It was barely light by the time Ning Chen got back to the Hall of Martial Honor.

He was the Great Xuan’s envoy and could not be missing for too long.

The woman emperor had to attend court and could not sleep late.

Remembering the madness of the night before, Ning Chen shook his head and laughed.

The woman emperor would not be beaten at anything. Worn out to the point of collapse, and she still insisted on being on top.

More than ten days went by in a flash.

Every one of those nights Ning Chen went to Prince Qing’s residence to see the child, and kept the woman emperor company while he was there.

But he had stayed in the Wu Kingdom long enough. It was time to go back.

The peace talks had been settled a long time before.

For the Great Xuan, Ning Chen signed a ten-year treaty of non-aggression with the Wu Kingdom, along with a trade treaty.

That day Ning Chen left the Wu Kingdom with Pan Yucheng and Feng Qizheng.

Back at the frontier, Ning Chen stayed several days more.

When he left, Ning Chen took a hundred musketeers with him.

Feng Qizheng asked, curious, “We’re back in the Great Xuan. Who would dare touch us here?”

Ning Chen said, smiling, “It’s being back in the Great Xuan that makes it dangerous.”

In the Wu Kingdom they were the Great Xuan’s envoys. If anything happened to them, the two kingdoms would be at each other’s throats.

So the Wu Kingdom would find every way it could to keep them safe.

Back in the Great Xuan it was more dangerous, not less.

From the frontier to Mangzhou was about half a month, and the road passed several places where the ground was against them.

Feng Qizheng made a sound, and then thought of something, and his face turned lewd.

Ning Chen glanced at him. “Thinking about the girls in the Wu Kingdom?”

Feng Qizheng grinned foolishly, lechery all over his face.

“I have to say it, the girls in the Wu Kingdom really can fight… If it were a woman of our Great Xuan, one night with me and she wouldn’t be taking customers for days afterward.”

“Wu Kingdom women have real constitutions. A whole night’s battle with me and there’s nothing wrong with them the next day.”

Ning Chen needled him. “Could it be that you’re the one who isn’t up to it?”

Feng Qizheng rolled his eyes. “Nonsense. There aren’t many men in the whole Great Xuan who can fight like Old Feng… Our Great Xuan women are delicate. Everybody in the Wu Kingdom does martial training, women included, and their constitutions are the real thing.”

“Ning Chen, it’s lucky you didn’t come… With that little frame of yours you’d have been beaten off the field in no time.”

The corner of Ning Chen’s mouth twitched. He rode his horse over and put a foot into Feng Qizheng’s backside, and cursed him cheerfully. “Piss off!”

Half a month later Ning Chen and the rest reached Mangzhou without trouble.

Ning Chen had expected an assassination attempt on the road, because from the frontier to Mangzhou there were several places where the ground was against them, and that was the best chance anyone would get at him.

But nothing of the kind happened. It must have been the hundred musketeers I brought.

The hundred musketeers escorted Ning Chen as far as Mangzhou and then went back to the frontier.

At Mangzhou he accepted the Mangzhou officials’ invitation to a banquet.

Then Ning Chen saw Chai Dazhuang.

He had Chai Dazhuang quietly buy up shops.

Trade with the Wu Kingdom was about to open, and glass, toothpaste and the rest would come from the Wu Kingdom into the Great Xuan by way of Mangzhou first.

So these things would catch on at Mangzhou before anywhere else.

And he meant to sell Immortal Dew into Mangzhou too.

After one day in Mangzhou, Ning Chen left.

Five days later he reached Lingzhou.

He stayed a day in Lingzhou and had a meal with Jiang Zhengyang, and the next day he took a ship back to the capital.

The warship rode the wind and cut the waves.

Ning Chen stood on the deck, his mind wandering a little.

The first time I stood here I was on my way to Beilin Pass.

I was a very small silver coat then, and very weak.

And my opponents were the Left Chancellor and the Empress.

And now the grass on my opponents’ graves is six feet high… and I am the Idle Marquis of the Great Xuan.

