At Ning Chen’s word the Inspectorate’s blades came out of their sheaths and the men moved at the sound of it.

Du’e’s face changed. He fell back quick as lightning, opening the distance between himself and Ning Chen and the rest, and his eyes turned dark and vicious and cruel.

He gave them a cold smile.

“Ning the Silver Coat of the Great Xuan. Your name is no empty report.”

Ning Chen fixed his eyes on him. “Since you know me, will you not put up your hands and be taken?”

Du’e smiled coldly. “All the world knows the Inspectorate’s cells are the hall of the King of Hell, and nobody who goes in comes out alive… It is death either way. Why should this old man put up his hands and be taken?”

Geng Jing said sharply, “What, do you mean to resist?”

Du’e did not answer. He put out his hand and swept it down hard. “Kill them. Leave not one.”

The words were hardly out when figures came pouring out of the rooms at the side with sharp blades in their hands.

Ning Chen gave a slight start. There were fifty or sixty of them at the least.

Geng Jing said in anger, “What a gall you have, to dare shout defiance at the Inspectorate.”

“All of you, take my order. Take every one of them… and cut down where they stand any who resist!”

The Inspectorate’s men said with one voice, “Yes!”

Du’e wasted no words either. He swept his great hand across. “Kill them for me!”

“God damn it. You’ve turned on us now.”

Feng Qizheng, the brute, gave a great shout and went at Du’e with his blade.

The long blade came down at Du’e’s head with a cold gleam on it.

Du’e turned his body aside and the stroke went past him.

Feng Qizheng brought the long blade level and swept it at him.

Du’e made a cold sound in his nose. “He does not know his own measure.”

With that he brought up one hand and slapped it down exactly on the flat of the blade as it came across.

Clang!!!

Feng Qizheng’s long blade was broken in half by that one palm.

Du’e’s other hand hooked like an eagle’s claw and shot at Feng Qizheng’s throat quick as lightning.

“Look out!”

Ning Chen shouted it and put up his hand and loosed a bolt.

Du’e was forced to give up the attack, and twisted aside from the bolt tearing in at him.

Feng Qizheng took his chance and got back out of it.

The cold sweat had come out all over him, and he gave Ning Chen a grateful look.

Ning Chen had no time to attend to him. The killers all around them were already coming on.

The two sides went into each other in an instant.

Ning Chen swung his blade, knocked aside a stroke from one of the killers and, before the man could change his line, brought his left hand up. The dagger went out as a streak of cold light and buried itself in the man’s throat.

The body came down with a crash.

Ning Chen rushed forward, pulled the dagger out, and then kicked the killer’s blade across the ground to Feng Qizheng.

Feng Qizheng caught it, blocked a stroke from another killer, and kicked the man ten feet through the air.

One of the red coats took a stroke and went over on the ground, and a killer stepped up to finish him. His life hung by a thread.

Ning Chen did not stop to think. He went like a hunting cat, took a sliding tackle in under two long blades sweeping across, and slung the dagger in his hand out with the movement.

Thuck!!!

The dagger went clean through the killer’s neck, and the red coat whose life had been hanging by a thread was saved.

“Fall back outside the gate!”

Ning Chen ran over and pulled him up, and then dragged the dagger out of the killer’s neck.

This red coat was badly hurt, and to stay was to die.

“My thanks, Ning the Silver Coat!”

Ning Chen had no time to answer him. His right hand caught a long blade coming down at him and he drove his whole body into the man’s chest… and when Ning Chen stepped back there were two bloody holes in the man’s belly, and he went down unwilling to the last.

All at once the sharp sound of split air went up.

Ning Chen’s head came round hard, and a killer had pitched down at his feet with an arrow standing in his back.

He looked up and saw Chen Chong grinning at him. “Watch yourself!”

Ning Chen nodded.

The shouting shook the sky and the blood sprayed.

Men were going down all the while — killers, and red coats of the Inspectorate too.

Two long blades came down at Ning Chen with the cold gleam on them.

Ning Chen fell back like lightning, and as the two strokes fell on nothing he took one long step in and cut one man’s throat open.

