Ning Gan and his two brothers were frightened stupid where they stood, and the color went out of their faces.

“The three of you. Come with me to the Inspectorate for questioning.”

Ning Chen said it hard.

The three of them were frightened out of their souls.

Once a man is inside the Inspectorate, is there any coming out alive?

Chang Ruyue had a bad fright of it herself. “Ning Chen, you can’t do this. They’re your brothers.”

Ning Chen said, his face showing nothing, “I’d like nothing better than to let them off, but the law leaves no room for feeling. I’m a silver coat of the Inspectorate and I hold His Majesty’s trust. I have to set the example myself and keep to the law fairly.”

Ning Ziming was angry enough for smoke to come out of his ears. “Unfilial wretch! Is this you putting duty above your own blood?”

Ning Chen looked at him, gave one nod, and made a sound of agreement!

Ning Ziming came very near dying of it on the spot. “Unfilial wretch. You dare?”

“What is there in it I wouldn’t dare?”

Ning Chen smiled coldly, drew the saber then and there and pointed it at Ning Ziming. “Try to stop me and I’ll take you in along with them.”

“Unfilial wretch. You— you dare point a blade at your own father?”

Shk!!!

Ning Chen swung the saber, cold light flashed along it, and a corner came clean off the table.

Ning Ziming staggered back in fright, chalk white.

Chang Ruyue let out a scream on top of it.

Ning Chen’s voice came out hard. “Who else wants to get in the way of my case? This is where it ends up.”

With that, the long blade came around toward Ning Gan and his brothers.

“Get up. Come with me to the Inspectorate for questioning.”

The blood went cold in the three of them.

“Father, save me, save me…”

“I’m not going to the Inspectorate. That’s the King of Hell’s own hall. Nobody who goes there comes back.”

“Father, Mother… save me, I don’t want to die…”

Ning Ziming had his eyes fixed hard on Ning Chen. “What is it you actually want?”

But Ning Chen put the saber away all at once, gathered up the ingots scattered over the floor and carried them off in both hands, muttering as he went:

“Heavy… And really, His Majesty. Would it have hurt him to give it in silver notes?”

Ning Ziming’s family looked at one another, at something of a loss.

“Father. Are we all right, then?”

Ning Mao asked it in a small voice.

Ning Ziming’s brows were knotted tight and his face was dark, and he said nothing. He had no idea what Ning Chen was playing at either.

A little while later Ning Chen came back, with several young maids behind him.

“Carry all this silk to my room.”

“Yes!”

The young maids carried the silk away.

Ning Chen was on his way out when he stopped short and gave Ning Ziming and the rest a teasing look. “It’s late. Aren’t you going to bed?”

Ning Ziming’s whole family stood there at a loss, wondering to themselves what in the world Ning Chen was playing at.

Ning Mao asked, very carefully, “Ning Chen. You’re not going after us for it?”

Ning Chen laughed. “Are you stupid? Er… sorry, I forgot you actually are stupid… But you could ask your old man. A silver coat has no right to run a case on his own.”

Ning Ziming went blank all at once.

He’s right. A silver coat can’t investigate a case on his own. Only a gold coat can.

Every one of them had been played.

But by the time he came back to himself, Ning Chen was long gone.

“Unfilial wretch! Worthless—”

Ning Ziming was raging up and down.

Ning Chen, meanwhile, went back to his own courtyard waggling his head from side to side, walking the walk of a man who knows no kin.

The truth was that a moment ago he really had meant to haul Ning Gan and his brothers off to the Inspectorate.

But he had thought better of it and let it go.

Not out of any feeling for his own family — he simply could not do it. These people had to be dealt with, but not out in the open.

They were not human beings, whatever else they were. But to anyone outside the house they were still his own blood.

If he knew no kin, if he put duty above blood, who would ever dare come near him after that?

A man who can raise his hand against his own blood… people hate a man like that, and guard themselves against him, and keep their distance.

If His Majesty heard of it, he would find him disgusting too… a man who can raise his hand against his own family might one day be bold enough to kill an emperor.

So this family had to be dealt with out of sight, and by somebody else’s hand.

Ning Chen bathed and went to bed early.