Look back and the light boat has already passed ten thousand mountains.

That night Ning Chen drank a little with Pan Yucheng and Feng Qizheng.

Back in his room, Ning Chen washed and then set to work on how to use the trade to make more out of it.

The weather was bad that day, the wind and the waves were high and the ship pitched, and perhaps because of the drink, Ning Chen could not keep his mind on it.

He put it out of his head and went to bed.

In the middle of the night there was an uproar outside.

“Everybody up, there’s a fire, put it out —”

Ning Chen woke.

Choked awake, to put it exactly.

The room was full of thick smoke and there was a great glare of fire outside.

Ning Chen was caught off guard, took one hard breath of it and was nearly choked senseless.

He held his breath quickly and rolled out of bed.

He stumbled and almost fell.

The wind and the waves outside were too high, and the ship was pitching and rolling.

Ning Chen steadied himself and made for the door.

But when he tried to open it, he found it had been locked from the outside.

Ning Chen’s eyes went cold.

Bang!!!

The door went down under one kick.

Fire and thick smoke came rolling at his face.

Ning Chen dropped into a crouch at once, and the flame swept past over his head.

Ning Chen took the chance and got out of the room.

Outside, everything was already in chaos.

The firelight reached the sky, the smoke rolled up in clouds, and the ship was listing.

“My lord. Are you all right?”

A crewman came stumbling over.

Ning Chen frowned and said sharply, “What happened?”

“This small man doesn’t know either. The ship caught fire all at once, and the wind is too high, and the fire spread too fast for us to put it out at all… And the bottom struck something, we don’t know what, and she’s taking water.”

Ning Chen looked around him. This water joined the Heaven River, but it was not a river here any longer. It was a wide channel, and this was the widest part of it. The water was a good seven or eight li across.

“Where are the boats?”

Ning Chen asked it.

Every warship carries small boats to escape in.

“The boats have been holed. Not one of them is any use.”

Ning Chen frowned. “Where are Pan Yucheng and Feng Qizheng?”

The crewman pointed behind Ning Chen. “They’re over there.”

Ning Chen turned to look.

And in the moment he turned, the crewman’s eyes went dark and vicious, a dagger appeared in his hand, and it came at Ning Chen like lightning.

Ning Chen gave a cold snort and brought a foot up, and the toe of it took the man on the temple.

The man did not so much as grunt. He went flying and was dead where he landed.

A fire out of nowhere and a locked door — this was plainly aimed at him, and Ning Chen was hardly going to be unready for it.

At that moment a crowd of assassins closed in around Ning Chen.

Ning Chen smiled coldly.

He drew his dagger slowly, and came on instead of falling back, moving like something out of a nightmare.

Long blades with a hard cold glitter on them came down at Ning Chen.

Ning Chen’s footwork was uncanny. He slipped several of the long blades easily, and the dagger in his hand drew a streak of cold light and was gone again.

Several long blades fell out of nerveless hands, and the men clapped both hands tight over their throats, and the blood came welling out between their fingers.

Ning Chen’s eyes were cold.

These men were good. Once, he would certainly have chosen to give way before them for a while.

But he was no longer the third-rate fighter he had been.

His skill now, though it was nothing beside a master above the ranks altogether like Tao Xiuwu, was enough to trade blows with first-rate fighters like Geng Jing and Pan Yucheng.

Ning Chen went through the crowd like a butterfly through flowers, one man to a stroke.

He was worried about Pan Yucheng and Feng Qizheng. Both of them could fight, but no fighting skill stops a plot, and if they had been choked senseless by the smoke there would be real trouble.

Ning Chen kicked one assassin off his feet and, without staying to fight, turned and ran for Pan Yucheng and Feng Qizheng’s rooms.

“Old Pan! Old Feng!”

“Old Pan! Old Feng! Where are you?”

Ning Chen shouted as he ran, and got no answer.

He was frantic, and went at a run, and then all at once the great ship went over on her side and capsized.

Ning Chen was thrown into the water.

(End of Chapter 417)