Radiant Blade of the Wilderness

Chapter 262: Playing the Social Game

Twelfth Madam Luo knew Ding Songyan’s background and understood his confusion. She said in a soft voice, ”The Body-and-Will Heterodox Sect created the Nine Realms on its own, based on Buddhist teachings.

”They hold that the six paths of rebirth aren’t about the cycle of souls but about the cycle of desires and experiences in the human world: the ignorance and suffering of the Animal Realm, the combativeness, impulsiveness, and reckless courage of the Asura Realm, the insatiable greed of the Hungry Ghost Realm, the many agonies of the Hell Realm, the burdens of feeling in the Human Realm, and the vain pleasures of the Heavenly Realm. All these are things that living beings encounter again and again. One may be in the Human Realm yesterday and fall into Hell today.

”Above these six realms is the Form Realm, where desires have been shed but the physical form has not, and so there is still hindrance. Above the Form Realm is the Formless Realm, where body and form are a false aggregation, and as long as there is aggregation, there are shadows of form, so it is not complete transcendence. Above the Formless Realm is the Pure Realm, also called the Nirvana Realm.

”The brilliant Arhat Shenhui of old created the Buddha-Spoken Nine Realms teaching, but his own Nine Realms True Words reached only the Form Realm. It wasn’t limited by the heaven-earth severance, but a conflict between the art and the Buddhist teaching. The sect speaks of ’body and will as one,’ while the Formless Realm requires the body and form to be a false aggregation. How could a monk who cultivated ’body and will as one’ his whole life see through that?

”The last two realms were derived by force by Arhat Shenhui from deep Buddhist knowledge and the ideas and martial arts of other Buddhist schools. No monk of the sect has ever mastered them.”

Elevating three realms that truly exist into more metaphysical ones, resulting in nine realms? Ding Songyan roughly understood the Body-and-Will Heterodox Sect’s situation.

On one side was the indestructible body, on the other the will roaming the nine realms, the latter leaning toward spirit and mind.

Fighting them meant finding a way to break through a defense impervious to blades and spears while guarding against injury to one’s spirit, loss of mind into ”reincarnation,” a flaw planted in the mind, or a mental collapse.

It was like Ding Songyan’s fight with Sun Feiyang: after his surprise attack failed, he immediately switched to the Dream Sword to plant a mental weakness in him.

From the opponent’s point of view, this style of fighting is quite irritating... But it’s different when I use it myself... Ding Songyan thought.

Twelfth Madam Luo drew a breath of the icy winter night wind and smiled.

”I don’t know much about Buddhism. This is just my own view, for reference only.”

”Just learning what the ’Nine Realms’ are helps me enormously,” Ding Songyan thanked her sincerely.

He then asked, ”Are the martial arts derived from the Buddha-Spoken Nine Realms Sutra and the Wondrous Dharma Arising and Ceasing Sutra the Nine Realms True Words and the Great Impermanence Seal?”

”There’s also the Vajra Bodhi Art. If a lay disciple cultivating the Immaculate Divine Art is recognized, this is what they switch to. It’s also the sect’s best art for subduing demons and eliminating evil.”

The Nine Realms True Words are mainly about ”roaming the nine realms,” and the Great Impermanence Seal comes from ”raising wind and clouds,” meaning the impermanence of shifting wind and clouds? What does the Vajra Bodhi Art correspond to? Besides ”expelling evil spirits,” there must also be ”ward off weapons” evolved into the indestructible vajra... Was this adding traits to Jiang Yi? ”Wielding strange rain” shows nowhere, so was it dropped in the sublimation and improvement? Or did the original legacy never have it... Ding Songyan combined the Secret Classic of Mountains and Seas’s description of the deity Jiang Yi and pondered the sect’s martial arts carefully.

He suddenly felt a wave of feeling.

The Secret Classic of Mountains and Seas is truly important and precious, but I can’t depend on it. It’s something outdated from before the heaven-earth severance. In the Great Wilderness, martial arts have developed and changed over thousands of years, and in many places they’ve gone beyond what it records.

