Iron horses rang as they came into Half Moon Manor like a flood, the force of them filling the sky.
At their head was a man in purple… Geng Jing.
Geng Jing did not see Ning Chen.
Nor did he look. His face was ice, and he said harshly, “Kill them. Leave nobody alive.”
Good God, not one wasted word.
From the highest of the Ghost-Shadow Sect to the lowest, their faces went white with fear and their hands and feet shook.
In front of that great host of armored horsemen they were as small as ants.
Tao Xiuwu and the others all looked at Ning Chen.
If there was one thread of life left to them now, it lay with Ning Chen.
Nor did Ning Chen disappoint them. He said with a smile, “Lord Geng. It has been a long time.”
The familiar voice made Geng Jing turn his head sharply.
The instant he saw Ning Chen, he froze where he stood.
He threw a hand up sharply and stopped the armored horsemen who were ready to charge.
“Ning Chen, what are you doing here?”
Geng Jing’s expression was surprise.
That great host of armored horsemen all looked at Ning Chen with curiosity on every face.
Ning Chen?
Was that not the Great Xuan’s Idle Marquis?
Nobody in the army had seen Ning Chen, but they had all heard of the Great Xuan’s boy hero.
Ning Chen came forward at a walk, somewhat surprised himself. “By the sound of it, you did not come here looking for me?”
Geng Jing shook his head. “I did not know you were here.”
“Then what has Geng the Purple Coat come here to do?”
Geng Jing said in a low voice, “By His Majesty’s edict. Of the Ghost-Shadow Sect not a man or a beast is to be left, not a blade of grass is to stand, and the ground it sits on is to be burned to bare earth.”
Ning Chen was greatly startled.
Burned to bare earth meant that not so much as an ant was to be left living.
The people of the Ghost-Shadow Sect were frightened until their souls fairly rose up out of them, and everything went black in front of their eyes.
Ning Chen asked, curious, “Lord Geng, what has the Ghost-Shadow Sect done to bring His Majesty to a towering rage?”
Geng Jing frowned at Ning Chen. “You do not know?”
“Know what?”
Geng Jing said in a low voice, “Old General Chen is dead.”
Something went off in Ning Chen’s head like a thunderclap beside his ear, and his face went white on the instant.
Old General Chen was dead?
How was that possible?
Ning Chen wanted to have heard it wrong. He looked at Geng Jing, hope all over his face. “You are joking. Aren’t you?”
Geng Jing sighed and said nothing.
Ning Chen’s eyes reddened. The grief stopped up his chest until it was near bursting, and his heart felt as though a thousand insects were tearing at it.
That old man who had loved him was dead.
The man who had cursed the whole court out for his sake, who had beaten Fan Taihe senseless for his sake with no thought for the law, was gone forever.
“Ahh—”
Ning Chen’s eyes were ready to split. He threw his head back and roared at the sky, letting the grief in him out.
He stared at Geng Jing. “How did the old general die?”
Geng Jing said in a low voice, “Assassinated. The Ghost-Shadow Sect’s men did it.”
Ning Chen’s head was ringing. He turned sharply and fixed his eyes on Tao Xiuwu. “You people sent men to kill Old General Chen?”
Tao Xiuwu’s face went white. He looked at Gu Su.
Gu Su shook his head in alarm. “I swear it. I never gave any such order.”
When he had said it, Gu Su looked at the several elders of the Ghost-Shadow Sect.
The elders were frightened out of their souls, and shook their heads one after another to say it was not them.
Tao Xiuwu came forward. “Ning Chen, this cannot possibly have been the Ghost-Shadow Sect’s doing.”
“Old General Chen is the Great Xuan’s god of war… If we had nerve enough to reach the sky, we would not dare send men to assassinate him.”
Ning Chen’s eyes were keen. “Could the man in charge of one of the Ghost-Shadow Sect’s branches have given the order?”
Tao Xiuwu said quickly, “No. They do not have that much authority. To assassinate Old General Chen — if somebody carried in a mountain of gold and a mountain of silver, we would not dare take a commission like that.”
Assassinate Old General Chen? What kind of joke is that?
This was past being a matter of the ninth degree of kin. The eighteenth degree would not be enough. Ancestors long dead would be dug up so their bones could be ground and the ash scattered, and if anybody on the roadside had so much as spoken a word to you, he would be killed too.
Ning Chen felt there was something wrong with it too.
The people of the Ghost-Shadow Sect were assassins, not fools.
