Radiant Blade of the Wilderness

Chapter 35: The Netherworld

Ding Songyan acted on the thought immediately, attempting it near Fengshui Bridge.

This way, if something went wrong or caused a commotion, there were constables and Brightnight Sect disciples patrolling on the other side. When they came to deal with it, ideally they would take him in as well, lock him up, and examine him thoroughly for anything unusual.

With his back to the lantern-bright night market on Fengshui Bridge, Ding Songyan finished the candied hawthorn in a few bites, held his breath, focused his mind, and attempted to move the hazy ”seed” in his sea of consciousness toward his eyes.

The ”seed” had barely reached the middle of his brows or split in two to enter both eyes and manifest its illusion-piercing power, when the scene before him began to shift.

Mist rose, like smoky dreams, merging with the darkness. The surrounding buildings receded into isolated islands, plainly within arm’s reach yet somehow visible only from afar.

The night grew deeper still. Within the black fog, figures swayed past, drifting without purpose. Some in ragged clothes, some in armor bearing weapons, some with mangled flesh, some missing limbs, some grotesquely shaped, some barely human at all...

Silent lightning flashed, illuminating everything in sickly green, revealing the vast emptiness in the distance, the boundlessness, and the black peaks standing in the depths of shadow.

It actually works...

Just bringing the ’seed’ close, without even activating its power, is enough to trigger my yin eyes... For the ten-thousandth time, Master Yan’s qi is incredibly useful. It doesn’t even cost a use to strengthen my ability. I really do want to learn his art. If only he weren’t so treacherous. If only he’d hurry up and die...

Ding Songyan was pleasantly surprised, but he also sighed.

He studied the scene carefully and found it strangely familiar.

It seemed to be what he had vaguely sensed in his ”dream” before waking in this body of Ding Songyan’s.

Smoke-like darkness, blurred figures, ghostly green lightning, an empty wasteland...

Wait. Before I took over this body, I wandered through this world’s netherworld for a time? The transmigration wasn’t instantaneous? Ding Songyan was shocked, but also intensely curious.

Being someone with a scholarly spirit, his only thought was: What’s the mechanism behind this?

He focused, observing his surroundings while comparing them against what he remembered from that experience.

There are several black stone pillars beside me. Similar ones stand in the distance in various directions of the netherworld... I didn’t notice them when I was wandering through the underworld, but back then I couldn’t see far or clearly. My awareness was foggy and my thoughts muddled...

The bone-piercing cold wind isn’t present now. That makes sense. I’ve only opened my yin eyes. It’s purely visual, with no other sensations...

Likewise, the feeling of darkness wrapping around me like a curtain is absent...

Ding Songyan gazed at the semi-real, semi-illusory black pillars just steps away. He approached cautiously and reached out his hand toward the small, weathered-looking holes dotting the stone surface.

His palm passed through the black pillar. It also passed through a ghost drifting by. He touched nothing.

The divide between yin and yang... Ding Songyan sighed.

Then a new idea struck him.

Since my soul had wandered through this world’s netherworld for a time, leaving me with unstable yin-yang eyes even after occupying this body, could it be that my eyes are not the only part that’s special? Could other parts of my body have been affected too?

After all, what entered the underworld was not just my ”eyes” but my soul as a whole.

And since Yan Changqing’s qi can stabilize and trigger my yin eyes via mere proximity without being consumed, then in this state, if I moved the ”seed” to my hand, might my palm undergo a corresponding change?

Ding Songyan slowly transferred the hazy ”seed” from his brow toward his arm. During the process, his yin eyes remained stable and did not fade.

In just a dozen breaths, the hazy ”seed” arrived at his palm.

Suddenly, Ding Songyan felt bone-piercing cold.

Waves of sinister wind blew against his palm, making his blood feel as though it were freezing, his skin as though it were eroding.

Ding Songyan raised his arm and tried reaching forward again.

Through the heavy chains of deep darkness, he touched something cold and gloomy. It was the armor of a passing ghost.

His palm continued forward and made contact with one of the black stone pillars, touching one of the ear-sized ”weathered” holes that nearly pierced through.

So it really works... Ding Songyan felt the pillar’s cold roughness while watching ghost after ghost pass through the parts of his arm where no ”seed”-activated ability existed.

Occasionally they bumped into his palm, were knocked off course, circled around, and continued on.

Ding Songyan withdrew his hand and, having a spirit of experimentation, took a copper coin from his money pouch.

A five-valued coin? Without thinking, he instinctively swapped the five-valued Xingping coin for a one-valued Jianwu coin.

Gripping the Jianwu coin tightly, he tried bringing it close to the black stone pillar.

The cold wind passed through the back of his hand and flew from his palm. Whether it penetrated the coin, he could not tell.

Ding Songyan carefully placed the Jianwu coin into one of the weathered holes, then slowly withdrew his hand with great curiosity.

The one-value piece did not lose its support or fall to the ground; instead, it remained firmly lodged in the hole within the pillar.

Interesting...

Through my hand, it really entered the netherworld?

It turned into an yin-yang coin?

Ding Songyan pulled back his hand and waited patiently, observing for any subsequent changes.

