Radiant Blade of the Wilderness

Chapter 127: Where the Lantern Lights Grow Dim

Chen Jindong is carrying Junior Brother’s sword intent? Zheng Zhuxi visibly froze.

It wasn’t that she couldn’t understand what Ding Songyan meant; in fact, she understood almost instantly.

The sword intent he had hidden in Yan Peng’s chamber had found its way into Chen Jindong’s body.

It had been left specifically for whoever had sent Yan Peng to seize the Fuyu Mountain Cinnabar Grass.

But the Fuyu Mountain Cinnabar Grass the Chen Caravan had delivered was meant for Chen Jindong in the first place...

He sent someone to steal something that already belonged to him? That makes no sense. What could he possibly be after... Or did the mysterious figure detect Junior Brother Ding’s sword intent, and deliberately transfer it into Chen Jindong’s body to mislead us, or even provoke us? Thought after thought flashed through Zheng Zhuxi’s mind.

She quickly composed herself and kept her expression neutral.

At that moment, Chen Jindong also noticed the trio at the yamen gate. He straightened his light-blue robe and walked over elegantly, clasping his hands with a smile.

”Am I correct in addressing the Brightnight Sect’s Heroine Zheng Zhuxi?”

”Young Hero Chen, you know me?” Zheng Zhuxi asked with a smile.

She wanted to hear how he would explain it. Surely he wasn’t going to say that he had entered Yu Jinhong’s dream last night, only to have it broken by her Candlelight Sword Intent.

Chen Jindong said with an expression of genuine admiration, ”Escort Leader Yu of the Long Road Bureau and Head Chen of the Chen Caravan both told me that you are not only highly skilled in martial arts, but also of upright and chivalrous character. You saved them from disaster twice over. Without your help, my Fuyu Mountain Cinnabar Grass would likely have fallen into the hands of thieves. It is a pity that I am soon going into seclusion and must ensure a clear state of mind, so I cannot seek your instruction and witness the splendor of the Seven Swords of Candlelit Night.”

He offered Zheng Zhuxi and Ding Songyan a formal expression of thanks.

After a few more pleasantries, Chen Jindong rejoined his fellow disciples and headed toward the Hundred Treasures Tower.

”On the verge of the Dharma Realm before thirty, with a future beyond measure. He may well become the Huangliang Sect’s first Supreme Master in a thousand years,” Zhong Pinglan watched Chen Jindong’s retreating figure and remarked.

The Huangliang Sect had stood for over a thousand years and produced three Heaven-Man cultivators, but the most recent was ancient history from a thousand years past. All it showed was that their art was sound enough to reach the Heaven-Man Realm.

After bidding farewell to Marshal Zhong, Zheng Zhuxi waited until Ding Songyan had quietly sealed the space around them before voicing her thoughts with a puzzled expression.

”Chen Jindong is the mysterious figure?

”He has nothing better to do than steal Fuyu Mountain Cinnabar Grass that was already meant for him?”

After a brief hesitation, Zheng Zhuxi asked plainly, ”Or did the mysterious figure transfer your sword intent, Junior Brother?”

”Setting aside whether my sword intent can easily be transferred.” Ding Songyan smiled without the slightest concern. ”Senior Sister, didn’t you notice? Chen Jindong is 1.7 meters tall, neither fat nor thin—a match for Yan Peng’s description. And last night he formally received the Fuyu Mountain Cinnabar Grass and confirmed we were both resting at the inn. He would most likely assume the matter was over and settled, and think it safe to collect Yan Peng’s assets before we traced the courtyard back to him.

”Putting all three factors together, I’m 80% certain Chen Jindong is the mysterious figure.”

At this, Ding Songyan gave a half-baffled, half-resigned smile.

”As for why he would do something so absurd and pointless, I can’t fathom it for now. Some people’s thinking is beyond what any ordinary person can comprehend, no matter how clever. Like those lunatics in the Accumulated Evil Way.”

