The old Heavenly Master sipped his wine and chuckled. "Hard to say. When it comes to that breath, Liu Baiyi's is deeper than Tantai Qingyue's, no question, and it hits harder.

With the sword, the two of them ought to be about even.

Tantai Qingyue is still young, and her breath isn't deep enough yet. But she has her strengths. She has the will to beat whoever's in front of her... Liu Baiyi doesn't. He takes winning and losing very lightly, and it's cost him some of his edge."

Ning Chen nodded. It was a fair read of the two of them.

Then he changed the subject. "Old Heavenly Master, ever since I trained that breath out, I haven't gotten any further with it... Why is that?"

The old Heavenly Master glanced at him and kept it short. "Sleep with fewer women!"

The corner of Ning Chen's mouth twitched.

Fuck!!!

All three of them had said the same thing. It looked like he really was going to have to abstain.

Those poor beauties of his, every one of them as lovely as flowers and jade. For a whole year, nobody would be watering them.

Then Ning Chen asked, "Fewer women, or none at all?"

The old Heavenly Master said, "Best to abstain... Essence, breath and spirit. The three feed each other and build each other up. As the saying goes, when essence is full the breath is ample, and when the breath is ample the spirit thrives. When essence is drained the breath goes weak, and when the breath is weak the spirit fails.

That's why so many kinds of kung fu insist on a man who has kept himself a virgin since boyhood. (TL Note: 童子功, "boy's kung fu" — arts trained from childhood by a practitioner who stays a virgin, on the belief that it keeps his essence whole.) Still, you're young. It's not too late for any of it.

Though this old geezer doesn't think my lord prince needs to abstain at all."

"Hm?" Ning Chen's eyes lit up, and he gave the old Heavenly Master a…