What the Xuan Emperor felt for the Moon-Shadow Army was hatred to the bone.

At the name his first feeling was shock, and after it came a rage with no end.

"What did you say?"

Pan Yucheng could hear the storm in the Xuan Emperor's voice. He gave a shiver and bowed his head. "Your Majesty, the Moon-Shadow Army's dead ashes have caught fire again. They meant to take the Ninth Princess by surprise, and Ning Chen cut them down."

"How does this come to touch Huai'an again?"

Pan Yucheng told him all of it in detail.

The Xuan Emperor flew into a rage and slammed the memorial in his hand down on the dragon desk.

The fright sent Eunuch Quan and Pan Yucheng to their knees with a thump.

"The Moon-Shadow Army dropped out of sight more than ten years ago. This emperor believed the grass had been cut and the root pulled with it long ago, and now the dead ashes have caught fire again?"

"Pan Yucheng, are you certain it was the Moon-Shadow Army?"

Pan Yucheng said, "Reporting to Your Majesty, your subject did not see the Moon-Shadow Army himself. But by Ning Chen's description — Shade-Cleaving Blades in their hands, tattoos on the inside of the wrist — it can only have been the Moon-Shadow Army."

The Xuan Emperor's face went livid. Emperor though he was, he had no love of killing, and he had always been lenient with the common people and with his officials.

But at the name Moon-Shadow Army the murder rose in him.

"This emperor believed the Moon-Shadow Army had been destroyed to the last man. A hundred-legged worm does not fall over even when it is dead." (TL Note: a Chinese saying — a centipede has so many legs that its body stays upright after it dies. A house or an army long past its power can still be dangerous.)

"Quan Sheng, summon Geng Jing into the palace at once, to attend this emperor."

The Eastern Palace.

The imperial physician had just changed the dressing on the crown prince's ankle.

The…