There was no room to move indoors, so Ning Chen and Kang Luo went out into the courtyard.

“Ning the Silver Coat, please!”

Ning Chen did not stand on ceremony. He drove off his back foot and went at Kang Luo like a hunting leopard.

The long blade in his hand came down with a hard cold glitter on it.

Kang Luo brought his sword up to hold the cut and drove a foot straight at Ning Chen’s chest.

A streak of cold light out of nowhere!

There was a ripping sound.

Kang Luo’s face changed and he pulled the leg back fast. He looked down and there was a slit in the leg of his trousers.

There was a sharp dagger gripped in Ning Chen’s left hand.

Kang Luo made a cold sound in his nose, and the long sword came at Ning Chen like a needle of light, hissing as it cut the air, quick as a snake’s tongue.

Ning Chen swung the blade, and there was a ringing note of metal on metal as he knocked the sword aside, and the dagger in his left hand went for Kang Luo’s side like lightning.

Kang Luo gave ground backward, slipped the stroke, and swept the sword at Ning Chen’s neck with the cold light trailing off it.

Clang, clang, clang — blade light and sword light, the metal ringing hard enough to hurt the ear, sparks flying everywhere.

The two of them went back and forth and closed into one knot.

Li Hanru and Shen Min heard it and came running out, and their faces changed at the sight… How has this turned into a fight?

“Stop, both of you at once! What kind of behavior is this?”

Li Hanru pleaded with them, alarm all over his face.

But by now Ning Chen and Kang Luo had their blood up with neither of them winning, and they were not going to stop for anything.

Clang!!!

Blade met sword and the sparks flew.

The blade was knocked clean out of Ning Chen’s hand. It went past close enough to graze the Nanyue State Preceptor’s scalp, and buried itself in the door with a ting.

The Nanyue State Preceptor covered his head and crouched on the ground with no blood left in his face… He suspected Ning Chen had done it on purpose.

In fact Ning Chen had not done it on purpose at all. The shock had split the web of his right hand and he had not been able to hold on.

Kang Luo was not much better off. His right hand was shaking with it and the sword had very nearly gone out of his grip.

And just then a stab of pain went through his wrist, his right hand lost nearly all feeling, and the long sword flew out of it.

In the instant his blade was knocked away Ning Chen had brought his hand up and flicked a stone, and it had caught Kang Luo on the wrist.

Kang Luo’s skill was real. With the sword out of his hand he brought a hard roundhouse kick around at Ning Chen on a rush of air.

Ning Chen did not dodge and did not give ground. He drove his right elbow down onto Kang Luo’s ankle and broke the kick apart.

Kang Luo staggered a few steps, and had barely gotten his feet under him when he saw Ning Chen coming at him like a hunting leopard with an elbow driving at his chest.

Kang Luo crossed both arms in front of him.

Bang!!!

Ning Chen’s right elbow hit Kang Luo’s arms, and the force in it threw him back several meters.

Before Kang Luo could steady himself Ning Chen flicked his hand, and the dagger in his left went for Kang Luo’s face as a streak of cold light.

Kang Luo’s face changed and he twisted aside from it.

Neither of them hesitated a moment. They went at each other like lightning.

Fists and feet, back and forth, left and right.

Bang!!!

Both of them staggered backward all at once.

Ning Chen was rubbing his chest. Kang Luo had a hand over his belly.

“I had no idea Ning the Silver Coat’s fists and feet were as good as his weapons.”

Ning Chen smiled easily. “The same to you!”

As he said it he settled into a strange guard: his left hand a little above the shoulder, covering his cheek and his left ribs at the same time, his right fist swinging loose… and his feet bouncing back and forth under him.

Kang Luo could make nothing of Ning Chen’s style at all.

Then Ning Chen crooked a finger at him.

Kang Luo made a cold sound in his nose and came in like lightning with a fist driving at Ning Chen’s head.

Ning Chen’s head moved a fraction and the punch went past him easily, and then his hand came out like lightning and put a heavy fist into Kang Luo’s left ribs, staggering him and knocking a grunt out of him.

Kang Luo would not have it. He came in again with both fists coming down on Ning Chen like a driving rain.

Ning Chen slipped what he could slip, blocked what he could not with his left arm, and stole his right fist in when the chance came.

