459 Yellow Leaves and the White Chess Piece (2/2)

Xia Hou looked at him and coldly said, ”I have already said, you can't touch me. And since I am not in a good mood, you have to care about that. That's because if you make me angry, I can crush you like an ant. I advise you to keep me in a good mood in the days before I leave Chang'an.”

Ning Que shook his head, ”I can't think how you're going to crush me.”

”I can do it anytime in this garden.”

Xia Hou said expressionlessly, ”Mr. Thirteen of the Academy wanted to assassinate the general, but failed miserably and was crushed into bits by the general.”

Ning Que drank the tepid tea and smiled, ”Crush me... General, if you do that, your mansion and your family whom you're sending back home would be crushed by teacher.”

There was only one person in the Tang Empire who could silence Xia Hou. It was never the Emperor, but the Headmaster of the Academy.

Xia Hou looked at him and said, ”Just as you have said previously, I do not dare to touch you. You cannot touch me, so I hold the upper hand. If you try anything before I leave Chang'an and do something that I cannot bear, I will try to touch you.”

Ning Que asked seriously, ”Is this a threat?”

Xia Hou said, ”I am teaching you, that having an influential background is useless before life and death. You can only trust your abilities.”

Ning Que looked at him and smiled. He said, ”Back then, Youngest Uncle had destroyed the Devil's Doctrine with a sword. General, you discovered then, that your influential background had disappeared with that. Is that why you turned your back on your sect and joined the West-Hill? It is different for me. The Headmaster is not Lotus, and the Academy isn't the Devil's Doctrine either. General, you may rest assured.”

Ning Que's words had shed light on Xia Hou's deepest and darkest secrets. It was like slapping him in the face. General Xia Hou's face flushed.

It wasn't because he was drunk.

He had drunk tea tonight.

General Xia Hou's face was flushed with anger.

Ning Que had dared to mock him because he knew that no matter how violent and blood-thirsty the general was, he would not dare to do anything to him because he came from the Academy.

Indeed, Xia Hou looked at him silently like he was a fallen leaf on the table. The red flush on his face subsided and he calmed himself down. He said, ”Please leave.”

Ning Que lightly shook off the leaves that had fallen onto his black Academy uniform. He did not bow or bade his farewells to Xia Hou. Instead, he straightened and left the garden.

The autumn breeze quietened and the leaves that had been pushed against the corner in a pile spread apart.

Xia Hou's sons walked into the garden and looked at their father silently. They wanted to speak, but changed their minds.

”It's nothing.”

Xia Hou said with an unreadable expression, ”A person who dares not acknowledge his family before the man who killed his father might be intelligent, calm and rational. But all of these qualities are meaningless.”

”I sat across him, but he dared not take revenge for his family. It is the greatest shame of all, and he knew that. That is why he felt so ashamed and used his words to shame me.”

”He came today to make himself feel better. But he only knew how to use his mouth and not his hands. How can a boy who lacks courage that is necessary to become a powerhouse be fit to be my enemy?”

...

...

General Xia Hou's inviting Ning Que to a banquet was an important event in Chang'an. Several bigwigs began to worry when Ning Que entered the General's Mansion. There were many spying on the event who then reported back to the palace and some other places.

No one knew what exactly happened at the banquet, but since Ning Que had left alive, nothing much must have happened. General Xia Hou did not attack, and nobody thought that it was possible for Ning Que to kill Xia Hou and walk out of the mansion without any trace of blood on him.

In the imperial study, the Emperor thought hard. In a hall not far away, the empress and Grand Secretary Zeng Jing looked at each other. General Xu Shi who had been waiting at the Military Ministry listened to the report and nodded. The old Minister of Offerings of Qinghe County at the censor's mansion felt a little regretful.

On the top floor of Wanyan Tower, Nation Master Li Qingshan stood by the stone windows and looked at the direction of the General's Mansion. He said, pleased, ”I have always been worried about Ning Que's character. It seems that he is indeed more concerned about the bigger picture now after studying under the Headmaster for so long. Senior Brother Yan Se was right to pass his mantle and the array eye onto him.”

Master Huang Yang smiled at him and did not say anything.

Li Qingshan walked away from the windows and to the desk. He pushed some Buddhist scriptures away and pulled out some black and white chess pieces and tossed them down casually.

He had not recovered from his injuries, but wanted to do something because of his good mood. His divination this time was casual, and he had no wish to peek into the secrets of heaven. He just wanted to see if he was lucky enough to sense something.

A clean white chess piece began to spin. It spun faster and faster until it left the table and fell onto the hard ground.

There was a loud clatter, and the white chess piece broke into two.

The break was clean as if it had been cleaved apart by a sharp sword.

Li Qingshan stared at the white chess piece in a daze. His expression grew grave.

Huang Yang frowned and said in surprise, ”That is a scary sword... could it be that Liu Bai has come to Chang'an?”