Radiant Blade of the Wilderness

Chapter 126: Heaven’s Favored Son

A banquet had been laid at a corner table in the inn’s main hall.

Yu Jinhong offered a solemn bow to Ding Songyan and Zheng Zhuxi.

”Many thanks to you both for your help along the way. Without it, the Fuyu Mountain Cinnabar Grass would certainly have been lost.”

”The goods have been delivered?” Zheng Zhuxi asked with genuine concern.

Yu Jinhong said as he took his seat, ”As soon as I got the caravan settled at an inn, I accompanied the caravan’s head to the Hundred Treasures Tower and handed the Fuyu Mountain Cinnabar Grass to the Huangliang Sect Elder there.”

The Hundred Treasures Tower was a trading house under the Huangliang Sect, dealing mainly in rare minerals.

”You’re certain you weren’t dreaming?”

”And certain it was a genuine Huangliang Sect Elder?”

Zheng Zhuxi and Ding Songyan asked almost simultaneously.

A little embarrassed and a little resigned, Escort Leader Yu answered, ”I haven’t slept for a full day and night, haven’t dreamed, and have had no sensation of waking from one. Unless I’m still in a dream right now.

”The Huangliang Sect Elder is someone the Chen Caravan has worked with many times before. Every delivery goes through him. If there’s a problem on his end, that’s the Huangliang Sect’s affair, not the caravan’s or the bureau’s.

”Besides, apart from the Huangliang Sect Elder, Chen Jindong was also there at the time. The Fuyu Mountain Cinnabar Grass was prepared for him.”

Ding Songyan and Zheng Zhuxi asked no more, and genuinely celebrated the Long Road Escort Bureau’s successful delivery. Zheng Zhuxi even raised a cup of watered wine for the occasion.

The young woman set down her chopsticks, curious.

”So it was for Chen Jindong... Chen Jindong has only been at the perfected Great Proliferation Realm for four years, and he can already sense the void’s qi and is about to enter the Dharma Realm?”

Even without having gone through the Huangliang Sect’s records in detail, she had long known Chen Jindong’s name.

He was the most outstanding disciple of the Huangliang Sect’s new generation, ranked 96th on the Orchid Fresh List, and had been assessed as third-rank Form Transfigured five years ago.

Yu Jinhong said with a look of admiration, ”When I found out the caravan’s cargo included Fuyu Mountain Cinnabar Grass, I guessed it might be for quite a few Huangliang Sect members, but Chen Jindong never crossed my mind.

”He’s only twenty-eight, and already on the verge of becoming a Grandmaster. Even among the great sects and schools, he would stand out. Truly Heaven’s favored son.”

His own background was no worse than Chen Jindong’s, yet half a lifetime had passed and he hadn’t even reached the perfected Great Proliferation Realm.

The Pure Sword Canon’s demands on one’s state of mind were simply too exacting.

”His reputation is well deserved,” Zheng Zhuxi said sincerely.

Across the entire martial world, anyone who entered the Dharma Realm before thirty could be called Heaven’s favored son, with the Heaven-Man Realm well within reach in the future.

With Zheng Zhuxi having spontaneously formed her Candle Heart, the entire sect was waiting to see her enter the Dharma Realm before thirty. But if the gaps in their cultivation arts were never filled, the Heaven-Man Realm would remain forever out of reach.

Of course, the gap between one favored genius and another could sometimes exceed the gap between any genius and a nobody unranked on the Orchid Fresh List. Setting aside those who rose in a single bound or cultivated exceptional arts, some barely entered the Dharma Realm before thirty, while others became Grandmasters at twenty-four or twenty-five. A rare few then went on to reach the Heaven-Man Realm in under ten years. For instance, Yu Chongyuan of the Five Saints Sect who entered the Dharma Realm at twenty-six and became a Supreme Master at thirty-three. To make it worse, the man was also breathtakingly handsome and ranked on the Martial World’s Jade Tree Rankings.

”The tallest tree catches the wind. One wonders who within the Huangliang Sect dislikes Chen Jindong enough to go to such lengths to seize the Fuyu Mountain Cinnabar Grass,” Ding Songyan said thoughtfully. ”Just to vent their feelings? You can obstruct someone once, but you can’t obstruct them forever...”

Fuyu Mountain Cinnabar Grass wasn’t Fuyu Immortal Grass, and other sects had little use for it. If the Huangliang Sect truly spared no expense, obtaining five or six specimens in a year would be no problem at all.

And if anything had gone wrong this time, the Huangliang Sect would certainly dispatch a Grandmaster to escort the next delivery personally.