Bang, bang, bang — Kang Luo took several more heavy punches on the left ribs, all in the same place, until he was twitching all over with it and could hardly lift his left arm.

Kang Luo lost his temper. A whip kick with all his weight behind it came around into Ning Chen’s arm, and the force of it threw Ning Chen off sideways.

Ning Chen rolled where he landed, came up out of the roll, and went at Kang Luo like a leopard again.

Kang Luo brought another whip kick around.

But Ning Chen dropped low and went under the leg in a slide, came up behind him, got both arms around Kang Luo’s waist and slammed him into the ground.

Kang Luo let out a grunt of pain and felt as though his back had been broken.

Ning Chen rolled over on top of him, sat astride him and went to work on his face with both fists until the blood came out of Kang Luo’s nose and mouth.

Kang Luo’s leg came up hard and drove a knee into Ning Chen’s back, pitching him forward, and used the moment to get up.

But Ning Chen came straight back at him, went onto Kang Luo’s back, got an arm across his throat and locked it shut, the veins standing out on his arm, his legs wrapped around Kang Luo’s waist.

Kang Luo could not get a breath through it and felt as though his neck were about to break.

He tried to pull Ning Chen’s arm loose, and failed several times.

Kang Luo’s face went red to the ears with it, and he swung his fists back over his own head. Ning Chen took several of them in the face, and his head rang.

But he kept the lock shut and would not let go, and Kang Luo’s face went purple and his feet kicked weakly at nothing.

Little by little the strength went out of Kang Luo’s struggling, and it went black in front of him.

“Fourth Prince…”

“Fourth Prince…”

The Nanyue State Preceptor and Kang Luo’s guards went white and came running.

Li Hanru and Shen Min ran over as well.

It took all of them together to get Ning Chen off Kang Luo.

Kang Luo pulled the clean air into himself in great mouthfuls, like a fish nearly dead on the bank.

He had never once known that simply being able to breathe could feel so good.

Ning Chen was lying on the ground too, breathing hard.

After a good while Ning Chen worked himself up into a sitting position.

He looked at Kang Luo and gave a low laugh. “You lost!”

Kang Luo struggled a few times and could not sit up. It was the Nanyue State Preceptor who got him upright.

He looked at Ning Chen, and it was not a simple look.

He could feel it plainly: down in the bone of Ning Chen there was a hard, stubborn thing that would not be beaten and was not afraid to die.

Kang Luo wiped the blood off the corner of his mouth and looked at Ning Chen. “Ning the Silver Coat, I think you are worth more than you get!”

“Hm?”

Ning Chen looked at him strangely.

Kang Luo said, “You are accomplished in letters and arms both, and in the Great Xuan you are one small silver coat. Come back to Nanyue with me instead. High office, a heavy salary, a marquisate, a chancellorship — take your choice… Anything I have, you can have.”

Li Hanru’s and Shen Min’s faces twitched, and they looked at each other… What is this supposed to be? Digging out our foundations to our faces? That is going too far.

Kang Luo said it again. “Ning the Silver Coat, I mean it. Think it over properly!”

Ning Chen swore at him inwardly. The bastard is a nasty piece of work.

Saying all this in front of Li Hanru and Shen Min was plainly meant to put him in his grave.

If he so much as hesitated, and the Xuan Emperor heard of it… however much the Xuan Emperor favored him, a guard would go up in his mind and stay up.

“I don’t need to think it over. I can answer you now. I will not leave the Great Xuan.”

“A man will die for the one who truly knows him, and a woman makes herself beautiful for the one who delights in her. Ning here has His Majesty’s favor. Never mind one small silver coat — Ning here would not leave the Great Xuan if he were a peddler or a porter.”

“From the moment Ning here came under His Majesty’s grace, he was ready to climb a mountain of blades and go down into a sea of fire for His Majesty, and to bend his back to the work until the day he dies.”

“Whenever His Majesty needs it, Ning here can give up his life for him on the spot.”

Ning Chen said it with a perfectly serious face.

Li Hanru and Shen Min were both moved by it.

Something like disappointment went across the bottom of Kang Luo’s eyes.

“Ning the Silver Coat, my offer stands forever… Whenever you are willing, the gates of Nanyue are open to you at any time.”

