The capital. Inside a hidden room.

The plump, pale young man in fine embroidered robes and the old man past fifty sat facing each other.

Both of them had their brows drawn tight.

“Why was Ning Chen at the Ghost-Shadow Sect?”

There was anger under the plump young man’s voice.

The old man past fifty shook his head. Ning Chen being at the Ghost-Shadow Sect had thrown their whole plan into disorder.

Their plan had been to assassinate Old General Chen and lay it on the Ghost-Shadow Sect.

With Old General Chen dead and His Majesty in a towering rage, he would certainly send men to wipe out the Ghost-Shadow Sect.

And when that happened, Ning Chen would hear of the death and certainly hurry back for the mourning… The moment he showed his face, he could be dealt with on the road.

Three birds with one arrow.

But what a man plans is not what heaven plans. Who would have thought Ning Chen was at the Ghost-Shadow Sect?

Old General Chen was dead now, true enough, but the Ghost-Shadow Sect was still standing, Ning Chen was coming back to the capital with the men of the Inspectorate, and they had no chance to move at all.

“The dog’s luck is very good.”

The plump young man said it furiously.

There was nothing to say now except that Ning Chen was lucky.

The old man past fifty said in a low voice, “With Ning Chen coming back this time, His Majesty will certainly take him into service again, and he will certainly run Old General Chen’s death down to the bottom.”

“So we must find a way to answer it, and quickly… There is something uncanny about that boy. I am afraid he will trace it to us.”

“The murder of Old General Chen — not one of us could carry the blame for that.”

The plump young man was silent for a long while, his gaze flickering.

After a long time he said in a low voice, “There is nothing for it but to take the risk. Have our man inside the party move. Ning Chen has to be killed. He absolutely must not reach the capital alive.”

The old man past fifty was startled. “That is a man of the seventh department. Whether the attempt on Ning Chen succeeds or not… the seventh department will be gone through from top to bottom, and it would be very easy to trace it to us.”

The plump young man’s eyes turned vicious. “There is no room to worry about that… You said it yourself a moment ago. There is something uncanny about this Ning Chen, and as things stand His Majesty taking Ning Chen into service again is a certainty.”

“So he absolutely must not reach the capital alive… I find myself thinking of the deposed crown prince, the Empress, the Left Chancellor, Prince Fu… every one of them went down at Ning Chen’s hands, directly or otherwise.”

“I will not hide it from you. These days I have a constant feeling that there is a pair of eyes on us in the dark.”

The old man past fifty’s face changed, and he looked around him without thinking. “Do you mean we have been marked?”

The plump young man shook his head. “I said it is only a feeling.”

“For a while yet, we should meet as little as possible… I have an uneasy feeling about all of it.”

The old man past fifty gave a slight nod.

Three days later, Ning Chen’s party was not far from the capital.

That day they stopped to rest.

Feng Qizheng gnawed at his dry rations, grinning all over his broad face like a fool.

Geng Jing glanced at him. “What are you so pleased about?”

Ning Chen took the question up. “We’re nearly back in the capital. This animal can go enjoy himself at the courtesans’ quarter again.”

Geng Jing was speechless.

“Young Master Ning, the food for the two young ladies is ready.”

A silver coat came over carrying a tray.

Ning Chen stood up, took the tray and said with a smile, “Thanks.”

The party was all grown men, and it was awkward for Zisu and Yudie to show themselves, so they had stayed in the carriage all these days.

But in the instant Ning Chen took the tray, the eyes of the silver coat in front of him turned savage, and he pulled a dagger out from under the tray and stabbed at Ning Chen like lightning.

The sight frightened Geng Jing and the rest out of their souls.

It came so suddenly that there was no time for them to help at all.

But Ning Chen only gave a cold snort. He went as though he were flying along the ground, back several meters in a flash, and the tray in his hand stayed perfectly steady.

The silver coat making the attempt was greatly startled too.

When he had come back to himself, he charged at Ning Chen again.

Ning Chen carried the tray in one hand and fell back like lightning, as though his feet never touched the ground, flying along the flat, his movement easy and unhurried.

The silver coat ran at a dead sprint and could not keep pace with the speed Ning Chen was going backward.

