Radiant Blade of the Wilderness

Chapter 278: The Way of Go

On the way along Golden Pool toward the north shore, Ding Songyan wandered like anyone out for a stroll, now and then leading Twelfth Madam Luo into different shops, where he bought wax paste, brow pencils, lip rouge, face rouge, and other items women use for makeup, plus two sets of ready-made clothes that didn’t fit especially well.

”What are you up to?” Twelfth Madam Luo finally couldn’t help asking.

She held the hand warmer in one hand and the wooden box containing the purchases in the other.

Holding the umbrella at the edge of the street against the rain, Ding Songyan didn’t hide his thoughts.

”Before, we were just wandering around Hidden River Lane looking for Tan Guanchan’s trail. If we’d really found something, you would have gone all out, Twelfth Madam, and couldn’t have hidden your identity anymore, so a disguise wouldn’t have mattered. But when we go to Shilin Temple, we might only catch one or two of the Demon Sovereign’s subordinates, or even come away with nothing after all that. I’m not afraid for myself, but I worry the Body-and-Will Heterodox Sect will hold a grudge against our Brightnight Sect over it. A disguise is safer.”

He had thought she would ask when he bought the first item, but never expected her to hold in her curiosity so calmly until now.

Twelfth Madam Luo understood his concern and nodded lightly.

”Sure.”

Ding Songyan immediately pointed to an inn not far away.

”Wait here, Twelfth Madam. I’ll get a room so we can do the disguises. I’ll go in first and you come up afterward, so that if anyone traces us here later, they won’t see anything suspicious.”

He took the wooden box from her hands, passed her the umbrella, and ran through the cold, sparse rain into the inn diagonally across the street.

Twelfth Madam Luo held the umbrella and watched Ding Songyan’s back, stunned for a few breaths, feeling that the whole thing had a subtle and odd flavor.

It made perfect sense and met a real need, so why did it feel so strange?

Having drifted through the mortal world for years, Twelfth Madam Luo quickly pinpointed the source of the strangeness, spat at herself with a laugh, and then scolded Ding Songyan under her breath, ”Getting pretty good at this, aren’t you?”

After a moment, she saw a window on the inn’s second floor open. Ding Songyan waved at her and quickly retreated from the window.

Twelfth Madam Luo held the umbrella, entered the inn, walking with unhurried steps as if she lived there. She turned into the stairs and went up to the second floor. Ding Songyan had already half opened a door and leaned out to show her the exact room.

”You really take me for an ordinary wine shop owner?” Twelfth Madam Luo said with a laugh as she entered the room.

At this distance, would a Heaven-Man Supreme Master not be able to sense which room you’re in?

”If you’re going to put on a show, do it right,” Ding Songyan said, having already laid out all the disguise supplies neatly on the square table.

Using the bronze mirror, Twelfth Madam Luo first redid her own makeup.

Ding Songyan stood at the window with his back to the table, out of respect for her secrets.

Before long, with disguises and ”name” changing ”reality,” both had changed completely from before. Ding Songyan looked rather handsome, with fairer skin and a refined air. Though he wore a black combat outfit, he looked more like a scholar at first glance. Twelfth Madam Luo had thick brows and big eyes, dashing and heroic, like the heroines commonly seen in the jianghu.

Then Ding Songyan went out to the corridor on his own so Twelfth Madam could change more comfortably.

It was a goose-yellow arrow-sleeved round-collared short jacket trimmed in white, with a goose-yellow two-panel skirt dotted with white. It was fairly loose on Twelfth Madam Luo, but conveniently hid the hatchet at her waist.

Luo Mingyin, now with her hair tied up with a yellow ribbon, politely stepped into the hallway and let Ding Songyan change into a lined dark red thick cotton straight robe.

Ding Songyan slid the door bolt, opened the window again, and watched the street in the pattering rain. Once no one was around on either side, he called Twelfth Madam Luo over and together they leapt lightly down from a spot the watchtower couldn’t see, landing without a sound.

”You’re quite experienced.” Twelfth Madam Luo remarked with a smile in her voice, unclear if she was praising or teasing him.

Ding Songyan opened the oiled-paper umbrella again and said to Twelfth Madam, ”All we’re missing is a sword.”

His Frostshade had been hidden in the inn room with the other items.

”You can use mine.” Twelfth Madam Luo glanced at the handle of the oiled-paper umbrella.

Her alias for now was Chi Yu, and Ding Songyan’s was Cai Youde.

By the time they reached Shilin Temple, dusk had passed. The two went into the dining hall without a word, in perfect tacit understanding, planning to fill their stomachs before investigating.

There was still no sign that Monk Faxin had realized he was under suspicion, so there was no need to rush.

”This braised vegetarian tofu really is delicious.” After a while, Ding Songyan pointed at a dish that had been scraped clean.

Twelfth Madam Luo said, a bit smugly, ”Didn’t I tell you? Shilin Temple’s vegetarian meals are one of the Flame Capital’s best.”

Ding Songyan heartily agreed. Besides the braised tofu, dishes like clear-water cabbage and vegetarian lion’s head meatballs each had their own charm, some fresh and crisp, some bringing out the vegetables’ own character.

After they had eaten every dish on the table, Ding Songyan paid, and he and Twelfth Madam Luo found a guest-receiving monk and said they wished to see the supervising monk, Faxin.

The monk said he didn’t know where the supervising monk was right now. If the two benefactors could wait, he would report it when he got the chance. If not, they could go to the Poluo Pure Courtyard and find the supervising monk’s disciple Huien.

