Once Nie Liang had come back to himself, he signaled the imperial guards to wait where they were and rode forward alone.

"My lord, are you all right?"

Ning Chen produced a smile, but his whole face was covered in blood, and the smile was a chilling thing to see.

"I'm all right. His Majesty sent you?"

Nie Liang nodded and swung down from the saddle. "His Majesty ordered me to take men and search along the Heaven River to meet my lord!"

He looked at the bodies on the ground. "What in the world happened here? Who are these men?"

Ning Chen wiped his blade clean on one of the assassins and said slowly, "Somebody tried to kill me. They scuttled the warship I was on."

"These men come from an assassins' organization called the Dark Moon Tower."

Nie Liang's face changed with shock. "Scuttling a warship, assassinating a marquis... their nerve is past all measure. Aren't they afraid of a crime that takes three generations of their family with them?"

"Does my lord know who put them up to it?"

Ning Chen glanced at him and said, "The Fifth Prince."

Nie Liang's expression stiffened.

"My lord, that is not a joke to make. How could it possibly be the Fifth Prince?"

Ning Chen smiled and said nothing.

Just as he thought. Nobody was going to believe these men had been sent by the Fifth Prince, who was simple and dull in the head.

He walked down to the bank, washed the blood off his hands and his face, and whistled. Diaochan came running over.

Ning Chen swung up into the saddle and asked, "Old Nie. Have Pan Yucheng and Feng Qizheng gone back to the capital?"

Nie Liang shook his head. "I don't know! His Majesty summoned me in a hurry and told me to take men out to meet you... Until I saw you I had no idea what had happened."

Ning Chen frowned. He guessed that Feng Qizheng and Pan Yucheng must have fallen into the other side's hands.

"Come on. Back to the capital."

Nie…