sovereign is shamed, what face has his subject left to go on living with?”

“State Preceptor of Nanyue, if you do not kneel today you are shaming the Emperor of the Great Xuan… A subject would sooner die than watch his sovereign shamed.”

“I’ll give you two choices. First, kneel to the Emperor of the Great Xuan. Second, we both die here.”

“I’ll count to three. Kneel and we both live… Don’t kneel, and we cut at the same moment and we both die here.”

Ning Chen looked at him coldly, without a trace of feeling in his eyes.

“One.”

The Nanyue State Preceptor’s lips shook.

“Two.”

The Nanyue State Preceptor’s body began to shake and he could not stop it. He went white in the face, and sweat came out on his forehead in beads the size of peas… He could feel the murder at the bottom of Ning Chen’s eyes, and there was nothing imaginary about it.

Ning Chen was about to say three when the Nanyue State Preceptor gave under the weight of it. The fear of death went through his legs and he dropped to his knees with a thump.

The corner of Ning Chen’s mouth curled up. A man who likes to put on a front is usually chicken to the bone.

The State Preceptor of Nanyue was the equal of the Great Xuan’s chancellor. He was high in rank and heavy with power, and he had more than an ordinary man has, which is exactly why he was more afraid to die.

Ning Chen picked up the sword that had fallen to the floor and smiled coldly.

Every man at court let out a long breath.

So did the Xuan Emperor. He had been frightened himself just then… though what frightened him was the thought of Ning Chen getting hurt.

The crown prince kept his eyes on Ning Chen, and something moved behind them… a flicker of regret crossed his face, and was gone again almost at once.

The Nanyue State Preceptor wiped the cold sweat off his forehead and glared at Ning Chen with hatred. “You brute.”

“Ha ha ha… A brute is what I am. Do you know the saying? When a common man is angered, blood spatters five paces.”

Ning Chen said it laughing.

Then he turned to Kang Luo.

Kang Luo’s face was dark. He looked at the State Preceptor, kneeling there on the floor, with open displeasure, and then said,

“What is this? Do you mean to frighten me with the same trick? The State Preceptor is a man of letters and it is natural enough for him to fear a blade… I am nobody in particular, but I have been on a battlefield a few times and seen more men die than I can count. That will not frighten me.”

Ning Chen smiled slightly. “The Fourth Prince is accomplished in letters and arms both. Naturally a small trick like that won’t frighten you.”

“So why not kneel and let me report the thing done? I’ll buy you a drink afterward.”

Kang Luo smiled easily. “I kneel only to heaven and earth, to my elders, and to my own sovereign.”

Ning Chen narrowed his eyes. “You’re making this very hard for me.”

“Ning the Silver Coat is making it hard for me too, telling me to kneel.”

“Hard? Then let’s not bother.”

Ning Chen’s eyes went suddenly to a point behind Kang Luo, wide open, with shock all over his face.

Kang Luo turned to look before he could think.

In the instant his head turned, Ning Chen’s leg came up: a precision strike, dead on the cock.

Kang Luo let out a howl. The blood came up in his face, the veins stood out at his temples, and he turned on the spot into a founding member of the crotch-clutching school and went down on his knees with a thump… twitching from head to foot with the pain.

Every man at court shivered and pressed his knees together… and stared, struck dumb, every one of them.

The Xuan Emperor’s mouth came open too, and the shock was plain on his face!

Even Eunuch Quan pressed his knees together without meaning to, and then thought about it — he didn’t have one, so what was there to be afraid of? He straightened his back at once, and decided there was something to be said for being a eunuch after all.

“Fourth Prince, Fourth Prince… are you all right?”

The Nanyue State Preceptor held up Kang Luo, who was very close to collapsing on the floor, and then glared at Ning Chen with hatred. “You— you common lout… how can you be so low?”

“Ning Chen, you are nothing but a thug. A boy your age, and where do you learn such dirty methods?”

Ning Chen’s face was all smiles. “I’m a lout and I’m a thug. I’ll own all of that… but what has any of it to do with my age? Haven’t you heard? You don’t ask a hero where he came from, and you don’t ask a thug his age.”

“Ning Chen, how can you be so lacking in manners in the court hall?”

The crown prince glared at him.

“Your Majesty, Ning Chen holds the court in contempt and his methods are low. We beg Your Majesty to try him for gross disrespect.”

“Your Majesty, conduct like Ning Chen’s is a disgrace to the Great Xuan.”

“Our Great Xuan is a land of rites and ceremony. Ning Chen’s methods are vicious and base and low, and they shame the honor of the state. We beg Your Majesty to punish him severely.”

A crowd of censors came out and began to attack Ning Chen.

Every one of them was of the peace party.

Nanyue had strong soldiers and good horses now, and the Great Xuan’s men had lost engagement after engagement.

In that situation, talking terms was the best course.

And Ning Chen had gone and kicked the Fourth Prince of Nanyue between the legs in front of a hall full of people. If any real harm came of it, and Nanyue’s armies came down on the border, what then?

