Radiant Blade of the Wilderness

Chapter 83: The Strange Situation Back Then

Aren’t you drunk? How are you thinking so clearly? Ding Songyan was taken aback.

Things had come this far, so he had no choice but to honestly confess.

”Senior Sister, I won’t deceive you—Yan Yong’s Celestial Heart imprint is still in my sea of consciousness. Since he has long since been obliterated, with no remnant of his will remaining, the imprint can now be used by me.

”However, its qi has only one use remaining. Once spent, it will collapse completely. Day to day I only use it to awaken my own innate gifts—to open my yin eyes, walk the shadow paths, and sense the flow of heaven and earth’s qi.”

Zheng Zhuxi’s eyes flew wide open and she blurted out, ”My mother didn’t remove the Celestial Heart imprint for you?”

”She only removed the one from Ji Hanyi. I deliberately hid Yan Yong’s deep in my sea of consciousness—it’s too useful to give up.” Ding Songyan was telling the pure truth.

Zheng Zhuxi clicked her tongue twice and muttered drunkenly, ”You’re quite the keeper of secrets—like a swindler... Does my mother know?”

”I’ve never told Master, but I believe she has her guesses,” Ding Songyan answered honestly.

”I’ll grant you that much honesty.” A smile rose to Zheng Zhuxi’s face, her twin dimples deep.

She turned to face front, sitting up straight, staring blankly at the trees, flower pots, and water vats in the courtyard, her thoughts drifting somewhere unknown.

Ding Songyan relaxed as well and took in the sight of his own courtyard.

The bright moon high above cast its clear radiance down, draping everything in a faint veil of silver.

After a while, Zheng Zhuxi began to murmur to herself, ”Junior Brother, will you one day suddenly tell me: Senior Sister, I’ve slain a fourth-rank heretic, put it on your tab and help me keep my secret; Senior Sister, I’ve slain a third-rank demon, put it on your tab and help me keep my secret...

”And will there come a day when you tell me: Senior Sister, I’ve slain a second-rank Grandmaster, put it on your tab and help me keep my secret...”

Good grief, Senior Sister, you actually get sharper when you’re drunk... Ding Songyan did not dare respond.

Zheng Zhuxi continued in a daze,

”Then when I travel the jianghu, won’t all manner of powerhouses come to challenge me?

”No, no, no! I don’t want that! I’ll be utterly humiliated!”

As she spoke, the young woman raised both hands, pressed them to her head, and stared blankly ahead.

”Senior Sister, your gifts are extraordinary. If you train diligently before venturing into the jianghu, there’s no reason you couldn’t hold your own against those powerhouses, even the very top powerhouses,” Ding Songyan consoled Zheng Zhuxi.

”Right, diligent training!” Zheng Zhuxi suddenly twisted left and right. ”Where’s my sword? Where’s my sword?”

”Here.” Ding Songyan handed her Autumnwater together with its scabbard.

During dinner and drinking, Zheng Zhuxi had left her sword on the table. When they came out to the courtyard for fresh air, she had been so busy carrying stools that she had forgotten to take Autumnwater. Following behind, Ding Songyan had picked it up without a second thought, carrying it alongside Frostshade, one on each hand.

Zheng Zhuxi took the sword, drew it from its scabbard with a clear ring and strode to the middle of the courtyard, muttering, ”I will train diligently.”

She took her stance and began to practice in earnest, starting with the Piercing Dawn sword art and the Seven Swords of Candlelit Night. She was as graceful as a gliding dragon, fleet as a startled swan.

Ding Songyan watched with a smile, and a line from the Sage of Poetry surfaced unbidden in his mind: ”She began like a thunderbolt, venting its anger, and ended like the shining calm of rivers and the sea.”

Not bad at all, there’s now a sword dance to watch after drinks... Ding Songyan settled into contentment.

As he watched, he offered silent commentary to himself.

Senior Sister’s foundations are solid. Even when she’s drunk, not one form or move is off. Enough to dispatch a good number of petty thieves...

