Radiant Blade of the Wilderness

Chapter 90: Three Possibilities

”Scree!”

Hearing the sound Xie Zi’an’s lingering soul had imitated, Ding Songyan’s scalp prickled all at once, as though struck by lightning.

He had heard a birdcall like that before!

When he had wandered the underworld in a daze, with no awareness and only the faintest impression of his surroundings, it was a birdcall like this that had gradually led him back to his senses. He had followed the source of that sound, step by step back into the mortal world, back into a body!

At the time, he had also heard a similar birdcall from outside the ruined temple after he woke, and had instinctively assumed he had been ”awakened” by a sound from the mortal world. Looking back now, the birdcall in the underworld and the one outside the temple were almost certainly not the same. The former had been guiding him out of the underworld!

Had that birdcall come from the mysterious person lodging in Xie Zi’an’s home?

Ding Songyan’s thoughts surged beyond his control for a moment, enough to interrupt his questioning of Xie Zi’an’s lingering soul. Zheng Zhuxi was also briefly lost in thought, though her focus was on working out which sect or lineage was behind a birdcall connected to the underworld.

Seeing Xie Zi’an’s lingering soul growing ever more faint, Ding Songyan reined in his churning thoughts and asked in a low voice, ”Anything else unusual?”

Xie Zi’an’s lingering soul trembled as it answered, ”Nothing.”

Ding Songyan thought briefly and then asked, ”During that period, did you see an exceptionally beautiful young woman near your home, one who hadn’t yet come of age?”

”Yes. Young as she was, she had a fresh, delicate beauty, so she left a deep impression on me.” Xie Zi’an’s lingering soul shivered. ”I only saw her once. She passed by my door heading toward Fengshui Bridge.”

Demoness Ji had indeed sensed something... But she always wore a veiled hat when she went out. Why hadn’t she that day? Ding Songyan gave a silent nod and asked, ”How did you get in contact with Jing Fei, the World Scorcher Envoy of the Renewal Way?”

If there was a way to reach Jing Fei, and if it could be confirmed that he was not a Supreme Master, then it might be possible to invite his master and the sect’s Grandmasters to surround and capture him.

Xie Zi’an’s lingering soul shook its head.

”He always came to me. I have no idea where to find him.”

Cautious enough... Ding Songyan asked, mildly disappointed, ”When was the last time you saw Jing Fei?”

”June 27th. He paid me the remaining half of my fee—500 taels of silver.” Xie Zi’an’s lingering soul made no attempt to conceal it, nor was there any way of hiding it.

The day after Master Yan was destroyed by the nether-lightning... Ding Songyan followed the thread.

”When did the person in your west wing’s room leave for good?”

”Late on the night of June 26th, never to return. They never appeared again after that...” Xie Zi’an’s lingering soul grew increasingly anguished, its translucent green-tinged form slowly coming apart.

With his accomplished Great Proliferation Realm cultivation, his soul should normally have wandered for years or even decades before fully dissipating and, with the right circumstances, might even have become a fierce ghost persisting for far longer. But under the Banishing Demons and Warding Off Evil effect, it took only a short while before he was completely obliterated.

Zheng Zhuxi turned her head upon hearing the soul’s final wail, and said to Ding Songyan after a moment’s thought, ”The Renewal Way has no ability to traverse the underworld.”

True, the Renewal Way’s foundational art is Renewing All Things... He recalled that the Flame Emperor’s description was: ”Purifies evil, discerns all things, the Emperor of the South commanding summer, renews all things, fire virtue fills heaven and earth.” Arts from that lineage can only dissolve souls and incinerate the underworld—they can’t serve as a guide to the Yellow Springs. Even if the Renewal Way had gathered arts that touched on the underworld, they should not be capable of bringing me back to the mortal world or calling down nether-lightning to destroy Yan Changqing’s lingering soul. Power on that level has to come from a corresponding top-tier faction... Ding Songyan gave a terse reply and said, ”So the person who was lodging here has no direct connection to the Renewal Way? The Renewal Way only provided some support?

”This affair is turning out to be rather complicated. Many parties are involved.”

It feels like several of the Twenty-One Heretical Ways were acting in concert...

