Ning Chen frowned slightly.

To refine out that breath Tao Xiuwu spoke of, he had to take the Nine Yang Decoction for Nourishing the Source for ten years?

But it occurred to him at once that Tao Xiuwu’s Nine Yang Decoction for Nourishing the Source was not the complete one, because he only had half the prescription.

And what he had been taking was the complete Nine Yang Decoction for Nourishing the Source.

He had taken both — the Nine Yang Decoction for Nourishing the Source boiled from half a prescription, and the decoction boiled from the complete one.

The complete prescription was dozens of times stronger in its effect than the half.

Perhaps he would not have to take it for ten years.

Whatever the case, the first thing was to get the breathing arts into his hands.

Ning Chen said with a smile, “Is the grandmaster doubting my natural gift?”

Tao Xiuwu said, “A gift for letters and a gift for the martial arts are two different things.”

“Then what does the grandmaster make of my skill?”

Tao Xiuwu said, “A third-rate master, I suppose.”

The corner of Ning Chen’s mouth twitched. Goddammit… that is looking down on a man pretty hard.

“Grandmaster, half a year ago I was a frail boy without the strength to truss a chicken.”

Tao Xiuwu was greatly startled.

Which was to say that in half a year Ning Chen had gone from a frail boy without the strength to truss a chicken to the skill he had now.

Ning Chen said with a smile, “To say it without any modesty, I have met quite a few masters of the jianghu… and every one of them says I am a martial genius of a kind that comes once in a hundred years.”

“Grandmaster, I want to learn the breathing arts.”

Tao Xiuwu shook his head and said, “Even if you are a martial genius, you have taken the Nine Yang Decoction for Nourishing the Source for only half a year.”

Ning Chen’s face was full of confidence. “If I am a genius, then I am necessarily not like ordinary men… Perhaps I can take the Nine Yang Decoction for Nourishing the Source for half a year, put the breathing arts with it, and refine out that breath after all.”

Tao Xiuwu shook his head and gave a helpless laugh.

“You are thinking of it far too simply. In all the world today, the men who have refined out this breath do not come to the fingers of two hands.”

Ning Chen narrowed his eyes at him. “Grandmaster, this would not be because you are afraid of losing face if I refine that breath out in a short while?”

“If the grandmaster is afraid of losing face, then let it go.”

Tao Xiuwu said sourly, “Since you will not take advice, then try it.”

Ning Chen was delighted. He bowed low. “My thanks to the grandmaster.”

In the days that followed, Ning Chen settled in at the Ghost-Shadow Sect.

Tao Xiuwu taught Ning Chen the breathing arts, told Ning Chen what he had learned of them himself, and guided him carefully throughout.

Zisu was not idle either. The Ghost-Shadow Sect’s art of poisons stands alone in the world.

Medicine and poison are not separate trades. Used well it is a drug, and used badly it is a poison.

Zisu spent every day with Gu Su, studying the art of poisons.

Yudie had her own occupation too. She was quick and deft with her hands, and she studied the art of face-changing with the Ghost-Shadow Sect’s Second Elder.

Feng Qizheng, the great simpleton, was shouting every day about wanting to go find some fun.

But the shouting was all it came to. Every day he took the rebar and fought the Ghost-Shadow Sect’s disciples, working off his energy.

Two months went by in a blur.

By the pond in the back court of the Ghost-Shadow Sect there was a great slab of bluestone.

Ning Chen sat on the bluestone with his eyes closed, his breathing even and slow, his chest rising and falling slightly.

This had been his daily discipline for the past two months.

He was not drawing in the spirit of heaven and earth. He was learning the breathing arts.

He spent most of every day practicing the breathing arts, and the rest of it practicing the Thirteen Ghost-Shadow Blades.

Tao Xiuwu had also taught him a secret the Ghost-Shadow Sect never passes on… the Dragonfly Step.

The footwork was built out of the way a dragonfly moves, and it takes its name from that.

“Ning Chen. Rest a while and eat something.”

Ning Chen opened his eyes and looked. Tao Xiuwu was coming from the far side of the pond with a food box in his hand.

Then, all at once, Tao Xiuwu was in the air, his toes touching the surface of the water lightly, crossing it clear of the ground, and landing beside Ning Chen.

From the far bank to where Ning Chen sat was close to thirty meters.