Her swordsmanship is like her original character—too upright and stately, lacking in adaptability... But her character has already begun to change accordingly, and her swordsmanship should follow in time, just a little behind...

A gentle night breeze carried a touch of coolness. In the courtyard, one person danced with her sword and one looked on, each content in their own way.

After an unknown period of time, Zheng Zhuxi sheathed her sword and stood still, face flushed with drink and gaze fixed, and said to Ding Songyan, ”I need to sleep. I need to rest...”

Seeing his senior sister’s eyes nearly glazing over, Ding Songyan rose and called toward the front compound.

”Aunt Wang, come here for a moment.”

On his way out to the courtyard with Zheng Zhuxi, he had already asked the handywoman Aunt Wang to wait at the entrance of the covered walkway. If Zheng Zhuxi were to vomit and dirty herself, it would be awkward for him to handle.

Aunt Wang went to take Zheng Zhuxi’s arm, but the young woman shook her off and muttered, ”I’m not drunk. I can walk by myself!”

With reasonably steady steps she followed Aunt Wang toward the room in the east wing that had been prepared for her, where her luggage was already waiting.

As she stepped over the threshold, she suddenly turned around and gave Ding Songyan a cheerful wave.

”See you in the morning, Junior Brother!”

”See you in the morning.” Ding Songyan smiled in reply.

He began to look forward to seeing how Zheng Zhuxi would carry herself once the wine wore off, especially once she remembered everything she had done tonight.

If she didn’t remember, Ding Songyan would be kind enough to remind her, describing the entire sequence of events in full detail.

Before long, Aunt Wang emerged from the east wing room, pulled the wooden door shut, and said to Ding Songyan, ”Second Master, Heroine Zheng has fallen asleep fully clothed.”

Ding Songyan produced a silver ingot weighing about one tael and said to Aunt Wang, ”Please go and get some flowers, spices, and scented soap. Tomorrow morning, heat some water and bring it along with the bathing tub to Heroine Zheng’s room. Oh, after she wakes.”

Aunt Wang agreed and left the courtyard. Ding Songyan sat back down on the stool, letting the night breeze wash over him, gazing at the bright moon, his mind loose and wandering across various things, occasionally turning to his own martial arts.

At midnight, he picked up Frostshade, left the Ding residence, and made his way to the Qu household in the same lane, announcing his purpose to the gatekeeper.

The gatekeeper, who had been informed ahead of time, led Ding Songyan all the way to the innermost courtyard and into a small building constructed of brick and stone.

It was already autumn outside, but it was still the height of summer inside the building. A large blacksmith’s furnace was built against the wall, connected to a flue, a bellows beside it, the forge-fire burning fiercely with waves of heat rolling outward.

Qu Zhongheng, in a short hemp jacket, stood by the furnace and turned his head, extending his right hand toward Ding Songyan.

His two ordinary eyes were shut tight; the yin eye at his brow was open, its depths a deep darkness.

Ding Songyan drew Frostshade and handed it over. Qu Zhongheng, without looking at his guest, gripped the crystalline sword with iron tongs and placed it into the leaping flames.

With the mindset of there being something to learn from almost anybody, Ding Songyan opened his yin eyes and activated the Celestial Heart, and focused his attention on the flow of qi resonance within Frostshade.

As the blade gradually grew hot and the qi resonance was on the verge of disruption, Qu Zhongheng drew it out, laid it on the iron anvil, took up his engraving tool, and began inscribing the sword’s name—sometimes fast, sometimes slow, sometimes pausing for several breaths.

Each time the tool came down, it was precisely at a moment when the qi resonance was settling through a change—causing no disruption at all.

Ding Songyan watched with keen interest and found himself slipping suddenly back into that state where all things manifested the Way, perceiving the flowing and shifting of qi resonance with greater clarity than before.

All things carry qi resonance. If one could create a sword art built around the flows of that resonance, wouldn’t that be something? Ding Songyan mused idly.

