Chapter 87: Back to Fengshui Bridge
Chapter 87: Back to Fengshui Bridge
Ding Songyan strolled unhurriedly toward the edge of the courtyard and said casually, "Those variations were responses I worked out for imagined opponents with different martial arts. They’re neither complete nor sequential. You don’t have my level of cultivation, and you have no experience fighting those corresponding enemies. If you memorize them and try to use them in a real fight, you’ll constantly be looking over your shoulder, hesitating, and unable to make decisions.
"What you need to understand is that the Iron Wound Fist’s punches and footwork were created by past masters who achieved true imperviousness. They may have anticipated that their successors’ hardening skills might not reach greater mastery, but they could never have anticipated every detail. That is precisely where you can make improvements that suit your current strength.
"If a sword is fast enough, there is no need for feints, but very few people can take speed to such an extreme. That is why all manner of complex techniques exist. The same principle applies to the Iron Wound Fist. First go from simple to complex, and once your hardening skills reach greater mastery, go from complex back to simple."
While at the Brightnight Sect, besides seeking guidance from Senior Brother Wan and Senior Sister Zheng, Ding Songyan also regularly sparred with dedicated martial-sampling disciples.
These fellow disciples had little hope of advancing far on the martial path themselves, and were unwilling to sell their souls for money out in the world, so they chose to stay in the sect. They practiced the combat techniques gathered in the scripture repository, giving the other disciples experience against various types of opponents such as those who used spears, fist-and-palm arts, whips, bronze maces, hammers large and small, blades long and short, hidden weapons, and arrows, before they set out to wander the jianghu.
With different true qi and different alien apertures, the martial-sampling disciples could bring out at most half of what the scripture repository’s arts were capable of, but for fellow sect members simply accumulating experience, that was enough.
Yang Shiduo listened attentively. After the turnaround within ten moves and the guidance just now, Ding Songyan had become in his mind a genuine, uniquely perceptive Grandmaster.
After lunch, the former Stone Pool Martial Hall disciple left the Ding residence and set off along the gray-white flagstones of Baoping Lane toward Dangkang Temple.
Compared to the helplessness and gloom of his first departure from Tianyang Hall, his steps were considerably lighter now. His mind was full of Ding Songyan’s words and the corrected Iron Wound Fist.
Yang Shiduo felt a baffling surge of emotions. Money at home was running low and his master could only help him forge a few more apertures. He was still practicing the unremarkable Iron Wound Fist, and yet the afternoon sunlight seemed considerably brighter to him.
It fell on the road ahead of him, paving a spread of gold.
......
Ding Songyan spent the entire afternoon and the time after dinner pondering and practicing the Seven Swords of Candlelit Night, the Southern Dipper Calamity-Averting Steps, and other advanced Brightnight Sect arts.
Ever since he conceived the idea of breaking down, reconstructing, and synthesizing all the martial arts in the world—building a grand Ding-style framework, creating an enhanced version of the Solitary Nine Swords—he had been unable to resist putting it into practice, and this would undoubtedly begin with the arts he knew best.
Unfortunately, his current cultivation level and his Manifesting the Way and its Virtue and Bringing All Things Into Unity uniqueness could not yet allow him to master arts like the Seven Swords of Candlelit Night in just a few days.
Without solid foundations, how could a towering tree grow?
Eventually, Ding Songyan refocused on mastering the Brightnight Sect’s arts. He was fully concentrated, earnest, and diligent, occasionally drifting into deep thought, so absorbed that he didn’t even notice when Xu Chang’an left.
This was the scene that greeted Zheng Zhuxi when she returned to the Ding residence and entered the second courtyard, having changed into a pale yellow dress with white trim.
Autumnwater in hand, she had only meant to glance over. She had no wish to talk to her junior brother and risk being teased again. But after just that one glance, she stopped.
That move Junior Brother just used is rather interesting...
After running through the Seven Swords of Candlelit Night several more times, Ding Songyan sheathed Frostshade and turned around, still deep in thought.
"Oh, Senior Sister, when did you get back?" Only then did he notice Zheng Zhuxi standing at the edge of the courtyard.
They were about 25 meters apart.
Zheng Zhuxi answered in a somewhat distracted tone, "A little while ago."
In her eyes, her junior brother’s Seven Swords of Candlelit Night still had many flaws and had not yet fully grasped the essence, yet certain things it revealed kept drawing her into deep thought.
"I thought you’d be spending the night at the yamen," Ding Songyan reined in his wandering thoughts and teased her with a smile.
After her drunken episode, their interactions had grown considerably more relaxed, and he had grown bolder with his teasing.
Zheng Zhuxi’s breath quickened slightly, chin tilting up.
"I have nothing to be ashamed of. Even drunk, all I did was practice my sword. Why would I stay at the yamen?"
Hmph. If I stayed at the yamen, it would look like I was terribly embarrassed about the whole drunken affair!
"Ah, what are you thinking? I only meant that you and Senior Sister Xue are close friends. Wouldn’t staying the night at the yamen to chat by candlelight be delightful?" Ding Songyan said, suppressing a smile.
This young lady is really too guileless. She walks right into every trap.
The Senior Sister Xue he referred to was Xue Xian, Tao Wenshu’s fourth disciple, only two years older than Zheng Zhuxi.
Zheng Zhuxi froze, lips quivering as her cheeks flushed with a thin red. For a moment she had the urge to fly into an embarrassed rage.
This person shows absolutely no respect for his senior sister!
Ding Songyan knew when to stop. He glanced at the star-filled night sky and pointed toward the front hall.
"Senior Sister, I’m heading out for a bit."
"Where to?" Seeing that Ding Songyan was done teasing her, Zheng Zhuxi reined in her feelings.
