There were garrison patrols in the city at night, so nothing was going to happen to Gao Ziping and Feng Qizheng.
Ning Chen could only turn around and go back the way he had come.
By the time he got back to the ruined temple, the driver and the rest of them were dead to the last man. Not one of them was left alive.
Chen Chong saw Ning Chen come back alone and asked quickly, “Where are Old Gao and Old Feng?”
“They went after the man in the black robe. This horse of mine is no good. I lost them!”
Chen Chong asked curiously, “Where’s that Diaochan of yours?”
“My Diaochan is at my waist.”
Chen Chong: “???”
Ning Chen swung down out of the saddle and went over to the bodies.
Their faces had gone a dark blue-black and their lips had turned purple. One look was enough to tell you they had died of poison.
Chen Chong came over. “The Poisoner did this.”
“Who?”
Chen Chong pointed at one of them. “That one still had a breath in him when I got to him, and he made it last long enough to say the man in the black robe was the Poisoner.”
“I know about the Poisoner. He’s on the Inspectorate’s wanted list… Years ago the Poisoner wiped out one household after another, and the Inspectorate has been hunting him ever since. But the man might as well have vanished into thin air. I never thought he’d surface again today.”
Ning Chen’s brows drew together. “What sort of man is this Poisoner?”
“A jianghu bandit. Nobody knows where he came from. He works with poison, and the jianghu wants nothing to do with him.”
Ning Chen thought about it for a moment. “The households he wiped out. Were they all in the capital?”
Chen Chong shook his head. “Only the last one was in the capital… The household of the previous Prefect of the capital. They all met a foul end — the old, the weak, the women, the children. He spared nobody.”
“The Inspectorate hunted him for several years, and the man might as well have vanished into thin air. I never thought he’d surface again today.”
Ning Chen’s eyes flickered, and after a moment he said, “Here in the capital, staying out of the Inspectorate’s way on your own is as hard as climbing to heaven… unless somebody is helping him.”
Chen Chong shook his head. “We searched every place in the capital we could search. Not so much as a thread to follow.”
“Every place you could search? Then what are the places you couldn’t?”
Chen Chong said, “There are plenty of those. The palace. The chancellor’s residence. The general’s residence. And—”
“Wait.” Ning Chen’s eyes narrowed a little. “You said the chancellor’s residence just now?”
Chen Chong nodded, then asked, not following him, “What about it?”
Ning Chen shook his head. “Nothing… If this Poisoner is as dangerous as that, will Old Gao and Old Feng be all right?”
“Don’t worry about it! Old Gao and Old Feng trained under the same master. They work together without needing to say a word… The Poisoner is dangerous with poison. Hand to hand, neither of them is afraid of him.”
Ning Chen let out a small breath.
He looked down at the bodies on the ground. “This Poisoner really is dangerous.”
The middle-aged man with the sharp sword had reacted fastest of all of them. Ning Chen had thought he knocked every needle away, and the man had been hit even so.
“Ning Chen, keep watch here. I’ll ride back to the Inspectorate. Geng the Purple Coat has to be told the Poisoner has surfaced. We can’t give him a chance to get out of the capital.”
“And these men have a deadly poison in them. The bodies will have to be handled specially… I’ll send people for them.”
Ning Chen made a sound of assent.
Chen Chong swung into the saddle and warned him, “Watch yourself out here alone… I’ll be quick.”
Ning Chen nodded.
After Chen Chong had gone, Ning Chen started working back through it.
The Poisoner had put him in mind of that Black King of Hell in his bed.
If Ning Gan was the one who put the Black King of Hell there, then where had Ning Gan gotten a Black King of Hell?
Chen Chong had said just now that the chancellor’s residence was one of the places they could not search.
Ning Gan was the Left Chancellor’s grandson by his daughter.
And the Poisoner had dropped out of sight for several years, which meant somebody had certainly been sheltering him.
Whoever could keep the Poisoner clear of an Inspectorate manhunt was nobody ordinary.