Zheng Zhuxi tersely acknowledged.

”So it seems Chen Jindong hasn’t yet found the sword intent hidden inside him, and his coming over to exchange pleasantries was in fact a bit of a taunt?”

”Exactly. If I had mastered the Mirror Lake Divine Reflection, I could probably have ’heard’ him laughing just now—laughing that no matter how we interfered, he had succeeded in the end. Laughing that even with our Candle-Star Pupils, we couldn’t see that the mastermind was right in front of us,” Ding Songyan said softly.

”You looked at Chen Jindong with Candle-Star Pupils?” Zheng Zhuxi had been so stunned by the revelation that she had forgotten to observe him herself.

Ding Songyan nodded.

”I did. Chen Jindong, Marshal Zhong, and the other Huangliang Sect disciples—none of them are Two-Faced, and none showed any illusions or false appearances on their persons.”

He had not only used Candle-Star Pupils, but also invoked the illusion-piercing ability of the Celestial Heart imprint.

Even if Demoness Ji were standing before him, as long as she hadn’t yet entered the Heaven-Man Realm, Ding Songyan could see through her Divine Art of Heaven and Earth Transmutation.

”Shall we report this to the local yamen?” Zheng Zhuxi suggested.

Ding Songyan slowly shook his head.

”We have no proof. A single wisp of sword intent proves nothing, and it would only interfere with what we need to do in Qisong Prefecture going forward.

”More importantly, even if we caught Chen Jindong in the act and proved he tried to steal the Fuyu Mountain Cinnabar Grass, the imperial court wouldn’t touch him—it was his property to begin with. And from start to finish, no innocent person was harmed or killed, even though it was due to our intervention. That wouldn’t stop Chen Jindong from walking away with nothing more than a ’I was merely having a bit of fun.’

”At most, he’d face some internal sect punishment. But he’s about to become a Grandmaster.”

Zheng Zhuxi thought it through and concluded the incident had indeed caused no real harm. Even without their intervention, Yan Peng wouldn’t have dared massacre innocents by escalating the matter too far. His miasma couldn’t affect Escort Leader Yu, and he was no match for him in a direct fight.

”And the only real outcome of this whole affair was that it made us a windfall...” Zheng Zhuxi murmured with a helpless laugh. ”Chen Jindong is quite the charitable man. No wonder you wanted to leave ’Many thanks for your generous gift’ inside Yan Peng’s empty chest.”

Senior Sister, you’ve picked up my bad habits. If Chen Jindong heard that, he’d be fuming mad... Ding Songyan chuckled inwardly, then told Zheng Zhuxi what the Lü siblings’ father’s remnant soul had said, along with his own suspicions, and concluded, ”Whether it’s him will depend on what Marshal Zhong’s investigations turn up.”

Zheng Zhuxi’s expression grew grave.

”Harming people in their dreams? Inducing illness?

”Which Huangliang Sect member is behind this?”

Then Zheng Zhuxi turned sharply to Ding Songyan.

”It can’t be Chen Jindong again, can it?”

”Sickening people in their dreams and having them die suddenly in the waking world is deeply sinister. Chen Jindong stealing his own Fuyu Mountain Cinnabar Grass is also deeply sinister. When everything about a person is sinister, it’s hard not to connect the dots.” Ding Songyan harbored the same suspicion.

He thought for a moment, then leaned close to Zheng Zhuxi’s ear and spoke a few words in a low voice, even though he had already sealed the space around them.

Zheng Zhuxi’s expression changed from surprise to a solemn nod.

”Okay.”

Once Ding Songyan released the seal, the young woman handed him the three Pinelongevity Stones she had purchased earlier.

”How much were they?” Ding Songyan took the dark-green stones, their fresh, woody fragrance drifting off them.

Zheng Zhuxi’s dimples appeared.

”A gift from your senior sister. Who told you to just make me a windfall?”

