The Xuan Emperor looked at the iron contraption Geng Jing had presented and asked, curious, “What is this?”

Geng Jing answered respectfully, “Reporting to Your Majesty, Ning Chen says the thing is called a musket.”

“A musket? It doesn’t look much like a gun.”

Then I couldn’t tell you, Geng Jing thought. That’s just what Ning Chen calls it.

The Xuan Emperor held it and turned it over and over for a while before asking, “You said just now that its sound is like a thunderclap and its power is astonishing?”

“Yes! It fires an iron pellet at tremendous speed, and it leaves no trace… Your subject does not consider himself a poor fighter, but he could not follow the pellet’s path when it was fired. If your subject were careless, this thing would be more than enough to wound him.”

The Xuan Emperor’s heart jumped.

He knew what Geng Jing was capable of. If Geng Jing said the power of the thing was astonishing, then it was certainly nothing to dismiss.

“How does it compare with bow and crossbow?” the Xuan Emperor asked.

“Reporting to Your Majesty, it hits harder than either, and it shoots faster… Neither bow nor crossbow comes near it.”

The Xuan Emperor studied it for a long time without seeing what was so formidable about it.

“Geng Jing. Demonstrate it for this emperor.”

Geng Jing’s expression stiffened slightly and he said quickly, “Your Majesty, your subject doesn’t know how to work it… It has to be Ning Chen.”

The Xuan Emperor looked at Ning Chen and said, without any warmth, “Stop kneeling. Get up and demonstrate it for this emperor.”

Ning Chen grunted and scrambled to his feet.

He stepped up, took the musket, and loaded it.

“Your Majesty. Please move outside the hall!”

The Xuan Emperor said, “Demonstrate it here. This emperor can’t be bothered to move.”

“Yes!”

Ning Chen accepted the order, then looked around and said, “Your Majesty, might your subject borrow an apple?”

The Xuan Emperor nodded.

Ning Chen ran to the dragon desk and took an apple, then went and set it on a table at the far end of the hall.

As he backed away, he measured the distance in his head, and stopped at somewhere over twenty meters.

Accuracy on this thing is poor. Any further and I’m afraid I’ll miss.

Ning Chen looked at Geng Jing. “Lord Geng, would you mind covering my ears for me?”

Geng Jing pretended not to hear. You think I’m an idiot? That’s exactly how you got Feng Qizheng.

“Your Majesty. Please cover your ears!”

Ning Chen had thought about setting the Xuan Emperor up the same way, and thought better of it.

He is the emperor, after all. Get him truly worked up and he has me chopped, and that would be a bad trade.

The Xuan Emperor did as he was told, covered his ears, and said, “Begin.”

Ning Chen waited until he saw that Eunuch Quan and Geng Jing had both covered their ears, then raised the musket and took aim.

A crack.

The terrible blast burst against their ears like close thunder. Fire came with black smoke, and the apple on the table blew apart.

And this was inside the great hall, where the sound came back off the walls.

Even with his ears covered, the Xuan Emperor went white with the shock of it, his ears ringing, his heart missing half a beat.

Geng Jing had been through it once already and fared a little better.

The worst off was Ning Chen, with one ear uncovered and his eardrum aching from the blast.

Eunuch Quan went white, and his eyes went blank and fixed.

But in the next second Eunuch Quan’s shrill voice rang out: “Protect the Emperor! Guards, protect the Emperor—”

Ning Chen started and turned his head without thinking, and the world blurred in front of him. Eunuch Quan appeared before him like a ghost, the fly-whisk in his hand snapped out, and his neck was caught in it.

The whisk pulled tight all at once, the fine strands of it nearly cutting into the flesh. Ning Chen couldn’t draw breath. His face went red and the veins stood out in his neck, his brain starved of air, his vision going dark.

He reached for his saber without thinking.

But his hand had barely touched the hilt when Eunuch Quan’s two fingers came at him like a sword blade and struck his wrist quick as lightning.

Ning Chen’s arm went numb and lost all feeling.

At that moment Nie Liang came charging in with a company of guards of the imperial presence, taking up position in front of the dragon desk with their sabers drawn and pointed at Ning Chen.

Geng Jing’s face changed completely. “Eunuch Quan, stay your hand!” he said urgently.

The Xuan Emperor shook his head clear and came back to himself, and when he saw that Quan Sheng had Ning Chen pinned his face darkened at once. “Quan Sheng. What are you doing?”

“Your Majesty, are you unhurt?”

“This emperor is fine. Let go of him at once!”

