The Eldest Prince's mouth fell open. He stared at Ning Chen, taken aback.

"This, this... Ning Chen, why did your blood merge with mine?"

The civil and military officials heard it, and every face among them showed the same shock.

The blood of the Xuan Emperor, the Eldest Prince and Ning Chen had actually merged into one.

There had been a rumor before this, that Ning Chen was in fact the Xuan Emperor's illegitimate son, raised at the Ning residence only to keep him out of sight.

His Majesty felt he owed Ning Chen something, and that was why every favor had gone to him.

Ning Chen began to laugh, contempt all over his face.

"The blood-drop kinship test — utter bullshit... Whether it is the bone method or the water method, neither one is worth anything!" (TL Note: 滴骨法, the bone method — blood is dripped onto a dead man's bone and held to soak in if the two are kin; 溶血法, the water method — two living people drip blood into a bowl and are held to be kin if the drops run together.)

"This prince once put the question to the Physician Immortal, Elder Shang Lu. The blood-drop kinship test is nothing but bullshit."

"Elder Shang Lu has looked into it. No two men have the same blood. He sorted human blood into five basic types, numbering them one, two, three and so on... That is also why some people draw mosquitoes more than others. Their blood is of a different type."

"Put simply: blood of the same type merges, and blood of different types clots."

Ning Chen did not care whether they had followed any of it, and went on. "There are plenty of ways to fake this blood-drop kinship test. Heat the vessel the water sits in, and a man's blood and an animal's will merge."

"The weather is hot just now, and that bowl is warm. In this great hall, the blood of any two men of the same type will merge."

"And if you want two drops to resist merging, that is just…