”That’s only natural given the scale of what’s at stake,” Zheng Zhuxi said, unsurprised.

When the whereabouts of the lost Kunlun and the treasures of the Celestial Thearch’s palace were at stake, she wouldn’t have been surprised even if all Twenty-One Heretical Ways were involved.

Ding Songyan paced a couple of steps toward the doorway and said, deep in thought, ”The person lodging here and the one who called down the nether-lightning to obliterate Yan Changqing’s lingering soul are very likely not the same person.”

”Uh...” Zheng Zhuxi’s clear eyes filled with surprise.

Not the same person?

Ding Songyan spoke slowly.

”According to Master, the one who called down the nether-lightning was at least a Supreme Master at the Heaven-Man Realm. A Supreme Master can conceal their physical anomalies and pass through the prefecture freely with a little disguise, without anyone recognizing them.

”The best way to hide a drop of water is to put it in a river, a lake, or the sea. A Supreme Master can blend in among ordinary people, so why the secrecy? Why go to the trouble of lodging in Xie Zi’an’s home?

”Think about it, Senior Sister. If the anomaly had been centered on an inn, with simple register entries or even gaps in the records, would we have been able to identify which ’ordinary person’ was the problem? Would we have been able to trace it back to the Renewal Way at all?”

”You’re right.” Zheng Zhuxi’s brow furrowed slightly. ”Two separate groups?”

If it weren’t two separate groups, she couldn’t understand why, with someone capable of calling down nether-lightning already involved, they would send another person of a similar nature to hide in Xie Zi’an’s home.

That isn’t necessarily the case. Perhaps the person who called down the nether-lightning has arts that aren’t suited to guiding souls out of the underworld, while the one with the birdcall lacks the cultivation to call down nether-lightning from a distance and obliterate Yan Changqing’s lingering soul without a trace. Even if it were a single group, they didn’t seem to come from the same faction—similar to the relationship between Demoness Ji, Qiu Chen, and Li Zhi? Ding Songyan raised a hand to his chin.

”Hard to say. Could be two groups, could be one. Think of my ’family’ that came from all corners of the world, Senior Sister.”

The moment he gave that example, Zheng Zhuxi understood exactly what he meant.

Only one puzzlement remained for her.

”Then why send someone of insufficient cultivation to hide in Xie Zi’an’s home? Does their faction have no Supreme Master? Or was that person also expelled from their sect and recruited into this affair?”

”Both are possible.” Ding Songyan shifted course. ”Senior Sister, what arts are there that can traverse the underworld and involve divine avian creatures?”

He had his own ideas from the Secret Classic of Mountains and Seas, but wanted to see whether his senior sister had anything additional to offer.

Zheng Zhuxi’s lively eyes turned slightly as she recalled what she had been turning over.

”If we limit it to calls that sound like ’scree’ or close to it, there really aren’t many. I can only think of three lineages:

”First, the Chi Bird. The Three Perils Sect has the corresponding arts: the Scripture of Soothing Souls in the Dark Capital and the Chart of Forgetting Sorrow.

”Second, the Three Azure Birds. The primary lineage is in the Impermanence Sect—Azure Bird Divination and the Scripture of Impermanence. Oh, there are also two other sects, the Heaven-Conduit Sect and the Dark Bird Sect, who claim descent from the Three Azure Birds and cultivate the Heaven-Conduit Underworld-Entering Divine Art. But neither has a Supreme Master, and they’re only known in the Feng and Gan Kingdoms. I don’t know much about them.

”Third, the Nine Phoenixes, also called the Ghost Carriage. The Dark Capital Sect, one of the Upper Nine among the Twenty-One Heretical Ways, traces its origins to it. Their arts are the Nine Arts of the Dark Capital and the Blood Calamity Divine Art. The Dark Capital Sect’s leader, Zhou Chuqin, is also one of the four Sages of the unorthodox.”

As he listened to Zheng Zhuxi, the corresponding passages from the Secret Classic of Mountains and Seas rose in Ding Songyan’s mind.

”Nine Phoenixes: a deity with nine heads, human faces and a bird’s body. The result of consuming it? Overturns the underworld, gathers soul-qi, governs the Nine Prisons, commands nether-fire, and turns blood to calamity.