The other gave back a few paces, then swung his blade and came on again.

Ning Chen’s chest tightened. These men have eyes that are numb and cold, as though they had no fear of dying at all.

The training of men sworn to die is a cruel thing beyond the ordinary.

These people were no longer men. There was one belief in their heads and one only, and that was to finish the work.

They had been brainwashed to count it an honor to be sacrificed.

So they were fierce and did not fear death.

Ning Chen caught the man’s blade on his own, and the dagger went into his heart like lightning and killed him at a stroke.

The sound of split air came in behind it and gave him no room to breathe.

Ning Chen drove forward, and as he turned the long blade was already going out.

Clang!!!

Sparks flew.

The shock ran up Ning Chen’s arm and left it numb, and the web of his hand burned.

The man swung again, and the stroke came hard and heavy.

Ning Chen brought his blade across to meet it.

Clang! Clang! Clang!!!

Three strokes running, each one heavier than the last.

Ning Chen was driven staggering backward by the shock of them, his arm numb, and he came near to losing his grip on the blade.

This killer was very strong.

As he gave ground Ning Chen brought his hand up and slung the dagger.

Thuck!!!

The dagger went into the man’s thigh.

The killer’s leg gave under him and he went down on one knee.

Ning Chen went past him like a hunting cat, and as he passed he cut his throat.

Ning Chen backed off fast and pulled the dagger out of the man’s thigh… and before he could draw breath another killer was on him.

Christ!!!

Ning Chen was about to swing back at him when his face changed, because two more long blades were coming down behind him.

In the press of it he rolled where he stood.

Four sharp blades came after him, cutting.

All at once Ning Chen felt a burning pain across his back. He had taken a stroke.

Whip! Whip! Whip!!!

Several streaks of cold light came tearing through the air and struck the wrists of the four killers cutting at him, exactly.

The four of them took the hurt of it and their long blades came out of their hands.

Ning Chen came up off the ground and brought his blade down hard into a killer’s neck, and the warm blood sprayed over his face.

Pan Yucheng came sweeping in like lightning.

He used one stroke only.

The three killers that were left were all taken through the throat with it.

Pan Yucheng looked at Ning Chen. “Are you all right?”

Ning Chen shook his head. “I’m all right!”

“Watch yourself!”

Ning Chen made a sound of assent.

Pan Yucheng cut down a killer who was rushing him, backhanded, and then went to help the others.

Bang!!!

A figure went flying backward and knocked over several killers on its way.

Ning Chen fixed his eyes on it. The man who had gone flying was Du’e… Geng Jing had struck him away.

In the courtyard there were bodies lying everywhere and the blood ran like a river.

The sharp smell of it turned the stomach.

Ning Chen swung his blade and went at them again.

Feng Qizheng, the brute, was killing with his face covered in blood, and the edge of the blade in his hand had curled over with it.

The silver coats of the first department were the main fighting strength.

The red coats were about a match for these killers with their hands, so their losses were heavy.

Ning Chen cut a killer down, and his step went unsteady under him. He looked down, and at some point he had taken a stroke in the thigh.

He had gone mad with the killing and could hardly feel it.

A killer swung his blade at him.

Ning Chen drove straight into the man’s chest, put a headbutt into his face — the sound of the nose bone smashing came clear to his ear — and then very nearly took his head off with one stroke… and it cost him a great effort to pull the blade out again.

Of the fifty or sixty killers there were only a dozen or so left now.

The Inspectorate had paid no small price for it.

None of the silver coats had died, but there was not one of them unhurt… and the red coats were terribly cut up.

Bang!!!

There was a heavy, dull sound, and Geng Jing’s fist sent Du’e flying ten feet.

Du’e brought up blood in gouts, and hit the ground and rolled over and over several times before he stopped.

Seeing Geng Jing coming for him—

Du’e came up off the ground instead and rushed toward where Ning Chen stood.

“Ning Chen, look out!”

Hearing Geng Jing’s cry, Ning Chen turned his head, and saw Du’e coming at him, his eyes savage and vicious, like a wounded animal.

(End of Chapter 217)