Chapter 221: The Arts Are Not Lightly Shared

Purple Cloud Mountain rose west of the Flame Capital, lush with greenery and threaded by murmuring streams. Here and there stood a temple or a Daoist sanctuary.

Legend had it that no mountain had stood here until shortly after the heaven-earth severance, when two mighty figures fought on this spot. Their clash convulsed the earth, diverted a great river, and thrust a peak more than a thousand meters into the sky.

With a large bamboo basket on his back, Ding Songyan followed Luo Mingyin in her brightly colored pleated skirt through the silent woods toward the summit.

This was the task Twelfth Madam Luo had for him: serving as her porter.

They had set out after lunch, but with their cultivation, they reached the open, desolate summit well before sunset. Bitter winds swept the heights. No yao, evil entities, or fierce beasts had troubled them along the way.

For one thing, these woods were close to the Flame Capital and kept safe by repeated sweeps from the army and the Martial Prohibition Bureau. For another, under Banishing Demons and Warding Off Evil, even a fierce beast with the faintest spiritual awareness would not dare approach, let alone a yao or an evil entity.

At the summit, Ding Songyan glanced at the golden-red sun sinking toward the horizon. He set down the basket and asked Twelfth Madam Luo with a smile, "If I hadn’t come to the wine shop today, would you have carried the basket up yourself, Twelfth Madam?"

"Otherwise?" Twelfth Madam Luo glanced at him. "I’m not some pampered young lady who never leaves her house."

Ding Songyan had only been making conversation. Seeing that Twelfth Madam Luo did not seem inclined to talk, he crouched and unpacked the basket. One by one, he set a tea stove, copper kettle, porcelain cups, earthenware jar, silver spoon, charcoal, fire starter, and several bamboo tubes of water on a rock beneath a green pine.

Twelfth Madam Luo gazed at the thin sea of clouds, slowly turning gold and red. Their colors shifted as the sun sank, while lower peaks emerged and vanished beneath them, draped in the sunset’s glow.

Ding Songyan took in the view as well, his mind gradually growing peaceful.

The sun was sinking fast. A blink seemed enough to bring it much closer to the horizon.

After watching in silence for a while, Twelfth Madam Luo returned to the pine and sat cross-legged on the ground, her bright pleated skirt covering her embroidered shoes. She put charcoal in the tea stove and kindled a red flame.

Ding Songyan gathered up his cyan robe and sat cross-legged opposite her, watching her unhurried preparations as she put the water on to boil.

While she waited, she used the silver spoon to scoop green tea leaves from the earthenware jar into a purple-clay teapot.

As strings of bubbles began to rise, Twelfth Madam Luo lifted the kettle and poured water into the teapot. She let the leaves steep briefly, then discarded this first infusion. Next, a slender waterfall streamed from the copper spout, coursing down the teapot’s inner wall and rising over the leaves.

Her movements had an easy, measured rhythm. Without realizing it, Ding Songyan fell under its spell. His thoughts settled, his body and mind grew still, and his worldly troubles slowly faded.

At some point, the tea’s delicate fragrance began to drift through the air.

Twelfth Madam Luo rinsed two porcelain cups with boiling water, then poured in the clear, pale yellow-green tea, stopping when each was seven-tenths full.

Without a word, she pushed one cup toward Ding Songyan.

He breathed in the fragrance, letting it cleanse his body and mind.

After a while, he lifted his cup. Twelfth Madam Luo picked up hers as well.

Only a final streak of golden red remained of the setting sun. The deep-blue sky still glowed, and the clouds blazed in shades of near-purple, orange, and brilliant red.

A glimmer of insight came to Ding Songyan. Twelfth Madam Luo, too, seemed to have shaken off her earlier melancholy. They raised their cups to each other and tasted the tea.

It was fresh, mellow, and clear, leaving a faint sweetness and a lingering fragrance that made the mouth water.

They savored the silence, neither speaking, drinking cup after cup until night fell and stars dotted the sky.

"Let’s head back." A hint of a smile came to Twelfth Madam Luo’s face.

Ding Songyan was stunned.

"Twelfth Madam, it’ll probably be late at night by the time we get back to Tiger Tail Alley, and we haven’t had dinner.

"Why didn’t you bring some food?"

A picnic or some cooking outdoors would have been nice too.

Twelfth Madam Luo paused, then answered without a trace of apology, "I forgot."

She quickly added, "At our level of cultivation, we can go days without eating. Why worry about one meal?"

"I’m a man of ordinary appetites." Ding Songyan stood and looked around. "Wait here a moment, Twelfth Madam. I’ll be right back."

Twelfth Madam Luo did not stop him. Once he had vanished into the woods, she drew closer to the pine and leaned against its trunk, gazing into the night sky.

Sky, stars, mountain, stone, tree, and woman formed a picture of quiet, unearthly beauty.

Some time later, she heard footsteps. Twelfth Madam Luo turned to see Ding Songyan returning with a brightly feathered pheasant in his hand.

With practiced ease, he used Frostshade to strip off its feathers and gut it.

"Didn’t you say you hadn’t properly set out into the jianghu yet?" Twelfth Madam Luo crouched beside him, watching with interest.

Ding Songyan glanced at her.

"Didn’t you grow up in a sect? Or wasn’t your sect in the mountains?"

"It was." Twelfth Madam Luo nodded slightly.

Ding Songyan said with an amused laugh,

"Then didn’t you go out into the mountains between practice sessions, hunt a little, cook outdoors?"

Twelfth Madam Luo pressed her lips together.