Huien was quite well known in the Flame Capital. He liked wearing white robes and was crazy about playing Go, which had held back his cultivation. He had once been a rising star with hopes of making the Orchid Fresh List, but now, past thirty, he had only just reached the perfected Great Proliferation Realm.

The ”Go Monk” had an undesirable reputation. They said he was selfish and sharp-tongued, lacked manners, was far weaker in Buddhist learning than in martial arts, and far weaker in martial arts than in Go.

When Ding Songyan and Twelfth Madam Luo stepped into a meditation room in the Poluo Pure Courtyard, they saw a monk in a white robe sitting behind a Go board, fiddling with black and white pieces. No one disturbed him.

The monk had a full forehead and rather plump cheeks, with regular features and a faint pure light around him. His earlobes were large and thick, and at first glance he had quite a Buddha-like look.

”Zen Master Huien.” Ding Songyan bowed. ”We’d like to visit Supervising Monk Faxin to discuss a loan-shark matter. Do you know where he is? Please introduce us.”

That kind of business really was Faxin’s responsibility.

Huien withdrew his gaze from the board and said with displeasure, ”This poor monk doesn’t know.”

Ding Songyan glanced at the black and white stones and said with a soft laugh, ”Zen Master, if I beat you at one game of Go, would you know then?”

Huien paused, then chuckled.

”This poor monk doesn’t play Go with nobodies.”

His implication was that he did know.

Twelfth Madam Luo, under the alias Chi Yu, stepped forward very obediently and was about to sit across from the board.

Ding Songyan sat down ahead of her and said calmly, ”I’m Cai Youde, a student of the Go Sage of the Great Han. I’m no nobody.”

The Go Sage of the Great Han? Since when does the Great Han have a Go Sage? Does this Second Bull Ding even play Go? Twelfth Madam Luo looked at Ding Songyan in somewhat surprise.

Huien didn’t know who the Go Sage of the Great Han was either, but since the man had already sat down and put on the airs of a Go master, he had no choice but to play a game and see.

Like his master, Monk Faxin, he cultivated the Great Impermanence Seal and excelled at hand skills. In a few breaths he had tidied the board and explained the komi and other rules.

Ding Songyan had learned Go at a children’s enrichment class in his last life and kept it up as an amateur hobby through college, then put it down when he started his career, and picked it up again after some success, but only played a few online games now and then, losing more than winning.

Now he had not only his last life’s knowledge of Go, but Manifesting the Way and its Virtue.

Once he confirmed there was no essential difference in the rules, as soon as the formalities were done, Ding Songyan picked up a white piece and placed it on the opponent’s star point, at the 3-3 point.

He had learned that from an artificial intelligence.

Huien froze.

Who taught you to play like that?

Do you even know how to play Go!

Twelfth Madam Luo was also taken aback. Is there a way to play like that?

Huien’s temper flared, and he wanted to teach this kid who was playing at random a lesson with his Go skills.

Ding Songyan placed pieces in response with little change of expression.

Twenty or thirty moves in, Huien gradually broke into a cold sweat, angry and anxious.

Ding Songyan was playing happily. He hadn’t even used Manifesting the Way and its Virtue, relying purely on what he had built up in his last life.

His style was to stir things up, whipping up waves even when there was no wind, and several times it nearly made Huien curse.

Before a hundred moves, Huien had suffered a crushing defeat and his face was ashen.

”Shameless, absolutely shameless!” he spat through gritted teeth. ”Another game!”

”Zen Master, we agreed to just one game. A deal is a deal,” Ding Songyan reminded him.

Huien said through gritted teeth, ”You have no respect for the Way of Go. Another game!”

Ding Songyan leaned forward, reached out both hands, suddenly picked up the Go board, and smashed it hard at Huien’s head.

Caught off guard, Huien instinctively kicked the table with his right foot to slide backward while raising both palms, his fingers shifting unpredictably to meet the board.

In an instant, his retreat was stopped by an invisible obstacle and he stalled for a breath, and the board forcibly smashed apart his palms and struck his head, scattering black and white pieces across the floor.

Huien fell unconscious on the floor mat without so much as a grunt.

Ding Songyan held the board, looked at the unconscious Huien, and said in an even voice,

”The Go Sage of the Great Han taught me that when black and white contend, it isn’t only the pieces that are weapons, the board is too.”

As he said it, Ding Songyan barely managed not to laugh out loud.

From the moment he claimed to be a student of the Go Sage of the Great Han, he had planned to do this.

After all, the so-called Go Sage of the Great Han was Emperor Jing of Han, Liu Qi, from history in his last life, and Liu Qi’s greatest contribution to Go was killing his opponent by smashing him with the board.

Ding Songyan, naturally no match for the Go Sage of the Great Han, knew where to draw the line. He only knocked him out and did not kill him.

Twelfth Madam Luo watched Ding Songyan, a little slack-jawed, listened to these words, then burst into helpless laughter.

Who taught you that?

What a hateful line, but given the circumstances, why is it so funny?

Ding Songyan glanced at the meditation room door, where hardly anyone passed, seized the chance, manifested the Great Dream of Three Thousand Years, and learned from Huien’s ”mouth” where Monk Faxin was.

The supervising monk had gone to a side courtyard on the east side of Shilin Temple. In recent days he had visited it now and then, but the young monk who delivered meals and collected dishes never saw him there.

”A side courtyard on the east side.” Ding Songyan turned his gaze to Twelfth Madam behind him.

Twelfth Madam Luo let out a slow breath.

”Let’s go see.”