Generations of brilliant martial artists haven’t just repeated their predecessors’ paths.

And ideas and understandings from Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism have greatly driven the evolution of martial arts.

Then what are my ideas and understandings? Ding Songyan had given some thought to such matters when his master’s husband explained the origin of the Scripture of Utmost Sincerity, and now he grasped the key point more clearly.

Twelfth Madam Luo looked up at the star-dotted night sky and did not disturb the fellow across from her in his reverie.

After a while, Ding Songyan asked, ”How strong is Monk Fumo, the abbot of Shilin Temple?”

According to what Liu Cheng had found out, Monk Fumo was a veteran Dharma Realm master and the strongest of Shilin Temple’s Grandmasters.

The orthodox side had no ranking like the Nine Hells Ranking, so Ding Songyan had no way to gauge his exact level.

He didn’t want to provoke the Body-and-Will Heterodox Sect, but he had to be ready to be noticed by Monk Fumo and other eminent monks and have to hold them off for a while.

Twelfth Madam Luo thought and said, ”On par with Evil Beyond Measure Sun Feiyang. He cultivates the Vajra Bodhi Art and the Nine Realms True Words as a secondary, but he isn’t known for his Buddhist learning and hasn’t reached the Form Realm.

”The Body-and-Will Heterodox Sect excels in consciousness. They can sense shifts in the qi of heaven and earth and detect the slightest stir, and they can manifest golden lotuses, Buddha images, and other phenomena from afar to suppress others’ minds. You need to be careful.”

I cultivated the first half of the Mystical Pass True-Nature Preservation Art. I wonder how my soul and consciousness compare to an eminent monk of the same realm in the Body-and-Will Heterodox Sect... Ding Songyan thanked Twelfth Madam for the reminder, deep in thought.

Since Monk Fumo and Evil Beyond Measure Sun Feiyang were comparable in strength, and Ding Songyan could not counter him, he was truly a formidable powerhouse. When Ding Songyan first entered the Flame Capital, he wouldn’t have thought he stood much chance. But he now had Manifesting the Way and its Virtue and had come into contact with many more arts, so his strength was growing day by day.

If he faced Sun Feiyang again now, even uninjured, Ding Songyan was confident he could kill him again with some countering, though he couldn’t do it as effortlessly and might not be capable of stopping him from fleeing for his life.

After asking a while longer about the Body-and-Will Heterodox Sect and Shilin Temple, Ding Songyan stood up, thanked her, and took his leave.

Twelfth Madam Luo sat upright, looked at him, and said with a leisurely smile, ”You’ve changed a bit.

”Before, you would have claimed credit right away, saying things like you were helping me kill Hu Chaohui.”

Ding Songyan smiled.

”That’s one of my aims, but it’s not worth showing off. I’ve received so many favors from you, Twelfth Madam. Whatever I can do on your behalf, I’ll do, with no need to say so. Even if you hadn’t planned to leave, I’d kill Hu Chaohui in passing when I leave the Flame Capital. But this time I’m mainly eyeing the reward Liu Cheng offered.”

”What is it?” Twelfth Madam Luo was a little curious, then added, ”You don’t have to say if you don’t want to.”

”A fruit of the li tree.” Ding Songyan did not hide it.

Twelfth Madam Luo nodded slowly.

”That really is useful to you.”

Ding Songyan thought for a moment and asked, ”Luckily I came to ask you today, Twelfth Madam, or I could well have suffered badly at the Body-and-Will Heterodox Sect.

”I also came with one more thought: to let you know that I’m not in cahoots with a low-rung gang and am willing to offend the Body-and-Will Heterodox Sect.”

Twelfth Madam Luo stood up, looked into Ding Songyan’s eyes, and asked thoughtfully, ”If you hadn’t met me and hadn’t been asked by Liu Cheng, and hadn’t been tempted by the divine item, would you go kill Hu Chaohui?”

Ding Songyan thought for a moment.