The next day, early morning.

Ning Chen was up early. He worked through the Thirteen Ghost-Shadow Blades for a while, then rode his beloved Diaochan to the Inspectorate, hooves going clop, clop, clop.

He had barely come into the courtyard when a red coat told him Geng Jing wanted to see him.

Ning Chen went along to Geng Jing’s room.

“Lord Geng. You sent for me?”

There was not much good in Geng Jing’s face, and his brows were knotted tight.

“Ning Chen. His Majesty is ill.”

Ning Chen was startled. “What happened? Is it bad?”

Geng Jing glanced at the open door and had Ning Chen shut it.

Ning Chen understood that Geng Jing must have something serious to say to him, and went and shut the door.

Only then did Geng Jing drop his voice. “The truth is that His Majesty is not ill. He has been struck by something evil.”

Holy shit!!!

Struck by something evil?

Ning Chen’s face was blank with astonishment.

Geng Jing went on. “Last night His Majesty was resting in the Hall of Cultivated Heart… In the small hours, bats began striking the doors of the hall, and would not stop.”

“And out in the grass outside, there was the sound of somebody coughing, over and over… Nie Liang took men and searched. Never mind a man, they never saw so much as a ghost’s shadow.”

“It went on the whole night. His Majesty works hard at the business of government and gets little enough rest as it is… This morning, before court, he fainted.”

Ning Chen’s mouth came open, and he could not get a word out.

“Ning Chen, His Majesty is very fond of you. Come into the palace with me. It may be that seeing you will mend him a little faster.”

“His Majesty taken ill is no small matter. Handle it badly and the court will shake, and there will be serious trouble.”

Ning Chen nodded. “Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go.”

The palace. The Hall of Cultivated Heart.

The Xuan Emperor was awake by now, but his face was a dreadful white and there was no vigor in him.

Eunuch Quan was at his side, waiting on him with great care.

The crown prince and the Ninth Princess were there as well.

And besides them there was a man of middle years, in what looked like a Daoist robe.

This man came from the Elixir Bureau.

The Elixir Bureau, so called, was in fact the place where the elixirs of immortality were refined for the Xuan Emperor.

The man’s surname was Qiu, and everybody called him Immortal Master Qiu.

Immortal Master Qiu had just given the Xuan Emperor a pill, and the Xuan Emperor had woken.

The crown prince said quickly, “Immortal Master. How is my Father Emperor’s health?”

“His Majesty’s health is out of danger for the moment, but…”

Immortal Master Qiu left the sentence half said.

The Xuan Emperor frowned. “But what?”

Immortal Master Qiu bent and made his salute. “Reporting to Your Majesty. This small immortal has just worked the reckoning on his fingers. There is an evil presence about Your Majesty.”

Every face in the hall changed.

Immortal Master Qiu went on. “His Majesty’s health is out of danger only for the moment. But if the evil presence is not removed, His Majesty’s health will grow worse by the day.”

Everyone thought at once of what had happened in the night — the bats striking the doors for no reason, the coughing in the grass.

The Ninth Princess could not hold it in. “Then what are you waiting for? Get rid of it, quickly.”

Immortal Master Qiu bent and bowed. “Reporting to the Princess. Removing the evil presence requires an order from His Majesty… because the evil presence comes from a person.”

“Who?”

Immortal Master Qiu said, “This small immortal has never seen the man. But this small immortal has cast the reckoning, at the cost of years of his own immortal life… He lies to the southwest, and is a youth of about fifteen or sixteen.”

“He is far too clever, and has drawn the jealousy of heaven down on himself, and was never meant for a long life… In coming close to His Majesty, what he is really doing is borrowing life from His Majesty. That is the chief reason His Majesty fainted.”

“If this person is not removed, what happened last night will happen again… and His Majesty’s health will get worse and worse.”

A slight change went over every face.

And the same person came into every mind at once… Ning Chen.

The Ning residence lay to the southwest, and Ning Chen was quick by nature and brimming with talent, and the age fit as well.

And at that same moment Ning Chen, on the road to the Hall of Cultivated Heart, sneezed hard several times running… and wondered which son of a bitch was cursing him behind his back.

(End of Chapter 103)