Ning Chen narrowed his eyes and said with a cold laugh, "This Tantai Qingyue really is something, but so what? She still can't hold off my gunfire, a whole storm of it... er, I mean gunfire out of muskets."

Pan Yucheng and the others gave him a sidelong look, thinking, none of us took it the other way, so what are you explaining?

Pan Yucheng said, "This Tantai Qingyue is not easy to deal with. She isn't only the first in the martial arts. In Xiliang she also has command of the Wind and Cloud Hall, and there are plenty of remarkable men with unusual gifts under her."

Ning Chen frowned. He had just had a taste of the Wind and Cloud Hall's remarkable men with unusual gifts.

Those two assassins, for instance, really were something. There was no denying it.

Feng Qizheng said, "That Tantai Qingyue left some hard words behind her. If we don't pull the army back, she'll kill you!"

Ning Chen gave a cold laugh. "Let her come. I'm no soft touch either."

Pan Yucheng said quickly, "We can't take this lightly. For a strong one like Tantai Qingyue, taking an enemy general's head out of the middle of an army in disorder is no great task... It looks as though she was only warning you before, and was not in earnest."

Everyone was sick with worry, but Ning Chen thought nothing of it. "Don't worry. If she really were that strong, she wouldn't have chosen a surprise attack and an assassination."

He had killed one master above the ranks altogether by setting a trap; he could kill a second.

Tantai Qingyue's skill was of the highest, and she could get clear of bullets, but that did not mean bullets could not hurt her.

Anything carbon-based dies if it gets hit. That was all there was to it.

She could get clear of a few bullets. Ning Chen did not believe she could get clear of a hail of bullets, or of cannon fire.

Ning Chen said lightly, "Go get some rest, all of you. One…