Radiant Blade of the Wilderness

Chapter 271: Tracking

Cheng Yuping saw again the young man who had studied her at the Chengtian Prefecture yamen.

He had come to the Golden Orchid with the Sea-Treading Gang’s Young Boss, asking for her by name.

This puzzled Cheng Yuping. At the yamen, that man’s eyes on her had held no trace of impurity, only pure observation and appraisal. He was unlike most men, who after learning her identity, would look her over with at least a hint of desire.

Why would such a man still come to the pleasure boat to find her?

Sitting across the tea table, Ding Songyan, his eyes half open and half closed, said to Cheng Yuping with a smile, ”Courtesan Cheng, I hear you keep a cat?”

Cheng Yuping answered, thoroughly confused, ”Yes, its name is Zhouxue.”

”Where is it now?” Liu Cheng, though he didn’t understand why, cooperated well and followed up for Ding Songyan.

”After I was taken to the Chengtian Prefecture yamen, it ran ashore on its own and I don’t know where it went. I haven’t found it yet.” Cheng Yuping couldn’t see why the two across from her cared so much about her cat.

”When did you start keeping her?” Ding Songyan held his cup and looked down at the orange-red tea.

”I found it only a little while ago, about ten days...” Cheng Yuping estimated roughly.

That would be after the Celestial Thearch’s gaze fell on Hu Chaohui’s dream... Ding Songyan thought it over carefully.

Liu Cheng leaned to his ear and said, ”It was only a bit over ten days that my godfather had settled on a quiet retreat at Shilin Temple.”

So it was watching him even back then? Ding Songyan gazed lazily out the window at Golden Pool, feeling the biting wind, and said to Cheng Yuping, ”When you went to see Hu Chaohui at Shilin Temple, did you bring Zhouxue?”

”I did. Gang Leader Hu liked Zhouxue too.” Cheng Yuping did not hide it.

”Why did you take Zhouxue everywhere?” Ding Songyan closed his eyes as if savoring the winter air over the lake.

Cheng Yuhua was stunned for a moment.

”I just couldn’t bear to be without it. Wherever I went, I wanted to see it.

”But once it ran off, I felt I’d been absurdly doting before, as if I’d lost my mind. Now it’s fine if we find it, and fine if we don’t.”

Hearing this, Liu Cheng realized something was seriously wrong here.

Is that cat named Zhouxue a yao?

Ding Songyan, sipping the reddish tea as he looked down, made some speculations.

If a pure Two-Faced targeted someone on purpose, they could briefly influence his mind for a quarter of an hour. Could a Demon Seed Two-Faced do something similar?

Is this how Cheng Yuping was influenced?

She hasn’t even reached the Human Realm, so the mind control could last longer?

Influencing her at the crucial moment might be enough...

Though this would gradually strengthen Cheng Yuping’s resistance to Two-Faced corruption, if it only affected her for a while and the aim wasn’t to turn her into a Two-Faced, that wouldn’t matter...

Ding Songyan, listening in on Cheng Yuping’s inner voice, preliminarily judged that she wasn’t lying.

The double pupils reappeared in his eyes. He stood up and said to Cheng Yuping, who hurried after him, ”Courtesan Cheng, from now on, don’t pick up random things and bring them home. The Martial Prohibition Bureau and Chengtian Prefecture won’t blame you for this, but the Sea-Treading Gang might not accept it.”

You’re not Twelfth Madam, with Heaven-Man peak strength and the freedom to pick up whatever you please.

Ding Songyan said this deliberately in front of Liu Cheng, in fact to clear Cheng Yuping, so the Sea-Treading Gang wouldn’t take its anger out on her.

Liu Cheng had just taken over as gang leader and needed things to help establish his ”name,” to build authority and rally people, in preparation for abandoning the harmful businesses later. The most natural thing was to avenge the old gang leader.

In this process, orthodox people would mostly not take offense, but a low-rung gang had far less reason in it.

Liu Cheng caught the hint in Ding Songyan’s words and said at once, ”You can’t blame someone for what they didn’t know.”