"Just a stroll to get some fresh air," Ding Songyan offered an entirely perfunctory excuse.
Zheng Zhuxi rolled her eyes and said with a smile, "Then I’ll come too."
You mocked me. Now I want to see just what you’re up to!
Ding Songyan gave an indifferent "mm" and headed out the gate first, with Zheng Zhuxi at his side, her dress swaying gently in the evening breeze.
With nothing better to do, Ding Songyan glanced sideways and made a joke.
"Senior Sister, aren’t you worried I might be heading to the pleasure quarter at North Lane?"
"What’s there to worry about?" Zheng Zhuxi tilted her chin slightly. "I’d actually like to see what you men get up to when surrounded by wine and women, and whether you make total fools of yourselves."
Note this down. Senior Sister Zheng talks tough, and will very likely fall for provocation tactics... Ding Songyan protested his innocence with serene composure.
"Senior Sister, how could you think such a thing? Even if I did go to North Lane, it would only be to the entertainment hall to watch plays and listen to storytelling. I’ve never had a single thought about surrounding myself with women and wine. Don’t go slandering an innocent man!"
He had been about to add "unless it’s you who wants to go," but fearing that would make Senior Sister Zheng flare up on the spot, he thought better of it.
Zheng Zhuxi realized she had walked into another trap and was instantly furious, but she couldn’t let it show entirely. That would make her look foolish for falling so easily into his snares, and overly worked up to boot.
Heavens above, in twenty years of life, no one had ever toyed with her like this. Every sentence of his was a hundred layers deep. She had absolutely no defenses against it!
She ground her teeth.
"Junior Brother Ding, when we return to the mountain tomorrow, I’ll give you a thorough lesson in swordsmanship."
"Nothing I’d welcome more," Ding Songyan replied with a bright smile.
Put in the effort, Senior Sister Zheng. Help me master the Seven Swords of Candlelit Night within a month.
And the more you get tricked by me, the less you’ll be tricked by others when you wander the jianghu.
Seeing his expression, Zheng Zhuxi fell silent, a blank look coming over her.
Have I walked into another trap?
By the time they reached Chengyu Lane, Zheng Zhuxi had settled her feelings and asked in puzzlement, "Junior Brother, do you have a particular fondness for this area?"
"Not exactly." Ding Songyan shook his head, quietly sealed off the surrounding space, and said, "Senior Sister, do you remember how Yan Changqing was obliterated?"
"He was annihilated by the nether-lightning of the underworld." Zheng Zhuxi hadn’t been there at the time, but she had heard this detail from her mother and her junior brother.
Ding Songyan’s expression turned serious.
"Master and I suspected from this that whoever was behind everything has the ability to harness the underworld. Last night, when I went to find Qu Zhongheng to have Frostshade engraved, I thought of this and specifically asked whether he had noticed any anomalies in the underworld during that period.
"He told me that when he opened his yin eye at night during that period, he found the wandering souls in the underworld unusually restless—similar to when the Ghost Gates open—so it had left an impression on him. He also said that those souls kept gathering around Fengshui Bridge. And I remember that when I walked this stretch of road from Chengyu Lane to Fengshui Bridge late at night, it always felt unusually cool."
"You’re looking for clues?" Zheng Zhuxi understood at once.
She didn’t ask why he had walked from Chengyu Lane to Fengshui Bridge at the time. Based on what she had since learned, she believed her junior brother had been accompanying Su Qingli on that stretch, with Su Qingli’s presence concealed by Su Chongxiao’s Great Void Illusory Realm.
"With the yin eyes combined with the Celestial Heart, I don’t know if they’ll turn up anything." Ding Songyan sighed. "Unfortunately, it’s been too long."
He was a little vexed at himself for not making the connection sooner.
As he spoke, he opened his yin eyes and, drawing on the Presence-Absence Myriad Forms Qi’s derivation, entered the Celestial Heart state.
He saw the underworld once more—filled with souls endlessly drifting until they dissolved entirely.
Unlike what he had seen before, the number of nether entities in this area had clearly diminished considerably.
Beyond that, Ding Songyan also saw the flow of dark-green yin energy, saw the nether-lightning brewing in the depths of midair, saw the howling nether-wind and the scattered sparks of nether-fire dotting the smoky darkness...
He walked slowly forward, focused on sensing and discerning everything around him. Zheng Zhuxi did not disturb him, and kept Autumnwater in hand, guarding against any unexpected trouble.
Thus Ding Songyan walked from Chengyu Lane all the way to Fengshui Bridge, and found that whether in the mortal world or the underworld, the flow of heaven and earth’s qi showed nothing unusual. There were no clues worth pursuing anywhere along the way.
"Times have changed..." he said with a sigh.
Zheng Zhuxi turned to look and saw that her junior brother’s eyes were dark and deep, with shadowy shifting shapes within, as though concealing an entire world.
Is this what the Celestial Heart looks like from the outside? the young woman mused.
She asked with concern, "Nothing at all?"
"Nothing." Ding Songyan exited the Celestial Heart state.
Walking the whole way like that had taken quite a toll.
Zheng Zhuxi thought for a moment, pressed her lips together, and said, "It’s been over a month. Whoever is behind this is certainly not careless. They wouldn’t have left anything behind..."
Mid-thought, Zheng Zhuxi’s eyes suddenly lit up, her gaze bright as though reflecting the stars above.
"If those behind it really were frequenting this stretch of road during that period and causing changes to the underworld, I may have a way to find some clues."
Ding Songyan stared at his senior sister in surprise.
Zheng Zhuxi smiled and said, "Let’s go to the county yamen and the prefectural yamen and search the records. We look for whether any unusual incidents requiring official reporting occurred on this stretch of road during that period!"