Radiant Blade of the Wilderness

Chapter 17: Soul and Aspect

Qu Zhongheng glanced at Ding Songyan, his tone odd.

”You don’t know?”

”I hurt my head the day I went missing, causing me to forget a great deal. I’m here today for a follow-up with Physician Shao,” Ding Songyan said frankly.

”No wonder the coincidence.” Qu Zhongheng’s expression cleared. He pointed at the horizontal eye on his forehead. ”This is an yin eye. It can only open at night. It lets me see the flow of heaven and earth’s qi, see wandering ghosts drifting about. If I want to craft anything arcane, I have to work at night using the yin eye.”

”You can see ghosts?” Ding Songyan jumped with a start.

Isn’t this supposed to be a martial world?

No, wait. There are snake-yao, so ghosts aren’t unreasonable. I recall that Houtu the Earth Mother’s description included ”sovereign of the netherworld.” The legacies she left behind might very well be able to suppress evil spirits...

Qu Zhongheng laughed.

”What’s there to be scared of? Wandering ghosts have neither intelligence nor supernatural powers. They’re absurdly weak. They can’t harm anyone. If they encounter someone with slightly stronger yang energy, they dissolve like thin ice meeting fire. And even if you leave them alone, after three to five days they’ll either sink into the netherworld or dissipate entirely into heaven and earth.”

”I see...” Ding Songyan wore a look of obvious relief.

Inwardly, he had already resolved never to visit Qu Zhongheng at night. Who knew whether that yin eye could detect something wrong with his soul.

After a while, Physician Shao sent a boy to invite Ding Songyan upstairs.

In a room hung with landscape paintings, Physician Shao sat cross-legged behind a carved brown wooden table adorned with auspicious cloud patterns. Spread before him were several thread-bound antique texts and a few letter pages.

He gestured for Ding Songyan to sit, then asked with a smile, ”Have you recalled any memories these past few days?”

”No.” Ding Songyan answered honestly.

Physician Shao observed Ding Songyan for a moment with those slightly white-tinged eyes.

”Let me examine you again. Give me your hand.”

Ding Songyan assumed it was a pulse reading. He had just extended his hand when he noticed the physician producing a gold needle.

The seemingly soft needle suddenly went rigid and pierced the aperture point at Ding Songyan’s wrist.

A wisp of cool qi entered his body and traveled swiftly along the meridians.

”What’s this?” Ding Songyan asked, both anxious and curious.

Physician Shao did not answer. He kept his eyes half-closed as he concentrated on sensing something.

After a moment, he reached up to stroke his thin beard, his face full of bewilderment.

”Soul and aspect in harmony. Soul and aspect in harmony...”

When his stroking grew more and more forceful, Ding Songyan began to worry he might accidentally yank a few strands out.

Finally, Physician Shao withdrew the gold needle and, completely ignoring Ding Songyan, began flipping through the pile of thread-bound texts with near-frantic urgency.

”What’s the matter?” Ding Songyan couldn’t help asking again.

Physician Shao returned to normal and pointed at the letters beside his hand.

”After your first visit, I wrote to my master and sent it by carrier bird, seeking his counsel.

”His reply came quickly. He said the sect’s Legacy Chapters of the Medicine King mention that the cause might be a soul-aspect discordance.

”I searched through every medical text I have and found some relevant material.

”If a person is frightened severely enough, the three ethereal souls and seven corporeal spirits can scatter. Certain martial arts can achieve the same effect. When the souls and spirits return to the body, a soul-aspect discordance may occur, causing loss of memories. In severe cases, if the souls sustain damage while separated from the body, the three souls become deficient and the seven spirits are incomplete. The person either becomes dull-witted or bedridden.

”I believed I had found the cause of your Soul Departure Sickness. But your soul and aspect are in harmony.”

Physician Shao tugged at his beard again in frustration.

”Oh... And the gold needle was for?” Ding Songyan asked cautiously.

My soul and aspect are actually in harmony?

Physician Shao answered in passing, ”A gold needle reads the soul.”

You could have said so earlier. If I’d known, I wouldn’t have come... A cold sweat broke over Ding Songyan in retrospect.

This was the price of ignorance.

But it also eliminated many of his worries. Even an inspection of the soul itself could not detect his secret.

...

After leaving the Life Extending Clinic, Ding Songyan saw that it was still early. He returned to Dangkang Temple, planning to listen to stories of the martial world and jianghu anecdotes for an hour or two before heading home.

The original Ding Songyan had only been skilled at telling historical tales. The scripts he left behind covered martial matters sparingly, though not entirely. After all, the jianghu and the imperial court were closely intertwined, an inalienable part of the other.

He had just arrived at his patch of open ground when he spotted someone standing beneath the tree’s shade.

It was Xu Chang’an, who had not walked to the temple with him this morning.

Xu Chang’an was still in his green narrow-sleeved robe with a black cloth binding his hair. He paced back and forth, visibly agitated.

Ding Songyan’s first instinct was to turn and leave, to avoid whatever trouble was coming his way. But Xu Chang’an had already spotted him and called out with relief, ”Brother Ding!”

”What is it?” Ding Songyan replied in resignation.

Xu Chang’an said anxiously, ”My master has disappeared!”

Disappeared? Ding Songyan’s heart skipped a beat.

The last time he’d heard about someone disappearing, it was the original Ding Songyan himself.

Xu Chang’an spoke rapidly.

”I went to my master’s yesterday for the test, but he wasn’t there. He hadn’t told any of us beforehand. Today I went again. Still not there. And he left no coded message...

”Brother Ding, something must have happened, right?”