He and Cheng Yuping had a bit of a fling between them, too.

The bewildered Cheng Yuping only now vaguely guessed something.

Her eyes widened.

”Wa-was it Zhouxue who killed Gang Leader Hu?”

”Maybe.” Ding Songyan did not give a definite answer.

If not Zhouxue, could it have been Gang Leader Liu himself?

Ding Songyan walked slowly toward the screen, floor mats, and other things at the side, and using the Chaos Realm and Candle-Star Pupils, found several wisps of white cat hair on them.

Be it a yao cat or a demon cat, it still sheds fur... Ding Songyan thought it unlikely Zhouxue was a yao.

Though Expels Evil Spirits wasn’t aimed directly at yao, it still had some effect, and Shilin Temple would probably make most yao uncomfortable.

”Gang Leader Liu.” Ding Songyan turned to Liu Cheng, holding the cat hair. ”Would you go and ask Director Hong Zhengyang of the Martial Prohibition Bureau to come?”

Liu Cheng asked thoughtfully, ”Young Hero Ding, are you going to use a secret art to track that yao cat?”

He knew the Brightnight Sect had Northern Dipper Wayfinding.

”Yes, but I’m afraid that if we follow it, we’ll run into some formidable figure, so we should report to the authorities first,” Ding Songyan said with a smile.

If the two of us tracked it and ended up at the Demon Sovereign’s door, what then?

We definitely need the authorities’ power!

Liu Cheng understood Brother Ding’s concern, quickly left the pleasure boat, and went to the Martial Prohibition Bureau.

Ding Songyan sat back down and helped himself to tea and snacks.

He said to Cheng Yuping, who stood dazed beside him, ”Courtesan Cheng, do as you like.”

Cheng Yuping nodded instinctively and was about to leave this room that frightened her when she changed her mind, sat across from Ding Songyan, and said with a look of gratitude,

”Thank you for saving me just now, Young Hero Ding. Otherwise I truly don’t know how I would face the Sea-Treading Gang’s retaliation.”

The Golden Orchid itself had countless ties to the Sea-Treading Gang.

Though Cheng Yuping was young and had been a courtesan for only two years, she was perceptive and good at reading people. From their earlier interactions she could see that the Young Boss, a formidable man in his own right, treated Young Hero Ding with great respect and obeyed his every word.

”My senior sister always taught me that a human life is no small matter and saving someone is an urgent matter like putting out a fire, and in this affair you, Courtesan Cheng, were cleverly used and didn’t know about it, so you’re innocent,” Ding Songyan said gently.

Cheng Yuping caught at once that Young Hero Ding was drawing a line, otherwise there would be no need to add ”my senior sister always taught me.” She smiled faintly.

”I can never repay you. Whatever you ask of me from now on, I’ll do my best.”

Ding Songyan smiled and said nothing.

Cheng Yuping played her best instrument, the pipa, at his side. It sometimes sounded like a sudden downpour, sometimes like whispered secrets, sometimes like pearls of every size pattering onto a jade plate, helping Ding Songyan relax further as he savored his tea and the view.

That was the scene Liu Cheng saw when he returned to the Golden Orchid with Director Hong and the other Martial Prohibition Bureau people.

Ding Songyan stood and signaled Cheng Yuping to leave the room. Cheng Yuping said nothing, lowered her head, stepped back, and walked out holding her pipa.

For a moment, Liu Cheng felt a little dazed.

Am I the real owner of the Golden Orchid, or is Brother Ding?

Though Cheng Yuping is perceptive, as a courtesan she has a bit of a temper. Being always docile would be boring, after all. When has she become so well-behaved?

Director Hong looked at Liu Cheng and said gravely, ”Gang Leader Liu, why don’t you go talk with Courtesan Cheng?”

A matter involving a Two-Faced secret? Liu Cheng put on a pleasant smile, took his leave, and left the room.

Four Martial Prohibition Bureau members quickly took up positions in the corridor.

Only then did Director Hong look at Ding Songyan.

”Young Hero Ding, you mean a Demon Seed can be planted in a cat or dog?”

