Tantai Qingyue understood at once. Ning Chen was sending Xie Siyu on purpose.

Xie Siyu was no talker, and stubborn besides. Carrying out what Ning Chen had given him to do, he would very likely end in a quarrel with the Great Beginning Pavilion.

And a quarrel was exactly what Ning Chen wanted.

Then he would have his reason to go to the Great Beginning Pavilion himself and demand the higher martial arts.

Tantai Qingyue couldn't keep it in. "You scheme at every step to get what you want. Are you never tired of it?"

Ning Chen looked up at her, injured. "Have you no conscience at all?"

Tantai Qingyue looked at him, not following.

Ning Chen said, "Why do you think I'm scheming? To find a higher martial art as fast as I can, learn it, beat you, and then be able to sleep with you.

Do you think this is easy, what I do to sleep with you? I've had to use the art of war!"

Behind her veil, Tantai Qingyue's mouth twitched hard, several times over.

"Aren't you afraid something will happen to Xie Siyu? The Great Beginning Pavilion is not an ordinary power in the jianghu."

Ning Chen laughed coldly. "They wouldn't dare. Nobody becomes the first pavilion under heaven by being stupid... They know perfectly well that if they touch one hair on Xie Siyu's head, the disaster will come down over their own."

Then Ning Chen turned it around on her. "Little Tanzi, one more thing... Ever since I trained that breath out, it hasn't grown at all. What's the reason?"

Tantai Qingyue said, "Didn't I tell you already? Abstinence."

"Nonsense. I'm out in the field with an army. I go half a year at a time without touching a woman. How much more abstinent am I supposed to get?"

"You could try abstaining for a year!"

Ning Chen gave her a doubtful look. "Does that really work?"

Tantai Qingyue said, "Try it and find out."

Ning Chen's face crumpled. "A year. A whole year..."

"Do you have less than a year to live?"