”Three Azure Birds: red head, black eyes, azure body. The result of consuming it? Connects heaven and earth, links to the underworld, hooks souls and seizes spirits, and prevents sinking into the Yellow Springs.

”Chi Bird: one head, three bodies, shaped like an owl. The result of consuming it? Dissolves the past, controls nether-wind, soothes souls and guards spirits, and guides through the underworld.”

Going by the descriptions of their properties, any of them could be the one... The Dark Capital Sect is one of the Upper Nine with a Sage at its helm. The Impermanence Sect is one of the nine great sects in the world. The Three Perils Sect is also a top-tier faction with a Supreme Master, based in the Feng Kingdom... Ding Songyan ruminated over and over and could not rule out any of them.

”The call sounds like a bird, but it needn’t be a bird,” Zheng Zhuxi reminded him.

Ding Songyan hadn’t fully memorized the Secret Classic of Mountains and Seas to the point of remembering every creature’s call, so he simply nodded.

”I’ll look through the texts when we’re back at the sect.”

Seeing her junior brother had nothing more to ask, Zheng Zhuxi continued, ”Jing Fei is likely a first-rank Grandmaster at the Spirit Resonated level. He’s listed in the Nine Prisons Ranking under the seventh prison, the Malevolent God Prison.”

As she spoke, she turned her gaze toward Xie Zi’an’s body lying right beside her, and asked carefully, ”Report everything truthfully to the yamen?”

The Zhen estate affair had taught her a lesson. Even though today’s matter didn’t seem to require hiding anything, she instinctively sought her junior brother’s opinion.

His mind was quick and he was good at adapting, capable of catching anything she missed!

Ding Songyan went over the whole matter and said, ”Okay.”

His asking Qu Zhongheng about the matter of Yan Changqing being destroyed by nether-lightning, then connecting it to the strange coolness he had once felt gave him a perfectly convincing and legitimate explanation on the surface.

In the subsequent investigation, the Celestial Heart had played no role. The main gains came from searching the records and bluffing Xie Zi’an, so there wasn’t anything that warranted suspicion.

As for what Xie Zi’an had confessed, all of it could be passed on to the imperial court. They had sufficient strength to pursue the Renewal Way and the three factions connected to the underworld birdcall.

Having answered Zheng Zhuxi’s question, Ding Songyan turned to look at Xie Zi’an’s body sprawled across the threshold in a pool of blood, and said with a coaxing smile, ”Senior Sister...”

Zheng Zhuxi’s expression shifted slightly. She looked at the body in silence for a moment, then said flatly, ”Yes, I killed him.”

......

After informing Senior Sister Xue Xian and reporting to the county yamen, Zheng Zhuxi led her junior brother silently back toward Baoping Lane, through gaze after gaze of shock, admiration, and bewilderment.

”Junior Brother...” Amid the night breeze, she glanced sideways at Ding Songyan, wanting to ask something, but ultimately said nothing.

Senior Sister really does consider other people’s feelings. She respects my secrets... Ding Songyan smiled and said, unprompted, ”Master won’t let me discuss the specifics, but if you’ve figured something out, Senior Sister, I won’t deny it.”

Zheng Zhuxi’s expression gradually softened, and she gave a helpless laugh.

”Something you gained from the Zhen estate affair?”

”Yes.” As he had said, Ding Songyan offered no denial.

”Just how formidable are you now?” Zheng Zhuxi’s dimples showed, her curiosity obvious.

Ding Songyan glanced at the young woman and said with a grin, ”More than a match for you, at any rate.”

”...” Zheng Zhuxi immediately thought of the drunken episode the previous night.

Alternating between silence and conversation, they made their way through the bustling, lantern-bright night market of the prefecture and arrived back at the Ding residence on Baoping Lane.

Zheng Zhuxi had taken a few steps toward the east wing when she suddenly turned back with a smile.

”Junior Brother, you may be full of lies, your words may be overblown, and you may be hiding plenty of secrets, but you are, without question, a man of integrity.”

She pressed her lips together, dimples faint, a teasing look on her face.

Without waiting for Ding Songyan to respond, she turned and stepped lightly into the east wing.