”Very likely,” Ding Songyan said gravely. ”That isn’t the scary part. The scary part would be if Demon Seeds could also be planted in mosquitoes and flies.”

Hearing this, Hong Zhengyang’s scalp prickled at once.

Just imagining the scene Young Hero Ding described made him feel he had fallen into an ice cellar.

”The world’s martial arts are of many kinds, and if we know in advance where a hidden threat lies, we can make up for it effectively. Besides, if Demon Seeds could really spread through mosquitoes and flies, why bother with a cat?” Ding Songyan reassured Director Hong, then asked, ”Shall I track that white cat now?”

He had mentioned mosquitoes and flies on purpose, to scare the Martial Prohibition Bureau into preparing for the worst whatever came up.

As for the possibility of a Demon Seed in mosquitoes and flies, Ding Songyan found it unlikely, since they could not develop inner demons.

Director Hong collected himself and nodded gravely.

”Sure.”

His implication was that the Martial Prohibition Bureau was ready.

Holding the few wisps of white cat hair, Ding Songyan had points of illusory starlight appear around him. The starlight kept shifting position and finally joined into a line pointing in one direction.

Ding Songyan led Director Hong and the other Bureau members off the Golden Orchid, onto the north shore of Golden Pool, and tracked all the way to a grove of withered trees.

Before long, Ding Songyan stopped. He smelled a faint odor of blood and saw a snow-white cat, its fur dusty, lying under a cypress. Blackened, clotted blood ringed its eyes, ears, mouth, and nose, and its emerald-green eyes were wide open, full of terror.

”Killed...” Director Hong examined the back of the white cat’s head and found no second face.

He frowned slightly.

”No Demon Seed?”

By rights, once the host died and could no longer control it, the Demon Seed would manifest as a second face.

”Why kill it if there’s no Demon Seed?” Ding Songyan answered thoughtfully.

Could a Demon Seed be retrieved?

Has the Demon Sovereign already arrived, or can other Two-Faced also wield the Demon Seed method?

Hong Zhengyang had thought of the Demon Seed being retrieved too and stood up to say to Ding Songyan, ”Young Hero Ding, can’t you spirit channel?

”Ask this cat’s ghost.”

Ding Songyan was stunned.

”Can cats understand human speech?”

I don’t speak cat...

Hong Zhengyang nodded.

”Wait a moment, and I’ll invite someone who can speak with beasts.”

”All right.” Ding Songyan moved back on his own to give space.

Zhouxue had probably been only an ordinary cat in life, and under Banishing Demons and Warding Off Evil, its ghost wouldn’t last long.

As he backed away, Ding Songyan opened his yin eyes.

His expression changed slightly, and he called to Director Hong, ”No need to invite anyone. This cat’s soul is already scattered.”

”Scattered...” Director Hong’s expression froze.

Those who could destroy ghosts either had special martial arts or were Heaven-Man Supreme Masters!

Ding Songyan let out a breath.

”Not necessarily a Supreme Master. Evil Spirit Fei Biru of the Accumulated Evil Way can obliterate ghosts too.”

Director Hong nodded slowly.

”The Two-Faced are closely tied to the Accumulated Evil Way. This may be the Accumulated Evil Way’s doing.”

Ding Songyan was a little disappointed, but he still felt he’d gotten something out of it.

He was now nearly certain that Demon Seeds could be planted in cats, dogs, and the like.

After parting from Director Hong and briefly telling Liu Cheng the result, Ding Songyan returned to Lotus Whisper Street and headed to Tiger Tail Alley.

He should fill in Twelfth Madam on today’s events.

As soon as he neared the Cheap Wine Shop, Ding Songyan saw that quite a few estate guards and street loafers had gathered there, along with several maids and old ladies.

He had no need to push in, and through the Chaos Realm quickly spotted a familiar figure.

Young Master Brightstream Jiang Lanting.

Young Master Jiang, Miss Jiang, what are you doing at the Cheap Wine Shop? Ding Songyan couldn’t help sucking in a breath through his teeth.