The corner of Ning Chen’s mouth twitched. The bastard still isn’t finished.

His eyebrow went up a fraction. “You mean it?”

Kang Luo nodded.

“Then swear to it… Or I’ll swear it for you. If you go back on it, may heaven strike you down with lightning, may the five thunders blast you to pieces!”

The veins stood out at Kang Luo’s temples, but he nodded all the same. “Kang here says what he means and never goes back on it!”

Ning Chen gave a low laugh. “Lord Li, Lord Shen, you heard him too… The Fourth Prince says the gates of Nanyue are open to me at any time.”

“You’ll be my witnesses. When spring opens next year and I bring an army up under the walls of Nanyue, if he doesn’t open the gates and welcome me in, heaven will strike him down with lightning.”

Kang Luo’s expression froze on the spot, and so did the Nanyue State Preceptor’s. Both of them were struck dumb!

Li Hanru and Shen Min came within a hair of losing it and squealing like a pair of pigs.

It really does have to be Ning the Silver Coat. Nobody else comes at a thing from that angle.

Li Hanru stroked his beard and said, smiling, “Good. Lord Shen and I are both witnesses!”

Ning Chen looked at Kang Luo and gave a low laugh. “Fourth Prince, remember to open the gates next year and welcome the Great Xuan’s million men in… Don’t refuse to open them. Heaven will strike you down with lightning.”

Kang Luo’s face went through several colors and not one of them was good. He had meant to trap Ning Chen and had walked into a pit himself.

Ning Chen felt at his swollen face and bared his teeth at the pain of it.

“You bastard, you hit far too hard. You nearly knocked my teeth out!”

Kang Luo was shaking with rage. The shamelessness of it!

Ning Chen had taken a few punches. Kang Luo had taken more than he could count, and had come within a breath of being choked to death.

Ning Chen worked himself up onto his feet and rubbed his wrist. “No good. I have to go home and get patched up. It hurts like hell.”

“Lord Li, Lord Shen, I’ll leave you to it here!”

Li Hanru and Shen Min nodded.

Ning Chen went out of his way to pass close to the Nanyue State Preceptor, and just as they were level with each other his leg came up suddenly and his knee caught the Nanyue State Preceptor in the mouth.

The Nanyue State Preceptor let out a howl, and the blood ran from the corner of his mouth.

Ning Chen went down on the ground holding his knee with agony all over his face, yelling louder than the Nanyue State Preceptor was.

The Nanyue State Preceptor covered his mouth and fixed his eyes on Ning Chen.

“Ning the Silver Coat, are you all right?”

Shen Min hurried over and helped Ning Chen up.

Ning Chen sat on the ground holding his knee and glared at the Nanyue State Preceptor in a fury. “You miserable old bastard, you dare take a shot at me?”

The Nanyue State Preceptor’s lungs were fit to burst with it. He wanted to answer, and the pain would not let him open his mouth.

Ning Chen looked at Kang Luo. “You saw it. It wasn’t my fault… I was walking along perfectly well and this old son of a bitch hit my knee with his mouth. It hurts like murder!”

Every face there twitched. He hit your knee with his mouth. Is that a thing a person says?

Ning Chen worked himself up onto his feet and muttered, “I’d better have an imperial physician look at it. A dog bite is no small matter.”

He limped over, picked the dagger up off the ground, then went and pulled the blade out of the door.

He was going to leave right away, but he stopped, turned, fixed his eyes on the Nanyue State Preceptor and said it one word at a time.

“Remember to brush your teeth from now on. Your mouth is filthy.”

“A worthless thing like you doesn’t get to have an opinion about Ning Chen’s woman.”

“When spring opens next year I will bring an army south, and I will reach the capital of Nanyue… And when I do I will stuff you head first into a latrine pit and give that stinking mouth of yours a proper wash.”

“Remember what I said. Ning here says what he means.”

With that, Ning Chen turned and left.

The Nanyue State Preceptor watched him go, and the hatred at the bottom of his eyes was nearly running over.

Li Hanru said flatly, “Ning the Silver Coat has a bad temper. I apologize to you all on his behalf. The ground is cold, so go back inside. This official will send for an imperial physician to look you over later.”

(End of Chapter 188)