A man did not become master of the Great Beginning Pavilion by being a fool.

Ning Chen had turned the talk back to Liu Baiyi. That was what he was after.

He had been to Suzhou and called on Heavenly Master Bingchen.

Was he working his way through the whole list of masters above the ranks altogether, one by one?

There was no telling what he meant to do with them. But if Liu Baiyi's whereabouts stayed secret any longer, the Great Beginning Pavilion was finished.

"My lord prince. It's spring, and warm, and the peach blossom is at its best... I hear that on Peach Blossom Mountain outside Xiuzhou, when spring comes the whole mountain goes pink with it. More than the eye can take in."

Something flashed in Ning Chen's eyes. Xiuzhou. Peach Blossom Mountain.

"Is that so? This prince is very fond of peach blossom. This prince will have to go and see Peach Blossom Mountain for himself."

Xiao Pingshan said, "My lord prince will not have made the journey for nothing."

Ning Chen smiled. "That reminds me. Who runs your Great Beginning Pavilion's intelligence arm? I won't hide it from you — this prince has ranged across the battlefields and carried all before him, but intelligence has always been this prince's weak point.

With a strong intelligence arm behind him, this prince would level Nanyue and sweep the Tuoluo Kingdom flat.

Pavilion Master Xiao may not know it, but the Tuoluo Kingdom raids our Great Xuan's border every year and the people can't make a living... And Nanyue's Fourth Prince is a master of war and stratagem, and he watches our Great Xuan like a tiger. It gives this prince a headache.

The Great Beginning Pavilion's Young Master Marvel threw in with traitors, but this prince believes he acted alone and that it has nothing to do with the Great Beginning Pavilion... The Great Beginning Pavilion is full of dragons and phoenixes among men, heroes of the jianghu. They would never do anything to harm the Great Xuan."

Something tightened in Xiao Pingshan. There was something…