”Thank you, Senior Sister.” Ding Songyan smiled and accepted without a hint of protest.

......

Xuande County’s night market was lively, with crowds moving to and fro and all manner of goods on offer.

Zheng Zhuxi picked up an opera mask and smiled at Ding Songyan.

”That Meng Po mask was genuinely unsettling. If you ever need to do something like that again, you should use one of these instead.”

The mask she was holding was the Golden Boy—golden face, white forehead, phoenix eyes and straight brows.

This world had its own legend of the Golden Boy and Jade Maiden, woven into its opera tradition, though it differed from the version Ding Songyan remembered from his past life.

Then Zheng Zhuxi saw her junior brother select a mask. It was milky-white in color with peach-blossom red paint over it. He held it out to her.

”Then this one is for you, Senior Sister.”

It was the Jade Maiden mask.

Zheng Zhuxi was about to say something when she suddenly noticed a figure appear behind her junior brother.

The figure wore a bamboo crown and a brocade robe. The features were carved and deep, with faint lines at the corners of the eyes, around the mouth, and on the brow. The hair was black with strands of white. The whole person radiated a presence that was neither entirely divine nor entirely demonic.

Zheng Zhuxi held her breath.

She had seen this person’s portrait.

Demon Sovereign Tan Guanchan!

She watched Tan Guanchan raise his right hand, five fingers black as ink, reaching toward Ding Songyan’s head, while her junior brother remained completely unaware. Zheng Zhuxi’s heart skipped a beat. She wrenched Autumnwater free and drove a resolute thrust straight at the Demon Sovereign.

Her sword light seemed to sink into an endless expanse of malice, growing heavier with every inch, and slower.

Then she saw Tan Guanchan’s eyes—deep as an abyss—turn and fix themselves on her.

Every part of her trembled, and for a moment she could not control her own sword. She could only watch helplessly as that malice-filled black hand curled the thumb, ring finger, and little finger inward, and extended the index and middle fingers toward her.

The Metal-Melting Finger. Nothing could withstand it. Nothing could stand against it!

Intense terror surged up from the depths of Zheng Zhuxi’s heart. She could already feel the premonition of her own death.

Her survival instinct and her own will pulled against each other.

Beg for mercy? No. She wouldn’t.

Give up? No. She refused.

Candlelight blazed to life in Zheng Zhuxi’s eyes, illuminating them from within.

She would rather go to her end on her own sword than surrender and await humiliation.

Death cannot take what I will not yield!

Autumnwater pressed forward again, and a dim but warm candlelight kindled along the blade.

The flame grew brighter and brighter, blazing into a clear, fierce sword light that streaked toward Demon Sovereign Tan Guanchan without leaving herself any retreat.

Warm, slightly yellowed candlelight spilled out in all directions, illuminating the street and piercing through the darkness.

Everything before Zheng Zhuxi’s eyes crumbled rapidly, peeling away in fragments, layer by layer.

She jolted awake, eyes snapping open, and found herself looking at the gauze curtains of her inn room, listening to the night watchman’s call outside the window.

In the dark of the night, Zheng Zhuxi heaved deeply and murmured to herself,

”A nightmare?

”Chen Jindong actually entered my dream...”

At the alley entrance behind the inn, at the edge of the night market, there was a noodle stall.

With his serpentine features and blue-black scales standing out across his skin, Chen Jindong sat on a low stool with his back against a stone wall, eyes closed. On the small table before him sat a bowl of pickled vegetable noodle soup, still about a quarter full.

A moment later, he frowned slightly and said to himself silently, Her Candlelight Sword Intent is that powerful?

As the thought crossed his mind, Chen Jindong slowly opened his eyes.

His gaze froze abruptly, pupils dilating.

In the dim glow of the lanterns, someone was sitting on the low stool across the small table from him without him having noticed their arrival.

The person wore a scholar’s headscarf and a cyan robe, with clean, even features. A sword lay across their knees, and they were watching him with a half-smile.