The performance came every day. The first time it had left Ning Chen struck dumb and staring; after that he grew used to it.

Tao Xiuwu looked at Ning Chen and said with a smile, “Well? Anything to show for it?”

Ning Chen said nothing.

Tao Xiuwu said, teasing him, “I told you long ago that refining out that breath is as hard as climbing to heaven.”

“Don’t lose heart. You are young yet… Perhaps in ten years, or eight, you will manage it.”

“In all the world today the men who have refined out this breath do not come to the fingers of two hands. If you could do it in two months, where would that leave the faces of us old fellows?”

Ning Chen rose to his feet and gave a slight smile.

“Grandmaster, you do not understand a genius’s world.”

Tao Xiuwu said banteringly, “Meaning what? Don’t tell me you have refined that breath out already?”

Ning Chen was about to speak when he saw Gu Su come racing toward them, running like the wind.

Gu Su reached them, panic all over his face. “Master, something serious has happened… The court’s army has surrounded Half Moon Manor.”

Tao Xiuwu was greatly startled, and stood rooted where he was.

It was a while before he came back to himself and looked at Ning Chen.

Ning Chen went blank himself. He spread his hands. “Don’t look at me. I did not do it.”

“Elder Uncle, is it the Quanzhou garrison?”

Gu Su nodded. “It is.”

“How many have come?”

“Close to ten thousand men. Half Moon Manor is surrounded so tight that not a drop could leak out.”

Tao Xiuwu’s face changed.

He might be a master above the ranks altogether, but in front of the court’s army that counted for nothing at all.

There is no man and no power in this world that can stand against the court’s thousands upon thousands of soldiers.

Tao Xiuwu’s face was grave. “Half Moon Manor has been exposed.”

Gu Su looked at Ning Chen.

“Elder Uncle, you would not be suspecting that I sold the Ghost-Shadow Sect out?”

Gu Su shook his head. “No. The Ghost-Shadow Sect is in mortal danger, and you are all we have to rely on.”

Ning Chen said in a low voice, “If I still had my office there would be no difficulty… But I am a plain man with no rank now, and I have no dealings with the Quanzhou garrison. They may not give me any face at all. All I can say is that I will do my best.”

Gu Su said, “You can do it. The man leading them is Geng Jing, the purple coat of the Inspectorate.”

“Geng Jing?”

Ning Chen went blank.

If the man leading them was Geng Jing, then he had certainly come looking for him.

“Come on. Let’s go see.”

By now a great host of horsemen had Half Moon Manor surrounded so tight that not a drop could leak out.

The disciples of the Ghost-Shadow Sect were gathered in the outer court, terror on every face, staring at the gate.

Listening to the ringing of hooves outside, every one of them was shaking in the hands and feet.

How could a power of the jianghu stand against the court’s army?

They were dead men.

The fear of death spread through the crowd. Their faces were white, and even their lips had lost the color in them.

“Ning Chen has certainly sold us out.”

It was Wen Kangsheng who said it.

The disciples of the Ghost-Shadow Sect thought so too.

They had been hidden here all along and had been perfectly safe, and the trouble came only after Ning Chen arrived. Ning Chen had certainly sold them out.

“That’s horseshit. If Ning Chen meant to sell you out, would he have waited until now?”

Feng Qizheng had come at once when he heard the court’s men and horses had surrounded Half Moon Manor.

He had barely arrived before he heard Wen Kangsheng slandering Ning Chen.

Wen Kangsheng looked at him and said with a cold laugh, “We were safe and untroubled here all along, and we were exposed after you people came… You tell me. If it was not Ning Chen, who was it?”

Feng Qizheng was furious. “You can shut your stinking mouth. If Ning Chen meant to sell you out, would he have waited two months?”

“Maybe you people were careless yourselves and gave your own tracks away… Don’t you damn well hold a chamber pot of shit over Ning Chen’s head and tip it.”

Wen Kangsheng gave a cold snort. “You few are the only outsiders here. Half Moon Manor is exposed, and you certainly cannot be clear of it.”

“Listen to me, all of you. These men are of one party with the court’s army outside. Take them, and hold them as hostages.”

The disciples of the Ghost-Shadow Sect stared at Feng Qizheng with no goodwill in their eyes at all.

(End of Chapter 394)