A man has to be alive to spend what he earns.
Besides, the men attending Old General Chen were all hard cases who had come off battlefields. The risk of assassinating him was at the absolute ceiling — very likely no easier than assassinating the emperor.
The Ghost-Shadow Sect would have to be out of its mind to take a commission like that.
Ning Chen turned and looked at Geng Jing. “Lord Geng, what evidence is there that the Ghost-Shadow Sect assassinated the old general?”
Geng Jing said, “The man who assassinated Old General Chen has been taken. He admitted with his own mouth that he was of the Ghost-Shadow Sect.”
“Is he still alive?”
“He killed himself as soon as he had said it.”
Ning Chen frowned. “Does Lord Geng not think that looks like blame being planted on them?”
“It does not matter.”
“Mm?”
Geng Jing said without expression, “The Ghost-Shadow Sect was on the Inspectorate’s list of things to run down to begin with. We left them alone before because we could not spare the hands.”
“Now His Majesty is in a towering rage and the edict has come down. Whether or not the Ghost-Shadow Sect is the true murderer, we have to act on the edict.”
“Ning Chen, His Majesty’s command is that this be run to the bottom. Anyone connected with the assassination of Old General Chen has to die, wiped out to the third generation of the family, not a man or a beast left.”
Ning Chen’s face changed.
The people of the Ghost-Shadow Sect went bloodless.
In front of that great host of armored horsemen they did not have the courage even to resist.
Geng Jing looked hard at Ning Chen. “You want to protect the Ghost-Shadow Sect?”
Ning Chen nodded. “The Ghost-Shadow Sect gave me the gift of the art. If I can, I want to repay it.”
Geng Jing shook his head. “Ning Chen, have you considered that if I let the Ghost-Shadow Sect go, I am defying an edict… And defying an edict is the entire household to the sword.”
Ning Chen’s face stiffened. He was caught both ways.
He could not let the Ghost-Shadow Sect bring the entire household to the sword down on Geng Jing’s family.
His mind raced, hunting for a plan that would cover everything.
Geng Jing said, “Ning Chen, your being here at the Ghost-Shadow Sect drags you into it too… You cannot protect yourself. Do not think about protecting anybody else.”
Ning Chen thought for a long while, then said, “Lord Geng, I want to go to the capital and stand before His Majesty.”
Geng Jing shook his head. “It is no use. His Majesty is in a towering rage, and nobody can save the Ghost-Shadow Sect… If you protect the Ghost-Shadow Sect, can you face Old General Chen?”
“Not only will you fail to protect the Ghost-Shadow Sect, you will anger His Majesty and throw yourself in with them.”
Ning Chen said in a low voice, “Only finding the real murderer will do right by the old general’s spirit.”
“I mean to find the real murderer and cut him apart by inches with my own hands, not let the Ghost-Shadow Sect be a scapegoat while the man who actually did it goes free.”
Geng Jing said in a low voice, “And if in the end the real murderer is the Ghost-Shadow Sect?”
Ning Chen turned his head and swept his eyes over the people of the Ghost-Shadow Sect. “Then they have betrayed my trust… If they really are the murderers, I will slaughter every one of them with my own hands, and not a chicken or a dog will be left.”
“Lord Geng, could you surround them and not kill them? Give me a little time. Let me go back to the capital and find out the truth.”
Geng Jing frowned and sank into thought.
“Very well. I agree.”
Hearing Geng Jing agree, Ning Chen felt something strange rise in him.
Something was not right.
Geng Jing was an old hand too. A man who could command the Inspectorate was certainly no fool.
And he had His Majesty’s deep trust… and the reason for that trust was, naturally, his loyalty.
And Geng Jing had defied an edict, staked the lives of his whole family, and agreed to an unreasonable request like that?
Ning Chen’s own connection with the Ghost-Shadow Sect did not begin to weigh against Geng Jing.
Geng Jing would understand that perfectly well. Even if he slaughtered the Ghost-Shadow Sect, Ning Chen would not hate him for it… and besides, he was only carrying out an order, and there was nothing to lay at his door.
There was certainly something wrong.
Could Geng Jing mean to wait until Ning Chen was gone, and then slaughter the Ghost-Shadow Sect?
But if that were it, how would it differ from slaughtering the Ghost-Shadow Sect now?
Ning Chen narrowed his eyes and watched Geng Jing… What is this fellow playing at?
(End of Chapter 396)