Ning Chen didn't stay long with Xiao Yanxi.

He was abstaining now, and couldn't spend too much time around women.

For a hot-blooded young man, abstinence was hard enough to begin with.

As the old Heavenly Master had said, those three only abstained because no woman would have them and they had no choice... He had a houseful of beauties with faces to overthrow cities and kingdoms. Abstinence was just too hard!

Out on campaign it wasn't so bad. But at home every day, running into them everywhere he turned, it was pure torture.

He went back to his own room.

It felt cold and empty.

Any other night, Yudie would have been there to help him bathe, and they'd have shucked the oyster underwater before moving the fight to the bed.

Just thinking of Yudie's face and figure, which put every other woman in the shade, made Ning Chen hot all over.

He had to stop. He needed a distraction.

He took out the Unborn Sword Art and started leafing through it.

After a while he drew his sword and began running through the forms in the open space of his room.

With all the abstaining, practicing the Unborn Sword Art felt to Ning Chen like training the Evil-Warding Sword Art. (TL Note: 辟邪劍法, the Evil-Warding Sword Art, from Jin Yong's novel The Smiling, Proud Wanderer. Its manual demands that anyone who would learn it first castrate himself.)

He kept at it until he was completely worn out, then went to bed and slept like a stone.

The next morning Ning Chen went into the palace to see the Xuan Emperor.

The Xuan Emperor was in better spirits every day.

"Father Emperor, let me take you outside to sit in the sun. Sunshine is good for you."

The Xuan Emperor's eyes lit up. He'd been shut in that room far too long. He had wanted to get out and breathe some fresh air for ages, but Eunuch Quan and the others kept stopping him.

Eunuch Quan looked worried. "My lord prince, is this... is this really all right?"

Ning…