What Ning Chen had just done left Geng Jing and the rest struck dumb.

Seeing that he could not catch Ning Chen, the silver coat flung out his hand, and the dagger went out in a hard cold glitter.

Ning Chen’s hand moved like lightning. He caught the hilt, threw it back casually, and the dagger flew the other way and went straight into the shoulder of the silver coat who had attacked him.

The force was frightening. It very nearly went clean through the man’s shoulder.

“Ahh—”

The silver coat who had attacked Ning Chen clapped a hand over his streaming shoulder and let out a scream.

Geng Jing and the others came awake.

Geng Jing went over the ground at a run, and a few bounds brought him to the silver coat who had attacked Ning Chen. One side kick swept the man flying.

The silver coat who had attacked Ning Chen came down several meters away, and struggled a long while without getting up.

Geng Jing’s face was iron.

A silver coat of the Inspectorate had made an attempt on Ning Chen. He could hardly escape the blame.

“Ning Chen, are you all right?”

Ning Chen shook his head.

Geng Jing was furious. “Bring him here to me.”

But the silver coat who had attacked Ning Chen pulled the dagger out of his own shoulder and, without a moment’s hesitation, cut his own throat with it.

The sight left everybody there frozen where they stood.

Geng Jing’s face was so dark it was nearly dripping.

Ning Chen’s expression was calm. Inwardly, in fact, he was quietly pleased.

With this attempt behind him, the plan he had next could be carried out more perfectly still.

“So the Inspectorate is not clean after all.”

Ning Chen said it with a cold laugh, and then carried the tray over to the carriage. “Yudie, Zisu, food’s here.”

Zisu lifted the carriage curtain, glanced at the dead silver coat and said, worried, “Are you all right?”

Ning Chen shook his head. “Don’t worry, I’m fine.”

He handed the tray over, and Ning Chen came back, looked down at the body on the ground and asked, “I don’t know his face. Which department is he from?”

Geng Jing said, “The seventh department.”

“That explains it.”

Geng Jing looked at him. “Meaning what?”

Ning Chen asked, “Does Lord Geng know the Dark Moon Tower?”

Geng Jing shook his head. “I have never heard of it.”

Ning Chen said, “The Dark Moon Tower is an assassins’ organization like the Ghost-Shadow Sect, and it is not weak… On the road to Xiuzhou the Dark Moon Tower made four separate attempts on me.”

Geng Jing was greatly startled, and said in a low voice, “By what you say, this Dark Moon Tower is certainly not weak, and it stands to reason a power of the jianghu like that should be inside the Inspectorate’s field of watch. And yet this is the first I have heard of it.”

Ning Chen said with a smile, “Then it can only mean one thing… Somebody has covered Lord Geng’s eyes and ears.”

Geng Jing was about to speak when his face changed all at once, as though something had occurred to him.

He looked at Ning Chen. “The seventh department has charge of intelligence.”

Every thread of intelligence was gathered and summed up by the seventh department, and then submitted to him.

He had never heard of the Dark Moon Tower. It seemed the trouble lay in the seventh department.

Geng Jing did not hesitate for an instant. He had brush, ink, paper and inkstone brought at once, and sent a letter by carrier pigeon to Pan Yucheng, telling him to take men and seal the seventh department up.

Feng Qizheng came over and looked Ning Chen up and down with curiosity.

“What are you looking at?”

Feng Qizheng said in surprise, “How were you so fast just now?”

A man does not become a silver coat without decent skill… and yet the man’s sprint could not keep pace with the speed Ning Chen went backward. It was simply not to be believed.

Ning Chen said with a smile, “Did you suppose I spent those two months at the Ghost-Shadow Sect the way you did, playing around every day?”

“Impossible. Even if you never rested for a full twenty-four hours, in two short months you could not take light-body technique that far.”

Ning Chen clapped him on the shoulder. “Feng the Great Brain, we are both geniuses. You of all people ought to understand a genius’s world.”

Feng Qizheng was about to say that he did not understand, and then it struck him that saying so would mean he was not the Great Brain after all.

He nodded with a perfectly serious face. “A thing like this is very hard for ordinary people like Chen Chong. For geniuses like us it is nothing at all.”

(End of Chapter 398)