The Xuan Emperor watched the censors attacking Ning Chen with cold eyes, and the anger climbed in him.

Nanyue plants a war banner in this emperor’s own capital by way of a challenge, and now stands in this court and will not kneel to its sovereign… It is a naked provocation, and these worthless creatures actually take the outsider’s part?

Ning Chen was right. Of all the useless things in the world, a scholar is the most useless.

Idleness is the fashion in the Great Xuan now, and these worthless creatures think of nothing but their own comfort. Where is the blood and the pride that officials of a great state ought to have?

The Xuan Emperor made a quiet note of every official who attacked Ning Chen.

Still, what Ning Chen had done was not defensible either. Waving swords around in the court hall, threatening another country’s State Preceptor, kicking another country’s Fourth Prince between the legs — letting all that pass would not do.

“Ning Chen, you go too far!”

The Xuan Emperor set his face and said it angrily.

Ning Chen saw how it was and knelt at once. “Your subject knows his fault!”

“Swaggering and overbearing in the court hall, with no law and no restraint… Is there any room left in your eyes for this emperor?”

“Nie Liang, drag him out for this emperor. Thirty strokes of the rod, and a year’s salary forfeit!”

Nie Liang stole a look at the Xuan Emperor, and seeing nothing at all in his face, did not know what to do… Am I really beating him, or only pretending to?

“What are you standing there for? Drag him out for this emperor and beat him hard, and give him something to remember it by.”

Nie Liang knelt quickly. “Your subject receives the edict!”

Nie Liang took Ning Chen out.

The Xuan Emperor’s anger had not gone down. “Quan Sheng, go and oversee the punishment… Tell Nie Liang from this emperor to lay it on hard.”

Eunuch Quan said quickly, “This servant obeys the command!”

“Your Majesty, Ning Chen knows no law and no restraint and has thrown the court into disorder. Is a punishment as light as that not too little?”

One censor came out and said it.

The Xuan Emperor’s face grew uglier still, and he fixed the man with a cold stare.

“Should this emperor give you a sword and let you go and kill Ning Chen yourself?”

The censor caught the cold in the Xuan Emperor’s eyes, went rigid with fright, and the cold sweat started out on his forehead.

The Xuan Emperor made a cold sound in his nose. His eye moved to the Nanyue State Preceptor and Kang Luo. “The Fourth Prince of Nanyue is unwell. We will end here for today. Take him back and let him rest, and this emperor will send an imperial physician to look at him later… This emperor is tired. The court is dismissed!”

The Xuan Emperor stood and went out with a sweep of his sleeve.

Something ugly showed in the crown prince’s eyes, and then he put on a mild, honest smile again and went after the Xuan Emperor at a quick walk.

Elsewhere, Nie Liang and Ning Chen came out of the great hall.

“Young Master Ning, what do you suppose His Majesty meant?”

Ning Chen looked at him. “Meant by what?”

“Am I to beat you for real, or only for show?”

The corner of Ning Chen’s mouth twitched. “For show, obviously… I did throw the court into disorder, but I also protected His Majesty’s face. Why would he really beat me?”

After what you did, His Majesty doesn’t have much face left either, Nie Liang said inwardly.

Just then Eunuch Quan caught up with them.

Nie Liang was still uneasy. “Eunuch Quan, what did His Majesty actually mean? For real or for show?”

Eunuch Quan’s face was perfectly serious. “The word of a sovereign is not a joke. For real, of course… His Majesty sent this eunuch to oversee it.”

Ning Chen’s face froze.

“Old Quan, are you serious?”

Eunuch Quan’s face was perfectly serious. “What you did today was truly beneath the dignity of the place. The court hall is a place of weight, and you turned it into a vegetable market outside the palace walls… Thirty strokes is a light thing for His Majesty to give you.”

“And that is only because His Majesty shows you such favor. Anybody else would have been dragged out and beheaded long ago.”

Ning Chen was struck dumb.

“Old Quan, tell me quick… you’re joking with me. With a little frame like mine, thirty strokes and I’ll be off drinking tea with the King of Hell.”

Eunuch Quan paid no attention to Ning Chen and spoke to Nie Liang instead. “Commander Nie, let’s get to it. This eunuch has to go back and report to His Majesty.”

“And His Majesty said to lay it on hard.”

The corner of Ning Chen’s mouth twitched.

Nie Liang looked apologetic. “Young Master Ning, I’m sorry about this. An imperial command can’t be disobeyed. Don’t hold it against me!”

Eunuch Quan said, “Young Master Ning, if you please! This eunuch will take you to drink tea with the King of Hell.”

Ning Chen said furiously, “Do you actually mean to beat me to death?”

“It is His Majesty’s order!”

“I don’t believe it. I want to see His Majesty.”

Eunuch Quan shook his head. “His Majesty has no time to see you just now!”

Ning Chen smiled bitterly. “Old Nie, Old Quan, we’re old friends, the three of us… Could you go a little easier on me in a minute?”

(End of Chapter 186)