”If I ran into the Sea-Treading Gang doing evil and the Chengtian Prefecture couldn’t or wouldn’t convict him, I would go kill him.

”If I hadn’t met them, perhaps I’d have let it go.”

Twelfth Madam Luo listened quietly, then suddenly smiled charmingly.

”No need to be so careful. Everyone has their own Way, and I wouldn’t force you to do anything. That isn’t my Way.

”Mm, you’re fairly honest, with no pretense.”

With that, the shopkeeper sighed.

”I’m the same now: if I run into it, I deal with it, and if I don’t, so be it.”

”And when you don’t, you chop firewood, read, practice calligraphy, paint, drink tea, and do crafts,” Ding Songyan added with a smile on her behalf.

He did not linger, turned, and walked out of the side courtyard.

...

The next afternoon.

Ding Songyan met Liu Cheng on the second floor of the Silver Hook Gambling House.

”Brother Ding, have you decided?” Liu Cheng could not read the answer from Ding Songyan’s face.

Ding Songyan held Frostshade and said with a smile, ”Hu Chaohui couldn’t let go of those dirty jobs. He got what he deserved, and his death is no loss.

”I hope, Brother Liu, you never have such a day.”

Seeing that Brother Ding had agreed, Liu Cheng beamed and thanked him repeatedly.

”When do you plan to act?” Ding Songyan asked calmly.

Liu Cheng turned grave.

”Tonight.”

”Fine.” Ding Songyan thought and said, ”But you must confirm Hu Chaohui’s whereabouts tonight, where the eminent monks of Shilin Temple are, and whether you can really kill Hu Chaohui.”

Liu Cheng nodded solemnly.

He was actually quite surprised that Brother Ding hadn’t even asked about the li fruit.

Was it truly out of chivalry and loyalty to a friend?

Since Ding Songyan didn’t ask, Liu Cheng couldn’t fail to mention it. He said with a smile, ”Wait a moment, Brother Ding. I’ll fetch the li fruit for you to see.”

Ding Songyan nodded lightly without refusing.

He didn’t ask about it because he was confident.

If Liu Cheng dared to cheat him on this, he would follow in his godfather’s footsteps.

Before long, Liu Cheng returned with a dark palm-sized box.

Inside lay a yellow-brown fruit the size of a grape, with a wrinkled shell like a little bell and green spots in many places.

It resembled the chinaberry fruit, but that one was poisonous.

”The shell has green spots and the pit looks like a walnut. That’s how to tell it apart.” Liu Cheng handed the li fruit to Ding Songyan.

”What’s this?” Ding Songyan asked, amused.

Liu Cheng answered earnestly, ”Please eat it, Brother Ding.”

”Haven’t I not killed Hu Chaohui yet?” Ding Songyan said with a half smile.

Liu Cheng explained frankly, ”I always meant to give you this li fruit whether or not it succeeded, as long as you agreed to help. It’s just a little earlier now, and you always keep your word and would never go back on a promise.

”Besides, eating the li fruit first would also help you, Brother Ding. You’d be even stronger, and tonight’s operation would naturally go more smoothly.”

This Liu Cheng really knows how to play the social game... He knows when to advance and retreat, understands gain and loss, grasps advantage and risk... Ding Songyan silently praised him.

Though he could see the other’s scheming, as Twelfth Madam had said, anyone who wanted something schemed. What mattered was whether it was appropriate.

A smile appeared on Ding Songyan’s face as he took the li fruit.

”Brother Liu, you are trustworthy and righteous.”

Without any hesitation, he ate the li fruit in front of Liu Cheng, shell and all.

His Presence-Absence Myriad Forms Qi was ready, so that at the first sign of poisoning he could instantly unify the medicinal power.

Not long after the li fruit entered his stomach, Ding Songyan felt a trace of coolness seep into his mind and into his soul.

Soon his vision became unusually clear. With full concentration, everything he saw was reflected in his sea of consciousness, not a bit off, not a hair faded.