Not long after the night watchman’s drum sounded, his vision began to waver.

The netherworld landscape and those frightening ghost figures vanished rapidly. The surrounding buildings and lanes shed their smoke-like mist.

Without Yan Changqing’s qi to trigger it, my yin eyes can’t be maintained indefinitely. But they can stay stable for a while, about the time it takes to drink a cup of tea. That’s fine too. Keeping yin eyes permanently active would certainly be dangerous. I wouldn’t dare go out at night... As Ding Songyan analyzed the situation, he turned his gaze to the ground beneath the bright moonlight.

It was empty. Nothing but dust.

Ding Songyan’s Jianwu coin had completely vanished.

It really was sent into the underworld... After checking his money pouch and counting his coins to confirm one Jianwu coin was indeed missing, Ding Songyan murmured to himself with a mixture of excitement and bewilderment.

He felt that if he ever ran out of work in the future, he could open a ”Heaven and Earth Bank” specializing in sending items to deceased relatives and friends in the underworld.

Of course, the premise was that Yan Changqing would be thoroughly dead by then, yet the qi could still be used, or that Ding Songyan himself had cultivated similar qi.

Since no uses of the qi had been consumed, Ding Songyan experimented repeatedly, verifying numerous details. For instance, only when his yin eyes were active could moving the ”seed” to his palm allow him to touch ghosts and objects in the netherworld. If his yin eyes were not activated, moving the ”seed” to his palm was preparation for hurting enemies, not for connecting with the underworld.

After a good while, Ding Songyan rubbed his head. A throbbing ache told him that while the ”seed” had suffered little drain tonight, his own energy was considerably depleted.

He had to end his experiments despite his excitement. He had also retrieved the copper coin from the netherworld.

Its copper surface had taken on a ghastly green tinge, aged and corroded, as though it had been buried in some tomb for over a century.

Moreover, it now carried a faintly unreal quality, and the air around it was cold, as though a whisper of netherworld wind still clung to it.

No idea what use this might have... Ding Songyan pocketed the Jianwu coin, returned to Chengyu Lane, unlocked the door, went inside, and lay down on his bed.

His head felt hollow. He was so exhausted that he paradoxically could not fall asleep.

This forced him to think through certain questions.

What art does Yan Changqing actually cultivate? What is the nature of his qi? Why does it have so many wondrous uses? Why can it activate my yin eyes without consuming any power?

Sentences from his conversations with Yan Changqing flashed through his mind. Suddenly, he seized on something.

When explaining that the supreme art’s opening line was ”Man is supreme,” Yan Changqing had used several examples to illustrate humanity’s special nature.

Use body and mind well, resonate with heaven and earth, and you’ll be able to summon gods and command ghosts...

Resonate with heaven and earth, summon gods and command ghosts... The netherworld falls within the scope of ”heaven and earth.” Being able to sense it through resonance is perfectly logical. Especially with ”command ghosts” mentioned right after. No wonder... That palm strike I delivered at Stone Pool Martial Hall was also a form of resonance with heaven and earth—it called down lightning and catalyzed rain... Ding Songyan gained understanding, gradually deepening his grasp of Yan Changqing’s martial philosophy.

As he thought, his body and mind slowly relaxed, and he sank into deep sleep.

...

Another morning. Ding Songyan looked haggard, his spirit sluggish.

”Second Brother, you said you were going for a walk to cool off last night. Where exactly did you walk to?” Qingyan asked with both concern and a touch of teasing.

Bull was gnawing on a flatbread their mother had made. Hearing this, he glanced at Ding Songyan and asked in his rumbling voice, tinged with envy, ”Walked to the North Lane pleasure quarter?”

In an instant, both Liu Yuzao’s and Ding Shengyi’s gazes turned toward Ding Songyan.

My life isn’t easy. I have to accompany my ”benefactor” in the middle of the night. At least she only likes candied hawthorn and not wine. Otherwise I’d be coming home drunk too... Ding Songyan smiled wryly.

”I walked to Fengshui Bridge last night. There’s lots of good food there, and some street performers I know. I had a few drinks and some snacks with them. I shouldn’t walk that direction anymore. Too dangerous.” Ding Songyan recalled the various ”perils” of street food he used to encounter on his occasional late-night jogs in his previous life that defeated the reason for his jogs.

Liu Yuzao tersely acknowledged it.

”Did they pay? Remember to treat them back next time.”

Ding Songyan agreed. Ding Shengyi laughed and patted his shoulder, joking,

”Next time you walk to Fengshui Bridge, take your father along. I’d like a few evening drinks too...”

Seeing Liu Yuzao’s gaze turn toward him, his voice gradually trailed off.

Out of Chengyu Lane and at Dangkang Temple, Ding Songyan told his stories as usual, and Xiao Qing tipped her silver piece as usual.

This installment was thrilling—Xu Shilin fighting the tiger-yao, breaking through the illusion, destroying Yellow Brow, and finally obtaining the Kui Ox pearl to achieve greatness in a single step. The audience cheered again and again.

Around midday, just as Ding Songyan finished packing up his tools, Ren Youyang in his blue jacket and plain cap crept up, posing as a listener, and said in a suppressed voice, ”That group is following you again.”