”Perhaps someone wants to beat Chen Jindong to the Dharma Realm and claim the glory for themselves?” That was the best guess Yu Jinhong could offer.

It was another sect’s internal matter and none of their concern, but Ding Songyan thought it over carefully all the same. He would eventually need to find a chance to spar with a Dharma Realm powerhouse of the Huangliang Sect, to see the Great Dream of Three Thousand Years in its true form and refine his own Dream Sword. Even so, he couldn’t quite make sense of it.

After hosting the two of them at dinner, Yu Jinhong returned to the caravan’s inn looking thoroughly exhausted. Ding Songyan and Zheng Zhuxi each washed up and rested, sleeping straight through until morning.

......

The following morning.

Zheng Zhuxi picked up the cloth bundle wrapping Yan Peng’s head, and together with Ding Songyan, went to Xuande County’s yamen to collect the bounty and complete the paperwork.

Within Ning Province, the Brightnight Sect’s name carried real weight, and the two were quickly shown in to see Marshal Zhong Pinglan, who oversaw such matters.

Zhong Pinglan was in his forties, over 1.7 meters tall, with reddish-brown feathers across the backs of his hands and neck, a birdlike face, and a prominent, pointed nose.

According to the materials Ding Songyan and Zheng Zhuxi had reviewed before setting out, he was an experienced combat veteran who had later taken a post in Xuande County. He was third-rank Form Transfigured and cultivated the military art, Accumulating Waters Scripture. The name had nothing to do with water—it drew from the principle that water accumulated to form a deep pool, and soil accumulated to form a mountain.

Once the clerk had verified Yan Peng’s head against the portrait on the wanted warrant, Zhong Pinglan, dressed in red robes with black markings, smiled at Zheng Zhuxi.

”Miasma Poison Saber had caused significant harm to many. I wouldn’t have expected him to fall at the hands of two people on their first venture into the jianghu.”

”It’s all thanks to my senior sister’s skills.” Ding Songyan deftly passed the invisible credit to Zheng Zhuxi.

Zheng Zhuxi was well used to this and offered a few modest words.

”Marshal Zhong, we have already recovered the gold and silver Yan Peng had hidden away, but he has additional assets in Xuande County. By imperial court regulations, all of these should belong to us.”

”Marshal” was a respectful form of address for a county marshal, commonly used upon a first meeting.

”We’ll need to confirm the courtyard actually belonged to Yan Peng first.” Zhong Pinglan raised no deliberate obstacles and intended to handle it by the book.

Ding Songyan promptly told the marshal about the courtyard held under a false name, what private arrangements had been made, and other relevant details.

Before long, Zheng Zhuxi and Ding Songyan were paid the 1,500 taels bounty, 750 taels each.

Most of the credit belonged to Ding Songyan, but bearing the associated reputation had its own costs for Zheng Zhuxi. The two had agreed long ago to split it evenly.

After the bounty was paid out, Zhong Pinglan courteously walked Zheng Zhuxi and Ding Songyan to the yamen gate. Passing the mortuary, they encountered Lü Huaijin and Lü Woyu, dressed in plain white mourning clothes, eyes red, coming to identify a body with a few fellow townspeople.

The winter cold had slowed the decay, and despite several days having passed, the body was not yet badly decomposed. When the white cloth was lifted, Lü Huaijin and Lü Woyu both immediately recognized their father.

Overcome with grief and terror, they burst into anguished sobs and sank to their knees beside the body.

”Aren’t those the siblings from the Chen Caravan?” Zheng Zhuxi glanced into the mortuary.

Their weeping left her with an ache in her chest.

”They’ve come to identify a body. Must be their father.” Zhong Pinglan was blunt. ”No mother with them, so they’ve lost both? Father and mother both gone?”

”How did their father die?” Zheng Zhuxi asked.

”Sudden illness. The coroner found nothing unusual.” Seeing that Zheng Zhuxi recognized the siblings, Zhong Pinglan deliberately stopped.

At that moment, the fellow townspeople accompanying Lü Huaijin and Lü Woyu produced a bundle and handed it over.

”These are your father’s belongings. There are a few Pinelongevity Stones he gathered from the mountain.”

The Pinelongevity Stones were dark green, with pine-needle patterns on their surface. The moment they were brought out, they gave off a fresh, clean fragrance.

Pinelongevity Stones were said to extend one’s lifespan when worn on one’s person, and had long carried the reputation of being worth their weight in gold. From what Ding Songyan knew, they weren’t completely useless, but they weren’t particularly effective either. It was better than nothing.