"I had plenty to learn besides martial arts, and no one took me out to do those things. Sometimes we hunted during archery lessons, but that was schoolwork."

Twelfth Madam, did you spend your whole childhood studying one thing after another? Ding Songyan murmured an acknowledgement.

"Senior Sister and I sometimes go down to Alpine Lake Town to wander around, listen to storytellers, watch plays, browse the stalls, and share something to eat. Other times we go into the old forest nearby, catch whatever hapless creature we find, and practice our cooking with what’s at hand..."

"You and your senior sister are very close." Twelfth Madam Luo had listened intently, and spoke with a touch of wistfulness.

"Of course." Ding Songyan made no attempt to deny it.

Twelfth Madam Luo was lost in thought for a moment before she spoke again.

"I did those things too, once I set out into the jianghu, but they weren’t as much fun as you make them sound. Only when I began tempering my heart in the mortal world did I slowly discover the pleasure in these little everyday things..."

"It’s not too late." Having cleaned the pheasant, Ding Songyan took a packet of salt and some fragrant plants from inside his robe.

"Where did that come from?" Twelfth Madam Luo pointed at the salt, a little startled.

Ding Songyan said with an amused laugh, "I bought it from the Daoist temple halfway up the mountain."

He might have found rock salt or something similar by following certain animals’ tracks, but that would have taken far too long. This was the outskirts of the Flame Capital, not some remote wilderness. A temple was much easier to find.

"Senior Sister and I have tried these. They make good seasonings." Ding Songyan pointed to the plants.

With Presence-Absence Myriad Forms Qi, he could play at being Shennong, tasting every herb he found, so long as he stayed clear of immortal plants and divine treasures.

Twelfth Madam Luo gathered the pheasant feathers, planning to make shuttlecocks or hair ornaments to sell at the market. As she worked, she watched Ding Songyan rub salt all over the bird and stuff the herbs into its belly. Then he used his true qi to stoke the little tea stove’s flames and contain the steam, fashioning an invisible oven through martial arts.

He skewered the pheasant on his longsword and slid it into the oven.

Gradually, a savory aroma began to escape.

Twelfth Madam Luo was now sitting cross-legged rather than crouching. She sniffed lightly.

"You seem to be quite a good cook."

"I only know a few dishes," Ding Songyan admitted honestly.

"That’s better than me. When I first set out into the jianghu, I could turn a roast into charcoal," Twelfth Madam Luo said, reminiscing.

Once the pheasant was cooked, Ding Songyan coated his hands in true qi, tore off a juicy leg, and offered it to Twelfth Madam Luo.

"Try it. They’re plump and tender in autumn, at their best. The rest of the year, the meat tends to be too tough and dry."

Twelfth Madam Luo took it with her hand similarly protected by true qi. She blew on it a few times and took a small bite.

"It is good. Just salt on the outside to bring out the meat’s own flavor, while the herbs infuse it from within. The taste lingers, and that lovely fragrance fills your mouth..."

They shared the pheasant between them. Ding Songyan noticed that, for all her fiery ways, Twelfth Madam Luo ate with delicate, refined manners.

Twelfth Madam Luo picked up the last bamboo tube of water and gave half to Ding Songyan. They each drank a few mouthfuls, then washed their hands and mouths.

As she dried herself with a handkerchief, Twelfth Madam Luo saw Ding Songyan wiping his mouth on his sleeve and could not help laughing.

"You certainly are free and unrestrained."

She leaned against the pine again, smiling at a memory.

"Still, I was in far worse shape than you when I met Daoist Mingyu.

"I’d spent three full years in the wilderness, moving from one remote mountain to another, and had only just returned to the mortal world. Daoist Mingyu, an Elder of Ditai, shared her campfire with me. She noticed how I’d changed and what I’d gained. She said our chance meeting showed an affinity between us, and taught me the Name and Reality Chapters of the Nine Canons.

"I know you want to learn, but I can’t teach you without Ditai’s permission.

"I’ve been watching you lately. You’re glib and full of schemes, but you’re no heretic. You have a chivalrous heart, keep your word, and see things through. I’m tempering my heart in the mortal world, and meeting you and getting to know you is a kind of affinity too. It was affinity that brought me the Nine Canons in the first place. Though I can’t teach them to you directly, I can offer you a little guidance."

Ding Songyan was taken aback.

This was what he had been hoping for, but he had never expected it to happen so soon.

Containing his delight and excitement, Ding Songyan chuckled.

"Twelfth Madam, you shouldn’t have brought that up just now. It makes me look far too calculating and spoils the mood."

Twelfth Madam Luo raised an eyebrow and sized him up.

"Most people just want to exploit, but for you, you get one and then play innocent!

"Well, in that case, I’ll take it back. No guidance for you!"

"Er..." Ding Songyan hurried to protest. "That’s not fair! I was only trying to lighten the mood. Twelfth Madam, your word is worth its weight in gold. You’d never go back on a promise."

"You’re the one who turned me down. Am I supposed to beg you to learn?" Twelfth Madam Luo stood with a rather smug smile. "The arts are not lightly shared. You’ll have to prove yourself a little longer."

As she spoke, she began strolling down the mountain.

Ding Songyan packed everything into the bamboo basket, hoisted it onto his back, and hurried after her, protesting his innocence all the way.

In truth, he felt no regret. Now that Twelfth Madam Luo had considered the idea and softened her stance, it was only a matter of time before she gave him guidance. He might as well make himself the butt of the joke for now, letting her tease him and enjoy her little victory.

See? She’s in a much better mood than she was on the way up.