“Ning Chen, the truth is that from the moment we learned you were Younger Brother Tao’s successor, we have been waiting for you to come.”
Gu Su said it with a serious face.
Ning Chen looked at him. “Why?”
Gu Su said, “Younger Brother Tao was the same kind of man as you, and yet not the same.”
“How do you mean?”
Gu Su sighed and said, “He was born with a pitying heart and no power to save anybody… He was an assassin himself, and yet he could not bear the sight of all the world’s suffering.”
“The seat of sect master of the Ghost-Shadow Sect should have been Younger Brother Tao’s, but he hated being an assassin, and he left the Ghost-Shadow Sect without looking back.”
“He said he would sooner be a knight of the road who rights wrongs and puts down the cruel to save the innocent than an assassin who takes life for money — that silver earned that way has blood on it and cannot be spent with an easy mind.”
“Younger Brother Tao saw further than the rest of us. He used to say that the Ghost-Shadow Sect took life for money, had killed too many and offended too many, and that our own fellows of the jianghu could not tolerate it, the court could not tolerate it, and the living world could not tolerate it.”
“When he left the Ghost-Shadow Sect he said that sooner or later he would find a man of outstanding ability, unmatched in honor and upright in conduct, to shelter the Ghost-Shadow Sect.”
The corner of Ning Chen’s mouth twitched slightly. “And you think I am the man he meant?”
Gu Su nodded, and said it with certainty. “Bonebreaker and the Thirteen Ghost-Shadow Blades are never passed outside the school. That Younger Brother Tao taught you both is enough to say everything.”
“First, what you have done is known to every soul in the Great Xuan. It fits those twelve words exactly — outstanding in ability, unmatched in honor, upright in conduct.”
“Second, your ability and your standing are enough to shelter the Ghost-Shadow Sect.”
Nonsense, Ning Chen said inwardly.
When he and Tao Qizhi met, he had been locked in a cell himself, and he had not so much as joined the Inspectorate yet.
There was no way Tao Qizhi could have seen the future and known what he would come to be.
He had taught him Bonebreaker and the Thirteen Ghost-Shadow Blades purely to repay the debt for a meal.
So all of this was one perfect misunderstanding.
Still, it was an opportunity for him.
He had come to the Ghost-Shadow Sect this time meaning to take it under his own command and keep it for his own use.
That being so, there was no harm in letting the mistake run on.
Ning Chen said flatly, “You think too highly of me. I have no power to shelter you.”
Tao Xiuwu said, “You are too modest. In all the world today, who does not know the name of Marquis Ning? You have every ability to shelter the Ghost-Shadow Sect.”
“I am no Great Xuan’s Idle Marquis now. I am a plain man with no rank, no office and no post.”
Tao Xiuwu said, “You said yourself that returning to the halls of state was the easiest thing in the world.”
“I was boasting.”
Tao Xiuwu shook his head. “Your ability is there for every eye to see. The court will not throw away an able man and a good general like you.”
Ning Chen gave an easy smile.
“Very well. I admit it. Returning to the court is the easiest thing in the world for me, and the only question is whether I am willing… But why should I help you?”
Tao Xiuwu and Gu Su both stiffened slightly, and for a moment neither of them knew what to say.
Ning Chen picked up his teacup, took a small sip, and then narrowed his eyes at the two of them.
Zisu had examined this cup of tea, so he drank it with an easy mind.
Tao Xiuwu sighed and said, “I know that what Bao Qing did has given you a very poor opinion of the Ghost-Shadow Sect, but I can guarantee that the people of the Ghost-Shadow Sect are not all of them so contemptible.”
“Ning Chen, give the Ghost-Shadow Sect a chance.”
Ning Chen set the teacup down. He did not answer Tao Xiuwu’s question, but asked one of his own. “If I wanted to leave now, would you stop me?”
Tao Xiuwu and Gu Su both went stiff.
It was a sharp question.
Wen Kangsheng and his disciple had offended Ning Chen, and the reason they were pressing him so hard to stay was the fear that once Ning Chen left he would bring men and wipe out the Ghost-Shadow Sect.
But they truly had no wish to be at odds with Ning Chen.
