Murder came off Ning Chen in waves. The rebar in his hand stabbed out like lightning, and then stopped dead.

Xie Siyu had put himself between the two of them.

"Move."

Ning Chen's eyes were keen as a hawk's, the killing intent plain on him, his voice ice.

Xie Siyu looked at him. "Younger Brother. Be calm."

Ning Chen laughed coldly. "What makes you think I am not calm?"

"This is the Ghost-Shadow Sect."

"And what of it? I walked into the Tuoluo Kingdom's North Royal Court as though there were nobody in it, came when I pleased and left when I pleased. The Wu Kingdom's palace is my own back yard. A petty little power of the jianghu — is it supposed to be more frightening than those two places?"

Xie Siyu was about to speak when the sound of footsteps came.

Several men in fine embroidered robes, all of them somewhere past fifty, came toward them at a fast walk.

They were old men, but they went lightly, and their feet came down almost without sound. The temples standing out on both sides of their heads were enough to show that every one of them was a master of arms.

When they came up, one of them, in a dark green long gown, quickly examined Bao Qing's condition.

"What is going on here?"

The man who asked it was tall and heavily built, with a square face, thick brows and tiger eyes.

Xie Siyu bowed quickly and gave a short, clear account of what had happened.

"Head of the house, Ning Chen and Younger Brother Bao Qing were meeting for the first time and do not know one another, so a misunderstanding arose."

It was probably the first time Xie Siyu had ever said so much in one breath. When he was done he licked his lips and pressed them shut.

"A misunderstanding? You injure a man like this and still dare call it a misunderstanding?"

The man examining Bao Qing's injuries stared at Ning Chen with a savage light in his eyes.

This was Wen Kangsheng, Grand…