The reason he wanted to gather Pinelongevity Stones was that the stones’ properties suited his needs for aperture forging. Deep earth gave rise to wood, and green essence was hidden within stone.

”Why don’t we buy them?” Zheng Zhuxi turned to Ding Songyan. ”Those two will need money to bring their father’s remains home. And you happen to need them.”

”Agreed.” It was exactly what Ding Songyan had in mind.

Worried that her junior brother’s proximity might cause the Lü siblings’ father’s remnant soul to scatter entirely, Zheng Zhuxi left Ding Songyan on the covered walkway and went in alone to speak with them.

Her appearance, and the help she and Ding Songyan had given them that night, had left a strong impression on Lü Huaijin and Lü Woyu, who felt warmly toward her and didn’t refuse her offer.

Meanwhile, Ding Songyan opened his yin eyes to check whether the deceased’s remnant soul was trembling and dissipating. If it was, he would step back further. There was no point in someone’s homecoming being rendered meaningless before it had even begun.

His Banishing Demons and Warding Off Evil, which he couldn’t fully suppress, was still quite a nuisance.

In the overlapping environment of dark wilderness and gloomy mortuary, Ding Songyan saw the remnant soul drifting beside the body.

The deceased had some martial foundation. Even though he wasn’t quite at the early stages of the Great Proliferation Realm, he was at least at the perfected aperture refinement level. Even after several days, the soul remained relatively distinct.

The soul trembled throughout and had blood-red tears streaming from its eyes, wailing without cease.

”I wasn’t sick!

”I only dreamed I was sick!”

Dreamed he was sick... Ding Songyan’s gaze sharpened. He pretended to admire the scenery and stepped out of the covered walkway into the courtyard, staying there until the ghost stopped trembling.

”Young Hero Ding, is something the matter?” Zhong Pinglan followed him over.

Ding Songyan asked with a thoughtful look, ”Marshal Zhong, over the past year or so, have there been multiple cases of visiting merchants or martial artists dying suddenly of illness in Xuande County?”

Zhong Pinglan’s expression changed slightly, his eyes turning sharp in an instant.

”Young Hero Ding, please speak plainly.”

”Marshal Zhong, I was born with yin eyes. I just saw the deceased’s remnant soul. He was murmuring repeatedly that he was not sick, only that he had dreamed he was sick.” Ding Songyan thought it over and decided to tell the truth.

The Brightnight Sect’s patrol authority only extended to Dingjiang Prefecture and the counties to its north—it carried no weight in Qisong Prefecture. Investigating the matter could only be left to Zhong Pinglan.

That said, if some ”snake” were disturbed by these words and came knocking, Ding Songyan could always act in ”self-defense.”

”Dream...” Zhong Pinglan repeated the word and said in a low voice, ”Deaths by illness fall outside the marshal’s jurisdiction, and I’m not certain whether there have been similar cases. I’ll look into it.”

His eyes gleamed, and he looked almost eager for the challenge.

One notable trait of the Accumulating Waters Scripture was that practitioners in the mid-to-late Great Proliferation Realm developed a disposition toward conflict.

Ding Songyan thanked Marshal Zhong for his attention and asked nothing more of the deceased’s remnant soul. If the anomaly had occurred within a dream, the deceased would have had little awareness of what had actually happened.

Zheng Zhuxi paid sixty taels for the three Pinelongevity Stones, then left the mortuary, rejoined Ding Songyan, and the two departed the yamen together.

At the gate, before Ding Songyan could share his discovery with his senior sister, something caught his attention, and he turned to look at a group not far away.

They all bore serpentine and fish-bodied anomalies. Clearly, they were Huangliang Sect disciples stationed here to assist with local security.

They were speaking with a young man of about 1.7 meters, unremarkable in face but with an air of effortless distinction.

The young man also had a notably pointed face, blue-black scales across his skin, and eyes that were slightly unusual in shape.

”Chen Jindong. I’m sure you’ve heard of him.” Marshal Zhong, who had been walking them to the gate, offered the introduction.

”So that’s Chen Jindong...” Zheng Zhuxi murmured.

The Huangliang Sect’s heaven’s favored son.

She naturally turned to glance at her junior brother, and noticed that Ding Songyan’s eyes had narrowed ever so slightly.

Wh... Others might not be able to read Ding Songyan’s body language, but Zheng Zhuxi knew them well. She went immediately on alert.

Ding Songyan leaned close to his senior sister’s ear and whispered, ”Chen Jindong is carrying my sword intent.”