He had always thought Ding Songyan was timid and meek like himself. That was why they had gotten along in the first place. Neither could look down on the other. It had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that the Ding family’s daughter was breathtakingly beautiful. But these past two days, he had noticed that Ding Songyan had somehow become sharp-witted and perceptive, and now the moment trouble arose, his first thought was to seek his advice.

”Gone since yesterday...” Ding Songyan was mulling it over when a strange thought surfaced. He asked gravely, ”Was your master on good terms with me?”

Xu Chang’an looked blank.

”You two got along well. Just a few days ago, at midday, my master invited you to his courtyard for wine and food.”

”How many days ago exactly?” Ding Songyan pressed.

”You can’t remember and you’re asking me?” Xu Chang’an thought back. ”About a week ago, I’d say.”

Ding Songyan narrowed his eyes.

”I genuinely don’t remember. Because I also disappeared recently. I was later found, but I’d forgotten a great deal.”

He stressed the word ”disappeared.”

Xu Chang’an went pale with alarm.

”You disappeared too?

”Was that the same day? I asked you about it. You never answered.”

Could the original Ding Songyan’s Secret Classic have come from Xu Chang’an’s master? Did he steal it from somewhere? If that’s the case, the man is vicious. A seasoned thief like him must know how to deal in stolen goods. From the very beginning, he probably intended to use the original Ding Songyan as a scapegoat... Has he fled, or has he met the same fate as the original Ding Songyan? Ding Songyan’s thoughts raced. He said to Xu Chang’an, ”Take me to your master’s place.”

”Right!” The frightened Xu Chang’an seemed to have found his anchor.

He completely forgot that Brother Ding was an even worse fighter than he was.

Ding Songyan had taken a few steps after Xu Chang’an when he stopped abruptly.

”First, let’s go to North Water Street. No, the docks.” He told Xu Chang’an.

”Why?” Xu Chang’an was confused.

Try using your head... Ding Songyan sighed.

”If we run into danger, is it you who’s going to fight them, or me?”

”We’re inside the city. It can’t be that bad...” Xu Chang’an glanced up at the tallest watchtower.

Ding Songyan ignored him and pointed at the brown-tiled roof of Dangkang Temple before heading toward the docks.

Right. If there’s danger inside Master’s house, the watchtower sentries won’t be able to see it... Xu Chang’an’s stomach clenched, and he hurried after him.

The docks lay outside the nearest city gate from Dangkang Temple. Here the river was wide, lined with vessels large and small—tower ships, pleasure barges, long-haul boats, centipede ships, and many more.

Water wheels positioned along tributaries drove mechanisms that hoisted heavy cargo from ships and set it before nearby warehouses, where laborers carried, shouldered, or carted away wooden crates and burlap sacks.

Ding Songyan swept his gaze across the scene. He saw densely packed tower ships and a sizable island far out in the middle of the river covered with trees and piled with jagged boulders.

While searching for Bull, his eye caught two figures seated at the prow of a tower ship, playing chess. The distance was too great to make out the details of their clothing, only that both wore black. One was an old man with white hair and a beard. The other wore a black gauze veiled hat, their gender impossible to determine.

Playing chess in a veil? Are they a monk who’s renounced the world, or is there some abnormality on their face or head that cannot be seen by others? Ding Songyan muttered to himself as he walked toward a group of laborers.

He asked Xu Chang’an casually, ”Is that Heavengaze Gate Island?”

Qu Zhongheng’s mother had died on her way to that island while flying there in a wooden kite-carriage.

”Yes.” Xu Chang’an already knew Brother Ding had forgotten many things.

”Why is it called Heavengaze Gate?” Ding Songyan did not bother hiding his curiosity.

Xu Chang’an recalled and said, ”They say that after Emperor Zhuanxu severed the connection between heaven and earth, only a few places in all the Great Wilderness could scenes of the Heavenly Realm be glimpsed. This was one of them, hence the name ’Heavengaze.’ Then at some point, during some dynasty or other, even that view disappeared.”

In the Great Wilderness’s mythology, Emperor Zhuanxu’s presence is overwhelming... Ding Songyan sighed with emotion.

Before long, he found Bull, who at over nine feet tall was conspicuous wherever he went.

Bull had several burlap sacks strapped to his back and was walking toward a nearby donkey cart with easy, steady strides.

”Bull!” Once Bull had set down his load and was wiping his face with the coarse cloth hanging around his neck, Ding Songyan called out to him.

Bull came over, delighted.

”Songyan, you need me?”

Ding Songyan nodded.

”I’m going somewhere. It might be a little dangerous. I’d like you to come along and keep watch.”

”No problem.” Bull said nothing more and walked straight to the foreman. His rumbling voice sounded. ”My brother needs my help. My mother said to look after him. I have to leave early today.”

His eyes gleamed, his face expectant, as though waiting for the foreman to refuse.

If he did, that would be a legitimate reason to act. No need to worry about Mother getting angry.

The foreman was a stubble-faced middle-aged man. He saw the look in Bull’s eyes and shuddered.

”Go, go,” he answered without hesitation.

Bull followed Ding Songyan and Xu Chang’an away from the docks, looking faintly disappointed.

...

Autumnwater Lane, before a courtyard.

Xu Chang’an deftly picked the lock on his master’s front gate with half a piece of iron wire.

The courtyard here was far more spacious than the Ding family’s, and the house contained five rooms. The three of them searched slowly but found no trace of foul play. However, they did turn up quite a few other things.

”This much silver?” Xu Chang’an stared at the five or six silver ingots, dozen-odd silver pieces, and a substantial quantity of loose silver he had found in a hidden compartment. In his astonishment, he nearly forgot his master had vanished.

He didn’t flee... Ding Songyan’s eyes narrowed at once.

Who flees and leaves the bulk of their fortune behind?