Ning Chen’s eyes hardened, and he said heavily, “The Left Chancellor.”
He was still working back through it when the sudden sound of hooves brought him out of it.
He looked up and saw Feng Qizheng and Gao Ziping coming back, with a horse in hand as well.
The horse looked like the Poisoner’s.
One look at their faces and Ning Chen already knew how it had gone.
“You didn’t catch him?”
Feng Qizheng’s face was black with the bad luck of it, and he said angrily, “The little shit knows the lay of the city inside out. We ran him into an alley and he left the horse and went on foot!”
He said it, and then looked at the bodies on the ground. “Vicious, isn’t he. One sweep of the hand and half a dozen lives are gone!”
Ning Chen said, “It was the Poisoner!”
Gao Ziping and Feng Qizheng were both badly startled.
“So it was that little shit. No wonder the way these men died looked so familiar.”
Gao Ziping’s brows drew tight together. “The man has been out of sight for years, and he puts his head up now, of all times… Ning Chen, he came for you. Is there bad blood between the two of you?”
Ning Chen shook his head. “I’ve never met him. As for his wanting me dead… somebody must have put him up to it.”
“Ning Chen, you’ll have to be a great deal more careful from now on. This one is ruthless. There’s nothing human in him at all.”
Ning Chen nodded and made a sound of assent.
Feng Qizheng said, puzzled, “If the Poisoner wants you dead, a man of his ability could do it himself… Why hire it done?”
Ning Chen shook his head. “I can think of two possibilities. One, he had no opening. I’m with you three most of the time, and wherever I am there are people around. He’s a wanted man, and he wouldn’t dare follow me for fear of showing himself.”
“Two, he wasn’t sure of it. I’m not a soft touch either… He’s dangerous with poison, but he’s not much of a fighter.”
“Either way, what he wants is not to show himself. Once the Inspectorate has its eye on him again, getting clear a second time will be hard.”
Feng Qizheng smiled coldly. “Well, he’s shown himself now, hasn’t he? Now we know he’s in the capital, we’ll drag him out this time if he hides in a rat hole.”
Ning Chen said, “This was an accident, I think. The Poisoner never counted on these men admiring the sort of man I am enough to sell him out.”
“Chen Chong has gone back to the Inspectorate to tell Geng the Purple Coat.”
Ning Chen was still speaking when his eye came to rest on the Poisoner’s horse.
“Have either of you ever heard that an old horse knows the road?”
Gao Ziping and Feng Qizheng stared for a moment, and then caught up all at once.
“You mean we could find the Poisoner through this horse?”
Ning Chen said, smiling, “The horse isn’t necessarily the Poisoner’s… but anybody can see it’s a fine animal, and a fine animal ought to be able to find its own way home.”
Gao Ziping looked the horse over for a while. “This is one of the great western breeds. A costly bloodline. No ordinary household could afford to keep it.”
Ning Chen narrowed his eyes. “We’ll wait. Chen Chong should be back… and when he is, we’ll let this horse take us to its master.”
The three of them waited about two hours.
A thick clatter of hooves came up.
Pan Yucheng was at the head of them.
There were a dozen or more silver coats and a dozen or more red coats besides.
Pan Yucheng swung down out of the saddle and ordered the red coats to deal with the bodies at once.
Ning Chen came forward. “Old Pan. Where’s Geng the Purple Coat?”
Pan Yucheng said, “He’s gone to have the garrison moved up and the city gates closed, so the Poisoner can’t get out.”
“You were far too reckless this time. A thing this size, and you had the nerve not to tell me. Am I still your chief or not?”
Ning Chen smiled bitterly. “All I wanted was to find out who wanted me dead. I never thought I’d run into the Poisoner.”
“Old Pan, don’t be angry! I’ll take you to the Poisoner.”
Pan Yucheng started. “You know where he is?”
Ning Chen pointed at the horse. “I don’t. But it might!”
(End of Chapter 123)