It seemed Ning Chen had seen through that long ago, which was why he had asked.
Ning Chen tapped the tabletop and said flatly, “Let us open the window and talk in the light. I know perfectly well what you are worried about. It is nothing more than the fear that once I am gone I will turn around and bring men to wipe you out.”
“You are worrying too much. Ning here does not visit his anger on other people over one or two animals.”
“I can give your Ghost-Shadow Sect a chance. But from now on every move the Ghost-Shadow Sect makes is to be at my direction.”
Gu Su’s face went stiff.
Ning Chen looked at him. “Unwilling?”
Gu Su looked at Tao Xiuwu, asking his opinion.
Ning Chen snorted with laughter. He looked at Gu Su, rose to his feet and bowed with his fist in his palm. “Elder Uncle has misunderstood me. I am not trying to take your power from you.”
“The truth is that the Ghost-Shadow Sect’s position and my own are strikingly alike… My power reached the sky, and now I have been reduced to a plain man with no rank. Do you know why?”
Without waiting for Gu Su to speak, Ning Chen went on. “Because the tree that stands out in the forest is the one the wind breaks… The Ghost-Shadow Sect is the greatest assassins’ organization in the jianghu, and like me, it is easily marked.”
“I have been reduced to a commoner, but my foundations are still there and His Majesty’s favor is unchanged, and raising the tower again will not be hard… But if the Ghost-Shadow Sect once falls, every man of it dies, and there is no possibility of ever standing up again.”
“So when I say the Ghost-Shadow Sect is to take my direction from now on, it is not to seize power. It is to give Elder Uncle advice at the right moments, and steer clear of the danger.”
Gu Su gave a slight nod. So that was it.
“Very well. Anything that is to the good of the Ghost-Shadow Sect, we will do as you say.”
Ning Chen gave a slight smile.
Smiles came out on the faces of Tao Xiuwu and Gu Su too, because Ning Chen had called Gu Su Elder Uncle.
That meant the breach between them had eased.
Ning Chen stretched. “Elder Uncle, I mean to stay at the Ghost-Shadow Sect for a while. You have no objection to that?”
Gu Su’s eyes lit, and inwardly he was delighted.
“Of course. Stay as long as you like.”
What they had feared most was Ning Chen leaving and coming back with men to wipe out the Ghost-Shadow Sect.
Now that Ning Chen was staying of his own accord, it was more than they could have asked for.
Ning Chen inclined his head slightly and said, “One thing, though. For the time being I do not want to see Wen Kangsheng or his disciple.”
Tao Xiuwu nodded. “Gu Su. Send men to keep watch on them.”
“Yes, Master.”
Ning Chen looked at Tao Xiuwu. “Grandmaster, might we have a few words alone?”
Tao Xiuwu blinked, and then gave a slight nod.
“Master, Ning Chen, you two talk. I will see to things.”
Gu Su knew when to make himself scarce, and went.
Ning Chen looked at Tao Xiuwu and asked with a smile, “Does the grandmaster understand the breathing arts?”
Tao Xiuwu gave the slightest start. “How did you come to know that?”
“The Elder Shang Lu told Zisu, and she told me.”
“So that is how.”
Inwardly Ning Chen was wild with delight. Tao Xiuwu had as good as admitted that he understood the breathing arts.
He bowed low and said, “I want to learn. I wonder whether the grandmaster would be willing to teach me?”
Tao Xiuwu said nothing for a long while.
Ning Chen said, with some disappointment, “If the grandmaster is unwilling, then let it go.”
Tao Xiuwu looked Ning Chen over. “Since the girl has told you even that, I suppose she has not kept the Nine Yang Decoction for Nourishing the Source from you either?”
Ning Chen nodded. “I have been taking it for a while.”
“How long?”
“About half a year.”
Tao Xiuwu shook his head. “Far from enough… To take the Nine Yang Decoction for Nourishing the Source and truly be scoured clean to the marrow takes ten years at the least.”
“You have taken it half a year. Even if you understood the breathing arts, you could not refine that breath out of yourself.”
“And besides those two conditions there is one more, and it matters most of all… And that is natural gift.”
(End of Chapter 393)