When he came back to his senses, he regretted that his foundations were not yet solid enough, and resolved to consider it only after mastering the sword arts contained in the Celestial Stars Scripture and the Candlelit Nocturne Sutra.

”Done.” Qu Zhongheng returned the now-cold Frostshade to Ding Songyan.

On the blade, which looked as though it had been formed from condensed ice crystals, the word Frostshade had been added.

Ding Songyan was admiring his sword when Qu Zhongheng, who had only just noticed him, said with a start, ”Why do you carry a trace of the underworld’s aura?”

You can even detect that? Your yin eye is impressive, a true racial gift... Ding Songyan sheathed Frostshade and smiled in explanation.

”I can walk the shadow paths.”

Seeing Qu Zhongheng’s expression relax into understanding, something stirred in Ding Songyan, and he asked in a thoughtful tone, ”Qu Zhongheng, do you remember the time you flew around in your wooden kite carriage looking for me?”

”I remember. Alas, how could Little Sister Qingyan be the demoness...” Qu Zhongheng stared with his shadowed yin eye, still unable to make peace with it.

Ding Songyan pressed on.

”Around that time, in what you saw with your yin eye—the wandering ghosts or the underworld—was there anything unusual?”

Qu Zhongheng fell into thought. After a good while he said, ”During that period, the souls in the underworld seemed restless. I’d only seen anything like it before whenever the Ghost Gates opens, so it left an impression.”

So there really was something unusual... Ding Songyan’s gaze sharpened slightly. He had thrown out the question on the off chance and it had paid off.

Before he could ask further, Qu Zhongheng continued on his own.

”Those souls kept gathering around Fengshui Bridge.”

Fengshui Bridge? It was as if lightning had struck through Ding Songyan’s sea of consciousness, illuminating a host of thoughts all at once.

He remembered that Miss Xiao Qing had mentioned it, and he had verified it himself—the stretch of road from Chengyu Lane to Fengshui Bridge was cool and pleasant, unlike anywhere else on a summer night.

Was that because souls had gathered in that area?

And why had they gathered there?

Unfortunately, both Miss Xiao Qing and I had only just arrived in Dingjiang Prefecture city, and had no way of knowing whether that stretch of road was any different from previous years. Otherwise, we might have noticed something...

”Was there anything amiss near Fengshui Bridge?” Ding Songyan made an effort to keep his voice calm.

Qu Zhongheng thought back for a long while, then shook his head.

”Nothing I discovered.”

Ding Songyan asked no more, picked up his sword, and left the Qu household.

It was a different time now, and he believed that stretch of road was likely clear of any anomaly now, but he planned to walk it again the next evening, to see whether his current level as a peak Grandmaster, together with the Celestial Heart, might reveal something.

Returning to his residence, Ding Songyan passed through the covered walkway into the second compound, and looked up to find a figure seated on the edge of the rooftop.

He looked more carefully and found it was Zheng Zhuxi, in her pale green gauze skirt that was nearly white.

The young woman’s cheeks were no longer so flushed, though her eyes were still a little dazed.

”Senior Sister, what are you doing up there?” Ding Songyan asked as he made his way toward the east wing.

Zheng Zhuxi gave a faint smile, still with a trace of her vacant look.

”I woke up and saw the moon was beautiful outside the window, so I came up to the roof to admire it.”

Her legs hung down from the eaves, dangling in midair, swaying gently back and forth.

No more letting Senior Sister Zheng drink so much... Ding Songyan sighed, leapt upward, turned in midair, and landed softly beside Zheng Zhuxi.

Zheng Zhuxi tilted her head back and gazed in a trance at the cold, clear gibbous moon. Ding Songyan looked with her, and a surge of feeling welled up in him—nostalgia, sorrow, and longing all at once.

In his past life, he had been forced to leave before he had the chance to say a proper goodbye.

In the long silence, Zheng Zhuxi suddenly whispered, ”I miss... my father a little.”