“Yes!” Eunuch Quan said hurriedly.

With that, he released the whisk.

Ning Chen sagged to the floor, pulling in great mouthfuls of clean air — too fast, so that he broke into a violent cough that left tears streaming down his face.

Geng Jing hurried to help him up. “Are you all right?”

Ning Chen rubbed his neck and roared, “Damn it, you rotten eunuch… I’ll cut you to pieces!”

Feeling had come back into Ning Chen’s arm, and he reached for his saber — only for Geng Jing to slap his hand back down.

“Don’t be a fool!”

The Inspectorate holds the privilege of coming before the throne armed, but the blade is there to protect His Majesty… Draw it in the imperial presence and start trouble, and Nie Liang and his men are not there for decoration.

“Don’t hold me back. I’m going to cut this rotten eunuch down.”

He was shocked and furious at once. I never saw it coming. This rotten eunuch, this shrill one, this half-man with the rotten ass… he’s a real fighter?

Geng Jing kept his hand pinned. “Calm down. Draw a blade in the imperial presence and nobody on earth can save you.”

Nie Liang stood there blankly. They had heard a sound like a thunderclap, and then they had heard Eunuch Quan calling for the Emperor to be protected, and they had come charging in… and nobody had bothered to explain to him what was going on.

Was Ning Chen trying to harm His Majesty?

“Eunuch Quan. What exactly has happened here?”

Quan Sheng said, “Ning Chen was holding a strange object and very nearly injured His Majesty.”

Only now had the Xuan Emperor recovered. He rubbed his temples, and seeing the state Ning Chen had worked himself into, said, “Ning Chen, that’s enough of that. And don’t hold it against Quan Sheng. That musket of yours does make a genuinely frightening noise.”

“You’re not hurt? Shall this emperor send for a physician to look you over?”

Ning Chen forced down the anger in his chest and pulled a very injured face. “Your Majesty, your subject’s neck may be broken. Your subject is afraid he won’t be able to go to the border.”

The Xuan Emperor snorted. “A broken neck. That will want proper convalescence… Suppose this emperor permits you two months of recovery at the courtesans’ quarter. How would that do?”

The corner of Ning Chen’s mouth twitched. He knew the Xuan Emperor was needling him.

But he said, all gratitude, “Thank you, Your Majesty!”

The Xuan Emperor set his face and said sourly, “You’d actually take it?”

“Let’s do this instead… the courtesans’ quarter is a mixed crowd, and no place to mend in. The Inspectorate’s cells are quieter… This emperor grants you three months of quiet recovery in the Inspectorate’s cells.”

“Geng Jing. Take him down and see that he convalesces properly!”

Ning Chen was struck stupid.

He had been into the Inspectorate’s cells twice already in this stretch of time, and had no desire whatsoever to go in a third time.

Geng Jing accepted the order. “Your subject obeys!”

“Ning Chen. Let’s go.”

Ning Chen’s smile was worse to look at than crying. He suddenly rolled his neck around and said, all fawning, “Your Majesty, your subject was mistaken just now. There’s nothing wrong with your subject’s neck.”

The Xuan Emperor was privately delighted. He looked at him with something not quite a smile. “All better already? Test it again. What if it isn’t?”

“Your Majesty’s concern works better than any elixir of the immortals. Your subject really is better… not only has the neck stopped hurting, your subject is full of vigor from head to foot.”

Ning Chen’s whole face was one long lick of the boot.

The Xuan Emperor snorted, and his gaze fell on the wreckage of the apple on the table, and his eyes narrowed slightly.

“Nie Liang. You may all withdraw.”

“Yes!”

Nie Liang had come in with a blank face and went out with a blank face.

The Xuan Emperor rose, went to the table where the apple had been and had a look, then turned to Ning Chen with an admiration in his eyes that he could not quite hide.

“You cobbled this thing together yourself?”

Ning Chen nodded. “Yes!”

“Come here and let this emperor have a look.”

Ning Chen went over and offered up the musket in both hands.

The Xuan Emperor waved it away. “This emperor doesn’t want to see that. Lift your head. Let this emperor look at your neck.”

There were fine red lines all over Ning Chen’s neck, plain to see.

The Xuan Emperor’s face darkened. He looked at Eunuch Quan. “You dog. Handling him that hard — it’s worthless of you.”

Eunuch Quan dropped to his knees with a thud and said, terrified, “This servant acted in the heat of the moment. Forgive this servant, Your Majesty, I beg Your Majesty’s mercy…”

(End of Chapter 86)